FW: [certainhome] Fwd: Telling the whole Lewis, Clark story

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Schaefer [mailto:jkschae_98@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2000 10:23 AM
To: Jim Craven
Subject: Fwd: [certainhome] Fwd: Telling the whole Lewis, Clark story


Jim -

FYI

Jon


--- Martha Elizabeth Ture <marthature@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> To: certainhome@xxxxxxxxxxx
> From: Martha Elizabeth Ture <marthature@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 18:18:58 -0800
> Reply-to: certainhome@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [certainhome] Fwd: Telling the whole Lewis,
> Clark story
>
>
> >From: MJLaBurt@xxxxxxx
> >Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 18:38:21 EST
> >Subject: Telling the whole Lewis, Clark story
> >To: ishgooda@xxxxxxxxxxx, marthature@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 125
> >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by
> >emu.prod.itd.earthlink.net id PAA23570
> >
> >Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company
> >
> >Local News : Saturday, December 23, 2000
> >
> >Telling the whole Lewis, Clark story
> >
> >By Peggy Andersen
> >The Associated Press
> >
> >VANCOUVER, Clark County -- The upcoming 200th
> anniversary of the Lewis and
> >Clark Expedition, a survey ordered by President Thomas
> Jefferson to stake a
> >U.S. claim to the West, is not exactly cause for
> celebration in Indian
> >Country.
> >
> >Mainstream America has long viewed the 1804-06 trek led
> by Meriwether Lewis
> >and William Clark as a heroic effort that opened up the
> nation's western
> >frontier. A beginning.
> >
> >But for the people who were already here, who helped the
> sometimes helpless
> >surveyors get through, it was the beginning of the end.
> >
> >The goal of those planning commemoration of Lewis and
> Clark's Voyage of
> >Discovery - at the tribal, federal and local level - is
> to make sure the
> >whole story is told.
> >
> >"We are not going to condone or create another Columbus
> Day debacle," said
> >Michelle Bussard in Portland, executive director of the
> National Council of
> >the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, referring to heated
> protest spurred by the
> >500th anniversary of the best known European visit to
> this side of the
> >Atlantic.
> >
> >"Columbus didn't discover America - Native Americans had
> lived here for
> >eons," she said.
> >
> >Lewis and Clark reached the mouth of the Columbia River
> in the fall of 1805,
> >confirming overland access to the Pacific.
> >
> >They traveled by river and, for a time, on horses
> provided by the Shoshone,
> >Sacagawea's people. The Nez Perce Tribe revived the
> near-starving party after
> >a rough passage through the Bitterroot Mountains. The
> Chinook - now battling
> >for federal recognition - helped them through the dreary
> winter of 1805-06.
> >
> >"The expedition needs to be thought of as a joint
> venture with Indian people,
> >which it was for vast stretches of the trail and
> certainly in our neck of
> >woods out here on the Snake and Columbia rivers," said
> David Nicandri of the
> >Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma.
> >
> >The Pacific Coast tribes that greeted Jefferson's survey
> party were already
> >trading with French, Spanish, English and American ships
> that expanded the
> >market for furs - and brought death in the form of
> smallpox, dysentery,
> >tuberculosis and other unfamiliar diseases.
> >
> >By the 1840s, as the white influx increased,
> disease-related losses in
> >high-traffic areas were around 70 percent and some
> tribes had been wiped out.
> >
> >"Lewis and Clark within that context don't come across
> as quite so grand and
> >glorious a story," Nicandri said.
> >
> >The tribes that survived found their world overwhelmed
> by white settlers, new
> >priorities and change that continues to this day.
> >
> >The impact of dams, cities, freeways and an ever-faster
> dominant culture are
> >all evident along the tamed Columbia River, where
> Chinook village fires used
> >to light the night.
> >
> >Lack of federal recognition has not prevented federal
> bicentennial organizers
> >from seeking the Chinook out. They are among about 50
> "trail tribes" being
> >invited to participate.
> >
> >Plans so far include a project at four riverside sites
> by Maya Lin, creator
> >of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
> >
> >Nicandri is overseeing a historic exhibit that will
> spend three years
> >traveling the 7,000-mile round-trip trail. Vancouver
> Mayor Royce Pollard
> >hopes the exhibit will start and finish here - the first
> spot west of the
> >Rockies that Lewis and Clark considered a suitable site
> for a city. He also
> >hopes to make his community a center for American Indian
> congresses.
> >
> >Other commemoration plans are in the works.
> >
> >The word "commemorate" is used advisedly. Tribal leaders
> made clear early on
> >they want no part of any "celebration," Pollard said.
> >
> >Some of the tribes' stories are not easy to tell - or to
> hear.
> >
> >"It's the only war we've ever had where we treated the
> other side as badly,"
> >Pollard said.
> >
> >But he recalls telling area tribal leaders: "If you all
> don't get involved,
> >we're going to tell the story again, and it ain't the
> story you want to hear."
> >
> >" `Use us,' is what I said," recalls the former
> commander of the Army's
> >historic Vancouver Barracks, which conducted 19th
> century military assaults
> >on area tribes.
> >
> >"I had a warped sense of all this for a long, long time
> before I came here,"
> >Pollard said.
> >
> >But as mayor, he led his community's 1997 reconciliation
> with the Nez Perce,
> >helping to heal a 120-year breach dating to the 1877
> imprisonment of
> >noncombatants by frustrated Army officials who couldn't
> catch Chief Joseph.
> >
> >"There's a lot of tension associated with this,"
> Nicandri conceded. "You
> >can't go to a Lewis and Clark meeting without there
> being moments of ...
> >constructive engagement."
> >
> >Sometimes it's not so constructive.
> >
> >Pollard invited Clark College economics professor Jim
> Craven, a member of
> >Canada's Blackfoot Nation - related to the Blackfeet of
> Montana - to join a
> >Vancouver-Clark County planning committee. But Craven
> said the story he
> >wanted to tell - of atrocities and genocide, continuing
> even now in higher
> >infant mortality rates, shorter life spans and other
> hard-edged statistics -
> >was not welcome.
> >
> >Some committee members said the problem was his
> delivery.
> >
> >"I agree with every one of his statements - I just think
> he goes about it
> >wrong," said committee member Martin Plamondon, who just
> published the first
> >in a three-volume set of maps based on the Lewis and
> Clark journals.
> >
> >"I don't know a nice way to talk about genocide," Craven
> replied.
> >
> >Lori Jimerson, a local resident of Iroquois descent who
> is working on the
> >bicentennial effort at Clark College, feels there are
> obstacles - guilt,
> >denial, anger - on both sides.
> >
> >"You can't tell the story of the village sites out there
> and not tell the
> >story of why they're not there anymore," she said.
> >
> >But reconciliation has to start somewhere.
> >
> >"My attitude is, `Let's get in there and maybe they'll
> see the light, "' said
> >Chief Cliff Snider, Chinook representative on the
> Vancouver-Clark County
> >panel and on a national council of bicentennial
> advisers.
> >
> >Tribes have their own reasons for participating, Snider
> said - the Chinook,
> >for example, hope to advance their fight for federal
> recognition.
>
>
> "Lord, grant that I may always be right; for thou knowest
> that I
> am hard to turn." -- an 18th C. backcountry gentleman
>
>
> Martha E. Ture
>
>


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