S moke S ignals
NOVEMBER 1, 2018
ttracts 250
Several hundred people attended the Grand Ronde History & Culture Summit held in the Tribal gym on Wednesday,
Oct. 24. The summit continued through Thursday at the gym and Chachalu Tribal Museum & Cultural Center.
languages of indigenous peoples
and published several books on the
subject. He was known for his ex-
pertise in Native American customs
and languages, and participated
in numerous treaty negotiations
between the U.S. government and
Tribes, including serving on the
Willamette Valley Treaty Commis-
sion of 1851.
Most well-known in the Grand
Ronde area was the Rev. Robert
W. Summers of McMinnville, who
traveled annually to the Reserva-
tion between 1873-82 and collect-
ed thousands of objects of Tribal
culture. Until recently, those re-
mained hidden away from public
view at the British Museum.
After almost 20 years of pursu-
ing the collection’s return, Tribal
collections staff received the green
light for a loan. The “Rise of the
Collectors” exhibit at Chachalu
features 16 items from the Sum-
mers Collection. A return of the
entire collection would take an act
of the British Parliament
to accomplish.
“Summers had great
interest in Native Amer-
ican peoples, but he was
also very nosy and would
push himself into peoples’
homes,” Beckham said.
Summers also took
advantage of the Grand
Ronde peoples’ poverty
by convincing them to sell
or trade the artifacts and
heirlooms in order to feed
their families.
The Chachalu exhibi-
tion is the first time any
of the collection has been
displayed publicly.
“These artifacts have
never been exhibited any-
where else,” Beckham
said. “The Summers Col-
lection is very extensive
and we hope in future years more
loan objects will be coming.”
Other Wednesday morning pre-
sentations included speakers on
Tribal landscape burning practic-
es, culturally important plants,
and the enduring legacy of Native
Americans in the post-industrial
landscape of Willamette Falls.
Although industrial development
in the 19th and 20th centuries
destroyed almost all archeological
evidence of the Native American
fishery and regional trade center
at the falls, an excavation of the
historic Oregon City Woolen Mill in
2015 uncovered stone tools and oth-
er belongings of the first residents
of the falls. Carbon dating showed
these artifacts to be 1,300 to 1,400
years old.
The excavation was led by Heri-
tage Research Associates archeolo-
gist Rick Minor.
“I had a lot of confidence that
there would be archeology on this
property and we found it,” Minor
said. “People don’t know this histo-
ry because it has been blocked out
by industrial use.”
Wednesday afternoon sessions
surveyed Tribal lifeways in early
education, media in cultural iden-
tify, first foods, an archeology field
school overview, as well as weaving,
beading and a Chachalu tour.
A dinner at achaf-hammi was
held Wednesday evening.
Henry Zenk, a linguistic con-
sultant for the Tribe and author
of “Chinuk Wawa as Our Elders
Teach Us to Speak It,” spoke about
indigenous place names of the
Grand Ronde region on Thursday.
Zenk said that the Tribes that
signed treaties leading up to the
founding of the Grand Ronde Res-
ervation spoke eight distinct indig-
enous languages, which all came
with geographic naming. Most of
this knowledge was lost after the
forced relocation to Grand Ronde,
with the exception of the Yamhills
and Tualatins, speakers of the
13
Northern Kalapuya language.
The language is represented
by the earliest extensive linguis-
tic record by Albert Gatschet, a
government linguist who visited
the reservation for two months in
1877. He wrote down hundreds of
Northern Kalapuya names, which
included 26 names from Grand
Ronde and the surrounding area.
“We are fortunate to have as
much as we do on the Northern Ka-
lapuya,” Zenk said. “With naming
in an oral culture, you don’t have a
map with fixed points that is good
for all times.”
Among the names that endure
today is Chachalu, which means
“place of burnt timber.” Zenk said
this was likely due to monumental
forest fires in the Coast Range.
Other Thursday sessions dis-
cussed oral literature, digitizing the
Summers collection, Marys Peak
ethnography and a presentation
from Leah Golubchick, internship
coordinator with the American
Museum of Natural History in New
York City.
She spoke about the summer
Grand Ronde Youth Internship and
the Willamette Meteorite, known
as Tomanowos.
The Tribe and museum have had
an agreement since 2000, which
keeps Tomanowos in the museum
as long as it provides annual cere-
monial access to Tribal members,
as well as acknowledgement of the
meteorite’s religious importance.
Every year, the museum clos-
es early one day to allow for the
Tribal ceremony. Additionally, the
museum established an internship
program that allows young Tribal
members to work at the museum
for three weeks every summer,
learning about Tomanowos and
living in New York City.
“The internship with Grand
Ronde is one of the most important
things we do because it is extremely
unique,” Golubchick said. “It does
everything we try to teach in a
three-week block. … The interns
do an amazing job.”
Some of the final presenta-
tions were delivered by Tribal
Deputy Press Secretary Sara
Thompson, who discussed the
use of multimedia and the In-
ternet to get the Tribe’s stories
out to a diverse audience, and
Tribal Geographic Information
System Coordinator Alex Drake.
The summit wrapped up
after 4 p.m. Thursday with
closing remarks from Cultural
Resources Department Manag-
er David Harrelson.
University of Oregon Professor
Rick Minor talks about
Willamette Falls before Native
contact with settlers and
exlorers during the Grand
Ronde History & Culture
Summit held in the Tribal gym
on Wednesday, Oct. 24.