AUGUST 15, 2013 Smoke Signals 7 Tiro be aids CDnemawa CemrDeftenry project Survey attempting to locate gravesites at Indian School site By Ron Karten Smoke Signals staff writer SALEM The first grave at Che mawa Cemetery was for Charles Lawrey, who died in 1868. Because Chemawa Indian School was not founded until 1886, this is one of many curiosities that Marsha Small (Northern Chey enne) has come across during her master's work in Native American studies at Montana State Univer sity in Bozeman. The most recent burial occurred in 1986 for Cecil Bremner. It appears that two sisters who are buried at Chemawa died on the same day, Small said. "Tuberculosis and Spanish in fluenza was rampant then," she adds. Her master's project is "Preser vation Of Sacred Sites and Sacred Places with Geo-Reference Data" and subtitled "A Voice for the Chil dren of Chemawa Cemetery." The goals are to identify as many of the more than 200 gravesites as pos sible, to clean up the cemetery and keep it that way into the seventh generation. At the moment, the cemetery's dried tan grasses are newly cut. Three gravesites are adorned with ageless American flags and a few others are remembered with faded and dried flowers. Plastic flowers are posted on the fencing around the cemetery. Almost 25 100-year-old Douglas fir trees in the cemetery are ap proaching maturity and will have to be watched, said Briece Edwards, Grand Ronde Tribal archaeolo gist. As the highest points in the area, the trees are susceptible to lightning and blow over. With roots going out as far as the branches, a blow over could disturb graves in the vicinity. Many, if not most, of the graves are for children and teachers at the school. "The voices of the children called to us," said Small. "It's for the children who may not have had a good crossing," said Edwards. The project is still in mid-stage, building up to a closing ceremony in fall 2014 for the children buried there. Small is working on the project in conjunction with cultural leaders at the Grand Ronde Tribe, the Con federated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Klamath Tribe, the Nuwuvi Nation (Paiute) and Chemawa In dian School. While the Grand Ronde Tribe is contributing to this project with staff time and equipment, Small is working as an intern in the Land and Culture Department. "It's an example of Tribes work ing together in a good way," said Small. She said that she could not have done it without the help of the Land and Culture staff. Grand Ronde Tribal Housing Authority The Tribal Housing Authority is out of Tribally funded down payment assistance at this time. Student Rental Assistance grant update The Tribal Housing Authority is happy to announce that the Stu dent Rental Assistance program will be reinstated effective Sept. 1 as anticipated. For students who were on the program when it was suspended, you will not need to submit a new application simply make sure you have sent Deborah Kroeker your grades from the last term and your schedule for the new term. If your classes start in August, you will not receive an August prorated assistance check. Your assistance will start effective Sept. 1. For students new to the SRA program, you will need to submit an application as soon as possible. They are available at the www. grtha.org along with instructions or you can pick them up at the Housing offices. There is a "30 day prior to the first day of school" application deadline. Because of timing issues, if your classes start in August, we will waive that requirement and hold to a "7 days prior to the first day of school" deadline. But again, that is only for students whose classes start in August. The rest of you still need to get completed applications to us 30 days before your first day of class. Please direct any questions to SRAgrandronde.org. ------ t t i - i " A " Photo by Michelle Alalmo From left, Melisa Chandler, Tribal compliance officer, Briece Edwards, Tribal archaeologist, and Marsha Small (Cheyenne) work together to create a measured drawing of Chemawa Cemetery in Salem on Wednesday, Aug. 7. Small is a graduate student working on her master's degree in Native American studies at Montana State University. Her master's project is titled "A Voice for the Children of Chemawa Cemetery." Her master's work has focused on the preservation of sacred sites and places. Her master's thesis, which will come out of this work, started when she put out word through her network that she was looking for a project "with heart." Input came from Siletz Culture Resource Director Robert Kennta and Grand Ronde Cultural Pro tection Program Manager Eirik Thorsgard. She had worked with both previously. Kennta suggested the Chemawa Cemetery project and Thorsgard agreed. "Chemawa is an educational center serving the Northwest," said Thorsgard, "and in the heart of our ceded lands. Of course, it is impor tant to us. The problem with Che mawa is we don't know how much knowledge of the site is lost." Some has been recorded at Che mawa Indian School's Facilities Department in a 1960 map. For the others, "marking the graves means we can protect them," Thorsgard said. The project has involved many staff members from Land and Cul ture, some of whom will use the Tribe's ground penetrating radar to search for objects below. "We're looking for disturbances of the soils," said Edwards. Needing different methodologies, Edwards and Melisa Chandler, a compliance technician in Land and Culture, also used 100-foot measur ing tapes to mark off the 208-foot square cemetery in one-yard incre ments. They then checked down the lines of the tape measures both by looking and, as one more example, by shuffling a foot along each line feeling for slumps in the ground surface or hidden grave stones. These indicate potential areas of concern that may correlate with in formation they get from the ground penetrating radar data. "We call them converging lines of evidence," Edwards said. "Half of the work is getting the data and half is post-processing, putting different sections together and evaluating." Small also is working with Che mawa Indian School's Facilities Supervisor Shaun Naranjo and Tim Pigsley, also from Facilities, who mowed the cemetery for this project. Naranjo also has given Small access to the 1960 map of the cemetery. She will correlate what she finds from the radar, the physical map drawn for this project and the 1960 map for confirmation or inconsistencies. Topology, the study of a land surface, also is recorded for what it may tell about the history of the site. "Nobody's going to dig up graves," said Small, "so this will be the best we've got." When she approaches the cem etery, Small comes with song. She also offers tobacco, burns sage and prays in the four directions and then down at the graves. "I want them to know that we are being respectful; we honor their presence. To get closure, we are doing this in a good way," Small said. Part of the project is the public information component some to news outlets and some through public presentations. One public presentation included Bureau of Indian Affairs Archaeologist B.J. Howarton in the audience. Small has spent $7,000 of her own money. Chemawa Indian School is providing staff support, but other wise is free of expenses because of Small's contribution. She is embarking on a fundrais ing drive to keep maintenance and security components viable. She is calling on the Chemawa family of teachers and students, today and in the past, as well as wider Indian Country to volunteer and help raise money. Small can be reached through the Grand Ronde Tribal Land and Culture Department. For as long as anybody can re member, the cemetery has been under Native American steward ship. With this latest project, the stewardship continues into the future.