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.

Intern Reflections on Southern Oregon Traditional Artists Folklife Fieldwork Survey

This folklife fieldwork internship was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk & Traditional Arts program, to document culture keepers in the southern Oregon counties of Josephine, Jackson, and Douglas. Olivia Wilkinson has been working with OFN’s folklore specialist and retired executive director, Riki Saltzman, to learn how to document traditional artists and culture keepers who carry on occupational, food, music, craft, and other cultural traditions. This work is part of an ongoing statewide survey that has so far interviewed over 400 folk and traditional artists among the state’s federally recognized Tribes and across 35 of its counties.

Intern Reflections on Southern Oregon Traditional Artists Folklife Fieldwork Survey

 By Olivia Wilkinson

 

I interned for OFN’s folklore specialist, Dr. Riki Saltzman, during the Spring term 2022. I assisted with interviews and the resulting data collection for the 2021-22 Southern Oregon Folklife Survey for Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine counties. The experience laid bare the breadth of culture found in Oregon’s southern inland counties and the labor that goes into conducting fieldwork, even remotely.  

 

I had the good fortune to have the opportunity to sit in on interviews with culture keepers Shannon Stutzman, Linda Danielson, and Andrea Luchese. These three women have a special ability to bring people together through their traditional art forms. I somehow found a way to relate to each of them, despite our coming from entirely different backgrounds. 

 

Shannin Stutzman, whose heritage is Hanis Coos and Kalapuya, is enrolled with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. She is a youth educator, drummer, and storyteller. Stutzman’s interview consisted of a wide range of experiences. She started with her childhood experiences living in Coos Bay and growing up immersed in the cultural traditions of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. More recently, Stutzman and her family have been involved in with others in the creation and publication of a dictionary of the Kalapuya language. She is one of few people learning this sleeping language. Her dedication to the preservation of culture for future generations is just one reason why, during the interview, I felt like I had known her all my life. 

Screenshot of zoom meeting with Shannin Stutzman, April 13th, 2022.

 

 Linda Danielson is a folklorist and local old time fiddler who offers instruction at camps and performs throughout the Pacific Northwest. She plays with Shannin Stutzman’s mother, Esther Stutzman, in Slow Ponies, an all-women’s group that features western standards and some original compositions. Riki and I were able to meet in person with Danielson, since we miraculously all live in South Eugene. Danielson has been involved with folklore as a discipline for decades longer than I have been alive. It was humbling to speak with her, to say the least. I caught a glimpse of a world in which I am only starting to become familiar. 

 

Andrea Luchese is a hula instructor based in Ashland. Hula is an area in which the little knowledge I have has come to me recently. Our talk with Andrea helped me understand how vast the tradition is, from its roots in ancient Hawaiian history to its widespread celebration today. She spoke at length about what makes a good student and a good teacher, which both run deeper than just showing up to class. A good teacher is “living in accordance with that which we hold most sacred.”

Screenshot of zoom meeting with Andrea Luchese, May 17th, 2022.

 There is a level of exhaustion that comes from remote work, but when the work rewards me with a deeper appreciation for Oregon, it is worth doing.  

 

Pandemic Fieldwork on Oregon’s Southern Coast

by Riki Saltzman, Folklore Specialist, OFN and Folklorist, High Desert Museum

During this pandemic year, I’ve had the privilege of doing folklife fieldwork for two projects—OFN’s statewide folklife survey, taking place this year on Oregon’s southern coast, and the High Desert Museum’s central and eastern Oregon folklife documentation project. It’s been rather amazing to flit back and forth across two mountain ranges and travel along the coast, through the high desert, on ranchland, and on the sovereign lands of four federally recognized Tribes—particularly since it’s all been virtual, taking place on the phone, and over Zoom.

Normally, ethnographic fieldwork involves driving—lots of driving—to meet up with culture keepers around the state who so graciously and generously share their cultural traditions with me. With my camera and my audio recorder, I’d spend several hours documenting and asking questions—lots of questions—before saying my goodbyes and heading off to the next scheduled interview. Back home or in my hotel room, I’d identify photos, create audio logs, and write up fieldnotes to record the day’s observations—all of which becomes metadata for OFN’s archives in the University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections.

But this year, so much is different. While I’ve started out with emails and phone calls to those I know in both regions, I’m restricted to Zoom for interviews—and in some cases recorded phone calls for those without sufficient internet access. While Zooming has brought its share of glitches, fits and starts, and technical challenges, the platform does make it possible to meet new people, find out about their cultural traditions and artistry, and get to know them better. A pre-interview phone call with the folk artist helps us figure out together what aspects of their cultural traditions to focus on. I’ve found that asking people to describe the processes of how they do what they do, especially when I’m not there in person to observe and document for myself, enables me (and future researchers) to “see” their process. For food preparation, that might include the steps involved in cooking, preserving, or baking. For traditional crafts, we’d explore the gathering and preparation of materials as well as how to make a traditional item like a Klamath Tribes’ tule duck decoy. For storytelling or cowboy poetry, we might discuss what makes a good story or poem, who taught the artists, when and why they tell certain stories, and to whom they tell them.

Oregon’s Southern Coast

For OFN’s south coast survey, I started out looking at the County and Tribal Community Cultural Plans for Coos and Curry counties, the Coquille Indian Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. A press release announced the start of the project, detailed the kinds of traditions we were wanting to document, and enabled me to find contacts for culture keepers from the region. I also wrote many emails—to those I already knew in the region and to those others had recommended. While work in the region will continue through June 2021, we now have some brief snapshots from culture keepers who have shared their traditions:

Don Ivy, Chief, Coquille Tribe, is a fisherman’s fisherman and the possessor of a wealth of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that he shares generously. Ivy grew up fishing in the waters of Coos Bay, along the estuaries, and in the Pacific. “My relation to the natural world is always in the context of water—where is it and what’s in it,” he said.

But Ivy didn’t know that what he and his cousins were doing as children was traditional. “I cannot remember a time in my growing up days when I didn’t have a fishing pole—a stick…plunking around in a crick or lake or off the dock in Charleston. I never was not around people who fished.” His mother and her sisters, who grew up in Charleston, worked on the dock and picked crab and shrimp; her father and brothers were fishermen. He recalls, “Everyone fished—catching crabs or digging clams. It was part of the routine of life. If you didn’t fish, someone who’d been fishing came by and shared food.”

Coquille Salmon Bake, 2015

The turning point for Ivy came when his mother told him to come home from Portland, where he was working, to prepare the salmon bake for the Coquille Indian Tribe’s first Restoration Day powwow in 1989. The event involved not just eating but cultural sustenance, the very essence of potlatch, as Ivy and others wove the traditional knowledge from ancestors—the year’s round of fishing, different fishing techniques for different fish, cooking technologies, and then serving the traditional food (first to elders)—to honor the day and federal recognition of the Coquille Tribe’s sovereignty. Ivy recalled how he met many cousins and others from this large extended family as his elders guided him in preparing traditional foods in traditional ways.

Reflecting upon his childhood, Ivy explained that he could recognize parts of traditional culture that weren’t identified as Indian at the time. For instance, “the places we went for picnics were important places in the history of the Coquille people: Whisky Run, South Slough…we went back to places important to previous generations.”

Ivy, who has done extensive archeological research over the years, has partnered with Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife and others both to restore traditional knowledge and use it to restore balance to Oregon’s waterways and wetlands, in particular the Coos and Coquille river systems. Traditional foods and lifeways—including lamprey habitat, basket making (gathering, processing, weaving), and, as Don Ivy puts it, “the fundamentals of safety, shelter, sustenance”—are key aspects of that knowledge. The trick, he said, is to combine the archeological record with the storytelling that is part of every family’s tradition—”those family experiences, the little glimpses from some elder that resonated and got retold.”

Stacy Rose, South Coast Folk Society, is a traditional Jewish cook and baker, Israeli folk dance teacher, and musician based in North Bend. Rose, who grew up in Philadelphia, is the child of first-generation American parents raised in Eastern European Orthodox Jewish families. She came to Oregon to visit her sister in the early 1980s and stayed. Her Jewishness is part and parcel of her ethos, and she joyously shares her knowledge of traditional dance with her congregation and the greater south coast community. A traditional and innovative cook, she is known for her bagel brigade and matzah ball soup, which she delivers to those who need their comfort and sustenance.

Stacy Rose teaching Israeli folk dance

Sharing is at the center of who Stacy Rose is and what she does. When she first came to Oregon, she and friends started the South Coast Folk Society. “Out of that we started doing community dance, including Israeli folk dancing. From there, it was easy to make the transition of sharing that passion for Israeli folk dancing with Congregation Mayim Shalom…We always have live music and dancing, and it’s just a part of who we are…It’s great to join hands in a circle with your friends and feel that energy and share that connection. When we get out there and people hear the music and some of them have this ‘oh, I remember when we used to do this’ and it brings back and they join the circle. It touches an old place and…it just triggers something.”

Eight bagels neatly lined on a cooling rack.

Stacy Rose’s bagels

Jewish food traditions also touch people in a deep way. Rose, whose maternal grandmother emigrated from Lithuania, recalls that her first memory of Jewish food goes back to her childhood in the Philadelphia area. “[M]y bubbe [grandmother] would come from Chicago…with a suitcase filled with ingredients…. And I remember walking home from elementary school and opening the door just a crack and smelling the cooking. Smelling her food…meant she was there.”

Rose especially remembers her grandmother’s borscht (beet soup) and matzah brei (fried matzah and eggs). “The only time we ever had borscht was when bubbe came. One thing that she always made for breakfast was fried matzah…And I like to make fried matzah for my grandsons. I never make it for myself, but I always make it for them. And they have been a part of that, making it, too, so that the two older ones know how to make it now.”

“I [also] like to make matzah ball soup. I find comfort in that. I tell people it really does heal, it’s a healing bowl, a bowl of health.” But not everyone understood the particularities of this traditional Jewish remedy, and Rose was surprised to find that the first time she made the soup for an ill friend, that the person (not Jewish) assumed that the soup contained only plain broth and matzah balls because “she doesn’t have money to put anything in the soup, you know, to buy ingredients…So that was an interesting eye opening experience…other people in other traditions are not expecting [such a plain soup, but] …That’s soup. So, I do like to share matzah ball soup because I believe in it.”

She also likes to make bagels, partly because “people love bagels. And it’s hard to find a good bagel.” Living where she does, Rose explains, “my bagels are good, just like my playing music is good because I live in a small town. So, you know, being a big fish in a small pond has its advantages. But I do like to make bagels for people because it makes people happy.”

These are just two of several people who’ve been generous enough to respond to my emails and messages during this leg of the survey. Both Don Ivy and Stacy Rose also referred me to other culture keepers in the region, which is the way that fieldwork works. I’m in the process of doing interviews with those folks and lining up more. Look for updates about Oregon’s coast in future newsletters!

Folklife fieldwork at OFN is funded with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts Program.

Benton- Linn Co. Fieldwork Essay

Thomas Grant Richardson

In the Spring of 2018 I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Benton and Linn Counties in the Willamette Valley. Folklorists focus on the everyday traditions of people in communities and at how people define creativity, tradition, and community in their own lives. It is therefore a great joy to work as a folklorist, to be invited into the creative spaces of people often quite different from myself, and to have conversations that usually include phrases like “this is the most important thing in the world to me.”

While in Benton and Linn Counties I encountered numerous wonderful and generous people connected to many vibrant traditions, including fly-fishing, boat building, instrument building, quilting, fiddle music, and various foodways. I was particularly struck by the area’s social dance traditions. During the three weeks I spent traversing the two counties, I attended three different social dances, although I could have attended one nearly every single night.

The Jefferson Jammers is mostly two-step, waltz, and line dancing, and happens every single Wednesday

The Jefferson Jammers perform on Wednesday nights at the Morning Star Grange Hall in Millersburg. This dance started as a country music jam among retired musicians who still wanted to play. Bruce and Joann Hamilton held the first few jams in their home, but it quickly outgrew their capacity, and they moved to the Grange Hall. Today it serves as a place for musicians to gather to play country music together; anyone interested can also sing along in a kind of live-backed karaoke. The audience is busy dancing with the floor usually occupied by at least 30-40 dancers. Mostly attended by local residents above the age of 50, the dance also brings in younger participants. Most attendees told me it’s the highlight of their week.

The Albany Timber Twirlers Modern Western Square Dance club’s membership is diminishing in number but not in dedication.

In nearby Albany, the Albany Timber Twirlers are a Modern Western Swing Dance Club (one of four clubs in the area) that focus on the highly precise and intricate moves of choreographed square dances. These patterns are so complicated that dancers need to take four months of lessons before they’re up to speed to participate. Club President, Bev Swearengen, told me they’re more about fun than formality.

The Corvallis Contradance was by far the biggest dance I attended, with a regular attendance of around 100 people, twice a month.

In Corvallis, a twice-monthly Contra dance has a regular attendance of over 100 people. Contra dance is somewhere in between the loose nature of traditional square dancing and the highly stylized patterns of Modern Western Square Dancing; like traditional square dancing, it’s led by a caller who gives instructions in a rhythmic and stylized fashion. But contra dancers form lines with each member of a couple opposite each other instead of side by side like square dancers. The Corvallis Contra dance also includes a live band and brings in a huge number of dancers under 40. Dance Chair, Jennifer Carlin, notes that it’s the music that makes this dance so special.

The Corvallis Contradance goes out of its way to make sure the dance is inclusive for all.

But greater numbers do not always equal a more successful event or a more important folk tradition. Social dance is alive and well in this area. And next time someone in the central Willamette Valley suggests the Internet, television, or whatever latest scapegoat is killing social life, drive them to Benton and Linn County and find a dance!

Folk Artists in Marion, Polk, and Lane Counties and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde

Amy Howard

During  the spring and summer of 2018, OFN hired me to conduct folklife fieldwork in Marion and Polk counties and at the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The geographical area I covered was large and diverse. The sheer length of each county encompasses a landscape in transition—mountain to valley to coast. Each day brought new surprises: green fields and grasses in wine and sheep country; bustling city streets; pine-encompassed mountain lakes, and winding, sparkling rivers. The landscape reflects the local agricultural and industrial economies.

The people are equally diverse, each a wonder in their own way. Their identities and folk arts and practices also reflect the topography and economy. Whether loggers creating art from the medium they know inside and out (wood), transplants from foreign countries carrying on traditional skills, Native artists connecting to roots that were once taken away, or farmers keeping their multi-generational farms relevant and operational, the people of the Willamette Valley adapt to their surroundings. They preserve the identity that is most important to them while being rooted in traditions they cherish. I felt honored to document a snapshot of Oregon’s ever-changing, rich cultural landscape.

Chainsaw carver James Lukinich (Willamina) lived in Oregon until age 14, when he traveled to Alaska to join his brother and learn the logging business. For James, wood carving was a natural art form to pursue during long stretches of isolation in the Alaskan wilderness. While he worked as an arborist in San Diego, chainsaw carving went from hobby to career as he completed an increasing amount of custom jobs to repurpose tree stumps. He began participating in chainsaw carving competitions in 2009 and finished in the top 10 at the national competition in Reedsport last year. He and his wife, Marilyn, returned to his Oregon home, where he has continued to practice his craft professionally.

Jeremy Mitchell (Salem) is an advocate for bees. As one of the few young beekeepers with a mid-sized operation in the area, he and his bees fill an important role in the Willamette Valley, pollinating berries and other produce at small farms. Schooled in beekeeping by his great-uncle, Wayne Porter, and through the OSU Extension Master Beekeeper course, Jeremy took over Flying Bee Ranch from his relatives in 2017 after Wayne’s passing. At that time, Jeremy transformed from hobbyist to full-time, professional beekeeper, helping his great-aunt, Kathy Porter, keep the business a family operation. They are known for their mono-source honeys, captured after the bees pollinate specific crops. Jeremy also works to educate the public about bees’ role in agriculture and strategies for keeping them safe.

Connie Graves (Sheridan) is a traditional basket weaver of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. She’s been instrumental in revitalizing and teaching the art of basket weaving for her Tribe. Born in McMinnville, she has lived her entire life in the Grand Ronde area. Connie has always possessed a love of craft and creativity and an ability to create by simply looking at an example. With her masterful basketry skills, she makes hats, baskets of all dimensions, doll clothes, baby rattles, or whatever she is inspired to do. She collects and works with many varieties of reeds, grasses, barks, and roots. Connie is currently battling cancer but still exudes positive energy and strength in all she does. Her help in the project was enormous.

As an addendum to my fieldwork in Polk and Marion Counties and with the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, I was privileged to conduct some further documentation in Lane County. Juana Cortez (Eugene) owns and operates Juanita’s Pupusería, a food truck specializing in food from El Salvador. A pupusa, the national dish of El Salvador, is a thick flatbread made of masa—corn flour and water—stuffed with one or more ingredients such as cheese, squash, refried beans, or meat, then cooked on a griddle. The versatile flatbread comes from the Maya/Pipil culture of El Salvador. Cortez, a restauranteur in her native country, came to the US in 1987 as a refugee of war and natural disaster. A single mother, she worked and saved for years before returning to her dream of owning and running a restaurant. What began as a pupusería has expanded into a celebration of Salvadoran and Mexican foods.   If someone asks for it, she can make it, she says. Cortez’s food traditions connect her to homeland and, more importantly, allow her to enjoy peace and stability after a life of hardship and perseverance.

These individuals represent a few of the many hard-working, diligent bearers of folk traditions I documented for this project. Like Oregon’s beautiful landscapes, these people deserve to be celebrated and supported as part of the cultural landscape.

Celebrating Lane County’s Artists and Traditions

Alina Mansfield

In the Winter and Spring of 2018, I attended many of Lane County’s regional cultural events, festivals, and fairs to scout out tradition keepers for the Willamette Valley Folklife Survey.

The Willamette Valley is homeland to the Kalapuya Tribes, with the Molalla calling the foothills of the Cascades home. More recently, a significant Scandinavian population settled Junction City, where the annual Scandinavian Festival attracts attendees from far and wide to try a taste of Danish aebelskiver (apple pastry), participate in Swedish folk dancing, or watch a Norwegian artist demonstrate Hardanger embroidery (usually white on white embroidery with cutwork to create a lacy effect). Eugene’s Sons of Norway Sonja Lodge (Lane County) participate in the festival, and I had the pleasure of getting to know many of their members at their annual Lutefisk dinner in January. Before the dinner, I watched lodge members peel potatoes for the lefse (potato flatbread) and bake traditional Norwegian desserts and cookies. And I got to have my first taste ever of lutefisk (cod preserved in lye, rinsed and boiled, then served hot with butter). As someone of Norwegian descent myself, this notorious cultural delicacy was on my bucket list, and I was not disappointed. Lodge members did assure me, however, that their lutefisk used to be much stronger!

I also attended a lodge-sponsored Norwegian Sweater Night for which members donned their Norwegian-style knitted sweaters and shared stories about the talented needlewomen who made them. I discovered that Norwegian knitters make their purl stitches without moving the yarn to the front of the needle. There was a palpable celebration of their heritage in such stories, and a sense of humor and pride in the discussion that detailed how this unique style differs from standard knitting.

Through these activities, I was able to meet and interview some very special traditional artists, including PattiJo Meshnick, a Norwegian Rosemåler. Rosemåling is a traditional Norwegian decorative art that involves painting objects with stylized flower motifs. With a focus on symmetry, brightness, and depth of color, Meshnik decorates pots, clocks, hangers, cards, and more. Meshnik’s eye for design is key for her rosemåling; she uses a combination of traditional design elements, techniques and materials to achieve the right effect. She always starts with a root at the center; loading brushes with various thicknesses, she paints S strokes and C strokes, adding color, shading, and then fine lines for depth. According to Meshnik, regional styles developed as a result of the distance between the deep Norwegian valleys; traveling artists would stay with a family all winter, cheering up their houses and soot-covered furniture with brightly colored designs. Like others who learned the techniques of rosemåling from master artists, Meshnik also continues to study with master teachers to learn various regional styles. She notes that traditional rosemåling became an endangered art form in Norway; teaching is essential for its survival. “Folk art is a hard thing to keep alive in modern days; you need to find someone who wants to teach, and someone who wants to learn.”

In February, I celebrated the Asian Lunar New Year of the Dog in Eugene at the “Bark to the New Year” festival. There I met Kathy Hoy, a traditional Chinese ink brush painter. Before moving to Eugene to attend college, Kathy learned to paint by apprenticing with Huang Jun Pin, a famous traditional Chinese brush painter in Taipei, Taiwan. She creates traditional Chinese ink wash and watercolor on rice paper. Many of her paintings have traditional symbols of nature such as water, fish, birds, and mountain landscapes as well as Chinese characters.

In April, I headed out to Vida, Oregon, for the McKenzie Drift Boat Festival, where I met river guides and a conch mushroom artist, learned about wooden drift boats, and watched fly fishers demonstrate how to make fly ties. Along the way, I marveled at the chainsaw art along the McKenzie Highway, which celebrates these roadside sculptures each year in July at the McKenzie River Chainsaw & Arts Festival in Blue River.

Lane County also hosted the Evergreen Tattoo Invitational in March, which prompted me to speak with local tattoo artist, Suzen Tattoozen, co-owner of Whiteaker Tattoo Collective in Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood. She is known for her unique custom designs, and ornate, embellished, illustrative watercolor styles. Tattoozen has high standards and is very passionate about representing the industry with the highest of integrity. She says no to tattoos she believes will not be good art, and she asks a lot of questions before agreeing to do a tattoo. But she also believes in never judging a client’s ideas. She thinks of tattoos and body art as the “freedom of owning yourself.” She is slow to start when she begins her work because she wants to get to know her client’s skin. Tattoozen also runs Transformation Ink, a tattoo-based charity; she believes that tattoos are empowering and transformative and that receiving a good tattoo is treating one’s self to self-care and self-love.

Tattoos, rosemåling, and fly fishing may seem very different from each other, but these culture keepers all share a love for detail in artistry, symmetry, design; an attention to story and heritage; and a commitment to passing on their skills and knowledge to others. Folk and traditional artists like these continue to enrich Lane County’s diverse cultural and regional heritage.

 

 

Oregon Folklife Network awarded $55,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts

EUGENE, Ore. – (Dec. 28, 2018) – The University of Oregon’s Oregon Folklife Network is set to receive a $55,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Announced as part of the endowment’s $27 million funding package for fiscal year 2019, the Oregon grant will support a folklife survey on Oregon’s north and central coast.

“OFN is so pleased to have another year of NEA support for our documentation of Oregon’s living cultural heritage,” said Riki Saltzman, Oregon Folklife Networks’s executive director.

Art Works is the Arts Endowment’s principal grantmaking program. The agency received 1,605 Art Works applications for this round of grantmaking and will award 972 grants in this category.

“The arts enhance our communities and our lives, and we look forward to seeing these projects take place throughout the country, giving Americans opportunities to learn, to create, to heal, and to celebrate,” said Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

With support from the grant, the Oregon Folklife Network will work with veteran folklorist Douglas Manger to identify folk and traditional artists in the Northwest and Central Oregon Coast counties of Clatsop, Tillamook, and Lincoln, as well as the coastal sections of Lane and Douglas counties. Manger will also mentor emerging folklorists as they document regional and ethnic folklore from a range of heritage groups including but not limited to Asian and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Latinos, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and Europeans as well as occupational folklife such as chainsaw carving, hunting, dairy farming, commercial fishing, clamming, oystering, shrimping, and other waterways traditions. Folklorists will also document foodways, music, storytelling, and other relevant folk expressions.

OFN’s statewide survey has so far identified over 355 folk and traditional artists in 28 counties as well as at the Klamath Tribes, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, the Burns Paiute, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. OFN partners with local and state organizations and Tribes to refer tradition bearers and folk artists for programs in parks, arts organizations, libraries, or festivals. We also preserve this documentation in our archives.

OFN invites recommendations for individuals who should be documented as part of the project. Recommendations can be submitted to by email to Riki Saltzman, riki@uoregon.edu, or Emily West, eafanado@uoregon.edu, or by phone to 541-346-3820.

For more information on the National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Community Scholars in the Portland Metro at IRCO

Thanks to the diligent fieldwork of folklorists Nancy Nusz, Douglas Manger, and Makaela Kroin, OFN was able to invite several recommended community scholars from the Portland Metro for our first training workshop of its kind. Twelve of us gathered on Sunday, June 3, 2018 to talk about our traditions, our cultures, and how to document them. We learned about Asian Indian fashion and henna, Mexican ballet folklórico, and more.  After introductions and some pointers about ethnography, we paired off to interview each other about the meaningful objects everyone was asked to bring. After much intense conversation, curious questions, and laughter, the group created a wonderful collective pop-up exhibit, complete with labels. Sushmita Podar took charge of creating an aesthetically pleasing arrangement that showcased the diversity of backgrounds and the many things we all value.

Thanks to all who took part, including folklorist Tiffany Purn; OFN intern Brandie Roberts; historian Nikki Mandell;  business owner, Bollywood dancer,  and henna expert Sushmita Podar; librarian and community worker Rita Martinez-Salas; folklórico dancers Kenya Marquez, Gloria Vilchis, and Kelly Cowan; and Washington Co. Cultural Coalition members Sharon Morgan and Nancy Schick. This workshop was funded in part by a Folk & Traditional Arts grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Attendees group photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Willamette Valley Folklife Survey Project Folklorists, Spring 2018

Amy Howard

Amy Howard received a BA in Anthropology from Brigham Young University and an MA in American Studies and Folklore from Utah State University. Her love of folklore fieldwork began in 2007 on an undergraduate field study in Guatemala. Since then, she has interned at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, coordinated public programs, and worked on multiple documentation projects in Utah and Idaho. In 2013, she collaborated with other fieldworkers documenting and producing a book on quilting traditions in the Bear River Heritage Area. In 2015, she and two of her students documented artistic, occupational, and recreational traditions in the Southeast Idaho Snake River Plain for the Idaho Commission on the Arts. Together they created an exhibit and organized public performances at the Idaho Museum of Natural History. She is currently documenting traditional Mexican music in Southern Idaho, also for the ICA. She has worked at Idaho State University as an instructor since 2014, teaching courses in folklore, English composition, and Spanish. Contact: maxwamy@isu.edu 


 

Alina Mansfield

Alina Mansfield, OFN’s Program Coordinator, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Folklore and Mythology from UC Berkeley, and a Master’s Degree in Folklore from the University of Oregon. As a master’s student, Mansfield produced a documentary about material culture and costume making in Biloxi, Mississippi’s Mardi Gras festival. Mansfield served as OFN’s Summer Folklore Fellow, where she co-produced OFN’s 2017 publication, Oregon Traditional Arts Apprenticeship MasterArtists: 2012-2016, and managed OFN’s Oregon Culture Keeper’s roster. Mansfield holds a concurrent position as Archivist in the Randall Mills Archive of orthwest Folklore. Previously she was a Circulation Supervisor at UC Berkeley’s Doe/Moffitt Libraries. Contact:alinam@uoregon.edu


 

Thomas Grant Richardson

Thomas Grant Richardson (MA, Indiana University, ABD Indiana University) is an independent folklorist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has done ethnographic fieldwork across the western United States, the American midwest, Appalachia, Canada, and Scandinavia.He has worked for New Mexico Arts, Museum of International Folk Art (Santa Fe), Utah Folk Arts Program, Missouri Folk Arts Program, and the Minnesota Arts Board. He previously served as the Curator of Education and Outreach at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol TN/VA. He is also currently working with the Vermont Folklife Center and a team of fieldworkers to re-launch a fieldwork gear review site aimed at the needs of ethnographers. Contact: tgrantrichardson@gmail.com