A16
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Totem
Continued from Page A1
Driving down Main Street
from the east, the totem pole
is hidden behind the impos-
ing bulk of the Grant County
Ranch and Rodeo Museum.
Coming from the west, the
view is partially obscured by
a telephone pole.
And why is there a totem
pole in John Day at all?
Grant County doesn’t have
much of a Native Ameri-
can presence these days —
according to the 2020 census,
only 1.7% of the county’s resi-
dents identify as Native Amer-
ican or Alaska Native.
Perhaps more to the point,
Oregon tribes didn’t carve
totem poles. That was some-
thing the coastal tribes of
what is now Washington, Brit-
ish Columbia and Southeast
Alaska were known for.
So what’s it doing here?
The answer to that question
comes back to Ralph White.
Mountain Man
Ralph White died on Jan.
28, 2018, at the age of 79.
In life, by all accounts, he
was a colorful character.
He wore a bushy beard and a
bearclaw necklace, and he called
himself the Mountain Man.
According to an article by
C.J. Gish in the July 20, 1995,
edition of the Blue Mountain
Eagle, he made his living for
many years as a chainsaw art-
ist. White had a love for the
Old West and Native Ameri-
can art forms — and a knack for
turning tree trunks into animal
fi gures.
“My saw is like an instru-
ment, like a banjo or guitar, and
it’s music to my ears,” he told
the newspaper. “When I look
at a log, I know it’s going to be
an eagle or a fi sh. They’re there
and I just have to release them.”
His biggest production to
date was a carved entryway
for the Baker City Truck Cor-
ral, which featured two 25-foot
poles supporting a 60-foot
crossbeam, the article said, but
he planned to top that with the
Bennett Hall/Blue Mountain Eagle
Bennett Hall/Blue Mountain Eagle
The plaque at the base of the John Day totem pole.
John Day totem pole — at 50
feet tall, it would be the biggest
in Oregon.
The article doesn’t say any-
thing about the motivation for
the totem pole project other than
to mention it was being carved
for the Strawberry Wilderness
Fine Art Gallery, a business that
no longer exists. The only other
record of it in the newspaper’s
fi les from that time is a photo
of the fi nished pole lying on the
side of Dayton Street, about to
be hoisted into place by a crane.
Margot Heiniger-White’s
memories of the pole’s carving
have faded a bit with the years.
In an interview with the
newspaper, she remembered
that there had been some sort
of an arrangement with a man
who owned a store to place the
totem pole near his business
because “the land was free.”
She couldn’t remember the
man’s last name but thought his
fi rst name might have been Ray.
And she couldn’t remember the
name of the business.
But some of her recollec-
tions are crystal-clear, even 26
years after the fact.
She remembers the bright
glow of the tamarack after
Ralph White fi nished carving it.
“It was the most beauti-
ful wood you have ever seen,”
she said, eyes shining with
the memory. “It should have
been spar-varnished at the time
to preserve the color, but it
wasn’t.”
And she remembers exactly
why her husband carved it.
“He carved it as a tribute to
Chief Raymond Burke.”
Personal connection
Raymond “Popcorn” Burke
died on June 27, 2006.
In 1995 he was the chief of
the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
which lies between Pendleton
and La Grande and is home to
the Umatilla, Walla Walla and
Cayuse nations.
And he was Ralph White’s
friend.
As Heiniger-White remem-
bers it, her husband had a gen-
uine affi nity for Native Ameri-
can culture and traditions that
was refl ected in his art. And
he wanted to do something to
honor his friend.
“He had such a deep respect
for the Native American people
and respect for Chief Raymond
Burke.”
An article that appeared in
the Dec. 3, 1995, Seattle Times
fi lls in some more blank spots in
the totem pole’s story.
Written by Carol Command
for Pendleton’s East Oregonian
newspaper, the article says the
pole had its genesis as a promo-
tional gimmick.
As Command tells the tale,
Ray Potter, owner of the Straw-
berry Wilderness Fine Art Gal-
lery, was looking for some-
thing to attract customers to the
gallery’s new location just off
The John Day totem pole can
be hard for passing motorists
to see.
Main Street in John Day, and
he asked his artist friend Ralph
White for advice.
White’s suggestion: “A
totem pole; it stops ’em every
time.”
Once the idea was hatched,
several things came together
neatly to make it a reality: A
local logger provided the mas-
sive tamarack trunk, the local
Ford dealership provided the
land and the local electric utility
agreed to set the nine-ton pole
in place — all at no cost.
The story goes on to talk
about the historical connection
between the people of the Con-
federated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation and the John
Day area — as remembered by
Chief Raymond Burke. As a
boy in the 1930s, Burke recalled
bringing his grandmother and
other female elders to the area,
which he said had served for
more than a century as a place
for tribes from throughout the
region to gather for trade.
“Burke honored White and
Potter with Indian names, and
the carving of the pole and its
blessing ceremony drew many
supporters,” the article states.
“To further sanction the event,
the three friends and the town
fathers smoked a pipe beside the
ancient tamarack’s new home.”
Making history
A plaque at the base of the
pole commemorates the event.
“Erected August 21, 1995,”
Police
Next chapter
In
December,
Heini-
ger-White took her concerns
about the totem pole to John
Day’s current mayor, Ron
Lundbom. He heard her out,
then he went to see for himself
— and found that he agreed
with her.
“It needs something done,”
he said. “I stopped by and
looked at it, and it defi nitely
has seen its better days.”
Lundbom brought the mat-
ter up at a City Council meet-
ing, and the consensus was
that the city should pay to have
the pole cleaned up and sealed
with oil or varnish. The mayor
Bill
Continued from Page A1
with a proposal and take it to
Grant County’s attorney to
present to the city of John
Day.
At the Wednesday, Feb.
16, session of the Grant
County Court, the topic of
how to provide the level of
service the city of John Day
was accustomed to came up.
County
Commissioner
Jim Hamsher, who is also
Prairie City’s mayor, said that
his city disbanded its police
department many years ago
and has had a contract with
the county to pay for policing.
Hamsher said Prairie City
has not been able to fund
that contract since the start
of this fi scal year on July 1
due to budget constraints. He
said it is not like other cities
in the county are paying for
policing and that he hopes
his community can start pay-
ing for policing again in the
future.
Rookstool, who was in
attendance at the meeting,
said her chief concern was
making sure the residents of
John Day had a level of pro-
tection comparable to what
it reads. “This totem pole is a
symbol of friendship and peace
from all of Grant County to
Raymond Burke and all of the
Umatilla-Walla Walla-Cayuse
Tribe who lived here before us.”
Chris Labhart remembers
that day. He was mayor at the
time, and he was one of the hon-
ored guests in attendance at the
blessing ceremony.
The intersection was closed
to traffi c for the occasion, he
said, and the weather was per-
fect. He remembers tribal mem-
bers in ceremonial regalia, and
Native American drummers
playing their instruments. Sev-
eral people spoke, including
a tribal historian who talked
about his people’s traditional
connection to John Day.
After that, a dozen or more
people got up and stood in a cir-
cle, including Labhart, White,
Burke and a number of tribal
members.
“We passed a peace pipe
around,” Labhart said. “Each of
us took a toke off the pipe and
passed it around.”
He agrees with Heini-
ger-White that the totem pole
is in need of some serious TLC.
“It’s in pretty bad shape,”
Labhart said. “It probably needs
to be pressure-washed, maybe
patched up a little.”
And he also thinks she’s
right when she says it ought to
be moved.
“A lot of people don’t even
know it’s there because of its
location.”
Continued from Page A1
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
John Day City Councilor Heather Rookstool listens during a session of Grant County Court on
Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022.
they had before the Police
Department was suspended.
Myers said in a later inter-
view, however, that he was
not sure John Day could
aff ord the level of service
residents had grown used
to when they had their own
police force.
Asked why the pro-
cess of working out a new
law enforcement funding
arrangement is taking so
long, Myers said some of the
personalities involved in the
discussion might be slowing
the negotiations.
On Oct. 13, the city of
John Day off ered to give
Grant County $300,000
annually for policing services
in exchange for an equal
amount from the county road
fund for street improvements.
On Jan. 21, the county
counsel emailed a detailed
counterproposal to the city
attorney.
The county’s proposal
would give the Sheriff ’s
Offi ce three additional dep-
uties to provide coverage in
John Day. To cover the cost
of that coverage, the city
would pay a minimum of
$282,400 a year. But that rate
was based on the city trans-
ferring the $375,000 COPS
grant to the county, which
federal offi cials have now
said can’t be done.
Without the grant funding,
the county’s proposal called
for the city to pay $371,000
a year. But it’s not clear how
the city could aff ord that
amount, given that its total
property tax revenues only
amount to about $300,000 a
year.
The county proposal
makes no mention of any
county road funds coming to
the city.
their borders.
Other provisions would
prohibit the governor from
retaliating against any county
that did not fully extend the
emergency declaration and
give the Legislature the power
to terminate an emergency
declaration.
Finally, before taking
eff ect, the proposed consti-
tutional amendment would
require approval by a majority
of Oregon voters.
Oregon has been under
a state of emergency since
March 8, 2020, when Gov.
Kate Brown announced plans
to take extraordinary measures
to protect Oregonians from the
COVID-19 pandemic. Brown
has extended the state of emer-
gency several times since then.
State-imposed measures
aimed at curbing the spread
of COVID-19 have helped
keep Oregon’s infection and
death rates from the corona-
virus lower than in most other
states.
But they have also sparked
pushback from many Orego-
nians angered by school clo-
sures, masking requirements,
estimates the work could be
done for about $500 or so, and
the plan is to do it this spring.
He also thinks Heini-
ger-White has a point when
she says the totem pole needs
a new home.
“I all but forgot about it
— I walk by it every day, but
I didn’t really notice it any-
more,” Lundbom said.
“We talked about moving it
to a more prominent location,
but the problem is where?”
Heiniger-White, as you
might expect, has some
thoughts on that subject.
“I think it needs to be some-
where it can be seen,” she said.
“And the place I would like to
see it put is at the entrance to
John Day.”
Specifi cally, she thinks it
should be relocated to the small
patch of city-owned land by
the bridge over Canyon Creek
at the corner of Main and Third
Streets.
Labhart says he’s not sure
that’s the best spot. He points
out that while the totem pole
might catch the eye of pass-
ing motorists at that location,
there’s no place for them to
park if they want to get out of
their cars and admire it.
A better place, he suggests,
might be the Pit Stop, another
city-owned property on the site
of the former Wright Chevro-
let dealership at Main and Can-
ton. Or maybe one block north
on Canton, where the Oregon
Department of Parks and Rec-
reation is planning a multimil-
lion-dollar expansion of the
Kam Wah Chung State Heri-
tage Site?
“To me, it would make
more sense to put it in that new
state park,” Labhart said. “It’s
not Chinese, but it’s part of the
culture … (and) a lot of people
would see it.”
Ultimately, Heiniger-White
wants to do right by the totem
pole. She thinks that’s what
the man who carved it — her
late husband, Ralph White —
would want if he were here to
speak for himself.
“I feel strongly that I am the
messenger for him,” she said,
“because he’s passed on.”
vaccine mandates and busi-
ness restrictions.
Local control emerged as
a hot-button issue for Grant
County residents in August
after Brown made an about-
face on her June 30 executive
order, which handed over pub-
lic health decisions to coun-
ties amid a resurgence of
COVID-19.
With case counts soaring
from the rapidly spreading delta
variant, Brown issued a fl urry of
new executive orders requiring
masks in schools, inside state
buildings and, fi nally, all indoor
public spaces.
Those moves drew the
ire of Grant County lead-
ers, who signed onto a let-
ter from the Eastern Oregon
Counties Association call-
ing for local control of school
districts.
In addition to Owens,
Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale,
is also listed as a chief spon-
sor of HJR 206. Other chief
sponsors of the measure
are Reps. Jessica George,
R-Keizer; Lily Morgan,
R-Grants Pass; E. Wer-
ner Reschke, R-southern
Klamath and Lake counties;
and Sens. Dick Anderson,
R-Lincoln City; and Kim
Thatcher, R-Keizer.
GOT INVASIVE ANNUAL GRASSES?
Grant SWCD Weed Control Dept. • Working for You in 2022
Thanks to the Grant County Court and Northeast Oregon Forests Resource Advisory Committee, Grant
Weed Control is able to offer a 25% cost share program for invasive annual grass control on private graz-
ing lands, through a Title II funded Grant Project. This program will provide a maximum $10,000 of invasive annual grass
control services with a $2,500 maximum landowner contribution to qualifying participants. To be eligible for participation,
the treatment property must not be actively irrigated and must be primarily managed for livestock grazing, minimum of 20
acres in size, located within Grant County, and must contain invasive annual grass species. Applications for this limited weed
control assistance opportunity will be ranked and funded on a first-come, first-served basis.
Contact: Grant Soil and Water Conservation District Office at
(541) 575-1554 or visit 721 S. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845
for applications and additional information.
The application deadline for this program is March 11th, 2022.
S277507-1