Kalapuya-Amin (Land of the Kalapuya)

Symposium on:

Land Management and Resource Use Technologies

of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, in 1450 and 1750

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION, OBJECTIVES, AND SCHEDULE

USFWS William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, Benton County, Oregon, September 8-9, 2006

OSU Forestry Club Cabin & Brandis Oaks Savannah Restoration Project, Corvallis, Oregon, September 10, 2006

Event Objectives

Speakers and Presenters

General Schedule: Noon to Dusk

Friday -- Cultural Landscapes & Demographics: Names and Stories on the Land

Saturday -- Native Plant & Stone Products: Baskets, Bows, Bowls, Cordage, Carvings, Planks, & Points

Sunday -- Native Foods Acquisition & Preparation: Acorns, Animal Extinctions, Camas, Fish, Tarweed, & Wapato

The Kalapuya-Amin Symposium was a three-day event featuring: multidisciplinary papers on the current state of scientific knowledge regarding late precontact land management and resource use technologies in western Oregon (see Bibliography); demonstrations of precontact uses of local plant, animal, and stone products, including weaving, cordage, cooking, and woodcarving; and a guided field trip into local environments, featuring plant and animal species used in demonstrations and discussed in research papers. Participants will be able to taste, see, touch, smell, discuss, and otherwise experience the topics and settings of delivered papers; future website visitors will get digital summaries of the same lessons.

The general purpose of the event is to better acquaint people with the land and with abandoned land and resource use technologies that may still prove useful for meeting current and future management objectives. The principal audience is Oregon school children, current and future, via educational products and Internet communications. Secondary audiences include natural and cultural resource managers -- particularly those associated with the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), with western Oregon Indian tribes, and with private, state, and federal landowners -- Oregon teachers, researchers, and interested public.

Event Objectives

1. Educational products of lasting value for Oregon students, teachers, tribes, and researchers. (A hardcover indexed Proceedings and a comprehensive long-term educational website are being developed as principal outcomes of this symposium).

2. Sharing information useful to western Oregon natural and cultural resource managers. (Using traditional technologies to achieve modern objectives).

3. Positive public outreach by event hosts and sponsors.

4. Identification of potential new markets for native plant and animal products for western Oregon farmers, foresters, and other land and resource managers.

Speakers and Presenters

A number of recognized and emerging scholars and scientists, including Tom Connolly, Melissa Darby, Douglas Deur, Leland Gilsen, Aleena Kliever-Turpin, David Lewis, Margaret Mathewson, William Orr, Eirik Thorsgard, Dennis Werth, Henry Zenk, and Bob Zybach, will present papers reflecting current knowledge of precontact Kalapuyan land management and resource use technologies. These papers will be assembled into an illustrated and indexed Proceedings edited by Zybach and Lewis and scheduled for publication in 2007.

Presentations and displays of basketweaving skills, materials, and products included examples of historical and precontact methods, materials, and designs by Kalapuyan weaver Connie Graves and Chetco weaver Aleena Kliever-Turpin.

Stone tool-making, cordage manufacturing, carving, and other skills using native materials and traditional methods weredisplayed and demonstrated by Leland Gilsen and Goode Jones.

A field trip to the Brandis Oaks Savannah Restoration Project was conducted by Rodney Slattum and Bob Zybach.

Native foods preparation will be demonstrated by Eric Essylsten, Rocky Polries, and Rodney Slattum.

Videotape and photographic documentation were completed by Josh Meredith and John Harris of ORWW and Chuck Williams of Cascades Chinook heritage. Jeff Hino and David Zahler of OSU Forest Media Center also provided technical eqyuipment for the symposium and took detailed video of basketry displays.

General Schedule

Each day will began about 11:00 AM. with registration and introductions. Presentations, demonstrations, and field trips were scheduled at a leisurely pace into late afternoon and early evening, beginning at noon. Every effort was made to document events as carefully as possible. An indexed and illustrated Proceedings and a comprehensive ORWW educational website that can be used individually or in classroom situations are planned as final products.

Attendance was limited to presenters and registered participants. The focus was clear presentation, good discussion, and good documentation and was achieved with fine results.

Friday, September 8:

Cultural Landscapes & Demographics

Saturday, September 9:

Native Plant & Stone Products

Sunday, September 10:

Native Foods Acquisition & Preparation

©2006 Oregon Websites & Watersheds Project, Inc.