Smoke Signals 7
MARCH 1,2011
Chinuk Wawa classes offered
The Tribal Cultural Education Department offers adult Chinuk Wawa
language classes from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday in Room
207 of the Tribal Education Building. Language classes can be taken for
college credit or for fun.
For more information, contact Kathy Cole at 503-879-2249 or 503-437-4599.
D
Elder's bingo changes days
Bingo at the Elders' Activity Center has been moved to the sec
ond and fourth Fridays of the month instead of the first and third
Fridays.
Potluck starts at 6 p.m. and bingo starts at 6:30 p.m. P
TiroIbaD CoiairaciiD pirwiidledl $1Q)C(ffir project!:
CANOE continued
from front page
and Grand Ronde's Cultural Re
sources Manager David Lewis,
also a Tribal member, led to the
idea of a Native canoe exhibit now
under way.
The river canoe seemed like a
good idea, Lewis said, not only
because it has not been seen in
the Northwest in so long, but also
because once the exhibit ends, the
Tribe will have a canoe suitable for
traveling the smaller waterways on
the reservation.
Tribal Council supported the ex
hibit last year, Lewis said, and this
year the Council provided $10,000
for the $30,000 project.
"We're building a canoe and a
tradition that the Tribe will use in
the years ahead," said Lewis.
Not only will the canoe be a
stationary exhibit at the Salem
museum, but the group plans to
leave the texturing at the end of the
process for a live demonstration.
The river canoe is being built in
the Kalapuya or Willamette River
style, said Tribal member Bobby
Mercier, Language and Cultural
specialist for the Tribe.
"Similar style canoes were found
all the way down to northern Cali
fornia," he said.
The design for this canoe comes
from drawings of this style of ca
noe last seen at Willamette Falls
in 1831.
"They used horses after that,"
said Mercier.
In January, Tribal Elder and
Site Protection Specialist Don Day
selected the cedar log for the river
canoe. The maintenance crew, in
cluding Tribal members Marcus
Gibbons and Gregg Leno along
with community member Kyle
Towner (Siletz), brought it over
to the shed on Hebo Road. They
. L ft
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Brian Krehbiel, Tribal Cultural Education Specialist and Tribal mimbtr, checks tha fitting of a plug ha's making for a
crack in tha cadar rivar canoa as ha works on it In a staal shad behind tha Tribe's Recovery House In Grand Ronde on
Tuesday, Fab. 22.
handled the heavy lifting with their
equipment.
Day then brought in the wedges
and the expertise with which the
group divided the log in two. Tribal
members Jeff Mercier, David Har
relson, Krehbiel and Lewis all
helped with the splitting.
Among others who have helped
with the project are Tribal Elder
Bob Watson, an accomplished tra
ditional woodworker whose oars
hang in the Tribal Housing Author
itybuilding. His work is shown
widely and well regarded.
Community member Darrell
Pepper, another accomplished
woodworker, said he "turned some
plugs" to fill in knot holes in the
canoe body.
"If I could do something worth
while," he joked, "I would."
Tribal member Travis Mercier,
Richard Sohappy (Yakama) and
Tribal Elder Dolores Parmenter
also pitched in on the carving.
Contributors brought their own
tools, lent their tools to the project
and the group purchased some very
authentic and rare tools from a
source they are keeping secret for
the time being. Among those are
a shipwright adze and big chisels
called slicks.
Grand opening for the exhibit is
Friday, April 8. Jonathan King,
Ph.D., Keeper of the Department of
Africa, Indian Ocean and Americas
at the British Museum, is expected
to speak on his work about Ameri
can Northwest coast peoples, ac
cording to Lewis.
On the following Tuesday, April
12, the texturing demonstrations
are slated to begin. D
Bobby Mercier, Tribal Language and Cultural Specialist
and Tribal member, uses a curved draw knife to carve the
cedar river canoe on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
Some tools, including shipwright adzes and draw
knives, that have been used to carve the cedar river
canoe lay on it in the steel shed that it's being carved in.
Photo courtesy of the Cultural Resources Department
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