Smoke Signals 7
mmit Brings Leaders Together
nted at the sixth annual event
NOVEMBER 15, 2003
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patients, an organic cranberry project and like
the Cow Creeks, the Coquilles have invested in
rural communications. It is the largest band
width provider in the county, said Scott.
While acknowledging that the successes have
been impressive, Grand Ronde Tribal Director
of Program Operations Chris Leno said that he
had been looking for more conversation about
process, about making economic development
work, rather than mere descriptions of the suc
cesses. In the Cultural session, Siletz Cultural Re
sources Director Robert Kentta spoke about the
challenge of educating youth "to maintain our
unique identity."
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Gov
ernment Affairs and Planning Director Louie
Pitt described his frustration with the "symbol
ism" of associating Indians with picking berries
or dealing with fish and habitat. "It's not just
symbolic," he said. "It's not just a special prod
uct," he explained afterwards, "but a special
product that has a legal standing."
"We have to start thinking about these things
more serious," he said. "The real problem is: who
are we as Indians? Are we continually going to
make a feast out of scraps or are we going to
make real food instead of scraps?"
"I really appreciated the participation from the
Terminated Tribes Siletz, Klamath and Co
quille," said Tribal member Barbara Lake, who
is Executive Assistant to Grand Ronde General
Manager Cliff Adams. She referred to comments
of Klamath Tribes Natural Resources Director
Elwood Miller, that Tribes and Indian peoples
have evolved. The challenge, he said, is "get
ting people to see that, and not put us back into
an ancient box."
Photos by Peta Tinda
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Conference A break in the summit gave Umatilla Tribal leader Jay Minthorn (left) and Grand Ronde Tribal
Council member Jan D. Reibach a chance to talk. One purpose of the summit is to make just this kind of informal
meeting possible.
"We're getting back to our ancient culture,"
said Lake, "and yet we've evolved. (Combining
the two) is my personal struggle."
Tribal member Jan Michael "Looking Wolf
Reibach performed on his flute during the lun
cheon, and was followed by remarks from Sen
ate President Peter Courtney and Bobbie
Conner, Executive Director of the Tamastslikt
Cultural Institute, a project of the Umatillas.
(See sidebar)
Following lunch, one attendee noted a differ
ence between holding the summit in a building
at Oregon State University versus having a ca
sino host the event, as has often been done in
the past. "More people come back after lunch,"
she said.
Governor Kulongoski had surveyed the room
as he started his speech. "This state is a mini
United Nations," he said. B
Setting The Record Straight... Again
Tamastslikt Cultural Institute Executive Director Bobbie Conner told the Lewis & Clark story from
an Indian perspective at the recent Government-to-Government Summit in Corvallis.
Conner's talk, "What Lewis & Clark Might Have Encountered Upon Arrival in What We Now Call
Oregon," continued the longstanding many-Tribal effort "to set the record straight."
"When (Lewis & Clark) entered the mid-Columbia region, most Tribes had been conducting interna
tional trade for at least 70 years," she said.
"What Lewis & Clark did not comprehend is that they had entered a complex, rich homeland. The
story, then as now, is about land. It is important to recognize that what Lewis & Clark were doing was
completing a record to create further incursions into our homeland, given us by the Creator."
"They did not arrive in the wilderness with the wooley mammoths," she said, "but they came among
people with law and food preservation and architecture."
In describing one of the smallest things that Indians had to offer, but withheld, Conner said that a
plague of bugs found their ways into the explorers' clothing and bedding and bit them unremittingly
and incessantly.
"Had the Chinookan people liked them better, they would have advised them about wearing cedar,"
she said.
"Without our people, they would not have made it to the ocean or back," she said.
She defined the Indian lifestyle belittled by the explorers as savage with concepts the explorers
certainly might have recognized: division of labor, fish taken from the river by the thousands, hand
some men, people with lean and nutritious diets (while the explorers described a diet for themselves
including nine pounds of meat a day), veneration we held for our Elders, unafraid of new commerce and
new trade opportunities, and many forms of gambling to help redistribute wealth.
"Lewis and Clark," she said, "simply represented a new trade opportunity for our people. When state
officials visit, we still do this. We have a tremendous hospitality tradition."
"We took slaves then," she said, "but slaves could become leaders when they showed their abilities.
They could rise to become a leader."
"The Creator gave us a place to live as he gave everybody a place to live. Why would he give it away
a second time? What did they do with the land given them?" she asked.
"We are still here," she said, "despite what school children may or may not learn."
"We want the nation to recognize our contributions, to do what it has promised to do, to protect the
land that the Creator gave us."
"Tribal histories are thousands of years old," she concluded. "There is much to be learned from our
history, if you are willing to listen."