12 OCTOBER 1, 2002
Smoke Signals
For Leslie Riggs, it was either Rock & Roll or College
At University of Oregon, he gave up the stage for the books.
By Ron Karten
When he was 19, Tribal member Leslie Riggs
moved on his own to Hollywood, and as a drum
mer, he kept himself going. When he was 22,
he picked up again and went to London, where
he got his first record deal. "Of course," he said,
by the time he was 23, the first record deal was
dead. "I got another at 24, and lost that one the
next year."
Ah, the music business. He stayed in London
and in the music world for nine years. "We had
a modicum of success," he said. He felt like a lot
of folks on the periphery of fame ("I played with
guys who played with Iggy Pop," he said) who
"look like they're doing well while they're in debt
and their families are falling apart. When you're
closer to the flame, you get to feel its effects," he
said.
Riggs saw the public and private sides of the
entertainment business, the glamour and guts of
making a living with bands on tour and musi
cians doing studio work. "I didn't really like being
on stage but it was my job so I did it. I'd cringe
that people would look at me but by the third song
I'd forget that they were there and really enjoyed
myself." Even though he left the business of his
own accord, he said that when he sees bands on
stage now, "I'm still a little jealous."
He has
recorded
CDs but
he's no
longer so in
terested in
saying
which
bands he
was part of
and what
CDs will for
ever carry
his name as
drummer.
It's a funny
thing. It's not that he's ashamed of it - "well,
they were a little cheesy," he said, but it's more
that "it's a phase that I'm done with."
At nearly 35, he is now enmeshed in college,
f. jx y ;, . ; -
and like everything else he has done, Riggs is
throwing himself into it. He's more interested,
for example, in his grades today. "I'm pulling a
3.8," he said.
Approaching his junior year at the University
of Oregon (UO), Riggs benefits from a $5,000
Diversity Scholarship. He wrote an essay for
that scholarship that described his life in two
worlds. "I'm trying to learn about my culture at
the same time I'm trying to learn about
Shakespeare," he said. "It's a hard road but a
good one."
Riggs also is currently the Tribe's only benefi
ciary of the Eula Petite Scholarship, which
makes $7,000 a year available for two and pos
sibly three years to juniors pursuing an Educa
tion degree.
Riggs earned an AA degree from Chemeketa
Community College, then went on to study Early
Childhood Education at Western Oregon Uni
versity. But as he simultaneously studied In
dian culture, he decided that he wanted to focus
on teaching Indian literature.
His top recommendation in the field is M. Scott
Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize winning Indian nov
elist. "He's like the Indian Shakespeare," Riggs
said. Of film and story writer Sherman Alexi,
he said, "He has a knack for getting it out there
and not cluttering it up."
While studying, Riggs has been active in
multi-cultural committees. At Chemeketa, he
was on the Diversity Action Council and vice
president of the Native American Club. In the
coming term, he will join a UO multi-cultural
committee, though he has not yet decided which
one.
Riggs was born in Salem and attended South
Salem High School, and he has spent time on
the Warm Springs Reservation, as well as in
Grand Ronde, where his grandfather, Tribal
member Louis Riggs, lived. "Not a lot of time,"
he said, but enough to spur his interest in the
culture. "What I want to do now is really learn
it from the ground up.
"Coming back (to his Native roots) is an on
going process," he said, "but every time I'm in
Grand Ronde, I feel like I'm getting closer." D
For Allen Nelson, PSU is a Great University
Education helps him be part of the healing circle.
By Ron Karten
Early on, in the 1960s and 1970s, In
dians were suspicious of mainstream
education. Now, Allen Nelson, a Klamath-Modoc
working in the Before and
After Education program, finds that his
mainstream education helps him protect
"our culture, our heritage, our language,
our way of life."
The recent Portland State University
(PSU) graduate has bridged traditional
and mainstream.
"Before my education was my cul
ture," he said. "One of the big things
for me is history. How we got where we
are today."
Another of the driving forces is his
own sobriety.
"I've been in recovery for more than 20 years," he
said. "It's all about discipline and focusing on your
goals.
"My goal is to get back to serve the community
and be part of that healing circle. I've always been
taught to give back."
In 1995, Nelson earned his Associate degree at PSU,
when he studied applied sciences and alcohol and drug
counseling. At the time, he was working full time
and helping to raise eight children in his blended
family. "You learn a lot about time management,"
he said.
( ' )
I
; v . T
Allen Nelson helping in the Before & After Care.
In 1998, he applied to PSU for scholarship money
and the university covered most of the costs to fin
ish his Bachelor of Science degree in the Social Sci
ences department. And he loved PSU.
"PSU is an excellent university," he said. "They
give you a lot of tools. They tie all of the classes
together. You learn about class, ethnicity, under
lying power structures and it's all still going on to
day. All those things are very real. It gave me a
widened perspective to use that knowledge to help
the younger people."
Since high school and related to his own route to
sobriety, Nelson has been about the business of serv
ing the community, working with the culture, help
ing youth connect with the culture and advocating
for families.
"I've always been optimistic," he said. "It's part
of our culture to look for the good in things. I used
that in my education. Early on, there was a high
use of drugs and alcohol and (rate of) poverty, but
you know, as Indian people, we've suffered enough."
Nelson acknowledged that for him the first stage
was anger, "but we have to look ahead," he said.
"We have to get out of a blaming place and move to
- the mainstream word is 'proactive' - out of depen
dency and into inter-dependency. We do not forget
our part. We acknowledge it, but anger takes away
our energy. Education is about looking beyond the
walls of oppression toward healing the sacred circle.
"We're resilient," he said. "Our communities are
used to living in crisis but good things are coming.
"They tell us to look ahead to the Seventh Gen
eration, but every generation is the Seventh Gen
eration. There are a lot of our leaders who were
thinking about us (years ago) and now we think
about the next Seventh Generation."
"You were talking about what education means
to me," he said. "It gives you more options for all
these everyday decisions."