Shawna Gavin, General Council Secretary and Native American Religious Services volunteer, gifts Mable Jackson with a necklace after she shared the story of getting her Indian name at Two Rivers Correctional Institution.
CUJ photos/Jill-Marie Gavin
frybread for inmates and their families at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Facility Pow Wow May 18.
cident the other to violence. At the end of her rope, spiritually and emotionally, Mable found herself alone and in a dark place in prison. Through therapy and her time in the sweat, smudging and prayer, she was able to address her lifetime of abuse and trauma. She said, “When I met Trish and Tawna (Tawna men are starving, Sanchez now a Democratic in Portland) . They need their Representative in 2001 I participated in my oods to feed their first sweat lodge ceremony. up you’re taught Ancestors...’ Growing not to talk about sexual xecutive Director of Red Lodge abuse, but after smudging, ional Services in Portland, OR participating in talking circles and going through treatment I was finally able to talk about what had happened to me.” Mable looked up to Jordan and said, with her help, she was able to envision a new life with new opportunities. She was released in 2011 and has since completed two Associate Degrees and plans on going forward to become an addiction counselor. She graduated in 2016 alongside her son; that moment is something she will always attribute to the intervention of Red Lodge. Mable is now a card-carrying volunteer at Deer Ridge where she volunteers
hers, husbands and friends incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional eely with their loved ones as they can only sit during regular visitation.
June 2019
with the Native men and is celebrating her eighth year of sobriety. Last month Mable completed the orientation at Two Rivers Correctional Institution . During her latest visit to Two Rivers, while escorting two Lakota elders from South Dakota, she received her Indian name. During the EOCI Pow Wow, May 18, Mable was gifted with a woven necklace from fellow volunteer Shawna Gavin, enrolled CTUIR. Gavin, General Council Secretary, began volunteering after her brother Michael Ray Johnson, General Council Vice Chair, was asked to serve as master of ceremonies at one of the prison pow wows. Her first experience at a prison pow wow was about five years ago at EOCI. Her first time volunteering really resonated with her and became something she wanted to continue doing. “I think it’s so important for inmates to have someone in their life willing to help them exercise their treaty-protected rights, such as religious services, first foods, Washat and all those traditional things. They’re paying their debt to society and it’s important for them to have these opportunities,” she said. Unfortunately, Gavin said the Oregon Department of Corrections does not understand the rights and culture of Native inmates. Maybe not at an administrative and state-wide level, Gavin noted, but there are facilities where religious services are suppressed. The Indigenous men and women in the system are treated as if they are seeking special treatment rather than their treaty and constitutional protected rights, Gavin said. This sentiment was echoed by Jordan who said though great strides have been taken in the right direction, sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back. For instance, the victory of getting first foods into the prisons was exciting, but this year Red Lodge was notified that the ODOC will no longer allow first foods to be cooked or stored in their facility. Now instead of being able to collect donations of fish and other first foods from tribes across the state and cook them in the kitchens with inmates in preparation for ceremonies and pow wows they now have to either be prepared in advance or outdoors at the facilities. As Jordan stood flipping frybread in the yard at EOCI
Confederated Umatilla Journal
Tiwahnee Sahme, who goes by “T” served as an MC for the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute 2019 Pow Wow, May 18. He recalled the freedom that annual pow wows brought him when he was an Oregon inmate.
she explained that support from Tribal governments in reinforcing the importance of their work is the only thing that will help them accomplish their goals in a timely manner. “We’re just a small group, we don’t have the clout the way the tribes do with the State (of Oregon),” she said. Native American men are incarcerated at a rate 38 percent higher than White men; Native American women are incarcerated at six times the rate of white women, according to a report compiled by the Lakota People’s Law Project, and Jordan wants the tribes to understand that the inmates behind bars, being denied their rights as Indigenous people, are often tribal members from the nine tribes of Oregon. Regardless of the hang-ups and obstacles Red Lodge and Jordan encounter, the group is determined to keep the mission moving, not for themselves but for the inmates who experience freedom one drum beat at a time. Inmate after inmate expressed that they feel the most liberated on pow wow day. Especially those with release dates decades into the future. The pow wow provides them the motivation to keep going according to Steven Anderson, currently serving 23 years for manslaughter. Anderson, enrolled Yakama, is six years into his sentence and said many times his only comfort has been the sound of Washat songs in his head. He only gets to sing them with other people when he attends sweat, which is scheduled once a month but due to lack of volunteers sometimes doesn’t happen for months at a time. Once a year Anderson is able to taste salmon, roots and berries and he doesn’t take that for granted. He said being able to participate in those traditional practices, the taste, smells and sounds bring him home at least for a little while. Once the pow wow ends Anderson and all the other inmates return to their daily routines, but the experience of laughter, dancing and singing goes with them back to their cells and they try to hold onto it while they wait until next year. “I’m truly grateful for Trish, for her effort and her hard work, all that she does for us inmates. I honestly think I can speak for everyone else, she brings us a piece of home year after year,” Anderson said.
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