Closed Captions

Patricia Allen, member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde culture committee, describes traditional food gathering across seasons—salmon, roots, berries, elk, and ocean resources. She explains preparation methods, preservation techniques, ceremonial uses, and the intergenerational teaching of these practices. Allen emphasizes how food gathering connects to spiritual healing and tribal identity, particularly following the tribe's restoration after termination.

Transcript

0:08 Good morning.
0:11 I am, I would like to introduce you, welcome you to the core of Discovery 2. We are doing by land what Lewis and Clark were able to do by water, which is to follow the Lewis and Park Trail. This is a commemoration of the bicentennial and so true to 1806, whenever Lewis and Clark were making a hasty return to Saint Louis, so are we. We've got about 6 months and we'll be back in Saint Louis this September.
0:36 Every town that we go to, we get local presenters to come in and speak in the 10 of many voices where you are right now. And so this morning I would like to introduce you to. Patricia Allen, she's a member of the culture committee for the Grand Confederated Tribes of Grand Ron, and this morning she's gonna talk to you about living off of the land. So if y'all please give Patricia a warm welcome, we'll get started.
1:06 Thank you. um, I'm a great grandma, and aunt. And I was raised customarily traditional all my life from where I was um when I was very small, but the title of my um. Talk here is living on the planet. What I'm gonna talk about is um
1:30 How I always learned this and um I learned from my grandma who was a tribal member from Grant Brown. Her name is uh Colleen Cora Warren Johnson who is uh who lived to be 94 in comparison with my great grandfather John Machino, who was a plaqueamus. My grandmother was of the Acaro, uh, descent, so, um.
1:56 I'm gonna talk about these things because of the reasoning, you know, we have seasons for all the harvests that uh we gather which now we're we're gonna be into the salmon season, the root season, and uh the camels, and uh these seasons before we even start doing these seasons, we have a ceremony
2:20 which will be happening April 23rd. Uh, the harvesting of these foods are the medicinal purposes of our body to survive. We have a blessing ceremony thanking the Creator for our survivals. Uh, enable us also to find these foods, uh, we think, um. We,
2:43 we ask for the safe journey because we have tra we travel a long ways for these. We go to the uh waters for the salmon. We go into the earth, uh, into the lands, the flat lands for the roots, the cameras which will we're gonna be harvesting here in, um, a week or two. And um
3:09 I want to talk about the foods, uh, the seasons that uh we get these foods which starts with the spring. And that's the season uh where uh we gather our fish and the campus and the uh many other uh seafoods that we're gonna serve during this ceremony that we're happening.
3:34 Um, we also have some, um, Berries and meats that we serve and when we do the servings, um, because I'm uh I was taught to cook in a long house and prepare these foods also to preserve them. Uh, that, you know, it takes a great step to do these things.
3:57 They're each done with a lot of time and effort, um, which is, uh, you have a mentor who is teaching you at all times, guiding you through these different walks. Um, the salmon in the first in the spring. We, uh, we catch the salmon and then we proceed to um. Cut them, start cutting them, and then,
4:22 uh, fileting them for the feast that we have and then we also if we do have, uh, abundant more salmon after that then we start to uh wind dry or smoke dry them and we uh dry them with all or with when we smoke them. Um, we also catch the steel head. They have, I imagine you,
4:47 you fishermen know that there's wild ones out there, but there's the major now is Kay to put, uh. Uh, I guess the wild are gonna be set free. Um, we use also, um, the mussels, we use clams, we use oysters. These are caught, uh, we have, uh,
5:11 certain ones that go down there and do that. All these different areas are like guided out with different groups that go to these different areas to do to gather these. And each one like I've been taught each one at different times, you know, you can't some are going on at the same time so you're gonna be, you know,
5:33 kind of deciding which one you want is the easiest usually but um I've done all of them and um I really enjoy what I'm doing. The canvas, um, that is prepared in an oven. I mean we do that in the ground, we call that an oven because that's our mother earth. We use that for when we prepare them to barbecue
5:58 and we use certain leaves. Uh, to prepare them, and we put the, we never put the, uh, the heat above, it's below the, so that they'll steam. So, um, that's how the canvas is prepared for preserving. The cell where we also have a elver feast which happens, we call it tupa. Now today,
6:23 um. It, uh, it's plentiful here in and around along the main roads you can see a lot of it growing. Well, you can eat that either raw or you can cook it, you know, in stews. And uh which we uh we were terminated in 1954 and a lot of our heredity was lost
6:44 so now we are coming back with these different ceremonies with our plank house that we are um right now in the process of uh building. Um Next, the roots that uh also when we do have other roots that we trade for with from the salmon.
7:06 And these roots are like in the desert areas that we know and we have uh people that go over there and like myself I live in the desert I live in warm springs well my grandchildren now are today out digging these roots for the ceremony that uh is being prepared. And uh usually you go out
7:31 early in the morning and when you go out you say a prayer when you first touch the land which will be today. And uh they're um they're out there doing the ceremony of gathering because um giving thanks for this wonderful day that we are able to be here and that our children they're also taking my children, my great
7:56 grandchildren out there to be with them so that they'll be observant to all the things that are on the land. And uh at this time there are um 3 of the roots out in the desert that are being uh gathered so they're gonna be aware and they're they're little guys I mean you know they're little babies they're like uh the oldest is 3 years old.
8:22 And so um they scramble around out there and it's really fun, you know, for them and they have their little diggers we have a little diggers that um they, you know, take out and try to dig and they have dug I mean you know we have a special little service for the children, you know, because
8:42 to make them know that it's real good and well for them to be participant with the feast, you know, the gathering and to be thankful. In the summer seasons, uh, we start the gathering of the berries and the herbs and the seafoods, uh, the wild tea and the guapato, uh,
9:05 the guapato today I want to talk about that because, you know, the because of the farmers and because of the, um, the fencings and everything on the land. That we are um really don't have that much of the, the Wakto as we used to have. It's become more scarce. And um You know,
9:30 a lot of the areas I guess are we haven't, we have just now begun to come through our programs to try to preserve and save these uh endangered species of uh foods that we have, we use and we supplemented on and survived on. So now we're in that position also with the fish, fish and wildlife, you know,
9:55 the deer aren't in seasons enabling us to carry on 100 years from now. So we're, uh, we're working programs to where You know we'll be able to eat this in later life also because it's a it it's a real it's a ceremony for us to um
10:18 you know not everybody knows where these things are there's different areas that we just don't talk about because we have to protect it.
10:29 Um We, um, also the clams, mussels, we go out and gather the mussels along the rocks and the clams, you know, in the sands, the oysters, and we also.
10:44 A seaweed Well, I myself, my grandmother, when I was very small, she, uh, showed me this. But I've never eaten it, but I know you probably, maybe some of you have today, but I've never done it, but I've um gathered it. The crab and wild mushrooms.
11:04 And uh also we go out and we gather the eels and uh we have two specific areas here in uh my grandma which we go to collect these eels and we um bring them home we clean and we prepare them to dry, you know, I get, I know how to dry them.
11:28 And uh to preserve them, which um you know, is being taught here how to clean them to clean all the oil out. I imagine you've seen the eels you fish with them probably sturgeon fishermen use them a lot. No, but um. We, uh, that's a ceremonial food for us because it was, you know, we used the oil and grease for many things, you know,
11:52 for bug bites and, you know, all kind of the different remedies, you know, the, the fish itself was used for the eel. Um, that's, um, We in the fall, we go, we go to the mountains and in the mountains because uh this is the season for the hunting. And in that time, we go to um
12:18 Gather the berries and also dry them dry. The meats, the different uh deer or elk, whichever we might um. Spot that day, but there's a group of people that go out to the mountain because in all this time that's carried on, the fish are running. So as long as the fish run. The people
12:42 will fish. As long as the seasons, different seasons run, that they will they will be there gathering, doing all these different foods until, you know, to find them for to preserve for their winter. And when and these foods are really important because we have a lot
13:05 of ceremonies we use them in um many ceremonies and the, the most sacred one is when we put away a person, an elder or somebody who has passed away. This food is used. Always we are never without it so through this period we have to preserve and gather up. A lot of this, I mean, and it's a group of people,
13:30 it's not just me, it's a group of people, families who. Gather this it's not everybody it's just different groups of the medicine people they they're considered the medicine people because this uh food that they are gathering is uh the supplement that they use in ceremonies that we can continue on
13:55 existing and being who we were brought here to be and to be proud of who we are. Because we are existing yet today. And um we also go uh when we go to the mountains we have we go for the huckleberries, elderberries or the thimble berries. These
14:19 things all of these things in and preserving are dried.
14:25 To keep a lot of them they mix with your um. When you have the, when you are drying your elk meat or deer meat, you um. You take this uh dry deer meat and you grind it up. And they preserve this for especially for elders because by then the elders, you know, they,
14:50 uh, the food is too hard for them to eat well how they preserve this is they grind it up and they grind these berries up and they mix them together which will bring the sweet and the substance the protein from the meat for them so that um. You know they, they don't have to work at um
15:14 eating something that would normally be OK for a younger person, but when you get older your digestive system is um hard to digest a lot of foods. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna prepare uh for your elders because we respect high honor our elders and we take care of them. And we try to, you know,
15:37 help them all through their life, you know, after they become because they were our mentors, they were our teachers who taught us all these different things. I'm talking today mainly from uh the woman's point of view because um and I imagine you have the men's point of what they do because uh the women is the one that is gathering all
16:02 and working with the foods preparing the foods, teaching your children the different ways of foods out there teaching them the uh the uh things not to bother because of the toxins in them. And uh showing them different uh herbs that uh they might use um for different things, the different,
16:27 um, how to use the ferns when you preserve your foods as layers uh and the gatherings that they do, the basketries the material you use for basketries and to gather them in the fall. And to be able to bring them back, you always have a older person. These are the ones. This is the reason why you're taking care of them.
16:52 They're sitting like I am waiting and showing, taking them to these different areas where they can gather and do all these things that they're uh taught to do. And so um my grandmother was a great one because um she taught all of us children we were out there, you know, gathering, scrambling, doing all these things, but to us she made it fun for us because.
17:17 Uh, you know, you weren't to eat the first you had to wait and, uh, taste everything, you know, when everybody else did, you know, so you had to take candy along. Well, we went for candy, you know, so it was, it was a fun time. She'd take lunches for us and, and it was rather enjoyable for us to be with our grandma and spend that precious time
17:41 that um she shared.
17:46 Uh, the winter season. We come to that and this is a season where we start preparing for the next. We do our sewing and weaving and the the men will make nets. And the different things that the men do, you know, I'm not really um a person to say
18:10 fully with the men, you know, the plannings that they do uh in in preparation like for the next year what they expect out of that year. And the prayers and the sweats that go along with all these different gathering periods that are done. Um, They uh they go out and get the sticks for us when we're gonna dry
18:34 the different. Um, foods that we have and also, you know, you need the sticks, um, because, uh, I don't, we were always taught that we were running around, you know, gathering sticks because we never knew. Uh, I guess for your when you camp and uh do different, um, Things, uh,
18:59 the camp to hold your camp up or to dry in a tree or to make tripods like when you would dry do your hides you had to have scraped sticks and prepared sticks for that so it wouldn't, um, you know, get rid of the bumps and things that it wouldn't harm you or the Travis like or you know,
19:23 when you were uh preparing to. Carry all your stuff out of there. Um,
19:33 The materials, um, my grandmother and him, there's different areas you go to the mountain for your, uh, berries and things. You go on the flat for your roots, uh, the mountains that we went to was, uh, Mount Hood. Uh, for our berries and whatever we were doing there, but it, you know, uh, as I think back, you know,
19:58 from all the years we travel like that we would do this, you know, it was just something that was implanted in us that we did year after year after year after year we never tired of it. We were always thankful and joyous because we were able to go out there and uh my grandma was a long house cook and she took. You know, we thought that, you know,
20:21 when we went to the mountains and um got huckleberries we thought we were going for maybe 5-10 gallons we didn't. We went for. Dozens and dozens of uh. You know it wasn't just small it was always, you know, she was a good provider for
20:45 the fitting that she thought it uh what she gathered was never enough too because at the end of the year we would all by that time like myself I'm a gatherer and I do the cutting of fish people come to me. And they ask me medicinal purposes through the year, do you have this do you have this?
21:09 And by the time the year is up, I'm, I'm depleted now, you know, and I have two freezers. I have 2 freezers what I, uh, put like if I can dry my roots or whatever I have. I have to put them in there and freeze them and it's, it's still preserving, you know, in the freezer but I can't if we don't have sun in the summer
21:34 I'm gonna put it in the freezer because, you know, then it like in gallon bags and then like uh during sometime I have 50 to 100 in there. Because of as the year goes on and the ceremonies that are, if I'm unable to be there then I'll automatically take it there, have my kids call them up and take it there because they need to use this because this is the the medicine.
22:00 Uh, that we use is one of the medicines, you know, for all the people of healing. And um Healing, uh, healing we think is um. Healing your body, but we're talking about spiritually because the Creator gave these uh foods to us.
22:21 And this is what we were taught from the very beginning of time. And now a lot of the things that we do have are being um extincted you know from us like some of the trees are going and. And um this the the Lapado is very, you know,
22:43 we don't have that much anymore like we used plentiful for. You know, the land and uh because you know we had the population. But still we have to keep the teachers around that knows these things. That we can instill our children who are from here and ran around the histories.
23:08 And to let them carry on. Uh, to what has been happening to where we were, you know, when we were terminated, there was a great, um, span there where our children were lost. And a lot of them now are we have really enthusiastic people you know who the children are being taught the language and everything but
23:33 I'm thankful, you know that we are still here able to uh bring our family and our tribe back to the true identities that they need to have to live.
23:50 And uh that right now is about all I can think about, but uh if we have any questions out there, yes.
24:05 Now I've never read that in history. I mean, I've got documentation back to uh my grandfather who, uh, that's like uh two other generations from me before the reservations and they're, I haven't heard it. And then
24:26 Tra
24:28 Yeah, because this is a vast trading area. This is one of the biggest trading areas in. And the coast it was a my grandfather was John Marino and of the Clackamas. They had the biggest trading area. It ranged from Portland, Oregon, even over to Washington up into Washington, clear down to California, up into Canada.
24:52 Uh, two questions. One, did you.
24:55 I see Yes, yes, we did yes we did, we did do that because we have evidence of uh the bones that were being used for uh ceremonial purposes. And they had clubs and uh that were made from the whale. So we used all the ocean. I mentioned the uh the ocean, you know, the sea, very uh animals and creatures that we did use,
25:20 yes, definitely for the oils.
25:26 The
25:30 dried fruits and meats on the side of the cascades from mold and salt. would be unhealthy if you use too much of it for everything. Well, they buried them. They buried them and they had cases and they used basket trees.
25:52 Is there any more questions? Yes, I'm gonna go ahead and bring the microphone.
25:58 Uh, in, in the movies we see the uh some of the Indians.
26:03 party or you have someone who's diet. We would put a player in
26:10 For Yeah, cleanse
26:14 they use that they use the cleansing system and the sweats, you know, we had people who lived, uh, that lived under the ground. I mean they dug like holes.
26:24 And I've read that through documentation from my uh grandfather. They call them they lived under the ground people. I mean, you know, that was just the way they lived, but they would come out because you know they would come out in uh. You know, during the days or whatever, but I mean that's where they slept underground, I mean, under areas like that.
26:46 It's just the way they were. I don't know why, but I mean, you know, the creator of what the different tribes we have right now, 5 tribes right here. I mean that are are in the Confederate tribes in Ron but we are, um, uh, we this there's 29 different coastal tribes which a lot of them are integrating to our tribe and they're all our family, all of them are our family.
27:15 Does anyone else have any other questions for Patricia?
27:21 If not, then that's all. Please give her a warm round.
27:31 I want to thank you all for being here and listening. Thank you, and our next presenter is at 11 o'clock. It's Tony.

Tent of Many Voices

Patricia Allen on Living from the Land: Seasonal Harvests and Ceremonies

Patricia Allen

Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

27:44

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Patricia Allen on Living from the Land: Seasonal Harvests and Ceremonies

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