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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2005)
JANUARY 15, 2005 University of Oregon Longhouse Dedication 7 Cell Phone Story It was the cell phone of Umatilla Chair man Anton Minthom(left) with its William f Vj Tell Overture ring that reminded the oldest in the crowd of the 1950s television western, The Lone Ranger. 0, , " T4 w r ,.- 0 I ' HI r f ;y I J' - - v ) i ! ''''q"1 Solemn find fippireciative Dedic day, came from 150-year-old douglasfir trees cut from the forests of the Coquilles. On hand for the ceremony was Grand Ronde Tribal Elder Don Day, a UO graduate student who har vested and hand-axed the timbers, and Tribal member Leslie Riggs, a UO student who helped Day in the collection process and participated in the meetings bringing this build ing dream to life. "It took us 11 years," said Jason Younker Ph.D. (Coquille), who now teaches anthropology and Native American studies at Rochester In stitute of Technology, "but we got it right." The dedication kicked off a full year of celebration. Already, said Riggs, there is talk about holding Chinook language classes here. The day's theme seemed so clear: the Many Nations Longhouse hon ored the culture that Oregon's nine Tribes have in common. "It's a place where (people from the nine Tribes) can come and be in peace," said Grand Ronde Tribal Council member Jack Giffen Jr. At a time when Tribal tensions over a potential Warm Springs ca sino in the Gorge are simmering, this longhouse for all Indians, and for non-Indians, too, showed how much more in the culture unites the project. The Spirit Mountain Community Fund gave $125,000 to the $1.2 million project at the beginning of f lit) i r p X Welcome Professor Rob Proudfoot describes how the longhouse is made of dreams as UO President Dave Frohnmayer (seated) listens. Tribes than divides them. "What's wonderful is we're all here together," said Cow Creek Chair Sue Shaffer. The Cow Creeks provided financial support for the 2002. Used as a matching fund at a crucial period of fund raising, the money helped the Grand Ronde Tribe be "part of their educational process," said Community Fund Director Adam Henny. Of many gifts given to the new longhouse during the day, Brent Florendo (Wasco-Warm Springs), Academic Program Coordinator for Native American Studies at South ern Oregon University (SOU), pre sented a Pendleton blanket for El ders to keep warm when they visit the longhouse. Another was a cradle board made by Grand Ronde Tribal Council member Wesley West. "(The longhouse is) drawing all the Tribes together culturally and spiritually," said West. "I feel that the Tribes have united more today than at any other time." Grand Ronde Tribal Council member Valorie Sheker-Robertson presented the cradle board before the hundreds of guests who helped usher in this new era at the uni versity. She said that while the blanket from SOU honored our El ders, the cradle board showed Na tive American concern for young people. UO Professor Rob Proudfoot, di rector of the university's Center for Indiginous Cultural Survival, stood tall and spoke at length to the
