8 JULY 1, 2004
Smoke Signals
"A JOURNEY OF TRADITION"
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View From The Top Tina Villalobos captured this image of the Tribes' entry into this year's 2004 Grand Floral Parade through downtown Portland from the roof of
the Hilton Hotel The RO foot lono- float was oi-ionsoroH Vw thoTrihot1 sVimirraao Rnirit Mountain ("lasino ano" titleo1 "A Innrnpv of Tradition " The nararle iiirln-es were so
impressed with this year's entry they gave it the event's top honor "The Sweepstakes Award."
Spirit Mountain's entry into the Rose Festival Parade wins top honors.
ByPeta Tinda
"A Journey of Tradition," won the
Sweepstakes Award for Most Out
standing Float in the Parade at this
year's Rose Festival Grand Floral
Parade, held in Portland on Saturday,
June 12.
The Spirit Mountain Casino float
depicts a traditional Chinookian fam
ily in a Western Red Cedar canoe.
Spirit Mountain Casino worked
closely with the Grand Ronde Tribal
Cultural Resources Department to en
sure that the float was as culturally
accurate as possible.
The Grand Floral Parade is the sec
ond largest all-floral parade in North
America and the single-largest spec
tator event in Oregon.
More than 500,000 spectators lined
the 4.3 mile parade route which began
Leno, age 8, was one of the princesses.
"I was really excited," said Leno. "I
wasn't nervous, it was really fun.
The float portrayed a Tribal family,
gathering plants native to Grand
Ronde, such as wapato, skunk cabbage
and camas.
The child, seated in front of the ca
noe, wears a Southern Oregon style
spruce root cap, while the woman wears
a Northwest-Coastal cedar root hat.
The father is wearing a Kalapuyan
hunter's cap and propels the canoe with
a Chinookian style paddle, which is
grasped at the pommel. All three wear
traditional cedar bark or cattail reed
clothing and are shown using Western
Oregon style woven hazel baskets.
The float measures over 50 feet long
and 13 feet high.
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"I'm With The Band" Dozens of marching bands made their way
through Downtown Portland during the parade. The Rose Festival Parade is the
single largest spectator event in Oregon.
inside the Memorial Coliseum and con
tinued through downtown Portland.
KOIN 6 TV broadcast the parade
live and syndicated it to more than 30
million television viewers.
The float carried smiling and wav
ing Grand Ronde Tribal Royalty prin
cesses along the parade route.
Little Miss Grand Ronde Kiana
Three thousand fresh flowers
adorned the float, put in place by vol
unteers from Spirit Mountain Casino.
The volunteers filled over 2,000 vials
of water to keep the flowers fresh. The
float was covered in all-natural mate
rials, such as flaxseed, cornmeal and
cinnamon powder.
The canoe is traditional Chinookian
ocean-going canoe, complete with a
carved "heart," on the bow.
"The heart is an integral part of the
canoe," said Cultural Education Coor
dinator Tony Johnson, who helped with
consulting on the project. "It represents
the canoe as a living, animate thing."
"It was an experience I'll never for
get. It's a whole lot better in person.
The flowers are so much more bril
liant," said Tribal Cultural Protection
Specialist Perri McDaniel, who accom
panied the float along the route dressed
in traditional regalia and riding a 16
hand thoroughbred horse.
A small child came up to her and
with the help of his father, reached up
and handed her a rose. "I almost cried,"
she said. "That was really special. I
really felt honored and proud to be one
of the ones chosen."
Out of hundreds of applicants in the
equestrian category, only 34 were se
lected to participate, including
McDaniel and Tribal Community
Fund Administrative Assistant Paula
Cook, who rode in the parade and pro
vided the horses.
The horse trappings McDaniel used
in the parade are over 50 years old and
were loaned to her by a close friend from
Warm Springs.
It was decorated with a four direc
tions pattern that matched the regalia
she was wearing. Thousands of indi
vidual glass beads were sewn on, one-by-one,
to make McDaniel's cape.
McDaniel won second place for best
in the Individual Native or National
Costume category. B