Smoke Signals 3
FEBRUARY 1, 2007
Winter Gathering Brings Back Old Friends and Old Ways
By Ron Karten
For the fifth annual Chinook Win
ter Gathering, the Tribe welcomed
Indians from across the west from
San Diego to Seattle. Many Chi
nook Tribal members themselves
traveled a couple hours south to
get to the traditional plankhouse
in the Ridgefield, Washington Na
tional Wildlife Refuge, where Tribal
members no longer live.
The plankhouse was built in con
cert with the recent Lewis & Clark
commemoration because the site
once was home to the Chinook peo
ple, and 900 of them are reported to
have come out to meet the Lewis &
Clark exposition late in 1805.
"Let's just say that I am completely
envious of their longhouse," said Grand
Ronde Tribal Chair Chris Mercier.
"I really hope that Grand Ronde can
eventually get something like that."
Disease wiped out the people in
this southern Washington home in
the 50 years after the Lewis & Clark
expedition, but descendents of those
who survived settled north in the
Washington State fishing commu
nities of Bay Center, Chinook, and
Ilwaco on Willapa Bay. From some
16,000 Tribal members in the early
1800s, the Tribe today numbers a
little more than 2,000.
In recent times, after two decades
of struggle directed at federal recog
nition, the Chinooks convinced the
Clinton administration to recognize
the Tribe as one of the administra
tion's last acts, but the Bush adminis
tration came in and quickly reversed
the decision. Efforts toward federal
recognition continue, particularly
now, said one Tribal member, that
the tone in Congress has changed.
And meanwhile, events like this
gathering are part of the process of re
learning the cultural life lost with the
land and years of broken promises.
The event included singing and
drumming, storytelling and a pot
luck meal. "Traditionally," said
Grand Ronde Tribal member Greg
Archuleta, "the Winter Gathering
was one of the important seasonal
events for the Chinook People."
The Grand Rondes still share
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Tribal Council Chair Chris Mercier (I) and Vice Chair Angle Blackwell present Chinook Chair Ray Gardner with a
Pendleton blanket at the Chinook Plankhouse in Ridgefield, Washington on Saturday, January 20.
ancestry with the Chinooks.
It was a day for friends and mem
ories and in a plankhouse as close
to traditional as they come. Aspects
of the old life opened up again on
Saturday, January 20 this year.
"I'm trying to think about how a
person would put that into words,"
said Gary Johnson, former Chair-
Ronde Tribe's Cultural Resources
Department.
"We meet for the purpose of re
membering how strongly our ances
tors felt about our culture," Tony
Johnson said to the assembly that
came and went in a steady stream
all afternoon. "We share things
from our families and the stories
"I had a brilliant time hearing new stories and
learning about our neighbor Tribes. "
Leslie Riggs,
Grand Ronde Tribal Member
man of the Chinooks. "I think it
must be a dream come true for a lot of
Elders: this opportunity to have their
children and grandchildren partici
pate in the culture in this way."
Johnson also is father of Chinook
Tribal member Tony Johnson, Edu
cation Coordinator for the Grand
are passed down."
"I was honored to be invited to the
event," said Grand Ronde Tribal
member and Cultural Resources
Department Education Specialist
Leslie Riggs. "I had a brilliant time
hearing new stories and learning
about our neighbor Tribes and their
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Chinook drummer Tony Johnson (second from right) and Grand Ronde drummer Bobby Mercier (center in red jacket)
participate with drummers from other Tribes during the fifth Annual Chinook Winter Gathering in Washington.
ways from personal accounts. I
loved singing with new people and
learning their songs."
Many in attendance were com
munity members and government
workers from agencies who worked
with the Chinooks on fish and
wildlife or cultural issues as this
Ridgefield site was developed.
"It's great of you to share with
people like myself who were blind to
the history," said Susan McAdams,
Chair of Friends of the Plankhouse,
a fund-raising and support group.
Roger Wendlich, who described
himself as "a crazy white guy," said,
"I was taught wrong when I was a
boy. It was Natives who led the
way. I tell school children now that
this was home to tens of hundreds
of thousands of people. It wasn't a
wilderness to those who lived here
with the Great Spirit."
Didahalqid, Chair of the Snohom
ish Tribe, dedicated a drum song
to the first people of Seattle, the
Duwamish, Chief Seattle's people.
The Duwamish are the oldest
people of the area that has become
Seattle, and like the Chinooks,
received federal recognition from
the Clinton administration and had
that recognition revoked a few days
later by the Bush administration.
Mary Lou Slaughter, a direct
descendent of Chief Seattle, made
regalia in the old way for those
from the Tribe who performed their
drum song and dance.
"I was really impressed by the
sense of community and friend
ship," said Chris Mercier.
The plankhouse held two fire pits
that were kept aflame all afternoon.
Room along one side of the plank
house is elevated and fenced, and
young children safely watched all
the action. Older kids ran around
in regalia and jeans both in and out
of the plankhouse. The potluck in
cluded salmon, clams and oysters,
crabs, wapato, pastas, salads and a
selection of chocolate.
All afternoon, firelight glimmered
off well-fed, happy, hopeful, deter
mined faces, some in tears for a
time, some in laughter. It was a
picture of plenty.