Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
July 13, 2016
A3
S UN SETS ON W ALLOWA C OUNTY
Steve Tool/Chieftain
The Bad Penny Pleasuremakers entertained the crowd at the
Josephy Center during the All That Jazz fundraiser.
Steve Tool/The Chieftain
Fundraiser
toasts 1920s
The sun sets in the horizon on a recent evening. After about a week of rain and cooler temperatures, the forecast calls
for clear skies and warmer days this week.
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Outing highlights regional lora
used in Native American cuisine
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
Several dozen people ig-
nored rain-threatening skies
Saturday morning to journey
to the Homeland Project in
Wallowa for an Into the Wal-
lowas outing focused on Native
American foods.
The outing, part of Wallowa
Land Trust’s summer series,
focused on common plants in
the area that Native Americans
utilized for sustenance and how
their culture integrated foods
and resource care into the daily
fabric of their lives.
The morning opened with a
brief introduction to native lo-
ra by biologist turned botanist
Ralph Anderson before moving
to the longhouse, where local
Nez Perce tribal member Joe
McCormack spoke of the role
of prehistoric and contempo-
rary longhouses in tribal culture
as well as a history of the nearly
completed on-site longhouse.
Afterward, Anderson led
the party on a brief walk near
the longhouse showing sever-
al nutritious and/or medicinal
“weeds,” including Tumble
Mustard and even nettles. Al-
though Anderson said one gets
use to the nettle stings, no one
cared to test the statement’s
validity. Anderson stopped at
various points to demonstrate
the uses of more common lora
such as plantain, which is edi-
ble and also bears an aloe-like
substance to treat skin irrita-
tion. Service berries serve as a
source of nutrition, while curly
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Wallowa Band Nez Perce descendant Wenix Red Elk stands
beside a table of plants used as food by Native American tribes.
dock is a relative of buckwheat
and makes an excellent lour.
Wenix Red Elk, a public
outreach and education special-
ist with the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion, presented a very detailed
PowerPoint presentation of the
roles First Foods serve not only
as nutrition but also in the sa-
cred realm. She is a descendant
from the Wallowa band of the
Nez Perce and part of the CTU-
IR First Foods program.
Red Elk said the tribes are
working to restore and manage
their First Foods based on their
native culture and using sacred
lore as a guiding management
tool with science playing a sup-
porting role. In sacred lore the
irst foods are literally the irst
foods given at the beginning
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of time to the tribes as suste-
nance from the Creator. The
irst foods also followed a year-
ly cyclical pattern: With spring
came salmon, followed by the
harvest of roots during the ear-
ly summer, which in turn led
to the mountains for berry and
other lora harvesting in late
summer and to hunting deer
and elk into the fall.
Through forced assimila-
tion and the loss of traditional
hunting and gathering grounds,
tribes began to lose touch with
their heritage. The CTUI is
working to change that and is
using traditional culture to bol-
ster the community.
Kathleen Ackley, execu-
tive director of Wallowa Land
Trust, said preparation for the
event started in April.
“Our goal with these Into
The Wallowas programs is to
inspire and educate locals and
visitors alike,” Ackley said.
“We try to give them unique
opportunities to explore natu-
ral places throughout Wallowa
County and consider our nat-
ural world through different
lenses. We hope to open eyes in
new ways to the wonders of the
natural world and instill a deep
love of place. Only when peo-
ple have a deep connection to a
place will they want to steward
and protect it,” she said.
Dozens of stunningly
dressed people attended the
Josephy Center’s “All That
Jazz” 1920s-themed fundrais-
er on Saturday night. Couples
danced to jazz from the era
and the no-host bar stayed as
busy as a speakeasy during
the two-hour event.
The crowd took their role
seriously — loud conversa-
tion and the clinking of glass-
es were staples of the evening.
Many who dressed for the part
invoked images of Scott and
Zelda Fitzgerald and occa-
sionally sported the opulence
of J. Gatsby and Daisy Bu-
chanan. The only missing el-
ements to make the aura com-
pletely authentic were bootleg
hootch and cigarette smoke.
Music provided by The
Bad Penny Pleasuremakers
kept the dance loor hopping,
with some dancers even at-
tempting the Charleston. The
quartet, composed of upright
bass, clarinet, guitar and
singer Joy Patterson keeping
rhythm with a washboard,
also dressed for the part. Gui-
tarist Matt Bell picked a Na-
tional Resophonic guitar in
Wallowa County
keeping with the era.
The evening ended with
smiling couples leaving the
packed dance loor and thank-
ing the band and Josephy
Executive Director Cheryl
Coughlan for the evening.
Josephy board member
Nancy Clarke of Lostine said
she thoroughly enjoyed the
evening.
“How often do you get to do
the Charleston?,” Clarke said.
“I had a great time. I’m a huge
jazz fan, and this is a wonderful
organization to support.”
Real estate broker Diane
Daggett also attended the
event and came away smiling.
“The evening and the mu-
sic were great,” Daggett said.
“Arts and culture in Wallowa
County are incredibly import-
ant economically and socially.
The Josephy Center is a new
gathering place that brings
all of the diverse interests in
the county together in a really
great way.”
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Help us celebrate 25 years of
attracting physicians to Wallowa County!
Sunday Service
July 31, 2016, 9:00AM – Joseph Arena
Music by SOUL RENOVATION
Message by ARCHIE HOOK
Community BBQ and Square Dance
Come celebrate 25 years of bringing doctors into Wallowa County!
Winding Waters, the Wallowa Valley Health Care Foundation and Wallowa Memorial Hospital
invite you to a community BBQ and square dance on
Saturday, July 23rd from 5 to 10 pm at the Blue Barn.
We Look Forward to
Seeing You There!
Tickets: $8 for adults, children 6 and under are free.
Tickets available through July 21st at Winding Waters, Mountain View Medical,
the Bookloft, Joseph Hardware, Blonde Strawberry, or M. Crow. Get your tickets today!