Image provided by: Oregon Historical Society; Portland, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 30, 2009)
July 30, 2009 Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon Page 2 Courtney Gold preserves heritage through basketry create an 8-inch base using the technique they share can take about seven hours. T h e total time invested can be m ore than 80 hours to harvest, prepare and dye the fibers and weave a bas ket. G old sometimes has to travel hundreds o f miles to find the p la n ts — tu le , c a tta ils, d o g b an e— she n eed s fo r fibers. Native plants have been lost to urban and agricultural develop ment. Some on federal land are sprayed since they’re considered invasive plants. A t one time she tried to grow th e p lan ts at h er S cappoose hom e, b u t eventually stopped. “T he fiber in the plants that grow wild is much, much bet ter. They’re stronger, taller,” she said. By Virginia Grantier She had waited for years, for just the right time, to make a trip across the country to be with it, to see it. A nd when the museum staff brought out the old bas ket, she could feel her heart be gin to pound. As if a beloved som eone had appear unexpectedly from be hind a door. She couldn’t speak for about 20 m inutes, re m em b ers P at Courtney G old, nationally hon ored American Indian artist. Staff m em bers at H arvard’s Peabody M useum o f Archaeol ogy let h er hold the basket, which is m ore than 200 years old, in her gloved hands. While she did, they asked her w hat she was feeling. She remembers just waving a hand to indicate she couldn’t speak. “To m e it represented my culture; I felt that I was touch ing my ancestors... It was such an emotional and spiritual expe rience,” G old said. “I held it for six hours.” The Wasco Tribe, her tribe— a branch o f the Chinooks w ho lived at the Columbia River— traded this basket in 1805 to explorers Lewis and Clark. T he basket’s intricate design o f horizontal faces set in geo m etric shap es re fle c te d th e tribe’s view o f time as a circle: no beginning, no end. Baskets, items o f cultural arid spiritual m eaning, also held the p ow dered salmon and other items the tribe used to b arter w ith other tribes. W hen the tribe was forced by Euro-Americans to leave for the reservation in central O regon in the 1850s, the move tore at the fabric o f th eir culture, their practices, by separating them from all that was familiar. T hey had to leave behind plants so valued for basket-mak ing, medicine and other uses that prayers w ere spoken prio r to harvesting. D u rin g the decades after, many cultural traditions, includ ing basket-weaving, were almost H er parents raised their fam ily in a cabin in the woods near Warm Springs, and taught their children respect for the earth, including the responsible har vesting o f native plants and the im portance o f always saying prayers o f thanks. They partici pated in traditional ceremonies, but basket-weaving skills weren’t passed down. G o ld learned th e cultural value o f baskets during child hood visits to the Maryhill M u seum o f A rt in G oldendale, Wash., where her m other would point out the beautiful Wasco baskets. See BASKETS on 3 S 1 IIM 20U N D Z UNLIMITED 1225 SW Hwy. 97 Madras, OR 97741 475-7123 Car Audio - CB Radios Gold with her latest work at the School for Advanced Research (SAR) In Santa Fe, NM. lost. So in 2009, w hat is left? Gold, for one. She now harvests native plant fibers, and prays and weaves. G old was in her 50s when she started to learn to weave. A fter college, she used math skills honed at W hitman College in Walla Walla to work as a re searcher in a hydraulics lab at W ashington State University, then taught m ath at community colleges before returning to re search work for state and fed eral environmental agencies. She also worked for the Bonneville Power Administration in P ort land on projects, including a study on environmental effects o f Columbia River dams. A bout 20 years ago, she and a sister, b o th enrolled mem bers in th e W asco N a tio n o f the Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs, decided to learn how to weave, in part to help keep that aspect o f th e W asco culture from dying. W ith the help o f the few weavers left, and through research and studying baskets in museums, the sisters learned. G old’s persistence resulted in mastery. She has received nu m erous honors, including the 2007 National E ndow m ent for th e A rts H eritag e A w ard in W ashington, D.C. for her art w ork and for her outreach ef forts to teach workshops and to fo rm a new o rg an izatio n o f Native basket weavers. She was featured on National Public Television’s award-win ning “C raft in A m erica” p ro gram and was a consultant for an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum o f the Ameri can Indian. G old also directed a film about basket weavers, and her work is in public and private collections here and abroad. In the 1990s, as she learned to weave, she saw a picture o f the 1805 basket stored at the Peabody Museum and resolved to go and study it w hen she felt confident enough in her own weaving. W hen she took the trip in 1998, she found a clear con nection with its maker. “The way (the basket weaver) started at the base is exactly how I start a basket,” G old said. To cuirs Repair & Auto Sales Approved Auto Repair Free towing with any bill exceeding $500 (Free towing offer good only for Warm Springs, Madras, Metolius and Culver areas.) ' 475-6618 w i IMPtOV 330 S.W. Culver Hwy. Madras, OR .97741 TKMMCMNS M u t show you Ihalrcradawtbb Free Battery Check & Installation with' purchase y _1 L It 4 <
