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NOVEMBER 1, 2019
13
Photos by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Tribal member Nakoosa Moreland gives the opening prayer and then spoke
about environmental justice during Salem’s second annual Indigenous
Peoples Day held on the steps of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, Oct.
14. The event featured Native American speakers, various Native American
dancers and drumming, food, a raffle and children’s activities. The event also
sought to acknowledge, honor and unite the first peoples of America in “a
consistent manner by seeking and speaking truth ... to educate and engage the
community.”
Indigenous celebration
Tribal members and
Facilities housekeepers
Dorene Gillespie,left,
and Sydney Clark
participate in a
welcome dance.
Tribal Elder and traditional dancer Deitz Peters dances during
Salem’s second annual Indigenous Peoples Day held on the steps
of the Oregon State Capitol.
Books are available free to teachers
BOOKS continued
from front page
Jones, the Tribe’s curriculum
specialist, recently published a
series of children’s books that focus
specifically on Grand Ronde stories
that have been passed down by oral
traditions through the generations.
“As with most Native-based cur-
ricula, children’s books about Tribal
practices, histories and Tribal sto-
ries are very far and few between
or don’t exist at all,” she says.
When Jones began her position in
2014, a primary goal was to create
more Native American curriculum
and teach youth about local Tribes.
In 2016, the Tribe’s language pro-
gram received an Administration
for Native Americans grant to de-
velop kindergarten through third-
grade curriculum in Chinuk Wawa.
Jones began working with Judith
Fernandes, a language teaching
consultant at the Northwest Indian
Language Institute.
“While writing a unit on Pacific
lamprey, Judith and I thought
how great it would be if we created
a story about a Tribal family who
went to Willamette Falls to harvest
lamprey,” Jones says.
She began researching lamprey
and the harvesting process, met
with a Tribal biologist to ask ques-
tions and with Cultural Resources
staff to ensure the story line includ-
ed accurate information.
Then, Jones and Fernandes con-
tacted Crystal Starr Szczepanski,
then a Chinuk language specialist
who now works in Cultural Re-
sources.
“She is an incredibly talented
artist, part of our community,
worked in the language program at
the time and is an Alaska Native,”
Jones says. “We knew that she
would depict the family in the story
and the illustrations in a culturally
appropriate way. Our young people
would finally have a story where
they saw themselves … one they
could identify with.”
Fernandes has been working with
the Tribe for more than 16 years
and served as curriculum creator
before Jones.
“We cranked out as many picture
stories as possible, but they were
much less professional looking,”
Fernandes says. “It was urgent to
create a literature base for children
in the immersion program.”
Fernandes adds that a problem
many Tribes struggle with is con-
verting oral storytelling to book
form.
“The hardest part is to come up
with the illustrations,” she says. “It’s
not easy to crank out drawings. Crys-
tal has taken a full year on some of
them. The children absolutely need
the pictorial aspect to understand
what is being read to them.”
After that book was finished, the
trio created other books to accompa-
ny the curriculum. First was a story
called “Who Am I?” which shows
glimpses of a Pacific lamprey in its
habitat. Then, students use their
investigative skills to guess what
the creature is.
“This book helps introduce stu-
dents to Pacific lamprey and begins
the lamprey unit,” Jones says. “We
also created books that are tradi-
tional Grand Ronde stories, such
as ‘Mulak Man’ and ‘Coyote and the
Fish Trap.’ ”
With the passage of Senate Bill
13, which directed the Oregon
Department of Education to de-
velop kindergarten through 12th
grade Tribal history curriculum
focused on Oregon’s nine federally
recognized Tribes, each Tribe also
received funding to develop its own
curriculum.
“With those funds we took the
opportunity to create another book
based on a Grand Ronde traditional
story called ‘Salmon and the Eel,’”
Jones says. “I called on Crystal
again for those illustrations and
she worked her magic, which re-
sulted in another beautiful book.”
The books are available free to
teachers and currently are being
used in the Tribe’s K-3 Immersion
Program, as well as local schools.
However, due to high demand,
Jones is unable to supply class-
rooms with sets. There are also
copies of the books in the Tribal
Library.
“We distributed a copy of each
book to educators who attended
the 2019 Education Summit and
we had educators from all over the
state attend,” Jones says. “Now
that Senate Bill 13 is getting ready
to roll out, I have a long list of
requests from teachers for books
coming my way over the last few
months.”
Plans for more books are in the
works, but topics are undecided at
this point.
“We hope to continue the work
and create (more) children’s books
about Grand Ronde stories, histo-
ries and practices to give (them)
books they see themselves in and
can identify with,” Jones says.