Smoke Signals 9
NOVEMBER 1,2009
Culture Committee holds enrichment program
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Photo by Ron Karten
Tribal member Dakota Ross, 8, works on the stitching for a medicine bag. His
mother, Tribal member Sarah, is helping, out of sight of the camera.
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
The Culture Committee, led by
Tribal Elder Kathleen Provost, has
been stitching together a cultural
enrichment program for Tribal
members and the community for
some time.
"The idea had been in process
since Pat Allen was chair of Cul
ture Committee," said Tribal Elder
and Culture Committee Vice Chair
Betty Bly. "We've talked about it for
a long, long time. The plan was to
do this at every change of season."
"We call it a self-enhancement
encampment to prepare for winter,"
Provost said.
Finally, on the weekend of Oct.
16-18, they had the tents and the
teepees, the cattails and the mate
rials for medicine bags all brought
together, and everything cooper
ated except the weather.
Provost's husband, lifelong com
munity member Don Hendricks,
called the rain, "All kinds of beauti
ful medicine coming out of the sky."
In the end, 77 people, 21 Tribal
members, had come and gone over
the three-day weekend.
Saturday morning, it was light
ning and thunder, but by afternoon,
about a dozen adults and children
had convened at the Tribally-owned
Bailey House to make medicine
bags and weave coasters and small
mats out of cattails. '
Community member Misty Thors
gard "gathered the cattails from
right in this area," said Provost.
Tribal member Madeline Ain
sworth, 8, held up her medicine
bag and described what she learned
making it: "Cool, awesome. I deco
rated it, beaded it, put markers
on it."
"She learned that needles hurt,"
said her mother, Tribal member
Shawn Hostler.
"You put in it something close to
your heart," said Tribal member
and Junior Miss Grand Ronde Na
koosa Moreland.
"You put something secret in it,",
said Ainsworth, "and bring it to a
secret land."
Tribal members Sarah Ross and
her children, 8-year-old Dakota
and 7-year-old Madison, also made
medicine bags in the afternoon.
Nakoosa's mother, Tribal member
CeCe Kneeland, also was on hand
to teach the stitches involved.
It wasn't the crowd that the Cul
ture Committee had envisioned,
but it was a cultural afternoon, for
mal enough to learn about cattails
and medicine bags and informal
enough to still run with a big black
dog named Chopper all around the
house.
The centerpiece of the weekend
for Provost was the attendance of
Gerald Primeaux (Yankton Sioux),
who came out from Portland as he
has for cultural events over the last
four years.
Primeaux, raised traditionally in
South Dakota, is a member of the
Wisdom of the Elders, an award
winning musician and he speaks
in many venues about Native cul
ture. He talked about ceremonies
and taking time out "to look in the
air, to see the four directions," he
said.
"We pray for the Grand Ronde
people to go back to the traditional
ways," said Provost.
"The first step in healing our
selves," said Primeaux's compan
ion, Maura St. Martin (Cowlitz),
"is praying for our ancestors." St.
Martin has ancestors who died here
in Grand Ronde.
"I think of it," said Primeaux, "as
kind of like lighting the fire."
There is a sweat lodge behind the
Bailey House, and many partici
pated during the weekend.
The rains came and went Sat
urday morning, and the sun came
out. D
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