March Gallery Exhibit: “ntsayka ilii: our place”
March 12 - April 2, 2022
The Resiliency of the Chinook People
AVA’s March 2022 exhibit, ntsayka ilii: our place, features the photography of Amiran White together with creatives from the Chinook Indian Nation. They explore the resiliency of the Chinook People and their relationship to Tansy Point as they seek to preserve and restore the legacy of their ancestors and the inheritance of their descendants.
Amiran White has spent many years documenting the Chinook Indian Nation, including the acquisition of land along Tansy Creek in 2019. This land, a heavily-forested 10 acres near Hammond, Oregon, is the first property in Clatsop County to be owned by the Chinook Indian Nation.
Using both historical and current photographs, carvings, baskets, and informational pieces, this program seeks to educate and raise public awareness of the contemporary issues facing the Chinook Indian Nation and their struggle for recognition, as well as highlighting the historical significance of the Chinook peoples and Tansy Point.
Historic Gathering at Tansy Point
Between August 5 and 9, 1851, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon Territory Anson Dart camped at Tansy Point, near present-day Hammond, Oregon. His instructions were to secure the title to Indian lands and prepare them for removal to a reservation east of the Cascade Mountains, far from their coastal villages. However, the United States failed to consider the Chinook attachment to their ancestral homelands.
The five tribes of the Chinook Indian Nation — the Lower Chinook, the Clatsop, the Wahkiakum, the Kathlamet, and the Willapa — collectively negotiated treaties to preserve their way of life and to allow the Chinook people to remain with “the bones of our ancestors.”
Tansy Point represents the beginning of the long-standing battle for federal recognition that the Chinook Indian Nation continues to fight to this day. The recent acquisition of land near Tansy Point is a marked celebration and a chance for the Chinook Indian Nation to achieve significant cultural preservation.
It is the goal of the Chinook Indian Nation to restore the undeveloped land, revitalize the creek bed, and eliminate invasive species. The restored property will be used for cultural and environmental education programs for tribal members and the community at large.
This exhibit is made possible in part by a grant from Oregon Humanities (OH), a statewide nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds OH’s grant program. For fifty years, Oregon Humanities has offered programs and publications that help Oregonians connect, reflect, and learn from one another.
Opening reception during Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk, March 12 from 12 - 8 pm.
