JANUARY 1, 2006
Smoke Signals 3
Tribal Elders' Clurisfmas Parity
Tradition of The Season The annual Elders'
Christmas Party was held on Monday, December 19 at Spirit
Mountain Casino's Bingo Hall. Tribal Elders Pearl Lyon, (top,
1 to r) Janet Phillips and Anna Hannan dish their plates with a
meal catered by Spirit Mountain's Food and Beverage staff.
Tribal Elders Kathy Provost, (right, 1 to r) Linda Brandon and
Grand Rondeb oldest Irving Elder Nora Kimsey share a
laugh while enjoying the delicacies.
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Gathering Calls On Native Story Tellers
Smoke Signals' Editor Brent Merrill is featured.
By Ron Karten
If you haven't been getting
enough stories in Smoke Signals
lately, it may be that Smoke Sig
nals Editor Brent Merrill has been
saving them up for his appearance
at the upcoming Northwest Indian
Storytellers Gathering and Ap
prenticeship Workshop.
Merrill will be one of nine Native
storytellers appearing at the week
end event, three each night starting
on Thursday, January 5 through
Saturday, January 7.
"About a year ago," said Elaine
Lanegan (Siletz), Tribal liaison at
NISA, "(Merrill) gave a
really excellent oral his
tory of the Tribe." They
remembered his work
and when this year's
event came up, they
turned to him again.
The event will be
held at the Portland
State University Na
tive American Stu
dent and Community
Center on the corner of SW
Broadway and Jackson
Street in Portland.
Other featured storytellers in
clude Elaine Grinnell
(Jamestown S'Klallam), Esther
Stutzman (Coos & Komemma
Kalapuya), storyteller and histo
rian, and Victor Mandan
(Hidatsa and Mandan).
This first for Oregon event contin
ues the resurgence of the Native oral
tradition that has faded for many in
the last century. But according to Rose
High Bear (DegHit'anDine), the sto
ries do not die. High Bear is Execu
tive Director of the Wisdom of the
Elders non-profit corporation that is
the umbrella organization for the Wis
dom of the Elders radio programs, the
Turtle Island Storytellers Network, a
Native speakers bureau, and now this
first annual storytellers gathering.
"Anything the Great Spirit created
is never gone," she said. "It just
needs to be remembered... We've
I y I
discovered that old stories come back
through dreams and visions.
They're very beautiful. Each one is
something that comes from maybe
200 years ago, and we've discovered
a quality of selflessness that we don't
always hear today. These stories
have a spiritual purity of somebody
who lived 200 years ago."
High Bear said that her Tribe, the
DegHit'anDine, has also been
known as Alaskan Atajbascan, but
what is less known is that the
DegHit'anDine are related to the
Grand Ronde people.
"The Ataibascan language is spo
ken by the Grand
Rondes," she said.
Hotel (which is providing an ex
cellent weekend rate for out-of-town
visitors), the Multnomah
County Cultural Coalition and
Umpqua Bank.
The Wisdom of the Elders Radio
program has aired internationally
for three years through the Ameri
can Indian Radio on Satellite (Airos)
Indian Network. The third year of
the series was launched just a couple
of weeks ago, said High Bear.
During the day on Friday, all
Tribal members from Oregon,
Washington and Idaho interested
in storytelling, from active storytell
ers to those who would apprentice
in the art to those just in it for other
"Anything the Great Spirit created is never
gone. It just needs to be remembered. . . "
Rose High Bear,
Executive Director of the Wisdom of the Elders
"Our people swept
down from where
we were living into
Washington and Oregon and even
to California and shared the lan
guage. It stuck because young
DegHit'anDine women (who mar
ried with different Tribal members
along the way), were the ones in
each family that passed on the lan
guage to their children."
The Wisdom of the Elders group
has been developing and operating
projects with the help of grants from
the National Endowment for the
Arts for a few years, said High Bear.
Funding for the storytelling
gathering also comes from the
United Indian Students in
Higher Education & Native
American Student & Community
Center at PSU, Native American
Rehabilitation Association of the
Northwest, Portland Public
School's Title VII Indian Educa
tion, the Center for Columbia
River History, the Mark Spencer
people's stories are invited for an all
day gathering of events and learn
ing opportunities.
"We're hoping that Grand Ronde
Elders will be able to come by bus,"
said High Bear.
On Saturday during the day, the
focus will be on the youth with a
workshop for apprentices. The pro
gram will provide opportunities for
young storytellers to hold court in
small groups and later enjoy a work
shop called "Crazy Wellness" to help
them build their confidence and
teach them how to speak, present,
read and sense the audience.
Daytime programs on both Fri
day and Saturday will provide free
breakfast and lunch for participants
and visitors.
On Saturday evening, the last of
the storytellers, including Merrill,
will present.
After the stories on Friday and
Saturday nights, the focus will
move to fund raising. On Friday,
there will be a raffle to help pay for
Wisdom of the Elders projects.
Items will include a Pendleton Leg
endary Design blanket and a num
ber of other arts and crafts items.
On Saturday night after the sto
ries, there will be a live and silent
auction again with Pendleton blan
kets and jackets on the block. There
will be a Spirit Mountain Commu
nity Fund gaming package for the
Spirit Mountain Casino, as well as
Indian crafts and getaways.
"The reason we're in existence,"
said High Bear, "is to bring the art
of storytelling back to the Tribal com
munities in Oregon." In some cases,
she said, people don't always know
that their stories were recorded in
books 100 or more years ago, includ
ing some of the Northwest Tribes.
In other cases, stories shared
among Tribal bands are retold in
similar ways. "Our people were al
ways sharing, among bands," she
said. "Sometimes different families
tell the same tales a little differently
and we get in trouble. But the sto
ries come through other bands that
have kept stories alive.
High Bear said that some Tribes
looking for their old stories don't
realize that neighboring Tribes
have the stories. "The Yakama
Nation," she said, "has a number of
Cowlitz stories. Our people and sto
ries are all interrelated."
The Wisdom of the Elders project
has been growing for 15 years with
the idea of preserving Native spiri
tuality and oral traditions.
"We think our Elders are great role
models, not only for Indians but for
all people," said High Bear. "And we
believe that the future of our people
lies in restoring the rich cultural
values of our ancestry."
http:wisdomoftheelders.org