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<p><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/preserving_tribal_culture.html">http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/preserving_tribal_culture.html</a></span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt">Preserving tribal culture focus of national
conference, from language to memories to science<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b>By
<a href="http://connect.oregonlive.com/user/dstabler/index.html">David Stabler,
The Oregonian</a> <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">October 20, 2009, 6:36PM<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><img border="0" width="432" height="280" id="Picture_x0020_1" alt="NATIVE_9.JPG" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CA527B.D993D640"></p><p>Torsten
Kjellstrand, The Oregonian</p><p>Malissa Winthorn speaks with Phil Cash Cash during a
lunch break. Cash Cash spoke about his doctoral work as a linguist trying to
understand and preserve both the verbal and sign languages he grew up with on
the Umatilla Reservation. </p><p>~~</p><p>Malissa Minthorn stands at the back of a
cavernous ballroom in the Red Lion Hotel on the River. Blue, yellow, silver and
black beads cascade over her shoulders in a dress that her grandmother wore to
weddings and funerals on the Umatilla Reservation. <br>
<br>
Tuesday was opening day of a sold-out conference that has brought together 550
people from around the country with one interest in common: preserving tribal
culture. As she looks over the packed room, Minthorn herself personifies the
theme of the conference. <br>
<br>
"After this, I'm storing it away," she says, fingering her bright red
dress. "It's getting thin and fragile." <br>
<br>
Preservation takes many forms, from a simple photograph to an entire museum of
artifacts. From a jumpy film showing Bitterroot Jim telling a bear story
in sign language in 1932 to a mat house that the Wanapum tribe had to relearn
to build on the banks of the Columbia River. <br>
<br>
Culture is complicated for Native Americans, and so is its preservation.
Without a record, some tribes left no trace. Passing culture down through the
generations gets more complicated by a tradition of oral history that makes
some elders suspicious of recordings and photography. <br>
<br>
The National Conference Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums is the
fourth national gathering to help preserve, archive, display and perpetuate
Native American culture. Hosts were the Oregon State Library and
Tamástslikt Cultural Institute on the Umatilla Reservation, near
Pendleton. Speakers included library and language experts and Russell
Means, the activist, actor and author, who led the famous standoff at
Wounded Knee, S.D., in 1973. <br>
<br>
Libraries were a big presence at the conference. In an adjoining hall,
exhibitors offered ideas on storage and displays, creating audiovisual labs and
preserving images. <br>
<br>
But protecting culture is not only about objects. In a time of Twitter and
other quick communication, tribes are seeking a deeper connection to
themselves, an appreciation of culture, the very DNA of who they are. That
connection often starts with language. <br>
<br>
Of the 54 languages identified in the Pacific Northwest, many verge on
extinction. Only one speaker of the Wasco language is still living. Forty
speakers of Nez Perce remain. Linguist predict that within two or three
generations, no one will speak these languages. <br>
<br>
The four-day conference, called "Streams of Language, Memory and
Lifeways," underscored the urgency to save tribal culture in all its forms
before it's too late. <br>
<br>
"There are not enough words to give to tell you how important language is
to our sacred traditions," Phil Cash Cash told the assembled group
at Tuesday's opening session. Cash Cash, a linguist who grew up on the Umatilla
Reservation, studies language in the Columbia River region. <br>
<br>
Language is key to helping Native Americans live their culture, he said.
"Language follows basic laws of the culture and land and earth," he
said. "It's urgent we all understand how vitally important it is that
language gets transferred to the younger generation." <br>
<br>
Dallas Dick, a photo archivist at the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute,
took Cash's message to heart. "I'm feeling guilty because I'm not doing
what I should be doing. We're losing it all, and I was one of the bad kids that
never listened. I learned all the bad words." <br>
<br>
Signs of preservation were everywhere. In a hallway on the way to the ballroom,
attendees passed tables of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, blankets and crafts.
<br>
<br>
Downstairs, in a session about the Wanapum, a small tribe that has lived for
thousands of years on the Columbia River north of the Tri-Cities, Angela
Buck, director of the Wanapum Heritage Center, talked about her
tribe's latest tool to preserve her culture: an RV. The vehicle travels
throughout the region to share displays and history with native and non-native
people. "We get around," she said. "We talked to 29,000 people
last year. That may not seem like a lot to you, but it is to us." <br>
<br>
In other efforts to protect the Wanapum culture, the river tribe recently dug
out canoes, made string from hemp and built a mat house from the tule
plant, all projects new to them. The house was more than they bargained for, a
process of finding, gathering, drying, tying and building that took months to
complete. <br>
<br>
"It was a huge project, overwhelming," said Rex Buck III, who
worked on the house. "We can't undo things that happened, but those
projects fill the gap of who we are as a people." <br>
<br>
The conference runs through Thursday.<br>
<br>
<a href="mailto:davidstabler@news.oregonian.com">--David Stabler</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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