- 15 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00I had the dream of this big bison here in the city and so when I told my
00:08stepfather about it he was like oh he said I'm glad you told me my girl he
00:13says that's your grandparents in the spirit world healing you he says you'll
00:16get better
00:30you
01:00known as the city of roses Portland Oregon boast of a vibrant community
01:11that is unique to the region while the exotic roses add to Portland's beauty
01:16they are not indigenous to the land a transplant from Europe much like the
01:21majority of the population here the city was established and named in 1843 but
01:27thousands of years prior it was an Indian village where the original people
01:32established thriving communities along the green shores of the Willamette and
01:36Columbia River
01:39I decided to come to Portland to meet the urban Indians because Portland has the
01:47ninth largest native community in the United States but like most cities urban
01:52natives come from all over the country this is such an incredible place to be
01:57with as many roses as you possibly could find anywhere I think so Portland you
02:03know being known as the city of roses this was once the grounds for the Multnomah
02:09tribes Tualatin Wasco and a lot of other ones but let's go see who is still in
02:15town let's go meet the Portland natives in the early 1980s Portland had one of the
02:22most vibrant hardcore punk scenes in the country unlike other cities where punks
02:27were busy primping their mohawks Portland's punks had an anything-goes
02:32attitude and attracted bands from many different genres so our journey to
02:38Portland begins with tish a Native American hardcore punk musician and
02:43transplant who fell in love with Portland and made the city of roses her
02:48permanent home
02:53so what is it like being a native woman in Portland I think one of the things that
02:58really I wasn't really aware of is just how white the city is which is really
03:05funny because I look at articles past and it's like one of the whitest places in
03:08the United States I'm like oh I just I just remember it being one of the cities that
03:13had the most native people so that was like in my brain a lot and then like
03:17just moving into getting more information learning that there is a high
03:22amount of murder men murdered and missing indigenous women here and two-spirit
03:26people and just like along the five completely with the highway it kind of
03:31made me a little bit nervous to kind of learn about like the white supremacist who
03:34are really out and about and just learning about the sex trafficking and
03:39everything like that how did you get into music I feel like music's been
03:48something I've always been interested in ever since I was like a little child
03:51one of my earliest memories is like listening to different music with my
03:57aunt she was really into different hair metal bands and I remember getting a tape
04:02because I really like Motley Crue and so I feel like I've always just kind of
04:05gravitated a little bit towards that but also just was really into like R&B and
04:10hip-hop and things like that I didn't have access to music I didn't have access to
04:14playing music or writing music or being able to afford being able to buy guitars
04:19and expensive equipment and so that really kind of just like got my brain going and
04:24I'm like well I really want to front a hardcore band because I feel like that's
04:28really important for an indigenous person to talk about our issues
04:31because you haven't started your healing journeys the moment that we have our
04:36voice in our backbone you you want to shut us down and you think you have your
04:42privilege to disrespect us the moment we tell you because of your colonial mindset
04:47and your colonial way of being your white privilege white fragility you can't take our truth
04:55what are you saying in your music I want to yell indigenous people take back what's yours I want
05:12to know who wants to help me do that native people are resilient we've had to be our survival has depended
05:19upon it and the Portland natives are showing us that so our next stop is Ramon Shiloh he is a incredible
05:26culinary artist he's a fine artist and he's gonna tell us his story of resilience I pretty much
05:34traveled the country and did a lot of work in Indian communities nationwide pretty much on behalf of my
05:43my mother you know my mom was very you know known in the Bay Area as a native storyteller producer of
05:53three radio programs and an educator and activists and that's one of the reasons why I got to know all of
06:01these luminaries it was because my mom had a access to a radio show that could also benefit Native people
06:09that came through I have hundreds and hundreds of audio tapes of those interviews those are precious
06:15archives yeah my mom died when I was 21 and my little brother he was 18 at the time we were fairly young on so
06:26many levels where she was still that glue that kept everything together and you know influenced by
06:37me and my own peer group there was a dark time where I did jail time and I paid dearly for it for that
06:44mistake I bet and it was very tough as well as losing my mom when I was in prison well that's a major like
06:53pivotal moment for you like all of that but it sounds like to me that that was the launching off point
06:59because then you got into doing art and I want to talk about that because I want to show this
07:05incredible piece right here and obviously the mural behind us which I did not mention this mural was
07:14developed in Seattle for a hotel it was interesting they wanted something that was native driven I gave an
07:22interpretation of what I felt was deserving of that space and they loved it the hotel closed and I heard
07:31about this piece being in a basement and I came and reclaimed it and I brought it here once I put it up
07:40there the owner ended up like walking back and forth seeing it he would stare at it and he bought it so
07:48you're an artist and then you had another challenge you know obviously I wasn't able to make a living in art
07:57I pursued food because it was an industry that worked for me but I was always curious why there wasn't any Native
08:07American cuisines highlighted in restaurants but I never really had the connection of that until I actually
08:13saw it in a restaurant for the first time and identified that feeling that smell right and I
08:19was like where did this come from so that's when I started kicking myself in high gear with wanting to
08:26take an interest in Native cuisine but did you start experimenting with bringing indigenous food and
08:33indigenous culture into food no what I wanted to do was more understand it by visiting chefs that are
08:40doing it so I would go to Pueblos and learn food styles from that region so what did you do with all
08:47that knowledge after I cooked independently okay I also did a couple pop-ups right now you are in kind of a
08:56place where your resilience is being tested would be an easy way to say it so what happened I ended up
09:03getting an opportunity recently to basically start my own food program okay in Tacoma Washington I was
09:12going to create a pretty much a platform that was speaking to all Native people and I had a lot of
09:19people already invested coming to the that location to be part of that experience so you had this whole vision
09:28question then what happened I got hit by a car and sustained a fractured skull oh my gosh and um I was in the
09:39hospital for about four days we know that when we get knocked down we we do rebuild it takes time now it's been how
09:48long since the accident six months that's relatively short period of time I mean it's amazing but art therapy is very
09:57forgiving words of wisdom like this has been a lot to have you know you've done all of this and then boom like
10:04you said in a blink of an eye is a game changer what do you have going on because we want to come and see
10:11it I'm doing logos and branding for Native American organizations now I have a new book coming out so did you do the
10:21illustration I did all the illustrations coming to Portland where my artwork shines here is better for
10:28my health with the works that I'm going through right now with my art I'm destined to to make good on
10:35on my promises you know
10:51when you visit Portland you'll notice there are coffee shops on nearly every corner however there's
10:59only one bison coffee house it's the only native owned coffee house in the city a place where culture
11:06meets creativity with a great giant bison head mounted between intricate paintings and photographs of
11:12native culture it's clear that every detail of the space has been thoughtfully curated
11:18I had the dream of this big bison here in the city and so when I told my stepfather about it
11:27he was like oh he said I'm glad you told me my girl he says that's your grandparents in the spirit world
11:33healing you he says you'll get better and so I end up going into remission because I was a stage 4b
11:39cancer and I did get better I just felt like I was going in circles again like trying to figure out
11:44what I was going to do next and so eventually asked my father if I could have this building so I
11:50can do my own coffee and he gave me this he gave me the building to do it
11:56what an incredible story and look at what you've made here I mean it's it's just so cozy as soon as
12:06you walk in it's so inviting and I love how you have just brought in the culture the native culture
12:14in the city yeah well I just feel like I needed to represent our past as well as our present because
12:22of the choices that our ancestors made so that we could be here today they didn't always agree on the
12:28choices that they had to make but they had to make certain choices so they could preserve our people
12:32the bison coffee shop has since become a beloved gathering place for people from all around the
12:39world outside of the bison coffee house I was fortunate to stumble upon a highly talented
12:50Native American musician Gabe Kolhoff he is the founder of the band 1876 with a distinctive sound
12:59that powwow goers would easily recognize he uses his music to convey significant issues that affect
13:05our Native community I've been singing on hand drums since I was a kid like I said I grew up in the
13:18sweat started playing guitar around 10 years old started my first punk band when I was 13 and that
13:24was many moons ago so I've been playing music since then do you still have the punk band in 1876 is a powwow
13:31punk rock it's a genre that I kind of coined and I'm the sole contributor at the moment but it's just
13:39powwow music mixed with punk rock which is the two worlds that I grew up in living in Portland is going to
13:46sweat going to powwows going to punk shows well you're in good company because I grew up with punk the
13:53crew here are yeah all really into music
13:56you're taking that into your music now just with that song that you played that's current issues
14:08I mean we come from a whole history of issues but this is a real you know the missing and murdered
14:13indigenous women movement this has been going on and now we're bringing light to it for the very first
14:19time so that is a modern version of adversity I'm not waiting for a chance I'm gonna say what I need
14:26to say and you can listen or you cannot and that's what I want out of all indigenous people I we're just
14:33by nature we're patient people and we're not really boisterous in the way that other groups of people are
14:39and so I think we could probably take a little bit of that we don't have to completely forget where we
14:44come from because being quiet and being humble is really important and so my idea with 1876 and what
14:50I want indigenous people to understand is first of all there's not that many of us anymore second of
14:54all if we keep working against each other we won't go anywhere and most importantly if we uplift each
14:59other work together and are supportive of each other we will accomplish what everyone says can't be
15:06done we definitely will and we proved it we will prove it time and time again we always have the
15:11home field advantage here so that's the thing that I want Indians to know it is no secret that public
15:18art carries immersed power in shaping our perception of the world as an art dealer I've come to understand
15:25the power of public art it often tells a story that cannot be expressed through words alone that's what
15:32makes native artist Teresa White's contribution to the city's art project so important Teresa White is a
15:39Yupik artist who grew up in rural Oregon and now calls Portland her home her beautiful bronze
15:46sculptures speak to the interdependence of all things inspired by her deep connection to nature her works
15:54give us insight into the crucial role that animals play in our ecosystem viewed through the lens of her
16:00Yupik values through her art we gain a deeper understanding of who we are in our relationship with the world around us
16:07my family's from Bethel Alaska and moved north of the Kuskokwim River to McGrath when my granny was young
16:17and came down here with my mom and a couple of my aunties my granny when my mom was little to Portland
16:23then actually to Washington and Oregon did you feel like you grew up with a strong native connection I
16:31guess I did I learned Yupik values I knew we were native I knew we were Yupik but I didn't know what
16:36that meant and then so as I was in this other place as a young adult I was feeling so different than
16:42everyone else and couldn't figure out why my ideas my values kind of what motivated me someone gave me an
16:49exercise to do which was to imagine that I had a child and what would I want that child to know about
16:56the world so I did that it was so powerful and I wrote down all of these ideas and the person looked
17:01at it and like oh those are Yupik values so let's talk about this piece this piece is called Dependent
17:10Arising Owl and Lemming and it is about which so much of my work is about interdependence and connection
17:18the opposite of the disconnect that I experienced talks about the equal importance of everyone so I
17:24have scaled this rodent up to look huge in comparison to the size of the owl to show that they're equal this owl
17:33would not be here thriving and looking beautiful without the lemming everyone we are all important and
17:40I feel like there's so much misunderstanding about place and me and relationships and this kind of leveling of
17:50people that we treat animal people that way other humans that way and I think that's just one of our
17:56great big problems especially an environmental problem because we're not looking at each other as people we're
18:02all people these are people you know yeah so and they're all equally important in native culture the elders
18:10hold the highest place in society and Lillian Pitt is an elder she's an incredible artist and she's telling
18:17people about the rich history of the first people of Oregon through her art we come from a hard-working
18:23family and so I was first a hairdresser and then when R.C. Gorman saw my work the only in I had to show him
18:33I had no experience whatsoever with being an artist or what an artist is supposed to say I just said you're from
18:42the same village my niece is from and he said oh my that's really interesting and he said do you have
18:50pictures of your work I showed him my pictures which were just awful they were Polaroids and they were just
18:58that's what you had back in the day that's what we had he said do you sell them and I thought oh dear and I said well this one's a hundred
19:06hundred and ten and that was the one he bought plus two others what a great compliment to have R.C. Gorman
19:14I know did you feel any prejudice when you moved from Warm Springs into Portland Warm Springs was okay
19:24because we knew everybody but Madras was where I went to school and there was prejudice and amongst the
19:32teachers the teachers the teachers would tell jokes and and and against the Indians and so it was it
19:39was really hard and so it was easy to leave them you were ready to say goodbye after that after that
19:48absolutely so is there any piece that you've done that you feel especially proud of the Mobius strip
19:55we thought what if we could do this in art someplace well a chance came up in Lake Oswego which is 90 percent
20:03white and so we had to meet with the whole art committee and told them what what we were going to do
20:13we're going to put a topographical map around it to let people know that we've been here for thousands
20:20of years before you ever showed up and and these are the etchings that they did people fished and hunted
20:30and lived and and traveled through here for hundreds and hundreds of years so you can't have that attitude
20:38anymore you know you're dealing with me now after visiting Portland Oregon it's clear that native people
20:47are not relics of the past but a vibrant and present part of the city's art culture and business
20:54communities their passion for giving back is deeply woven into their DNA creative and awe inspiring the
21:03city Indians proudly hold on to their culture in a place they call home
21:19world planet
21:25oh
21:27yeah
21:32yeah
21:34yeah
21:36yeah
21:38yeah
Be the first to comment