12 S moke S ignals NOVEMBER 15, 2014 Tribal member to perform Nov. 20 Tribal member Anthony Hudson, a Portland artist and performer, will be staging a “cabaret spectacular” entitled “Carla Rossi Sings the End of the World” at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 N.E. Alberta St., Portland. Hudson received a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council to put on the show, which, he says, “marks a significant moment for my work and reaches further than ever before with what I want to achieve as an LGBT Native artist. Carla Rossi is a project I’ve been working on for four years, and I focused my thesis work around her as a way of talking about my ‘mixed’ identity as a half Native/half white and queer person.” The semi-one-woman cabaret will tell the story of two star-crossed lovers: Weimar Germany and contemporary America. The show will compare the whirling, progressive creativity and freedom of 1920s Berlin with America today via a piano-accompa- nied songbook of Berlin theater standards and dance support from cabaret girls The Dolly Pops. Rossi will guide the audience through this doomed romance with a winking eye and banter, asking what became of Weimar Berlin and could that happen to us? Tickets, at $15 in advance and $20 at the door, are available through the Alberta Rose Theatre’s box office at albertarosethe- atre.com. The show will be presented with American Sign Language inter- pretation and is intended for those 21 and older. n Are you pregnant or plan on getting pregnant? If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant and are eligible for the Skookum Health Assistance Program (SHAP), this is important information for you. If you do not have primary health insurance coverage and are preg- nant, you will need to apply for coverage through your state’s assistance program and provide documentation about your eligibility before claims will be paid by SHAP. Most states have special programs for pregnant women and children. Please contact Loretta Meneley, Certified Application Assister, for application assistance at 503-879-1359, or Tresa Mercier, Business Office manager, at 503-879-2008 or 800-775-0095. n Elders Bazaars scheduled Elders Bazaars will be held in November and December at Spirit Mountain Casino. The remaining schedule is Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14-15, at Spirit Mountain Casino, and Friday and Saturday, Dec. 12-13, also at Spirit Mountain Casino. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Tables cost $20 per day per table at the casino. To sign up for a table or tables, contact Elder Activity Assistant Dan Ham at the Elders Activity Center at 503-879-2233. n Val Grout’s Reunion set for Nov. 29 A Reunion for Tribal Elder Val Grout will be held beginning at noon Saturday, Nov. 29, in the Community Center. The potluck is for all relatives and friends. Attendees will eat around 1 p.m. Bring good stories and pictures to share. Grout served on Tribal Council for 14 years and still attends most Tribal Council meetings. For more information, call Sharon at 971-241-5800. n Diabetic Support Group to meet A Diabetic Support Group will meet at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, at the Tribal Community Center. A healthy meal will be served after the meeting. For more information, contact Community Health Manager Kari Culp at 503-879-2016 or kari.culp@grandronde.org. n ‘They’re better after a rain’ MUSHROOMS continued from front page said the mushrooms are growing all over the Reservation. “The committee has been wanting to do this for years,” said Lyon. “This year I said I’m going to do it.” He contacted Exeter to give the presentation and the idea sprouted to life. Lyon said he has been hunting mushrooms for 25 to 30 years and today he distinguishes edible from the merely distasteful and poison- ous through his own experience. And, after all these years, he says, he still uses a reference book. Al Miller, a member of the Vet- erans Special Event Board and also a past-president of the Salem Mushroom Society, also attended. Not everybody responds the same, even to edible mushrooms. “Line up 100 people,” said Exeter, “and some report an upset stomach while others find them good to eat. Take a small bite the first time you eat them,” he advised, “and see how you do.” Although most of the more than 14,000 varieties of mushrooms are edible, they are not easy to distin- guish. “Some of these are edible,” Exeter said, referring to a whole family of mushrooms. Distinctions he made came in the form of differences among caps and gills, stipes (or stems), colors orange to black and white. Some of them change color when they are touched. Squirrels eat some that people also consume and some that are poisonous to humans. Groups of them grow together, and some are parasites growing on hardwood trees, others on spongy, decaying wood. Mushroom names in- Photo by Michelle Alaimo cluded Chicken of the Ron Exeter, a botanist with the Bureau of Woods, Slippery Jacks, Land Management, was the instructor of the Poison Pax, Tube (also mushroom identification seminar held at the called Boletes), Club, Cor- al and Tooth fungi. Puff Elders Activity Center on Monday, Nov. 10. Balls, Cauliflower and and spores. Jelly fungi are edible, but Cauli- Tribal Elder Leonette Galligher flower get wormy and Puff Balls said the technical terms went right resemble a poisonous variety. The by her, but she enjoyed the overall only way to tell is to cut them in presentation. half, Exeter said. “It was interesting,” she said. There are slime molds that also “Tons of people in the U.S. eat are called Deer Puke. “They have them,” said Exeter, adding that peo- patches of yellow, and I guess ple do die from eating mushrooms. they look like deer puke,” said Over the past 35 years, an average Exeter. Some have the odor of fish of two to three people per year die or shrimp; some ooze a substance of mushroom poisoning in the Unit- called “latex” when cut, though not ed States, according to the North the kind of latex found in paint. American Mycological Association. Red or orange latex mushrooms are It is no wonder with the range edible, but other latex mushrooms of mushrooms out there. Along a may be inedible. few tables that stretched across Asked whether he is now ready the front of the lunch room, mush- to hunt mushrooms himself, Trib- rooms were everywhere. They were al Elder Duane Wheeler deferred. grouped according to family, and “No. I think I’ll buy mine at the some were edible, others were not. grocery store,” he said. Colors ranged from yellow and Galligher said she remembered that Pike Place Market near the wharf in Seattle has “tons of mush- rooms,” all in neat little sections. “I know they’re good,” she said, “because they picked them out.” Senior Services Cook Kevin Campbell said he has cooked reg- ular button mushrooms for many Elders’ lunches, but has neither hunted nor cooked the more exotic varieties at work. Asked if, follow- ing the presentation, he would cook these other varieties, he said, “Any time. If they want to pick them and bring them in, I’ll make them.” At home, he said, he sautés lob- ster and chanterelle mushrooms with peppers and other vegetables. They go on spaghetti or over ham- burgers, he said. Donn Grishaber said he has hunt- ed mushrooms a couple of times, bringing a book along. “They’re real interesting to me. They’re better after a rain.” “I didn’t realize there were so many so nearby,” said Galligher. Tribal members can obtain a free 30-day gathering permit from the Natural Resources Department to gather mushrooms on the Reser- vation. However, if they plan on selling the mushrooms, they must pay a $5 fee. The event was sponsored by Trib- al Council, the Fish and Wildlife Committee, and the Education and Land and Culture departments. In addition to the presentation, there were door prizes and dessert. n