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DECEMBER 15, 2002
Smoke Signals
hum Witt) Help of TirSbal Memmbeirs
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"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