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
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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.