© 2002
The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
All rights reserved

Send us an email

Display Advertising
This is a PDF file. View with Adobe Acrobat Reader. 

The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Sisters festival showcases cultures
By Shawn Strannigan

"Long Claw" (Ronn Wilson) offered insight into the lives of Northwest Coastal Indians.

Sisters' first Western and Native American Arts Festival offered a vivid glimpse of western pioneer and Native American cultures.

"We want to showcase the best of both worlds," said Jan Nichols, event coordinator for the Sisters Area Chamber Of Commerce, which sponsored the event.

"We have cowboy music, tribal dances, Native American flutists, and even mounted bandits. We've tried to offer a venue for vendors to display their western and Native American crafts.

"There are quite a number of Native American cultures in this area and we wanted to embrace and pull in as many as we can."

Allan Byer crooned cowboy tunes in the background as festival attendees checked out the crafts, as well as several vendors offering "cowboy vittles and Indian fare."

Demonstrations, ranging from chipping arrowheads to carving cedar masks, gave the curious a chance to experience different cultures in a hands-on sort of way.

A circle of children gathered around Josh Smith, from Springfield, who demonstrated his special technique for fashioning arrowheads.

"I use a piece of deerhorn to chip the obsidian," said Smith. "I'm self-taught -- I found a broken arrowhead when I was seven and just started chipping away.

"The technique actually came to me in dreams," he said. "I've made thousands over the years."

Across the park from Smith, Gray Eagle and his wife, Finds Her Way, offered a glimpse into their Native American heritage.

Gray Eagle sat outside the cooking tent, dressed in mountain man garb.

Finds Her Way crouched in the teepee next door, helping children make beaded bracelets.

"We call ourselves 'a village of learning,'" said Finds Her Way, who is of Cherokee descent.

"There are several of us who travel around doing fairs, school assemblies and camps. We provide education about our native/pioneer heritage.

"This is all authentic," she said, motioning around the teepee. "I made the pine needle baskets and gourd rattle. The hides have been passed down through my family."

Long Claw, otherwise known as Ronn Wilson, manned the long lodge next to Finds Her Way's teepee. He has been educating others about his Native American roots for the past 25 years.

At the festival, Wilson offered a glimpse of his program, "Of Cedar and Salmon," which is a multicultural, educational program designed to encourage student involvement with native art and culture of the Pacific Northwest.

John Salisbury, a.k.a. "Preacher," is another member of the "Village." At his booth, he taught the rudiments of leather sewing and Dutch oven cooking.

"The Village gave me my name," said Salisbury.

"I guess I have the reputation of being a preacher as well as a teacher, so that's the name that was chosen for me."

Salisbury is a semi-retired eighth-grade teacher from Oregon City.

For the past 15 years, he's taken his students on field trips from Missouri to Japan to expose them to different cultures.

"You can't just teach about other cultures from a book," he said. "They need to experience it."

Five-year-old Claire Strannigan, who was visiting from Everett, Washington, enjoyed her festival experience.

"My favorite part was crawling into the teepee and seeing all the dead animals," said Strannigan.

Back to front page