Students plant Opal's future

BY TERESA WILLIAMS
The Stayton Mail
October 13

JAWBONE FLATS -- Hiking into Jawbone Flats, it's hard to imagine that 15 years ago the forest was the subject of a documentary called "Rage Over Trees."

Today the road is quiet, and remnants of decades of mining are the only reminders of the struggle to keep loggers out of the Opal Creek Forest.

This weekend 23 students from Chemawa Indian School's American Indian Science and Engineering Society hiked into the old mining town of Jawbone Flats to plant trees. The town now serves as the Opal Creek Education Center, owned and operated by Friends of Opal Creek.

With funding from the National Forest Foundation, Ecotrust invited Dennis Martinez to show the students how to plant trees and teach about the ecology of the forest. Martinez is a 2001 winner of Ecotrust's Buffett Award, which recognizes tribal leaders in the West.

Martinez chose red alder to plant in an area that had been damaged by mining operations. The soil is rocky and drains well, he told the students, but it doesn't have many nutrients. Bacteria forms nodules on red alder roots, producing nitrogen and improving the soil.

The red alder has other benefits. It grows quickly and provides shade for shrubs to move in. Half a century from now, shade tolerant trees like western hemlock and red cedar will grow under the trees the students planted.

Red alder is a medicinal tree, Martinez said. When the Santiam Kalapuya and Molalla lived in the area, they used the bark for dye to camouflage fishnets. They also used it to treat tuberculosis and game hunter's disease.

"So we need to show some respect for that," he said.

Martinez explained the best conditions for the trees to thrive, and then the students went to work.

As the students dug up rocks, fondly referred to as "Jawbone potatoes," John Villella praised their work.

"You guys don't know how awesome it is to have everybody come here and help," he said. Villella is a staff member with Friends of Opal Creek, and he lives at Jawbone Flats all year. He told the students they had accomplished in a day work that would have taken the staff at least a week to complete.

The rain poured, and the ground was tough, but junior Heather Jo Gobert didn't complain.

"It makes me happy. It does. Because we actually get to do something for the environment instead of taking away from it," she said. "And it could cut back on global warming, and that's a good thing."

She said her generation has to concentrate on reducing global warming and maintaining water sources for future generations.

Gobert wasn't the only student looking ahead. Jackie Santos went to Chemawa with a purpose.

"I decided if I really wanted to get off the reservation, I'd have to start as soon as possible," she said. But Chemawa has changed her mind. Now she wants to work as an environmental lawyer "futuring my own self and my people," she said.

Even in science classes, students are required to tie their culture into their studies.

"They incorporate our Native American beliefs, too. I guess they're open to telling us about more things," Santos said. "When it's closer to home, it makes more sense."

That is part of the reason Ecotrust wanted the students to visit Opal Creek. In addition to learning about ecology and the recent history of Opal Creek, Steve Wise took advantage of the lunch break to talk about the first inhabitants of the area.

"As long as there have been people in the Northwest, there have been people at Opal Creek," said Wise, who is the development director for Friends of Opal Creek.

In 1851, the Santiam Kalapuyans first started negotiations with the United States government. Indian Commissioner Isaac Stevens wanted the all the Willamette Valley tribes to move to a reservation on the east side of the Cascades because the valley had valuable farming land. Stevens told the chiefs that the land was equally good, but the chiefs refused to move. They wanted to stay in their homeland between the forks of the Santiam River.

The government officials asked them to stay only in the northern half of the land, and they agreed. Then the government urged them to allow the Southern Kalapuya and the Umpqua to live with them. Again they conceded. Finally, the government wanted to reduce the size of their land again, but the chiefs said no. The United States Senate never signed the treaty that had been negotiated.

By 1854, Wise said, more settlers had moved into the area bringing diseases with them, and the tribes were weaker. They were forced to give up the land, and they joined to form the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.

"The work that you're doing here is sort of re-establishing that connection," Wise told the students.

In the late 1800s, miners moved into the area, and Jawbone Flats was established in 1930. James Hewitt, still referred to as Grandpa Hewitt, consolidated the mining operations, forming Amalgamated Mining Company. In its heyday, more than 100 people lived and worked in the area from Battle Ax Creek to Opal Creek.

After World War II, the value of minerals declined, and the mining operations tapered off, Wise said. But miners would play a key role in keeping logging out and establishing the Opal Creek Wilderness and Scenic Recreation Area.

-Next week, a second article will explore the historic fight for Opal Creek Forest and the effects it continues to have on the Santiam Canyon.
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Reprinted with permission of the Statesman Journal