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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2004)
Smoke Signals 7 SEPTEMBER 1, 2004 "Pounding The Sidewalk" Grand Ronde-style "Dog Days" Walk encourages a healthy lifestyle, starting with a little exercise. By Ron Karten They came in all different sizes and shapes, wearing stacked heels and sneakers, dental blue uniforms and medical whites, in ones, twos, threes and fours for the Tribe's latest health walk, thumbing their noses the whole way at the heat of one of the summer's hottest days. Billed as the "Dog Days of Summer Health Walk," sponsored by the Tribe's Wellness staff and organized by Tribal Elder and Wellness Manager Bonnie Tom, the mid-day stroll brought almost 50 Tribal employees and members of their families for a campus-wide stroll that was as much fun as it was healthful. Valerie McKnight and Sunni Ulestad, both employees of the Clinic's Billing section, came for the obvious reasons: "Exercise, of course," said Ulestad. "And the nice weather," said McKnight. Marti Coblentz, Katie Coons, Donnette Spaulding and Heidi Keyser, all of the Health Clinic's Dental program were coming back from their trek to the Elder housing development. "Marti and I are going to Walk for the Cure (an annual fund-raiser to fight breast cancer)," said Spaulding as the crew rambled by, "and we're getting into shape." Following the walk, which was as long or short as anybody wanted to make it, the walkers were treated to a spaghetti lunch at the Community Center and drawings for loads of prizes, from CDs to hand-made pouches to gift certificates. Jill Haflinger, Administrative Assistant at the Health Center and Lindy Jirek, Administrative ! NO PARKING mis siot or $im n II I II I I - Out For A Stroll Nurses from the Tribal Health and Wellness Center take part in the "Dog Days of Summer Health Walk," which was sponsored by the Tribe's Wellness staff. About 50 Tribal employees and their family members did the walk around the Tribal campus and were treated to prizes, gift certificates and a free spaghetti lunch. Assistant in the Vocational Rehabilitation sec tion of Social Services, had a good old time on the road, but Jirek, at least, was already think ing about that lunch. "Free spaghetti's the motivator," said Jirek, who loves spaghetti enough that it is her annual birth day dinner. Tribal Council member Jack Giffen, Jr., also on his way back from a stroll to the Elder Housing units, said he took the walk "so I can enjoy the blackberries over there!" He was referring to a patch along the way to and from Elder Housing. "We thought the walk went wonderful," said Tom. "We would like to see people walking on the paths every day." Through a diabetes-oriented grant given to the Tribe, the Wellness section intends to buy some benches and maybe try to get some shade trees for the benches donated "so people who can't walk a long way can stop and rest," said Tom. "I think that's the key to pre vention, that Elders can walk the amount that they can walk and then rest before moving on." One of the prizes just for par ticipating, was a copy of the book, Walk Yourself Thin. So watch where you step in the days ahead because, according to Bonnie Tom, more events are coming. Science Camp Uncovers Nature's Secrets Program is set up to teach Youths about the land. 1 1: i 4 . m - 0 By Ron Karten and Jack Ham Jeff Gottfried called it "a culture-based science camp." And he was happy to say that he got as much as he gave. "What I've learned this week again - as inter esting as I think I am -1 learned that the most successful things (in teaching kids) are the hands-on activities and the problem solving." And there were no shortage of opportunities for the week-long class split between high schoolers and junior high schoolers, who each enjoyed four days worth of outings and educa tion. The classes drew a small but excited group of Tribal members, including Smoke Signals in tern, Jack Ham See sidebar. At Agency Creek, the group learned how to gauge the health of the waterway by sampling the insects that live in it. "Other things being equal," said Gottfried, "the greater the diversity (of insects), the cleaner the water. "Some insects are very sensitive to pollution," he added, "and we found some in Agency Creek." Students also learned to use a global position ing system, to take "tree cores" to evaluate the age of a tree, and the use of an "inclinometer," which provided students a concrete way to use the trigo nometry that some have learned at school. An exciting plus from the course for Gottfried is that once the older kids understand a con cept, they are encouraged to turn around and teach it to younger kids. Gottfried comes courtesy of a Tribal grant for his first foray here in Grand Ronde. He has been involved in Native education for many years, once as Chief of Education and Publica tion programs at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. In 11 years at OMSI, the Or egon Museum of Science and Industry, Gottfried started the Salmon Camp for Native students. As a first generation American whose grand parents perished in the Holocaust, Gottfriend has found many "shared values" with Native communities, and he said, "My experiences (in Hikers Tribal Students attend a "culture based science camp" where they learned about care for the environment in a series of trips to places like Agency Creek, Cascade Head Park and Tribal property near Willamina, shown here. The classes were taught by Yamhill County Forest Education Resource Coordinator Jeff Gottfried. Photo by Jeff Gottfried Native American communities) have always been positive." These include "hospitality, family and community." On camp's last day, he led a personalized game of "Jeopardy" with questions tailored to the week's experiences. "What blew my mind," he said, "is who learned what. I was not necessarily aware when learn ing was going on. It pays to check in once in awhile, to see." My Experience In Science Camp By Jack Ham On Monday, July 12 around 9 a.m., our party got onto the bus and took off to the west. Our bus drove near the coast to Cascade Head Park. Yamhill County Forest Education Resource Coordinator, Jeff Gottfried, guided about six kids on this trip. He said he had worked in some areas of anthropology and paleontology before. When we hiked through Cascade Head, we saw a great view over the ocean from on top of the grassy hills that settle beside the beach. Gottfried pointed out that the Columbia River moved to its present day location due to lava flows. On the second day, Gottfried led us to Tribal property out by Willamina where we hiked through dense forest. Here we found a beaver dug a tunnel and a beaver lodge lined with gnawed wood. On the third day our group drove to the areas around Agency Creek. Under a microscope, we viewed insects collected from the creek, such as the Cadis Fly. We also cut a hole through a tree to determine the age. These are some of the interesting experiences I had with Jeff Gottfried.
