Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 2, 2006 1:44:47 GMT -5
Tribe was decimated and yet survives
Station Camp will be unique among Lewis and Clark sites
Imagine, if you can, an "unprecedented calamity" in which 95 of every 100
Americans swiftly die of horrifying diseases caused by germ-carrying invaders.
Imagine being one of the few survivors, hanging onto life, but losing your
loved ones, your land, your sacred places, your history, your language, your
civilization.
There are Americans, including some of our fellow citizens on the lower
Columbia River, who don't have to imagine.
In "1491: New revelations of the Americas Before Columbus," Charles Mann of
Science magazine draws upon remarkable recent research to reveal one of
humanity's greatest tragedies, the destruction of age-old societies by smallpox
and a host of other microbes brought to these shores beginning with the Spanish
Conquest in 1492. America's first civilizations were far larger, older and
more sophisticated than our Hollywood stereotypes of them. As many as 120
million people lived in North and South America in 1491, a population far greater
than Europe's at the time. But because smallpox raced along old trade routes
ahead of the explorers who carried it, entire tribes disappeared decades
before white men stumbled upon their forgotten villages. We will never know how
many innocent men, women and children perished.
The Chinookan people of the Columbia created one of the great trading
empires of the ancient world - it would scarcely be an exaggeration to call them
the Phoenicians of the Pacific. As such, they were among the first tribes on
the West Coast to suffer the ravages of imported European illnesses to which
they lacked all immunity. By November 1805, when Lewis and Clark landed their
dugouts near one of the tribe's age-old villages and called it Station Camp,
the Chinook were already dwindling like grains of sand borne away by flood
waters.
All this is vital information when considering the new Lewis and Clark
National Park site at Station Camp across from Astoria. Following the inadvertent
discovery of human remains of Chinookan origin this fall, all work is on hold
while tribal members confer with state and federal officials about how best
to proceed.
Despite everything, the Chinook survive and are reclaiming their heritage.
The recently discovered remains are a tangible link to the horrible end days
and the golden ages that came before. Looking out for these honored dead is a
commendable source of pride and a sacred obligation, not only for the
Chinook, but for all Americans.
Plans for Station Camp are uniquely suited to this goal, intelligently
paying tribute to the Chinook Tribe's many centuries living in this
extraordinarily beautiful place where river and ocean meet. The new park tells the story of
Chinook in common with Lewis and Clark, and for that reason, there will be
no Lewis and Clark park like it anywhere along the trail. Working with the
National Park Service and the Washington State Historical Society, the Chinook
can not only safeguard their dead and preserve the site for all time, but set
the stage for a time when children of all races will come here to commemorate
the glories of the past and make plans for the future.
The challenge of modern tribal leadership is balancing a reverence for their
culture with the needs of modern society - in this case, fostering the
growth of the new national park, around which so much of the future of Pacific
County revolves. The famed Indian treaty rights activist Billy Frank, a historic
figure in his own right, talks about this challenge in his book, Messages
from Frank's Landing. Referencing the difficulty of reconciling the
tribulations of the past with the need for establishing common ground on how we all go
forward from here, Frank says: "Those weren't good times; but they aren't
these times."
There is no finer tribute to the Chinook of long ago than making Station
Camp a living embodiment of tribal ideals and persistence. Dayton Duncan, who
with Ken Burns did so much to call national attention to the importance of
Station Camp and the vote that took place there 200 years ago, once called the
site "hallowed ground" because it touched the core of American ideals of
self-government. We now also know better that this was a hallowed place for the
Chinook before Lewis and Clark, and it remains so for posterity. Station Camp
proved to be a meeting place of proud cultures in 1805. It is about to be such
a place again.
Station Camp will be unique among Lewis and Clark sites
Imagine, if you can, an "unprecedented calamity" in which 95 of every 100
Americans swiftly die of horrifying diseases caused by germ-carrying invaders.
Imagine being one of the few survivors, hanging onto life, but losing your
loved ones, your land, your sacred places, your history, your language, your
civilization.
There are Americans, including some of our fellow citizens on the lower
Columbia River, who don't have to imagine.
In "1491: New revelations of the Americas Before Columbus," Charles Mann of
Science magazine draws upon remarkable recent research to reveal one of
humanity's greatest tragedies, the destruction of age-old societies by smallpox
and a host of other microbes brought to these shores beginning with the Spanish
Conquest in 1492. America's first civilizations were far larger, older and
more sophisticated than our Hollywood stereotypes of them. As many as 120
million people lived in North and South America in 1491, a population far greater
than Europe's at the time. But because smallpox raced along old trade routes
ahead of the explorers who carried it, entire tribes disappeared decades
before white men stumbled upon their forgotten villages. We will never know how
many innocent men, women and children perished.
The Chinookan people of the Columbia created one of the great trading
empires of the ancient world - it would scarcely be an exaggeration to call them
the Phoenicians of the Pacific. As such, they were among the first tribes on
the West Coast to suffer the ravages of imported European illnesses to which
they lacked all immunity. By November 1805, when Lewis and Clark landed their
dugouts near one of the tribe's age-old villages and called it Station Camp,
the Chinook were already dwindling like grains of sand borne away by flood
waters.
All this is vital information when considering the new Lewis and Clark
National Park site at Station Camp across from Astoria. Following the inadvertent
discovery of human remains of Chinookan origin this fall, all work is on hold
while tribal members confer with state and federal officials about how best
to proceed.
Despite everything, the Chinook survive and are reclaiming their heritage.
The recently discovered remains are a tangible link to the horrible end days
and the golden ages that came before. Looking out for these honored dead is a
commendable source of pride and a sacred obligation, not only for the
Chinook, but for all Americans.
Plans for Station Camp are uniquely suited to this goal, intelligently
paying tribute to the Chinook Tribe's many centuries living in this
extraordinarily beautiful place where river and ocean meet. The new park tells the story of
Chinook in common with Lewis and Clark, and for that reason, there will be
no Lewis and Clark park like it anywhere along the trail. Working with the
National Park Service and the Washington State Historical Society, the Chinook
can not only safeguard their dead and preserve the site for all time, but set
the stage for a time when children of all races will come here to commemorate
the glories of the past and make plans for the future.
The challenge of modern tribal leadership is balancing a reverence for their
culture with the needs of modern society - in this case, fostering the
growth of the new national park, around which so much of the future of Pacific
County revolves. The famed Indian treaty rights activist Billy Frank, a historic
figure in his own right, talks about this challenge in his book, Messages
from Frank's Landing. Referencing the difficulty of reconciling the
tribulations of the past with the need for establishing common ground on how we all go
forward from here, Frank says: "Those weren't good times; but they aren't
these times."
There is no finer tribute to the Chinook of long ago than making Station
Camp a living embodiment of tribal ideals and persistence. Dayton Duncan, who
with Ken Burns did so much to call national attention to the importance of
Station Camp and the vote that took place there 200 years ago, once called the
site "hallowed ground" because it touched the core of American ideals of
self-government. We now also know better that this was a hallowed place for the
Chinook before Lewis and Clark, and it remains so for posterity. Station Camp
proved to be a meeting place of proud cultures in 1805. It is about to be such
a place again.