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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2008)
Smoke Signals 3 OCTOBER 1,2008 ChaBuCtaD is home to some 1 00 oblomg sttomies CHANKAL continued from front page mette Valley also are visible from the peak. More importantly, this place is home to some 100 oblong stones today recognized as phallic repre sentations used in fertility rites. The Kalapuya word "chankal" re fers to a place with phallic-shaped stones. About 65 have been pulled from the ground, labeled and stored in Tribal collections. Tribal member and Cultural Resources Protection Coordinator Eirik Thorsgard, the Tribal staffer managing the proj ect, showed the rocks to those in attendance. "I don't know how touching the artifacts will affect you," he said. "I've been touching them, and all I can say is my wife's pregnant now." The find has stirred great ex citement among Tribal Council members. "When the Cultural Resources Department came forward and asked us to buy this property," said Tribal Council member Kath leen Tom, "we did not hesitate. We didn't even ask the cost of the land. We made the decision in a heartbeat." "The Tribal Council was over whelmed," said Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy. "Sacredness is what this land means to us, something that will go down in history." Kennedy compared the Chankal site to Stonehenge in England. "This is an opportunity to bring back some of our history," Tom said. "This is going to be a special place," said Tribal Elder Peachie Hamm, who offered a blessing be fore the celebration. "I can feel it in my bones. "We need to teach our children what it is to be one with Mother Earth." 'There are very few Tribes that can find a sacred place and buy it and then restore it," Thorsgard said. "This is a great opportunity to bring the place into Tribal owner ship. We are the only Tribe in the United States that has done this. "This is something just as big as Spirit Mountain, and we have got ten it back." Despite many efforts to buy Spirit Mountain, the Tribe still does not own the property. Still, Thorsgard said, the Chankal site is "a work in progress." Tribal and community members cut back a riot of blackberry bushes and assorted fruit trees and grape vines and, in the process, saved and restored a mobile home on the prop erty. It was less a cultural matter than a practical move to make the site usable and accommodating. Volunteer and paid help will con tinue to prune the fruit trees and grapevines opening many possibili ties to locnl Tribal members. "We have several proposals for the property," siiid Thorsgard after the event, "from a satellite office for Salem Tribnl members to a Tribal park to a sacred area used only in certain times." One idea would continue the place as a working farm and use the abundance of fruit to recreate the canning efforts that Tribal Elders remember from Great Depression and post-Depression days almost 80 years ago. "One dream is to have an Elders' cookbook," said Tribal member and Cultural Re sources secre tary Angella McCallister. Three com munity members children of onetime farmer A.J. Doran, who lived on the property from 1929 to 1956 attended with their spouses. Dorothy Evans, Phyllis Fehr and Maxine Fitzgerald had kept in touch with the farmland over the years, as it was subdivided "There are very few Tribes that can find a sacred place and buy it and then restore it. This is a great opportunity to bring the place into Tribal ownership. We are the only Tribe in the United States that has done this. " Tribal Cultural Resources Protection Coordinator Eirik Thorsgard and sold, until a month or so ago when they ran into archaeologists working on the site. "Something drew us out here again and again," Evans said, "and it snowballed from there. Our par ents would have been very happy. That barn was my dad's pride and joy." Byram Ar chaeological Consulting based in Stayton has been exca vating the site for more than a year. They have scanned the whole property with ground pen etrating radar and found only the 100 or so stones that mostly have been excavated and tagged. A few are left in the ground and marked to show how and where they were found. Oral histories have indicated that the stones may have been used for fertility rituals, world renewal cer emonies, healing rituals or puberty rites, according to Thorsgard. "Archaeologists are working with the idea that many stones have been removed, and the radar in stead is looking for depressions in the ground where the stones may once have been, or where fragments or undiscovered stones may still sit," he said. Back in 1999, Tribal Elders Merle Holmes and Les Houck (now passed on) said in interviews that "they knew the place existed, but they didn't know where it was," Thors gard said. Oral histories also say that there exists an old cellar on the place containing more rocks and, in addi tion, a bunch are said to have been "thrown down a well," Thorsgard said. Mystery abounds. "Every time we get one answer," Thorsgard said, "we find 10 more questions." Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy talks about what the Skyline property means to the Tribe during the Chankal Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 20, in Salem. Listening on the right is Tribal Cultural Resources Protection Coordinator and Tribal member Eirik Thorsgard. Photos by Michelle Alalmo It ail r if-: v' .v . G )' $ ... -fcr'V a i .. -'.:- . i ' ' - 3 cLi ;.v, y - - .v Tribal Cultural Resources Director and Tribal member David Lewis, right looks through old pictures with sisters Dorothy Evans, right, and Maiine Fitigerald, middle, during the Chankal Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 20, in Salem. The women's parents owned the Skyline Road property from 1 929-56.
