Smoke signals., February 15, 2007, Page 4, Image 4

4 FEBRUARY 15, 2007
Smoke Signals
Family History Inquiries To Be Sent To Enrollment Department
By Leslie Riggs
As the former Cultural Education
Specialist for the Tribe I have been
asked to put together a piece dis
cussing one of the items I dealt with
on a regular basis during my tenure
in that position. This item is cultural
requests. The Cultural Resources
Division receives many of these
requests from Tribal members, non
Tribal community members and the
general public. It was my honor to
serve in this capacity, but the posi
tion did not come without problems,
issues and concerns.
One of the problems is that there
are far too many requests for one
person to deal with individually.
Therefore I must thank the rest
of the Cultural Resources Division
who pitch in and help out on these
requests (a lot)! It is fitting that
they do so, as some requests deal
directly with other parts of the divi
sion besides Cultural Education. For
instance, some issues are more of
a concern for Cultural Collections,
Language and Site Protection. It
seems right to allow the correct
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I i i -j a.
Primary Chinuk Wawa Teacher & Tribal member Leslie Riggs
area of the division handle issues
relevant to that area of focus.
One issue that concerns the de
partment is that many of the re
quests are for personal information,
such as family trees, or genealogical
information. A problem, or concern,
with this issue is that we have been
directed to not give out any informa
tion as pertains to enrollment. There
is an Enrollment Department for
this purpose. Another issue involved
is that the database for family infor
mation is faulty, rendering some of
the family information potentially
inaccurate. For that reason, it is the
consensus of the Cultural Resources
Division to postpone any family
tree or family history information
until we have a chance to correct
the information and improve the
reliability of our database. We are
also going to cease giving this type of
information to non Tribal members.
Not that this has been a practice
in the past, but there will now be
a directive against it. At this time,
the Cultural Resources Division will
send any inquiries regarding family
histories to Enrollment until we are
satisfied we can dispense accurate
information.
Because all of these changes take
time, we ask that our membership
be patient until all of this can be set
right. We have only the best inter
ests of the Tribe in mind and want
only what is best for our people.
hayu masi (many thanks) for your
understanding.
Leslie Riggs, Primary Chinuk
Wawa Teacher, 503-879-2249, les
lie.riggsgrandronde.org H
I Tribal member Olivia Larkin will tickle the ivories in Reno.
7T
By Ron Karten
Tribal member Olivia Kath
ryn Larkin, 7, is headed for
the big time. On March 2 and
3 this year, Larkin will join
others among the area's great
young musicians for a turn at
the Reno Music Festival.
She will play "Shepherd's
Lullaby," by
Denes Agay,
and "The Bear,"
by Vladimir Re
bikov. In Janu
ary, she already
was prepared,
she said, in part
because she is
something of a
natural with the
instrument, and
in part because
of a rigorous
practice sched
ule that ties her
to the piano ev
ery day for five
to 10 minutes.
"It depends on
how I'm feeling,
pretty much,"
she said in a tele
phone interview.
"Her teacher,"
said Olivia's
mom, Tribal
member Kelly Larkin, "has a
lot of trophies in her office. My
daughter is dying to get one of
those. 'I might get a trophy,'
was her big thing."
But Kelly admitted that she
does not even know for sure if
they hand out trophies at this
event.
Her teacher takes a few stu
dents each year. "Probably five
or six this year," said Kelly. "It's
exciting because our daughter's so
young."
The family lives in Carson City,
Nevada, only 25-30 minutes away
from the concert hall at the Univer
sity of NevadaReno.
"She plays Beethoven, 'Fur Elise,'
which is pretty advanced for her
On this recent test, the teacher
showed Olivia a line of music and
Olivia wrote what key it was writ
ten in.
"She wrote down B-minor," said
Kelly. "Then she was asked what
dynamic or volume level it was
written in. She wrote "BC," said
Kelly, "but I really don't remember
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Tribal youth Olivia Larkin
age," said Kelly. "The end is quite
long and it gets fast and intense at
the end, and she can't do it all, but
she plays the rest perfectly. Which
is pretty good for her age."
In her four years on the piano,
Olivia also has tested on music
theory for her level. "They have to
learn a lot of Italian words," said
Kelly. "She did the test last night.
It's another whole language."
what that means. It's hard because
she knows more than I do."
In music theory, Olivia is learn
ing how to transpose melodies from
one key to another. She has learned
the four major historical periods of
music from baroque to modern. She
has learned the famous pianists of
those eras. Chopin from Romantic.
Bach from Baroque. Mozart is clas
sical. Bartok is modern.
"Music has been very good
for her," said Kelly. Her other
interests include gymnastics
and horseback riding. She is at
the top of her class in reading.
And also is top among girls in
her class in math.
"It is really exciting because
her music helped her with the
math."
Kelly, who is earning her
teaching degree, volunteers in
Olivia's class.
"Wheel of Fortune is her fa
vorite television show because
that's what her
grandparents
watch when they
come over." They
are Tribal Elder
Patsy Pullin and
husband, Denver.
And another small
fact about Olivia:
she was named
after her great
grandmother, Trib
al Elder Kathryn
Harrison, because
"Kathryn's done so
much for the Tribe
and I wanted to
recognize that,"
said Kelly.
"I also like to
play ball with my
dad, (Greg Larkin,
who owns a glazing
business in town),"
said Olivia, "base-
ball and soccer, just
for fun down the
hall, and I like to hang out with
my girlfriend."
Although the upcoming event
is the first festival Olivia has
played, she is no novice. In four
years of practicing, she said, "I
performed in a lot of recitals."
Sometimes, she gets nervous.
To overcome the nervousness, she
said, 'I just play and walk away."
"And take a bow," she added. B