Story Circles dedicated with drums, song, poetry and fanfare

The Seven Drum Singers, a multi-tribal assembly, sang and drummed a moving set of blessings that concluded the program. (Members of the Seven Drum Singers pictured with Bobbie Conner and Maya Lin include Rex Buck, Wanapum; Armand Minthorn, CTUIR; Davis Washines, Yakama Nation; Lester Umtuch, Yakama Nation; Fermore Craig, CTUIR; and Marcus Luke, CTUIR.) 

After the dedication ceremony, visitors strolled through the grassy network of sand-blasted basalt artwork. Children carefully traversed Story Circle rims while a fiddler and a guitarist provided lively background music. Art historian Susan Platt commented, “Confluence Project is important historically as a major change in the idea of what public art is and who is listening.” Platt, who had attended every Confluence Project dedication since Cape Disappointment’s in 2006, continued: “This particular site, the Story Circles, is exceptional because it has this wonderful resonance with the 10,000 years, which we all felt when the drums were playing. I could just feels those ancient drums coming up through the ground. It was just absolutely, incredibly effective and powerful.”

The Story Circles were designed by Lin and crafted by John Mendoza, stone artist and owner of Hell's Canyon Rock in Lewiston, Idaho. Mendoza built a custom saw to precisely cut the dense basalt into segments to form the circles. Each circle holds special meaning for Pacific Northwest tribes and historic importance relative to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

“What the Confluence Project [intends] is to reveal the deeper history of the place,” Lin commented. “Go out and read each Story Circle. Each one frames and tells you a little bit more about this place in terms of the Native American tribes who came here, and this was a very important place for them.”