Smoke Signals 5
AUGUST 15, 2002
Tribal Youth, Gary Guzman and Raymond Duran Experience The Big Apple
Interns continued from front page
the museum scientists and staff.
They studied the geology of the
New York area and represented the
Tribe by answering questions that
the museum's patrons had. It was
a lot like being in school, one of the
interns later said.
"I think they did a great job rep
resenting the Tribe," said Harmon.
"And there were some pretty tough
questions asked of them. But the
boys did great."
When they weren't working, the
interns got to check out the sights.
They went with a group of New
York kids who were also involved
with the Museum. They went to
Times Square,, Ellis Island, the
Statue of Liberty and Coney Is
land. The biggest difference between
Grand Ronde kids and New York
City Kids?
"We were more loose," said
Harmon. "Not as serious, almost
carefree. We went to Coney Island
and rode the roller coasters and we
were all screaming and yelling and
having fun and the New York kids
were like 'oh, my, god, I'm so
scared,' and they just sat there.
We were definitely more laid back."
The interns also got a chance to
share their culture and heritage
with the other kids.
"A lot of people don't know about
Indians," said Sohappy. "Or what
they do know is from movies. So it
was good for them to break down
those barriers and perceptions. It
was cool."
After three action packed weeks
in New York, the interns headed
back to Grand Ronde,
A bit wiser and worldlier for the
experience.
"The experience of going to New
York was great," said Guzman.
"I'd do it again for sure." B
East Coast -
Tribal youths
Raymond Duran
(right) and Gary
Guzman pose for a
photo at the Statue
of Liberty in New
York. The two
young Tribal
members were the
second set of
interns to make the
trip to New York to
work in the Museum
of Natural History
and to spend time
around the meteor
ite Tomanowos.
Guzman is the
grandson of Vicki
and William Long.
Duran is the grand
son of Beryle and
Angel Contreras.
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Sheridan Library Grant Turns Into An Issue
The $75,000 grant stipulated that the new library not be named for General Phil Sheridan.
M
4 ' f
Phil Sheridan
By Ron Karten
A $75,000
grant from the
Spirit Mountain
Community
Fund has a lot of
shouting going
on around the
Sheridan Li
brary. The
grant approval came in April in re
sponse to a Friends of the Library
request for $150,000 of the antici
pated $4 million needed for a new
library.
Approval of the Challenge Grant
was contingent on the city council
agreeing and documenting that the
library will not be named, in any
fashion, for General Phil Sheridan
for whom the town is named.
"Diversity is one of the strongest
values of the Board," said Angela
Blackwell, Director of the Tribe's
Community Fund. "And we are not
prepared to give money to support
a library named for a man so hate
ful to Indians."
The problem is that Sheridan, a
Civil War hero to many, coined
what became the phrase, 'the only
good Indian is a dead Indian.' The
actual exchange was a bit differ
ent and the timing of the remark
has been variously attributed some
13 and 20 years after Sheridan's
time in Oregon. In what-is now
Oklahoma or South Dakota,
Sheridan, by then a general, is said
to have responded to Comanche
Chief Toch-a-way's assertion, "Me
good Indian," by saying, "The only
good Indians I ever saw were dead."
Sheridan denied making the re
mark. A PBS website, "New Perspectives
on The West," quotes Sheridan as
proposing in 1866 to "bring peace
to the plains by exterminating the
herds of buffalo that support the
Indians' way of life: 'full the buf
falo and you kill the Indians.'"
Even here in Oregon in 1856,
when Sheridan was still a lieuten
ant, his 1888 Personal Memoirs in
dicate that he had little respect for
Indians. A "Cultural Resources
Overview" being used by Benton
County as it prepares development
of Fort Hoskins County Park, re
ports, "The total disregard and con
tempt for the customs and beliefs
of the local Indians was exhibited
by Sheridan when he chose to put
a blockhouse on a prominent
burial ground." (This incident did
not refer to the blockhouse on the
Hoskins site, but one on the coast.)
Tribal Council member Jan Rei
bach, who also sits on the Board of
Trustees that approves all Tribal
Council Community Fund dispers
als, likened an effort to name a fa
cility funded with Indian gifts for
General Phil Sheridan to a Ger
man effort to name a facility funded
with Jewish gifts for Adolph Hitler.
"We have helped the town of
Sheridan many, many times and
we'd like to help them with their
needs as far as the library goes, but
the Tribe and the Community
Fund will find it difficult to give the
grant and justify it to our people
without the name change."
In fact, the Community Fund
has provided six previous grants to
Sheridan-based entities, including
more than $28,000 for a Jaws of
Life to the Sheridan Fire District
and four different grants to the
Sheridan School District totaling
more than $143,000 for a range of
requests. Including the current
offer of $75,000, the Community
Fund gifts will have exceeded a
quarter million dollars to benefit
residents of the town. Many other
grants, to Yamhill County and
larger entities, also have benefited
Sheridan residents in a variety of
ways.
"I'd just like to forget the whole
thing came up," said Sheridan Li
brarian Toni Rose. "The people I
hear from feel a loyalty to me and
feel I've been insulted (by the con
dition attached to the grant). They
ask, 'Do they even know you?' I
am one-eighth Chippewa. It's just
an assault on my reputation as a
diverse and fair-minded librarian."
Asked if she understood the
Tribe's perspective, she said, "I
can't really gauge somebody else's
feelings. I think it's all blown out
of proportion. Japan was our en
emy in World War II and now we
embrace Japanese products.
When does it stop?"
Darrel Jones, head of the Friends
of the Library group that requested
the grant, said, "I didn't care for the
condition. Sheridan has never pro
moted anti-Indian feelings. I was
born and raised here and never felt
it." In fact, Jones said, "If you look
at the whole life of Phil Sheridan,
he has that one bad quote but when
he was here, he was an extremely
good buffer between the Indians
and the settlers. As a matter of fact,
he was sensitive to the needs of the
Indians, and the Indians here liked
him."
"It may be true," said Katrine
Barber, assistant professor of His
tory at Portland State University
(PSU), "that Sheridan, like a lot of
military officers and military men
in the Far West had good moments
and you might even find evidence
that some Indians appreciated
him, but if you look at his career,
he was not a friend of Indians. He
was part of the effort to eradicate
Indians from the west, to re-people
the west, replacing Indians with
white men. He was on the van
guard of violence in the re-peopling
of the West. White people don't
like to think about that history be
cause we're the beneficiaries of it."
Barber is teaching a course this
year at PSU called "Indians of the
Columbia Basin."
Still, Sheridan realtor Dick Jor
dan said, "I think it (the condition)
is reverse discrimination. They
seem to hate Phil Sheridan but I
love Phil Sheridan and they're not
being fair to our culture."
Saying he has no sympathy for
the Indian position, Jordan said,
"Maybe in 1865 but not now. It's
time to forget all that stuff."
"I remember in the eighties when
Kathryn Harrison (Former Tribal
Chair and Tribal Elder) came to us
and asked for our help in getting
the Tribe restored," Jordan said. "I
wrote a letter to help. Everyone
helped. Sheridan did everything it
could because we believed that they
should be restored."
"We have a right to defend what
our people went through," said
Harrison in response to Jordan's
comments. "At the same time we
are offering a helping hand. Like
we have always done. Look at
Lewis and Clark."
The issue has come up before. In
1998, the Spirit Mountain Casino
helped to revive the Sheridan Days
summer festival with a sponsorship
of the event. At that time, the Tribe
and the community worked out ob
jections to referencing the soldier by
eliminating his first name from the
festival name.
The Community Fund grant will
be discussed, along with other
grants by the Sheridan City Coun
cil at the August 19 meeting, ac
cording to City Manager Mike
Sauerwein.
The city has received other "not
terribly large" grants to help with
the new library, said Val Adamson,
a Sheridan City Council member.
Friends of the Library have set 25
percent of the total cost as a goal to
raise through foundations.
"We've got good people on both
ends." Adamson added. "We've
worked well together before and
we'll work it out." B
i