8
S moke S ignals
APRIL 15, 2015
Culture Committee invites people
to April 25 First Foods Celebration
The Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde Culture Committee
invites community members to
attend the First Foods Celebration
on Saturday, April 25, at Chachalu
Museum & Cultural Center, 8720
Grand Ronde Road.
The celebration begins at 10:30
a.m. and runs until a closing prayer.
The gathering is made possible
through a partnership with the
Land and Culture Department,
Youth and Adult Education pro-
grams, Youth Council, the Elders
Committee, iskam mfkhmfk haws
(the Grand Ronde Food Bank) and
Tribal Council, as well as communi-
ty Elders, youth and parents.
The First Foods Celebration will
officially welcome spring and the
return of abundant plants and
animals to the area. It will include
a family-style dinner honoring the
importance of food in the lives of
Tribal families.
Organizers said they hope that
they can inspire Tribal members
to think about food in old and new
ways, as stated in their slogan:
“Food is history. Food is life. Food
is medicine.”
“There are edible and medicinal
things all around us,” says Culture
Committee Secretary Sarah Ross.
“Many Tribal members have their
own family traditions and teach-
ings about the many uses of plants.
Some Tribal members want to learn
more about plants as medicine or
food. This is a good way to bring
our families together to share those
stories and experiences.”
This year’s event also marks the
first time the First Foods event will
be held at Chachalu.
Smoke Signals file photo
Zachary Bly places salmon on a plate for it to be served at the First Foods
Celebration held at the Tribal Community Center in April 2012. This year’s
First Foods Celebration will take place at Chachalu Tribal Museum & Cultural
Center on Saturday, April 25.
“The First Foods ceremony is just
what Chachalu is for. In addition
to a museum, the purpose of the
Cultural Center is for these sorts of
community gatherings,” says Land
and Culture Manager Jan Looking
Wolf Reibach.
The First Foods Ceremony has
been a long-standing tradition
sponsored by the Culture Com-
mittee. Past events have included
demonstrations of traditional food
preparation. Two years ago, fam-
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ilies were invited to crack acorns
and grind them with a mortar and
pestle to prepare an acorn mush
that they ate after it was cooked.
“That experience is something my
children still talk about,” says Ross.
“We want to offer this opportunity to
the community to come together with
the focus being something as simple
and yet hugely important as food.”
Acorn soup, or nupa, will be
served again this year.
“It’s important to introduce these
First Foods to people who may have
never even tasted them or eaten
them in the past. We are celebrating
the foods that our ancestors ate so
that they don’t go away, and so the
younger generations will know what
foods are traditional,” says Betty
Bly, Culture Committee chair.
Faye Smith, Culture Committee
member and Tribal Elder, holds
a Bachelor of Science degree in
Nutritional Science and spent 18
years working for the Women, In-
fants and Children program with
the Puyallup Tribe. She said that
many diseases can be prevented by
eating nutritional foods.
“Nutrition is one of the most
important things about life. It
would be nice to get the Tribe back
to being healthy by eating more
traditional foods. Food can be our
medicine,” Smith said.
In the future, Smith said she
would like to see more Tribal mem-
bers going out with youth or Elders
to collect wild harvested foods, as
well as see Tribal members learn
how to prepare and preserve them.
On the menu are a variety of wild
meats, fowl and fish including deer,
elk, rabbit, quail, turkey, duck,
salmon, eel, crab and shellfish.
Recipes including fruits, such as
huckleberries, strawberries and
blackberries, will be served, along
with acorns, hazelnuts and pine
nuts. Guests also will have the op-
portunity to taste camas, tarweed
and wild harvested spring greens.
“This celebration is a continua-
tion of our ancestral practices for
giving thanks for all that Creator
provides,” Ross said.
The Culture Committee hopes
to inspire Tribal members to learn
more about traditional foods going
into the new food gathering year.
For more information or to bring
food, contact Ross at 503-879-
2006. n
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