S moke S ignals
JUNE 1, 2016
9
First Foods Celebration thanks Mother Nature
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
The annual First Foods Celebra-
tion was held on Saturday, May 21,
at the Tribal Community Center
in Grand Ronde with the theme
“Food is History. Food is Life. Food
is Medicine.”
Culture Committee Secretary
Sarah Ross welcomed the mem-
bership to the annual event and
explained everything attendees
were about to eat.
“This is our First Foods celebra-
tion and it happens every spring,”
said Ross of the traditional cere-
mony. “It is welcoming in a new
gathering season, it’s being grateful
for the abundance of new plants
and the return of the animals and
everything around us. What we
are trying to do, and we began last
year, is incorporate more of our old
traditional foods.”
Tribal Council members Jon A.
George, Chris Mercier and Denise
Harvey joined as many as 100 people
to celebrate the foods of the Grand
Ronde culture. George and Mercier
were joined by Eric Bernando, Greg
Archuleta and Chris Rempel for the
drumming to open the event and
George offered the invocation.
“This day has been honored for all
of us,” said George, who recognized
the efforts of the Tribe’s Culture
Committee to organize the event.
“It’s great to see all of you today. It’s
wonderful to have our Elders here. I
remember when everyone took care
of everyone and we shared every-
thing. We may not have had much,
but we were such a rich community.”
Following George’s invocation,
Culture Committee Vice Chair
Marcus Gibbons blessed the spirit
plate and then performed a water
blessing ceremony that culminated
in everyone drinking water simul-
taneously.
“I just want to welcome everybody
here to our First Foods ceremony
and celebration,” said Gibbons. “To
me it’s a ceremony. It’s an honor
for me and a blessing for me to be
standing here. I don’t take any of
this stuff lightly.”
Gibbons recognized the people
who gathered, readied and pre-
pared food for the ceremony.
“Thank you for the time and ef-
fort you put into preparing for this
feast,” said Gibbons. “All of the
Brian Krehbiel, left, and Tribal Elder and Culture Committee member
Faye Smith make fry bread to be served at the Tribe’s annual First Foods
Celebration held at the Tribal Community Center on Saturday, May 21. The
event is organized by the Tribe’s Culture Committee.
things we are doing here today, a
lot of people don’t even realize what
goes into this.”
For example, Ross detailed on
Facebook recently the process for
making camas cakes. She said it
takes four hours of digging and
three days of cooking to get the
camas bulbs ready to make camas
cakes for the First Foods meal. Next
Ross spent a day burning, collecting
and roasting tarweed seeds, and a
day collecting, one day cracking, one
day grinding and ive days leeching
acorns for traditional acorn lour.
Ross, who is in her second year on
the Culture Committee, said she has
been learning and working with tra-
ditional plants and preparing tra-
ditional foods for her family for 10
years and was happy to share that
knowledge with the membership.
Gibbons held up a glass of water
and sang four verses of a water
blessing song. He said the song was
about connectedness.
“Water is the lifeblood of all liv-
ing things,” said Gibbons. “Every
step I take on Mother Earth is a
prayer. We are the connection be-
tween the voices of Earth and sky.
You are that connection between
the spiritual and the physical. All
these things connect us and make
us who we are.”
Gibbons then waited until every-
body was ready and the gathering
sipped their water together.
“I love you all,” said Gibbons. “We
are all related.”
The meal was served family style
and tables were loaded with bowls of
fresh salad greens each topped with
a cluster of raspberries and platters
full of smoked salmon, cheese and
crackers, and pitchers of fresh water.
Tribal Royalty dressed in their
regalia served Elders their meals
while others went through the line
to be served.
Among the items on the menu were
salmon, eel, venison. elk, bear, quail,
game hen, duck, turkey, rabbit, crab,
shellish, tarweed, acorn soup, camas
cakes, bitterroot, wild rice, mush-
rooms, nuts, berries, fry bread, jams
and huckleberry ice cream.
Ross made elderberry juice and ir
bow water for everyone to try. Food
items and drinks were arranged on a
table with a sign telling what the item
was in English and Chinuk Wawa.
Ross said elderberry juice could
be used a couple of different ways.
“Elderberries are high in an-
tioxidants and they are good for
preventing flus, colds and even
allergies,” said Ross. “This is kind
of a diluted version with just the
elderberries so that people can
enjoy it with their meal. We could
also make a thicker, richer syrup
that is used for illness.”
Ross said the ir bow water also
was very good for people.
“That one is a spring tonic,” said
Ross. “It wakes up the body from
the winter time. There are ir tips
in it, there are hawthorn leaves
and Nootka rose in there and all
those combinations jump start the
heart, gets circulation going, boosts
immune systems with vitamin C,
and the fir tips and Nootka rose
are good for cleansing and lavor.”
Ross said nettle tea and huck-
leberries are especially important
irst foods.
“Nettle tea is really good for
strengthening the body, strength-
ening the blood and helping our
spirit,” said Ross. “And huckleber-
ries are really important because it
is one of our primary irst foods. It’s
something we have eaten this way
since time immemorial.”
Gibbons said it is important to
be thankful and to recognize the
abundance of gifts provided by
Mother Earth.
“In order to give back for all the
blessings just say, ‘Thank you,’ ”
said Gibbons. “It’s that simple.”
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Culture Committee Vice Chair Marcus Gibbons, left, gives a welcome during
the Tribe’s annual First Foods Celebration held at the Tribal Community
Center on Saturday, May 21. Listening is Culture Committee Secretary Sarah
Ross, middle, and Tribal Council member Jon A. George. George is also Tribal
Council liaison to the committee.
Madison Ross tops camas cakes with blueberry sauce for the annual First
Foods Celebration held at the Tribal Community Center on Saturday, May 21.