EDITORS NOTE: The potlatch is an invitation-only event, but journalists are welcome to cover the story. For a complete schedule, contact the UO Office of Communications, (541) 346-3134.

EUGENE–A groundbreaking partnership between the University of Oregon and 45 Western Indian tribes will be celebrated Saturday, June 9, at the first ceremonial potlatch held by these tribes in at least 150 years.

The potlatch–a Native American gift-giving ceremony–will be held on the UO campus and marks the growth of a unique collaborative project initiated in 1995 by UO researchers and the Coquille Indian Tribe. Representatives from all 45 tribes are expected to attend the potlatch as will UO President Dave Frohnmayer.

The Saturday ceremony will celebrate the work of the UO’s Southwest Oregon Research Project (SWORP). In the past six years, SWORP researchers have recovered more than 100,000 long-forgotten official documents that chronicle the history of Oregon’s indigenous people after the arrival of European settlers in Oregon.

"History books don’t tell you that U.S. Army troops rounded up the majority of the Indians who lived on Oregon’s coast during the mid 1850s and then drove them on a forced march to a distant reservation," says Jason Younker, a UO graduate student and Coquille Tribe member. "It was the final act in a campaign that nearly decimated Oregon’s native people. You won’t read about it in any official history of the state."

Younker was one of the Indian scholars who traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1995 to document their lost history by searching through the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives.

During that trip, the researchers recovered 60,000 pages of military documents, maps and microfilm documenting the history of Native Americans after the arrival of Europeans in the Northwest Territory. A second trip in 1999 yielded another 50,000 pages of archival material.

SWORP will give transcripts of the documents–copies are part of the permanent collection at the UO Knight Library–to tribal representatives during the potlatch.

"Potlatch is a time, not only of gift-giving, but also of strengthening intergovernmental communication," says Dave Hubin, UO executive assistant president. "The University of Oregon is honored to be a part of this great tradition."

The archival research project is part of a broad-based Native American initiative at the UO entitled "The Oregon Native Initiative." This effort includes support of native language research and plans for construction of a traditional longhouse on the east end of campus for cultural and educational purposes. As part of the initiative, the UO proposed a policy, since adopted by the Oregon University System, that makes resident tuition rates available to members of Native American tribes whose descendants were displaced from their aboriginal Oregon homeland.

—30—

#P-6087/Local,OrDailies,PDX,NativeAmericanMedia