Smoke Signals 7
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Cultural Program Works On Many Projects
MARCH 15, 2003
LindyTrolan
Cultural Department continued from front
as audio and visual remembrances. And while part
of the process is to collect all existing examples that
can be located, the department also catalogues all
these items for cross-referencing and makes them
available to Tribal members and the public in a
variety of ways.
If more than 10,000 years of history have shown
us anything, it is that important cultural sites are
spread far and wide. Federal law now requires any
project using federal funding whether road or
building or golf course consult with Tribes to make
sure important cultural sites are protected. The
Site Protection team works on these issues.
Language is a most basic component of the cul
ture. The pre-school Chinuk wawa immersion pro
gram and adult language classes are examples of
ways the department is resurrecting and preserv
ing this language and preparing the community to
use it and pass it on.
Overall, said Olson, the idea is "to help Tribal
people reclaim traditional
ideas about life so they
can teach that to their
children."
The department's on
going projects are almost
constantly interrupted by
short- and long-term
projects. Some of the cur
rent ones include the
Fort Yamhill project (See
SS, 9102); possible cre
ation of an exhibit at the
casino to tell the Grand Ronde story; the Mission
Mill Museum basket exhibit and the Summers Col
lection (see stories this issue).
CULTURAL COLLECTIONS
The Tribes' cultural collections include 1,100 ob
jects, 3,500 historic (pre
1950) photographs, more
than 20,000 pages of archi
val documents and historic
records, 385 bound vol
umes of local history books,
and 110 oral history (au
dio and visual) pieces, ac
cording to Cultural Col
lections Specialist
Lindy Trolan. She and
Cultural Projects As-
Kim Mueller sistant Kim Mueller are
responsible for acquiring, maintaining, preserving
and sharing this cultural heritage.
Keeping track of all this requires photographing
each piece and recording as much information about
the piece as is available. The department is mak
ing an effort to share information with Tribal mem
bers and the community.
"We have this wealth of information," said Olson.
"It is important that we start sharing this."
Current projects for Trolan include an upcoming
reprinting of the Harold Mackey book, The
Kalapuyans. Published originally in 1974 and be
ing reprinted later this year, the book this time will
have some 50 pages of interpretive material devel
oped by the Grand Ronde Tribes from the Tribal
perspective.
Ultimately, the department foresees a Tribal
museum for these collections, but in the meanwhile,
creating exhibits for exist
ing venues enables the
Tribes to share parts of the
collection with the commu
nity. The department also
sponsors and often leads
cultural classes for Tribal
members. Two students
from a Tribal basket-making
class Tribal Elders
Sam Henny and Connie
Graves are now teach
ing the skill to others.
SITE PROTECTION
Cultural Protection Specialist and Tribal
member Perri McDaniel heads the section charged
with evaluating sites for cultural significance and
suggesting ways to preserve them in the face of an
ticipated development.
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Perri McDaniel
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Connie Schultz
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Josh Levy
"We're responsible for pro
tecting and preserving cul
tural resources that are really
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""JUT " tural Protection Special
ist and Tribal member
Connie Schultz.
"One of the things that I
think is really key to revital
izing our culture here is get
ting the people back in touch
with our traditional ancestral
homelands," said McDaniel.
"Connection with the land is key." These lands she
said, extends "from the Columbia River to the Cali
fornia border, from the crest of the Coast Range to
the crest of the Cascade Range."
As information about a project or a potential project
comes in, GIS Specialist Josh Levy takes the lo
cation and feeds it into the Geographic Information
System (GIS), a mapping
program that already is
packed with information
about important cultural
and historical sites and
other projects (See story on
page 5). And from the or
derly way that this infor
mation is collected and
stored, McDaniel and
Schultz can use it to effec
tively consult with those
involved with the project in
question.
For example, a current project on Sauvie Island is
within a mile or two of culturally significant sites
already in the system.
Last year, the department received almost 300
notifications. "There are thousands of cultural sites
in western Oregon," said Levy. "Currently, 1,500
are in the system."
Occasionally, the Tribe and a building authority
disagree on how to deal with certain sites and these
rare disputes go to the state
Historic Preservation office
for mediation.
Schultz also works with
the Tribe's cemetery employ
ees on the restoration of
an old stone, for example.
She works with the Natural
Resources Department, too,
when cultural site protection
issues come up.
"And we get a lot of calls
from people who say they Tony Johnson
have found something. Josh or I will go out on these
calls," she said.
Levy brings to the department a background in
plants as well as the programming essentials for
operating the GIS system.
On one day, you might find Levy bent over the
computer, but on another, he might be working on a
traditional huckleberry picking area in the
Willamette National Forest. He has been thinning
trees, removing noxious weeds and experimenting
with a variety of management techniques to see how
traditional huckleberries respond best.
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
When Education Coordinator Tony Johnson
stepped to the door to speak English during the
Chinuk wawa immersion class, pre-schoolers
Michael Reyes and Lauren
Lucio told him in the Chinuk
language in apparently no
uncertain terms that he had
no business speaking Boston
wawa (English) in this
Chinuk wawa immersion
class. We stepped completely
outside of the classroom.
With some 3,600 words in
Chinuk wawa to choose
from, the nine four and five
year olds in the pre-school
class have a grasp on a lot of
them. (See SS, 12-15-02.)
The key, going forward, according to Olson and
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Jackie Whisler
Johnson, is to develop the program so that it follows
these children into kindergarten and on into grade
school.
As it is, parents of these students sign a contract
to work with the children at home on the language
and the department offers adult Chinuk wawa classes
on Monday nights from 5:30-8:30 p.m.
For Language Specialist Jackie Whisler,
whose focus is the pre-school program, "feelings" are
the start of her teaching efforts.
"I watch their faces," she said. "We use so much
love in there."
Not a teacher by trade, Whisler keeps her eyes
and ears open for the experience and wisdom of other
teachers, in and out of the immersion program, to
help her develop.
. Exposed to words from the language like muk-muk
(eat) all her life, Whisler remembered her interest
growing in her twenties. She held language classes
in her home during the time of Restoration. Elders
would teach and then young parents would pass the
words on to their children, she said.
Language Specialist Bobby Mercier works
across many programs including pre-school, Before
and After programs and adult classes. Like Whisler,
Mercier has been exposed to elements of the language
as long as he can remember
and though he now recog
nizes that "it kind of came
natural for me," the key to
getting him studying it was
a very personal experience.
"Grandma (Tribal Elder
Arthelia Clark) wasn't doing
too good (Arthelia passed
away in December of 1999).
I always wished I had
learned (the language) so I
could talk to her but I never
did." Bobby Mercier
He also saw that there were "good things happen
ing in it (the language program) and good people
doing it."
"I really wanted my kids to have that opportunity
to talk like the old people."
Every week the entire team is involved with de
veloping the lesson plans and creating activity sheets.
As this story developed, Mercier was working on
some class displays that put pictures together with
words.
Although Chinuk wawa "was the language that
was used inter-Tribally," said Johnson, "no other com
munity is using this language the way we are. Grand
Ronde is the only community where this language
has survived."
In addition to the language classes, this section of
the department facilitates a number of other cul
tural classes for Tribal members. Drum, basket,
moccasin, adz-making and beading classes are
among them.
Development of a Chinuk wawa dictionary is also
underway, but perhaps still a year or two from pub
lication, according to Johnson. Like any language,
Chinuk wawa is growing every day as people use it
and struggle with naming things that did not exist
years ago. While the language is strong and de
scriptive of so much in nature, it is constantly catch
ing up with technology.
In addition, the department has developed "a con
siderable archive of all the languages of all of the
original Tribes associated with early Grand Ronde,"
said Johnson. The archive includes original docu
ments that refer to more than 25 dialects, some un
intelligible to us today.
Looking toward the future, the department has
for years been developing ways to make the wealth
of material available not only to Tribal members in
the local area but to Tribal members everywhere.
"My role," said Olson, "is looking at the demograph
ics of our people and figure out how can we achieve
that.
"The far out dream," she said, "is that all Tribal
members can teach their children the Native view
of life and be part of those day-to-day life ways."
The department has been working for years to bring
that vision to life via the Internet and full deploy
ment may still be a few years off, according to Olson.
"We're no longer in a village situation," she said
"We are a modernized Tribe."