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Culture Watchlist: ‘Oregon Experience – ‘Broken Treaties’ documentary’ 03.31.2022 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist Oregon Public Radio’s award-winning television series “Oregon Experience” shares the histories and issues that shaped the Oregon we live in today. One aspect of Oregon’s story is the continued presence of its Native American peoples. In November 2020, OPB published an hour-long documentary to YouTube called “Broken Treaties.” Following …

Culture Watchlist: ‘Indigenous families seek justice for boarding school abuse’ 04.14.2022 Kamiah Koch Watchlist Graphic by Samuel Briggs III By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist Just 37 miles east of the Grand Ronde Reservation sits the Chemawa Indian Boarding School. The Salem school’s dark history was shared on the ABC News YouTube channel on April 1, 2022. Marsha Small is from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and a doctoral student at Montana State University. Small and her team use …

Culture Watchlist: ‘Camas. Gathering Wild Food of the Pacific Northwest: Camassia’ 05.12.2022 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist As you can see by the stories and photos in this edition, Smoke Signals staff has attended several events this month celebrating the Native American first food camas. At these different events, Cultural Policy Analyst Greg Archuleta and Nursery Manager Jeremy Ojua shared how Native people traditionally harvested camas bulbs. But I …

Culture Watchlist: ‘The Forest Grove Indian Training School, 1880 – 1885’ 05.31.2022 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist An article in this edition of Smoke Signals called “Indian boarding school report includes Grand Ronde location” has a companion video on our YouTube channel where we visit three federal Indian boarding school sites in Oregon listed in the Department of Interior’s report. In the video, Smoke Signals visited Chemawa Indian School, the site …

Culture Watchlist: ‘What We Can Learn About #LandBack From These Native American Comedies’ 06.29.2022 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist PBS introduced a new series called “Historian’s Take” to its PBS Origins YouTube channel in April 2022. In the latest 10-minute episode, “Historian’s Take” compares Native American representation in television during the 20th century versus the representation we see today. The episode introduces Tai Leclaire, a Mohawk actor …

Culture Watchlist: ‘Is Celilo Falls still intact?’ 03.14.2023 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist Over the years, Oregon, Washington and Idaho Tribes have questioned, “What happened to Celilo Falls when the Army Corps of Engineers built Dalles Dam?” In 2008, Oregon Public Broadcasting produced a video for its Oregon Field Guide channel answering that question. “For thousands of years, Native Americans had crossed Tribal boundaries, traveled from across …

Culture Watchlist: ‘Colorado Experience: Native Horses’ 05.31.2023 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist The debate on whether horses were used by Native Americans before or after Spanish contact is finally being answered. Rocky Mountain PBS published a video to its YouTube channel compiling the research archaeologists have done in the last few decades that has changed what was previously thought and taught about the history of horses in North America …

Culture Watchlist: ‘Native American Food Sovereignty, Explained’ 07.12.2024 Kamiah Koch Culture , Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist As the summer sun shines, plants like corn, berries and squash are growing and beginning to ripen here in the Willamette Valley. According to Mohawk and Mi’Kmaq Tribal member Tai LeClaire, Indigenous agricultural systems have contributed more than 60% of all the food that is consumed today. It includes foods like the corn, berries and squash …

Culture Watchlist: ‘Chinookan Plank Houses - Native American Domestic Architecture & Culture’ 02.14.2023 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist As many Tribal members know, wintertime is a time for “ikanum” or storytelling. The Grand Ronde Tribe annually hosts a story night in the achaf-hammi plankhouse to continue this tradition. Other Pacific Northwest Tribes host events in their respective plankhouses during the cold months. One plankhouse in the region belongs …

Culture Watchlist: ‘Native American fashion aims to reclaim its culture with authentic designs’ 06.14.2023 Kamiah Koch Watchlist By Kamiah Koch Social media/digital journalist Coincidently, four days before Smoke Signals published a video on Friday, June 2, explaining how to make a ribbon skirt, PBS News Hour shared a video on a growing resurgence in Native American clothing designs. Kaomi Lee, the narrator of the PBS video and a reporter for Twin Cities PBS, introduces Adrienne Benjamin …