We dedicate this week’s issue of Clear Actions to the Native American Heritage month, and offer a glimpse into some of the issues, history, and viewpoints of Indigenous communities and individuals.
We recognize that Land Acknowledgement statements coming from non-Indigenous organizations and people can be performative and create extra emotional work for Native people when requested to provide context and information in their production. We also recognize that there exists a tremendous absence of Indigenous voices in the very local Bear Creek Valley, a part of the Rogue Valley, where Peace House staff and Board members call home.
Because of the forced removal of Takelma, we Latgawa, Shasta, Klamath, Yahooskin, Modoc, and other Tribal people, much of the language, culture, practices and traditions of local Indigenous peoples were nearly erased in the Rogue Valley.
In 2023, European-led, mostly white settlers continue to dominate the landscape and have resulted in a full-scale assault on the physical environment in the past 170 years. This includes forests and wildlife, natural waterways, and numerous Indigenous sacred sites all across the Rogue Watershed and the Klamath and Siskiyou Mountains.
What’s worse, is that the barbaric and extremely violent men who led the charge and battles against Native people in the 1800s continue to boast their dominance through their namesakes, and few people seem to care or work to correct these antiquated place names. Two very obvious examples include the Applegate Valley and Trail, and even worse, the infamous Dead Indian Memorial Road.
As people of conscience, we want to do the right thing. Unfortunately, we have been given bad options and to most people in the Rogue Valley, Indigenous people are either icons from the past, revered as flawless spiritual leaders, or victims of tragic events from the past who live far away. In truth, Indigenous people in 2023 are esteemed professors, astronauts, fashion icons, politicians, as well as, mothers, sons, and daughters.
We, as Peace House, recognize that honest reconciliation means taking a very serious look at how massacres of the past – that killed many and forced the removal of nearly all local Tribal members onto two coastal reservations hundreds of miles away – have left a toxic legacy of systemic white supremacy in Jackson and Josephine Counties.
Peace House Native American Peacekeeper Awardees have included Takelma Elder Grandmother Agnes Pilgrim and former Director of SOU’s Native American Studies Program, David West.
Peace House recognizes the honorable work and sovereignty of local Tribes, Confederations, and Indigenous-led organizations. We welcome a deepening of relationships into the future.
