Page 10
Spilyay Tyrnoo, Wqrrn Springs, Oregon
January 23, 2 0 0 3
ABOVE: An assortment of sally bags. RIGHT TOP: More vibrant colored sally bags. MIDDLE RIGHT:
Rock bowls, used for cooking by filling with heated rocks and two-thirds water. Food was cooked directly in the
water. BOTTOM RIGHT: Intricately beaded “Pathlpas,” ceremonial hats for women.
Photos
and story
by
Shannon
Keaveny
T
g
■
n a dimly lit room, with
lights pointed towards the
ceiling, Museum at Warm
Springs Curator: Natalie Kirk turns a
rotating door-handle and a hallway
lined with shelves opens up.
“These are the cornhusk bags,” she
says.
A glimpse into the vault reveals an
assortment of elaborate baskets of dif
ferent sizes donated or sold to the mu
seum mosdy by tribal members in the
last ten years.
When the shelves are closed, dam
aging light is blocked out. When they
are opened, the light is minimized and
indirect.
Another attached room contains a
file cabinet with long narrow drawers
donated by contractor Steve Ander
son. As Kirk slides the drawer open,
more treasures are unveiled.
Long necklaces made from white
shells, carefully interspersed with shots
of colored beads — yellow, blue and
green — are carefully lined parallel to
each other.
Each Wampum necklace is tagged
appropriately.
“About 90 percent of our artifacts
come from tribal members,’’ Kirk as
sesses.
“We’re unique because we buy di
rectly from our tribal members through
the accession process,” she says of the
museum’s vast collection.
The museum houses, over 5,000
artifacts from the Warm Springs, Wasco
and Paiute tribes. The artifacts range
from Wampum shell necklaces to wil
low huckleberry baskets, cornhusk bags
to cedar baskets and vibrandy-colored
beaded buckskin dresses,
“That could be a conservative num
ber,” says Kirk of the amount of arti
facts.
“Many items can be split into sev
eral artifacts, but come in as one.” ■
, For instance, traditional regalia may
come in as an outfit that includes a hat,
moccasins, accessories and a dress.
Artifacts are purchased annually by
a Warm Springs Accession Committee
that includes Emily Waheneka, Gladys
Jim and Maxine Switzler.
The group appraises objects and
comes up with a price. As elders, they
also provide their historical account of
an item.
Kirk also utilizes the group to ask
questions about items, which are cho
sen for purchase according to their
workmanship, age and stability.
Impossible to exhibit all at once, the
artifacts are stored in a special room
with ideal conditions to maximize their
preservation.
Chosen artifacts are rotated out to
the permanent museum exhibit a few
times a year for the public to see.
Upon return, tribal heirlooms are
put in a freezer to kill any bugs or molds
designs a padded hanger two feet wide,
eliminating any tension in the shoulders.
She is in the process of making hang
ers for each individual dress now.
In other hallways, baskets sit deli
cately on a foam coil covered in a fab
ric. Kirk creates the coil according to
the size of each basket.
All information about an item is re
corded in a computer program called
Past Perfect software.
Details such as bead size, the family
the object came from, colors, design,
picked up on the way. Artifacts remain
Artifacts shouldn’t be rubbed. Kirk what the handle is made from, and if
at about 0 degrees for up to. three days. handles them with white gloves. They there is lining, are recorded.
Bug traps are put near shelves to are placed on the shelf systematically
Once in the computer system, en
ensure that moths, mites or larvae don’t and spaced so as to provide proper ven tering the accession number will dis
infest the artifacts.
tilation.
play all information about the item,
“We try to eliminate anything that
“They need to be easily accessible, including a scanned photo.
will eat away or contribute to the de identified, and overall there needs to
, Kirk says if the museum had ample
cay of an artifact,” Kirk says.
be a sense that the piece is stabilized,” funds and time’, the jirôjpdt çoüld be
As curator, she is the human influ explains Kirk.
completed in five years. '.?A
ence ensuring artifacts are stored prop
“My main objective is to not handle
But with limitations on time , and
erly.
the object but to create support and money, Kirk estimates the project will
Currently, the artifacts are being stabilize the pieces,” she explains fur be finished in about 10 years.
overhauled and updated with the latest ther.
.Each item takes about half a day to
preservation techniques.
Kirk uses conservation materials properly register, in order to create an
The museum has developed a sys according to the products’ needs. She ideal setting that achieves the long-term
tem based on a Smithsonian Institute uses her professional knowledge, ac- goal of the museum’s preservation
methodology. Thè system includes an quired through Smithsonian workshops, project.
accession number with notes about the and practice, to decide what each arti-
Until then, a system has been set up
item. Curators are trained to find solu facTfjeeds.
where all items are stable.»'
tions to problems.
-T improvise,” she says of her work.
Kirk, who started o ff in the
Ideally, each artifact needs to be its , » Part of that improvisation is mak Museum’s gift shop, enjoys coming to
own unit, says Kirk.
ing larger hangers for the buckskin work each day.
She points out a huckleberry basket dressés. Kirk understands that on the
“I feel good about working here and
with a small plastic bag attached. En current standard-size padded hanger, knowing that I am ,not harming the
closed in the bag is a dried huckleberry tension in the shoulders could mount objects. I have learned a lot about the
as old as the basket itself.
from lack of support.
tribes.”
Baskets and other artifacts are
The result could be that beads start
Kirk welcomes tribal members to
cleaned minimally.
popping off in the shoulder area after stop by the museum when they have
“We don’t want to wash the history many years of stress.
time to take a look at the artifacts or
off items,” says Kirk.
To counteract that possibility, Kirk even to volunteer.
“M y main objective is to not handle
the object but to create support and
stabilize the pieces.”
Natalie Kirk
Curator, Museum at Warm Springs