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Tribe establishes Resource Protection Program
he Tribe's recently established Cultural Re
sources Protection Program was implemented in
response to the Native American Graves Pro
tection and Repatriation Act. June Olson, a tribal member
who has been hired as the Cultural Resources Specialist, has
become very familiar with the Act.
"This law recognizes that Native Americans have the
right to get buried and stay buried. It acknowledges that we
have the right to recover our people from the many museums
and institutions which have held their remains for many
years. It also affords us the right to worship in the manner
and with the objects of our choosing," said June.
The Cultural Resources Protection staff is working to
reclaim from many museums and other institutions, not
only the human remains of tribal ancestors, but the
funerary objects collected over the years from burial
grounds and many other objects which are sacred to the
Native way of life. In conjunction with these activities, the
staff has been developing a tribal archive for historic
documents, photographs, records, reference books, tapes,
videos, ethnographic reports, maps, and significant arch
aeological sites. They have also been monitoring arch
eological sites and providing recommendations for those
where the planned activities may affect the cultural
resources in the area.
The Cultural Resources Protection Program staff is also
working on a conceptual plan for an interpretive center in
conjunction with a private land development company.
The center is planned for the former site of an ancient
Kalapuya village near Tangent, Oregon. The goal is to
educate the public regarding the traditional life-style of the
Kalapuya people. One of the most exciting components of
this plan is to solicit tribal members who would be
interested in attempting to recreate a traditional camas
oven. The process would be videotaped for display at the
center and the oven would be left open for interpretation.
June is currently taking the names of people who have
some knowledge of camas ovens or traditional plants and
who would be interested in participating in this project.
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This Sun Burst is a type of prehistoric tribal
art that is not only very rare, but much sought
after by collectors.
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June Olson, (left) Cultural Resources Specialist, and Tribal Council member Margaret Provost
(center) met with Kathleen Harrington, who donated her husband's large collection of arrow
heads and other cultural items to the Tribe.
RECLAIMING OUR PEOPLE
Recently, the Tribe was notified by the Peabody Museum
that they have, as part of their inventory, the remains of
Clackamas woman taken from a burial location near
Oregon City. A Dr. Pierce removed this woman's skull
from the original grave in the 1 890's. More than likely, he
did this in response to the directive made in 1868 by U.S.
Army Surgeon General Joseph Barnes which ordered
medical officers in Indian Country to "augment the coll
ection of Indian crania."
This directive and a subsequent Army-Smithsonian
agreement set in motion a decided-long practice of
decapitating native people, weighing their brains and
sending them to Washington D.C. for additional studies.
The crania were gathered from battlefields, prisons,
schools, and burial grounds. Susan Shown Harjo in
Mending the Circle, A Native American Repatriation
Guide quoted one officer as writing, "under cover of
darkness" and after the departure of "the grieving family, I
exhumed the body and decapitated the skull which is
transmitted forthwith." The Army Corp of Engineers and
the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology, together, have
the remains of another 150 more men, women and children
who the Cultural Resources Protection staff will be working
toward claiming and bringing home for reburial.
WHAT ARE CULTURAL RESOURCES?
Cultural Resources are the physical remains of material
culture left behind by previous generations. These remains
may be from the prehistoric or historic era. In America, the
prehistoric period covers the times of Native Americans
until the beginning of written records.
"I consider Grand Ronde's cultural resources to be arti
facts, structures, or landmarks which carry a historical,
spiritual, or traditional significance, and help us to identify
our roots to the past. I consider Spirit Mountain to be a
cultural resource, because it is a physical reminder of what is
important to our people," June stated.
Recently, a woman from Portland Kathleen Harrington
donated her husband's collection of arrowheads to the
Tribe. Her husband had been collecting these historical
pieces since the 1950s. "We need to call on other pros
pective donors in Oregon who may be holding cultural
items. As a Tribe, we are in the process of revitalizing our
culture, and we need to reclaim those pieces that are 'out
there' in order to help protect our cultural identity and
preserve them in the way they were intended," June said. If
you have old family photographs or old family stories you
would like to preserve in our tribal archive, please call June
Olson at 1-800-422-0232, ext 2249. Artifacts and family
pictures are very important to recapturing our tribal history.