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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2001)
JANUARY 15, 2001 Smoke Signals 5 Spirit Mountain Invests in the Future of Women's Health Care OHSU's program will train primary care providers in the proper technique for clinical breast exams. PORTLAND, OR. Women in Or egon are the beneficiaries of a $45,000 grant to the Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) in Portland from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde's Spirit Moun tain Community Fund. The commit ment to better the lives of women comes from the Community Fund that is the charitable arm of the Tribe's Spirit Mountain Casino. The grant was awarded to OHSU's Department of Health and Preventa tive Medicine to assist in the training of primary care providers. The state wide training is aimed at educating 75 percent of the state's 3,000 care providers in the proper techniques of clinical breast examinations (CBE). The need for this training is par ticularly acute, as breast cancer is the most common reported cancer among Oregon women. In 1997, more than 3,000 new cases were diagnosed. Oregon primary care providers them selves recognize the need for in creased training in this area: of 1,428 Oregon providers surveyed, 59 per cent requested additional CBE train ing. Experts estimate that the breast cancer death rate can be reduced by 30 percent if all women receive regu lar screening, including CBEs, age appropriate screening mammograms and self-breast exams. The awarding of this grant is in keeping with the Grand Ronde Tribe's commitment to the health of Oregonians. Spirit Mountain Com munity Fund is closing in on the $10 million mark for giving to deserving community organizations since the fund was created in 1997. "My background in nursing has underscored just how important early detection is for breast cancer, and I know what a tremendous need exists for more training," said Kath ryn Harrison, Chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council. "I'm pleased that our Tribe is able to share our good fortune with Oregon Health Sciences University. This grant will help more health care providers per form proper exams." The Community Fund's grant rep resents 33 percent of the 12-month expense budget for the project imple mentation period. OHSU's Depart ment of Public Health and Preven tative Medicine will raise the remain ing funds through course tuition and additional fund raising. The North west Health Foundation, Regence BlueCross BlueShield, Norwest Phy sicians Mutual Insurance Company and the Oregon Health Division have also made commitments. Acknowledgment Sought for Code Talkers from Other Indian Tribes POLACCA, AZ. (AP) - The Hopis and other American Indians want recognition for the men who used their Native languages to confound enemies during World War II. President Clinton recently decided to award congressional gold medals to the original 29 "code talkers" and silver medals to about 300 Navajo soldiers who followed them to the Pacific Theater during the war. But there has been little historical mention, much less recognition, for code talkers from other Tribes, in cluding the Hopi, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa and Seminole. "I honor the Navajos for the excel lent job that they did," said Hopi Coun cilman Cliff Balenquah, a former Di rector of the Tribe's Veterans' Affairs office. "But they find no shame in giving themselves honor. There are a lot of code talkers and their families Franklin Shupla, a Hopi code talker, said the original 11 Hopi code talkers also went to extraordinary lengths to use their language and concepts to come up with terms for battle. who are equally deserving of these congressional medals." Balenquah has been lobbying the State of Arizona to recognize the Hopi code talkers and plans a national campaign on behalf of all Indians who used their Native tongues to radio messages during the war. But Thomas Begay, a Navajo code talker in the Marines during the battle for Iwo Jima, said the Navajos' contri butions were greater than other Tribes because they created hundreds of words in special encoded vocabularies. Franklin Shupla, a Hopi code talker, said the original 11 Hopi code talkers also went to extraordinary lengths to use their language and concepts to come up with terms for battle. They came up with the Hopi word for eggs, "nu-hu," for bombs; "bah ki," a house on water, for ships; and the different kinds of birds for planes, like "pah-we-waka," ducks, for sea planes. The word for chicken hawks was used for dive-bombers. The Hopi code talkers first used the language in combat on the Marshall Islands and later at New Caledonia before shipping out to Leyte in 1944 after General Douglas MacArthur honored his pledge to reconquer the Philippines from the Japanese. Still, Shupla believes his contribu tion is for others to judge. "If the president included all of us, it sure would make us happy. But I also think at times that maybe it should just be forgotten about," Shupla said. "When I wake up in the middle of the night, I'm thinking about my grandchildren, not the Philippines in 1944." But Lloyd "Van" Codynah of Lawton, Oklahoma, whose father and uncle were among the 17 Comanche code talkers in Europe, wants them acknowledged. , , . "It always really bothered my dad before he died in 1988, about the lack of recognition they had received," Codynah said. "The government tried to give my uncle a congressional medal of honor a few years back, but he turned it down because they wouldn't give it to the other code talkers, too, whom he considered his brothers." Federal Agencies, Tribes Work to Save Ancient Art in Umpqua River ROSEBURG, OR. (AP) From Dirty Shame Rockshelter on the Owyhee River to scrawls on bedrock outcroppings in Scottsburg; from pro jectile points found along Wildcat Can yon on the Columbia River to boulders riddled with carvings at Agness along the Rogue River, Oregon is a state steeped in Native American history. But, time is taking its toll. Less than seven percent of the state has been surveyed for Native Ameri can archaeological sites. Roughly 22,000 sites have been confirmed and are documented in state archives. But, with each day that passes, sites yet unknown and unstudied deterio rate and may be lost for all time. Representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Manage ment and local Tribes are doing their best to preserve these prehistoric sites, but fear they may be playing a waiting game. "Sometimes nothing can be done, so you just have to let nature take its course," said Leland Gilsen, Head Archaeologist at the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office in Salem. "Time compromises the integrity of all archaeological sites. There's just nothing you can do about it." State and federal employees are mandated to protect and preserve ar chaeological sites. Whenever such locations are suffering as a result of age, vandalism or erosion, they are obligated to find ways to nurse the sites back to health. Such endeav ors are not always easy. Recently, the Forest Service has been working to protect sites of cul tural and archaeological significance along the North Umpqua River. One such site is the Susan Creek Indian Mounds, where rock cairns above Susan Creek Falls stand as decay ing proof of a time when juvenile North Umpqua boys met manhood by proving they knew no fear. Archaeologists speculate that as a puberty ritual the young men would fast for several days while stacking the heaviest rocks they could find and then wait for a visit from their spirit guide. Such rituals were meant to help the Umpqua acquire property and attain focus in life. Only a hand ful of the original moss-covered pyra mids remain. Some have fallen due to age; others have been knocked over by vandals. A sign detailing the importance of the site has been riddled with bullet holes. Debra Barner, a Forest Service Ar chaeologist, has been studying sites in the Umpqua National Forest and fears the repercussions for vandaliz ing, stealing and destroying archaeo logical sites are not severe enough to make a significant difference. "There is the 1909 Antiquities Act, but it didn't have any real criminal penalties," she said. But the Archaeological Resources Protection Act passed in 1979 does have some aiminal and civil penalties as signed to it. It makes it illegal to exca vate, remove, damage or deface sites. Sometimes damage is inflicted with the best of intentions. Barner uses the Medicine Creek Rock overhang near Toketee Falls as an example. In the 1920s or 1930s, individuals seeking to photograph pictographs the rock paintings lining the wall of the boul der were concerned about visibil ity. They drew chalk outlines around each image. If you make a rubbing of a petroglyph (rock carving) that kind of damage is not going to show," she said. "Defacing damage like with chalk that's more serious. That damage is still visible today." Scholars have also found cultural materials at Medicine Creek beneath 6,845-year-old Mount Mazama ash. The paintings at the site may be more than 250 years old. When it's impossible to preserve and protect, officials try to record any in formation they can glean from a site for future study. Almost 100 miles to the west of Medicine Creek, in Scottsburg, petroglyphs in the bed of the Umpqua River have eroded as a result of endless harsh winters. The mysterious carvings that line the bed rock are visible for only a few months of the year when the river is low enough to allow them to peek through rapids. This site is undocumented by the State Historic Preservation Office, but has been well known to residents for more than a century. Scottsburg Mayor Henry Fryer re members the carvings well from his childhood in the 1940s. He said his father, who lived in the area since the 19th century, would often refer to them. "There used to be a lot more of them," said Fryer. They've just grad ually disappeared over time." Four separate Tribes are known to have spent time in what Gilsen called the Scottsburg quadrangle, including the Penutian-speaking Kalapuyans; its subgroup, the Yoncalla, who pri marily lived in Drain, Sutherlin and Yoncalla; the Siuslaw-speaking Lower Umpqua Tribe; and the Athapaskan speaking Upper Umpqua. Gilsen said little can be done about natural erosion at the river site. "There are a lot of archaeologists who are writing books and conduct ing studies to document sites before it's too late," he said. "That may be all that can be done in this case."
