VOL. 47, ISSUE 23
FREE
NOVEMBER 10, 2023
CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
The Stormy Weather Arts Festival: The Love of Art and Imagination By DEB ATIYEH
T
he 36th Annual Stormy Weather Arts Festival lived up to it’s expectation of stormy weather, art, music and inspiration.
The first night of the Arts Festival included many events at multiple venues throughout town. An event at the Cannon Beach Community Church included pianist David Robinson playing
music while his son, nature cinematographer Thomas Robinson, showed his “Journey into Nature”, in an amazing journey of natural beauty and serenely beautiful piano music.
The rest of the weekend showcased local galleries in a mesmerizing, contemplative, colorful reflection of nature that inspires the art, wonder and beauty of Cannon Beach. People strolled throughout
town with family and friends while experiencing amazing art and creativity everywhere they wandered. Thank you to the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce for hosting such a wonderful event!
PHOTOS BY DEB ATIYEH
Clatsop-Nehalem Tribe to Share History of Homeland By DAVID STOWE
N
ative American History Month is a good time to reflect and acknowledge the Clatsop-Nehalem Tribal people who lived here on the North Coast of Oregon since time immemorial, and continue to live in the region to this day. It is a good time to learn more of their history, accomplishments, and relationships with the natural environment, as well as to recognize the organizations, groups and individuals who share many of the same traditional native values. To understand what Cannon Beach means as a homeland, you must imagine the Clatsop Nehalem people living here in longhouses made of cedar planks deep
in the protective forest, along riversides, and fronting ocean beaches. Our ancestors dwelled here in the winter months, having winter ceremonies and preparing supplies and clothing for the warmer months. In the spring and summer, our ancestors harvested and preserved foods for the dark and rainy winter months. They traveled mainly by canoes that were carved from solid cedar logs, and hosted other tribes paddling similar canoes along the coastline. The Clatsop-Nehalem people also made long ocean voyages, sometimes as far south as San Francisco Bay, sometimes to the Seattle area and beyond in the north. The canoe culture continues to this day. Over the last 15 years, the tribe’s canoe family
Jolene Erickson, Chairwoman Joe & Macel Scovell (Jolene’s Mom & Dad) Joe was the most recent Hereditary Chief of the Clatsop-Nehalem people
has taken their canoe, “Dragonfly” to many far-off places to celebrate the canoe culture, and keep their relationships with other coastal tribes alive. The Tribe’s Dragonfly is the first traditional canoe to be carved on the Oregon coast in well over a century. Lewis and Clark reported Clatsop-Nehalem people’s numbers in the hundreds in the early 1800’s, but that was after several generations of European contact, with Spanish explorers and Russian fur traders bringing us the gifts of smallpox, influenza, and other diseases that had decimated our population prior to Lewis and Clark’s “voyage of discovery,” which allowed them to discover that were here already. Americans came later, bearing the gift of a treaty that took away most of our homeland and “gave” us tiny reservations on our own land; the treaty was never ratified by Congress and we were left to fend for ourselves. In spite of insurmountable odds our people, our culture, our values have survived. Many of our people had to leave this land, moving to distant cities and towns to survive, and many others stayed. Our Hereditary Chief, Joe Scovell, worked tirelessly to make sure our people survived as a tribe. Joe’s great-grandmother was born in a village in Cannon Beach, where the pristine water of Ecola Creek ran from the mountains and ancient forests to the sea. Later a school was
built atop the remains of this special place. Joe grew up speaking Nehalem-Tillamook as his first language and was instrumental in having us incorporated as a Tribe to give us legal status. Joe was determined to not have us go “poof” and disappear. Joe’s daughter, Jolene Erickson is the current Chairwoman of the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes, is leading the hard yet rewarding work to continue the relationship to the lands, and to pass down our memories, culture, and values to the next generation. For years, the City of Cannon Beach, the Cannon Beach History Center, the Ecola Creek Awareness Project, the North Coast Land Conservancy, and other people and institutions in the town have been welcome partners in helping make this possible. The communities and museums of Clatsop and Tillamook counties, and even the State and National Parks, have been friends in this journey, and our effort to preserve our culture and the lands and waters that have sustained us from the beginning of time. Curiously, the Native American “Gathering” planned for Cannon Beach on November 10-13 has been organized with little involvement or input from the Native peoples from this place, instead inviting others to provide entertainment and share their cultures who are from distant parts of North America. We may all learn
from this event, but observers will learn little about the people of Cannon Beach and their traditional homelands, or any other nearby tribe. Though Clatsop Nehalem is not participating in the larger Gathering, we take this opportunity to share out story at the Cannon Beach History Center during the same weekend. We, the members of the Clatsop Nehalem Confederated Tribes are always eager to share a small piece of our history as a time of remembrance of the struggles we have had, but also to again honor our relationship with the beautiful North Coast of Oregon. We give thanks to all those who contribute to our common love for the lands, and the work to keep the richness of the homeland of the
Clatsop Nehalem Confederated Tribes alive and vibrant, from the mountains to the ocean. Next November, we will be working with ECAP (Ecola Creek Awareness Project) and other local organizations to co-sponsor the return of the First Salmon Celebration. And we also wish to show our respect, and sense of common purpose, with all neighbors who also share the deep love for the animals, the deer, elk, birds, to the smallest blade of grass. We are all one. To learn more, we invite you to come visit the Cannon Beach History Center on Saturday November 11, 2023, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. We are eager to share our story with you.
Nancy Gervais: great-great aunt of David Stowe