Spilyay tymoo., April 18, 2012, Page 9, Image 9

More News from Indian Country
Spilyay T y m o o
A p ril 18, 2012
Plankhouse highlights
Indian life along Columbia
At Meadows
C ourtesy o f Rachel Leo/The Leo Co.
Mt. Hood Meadows last week hosted another in the popular series of T riba I Ski Days,
inviting tribal members to ski and snowboard for free at the mountain.
Court hears Ariz. tribe’s casino project
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A
federal appeals court is consid­
ering whether an Indian tribe in
Arizona can build a large casino
and resort near the city o f Glen­
dale on off-reservation land.
City and state officials as well
as 11 other Indian tribes oppose
the Tohono O ’odham Nation’s
Page 9
proposed $600 million project.
They argue it conflicts with lo­
cal zoning plans and state law.
The local officials filed a law­
suit after the D ep artm en t o f
Interior in July 2010 deemed the
casino p r o p e r ty lo c a te d 160
miles from the reservation — as
part o f the reservation.
T h e o fficials on M onday
asked a three-judge panel o f the
9th U.S. Circuit C ourt o f Ap­
peals in San Francisco to over­
turn the Interior D epartm ent’s
action.
The judges gave no hint o f
how and when they will rule.
Incident by IHS
Duran Bobb/Spilyay
A bomb squad was called as a precaution to the Warm Springs clinic on Tuesday
morning of this week. Apparently, they found a small device made of cardboard from a
roll of toilet paper. The squad neutralized the device.
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP)
— Before Interstate 5 Bridge lifts,
chugging trains and the occa­
sional smog o f industry cropped
up, the waterways o f the Co­
lumbia River were a calmer, yet
still busy place.
Chinook Indians paddled up
and down, fishing and trading
with neighbors or hunting elk,
and gathering fruits and veg­
etables from nearby woods and
grassy shores.
Along the waterways, almost
like ports, were large buildings
called p lan k h o u ses, cen tral
stru ctu res w here 50 to 200
tribal members would live, work
and eat together.
“It was a life that focused on
the rivers and waterways o f the
region,” said Anan Raymond,
regional archaeologist with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
‘W h at is interesting about the
Chinookan adaptation to the
Pacific N orthw est is that they
were hunters, gatherers and fish­
ers, but they were n ot nomads.
They built buildings and settle­
ments that stayed there for hun­
dreds o f years.”
Explorers Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark visited one
o f those dwellings on March 29,
1806, as part o f their explora­
tion o f the region. At the time,
the village o f Cathlapotle, in
p resen t-d ay R idgefield, was
hom e to about 900 C hinook
Indians w ho lived in several
plankhouses.
“W hen they visited , they
would have seen a lot o f things
going on,” said Katie Harrison,
plan k h o u se d irecto r fo r the
Friends o f Ridgefield National
Wildlife Refuge.
“T h e p la n k h o u se w as a
h o u se in every sense o f the
word. Everything we do in our
homes, they would have done
there. Sleeping, cooking, mak­
ing trade goods and even mak­
ing art.”
The Cathlapotle Plankhouse,
a re-creation o f one o f those
historic venues, was built in
2005-2006 as part o f the Lewis
and Clark bicentennial celebra­
tion. T he plankhouse, w hich
was clo sed fo r th e w in ter,
opened for the season last Sun­
day.
“All along the Co­
lumbia, we have the
remains o f seven to
14 houses that were
basically in the same
spot fo r hundreds o f
years. ”
The structure was built with
the help o f the Chinook N ation
and by looking at sketches and
documents from the expedition
in 1806.
“T ribal m em bers use the
building for ceremonies some­
times,” Harrison said. “They’re
the only ones that are allowed
to use the fire pits. A nd any
changes we make in here, we
run it by the Chinookan Nation
first.”
T here are several archaeo­
logical plankhouse sites around
the Ridgefield National Wildlife
Refuge, and thro u g h carbon
dating and other m ethods, it
appears that tribes had been
building the structures for 2,000
to 2,500 years before Anglo set­
tlers arriv ed in th e reg io n ,
Raymond said.
“All along the Columbia, we
have the remains o f seven to
14 houses that were basically in
the Same spot for hundreds of
years,” Raymond said.
“Cathlapotle, from charcoal
dating, appears to have been
built around 1450, and it was
abandoned by around 1840.”
. Tribes would use the same
structure — repairing bad planks
or posts — for as many as 400
years. T hey w ould ab an d o n
them and build new ones only
w hen the river shifted course,
he said.
“I t’s a completely different
way o f mapping on the land­
scape th a n we do today,”
Raymond said. “Most o f us are
transplants here, we move from
place to place, town to town at
the drop o f a hat. B ut these
people, they gathered around
hearths that their great-great-
grandparents built.”
R esidents o f plankhouses
also w eren’t particularly, dis­
turbed by- seasonal flooding, he
said.
“There’s some historical evi­
dence th a t they’d m ove and
hang out in the hills next door
for a few weeks,” Raymond said.
“But we have evidence that they
always returned to the town site
right after the flooding.”
B ecause flo o d s cam e on
slowly, the tribes had time to
removed stored goods, furs and
bedding before the waters came.
“It’s also very possible that
flooding had a benefit, because
it basically cleaned the place
out,” Raymond said.
T he b u ild in g is called a
plankhouse because cedar trees
used in construction were split
along wood grains in a m ethod
that created long planks. N o ­
body is sure exactly where the
cedaf came from, although it
does grow in the region.
“T here’s n o t a lot o f cedar
around the site today,” Raymond
s a id .'“T hey may have felled
trees and floated them dow n
river; there could have been
more there at the time.”
The site was abandoned in
the 1840s after disease ravaged
the native population, Harrison
said.
“It was almost all gone by the
mid-1800s; 80 to 90 percent of
the population was hit,” she said.
“It was pretty dramatic. Those
left after the epidemics swept
through were absorbed by other
tribes.”
The building is open week­
ends from April to m id-O cto­
ber, and on select weekdays for
school groups. A bout 30 volun­
teers m aintain it and provide
tours.
The seasonal opening on Sun­
day will include a lecture about
Indian guide Sacagawea at 2
p.m. by Robert Carriker, profes­
sor in the College o f Arts and
Sciences at Gonzaga University,
who. has written several books
on Lewis and Clark.
There will also be children’s
activities and plenty o f oppor­
tunities to learn more about the
area and its history, H arrison
said.
“When you open the site up
after the winter season, it’s very
exciting,” Harrison said. “People
love to come by and see it.”
Indian companies say they
were stiffed on projects
P IN E R ID G E, S.D. (AP) -
Construction companies on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
say they're getting a small share
o f the work to build a new jus­
tice center.
The center will cost almost
$29 million. D uring a recent
round o f bidding, Indian-owned
companies only got about $10
million w orth o f construction
work. The rest is going to com­
panies off the reservation.
Construction company rep­
resentatives m et Thursday at
Pine Ridge to vent their frus­
trations.
Contractor Dustin Twiss says
it's difficult for reservation com­
panies to get a construction bond
to ensure the work is completed.
The* new justice center will
house the Oglala Sioux Tribe's
jail, police force arid judicial sys­
tem in one building. It will have
almost 100,000 square feet o f
space, and be located near the
current adult jail.
Assisted Living Facility
Open Wednesday thru Saturday
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Ph. 541-553-1041
k
At Warm Springs St. & Hollywood Blvd.
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2321 O llg llie Lgne (P O Box 6)
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The Nineteenth Annual Heart Smart Dinner has
been set for this Wednesday, February 22,
2012 at the Agency Longhouse.
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W arm Springs, OR 97761
Call 541-553-1182
Owned and Operated by the Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs
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