Illumination: Part III - Contemporary History, 1960s-2020s

Part III - Contemporary History, 1960s-2020s

Many Native people left the reservations following World War II and during the Termination period. They established new connections and new ways to continue and share their traditions as they moved to cities and towns. The logging industry and educational opportunities at the University of Oregon and Lane Community College are two of the main factors that brought Native people to Springfield. 

Several intertribal organizations formed in the Eugene-Springfield area in the midcentury, holding meetings and cultural events in private homes and in local classrooms and office spaces.
In the 1970s, Native people in the Eugene-Springfield area were active in restoration movements for Grand Ronde and Siletz Tribes. 

Education centers remain some of the central gathering places for Native people today. The UO Many Nations Longhouse, the Lane Community College Longhouse, and the Chifin Native Youth Center are all dedicated meeting spaces that were constructed in the early 2000s after years of advocacy from local community members. 

Today, people from all Oregon tribes, along with people from tribes across the Pacific Northwest and the nation, call the Eugene-Springfield area home. They are working hard to study and remember their history and traditions and to pass them down to younger generations.
 

Wilma is pictured to the right at a 2016 graduation ceremony for Native youth in the Springfield Public Schools, organized by the Chifin Native Youth Center. Image Credit: Leilani Sabzalian (pictured with Wilma)

Wilma Crowe (Standing Rock Sioux) moved with her husband to Eugene in the 1940s. She was an early UO Native American Student Union advisor and a beloved leader and mentor. Wilma was involved in many community events over the years, including the Springfield and Eugene Indian Education programs, the UO and LCC Native Programs, and in the broader community. She was an advocate for the construction of both the UO Many Nations Longhouse and the LCC Longhouse.

One of Wilma’s special legacies is her extensive knowledge of traditional beadwork, which she passed on to many younger people in the community.

Wilma Crowe remembers:

There was a man by the name of Bob Tom who was Siletz, or he was a Grand Ronde Indian [...] he put an ad in the paper of all the Native people that would be interested to meet down at the old Tiffany building that used to be in Willamette Street [...]  there were Native people from Springfield and Eugene  [...] We met up there, and there were about fifty Native people that met as a result of that ad. And we formed a coalition of people, and we would meet at everyone’s house. [...]  that’s how we started, and we met every, uh, once a month, and then it was once a week [...]

[...] a lot of these young people were going to the University of Oregon, and so we started meeting, um, at, they had had a, un, office at the University of Oregon, so we’d meet up there once in a while. Then we got so we made it Bob Tom’s house. He had a big place, and we all met out there then, and we’d meet here [at my house] once in a while. [...] That’s how it all started. And, um, I still have a card from “Bob Tom, Contemporary Indian.” He was president. I still have that card (laughs). 

-Oral History Interview, Nov 12, 2007 and Dec 3, 2007, Lane County Historical Society and Museum
 

An Indian Student Union, also called Speelyi O’Otam, was formed in 1968 to offer services to Native American students at the University of Oregon. In the 1969 clipping to the right, the student union President Richard Wilson (Sioux) describes the program. The group began with 16 students and had grown to 33 by the time of this article’s publishing.

This organization began holding an annual spring pow-wow, first at the Lane County Fairgrounds and Alton Baker Park, before eventually moving to campus. Today it is called the UO Mother’s Day Pow-Wow; it is the oldest documented pow-wow in the state of Oregon. Image Credit: Oregon Daily Emerald, Nov 07, 1969

Wilma Crowe remembers:

Our early aim was to bring Native students to the University of Oregon. That was the Native American Students’ Association, and it still is in existence. And their, our main goal was to bring students to the University of Oregon for a better education and that was our main, well, it still is.

[In the 1970s]  the University of Oregon gave us a place for a longhouse. [...] One of the buildings was where returning veterans lived, and they gave us one of the, uh, buildings for a longhouse. And so we met there every week….-Oral History Interview, Nov 12, 2007 and Dec 3, 2007, Lane County Historical Society and Museum

People who moved to cities from the reservations found ways to bring their traditions with them. Dancing, drumming, potlucks, and traditional arts classes were some of the intertribal events that Native people organized together. The clippings to the left and bottom describe cultural events organized by the Urban Indians of Lane County. “Urban Indians” had become a growing portion of the Native population by the 1970s.

By 1975, between 200 and 300 Native people from Eugene and Springfield were meeting regularly. The Register Guard reported that between 1800 and 2500 Native people were living in Lane County in 1978–perhaps as high as 4000 according to voter registrations. 
 

Image Credits: Register Guard, Dec 9, 1973; Register Guard, April 8, 1973; Register Guard, May 31, 1975

Below are some of the known intertribal organizations from the 1970s:
Urban Indians of Lane County
Native American Cultural Council
Eugene Indian Center 
Eugene-Springfield American Indian Group
Springfield Indian Education program
Eugene Indian Education program
UO Native American Student Union
Lane Community College Native American Student Association 
 

These Register-Guard clippings from 1975 and 1978 describe a Miss Indian of Lane County pageant with contestants from Eugene and Springfield. Today, the University of Oregon NASU holds an annual pageant for Native students (currently the titles are Miss Indigenous and Mr. Indigenous)

Image Credit: “Termination: the Attempt to Destroy and the Rebuilding of the Siletz Tribes,” EcoTrust, Jan 19, 2022

In the 1970s, Native people from the Eugene Springfield area were active in the restoration movements for the Siletz and Grand Ronde Tribes.
The 1976 photograph to the right shows tribal council members giving testimony at the Washington D.C. hearings for the Siletz Tribe’s restoration.

Kathryn Harrison, Bob Tom, and Pauline Ricks are three of the council member seated at the table–these three community leaders lived and worked in the Eugene-Springfield area.

The following Oregon tribes regained their federal status in the 1970s and 1980s: Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (1977), Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians (1982), Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (1983), Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians (1984), Klamath Tribes (1986), and Coquille Indian Tribe (1989).

Kathryn Harrison was a Molalla descendant of the Yelkus family and an important leader in the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde community. She attended Lane Community College, becoming the first Native American woman to graduate from the school’s nursing program in 1972. She was one of the lead community organizers for the Restoration movements within the Siletz and Grand Ronde Tribes.

Following Restoration, Kathryn served as Chair of the Grand Ronde tribal council for many years. She became the first Native recipient of the History Maker award given out by Oregon Historical Society, and she was honored by many institutions in her later years. In 2022, a school was named in her honor in the Corvallis School district. 

A biography was written about Kathryn’s life called Standing Tall: The Lifeway of Kathryn Jones Harrison by Kristine Olson. Image Credit: Smoke Signals, June 01, 2023

Pauline Ricks of Springfield was the Indian Education coordinator in the Springfield Public School district in the 1970s. She provided educational support and cultural activities for Native students. She also held presentations for local classrooms and organized cultural events and classes in the broader community. She was a resident of Springfield for 35 years.

Pauline served on the Siletz Tribe’s first tribal council, reestablished in 1973. While working in the Springfield School District, she spent her evenings and weekends with other Siletz community members to advocate for the Siletz Tribe’s restoration. She helped revive the annual pow-wows on the Siletz Reservation in the 1970s, serving as the tribe’s whipwoman for many years. 

After her passing in 1995, the pow-wow grounds on the Siletz Reservation were renamed the Pauline Ricks Memorial Pow-Wow Grounds in her honor. Image Credit: Eugene Register Guard, Aug 17, 1980

Image Credit: Siletz News, January 2022 edition

Pauline Ricks remembers:

I am one that had to leave Siletz after termination. I moved to the Springfield area along with about 150 other Siletz people. Today I work there as an Indian education coordinator. It is my job to get American Indian culture into the schools there and to create a better self-image among Indian students in our public schools. I work with non-Indian personnel and try to educate them to the beauty of our culture as we see it, as Indian people. I love my job, for when a request comes for something on Oregon coast Indians I do this historical presentation myself. 

-March 30 and 31, 1976 Siletz Restoration Hearings

Following the Indian Education Act of 1972, schools received federal funding to provide educational and cultural support to Native students. Springfield Public Schools began a Title IV Indian Education program around 1975. In 1978, Pauline estimated that about 200 Native students were enrolled in the district. Today, the Springfield Public Schools still operates as the Title VII Indian Education program, serving students and families at the Chifin Native Youth Center.

Image Credits (clockwise from top right): Smoke Signals, May 1, 1989; Oregon Daily Emerald, Feb 23, 1989; University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives; Smoke Signals, Mar 15, 1997

The newspaper clipping on this page gives the schedule for “Celebrating Traditions,” an annual Native American arts and culture festival held in Alton Baker Park.

Operating as a non-profit, “Celebrating Traditions” is an example of Native programming organized in the 1990s. Performers and instructors from a variety of tribal backgrounds attended to share their knowledge with both Native attendees and the non-Native public.

Image Credit: Leo White Horse; Register Guard August 25, 1995
 

Al Smith (Klamath Tribes) was born at Modoc Point, Oregon in 1919. He was working as an alcohol and drug counselor in Roseburg when he was fired from his job in 1984 after ingesting peyote in a religious ceremony at a Native American Church gathering.

Al, who lived in Glenwood in his later years, challenged his firing, eventually taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court over the course of several years. Al’s persistence helped pass the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1993.

Al’s daughter, Kai’la Farrell-Smith, is a contemporary visual artist, writer, and activist. Kai’la was a featured artist at Ditch Projects Gallery in Springfield in 2021. A collection of her paintings titled Ghost Rider: Performing Fugitive Indigeneity was shared as part of the gallery’s 2019-2021 Land Back series. Kai’la is pictured to the right celebrating with her father and brother Lalek after the bill was signed.  Image Credit: Register-Guard, Nov 7, 1993

Wilma Crowe remembers:

It took about twenty-five years to get the [new] longhouse at the University [of Oregon]. I didn’t think we were ever going to get a new longhouse til [UO President] Dave Frohnmeyer walked through there one time, and, um, I said, ‘You’d better not go into that back room, or you’ll fall through.’ And when he went back there he said, ‘This is a disgrace.’ And I said, ‘Well, we’ve been trying to tell you that for twelve years.’ So we finally got enough money and built a new longhouse. -Oral History Interview, Nov 12, 2007 and Dec 3, 2007, Lane County Historical Society and Museum. Image Credits: Megan England

Gordon Bettles (qaW' s?os?att'is) was an enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes who relocated from Klamath County to Eugene, Oregon in 2001 to pursue a Master's Degree at the University of Oregon.

Prior to his work at the University, many were unaware of Bettles' foundational contributions to the Klamath Tribes' language revitalization efforts as the Director of the Klamath Tribes Culture and Heritage Department.

During this time, Gordon dedicated himself not only to learning the language, but to reviving it - teaching and guiding post-Termination Era Klamath language programs. To accomplish this vital work, he empowered many Klamath tribal elders, who were survivors of Indian boarding schools, to feel safe speaking and sharing their language again.

His efforts culminated in the reprinting of 100 sets of the Klamath Barker dictionary, grammar, and textbooks, as well as the development of the ew?siknii? hemkanks, Klamath Words & Phrases book, in collaboration with the University of Oregon's Linguistics Department.

-Text and image provided by Jolene, Flo, and Jason Bettles
 

While at the University of Oregon, Gordon Bettles pursued a multidisciplinary Master's program focused on Anthropology, Linguistics, and International Studies. After graduation, he became the first steward of the Many Nations Longhouse (2003-2015), overseeing its construction and carrying on the vision of prior Indigenous academics like Dr. Robert Proudfoot.

As Longhouse Steward, Gordon took pride in creating a welcoming environment for Indigenous students, faculty, and alumni, spending significant time supporting the development of contemporary and future Indigenous community leaders. - Text provided by Jolene, Flo, and Jason Bettles

Gordon is pictured in the 2003 photo to the right with UO grad student Jason Younker, who is now Chief of the Coquille Indian Tribe and an administrator and tribal government liaison at the University of Oregon. Image Credit: Register Guard, June 23, 2003.

During Gordon’s time at the university, he served as a student project advisor (2012-2014) and collaborated with Lundquist College of Business students on the Oregon Flagpole Project at the EMU.

He also played a critical role in establishing the University of Oregon's Mother's Day Powwow as an Oregon Heritage Event. 

In 2013, Gordon took on the additional role of Director of Native American Initiatives, continuing his ongoing responsibilities and mentorship of NASU students at the Many Nations Longhouse.

Today, the Many Nations Longhouse remains an important and integral part of student life for Indigenous students at the University of Oregon. - Text provided by Jolene, Flo, and Jason Bettles

After years of advocacy from local leaders like Wilma Crowe, Robert Proudfoot, and Gordon Bettles, the longhouse was opened in 2004. A piece of the old, dilapidated longhouse was saved and incorporated into the new building. Image Credit: Megan England

Frank Merrill (Karuk) helped organize a Native American Student Association on LCC campus in the early 1970s. He was a student at the time, and he also worked in the counseling department. Five students attended the first meeting, which was held in the LCC cafeteria.

Frank was hired as the college’s first Native Student Coordinator in 1993, and he founded the Native American Program at Lane. From 1994 on, he was a long-time advocate for the construction of the LCC Longhouse, giving presentations about the importance of the project and seeking funding and support. He retired in 2003 after 32 years of work for LCC but has remained active in community events. Image Credit: Spilyay Tymoo, Nov 25, 1992

Frank remembers: 

“When I came here, the doors were not open. It took a lot of belief and support to build this program. For five years, my family supported me as I cooked in my home for pow-wow. The school wouldn’t let us use the facilities here.” - Interview, “Lane Community Longhouse opens doors,” Smoke Signals, 12-15-2010. In preparation for the LCC pow-wow, Frank and his family cooked food for up to 1000 people during this period and transported everything to campus themselves.

Frank began advocating for a dedicated longhouse space in the early 1990s. The school board formally committed to building a longhouse in 1995, and the longhouse was completed in 2010. Lane Community College was the first non-tribal community college in the state and the second in the nation to have a longhouse on campus.

Lumber for the project was sourced from the Coquille Indian Tribe. Cedar logs were donated from forests within the Sweet Home Ranger District.

Frank Merrill remembers:

When we had that last meeting [with the Education Board], asking to build this longhouse, It wasn’t until I stood my granddaughter and grandson [...] I stood them up, one was 5 and the other was 7 or probably 9 or 10. and I told the board, you tell my grandkids, when they come to college here,  why there ain’t a longhouse on this campus. And in a few minutes the vote was turned in, that we’ll build this longhouse…

[...] For 13 years I did a presentation every Monday night because I believed that with the new way of living, with all your technology, and all the things that you need to learn about, [with] our Indian people coming to this college, they also had to remember who they was, and how they lived, and how our ancestors passed down generation from generation the things that we learn. - May 21, 2018 Dedication speech, Frank Merrill Veterans Memorial Garden. Image Credit: Megan England
 

Image Credit: Siletz News, April 1, 2016

Frank Merrill remembers: 

I wanted this longhouse sitting out on this point [...] when we had our pow-wows and people came from Montana and as far away as Reno and Nevada and all over [...] 

Some of them never even heard of Lane Community College until we introduced the pow-wow to this campus, and then next thing you know they’d be sending their kids here.

- May 21, 2018 Dedication speech, Frank Merrill Veterans Memorial Garden. 
 

A “Pathway of the Tribes” encircles the LCC Longhouse, with over 100 species of native plants. Each of the nine federally recognized Oregon tribes selected one or two plants to represent their presence on the grounds. To the bottom left is a plaque marking the plant chosen to represent the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation. The plant names on each plaque are shared in the tribe’s heritage language, as well in Chinuk Wawa, a shared trade language which was historically spoken among Pacific Northwest tribes.

Since 2006, Lane Community College has partnered with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde to offer Chinuk Wawa classes to students.

The Chifin Native Youth Center opened in 2014 as a dedicated space for Native students and families in the Springfield Public Schools District. The center was created from an unused portion of Two Rivers-Dos Rios Elementary School.

Prior to the center’s opening, the Springfield Indian Education program utilized other spaces throughout the district such as the Brattain House and Springfield High School. The center was named in honor of the Chifin band of Kalapuya people. As of 2024, it serves more than 200 Native students and families in Springfield representing 50+ tribes.

Leilani Sabzalian, a former Springfield Indian Ed leader, reflects:

We have a center in the middle of the community, it's like a hub, it's a gathering spot for Native community and cultural activities and gathering. And so that's a big difference just to have, you know, former [Indian Education] coordinators like Virgil Martin, but then [also] Mitch Wilkinson who was running the program, they were operating out of, like, broom closets and boiler rooms in the district office, you know? And so to kind of go from the margins, to having Indigenous education be such a central place in the community and the district, I think that's a, that's a big change.

-2024 Illuminations Interview, Springfield History Museum.  Image Credit: Megan England

Below are the names of some of the Native leaders have shaped the K-12 Indian Education programs in the Eugene-Springfield area over the years:

• James Florendo
• Virgil and Shane Martin
• Twila Souers
• Greg Archuleta
• Mitch Wilkinson
• Brenda Brainard
• Nick Sixkiller
• Leilani Sabzalian
• Dawn Malliett

…and many more…
 

In 2017, Springfield Mayor Christine Lundberg issued a proclamation recognizing the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

To commemorate the day, city leaders at Springfield City Hall raised the flags of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, who represent the earliest-known inhabitants of western Oregon. 

Students from the Chifin Native Youth Center were active in the efforts to adopt Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Eugene and Springfield. People from Citywide MEChA as well as the broader Native community were also involved.

In 2021, the State of Oregon adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day to recognize the history and significance of Oregon tribes.
 

The Kalapuya Talking Stones are one of several contemporary projects that honor Kalapuya language and heritage. They line the walking paths of the Whilamut Natural Area in Eugene and the Eastgate Woodlands in Springfield.

Each stone shares a place-based Kalapuya word, reminding visitors that these areas are the ancestral homelands of the Kalapuya people. 

Eleven stones were installed in 2003, and an additional four stones were installed in 2011. Esther Stutzman (Yoncalla Kalapuya) served as a project advisor and selected the names for the stones.

Esther Stutzman reflects:

It’s permanence. Where once (culture) had been taken away with people being moved to the reservation and the language being gone and the customs being gone, now the words are coming back. And the words are in stone, which is very enduring... 

- Interview, “Tribe’s presence etched in stone.” Register Guard, June 2, 2003. Image Credit: Megan England
 

The Kalapuya Dictionaries are available to view at the Springfield History Museum. Image Credit: Leo White Horse

By the twentieth century, the aftermath of disease epidemics, removal to reservations, and English-only policies in Indian boarding schools had led to the decline of Indigenous languages all over North America. 

In the midcentury, there were no known fluent speakers of Kalapuyan, although some descendants retained fragments of the language from their elders. 

 In 2021, a four-volume Kalapuya Dictionary set was completed to support language learning. Formed from archival language materials and in consultation with tribal members, the collection provides insight into the language’s distinct dialects, as well as local geographic and cultural perspective. 

The project was authored by the linguist Paul McCartney with support from David Lewis and members of the Stutzman family.
 

Local and regional tribes are working hard to develop environmental stewardship programs and pass on traditional knowledge to younger generations. Below are some of the recent projects that Native people have organized in the Eugene-Springfield area:

• Prescribed burns in partnership with community partners 
• Habitat restoration projects
• Community work parties
• Seed collection, propagation, and harvesting of culturally-significant plants
• Youth education and outdoor schools
• Developing traditional foods programs
• Reacquiring tribal lands and developing land management programs

The photograph to the right shows a child from the Siletz community preparing to plant camas seeds in the Camp Creek area.  Image Credit: Jessica Hibler
 

Education centers remain prominent gathering places for Indigenous and Native people in Springfield and Eugene. Below are some examples of the local programs and gathering spaces that remain important in the Native community today:

• Chifin Native Youth Center & Springfield Indian Education program
• Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians Eugene Area Office
• Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians Eugene Area Office (formerly located in Springfield)
• Eugene 4J Natives
• Illioo Native Theater 
• Ko-Kwel Wellness Center
• Lane County Natives
• Lane ESD Native Youth Wellness Program

• LCC Chinuk Wawa language program
• LCC Native American Student Association
• Native American Arts and Crafts Market
• Northwest Indigenous Language Institute (NILI)
• UO Many Nations Longhouse & NASU 
• UO Native Alumni Association 
• UO Native American Law Student Association
• UO Sapsik Wala teaching program

Six decades of Native people coming together and organizing cultural events have created a vibrant community in the Eugene-Springfield area. Today, people from tribes across Oregon and the nation are contributing to Springfield and the surrounding area in fields like education, language revitalization, ecological stewardship, business, and the arts. They are also supporting each other in studying Indigenous languages, carrying on traditions to younger generations, and advocating on behalf of their tribal communities.

David Lewis reflects on the work that the Grand Ronde community has had to undertake:

[...there are many people] in the tribe striving to understand our colonization, promote healing, make it possible for the next generation to be culturally conscious, and know how to speak a Native language and practice our traditions. The process of restoring our culture will take decades, but it is vital for the welfare of our people in the future. 

- Introduction, Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley, 2023. Image Credits: Springfield Public Library; Native Youth Wellness Program; Jessica Hibler

Today, there are nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon.

People from all of these tribes live, work, and attend school in Springfield today. People with ancestry from many other tribes across the Pacific Northwest and nation also call Springfield home.