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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2007)
4 JUNE 15, 2007 Smoke Signals Gorge ErowoininneirDttallistt Creeps Acflvocattiirog Tribal Elder Valerie Alexander's family hails from the Gorge, all the way back to Tumulth, and she is working to keep it green for the coming generations. By Ron Karten Speaking of hospitality, there is a cup at Tribal Elder Valerie Alexander's place with a drawing of a raven on it, and the quote: "The most important of all creatures. Magical and supernatural, the Ra ven, known as the Transformer." In another room is an original Curtis photo, "At the Wind River." Celilo Chief Tommy Thompson is in another photograph. The place is filled with artifacts and much of its style is reminiscent of the Columbia River peoples. The 65-acre ranch a few miles north of La Center, Washington, where such Indian memories come alive is also rustic and comfortable on its own terms. It includes two modern buildings built with log supports and heated stone floors and an old mining cabin, along with trails and views of the Columbia River, Mount Hood and the Cascade foothills. It doubles as a bed and breakfast. There's a sign where guests might park. It reads: "Parking for Native Americans only. All others will be towed." Alexander shares the place with partner Kelly Lindgren. He is a physician she met in Saudi Ara bia. Now a retired operating room and public health nurse, they had a lot in common. "I like the fast pace of the operat ing room," she said. Her travels have taken her across Europe and the Middle East. She has hiked in Nepal. Today, she is more settled, working her ranch and bed and breakfast, along with the responsibilities of an environ mental activist. Maybe "settled" isn't the right word. "I wish my life would settle down a little," she said. "I want to spend my time outside, not in meetings." Alexander is a direct descendent of Tumulth, chief of the Cascades band. He signed the Treaty of the Willamette Valley in 1855. Tumulth . .' : '" c L 0 X ... " f 2 " i N 1 J : .. a- - ' ' - 1 Tribal Elder Valeria Alexander had four daughters, Virginia, Isabel, Mary and Sally. Alexander's family is descended from Mary, known as "Indian Mary," who had two daugh ters, Amanda and Abbie, and the Alexanders come down the Amanda line. Amanda married Chas. Wil liams, who together had 1 1 children, of whom Dora Walker, born in 1905 and still alive, had three girls of whom Valerie is the youngest. Tribal member and photographer Chuck Williams (Smoke Signals, October 1, 2006) is the son of Dora's younger brother, Clyde Williams, who passed on in 1992. Altogether, some 100 descendents of Tumulth meet for a picnic each year on the last Sunday in July at Beacon Rock. "We tell family sto ries," said Alexander, "have a group prayer, take pictures. Generally, we just catch up." Indian Mary, Alexander's great grandmother, had property in the Columbia Gorge in the late 1800s, early 1900s. "She managed to get an act of Congress passed that allowed r. -4 m I a J "2 , 1 ' - ' ' Indians to own proper ty," said Alexander. The story is told in Chuck Williams' book, Bridge of the Gods, Mountains of Fire: A Return to the Co lumbia Gorge, a history illustrated with his strik ing photography and told from the perspectives of both his Indian and pio neer ancestors. Alexander's mother, Dora Walker, spent much of her early life in the Gorge, at Skamania. "They weren't treated very well," said Alex ander, referring to her mother's experiences. 'They called the Indians 'dirty little Indian kids.' It was very painful." Alexander and her sib lings didn't even know they were Indians early on. When she was about 13 years old, she said to her Aunt Faye (Flannery), "It would be neat to be an Indian, and a startled Aunt Faye replied, 'Well, you are.' "My mother had never said a word about it." "After the (1974) Boldt Decision (affirming Indian fishing rights), it became more acceptable to be Indian," she said. "I began study ing everything I could about Tribal culture. There was a lot in the Fort Vancouver Library in Portland. "I was always, since I could re member, very attached to the river," she said. "There were a lot of things I didn't know, but I knew." One example, she said, is that she never sliced salmon into steaks. "It was always fillets. I've had my own boat (a 17-foot fishing boat) since I was 28." She takes it fishing for salmon, going out to Skamania, Skamokawa, the mouth of the Lewis River on the Columbia, but she says, . "I'm not very good at fishing." n , I' jC"..' . - vr 1 1 :, r Tribal Elder Valerie Alexander taping her part as the Tribe works to amend the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Act. She takes her boat through the Hood Canal several times a sum mer and camps on the beach with all the grandkids. Alexander has three children and seven grandchildren. Her memories of childhood start with her favorite uncle, Ray Wil liams, who passed on in 1979, who was a hunter. "I always enjoyed hearing his stories," she said. "We'd go clam digging with him." Living in the country, she always had friends that had farms and horses, and so began her love of horses. She has a few today, cor ralled on the ranch property. Also on the property, she grows organic vegetables, berries, fruits and some timber. But speaking of responsibility, she has focused for many years on Indian and environmental issues using political activism as her tool. "It's time consuming with meetings, interviews, fund raising events," she said, but important in "con fronting rampant development." "People were clearing home sights on my land," she said, explaining why she got involved. "I had to do something." She was a founding Board mem ber of Friends of Clark County. As a member of the Washington Con servation Voters, she helps with interviewing political candidates so the group can put out a score card telling how officials voted on important issues. She also is chair of her local Neighborhood Association. "Since the early 1990s, I was just watching the whole area disinte grate," she said. "What are we leaving for our children?" she said. "I do this so our children can enjoy what I have enjoyed." Earlier this year, the Clark Coun ty YWCA made her one of their "Women of Achievement." And speaking of heritage, she also pays attention to cultural issues. She was involved, for example, with the Ridgefield plankhouse project. She gives cultural talks at schools. She has been studying Chi nook Wawa at the Portland Tribal office, and has offered her place as a second venue for the classes. Most recently, she participated, along with her sister, Tribal Elder Marilyn Portwood, and cousin, Tribal Elder Chuck Williams, in the making of a Tribal DVD in support the Grand Rondes' efforts to be in cluded in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Act. (See related story on page 3.) "I've always had pretty strong feelings about it," she said. It bothers me that I have to go up to Bonneville to buy salmon because just across the river (in Oregon) is Tumulth Road and Tumulth Creek, and down on the Washington side at Skamania is Indian Mary Road. "It seems strange that I'm buy ing salmon from another Tribe 150 miles away when my family's his tory is right here. And it's a very very special place for us." B
