Smoke Signals
8 NOVEMBER 1,2009
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Grand Ronde Tribe is a
presence in Portland
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
A dozen or more Grand Ronde
Tribal members and employees
played parts in a recent 2009 con
ference focusing on Tribal archives,
libraries and museums.
Called "Streams of Language,
Memory, and Lifeways," this third
conference on the subject was
hosted by the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reserva
tion and held in Portland on Oct.
20-22.
About 550 people from as far
away as Alaska and New Zealand
attended some 56 sessions plus
after-hours events.
Canadian First Nations and uni
versities had a large presence as did
Tribes from the Pacific Northwest.
Maoris from New Zealand pre
sented their cultural perspective
for collecting, storing and sharing
information.
The Grand Ronde Canoe Family
performed at an after-hours session
at the Oregon Historical Society.
Tribal Elder Kathryn Harrison,
an honored guest, delivered the
invocation to open the conference.
Junior Miss 3rand Ronde, Tribal
member Nakoooa Moroland, at
tended as Harrison's aide.
Tribal members David Lewis and
Jennifer O'Neal each participated
as presenters. Lewis is manager
of the Tribe's Cultural Resources
Department and O'Neal is head
archivist at the Smithsonian In
stitution's National Museum of the
American Indian on the National
Mall in Washington, D.C.
Tribal Elder Marion Mercier,
the Grand Ronde Tribe's librarian,
and Lewis served on the Confer
. ence Committee that planned the
event.
Tribal member CeCe Kneeland
made beadwork and Tribal member
Greg Archuleta teamed with fre
quent cultural resources contribu
tor Greg Robinson to make plates
as gifts for awardees at the event.
In a presentation titled. Through
the Tribal liens: Tribal and Univer
sity Collaboration in Archival Col
lections," Lewis joined Umatilla's
Tamastslikt Cultural Institute
Director Roberta Conner and Uni
versity of Oregon Special Collec
tions & University Archives head
James Fox.
Lewis described the "amazing
collection of stuff he and his team
working on the Southwest Oregon
Research Project uncovered during
three successive trips to archives
held in the nation's capital (1995
2006). By copying and indexing some
150,000 documents, and getting
this information out to Oregon
Tribes, Lewis and the team "re
stored this ethnic information to
the Tribes."
He called it a "reversal of the
anthropology" practiced by Euro
peans. They collected this same
r If f S I
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David Lewis, Tribal mnbr and manager of tha Triba't Cultural Rasourca
Dapartmant f paaks during his Through tha Tribal Lans: Tribal and University
Collaboration In Archival Collections" during tha Tribal Archives, Libraries and
Museums 2009 National Conference in Portland on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
information and kept it virtually
hidden from Tribes by storing it
back in Washington, D.C. And then,
bureaucratic hoops made it difficult
or impossible for Native peoples to
get access.
Fox said that the future of the
university's archives is now on the
Internet. The university archives,
he said, is making as many docu
ments as possible accessible via the
computer.
Connor said not to overlook what
are often the best sources of infor
mation the people who file it and
work with it.
"It is very important to have per
sonal relationships at the universi
ties," she said. "Some are retired,
but if you contact them, they still
will give you information that you
may not be able to get anyplace
else."
Tribal member Penny DeLoe,
Tribal archivist, picked up informa
tion about how to deal with water
damaged documents.
Tribal member Stephanie Wood,
a recent graduate in Anthropol
ogy at the University of Oregon,
attended. She currently works in
the Tribal Cultural Resources De
partment. Wood said she was making a spe
cial effort at the conference to make
new contacts, and was particularly
interested in a section about pre
serving oral traditions.
O'Neal participated in a presen
tation discussing new principles
drafted by the American Library
Association for protecting cultural
expressions like folklore, songs and
dances.
O'Neal's mother, Tribal Elder
Mart a Clifford, also was on hand.
Marion Mercier, Tribal Elder and
the Tribe's librarian, removes a
photo from a tub of water as she
learns how to recover wet materials
during the "Salvaging Collections:
What to do When Collections Get
Wet!" session of the Tribal Archives,
Libraries and Museums 2009
National Conference in Portland on
Tuesday, Oct. 20. Mercier served
on the Conference Committee that
planned the event.
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Clifford is currently earning a
Cultural Resources Management
certificate from South Puget Sound
Community College.
Tribal members April Campbell,
manager of the Tribe's Education
Division, and Wendy Weston, a UO
graduate in Museum Studies, at
tended. Lisa Watt, the Tribe's first
library staffer, also attended.
Phil Cash Cash (CayuseNez
Perce) presented a cache of infor
mation providing new insights
into Native sign language, as well
as trade languages beyond Chinuk
Wawa.
The work being done out there
in Indian Country is helping ev
eryone," said Lewis. "Part of that
is making resources in libraries
available to others so they can do
their own research.
The eight awardees at the con
ference are representative of the
best projects on-going out there
now."
Information about presenters and
presentations is available on the
conference Web site at httptrib
alconference.org D