Day 10 blog: Native plant nursery moring. then Museum

July 18^th: 

This morning started off at 6:20 am. I wanted to be up at least ten minutes before the actual time we have our instructor come through to tap the tent with a “good morning”. It is pretty much a “good morning” check to make sure we are awake. If you don’t answer, they will come back until you answer.

Walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night isn’t so bad here than it was at Deschutes. Deschutes, was a private campground where it was locked at the gate at night, no other people around, and the reality of bears was constant. So constant, and closed, we had to take out our garbage everyday, as well as include anything that had a scent left in the vehicle, or, given to our instructors to store in the R.V. or on the surburban.

This morning we started around 7 to wake up. Today is more comfortable. I am enjoying the days as they go on here. It is not so cold nor is it too hot. Last week before this trip I had many weather warnings of a tremendous heat wave that was supposed to be really hot. Its nice and breezy. This morning, there were about three turkeys and maybe 15-20 baby turkey nuggets following around them ten to 15 feet of our eating area. They were very close. I was getting something out if my bag and Dr. Schuster let me know everyone left to go do water samples. I didn’t know we were going there at the time, so I caught up. It was a flow meter, and the water level was 0.47 meters per second. After coming back into camp, we loaded up our things and went to the fish hatchery which is only down the road. That was nice considering it did not take an hour to two hours to arrive, just down the raod. That takes less energy to do so.

Being here in Harris Park is nice, except there are no showers. It’s definitely  a step up from Deschutes. Less mosquitos, more people. I’ve harvested deer , at the longhouse, the shaker church, and at family dinners when my uncles would bring in a deer or elk, to skin and clean. Its NOT FUN seeing the easiest deer around here be dumb enough to walk up to people and eat bread. Its almost too easy, but it’s a park. Its not fun seeing the wild turkey either. I keep mentioning it to my classmates that are hunters, we can’t help but joke. We feel bad for the vegetarian though. We have good knives too. It would take no more than 30 minutes to dress it. But nope, we can’t. (or, get caught doing so). its not fun seeing dumb game, it looks so delicious. 

Today we went to the Tribal Native Plant Nursery. Gail was the Manger and she had started out as a tech 2 position for the tribe. Umatilla does express their right for tribal preference but of course, just as the Yakama Tribe also exercises the right, she was chosen best for the job. The Nursery has had a rough few years since starting in 1996. The program was almost dropped many times. Most of the new rotating directors kept moving it from wildlife to other programs, then finally it was moved under an enterprise. The issue with that was the nursery is not necessary making enough money to be labeled as an enterprise and is having a hard time .The next step is trying to get it under wildlife, where all the nursery plants can be easily justified, but hopefully it will continue.

The plants at the nursery were exactly what was in the name. The growth of the plants are native to the area and some are used in projects such as restoration. A lot of plants are used such as willow, ponderosa pine, willow, dogwood, chokecherries, goldenrod flowers, sage, wild rice, and many other various vegetation. The trade-off for attending and seeing the facility, was to put in labor. Apparently, it is a fair trade to do so, so, gardening clippings from the nine-bark plant. The clippings needed to be 7 limbs leaves along the branch, and then cut straight across the top, and angled at the bottom. After we did that, all seven of us including our instructors, we dipped the angled bottom clippings into root growth  powder medicine and transplanted it for them. We accomplished that within an hour or so and we filled two trays each, 98 trays in each one.

The afternoon we went to the Pendleton Museum of the Umatilla. Upon entering, there is a a large circle corridor to the right that has a mural of Celilo Falls, it had dedication plates in the shape of salmon with members names on it. The dedications ended five years ago. The plates are set as if the salmon plates are going up river of a large wall of the mural. . The structure is like a cabin-like structure throughout. The museum Farther to the right is two entrances, the first is a limited series where the pieces are on display for a limited time, The second is straight on, with petroglyph display imitating the Umatilla petroglyphs. The following though the door has a display lodge house, longhouse with a bench surrounding the right and the front sides, with a glass display of pieces, as well as a mammoth tooth. The area has recordings of elders telling their stories. The rest of the areas had different wings, with dresses, regalia, mens regalia, horse regalia displays, and baskets.

The next portion is a church-like entrance. It represents the residential school era in history which is, despite reconciliation, is not  enough. The stories that are overhead as you walk around, are the real stories of elders that experienced the pain, abuse, and amongst toerh s/a survivor stories that were done in these residential schools, it is a timeline of the Umatilla. The most striking display is a life size picture, full size, so you can see how tall and old the children actually were, and the display being life size, is so extremely striking. Just knowing those children were stolen from their families, legally abducted from their families, by the police and government, sent away from their families, and then, just for existing, asking questions, were beaten. There are many other displays and some things in the display that are not so dark, that show the children happy, at least, they appear to.  Yet, knowing firsthand accounts of my own elders, I know different.There is also overhead recordings of the abuse from survivors. It is comparable to the holocaust , the grief feeling. 

 The museum continues, into other displays throughout the years and features the Umatilla Fish Hatchery, which we visited the other day. It also features the restoration project, 5 minute stories of warriors, elders, veterans, and a mini theater of the Umatilla people and who they are. I left with my classmate before the last displays to add in more time for the museum as we did not get to some of the last few displays. Time well spent. After, we left back to the campground and had dinner, called it a night.