Eight Year Oregon Folklife Survey Complete

By Riki Saltzman, Folklore Specialist and retired Executive Director

When I started at OFN in the spring of 2012, I didn’t know much about Oregon, and I found that there hadn’t been a lot of recent fieldwork to identify and document folk and traditional artists. Under OFN’s then program manager, Emily Hartlerode (acting director), OFN had a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, which lent itself to documenting the master artist culture keepers who were entrusted with passing their cultural traditions to apprentices. And there was some collaborative work with Oregon’s Tribes in process. These were both great ways to document at least some of our state’s traditional knowledge and skills. But OFN needed to get to some deeper and more community-based work to fulfill its role as the state’s designated folk & traditional arts program.

Knute Nemeth an old white man with a grey beard, purple plaid shirt, and tan baseball cap.

Knute Nemeth, commercial fisherman and marine storyteller. Photo, Douglas Manger

OFN’s operational partners—the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Cultural Trust, Historical Society, Oregon State Library, Humanities Oregon, and the Oregon Heritage Commission—agreed that starting a comprehensive, years’ long statewide folklife survey was the way to go. I’d learned in my nearly 18 years as Iowa’s state folklorist and in public folklore positions in several east coasts and southern states that research should drive public programs. Bess Lomax Hawes, the long-time director of the NEA’s Folk & Traditional Arts Program, always emphasized that there was no substitute for fieldwork. Getting out there to talk to communities—from those who have been here since time immemorial to those whose ancestors had come in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the newest of twenty-first-century immigrants—was the best way to learn who the culture keepers were and what their and their communities’ needs might be. Chris D’Arcy, then ED for the OAC and the OCT, recommended that we start with the most underserved and undocumented counties in southern and eastern Oregon: Klamath, Lake, Harney, and Malheur. We talked to folks in the Klamath Tribes and the Burns Paiute Tribe as well as county cultural commissions, historical societies, and local arts organizations. And we looked at census data to determine the cultural background of residents, their occupations, and the local natural resources likely to result in particular kinds of folklife. We also consulted the records of the former Oregon Folklife Program, now digitized at UO SCUA. And then we applied for NEA funding to hire independent folklorists to identify and document those traditional artists who would drive our programming.

Jardin Kazaar is a black man with black glasses and a small white beard on his chin. He is playing on the conga drums.

Jardin Kazaar (African American chef, nurse, storyteller, and musician) plays conga drums. Photo, Douglas Manger

Between 2013 through 2022, we’ve documented well over 400 tradition keepers. The many folklorists we’ve hired over the years (LuAnne Kozma, Douglas Manger, Joe O’Connell, Debbie Fant, Nancy Nusz, Makaela Kroin, Alina Mansfield, Amy Howard, Thomas Grant Richardson) have introduced us to so many incredible Oregon artists, many of whom have taken part in TAAP and public programs in their own communities and Tribes as well as in Salem, Bend, Ontario, and elsewhere. Over half of those interviewed have become part of the Culture Keepers Roster, which enables libraries, arts and cultural organizations, museums, festivals, and schools to access and hire some of the over 250 culture keepers for their programs. OFN’s Culture Fest Partnerships provide yet another way to promote Oregon’s diverse traditional cultures and provides funded partnerships with cultural organizations and Tribes to feature rostered artists—from cooks, saddle makers, quilters, Native basket makers and bead workers, to coopers, Persian storytellers, folklórico dancers, fisherpoets, and more—for public programs.

White hands of a man weaving straw into a basket

Storyteller, Andrew “Drew” Viles (Siletz), weaves baskets and gayu (baby baskets). Photo, Douglas Manger

OFN’s mission also includes educating the next generation of folklorists for which we partner with UO’s Folklife and Public Culture program. One of my great joys has been taking students on fieldtrips with our independent folklorists who provide mentorship in best documentation practices. Students have listened to hair-raising accounts from Columbia River Bar pilots (one of the most dangerous jobs in the world) and learned how to ty flies from anglers, how quilters select fabrics, and how sheep farmers also shear, clean, card, weave, and knit the wool from their own animals. They’ve also experienced witching for water, bidding for pies at a community fund raiser, documented rodeo and cemetery stone carvers, and so much more. Our independent folklorists have been incredibly generous with their knowledge as they introduce emerging folklorists to a vast array of Oregon culture keepers.

Lisa J. Taylor is an old white woman with glasses and grey shoulder length hair sitting in front of her sewing machine.

Lisa J. Taylor is a machine quilter. Photo, Douglas Manger

And then life changed with the pandemic. For the past two years, OFN, like so many organizations, has had to pivot to virtual activities. And I’ve ended up being the one to document culture keepers on Oregon’s south coast (FY21) and this year (FY22) in southern Oregon’s Douglas, Josephine, and Jackson counties and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. Virtual fieldwork starts the same way as in-person—with the demographic data and with press releases, emails, and phone calls. But it also does not include in-person visits, which limits photo documentation as well as long conversations. And not everyone has access to a strong enough signal to make a zoom interview possible. Despite drawbacks, there have been high notes, and I’ve been thrilled to be able to conduct several interviews this past year with quilters and fishing guides as well as a Hawai’ian hula kumu (teacher), ballet folklorico director, basket weaver from the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, stone wall builder, and a Kalapuya drummer, artist, and storyteller. While this kind of fieldwork is not the same as in-person, and I don’t get to drive all over this beautiful state, I do have the opportunity to learn about traditional Mexican musical instruments from a mariachi band leader in Talent and the holistic approach of a vaccaro-style rawhide braider and saddle maker outside of Roseburg. And on days when I’m dragging, there is always the uplifting feeling that I experience when those I’ve been talking to thank me for listening.

bagels on a cooling rack with a small bowl of butter above

Homemade bagels by Stacy Rose, culture keeper of traditional  Israeli foodways and folk dance. Photo, Douglas Manger

 

violin in a hard case sitting on a chair with a guitar in a stand next to the chair.

Instruments of Bob Shaffar, old time, blue grass, and western swing fiddle player and fiddle repairman. Photo, Douglas Manger

I always end an interview by asking people why they do what they do. It’s never about the money; instead, it comes down to their passion for their traditions and cultural heritage, about how they have to do what they do. Whether I’m talking to a steelhead fly-tier and one-time Umpqua River fishing guide, a seamstress who designs and sews both folklórico and quinceañera dresses, a Siletz baby carrier weaver, or an old time musician–it’s always an honor to hear their stories and learn how they continue to keep their cultural heritage alive, which sustains not only the individuals but also their communities and Tribes.

Western Women’s Traditions Featured at High Desert Museum

by Riki Saltzman, Folklorist, High Desert Museum/Folklore Specialist, Oregon Folklife Network

During the weekend of May 14-15, 2022, the High Desert Museum featured three programs with culture keepers from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Lake County, and Grant County. The culmination of nearly two years of documenting traditions in the High Desert and around eastern and central Oregon, these public programs appealed to a wide range of interests. All this was made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk & Traditional Arts program.

Starting off the programs on Saturday, May 14, was a Plateau Beading Workshop with traditional artists H’Klumiat Roberta Kirk and her granddaughter AnposKawín Tashina Eastman.

This three-hour beading workshop went an hour over to teach 20 workshop participants the techniques to create a beaded animal charm suitable for a backpack, keyring, or purse. Participants had a choice of several basic designs, or they could use of their own.

We all quickly learned that simpler was better–and easier! Kirk and Eastman brought with them a large variety of beads and showed everyone how to pull off a strand from the larger bunch; the challenge was not to spill beads everywhere.

Next, they showed us how to wax the cotton twine and then pull a threaded needle through the template, thread 6-8 beads, and then use another needle and twine to tack down the beads after every third or fourth one. This was much more challenging than it looked when these master artists demonstrated.

You have to use both hands, hold down the beads with one, and then keep the second needle and twine separate from the first for tacking.

While many of us were frustrated while we beaded the outline of our designs, eventually we caught on and worked more quickly.

Although no one completed her beaded piece, Kirk and Eastman showed us how to finish them at home by gluing the beadwork to a piece of tanned rawhide and attaching a keyring, then beading the edge, and finally cutting off the excess rawhide for a completed beaded keyring.

Besides patiently showing us all how to do this painstaking beading for a small design, Roberta and Tashina also showed off their own artistry with a display of beaded regalia, from dresses and belts to hair ties and more.

Roberta Kirk is a featured artist on the Oregon Folklife Network’s Culture Keepers Roster and Tashina Eastman will soon be listed as well. Kirk has also received many honors including the (Oregon) Governor’s Art Award (2020), the First People’s Fund Community Spirit Award (2020), and Traditional Arts Recovery Program funding (2022) as well as having served several times as a master artist for Oregon’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

The evening of May 14 featured Western Poet, novelist, and storyteller A.K. Kathy Moss of Prairie City in Grant County. Mentored by Baxter Black and Waddie Mitchell, she is an experienced and lauded cowboy poet and has performed throughout the west including at the Grant County Fair and the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV. The International Western Music Association named Moss the 2021 Female Poet of the Year. She also won their award for the Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year in both 2020 (for “They Come Prancin’”) and 2019 (for “The Truth”). Moss is also featured on the Oregon Culture Keepers Roster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

During her performance at the High Desert Museum, Kathy Moss kept an audience of over 60 attendees riveted with her tales and “cowboy” poems about lady buckaroos, ranchers, cows, and horses ubiquitous to eastern Oregon.

Her moving poetry enthralled audience members with stories about horse training and driving cattle. Moss spoke from own knowledge and experience about riding horses, running cattle, doctoring cattle, and a memorable night searching for and finding a newborn calf. Moss brought to life the many characters she has known, especially the women involved in rawhiding, horse shoeing, night-calving, and cowboying. Her keen ear for language augmented with video Long Hard Ride, song sung by Joni Harms – YouTube from Oregon’s ranch country led her audience through the hills and ranges many of us see only from the road.

Moss also brought several copies of her book series and her award-winning CD to sell and sign.  

The next day, May 15, High Desert Museum visitors had the pleasure of meeting cowboy hat maker, farrier, and cowboy Lisa Robinson from Lakeview in Lake County.

Robinson brought a few of her finished custom hats, talked about her cowboying work, and did some reshaping and hat-steaming for those who brought their hats.

Robinson, who grew up in a cowboying family in south central Oregon, spent the years from 14-40 cowboying and horse shoeing. About 10 years ago, she learned to make quality, custom-made western hats of 100% beaver for working cowboys. She knew from experience that good hat makers who make custom hats are hard to come by, so she set out to learn how with the goal of eventually retiring from her physically demanding work as a farrier. In early 2014 she apprenticed with two skilled master hat makers, Mike Moore who owns Buckaroo Hatters in Tennessee, and JW Hats in Salt Lake.

As she explained to the audience, she doesn’t use wool, rabbit, or blends because they don’t hold up as well.

Beaver hats keep their shape through wet, snow, cold, and hot sun. They don’t bleed dye, and they don’t shrink. As a working cowboy (she and her husband, Paul Robinson, run their own small ranch as well as run cattle for other ranches), she knows the value and necessity of a well-made, well-fitted hat; she tailors her individuals and has her own special identifying mark—dots on the ribbon band, which, along with the look of her beaver felt hats, she can spot from a distance.

Lisa Robinson’s thriving business, Top Knot Hats, builds custom hats and also reshapes, sizes, or refurbishes old ones with new ribbons, sweatbands, and more. Robinson is also on the Oregon Culture Keepers Roster and is available for talks and demonstrations within a hundred miles of Lakeview.

Culture Fest in the Willamette Valley

by Emily Hartlerode, Associate Director

Following each leg of the statewide folklife survey, OFN invites organizations in the surveyed region to partner with us on programs featuring artists from the Culture Keepers Roster. Cheers to our 2020 Culture Fest partners from the Willamette Valley who worked creatively with their $3000 awards to ensure continued cultural programming during the pandemic.

  • Salem Multicultural Institute (SMI)’s World Beat Festival turned their annual live event to a series of Facebook talks, performances, and demonstrations featuring five OFN artists in the World Beat Wednesdays program. “Without the Culture Fest Partnership with OFN, it is difficult to imagine how SMI would have produced cultural programming throughout this summer. To put it simply, this collaboration allowed us to fulfill our mission despite challenging times and to proceed in the face of great uncertainty.”
  • Whiteaker Community Market partnered with Eugene Arte Latino and Noche Cultural to present pre-recorded Latin American music, dance, and performances with livestreamed commentary by four OFN artists as part of the market’s “Cozy & Connected” series. “Many people who have been marginalized do not feel safe in public space or to go to a public market in fear of harassment, cultural appropriation, or exclusion. Funding from OFN to connect market-goers with culture keepers has allowed us to further cultivate our commitment to supporting multicultural artists, musicians, and foodways.”
  • West African Cultural Arts Institute presented six OFN artists in an Oregon Black Artist Spotlight Series presented through blogs plus live and pre-recorded interviews. “Thanks so much for understanding this need to create programs that intentionally give organizational support and exposure to new audiences to marginalized artists as well as an artist honorarium to compensate us for our time, energy, and expertise. […]. Offering artists exposure is not enough and I am so grateful that Culture Fest recognizes this.”
  • McKenzie River Guides gave three recorded interviews for a future exhibit on their place-based livelihoods, tight-knit community, and the ongoing impacts of the Holiday Farm Fire. The exhibit is slated to go on view at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History in the coming year.

Watch for 2021 Culture Fest programs in Oregon’s North and Central coast regions with partners at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center and Columbia River Maritime Museum.

Culture Fest is funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Culture Fest 2019!

Culture Fest partnerships support performances, demonstrations and presentations about Oregon’s living cultural heritage and feature traditional artists who are part of the Oregon Culture Keepers Roster, which provides a curated listing of over 200 folk artists for presenting organizations to work with in planning their programs.

Culture Fest 2019 brings collaborative public programs with diverse culture keepers to six local arts, culture, and heritage organizations around the state in Ontario, Portland, La Grande, Baker City and McMinnville. Completed Culture Fest partnerships include Portland’s 5th Annual New Year in the Park and the McMinnville Library’s El Día de los Niños Fiesta.

On April 27, 2019, OFN partnered with the Hmong American Community of Oregon (Portland) for the 5th Annual New Year in the Park festival. It took place at Glenhaven Park, in Northeast Portland and featured several traditional dance groups from the Thai, Lao, Hmong, and Cambodian communities.

On May 4, 2019, McMinnville Public Library presented Latino and other folk and traditional artists for El Día de los Niños Fiesta. This collaboration featured OFN’s rostered artists Grupo Condor (traditional Latin American music), Sushmita Poddar (Asian Indian henna), and Monica Moreno (Mexican piñatas, sugar skulls).

The next four event partnerships are with Crossroads Carnegie, Art Center East, Four Rivers Cultural Center, and Andisheh and take place June-August, 2019.

Crossroads Carnegie (Baker City) presents

  • June 22, 2019: “Barrel and Vessel: The Art of Aging Wine,” with traditional cooper (barrel maker) Rick DeFerrari.

Art Center East (La Grande) presents

  • June 26, 2019, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.: La Grande Farmers Market morning story time and demonstration of wool spinning, and lunch-time talk with sheep rancher Carol Etchemendy.
  • July 12, 2019, 7:30-8:30 pm: a Master Class with Guinean master drummer Alseny Yansane.
  • July 13, 2019, 10:30-11:45 am: La Grande Farmers Market a public performance and workshop with Guinean master drummer Alseny Yansane.

Four Rivers Cultural Center (Ontario) presents

  • June 29, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., 2nd annual Tradition Keepers Folklife Festival, a day-long folklife festival celebrating the diverse range of traditional arts and culture in the Four Rivers area. Come experience a variety of traditional artists demonstrating or performing cowboy poetry, silversmithing, rawhide braiding, Paiute basketry, Paiute Pow Wow dancing, Japanese Taiko drumming, traditional Japanese Mochi making, and much, much more, including a visit from National Heritage Fellow Eva Castellanoz.

Andisheh Center for Iranian Cultural Heritage (Portland), presents

  • August 3, 2019, 1:00 – 6:00 pm, Portland State University, an afternoon of traditional visual art, music, and dance workshops with Iranian local artists. Leading these free workshops will be santoor player Hossein Salehi, tazhib (illumination and calligraphy) artist Marjan Anvari, and Oak Leaf with Hamid Habibi (tombak/hand drum) and Yasi Mehdian (daf/lute); there will also be a session on traditional Kurdish dance. The intention of this event is to foster community connection and pride, and to drive awareness and education about the diverse cultures and traditions in our neighborhood.

Funding for Culture Fest comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Cultural Trust, Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Historical Society. Their support helps OFN partner with local organizations to support folk and traditional artists to share their artistry and knowledge with others.

Culture Fest partnerships support performances, demonstrations and presentations about Oregon’s living cultural heritage and feature traditional artists who are part of the Oregon Culture Keepers Roster, which provides a curated listing of over 200 folk artists for presenting organizations to work with in planning their programs.