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<font size="1" face="ARIAL, SANS SERIF" color="#000000"
style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Sunday, December 03,
2006</b></font><br /><br /><font size="5" face="ARIAL, SANS SERIF"
color="#000000"><b>Preservation</b></font><br /><font size="3"
face="ARIAL, SANS SERIF" color="#000000"><i>Tribes protect, revive
cultural heritage</i></font><br /><br /><a
href="mailto:acox@eastoregonian.com"><font size="2" face="ARIAL, SANS
SERIF" color="#000000"><b>By Allison Cox</b></font></a><br /><font
size="3" face="TIMES, SERIF" color="#000000">of the East
Oregonian</font><br /><br /><font size="1" face="ARIAL, SANS SERIF"
color="#000000" style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Sunday, December 03,
2006</b></font></p><p>http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=27&SubSectionID=92&ArticleID=56977&TM=78692.78<br
/><br /><table width="200" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0" border="0"
align="left"><tbody><tr><td width="200" align="left"><img width="200"
src="cid:46mypi1f8vls@www.email.arizona.edu"
/></td></tr><tr><td width="200" align="left">Jess
Nowland, visitor services coordinator, holds a hand woven traditional
basket made of cedar root, corn husk and bear grass that dates back to
the 1940s in the artifact vault at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute.
Photo by E. J. Harris.</td></tr><tr><td width="200" align="left"><img
width="200" height="10"
src="cid:54k44ni5qk1s@www.email.arizona.edu"
/></td></tr><tr><td width="200" align="left"><img width="200"
src="cid:744c4fkrb11c@www.email.arizona.edu"
/></td></tr><tr><td width="200" align="left">Master
teacher Cecelia Bearchum, a native Walla Walla speaker, listens in on a
Walla Walla language class at the Nixyaawii Community School in
Mission. Photo by E. J. Harris.</td></tr></tbody></table><font size="3"
face="TIMES, SERIF" color="#000000">Say
the word "culture" and most people think of pageants,
religious
practices and colorful clothing. To certain members of the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, culture means much more, and
they're doing what they can to preserve it.<br /><br />Tamastslikt
Cultural
Institute, located near Wildhorse Resort & Casino, is dedicated to
preserving American Indian culture, historical accuracy and
contributing to the tribal economy. The museum is recognized around the
world as a boiler plate of American Indian cultural preservation and
restoration.<br /><br />Institute Director, Roberta Conner, explained
preserving culture is not just a romantic whim.<br /><br />"People
think of our culture as quaint customs, instead of the backbone of
survival," said Conner. "Stereotypes include the belief that
our
reverence for our historic cultural lifeways is a desire to return to
the past, and it's not. We've lived in this landscape for so long
there's knowledge, the equivalent to an enormous library, imbedded in
the culture."<br /><br />Conner said the accumulation of
information
gathered over eons is as valid today as it was in the past - and is
relevant to every aspect of life in this geographical region.<br /><br
/>"Look
at the tribal languages and understand that not only is there a window
into the philosophy, culture and law, but also into vast amounts of
information about this ecosystem, " she added. <br /><br />That tie
to the
land, expressed as culture, provides knowledge regarding stewardship of
the land and the animals and people who dwell on it. With the arrival
of Lewis and Clark, and the subsequent invasion of non-native people
that followed, that connection to the past was almost severed.<br /><br
/>"While
it's changed our lives drastically, the core values remain intact -
this tie to the land," Conner said of the years between the Lewis
and
Clark expedition and today. "If our culture hadn't kept us together
and
sustained us, we would be culturally extinct, and 50 years ago that's
what experts expected. I'm delighted they were wrong."<br /><br
/>While the
museum provides a way to preserve items of historical importance, and
at the same time educates the public at large, the tribes are
pro-active when it comes to using other methods to ensure the
continuation of the culture. <br /><br />In the same complex as
Nixyaawii
charter school, and in the same building as Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start, is a
modern language and computer lab. Next to the lab is an office, which
doesn't feature desks but instead a large conference table. This is the
elders' office. <br /><br />The elders, revered for the wisdom of their
years and their memories, are a vital and treasured part of the tribal
cultural preservation plan. Not only is it evident in the way they are
deferred to by younger tribal members, it's also evidenced by the
central location of their office and the reserved parking spaces for
them out front.<br /><br />Out of the office, a group of about nine
elders,
men and women, work as language teachers. They, and everyone else,
understand time is of the essence. While there are elders to teach the
Umatilla and Walla Walla languages, the Cayuse language is considered
lost. Only 400 words remain, contained in a small dictionary. <br /><br
/>The
elders teach high school students, as well as the preschool children at
Cay-Uma-Wa, who often overflow into the elders' office.<br /><br
/>"The
little ones that we have here, the Head Start students, are real good
students," said Elder Cecilia Bearchum, who teaches the Walla Walla
language. "Their little brains are just like sponges, they catch on
easy."<br /><br />But, as with other aspects of American Indian
culture,
it's not just about the language. The language is a valuable and
important reason to encourage closeness between the young ones and the
elders, but it's by no means the only reason. The benefits of pursuing
the language are far-reaching and complicated, as everything associated
with American Indian culture seems to be.<br /><br />"That is where
they
learn traditional values such as respect, from the elders," said
Sophia
Enos, a teacher at Cay-Uma-Wa. "It's part of their lives and part
of
their heritage."<br /><br />"A lot of them don't have
grandmas, so we're
grandmas to them all," Bearchum said. "Once in a while they'll
come in
and shake hands and say good morning in whatever language they
remember. It makes our day."<br /><br />Conner believes, and hopes,
that in preserving the culture, the people will be preserved as well.<br
/><br />"The
part of our culture that we are still trying to restore is how we take
care of one another," Conner said. "It's a tenet of our
culture that no
one goes hungry or is orphaned. But our current social ills make that
no longer true. When we examine our modern problems, addictions and
self-destruction, we look at the culture that we once had, we recognize
that our once strong, wholesome, well-rounded people have been broken
by acts of history. And the culture can make them whole again."<br
/><br />Jess
Nowland, Tamastslikt Visitors Services Coordinator, is immersed in the
culture of his people. During the day he has access to some of the most
treasured artifacts and information his people possess, and a venue to
learn about the ways of his people. During his off time, he remains
absorbed in the culture as an involved, engaged member of the modern
tribal community.<br /><br />But Nowland wasn't raised in the culture.
He
spent most of the first 15 years of his life on a ranch near Rock
Springs, Wyo., where he was the only American Indian for miles around.
<br /><br />"When
I went to high school in Wyoming, all you had to do was say you were
Indian, and that was enough," said Nowland. "But here people
ask you
things. It was embarrassing not to know, and that sort of inspired me
to learn about my heritage."<br /><br />At the age of 15, he
embarked on a
mission to learn as much as possible about his people. It started with
spending time with five uncles.<br /><br />"That's when I was
introduced to the sweathouse, hunting, fishing, language, dancing - our
ways," he said.<br /><br />Each
of the customs is but a piece in the whole cloth of culture, according
to Conner, which is why it's so important to preserve and integrate all
of the culture into modern life.<br /><br />"There is a knowledge
of how
and where and when that comes from through thousands of years of
exposure to one homeland," Conner said. "Look at the tribal
languages
and understand that not only is there a window into the philosophy,
culture and law, but also into vast amounts of information about this
ecosystem."<br /><br />And still, as always, there's more to it.<br
/><br />"So,
when you ask why is it important to preserve the culture? We have to do
it to save our people. Our culture is not static, it's dynamic,"
Conner
said. "In an age when all people are transient, we don't expect our
people to live here all the time. But there's a sense of belonging and
a state of grace that comes from belonging to a place."<br /><br
/></font><font size="3" face="TIMES, SERIF" color="#000000"><font
size="+1">Suggested reading</font><br />Recently
released, "As Days Go By, Our History, Our Land and Our
People" is a
look at the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla people, as written by nine
tribal and three non-tribal members.<br /><br />"It's unique in
that it's about us and by us," said Roberta Conner, one of the
contributors to the book. <br /><br />Conner said an atlas of native
places and names, also developed by tribal members, will come out in
2007.<br /><br />"The
idea was sparked by the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial," Conner
explained. "We were reminded during the observance that Lewis and
Clark
were naming rivers and places. Since we want our people 100 years from
now to know the names we called places, we began this project."<br
/><br />Conner suggested the following books for those interested in
learning about American Indian population, culture and history:<br
/><br /> "Nch'i-Wana: The Big River," by Eugene S. Hunn.<br
/><br />
"The Si'lailo Way: Indians, Salmon and Law on the Colorado
River," by
Joseph C. Dupris, Kathleen S. Hill, and William H. Rodgers, Jr.<br /><br
/> "Columbia River Basketry: Gift of the Ancestors, Gift of the
Earth," by Mary Dodds Schlick.<br /><br /> "A Song to the
Creator: Traditional Arts of Native American Women of the
Plateau," by Lillian A. Ackerman.<br /><br /> "Peoples of
the Plateau: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898-1915,"
by Steven L. Grafe.<br /><br /></font><table width="500"
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size="+1"><b>Related Links</b></font></td></tr><tr><td><br
/></td></tr><tr><td><br /></td></tr><tr><td><br
/></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
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