APRIL 15, 2002
APRIL 15, 2002
Smoke Signals
Smoke Signals
Native Students Now Have A Home In The Dig City Thanks To The Spirit Mountain Community Fund
Continued from front page
has been extremely rewarding for Portland State
University to work with the Native American
Tribes in making this project a reality."
Navajo Architect David Sloan designed the
Learning Center and fused traditional art into
the building's design. He used carved cedar pan
els, petroglyph insets and artistic glass struc
tures. The 11,000 square foot, $2.4 million center will
-4 Architectural rendering of the
new PSU Native American Stu
dent and Community Center.
include a gathering space for 300 people, space
for class rooms, a library and conference room,
an art gallery, a rooftop garden, an outdoor
salmon bake area and a court yard where gradu
ates will inscribe their names.
The center will be the only one of its kind in
the Portland metropolitan area, home to 15,000
American Indian and Alaskan Native people. It
will serve as a cultural home for Native students,
supporting their enrollment at PSU and enhanc
ing their academic studies. It will also provide a
resource room equipped with comput
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ers for students, classrooms, meeting and con
ference spaces, and it gives an opportunity for
those who visit the center to learn about Native
traditions and historical and contemporary is
sues of importance to indigenous people.
"The Native American Student and Commu
nity Center will stand as a symbol of Portland
State's commitment to goodwill, diversity and
community pride," said Don Sampson, who
served as master of ceremonies and is the cam
paign chair for the Native American Student
NativeAmericanVeteranTedSkinner,of Bor
ing, Oregon, is a member of the Color Guard for
Northwest Indian Veterans Association.
A Drummers and dancers of all ages turned out for the groundbreaking event at PSU.
Photos by Peta Tinda
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and Community Center. "The Center will serve
as a foundation for other programs and enrich
Portland State, the city and the state of Oregon."
A council of Native American artists has been
created to help select art work for the building.
The council includes Inupiaq sculptor Lawrence
R. Ahkvana, Nez Perce, Chippewa and
Assiniboine sculptor Doug Hyde, Warm Springs'
mixed-media sculptor Lillian Pitt and Tlingit
glass artist and sculptor Preston Singletary.
The Center will be available to all community
members and is expected to open in September
2003, in time for the new school year.
Tribal Elder Kathryn Harrison represented
the Grand Ronde Tribe at the dedication ceremony.
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4 Eaglebeak members Richard "Bubba"
Sohappy (left), Dustin Harmon (back
ground) and Bobby Mercier (right) share
a light moment with Kevin Simmons (cen
ter) of the Tribal Education department.
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Continued from front page
teach you about scientific, cultural
and traditional things," said Van
Pelt. "They also teach Tribal mem
bers about who they were, and how
to protect these places, like they
had traditionally."
The classes sought to educate a
new generation to help find and
preserve cultural artifacts. To
make the experience as hands-on
as possible, the specialists built four
practice archeological sites on the
side of a small hill near the Tribal
Governance Center. The sites fea
tured stone tools, arrowhead points,
fire hearths, and in one simulated
burial site, realistic-looking plastic
bones.
The students then set out to find
and map the sites, filling out site
forms, taking photographs and re
cording the overall condition of the
sites. The students were taught
how to spot artifacts in the
field, as well as how to
identify artifacts
1
by looking for the tell tale signs of
the human hand.
"We need people who are certified,
who know what the laws are. Tribal
people, instead of using whoever
the developers choose," said Grand
Ronde Tribal member Perri
McDaniel, a Cultural Protection
Specialist for the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde. "Because
we were terminated, a lot of knowl
edge has been forgotten; that in
formation lost. We need to get our
own people out there, surveying.
That's why I was so exited to see
young people interested in the class.
I think it gives them hope that yes,
we can find our sacred places. It
gives them a direct connection to
the land."
The Natural Historic Preservation
Act of 1966 states that anywhere
the ground is to be disturbed (roads,
cell towers, con
struction) must
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be surveyed by an archeologist
before any work takes place. If a
site has been found to be histori
cally significant, then the federal
and state governments have laws
in place to protect it.
The cultural protection special
ists want to make sure that the ar
cheologist who surveys the site rep
resents the Tribe, who traditionally
cared for and had great respect for
such sites.
"We are stewards of the land, of
the things in the ground, and we
want to make sure these sites are
protected," said Grand Ronde
Tribal member Connie Shultz, Cul
tural Protection Specialist for the
Tribe. "Construction does a lot of
damage. And these sites are irre
placeable." "It is vital to protect these sites,
and to give them the respect they
deserve," said Lloyd Barkley, a
Cultural Resource Technician from
Umatilla. "The temptation is to
pick up things from these sites and
take them home. But our educa
tion is in the ground,
not in boxes in
the closet.
It is worth
more out
here,
so you
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bring
your
kids and
show them
how their ances
tors lived. They would
learn a lot more about
themselves and who they
are if they brought their kids out
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Culture class members pose for a photo in front of the Tribal Governance center after completing a forty-hour course in cultural
resource protection.
to one of these sites, instead of just
showing them a box from the
closet."
Because the Tribal and federal
governments must work so closely
on such projects, it gives the Tribe
a chance to express its sovereignty.
"Even on a reservation, state laws
apply that mandate consultation
with the Tribe," said Van Pelt.
"There are ways the Tribe can de
velop policies to interact with state
and federal agencies that can be
beneficial to the Tribe. We're basi
cally using the tool of archeology to
take care of properties that are
rightfully ours."
What should you do if you find
a cultural artifact?
"There are different rules for
public and private land," said
Schultz. "You just can't go digging
up your back yard. If you find
something on private land, contact
either us at the cultural depart
ment, or your land manager. If
it's public land, then contact the
State Forest Service or the Bureau
of Land Management."
The general rule is, if you find
an artifact on the surface it's okay
to pick it up, (and hopefully take it
to the cultural resources depart
ment) but if you dig or break
ground, then it becomes looting,
especially if it's a burial site. It is
a felony to dig in or otherwise dis
turb a burial site.
The Umatillas have had problems
in the past with looters, but have
managed to catch and prosecute
several. But they have also had
notable success with raising pub
lic awareness and have gotten the
community's help to watch the
sites.
"Unfortunately, we've been
looted extensively on the Colum
bia and Umatilla Rivers,"
said Barkley. "And looters
are hard to prosecute, be
cause you've got to catch
them in the act. But usually
they try to sneak in at night
and have things like shovels
and screens for sifting the
earth. We caught one guy
who tried to say he was just
fishing, but it was obvious
what he was doing there.
Now we always have to
watch for looters."
"Looters desecrate sites without
any respect," added Anthropologist
Julie Longenecker, one of the spe
cialists from Umatilla. "It's more
than a loss of knowledge, it's the
loss of thousands of years of his
tory. Looting is like tearing the
pages out of a book and putting the
book back on the shelf."
What should you do if you see
someone looting?
Experts say the best thing to do
is to call the authorities, like the
Bureau of Land Management if it
is on federal land, or the local
sheriffs department. Fines and
jail sentences for looting have be
come more stringent in recent
years to combat the rise of such
incidents.
After the class was over, the stu
dents gathered at the Tribal Gov
ernance Center to discuss what
they had learned.
"I found out that going out and
finding things is a lot harder than
it seemed in the classroom," said
Amber Schulz, a student who came
down from Portland to attend the
class. "This experience has defi
nitely made me more culturally
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Jeff Van Pelt, Program Manager
for the Cultural Resources Pro
tection Program of the Confeder
ated Tribes of Umatilla
sensitive."
"We must respect these sites. It's
really important for the Tribes,"
said McDaniel. "I'm glad to see this
happen, and glad to be a part."