10
S moke S ignals
AUGUST 1, 2018
Tribal member creates exhibit at museum
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
INDEPENDENCE — Tribal
member Stephanie Craig is a tra-
ditional ethnobotanist, traditional
basket weaver, serves on both the
TERO Commission and Powwow
Special Event Board, and works as
a Tribal specialist with the nonprof-
it Straub Environmental Center in
Salem.
Now, she is adding another ac-
complishment to her already im-
pressive resume: Exhibit curator
at the Independence Heritage
Museum.
Craig developed the “Nsayka íliʔi:
Our Land” exhibit, which highlights
the culture, tradition and lives of the
Kalapuya people. She was assisted
through the exhibit development
process by Siletz Cultural Resources
Director Robert Kentta.
Craig has a background in muse-
um studies and has served as an in-
tern at The Smithsonian Institute
as well as with the Umatilla Tribe
and the University of Oregon’s
Museum of Natural and Cultural
History. She also has helped curate
exhibits such as the Tribe’s “We Are
Still Here” at Mission Mill in Salem
and at the University of Oregon and
Lane County Historical Museum.
She earned a bachelor of arts de-
gree in cultural anthropology with
an emphasis on Northwest Native
American cultures, along with an
interdisciplinary master’s degree
comprised of coursework in cultural
anthropology, museum studies and
folklore studies.
“I feel that it is very important to
preserve our history,” Craig says.
“If you don't know where you are
from, you don’t know where you are
going. Before the settlers, there was
a thriving indigenous community
here.”
If you go
“Nsayka íliʔi: Our Land”
permanent exhibit
When: 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday
through Saturday.
Where: Independence Her-
itage Museum in the historic
First Baptist Church, 112 S.
Third St., Independence.
Cost: Free
More information: E-mail
orheritage@ci.independence.
or.us, call 503-838-4989 or
visit orheritage.org.
Craig says she wanted to curate
an exhibit at the Independence
museum because she had never
worked at one funded by a city and
was hoping to learn management
practices. The Tribe paid for her to
curate the exhibit, and the city of
Independence paid for the materi-
als and replicated artifacts created.
“I had some time off earlier this
year and wanted to check out this
museum,” she says. “The exhibit
they had before this one was a
little outdated. There was an old
case that mostly had pottery from
New Mexico and pictures from my
husband’s people in Umatilla.”
Craig met with Shannon Cock-
ayne, museum assistant, in Feb-
ruary to brainstorm what the
exhibit would include. The two
decided to feature information
panels on pre-contact, settlement,
stolen lands and Tribal resilience.
Additionally, Craig worked with
Kentta to create reproductions of
traditional tools and crafts to in-
clude in the exhibit.
Craig also included information
about the camas plant, a staple of
the Kalapuya diet. She took photos
Youth Archery Range
Aug. 18, 2018
Come test your skills with a
9 a.m. —1 p.m.
bow & arrow at this free event.
Fort Yamhill
All equipment will be provided.
State Heritage Area
ODFW Instructors onsite.
Parent/Guardian required.
Fort Yamhill State Heritage Area
For more information matt.huerter@oregon.gov
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Stephanie Craig designed and installed a Native American exhibit titled
“Nsayka íliʔi: Our Land” at the Heritage Museum in Independence. Craig is a
Tribal member and an intern at the museum.
of camas flowers growing locally,
and those images are in the back-
ground of the informational panels.
The exhibit was completed in
June. There will be a grand open-
ing in November to coincide with
Native American History Month.
Grand Ronde Tribal Elder Don
Day helped authenticate the items
in the old case to determine which
should stay and which should go.
Before creating the new exhibit,
Craig and Cockayne had to choose
their focus.
“We looked at the different eras
in Indian history and broke them
down in order to capture how these
acts shaped modern Indian culture,”
Cockayne says. “A lot of these muse-
ums gloss over what happened. It’s
not a happy story, but we wanted to
be as truthful as possible and also
show Tribal resilience.”
They decided to include Chinuk
Wawa in the exhibit’s name to re-
flect that Tribal people still have a
thriving culture.
“Many of us do not look Tribal,
but we are still here and some of
us still partake in traditions,” Craig
says. “If we don’t keep that, who
are we?”
Craig’s Tribal heritage comes
from her mother, Terri Davidson
Wood. Her grandparents are Dave
Davidson and Opal May Mercier
Davidson. Her great-grandparents
are Pearl Hudson Mercier and
Harry Mercier. Her father, Monte
Wood, is descended from early Or-
egon Trail settlers.
“I grew up hearing Chinuk Wawa,”
she says. “The Elders would speak
it when they didn’t want us to know
what they were saying.”
Although the exhibit is complete
for now, Craig says she plans on
continuing to add to it.
“You’re never really done with
an exhibit like this,” Craig says.
“Museums cannot be stagnant. Ev-
erything evolves and it is important
to reflect that. We worked hard to
focus on Indian practices, show how
the government tried to get rid of
us and how we are still here today.”
Cockayne described Craig’s work
on the exhibit as invaluable.
“The community feedback on this
has been great,” Cockayne says. “I
think it has made people realize
they share this land and there was
a people who were here long before
us. ... Our credibility as a museum
is much stronger when we say we
worked with a Tribal member.”
When the exhibit opened in June,
Craig described the feeling of see-
ing it come to fruition as “amazing.”
“When you see something that
you put so much energy and effort
into, it’s awesome,” she says. “To be
able to tell a story through our eyes
is very important.”