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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2002)
Smoke Signals 9 The Annual Calendar of The Atfa'lati Kalapuya Indians NOVEMBER 15, 2002 By David Lewis Grand Ronde Tribal member In November and December of 1877, Albert S. Gatschet, a noted scholar of Native American languages, was on the Grand Ronde Reservation and at Dayton, Oregon interviewing Indian people. Gatschet interviewed Clackamas, Molala, Sasti (Shasta), Athapaskan (Rogue River), and Kalapuya Indians about their languages. I first learned of Gatschet when conducting research at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History. I was with the Southwest Oregon Research Project II team in Washington D.C. in 1998. I found that Gatschet was the first trained linguist to transcribe Grand Ronde's Tribal languages. While at the National Anthropological Archives, I re-discovered the an nual calendar of the Atfa'lati Kalapuya Tribe, which Gatschet transcribed. This was a revelation, as I did not know that the Kalapuya intellectual traditions, such as the calendar, had been preserved. In all, Gatschet cre ated about 14 manuscripts from his conversations with the Indians from Grand Ronde. Much of his work is published in Kalapuya Texts, which is a compilation of field research transcriptions from Leo J. Frachtenberg, Albert S. Gatschet, and Melville Jacobs, who was also the editor. (Note: Atfa'lati is the original word from which the Tualatin place-name originates). The calendar is a special and uniquely Kalapuya cultural intellectual icon deserving of being re-inscribed into Tribal cultural traditions. The cultural information of the calendar, presents information on different stages of the camass harvest, wapato harvest, and the harsh winter living conditions that probably meant that food needed to be stored for this time. The planned harvest of vegetal foods, combined with landscape changes (like seasonal burning, replanting of seeds and annually returning to spe cific fields) represent Kalapuya agriculture. The changes to the calendar allow us a window into the changes hap pening to the Kalapuya in the 19th century from large Canadian and Ameri can populations settling in the Willamette Valley. Their original calendar, as Gatschet states in his notes, was a six-month calendar because they "did not notice" the summer months, probably because food was not as much of a problem in the summer. With more non-Natives settling in the valley, the Kalapuya people became subject to American acculturation through Methodist and Catholic missions, and through the Federal government's boarding and day schools. At these institutions, Kalapuyas were re-trained in American agricultural methods and Euro-American Gregorian time. In the Euro-American style of intensive agriculture, that uses plants highly sensitive to temperature changes, there is a greater need for attention to be paid to summer weather. The altered time frame, with the beginning of the year in the Gregorian autumn, is interesting and shows us the value of this calendar and how well it fits the unique western Oregon climate. In the calendar, the "first spring," Aatcha'-uyu, appears to be about the time of the end of April. While the end of the summer, August, is the end of the Kalapuya year, the month of Aku'piu. Anyone who has dug camass knows that it is diffi cult finding the roots without the blossoms to mark their locations. When the Kalapuya dug camass outside of the blossom period, April-May, they knew exactly where the roots were hidden underground as they had been harvesting in the same location for many generations. Gatschet presents us a window into the Kalapuya culture through this calendar. How accurate it is depends on his intentions for doing this re search over 100 years ago. Today, we can only speculate as to Gatschet's intentions. Gatschet was an extremely learned man, who traveled exten sively in South and North America and worked among Indian Tribes wher ever he traveled. He is know to have worked extensively on Klamath, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Seneca and was fluent in German, French, En glish, and Spanish. His scholarly range was vast and at the end of his life he was working on learning Cantonese. My understanding of the calen dar, after reading extensively of Gatschet's correspondence, is that the calendar is cultural icon relatively unaltered in Gatschet's transcription. My hope is that through further research and dialogue with Tribal Elders that more information about the calendar will become available. Transcription: Divisions of Time Among The Atfa'lati Tribe of The Kalapuya Indians of Northwestern Oregon Their hinations (ato'b) begin with the new moon (wapa'l ato'b) the first quarter of the m oon is: ye'dsh to'kaloi ato'b; the full moon kopinfu ato'b; the third quarter: tcha'shtu ato'b. The year, ami'dshu, begins in autumn. The earlier Kalapuyas did not notice the summer months and hence had only six months in the year, but presently they have twelve. 1st month: atchi utchu'tin; after harvest the Indians are still out. 2nd month: atcha'lan kuaik; commencing to get the sagittaria- root from the lake (ma'mptu); Gaston Lake, Oregon. 3rd month: ala'ngitapi; they go to the houses for winter season. 4th month: adsha'mpak "good (month)"; not bad weather. 5th month: a'talka (ato'b); they stay all day in the winter houses. 6th month: atchi'ulantadsh "out of provisions"; some hunt, some starve. 7th month: aatcha'-uyu: first spring; women dry camass-root. 8th month: ama'nta kita'ntal: pounding the (cooked) camass. 9th month: ata'ntal: about may camass begins to blossom. 10th month: ani'shnalyu: camass is now ripe. 11th month: ame'ku, or wayo'yu ame'ku: midst of summer. 12th month: Aku'piu end of summer, August. The Albert Gatschet manuscript "Divisions of Time among the Atfa'lati tribe of the Kalapuya Indians, Northwestern Oregon," is Gatschet 1385 in series 1 of the Southwest Oregon Research Project Collection. Grand Ronde received complete copies of series 1, 2 and 8 in 1998 and 2002 as gifts from the two Coquille Potlatches at the University of Oregon. Seventeen other Oregon regional Tribes also received portions of the collection in these pot latches. The original manuscript is at the Smithsonian Institution's Na tional Anthropological Archives in Washington, D. C. David G. Lewis is a Grand Ronde Tribal member and the coordinator of the SWORP archival collection at the University of Oregon's, Knight Li brary Special Collections. An index to the collection "Southwest Oregon Research Project: Inventory to the Archival Collection," was written and edited by David in 2001 and published by the University of Oregon. David coordinated the project to make 18 copies of the collection follow ing the 2001 Coquille Potlatch and is currently in a Ph.D. program in Anthropology at the University of Oregon under the support of the Grand Ronde Tribe's full-time Higher Education Scholarship. Copies of the Gatschet manuscripts, as well as other SWORP manuscripts may be or dered from Special Collections, Knight Library of the University of Oregon 541-346-3068. Copies of the calendar will be sent to anyone who requests them from Mr. Lewis, coyotezoregon.uoregon.edu, or 541-346-5525. B "7 aa.Ai... j ffy Sy SS ?y - mk&T X, air-Ju..HBe " eitt: r wii'im ; Jem ? Jm ftvty, f A An annual calendar of the Atfa'lati Kalapuya transcribed by Albert S. Gatschet, a noted scholar of Native American languages. Photo of calendar courtesy of David Lewis