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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2002)
4 ; u V DECEMBER 15, 2002 Smoke Signals hum Witt) Help of TirSbal Memmbeirs . ' ,v. . . ft iff' r I , S ear. ... li , "You Put Your Heart Into It" Tribal member David Lewis uses a wooden mallet and an antler wedge to split a blown-over Western Red Cedar that Don Day located in the Willamette National Forest. It took a crew of six Tribal members just a few hours to remove about 400 board feet of planks from the tree. Indeed, on the drive up to the site, we came across two scruffy bearded men in a pickup truck. They seemed to know Don and visited briefly. "Nice log you got there, Don," they say. They had already scoped out our log. Fortunately, Day had flagged it on a previous trip. "The Detroit Ranger District was nice enough to provide us with one of the few permits in the state to harvest cedar logs," said Day. The crew has gathered about 3,000 board feet of planks so far, which they have stacked be hind the natural resources building in Grand Ronde. Day estimates they'll need several thousand more feet. Today's work will yield about 800 board feet of quality Red Cedar plank. The longhouse's planned dimensions are 120 feet by 80 feet. It will be built at the Tribe's cultural site in Grand Ronde. It will be a thoroughly traditional structure, with an earthen floor, cedar pole framing and cedar plank siding. Day has traveled to similar longhouses around the West coast, studying their design. "There's lots of things you can do in a building like this," said Tribal member David Lewis, who is with the University of Oregon's Southwest Or egon Research Project Collection, which is dedi cated to recovering Native Oregon cul ture. "You can hold dances and yearly renewal ceremonies," said Lewis. "Welcome neighboring Tribes, and have all kinds of cultural events. It's also a spiritual place." At first, said Day, there were those that thought building a traditional longhouse in Grand Ronde couldn't be done. "In the beginning, there were people who that said it was impossible; that I wouldn't be able to find enough volunteers," said Day. "Now we've got the support of the Tribal Council and people are starting to ask when I think it will be finished." If all goes well, Day said, the longhouse could be built as soon as fall 2003. "If we can get 20 or 25 people to help, we can get a lot done in two or three days," he said. "We can do this," said Day. "Not I, but we as a Tribe. That's what it's all about. A lot of people have wandered away from our heritage, and this is a good way to get it back." "Cedar is considered a sacred tree. A tree of life," said Day. "Because it gives you so much."B
