Smoke signals., August 15, 2009, Page 7, Image 7

Smoke Signals 7
AUGUST 15, 2009
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Photo by Dean Rhodes
The Polk HALO (Help Achieve Lifelong Objectives) Program hosted
a recognition barbecue at the Tribe's Youth Education patio for the
young adults ages 1 7-24 who have been working in the Summer Work
Program on Thursday, July 30. The barbecue was catered by Mek
Mek Haws restaurant. Restaurant supervisor Steve Holmes serves a
hamburger to John Malone, 22, of Monmouth. The Tribe had young
adults in the HALO program working in GIS, Youth Education, pre
school, Elder Foster Care and on construction crews.
Menu's Group startling
The Behavioral Health Department is starting a Men's Group, which will be
open to members of all Tribes.
Topics that will be covered include healthy relationships, communication
skills, anger management, spirituality, emotional intelligence and how to live
one's life from a place integrity and authenticity.
The Men's Group will meet every Thursday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the
Behavioral Health Department at Health & Wellness.
A certificate of completion will be awarded to men who have completed the
training. Transportation may be available for those in need.
Contact Tom Bender with any questions at 503-879-2067.
Native insight
writing competition
Thoughts on recession, recovery and opportunity
Share your unique insights on the economy and our prospects
for recovery... and you may be one of six Native winners chosen to
receive $10,000 and have their opinions published!
Submit your 500-1,600 word original written work by Sept. 15,
2009, to compete.
Sept. 15, 2009
Submission deadline (11:59 p.m. Alaska time)
Oct. 22, 2009
Winners will be notified by phonee-mail
Oct. 22-24, 2009
Public announcement of winners
A project of the Alaska Federation of Natives, in partnership with
the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, National Congress
of American Indians and Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
To submit your entry or for more information, go to www.nativein
sight.org. E-mail: infonativeinsight.org. Phone: 907-274-3611.
Pacific lamprey numbers continue to decline
LAMPREY continued
from page 6
on a shoot," he said.
Assistants carried the gear and
helped with tricky navigations
along the way. Executive producer
Tim McOsker watched the shots in
a viewing glass that showed just
what the cameramen were seeing.
He looked for light and framing is
sues, and Corwin's narration for ef
fectiveness, and from time to time,
he said, "Let's try to get in closer,"
or "take that one again."
The show could not come at a bet
ter time for the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife. The depart
ment has embarked on a program
of educational outreach to explain
the travails of the Pacific lamprey.
The department categorizes the
lamprey as an "at risk" species.
While the Pacific lamprey "has
been reduced by passage barriers
such as dams and road culverts,"
according to the department, Wil
son and McCoun reported that
PGE-installcd ramps have helped
the lamprey at Willamette Falls.
That may be small comfort for a
fipocios that is returning to the riv
ers to spawn in the lowest numbers
ever recorded. At Willamette Falls,
commercial harvests fell from an
average 218,000 pounds per year
from 1913-52 to 13,000 pounds per
year from 1969-2001. Counts at
Columbia and Snake River dams
in the late 1990s were 6 percent
of what they had been in the early
1960s.
The Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands
Center reports that the Winchester
Dam on the North Umpqua River
has seen the Pacific lamprey run
drop from 46,785 in 1966 to less
than 50 annually since 1995.
There remains, however, a "sig
nificant lack of information on
Pacific lamprey," McCoun said,
and that gap in knowledge is "a
direct obstacle to any meaningful
assessment or management of the
species."
The reduced lamprey numbers
portend more than the potential
loss of another species, as un
thinkable as that is for the ancient
lamprey. For Native Americans
throughout the Northwest, these
numbers signal the potential end
of a long held, traditional, and cul
tural practice that has sustained
the Native peoples from time im
memorial culturally and nutri
tionally. Today, only a handful of Tribal
members continue the practice
of harvesting and preparing lam
prey. Following the day at the falls,
Corwin and crew returned to the
Tribe's Natural Resources depart
ment where those who continue
the practice were busy preparing
lamprey and other traditional
Northwest fare in traditional ways
for a traditional dinner.
Summer Youth Crew supervisor
Rebecca West and the Natural Re
sources' Youth Crew set up the site,
gathered ferns and vine and maple
for cooking. Tribal member Shonn
Leno and Jeff Kuust, both Natural
Resources staffers, kept the grass
watered down at the cooking site,
and Greg Robinson directed the
traditional style of cooking lamprey
at the side of a wood fire. He also
prepared a seafood soup, heated as
soups were heated back in the day,
with only hot rocks from the fire.
In addition, Robinson also brought
in a Chinookan-style wooden bowl
that he had carved. Sitting on the
table, the bowl held bright red
huckleberries and bright blueber
ries bathed in the evening's waning
light. A series of nesting baskets
and standalone baskets woven by
community Elder Shirley Norwest
and Tribal member Josephine In
graham added to the traditional
look of the dinner.
Public Affairs staffers Kristen
Ravia and Janele Gutierrez and
Planning and Grants staffer Janell
Haller, all Tribal members, pre
pared the fry bread.
The group effort on both sides of
the camera and along the sidelines
was made possible by Public Af
fairs Director Siobhan Taylor, who
organized, shopped and encouraged
everybody involved for days on end.
I ler son, Joe, a high school student,
pitched in on the seafood soup and
the shopping, and he kept the little
kids on site running around and out
of trouble.
Marlene Divina (Chippewa, Cree
and Assiniboine) and her husband,
Fernando, prepared enmns bulbs
in a nearly traditional way, for the
feast.
The bulbs were "wrapped in
maple leaves and ferns," which was
the traditional part, but owing to
lack of time, they went into the oven
overnight to slow cook rather than
among heated rocks in the ground
for many days.
The Divinas founded the for
mer FiddleHeads, a restaurant
featuring indiginous foods of the
Americas for contemporary palates
in Portland, and later were part
of the menu design team for the
Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe in the
Smithsonian's National Museum of
the American Indian on the mall in
Washington, D.C.
Today, they are back in Lake
Oswego with Terrace Kitchen
restaurant (www.terracekitchen.
com) serving seasonal Northwest
contemporary food.
Corwin would approve that they
try to keep within a 200-mile radius
for all the products they have on
their menu.
Tribal member CeCe Kneeland
and her daughter, Tribal member
Nakoosa Moreland, in traditional
dress for an interview with host
Corwin, nevertheless pitched in
beforehand by gutting the lamprey
for cooking. Kneeland also offered
a prayer before eating.
Kneeland remembered cleaning
lamprey when she was growing up.
She remembered how long she used
to work at it.
"You would have a lot of lamprey
to clean," she said.
While Tribal members still re
member when the lamprey provid
ed so much, those days are all but
gone. Still, Corwin and his crew,
with their visit to Willamette Falls
and Grand Rondo, have added big
voices and exceptional talents to
those remembering tradition, and
continuing to honor it.
The program will air Oct. 8. B