OR. COLL.
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78
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September
A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe SEPTEMBER 1, 1999 f ?r IT g
Pow-wow brings friends and family together
7 K -,.,0 l: i -
Melanie Monson and Joey Holmes ham it up for the camera.
By Amanda Siestreem
Contributing Writer
With Marce Norwest carry
ing the eagle staff and
leading the procession,
the arena filled with veterans, danc
ers, royalty and honored tribal mem
bers. The drum of Seekaskootch
played the honor song and a little
boy kept time with a drum stick on
a chair. This was the beginning of
the last Grand Ronde Pow-wow of
the millennium.
Meanwhile, the first Grand Ronde
All-Indian Rodeo was gearing up at
the grounds by the Casino. The dust
rising up from the sharp horse
hooves reminded everyone of the
summer weather hot!
At the Pow-wow grounds, the lines
for the showers grew shorter as the
water grew colder and the breakfast
provided for the campers by the
Pow-wow Committee drew a full
crowd. Denise Haskins, of the
Norwest family, was seated by the
showers, waiting in the sun for her
hair to dry.
"It's my first year being back in six
years," she said, "I missed being
home, it's a lot better now. The Tribe's
doing a lot, growing more, becoming
self sufficient. I've been out here
since Thursday. I'll be out here all
weekend dancing. I was asked to
dance, for a family that's having a
hard time. The young man was in a
bad motorcycle accident in Willamina
two weeks ago. He's at Emmanuel
Hospital in the Intensive Care."
Circled around the Pow-wow
grounds, the bleachers and Elder
seating began to fill up. One Elder,
wheeled in by her daughter, got a
front row seat. In full regalia, her
basket hat on and beaded handbag
on her lap, Priscilla Bettles looked
out over the arena. Bettles, who had
been wheeled in the Grand Entry by
a WWII Veteran, said, "I've seen a
few changes for the better in my
time. I'm a full blood Klamath. I
had eight children. I was trying for
a baker's dozen. I read something
once at Warm Springs about the
vanishing Indians. I thought, I'll
have to do something about that!
But my husband said we'd stop at
eight." Laughing, she fingers her
hat, "I was about eight or nine when
I made my first basket, Modoc style.
I used to make fry bread at pow
wows all the time, sell it for fifty cents
a piece. I like the fancy dancing the
best. I don't mind the traditional
type beautiful, real beautiful."
That night, there was baked
salmon for everyone. Dale Langley
said he felt pretty good about his
dinner and another Veteran, Harold
Lyon, said, "I donated for the din
ner, but in fact the Casino's paid for
it, since the money I put in the jar
was some that I won last night."
When asked about the Rodeo,
Rene Lane smiled and said she loved
continued on page 4
Chinook jargon conference held in Grand Ronde
Many participants enjoy learning all about their Native language.
By Amanda Siestreem
The three-day 2nd Annual Chi
nook Jargon Conference was a sign
of the times for the Grand Ronde
Tribe. Drawing a fairly even distri
bution of tribal members and out
side academics, the language was
explored from many perspectives.
Of the 30 participants, the tribal
perspectives ranged from six year old
Kim Contreras to the tribal Chair
person, Kathryn Harrison. The his
tory of Native languages was re
membered by Harrison, "My father
spoke Chinook at home, some of
those stories I remember are still dear
to me. Then I went to boarding
school and you know what happens
there, they don't allow you to speak
Q My father spoke Chinook at home,
some of those stories I remember
are still dear to me."
Kathryn Harrison
Indian. Maybe, I tell my grandchil
dren, I will study it when I retire."
Chinook was the language of
trade and of the church. As Harri
son says, "learning the Catholic
songs in Chinook with the Sisters
singing in our language is some
thing I'll never forget. For some of
our people Chinook was the only lan
guage they spoke, so then even God
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
Community of Oregon
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Smoke signals
would have to learn it, don't you
thinkr
Tony Johnson, tribal language
specialist and Chinook Indian of
Wilupa Bay, began the workshop
with a prayer in Cinuk wawa (Chi
nook talk). Johnson translated the
prayer into English, "to all the spir
its that live here, the old people, the
ancestors, I ask the wind to carry our
words out to all these people. I ask
only that we make good Chinook
jargon, that no one get sad and
what have you."
Under the blessings of Johnson's
words and the shadow of Spirit
Mountain, the classes began. As the
history of the Cinuk wawa unfolded,
it became clear to everyone that the
words had come from a long line of
Native mouths. In the early days
23 dialects of different Native lan
guages, two french dialects and En
glish were all spoken on the reser
vation. "The only real option for
communication was Cinuk wawa,"
Johnson concluded.
In his opinion this was a pre-con-tact
language, of which the North
ern People had at least a proficiency
and the Southern People a more lim
ited knowledge. It was the language
of intertribal homes, courtship and
ultimately of love. Interspersed with
the various exercises, examples of
such love songs were played. One
such song had the entire class
straining on the edge of chairs, try
ing to translate. The final transla
tion arrived upon was: What makes
you afraid of me? You don't under
stand anything at all. Always I'm
doing well, making my heart good
now. Now you become proud. You
have no equal.
The impact of such work can be
heard from each student's reason for
studying the language. Some had
come to learn to make their own
sweatlodge songs, some had come to
write books and to further their
work in linguistics, and some for self
defense so that their family mem
bers couldn't talk behind their backs.
As Johnson agrees, it is very good
for Ipsat wawa, hidden talk. John
continued on page 1 1