16
S MOKE S IGNALS
FEBRUARY 1, 2015
Land & Culture Corner
Classes
Class descriptions and instructional videos are available on our webpage at http://www.grandronde.org/culture.
For additional information contact Flicka Lucero, Cultural Education Specialist at 503-879-2268.
Grand Ronde Classes
Portland Classes
Chinuk Wawa
First year: Mondays, 4:00 - 5:30 pm, Chachalu
Tuesdays, Noon - 1:00 pm, Chachalu
Second year: Mondays, 4:00 - 5:30 pm, Chachalu
Lifeways
February 2 and 9, 3:00 - 7:00 pm, CTGR Portland Office
Dancing & Drumming
Tuesdays, 4:00 - 5:00 pm, CTGR Youth Ed, Covered Area
Beading
Thursdays, 4:00 - 7:00 pm, Chachalu
Print Block Making Series
February 23 and March 2, 9, 16, 23, & 30, 3:00 - 7:00 pm, CTGR
Portland Office
Beading
February 10 and 24, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, CTGR Portland Office
CTGR Education, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347
Chachalu, 8720 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347
Print Block making provides an opportunity to learn some Native Art design and
basic carving skills. Participants will use the print blocks to make prints and cards
with natural and contemporary pigments. On-going projects with advanced carving,
Native Art design and basketry tracks.
CTGR Portland Office, 4445 SW Barbur Boulevard, Portland, OR 97239
Instructional Videos
Basket Making, Drum Making, Beading and
Clap Stick Making (coming soon) available at
http://www.grandronde.org/culture/culture-class-videos
Note:
Enrolled Grand Ronde Tribal Members: No charge for classes or
materials.
For all other persons: No charge to attend the classes. Costs for
materials, if applicable, will be reimbursed to the Tribe.
Eugene Classes
Beading
February 4 and 18, 3:00 - 7:00 pm, Lamb Cottage
Early Traditional Foods
February 21, 1:00 - 5:00 pm, West Eugene Wetlands
This class will explore the West Eugene Wetlands to discover some of the early
traditional foods that may be available. These include the early sprouting camas, tupa
(cow parsnip), horsetail, salmonberry sprouts, nettle, etc. The class will focus on
identification of the early plants used for both foods and basketry.
Lamb Cottage (located in Skinner Butte Park), 101 Cheshire Road, Eugene, OR 97401
West Eugene Wetlands, 451 W. Danebo, Eugene, OR 97402
Open Monday through Friday
Gallery Hours:
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
(open through lunch hour)
To make a donation or for additional information please visit www.grandronde.org/chachalu-museum
Camas
Staple Food and Symbol of Renewal
Every spring in Grand Ronde and throughout the Tribe’s homelands, we can witness the deep blue
blossoms of the lily known in Chinuk Wawa as “lakamas,” to scientists as Camassia quamash, and
by its English common name camas. Camas flowers are strikingly beautiful, either alone or in
large fields where the mass of blue is sometimes mistaken for an azure lake. But what makes camas
one of our most culturally important plants is the nutritious bulb, which has provided sustenance
and wealth to the Tribe and to its antecedent tribes and bands since time immemorial.
Camas thrives in areas of full sunlight such as prairies or savannas, especially after disturbance.
Fire purifies the soil, releases nutrients and controls competing (often invasive) vegetation. Because
camas comes back strong after a fire, it is a symbol of renewal and regrowth. Much as the Tribal
people have renewed themselves after tragic injustices such as the Trail of Tears and Termination,
camas returns after traumatic disturbance to the landscape. This is why the camas plant and a traditional camas digging stick are
integral parts of the logo for Chachalu: Tribal Museum and Cultural Center which can be seen above.
For every single member tribe of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, camas has been an extremely important staple food. The
main source of its high nutrient value is a sugar called inulin, which is neither very digestible nor palatable in its natural state. When
slow-cooked, however, inulin breaks down into its component sugars, giving cooked camas a flavor some say is reminiscent of a baked
pear.
Traditionally camas is cooked in large earth ovens. Fire-heated rocks are placed in the oven and then lined with leaves of skunk
cabbage, maple or ash. The raw camas bulbs are placed on the leaves, then covered with another layer of leaves and then earth. Upon
retrieval from the oven one to three days later, the camas could be eaten immediately, dried for later use, or pressed into cakes. These
cakes were historically highly valued as a portable food that could be easily stored for the winter or carried while traveling; they were
made and traded extensively by our bands of the Chinook, Kalapuya and Molalla
people, and used by all of the more than 27 tribes and bands that make up the
Tribe.
Camas is still very important to Tribal people today. While the species itself is not
considered endangered, many of its native habitats are indeed imperiled, mainly
due to development and invasive species. The Tribe’s Land and Culture
Department and Natural Resources Department are working to protect camas
and to restore it in places like the Tribe’s Tyee Reserve near Tribal Housing in
Grand Ronde.
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Land and Culture Department
Chachalu: Tribal Museum and Cultural Center
8720 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347
Phone: 503-879-2226 Fax: 503-879-2126 E-mail: landandculture@grandronde.org
Page created by the Land and Culture Department