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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2003)
8 APRIL 15, 2003 Smoke Signals Agency Creek Round Dance Lasts Into Early Morning Native youth find that tradition, culture and fun make a powerful combination. TT79 ' r r r m ByPetaTinda The singing and dancing went on until the early morning at the Agency Creek Round Dance, until the coffee had been drunk and the children had fallen asleep to the sound of the drums. A round dance is much like a pow wow in that there is drumming, sing ing, people dancing, fry bread, and kids scampering around. But there is also a sacred element to the round dance in that the songs are more like prayers. Each song has specific meaning. Some songs pray for good health, others pray for the Dlders, and still others pray for the children. "There are some values that are very sacred," said Clayton Chief, a Cree Tribal Elder. "The round dance is one ofthem." "We dance as we were shown by our Elders," said Eugene Cardinal, of Loon Lake Saskatchewan, one of the long time round dancers invited to the event to help coordinate. "It's more of a spiritual dance. It's non-competitive, you don't have to wear regalia, and it's mostly a healing dance, both emotional and physical. And there's no alcohol or substance abuse allowed either." I ir HI , -a i I f ...I s : la. I 1" "-UK i' 1 0 h cTP, i y i' S it h. First Annual Agency Creek Round Dance - Compared with a pow wow, a round dance is non-competitive and no regalia is required. The dancers hold hands and move in counter-clockwise direction around a central drum goup, who use hand drums instead of the larger pow-wow drums. Each round dance song has specific meaning. " . . r Awl""" 4 lf" The round dance was sponsored by the Confeder ated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Youth Social Ser vices Prevention Program and organized by Tribal Cultural Specialist Bobby Mercier. "It went really good," said Mercier. "It served its purpose, which for me was the kids, to show them that they can be culturally involved in some thing and still have a good time." Members of Grey Eagle and other well-known drum groups were at the dance, including Black The Round Dance was a chance for people of all ages to dance, visit and socialize while maintaining strong traditions. People from all over Oregon and Washing ton came to Grand Ronde for the round dance, held on April 4, at the Tribal Education Gymnasium. Lodge and Black Stone, and Em cee Bob Tom kept the crowd laughing with his old-fashioned Indian humor. A traditional salmon dinner was served to the guests on Saturday night. The round dance, which has ori gins with the Cree Tribe, is slowly making its way over to the West coast. As more and more Natives realized its benefits to the health of the community, and also just what a good time the dance is, its popularity began to spread. As far as Mercier knew, this was the first round dance ever in Grand Ronde. "It's all traditional, and it's been around a long time," explained Mercier. "There are a lot of proto cols in place and rules that have to be followed. We make sure to do it the way it's always been done." The main focus of the evening was to get as many kids involved as possible. For a lot of Native youth there is limited exposure to so cial activities. The round dance is social in the sense that there are people there and they dance, but there is also a spiritual sense. All of the songs have mean ings, and are sung at specific times during the dance. There is an opening song, a friendship song, a give away song, honor songs, Veterans' songs, Elder songs, youth songs, and a closing song. "All of the songs are prayers. It's the only thing that held our people together during the hard times. And we're still trying to stay together," said Mercier. "Sometimes it's really hard to live in two worlds. But these songs and prayers, these things that our Elders told us to do, will make us strong as a com munity. I figure any way we can do that is good." Tribes Take On Planning for 6,600 Acres of Federal Forest Land Tribes' best forest practices will be applied to federal holdings. By Ron Karten Forest land in the local water shed has a variety of owners. Among them are the Tribe, the federal Forest Service (USFS) and the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). With the idea that a piece of a forest is bet ter managed for the entire water shed rather than simply for an owner's individual acres, the Tribe's Natural Resources De partment has renewed a Stew ardship Agreement with the For est Service, and is in the process of renewing one with the BLM. The two-year USFS project, signed recently in Grand Ronde, will continue development of a management proposal for 6,600 federal acres of local forest land. The exact size of the project will depend on available USFS funds, according to Natural Resources Manager Pete Wakeland. Another part of this effort may also include a similar renewal agreement to foster Tribal stew ardship over about 3,500 acres of BLM land, said Wakeland. The Tribes' department has made the proposal and is waiting to hear back from the BLM. And these projects will dovetail with the on going work that the Natural Re sources Department does with the Tribes' 10,052 acres of forest land. "With 10,000 acres, you're lim ited with what you can do," said Tribal Council Vice Chairman Reyn Leno. "(These agreements) allow us to do a lot of management, ex perimental management. We can basically watch from where (the watersheds) originate and do the best we can to make sure that the water stays clean." He also added that "building re lationships with BLM and Forestry is really important." It will "test the side boards" of the Northwest Forest Plan, said Wakeland. Tribal staffers are seek ing "to find ways to be creative within the framework of the North west Forest Plan." "This is a good showcase for the Tribe," said Mike Wilson, who originally sought this opportunity for the Tribes in 1999 when the first stewardship plan was signed. Wilson was with the Natural Re sources Department at the time though he has since moved to theTribal Land Management De partment. "This is a project that makes a lot of sense," said Wilson. "It enables the Tribe to get a good read on the health of streams and upland spe cies." The Natural Resources Depart ment is proposing to apply and adapt its current forest plan for Tribal lands to the federal acreage. "The plan is the easiest part," said Wakeland. "We'll use our plan as a model. All the preparation is the tough part." That preparation includes gath ering prodigious amounts of data including endangered species as sessments, water temperature monitoring and roads evaluation. It also includes environmental as sessments and ultimately, propos als to manage the area. The proposal will include an in ventory of resources in the forest and a list of proposed projects for the next ten years. There is no guarantee that Tribes staffers will do the work proposed or even that the plans will go forward, but clearly, the Forest Service antici pates useful and creative projects that will serve the forests well into the future. For its part, the Forest Service lacks the staff to do this kind of i v IJf ' ;. . id : I II Tribal Vice Chairman Reyn Leno signs an agreement to enable the Tribe to plan for the future on Fed erally owned and local forest lands. project at the same time that it "desires to promote innovation in forest management approaches and techniques," according to the agreement between the Tribes and the Siuslaw National Forest. "Local participation has been a good thing for us," said George T. Buckingham, Ranger for the Hebo District. B
