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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
Ancient petroglyphs moving closer home
T wo petroglyphs lo-
cated outside the historic
Grant House near Fort
Vancouver will soon return
closer to their place of ori-
gin. The petroglyphs are
believed to be up to 10,000
years old.
The ancient works were
carved by artists from the
Native American tribes who
lived by the Columbia River
Gorge, in an area near what
is now The Dalles—Ceded
homelands of the Wasco
and Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs.
The relocation project
will see that the two
petroglyphs move to the Co-
lumbia Hills Historical State
Park this fall. The project
is a partnership among the
Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs, Yakama Na-
tion, Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla and the Nez
Perce Tribe, plus the city of
Vancouver, Clark County
Historical Society, and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers.
The petroglyphs for now
sit covered in lichen, and
surrounded by foliage on the
lawn of the Grant House
Courtesy
The petroglyphs show heads, though the underlying
interpretation remains a mystery lost to time.
Eatery. “They don’t belong
to us. They belong to the
tribes,” said Kerry Peck, a
support specialist for
Vancouver’s Art, Culture
and Heritage Commission.
In the 1950s the U.S.
government approved con-
struction of the Dalles
Dam. This would flood
tribal sites and the tribal art.
At the time an excavation ef-
fort led by the tribes, in con-
junction with the Oregon
Museum of Science and In-
dustry, recovered around 40
petroglyphs before the dam
flooded the area in 1957.
Most of the recovered
works are already gathered
‘Coming Home’ blog with KWSO
by Travis Gilmour
Coming Home—Warm Springs
You have likely heard the
folks at KWSO talking about
a new project called Coming
Home—Warm Springs.
This is a part of a nation-
wide grant, funded by the
Corporation for Public
Broadcasting.
The aim is to tell stories
in our country’s rural areas.
Sue Matters at KWSO
and I have been working to-
gether for a few years to
find a project like this that
would be a good fit for
Warm Springs. And, being
who we are, we wanted to
do it a little differently.
Our “pitch” to the
funders, and now to you, is
maybe deceptively simple:
What if—rather than bring-
ing in folks from other places
to tell the stories in Warm
Springs—we invested our
energies into you the people
who call this home?
What if we worked to
give you the skills, the tools,
and the space to tell your
own stories? And what if
we could identify the group
of people with stories to tell,
and let them take the lead?
The way we’re moving
forward with our plan, for
now at least, will take place
on the KWSO website.
I’ll be writing a series of
articles that describe many
of the key elements of the
‘how to’ in learning and grow-
ing as a filmmaker and digi-
tal storyteller.
Many of the essential
qualities you need to be suc-
cessful at this—curiosity, a
desire to know and learn and
help your community, deep
knowledge of the place you
call home—you already
have.
As folks start to get in-
terested and engaged, we’ll
work to expand it in a more
interactive way. We’ll find a
path together to learn the
tools, skills and techniques
you can use to build your
ability to identify stories, plan
how you can tell the story,
and actually produce a fin-
ished product.
My hope is that by put-
ting this information to-
gether in one place—online
at kwso.org—we can create
a roadmap for expanding
this project together.
I believe we can produce
some of your story ideas
into meaningful professional
quality videos for you, your
family, the community, and
people who may never even
visit Warm Springs.
There may even be op-
portunities to expand what
we do, and help a project like
this grow in other communi-
ties.
In the meantime, stay
tuned. As we publish mate-
rial at kwso.org, we’ll also cre-
ate ways for you to stay up-
to-date on when new posts
are published, ask questions,
at Columbia Hills Historical
State Park in a permanent
outdoor display called
Tamani Pesh-Wa, or ‘Written
on the Rock.’
Weighing in at about 2 and
one-half tons apiece, the two
petroglyphs at the Grant
House arrived in Vancouver
in 1957 as a donation.
The patrogplyphs depict a
head—but the exact meaning
remains a mystery, lost to
time.
Both of these works came
from Spedis Valley, just up-
stream of what would even-
tually be The Dalles Dam.
According to Liz Oliver,
an archaeologist for the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers,
representatives from the city
and the Clark County Histori-
cal Society a few years ago
approached the Corps with a
request to return the
petroglyphs to their place of
origin.
The Columbia River
Gorge Commission approved
the project application in July.
The petroglyphs will join the
other works on display as part
of Tamani Pesh-Wa, along
with a new 200-foot dry-stack
wall to protect the installation.
share your experiences and
have fun with it.
Also in the meantime if
you have questions, or want
to connect with me directly,
feel free to email
travis@videodads.com
August 12, 2020
W.S. Covid update
For the health and safety of the tribal community,
Tribal Council has ordered the closure of the organi-
zation at least through this week.
Reservation testing numbers
The following are the updated Covid-19 testing
figures for the reservation and membership, as of
earlier this week:
The Warm Springs Health and Wellness Center has
sent in or tested 2,266 total samples. Of the total,
there were 1,997 negative results, with 42 tests pend-
ing, as of Tuesday morning.
There have been 212 total positive cases. Twenty-
two people have been hospitalized due to the virus.
Seventeen were discharged. One-hundred seventy-
six people have recovered.
There have been four deaths directly attributed to
the virus.
The testing lab is taking one- to two days to pro-
vide the results. The maximum daily capacity for
rapid tests is 20 to 22.
As of earlier this week, five members remained
hospitalized, with two on ventilators.
Most recently there were an estimated 36 active
cases on the reservation, done from more than 70
two weeks ago.
Since Health and Wellness began testing in March,
the positivity rate has been an average of 9.3 per-
cent. The center has tested approximately 40.1 per-
cent of the total user population.
An critical reminder from the Tribal Council:
If you are positive with the coronavirus, the Con-
federated Tribes of Warm Springs expects you to
be responsible and isolate yourself.
If a person on the reservation does not comply
with the tribal quarantine, isolation, community heath
and safety laws—thereby putting the safety of others
in jeopardy—then tribal Ordinance 101 allows the
detention of that person.
The Tribal Council and the Warm Springs Covid-
19 Response team ask you to please continue the
use of face coverings, social distancing and hand
hygiene.
Talk to your family about refraining from gather-
ings, especially with non-immediate family who live
outside of your immediate household.