The story continues at Sacajawea State Park
With her latest Confluence Project artwork, Maya Lin will tell the complex story of what is now Sacajawea State Park, at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers. Seven “story circles” and new landscaping at the site will recall its past, restore its native vegetation and reconnect it to the area’s Sahaptin-speaking people.
In October 1805, Lewis and Clark spent three days here, hunting, repairing their equipment, mapping the river landscape, and celebrating with more than 200 Native Yakama, Wanapum, Walla Walla, Umatilla, Palouse and other people of the Columbia Plateau. Native people from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast had already been gathering here for thousands of years, harvesting berries, root crops and medicinal plants; fishing and preserving the rivers’ abundant salmon; trading with one another; and celebrating together.
Today, the site would be unrecognizable to the Corps of Discovery explorers and the Native people they encountered here. Manicured lawn grass and introduced shade trees have replaced the dry, open plain and riparian ecosystem that once thrived here. Dams have slowed the rushing rivers and raised their water levels, submerging the historic shoreline under more than 20 feet of nearly still water. Shore birds and other native fauna have been displaced. All but one of the site’s six species of salmon have become threatened or endangered.
With text etched into seven story circles, some raised above the ground and some embedded within it, Maya Lin’s artwork will weave together the cultural, historical and environmental details that form the larger narrative of the area. The circles create voids in the landscape, representing the loss of habitat, wildlife and an important Native trading and fishing hub. As visitors walk from circle to circle, they’ll experience the present-day view of the river confluence as they reflect on its rich past. The story circles provide context for how the site has changed over time while re-establishing it as a spot to gather for generations to come.
In one circle, a list of trade items that Native people brought to the site will underscore its importance as a crossroads for western tribes. In another circle, text from a traditional Yakama and Klickitat story will remind visitors how the now-endangered salmon were once plentiful and life-sustaining for Native people in the area. Other circles will feature text from Lewis and Clark’s journals, names of the seasons in the Native Sahaptin language and the names of six species of salmon in Sahaptin, with translations from Virginia Beavert, a Yakama elder and Sahaptin speaker.
Plans from project partners Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects Inc. also call for restoring the native riparian habitat with sagebrush, indigenous shrubs, native grasses, and native trees such as black cottonwood and chokecherry. Construction will begin in spring 2009, and a dedication is planned for May 2009.
Sneak preview attracts 300 to Vancouver Land Bridge
Three hundred Vancouver-area residents turned out on a drizzly Friday afternoon, November 16, 2007, for their first steps on the Vancouver Land Bridge. “This bridge is an icon in our community,” Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard said in a front-page story in The Columbian.
Three artists involved in the project were on hand to talk informally about their concepts: Johnpaul Jones, lead architect and designer for the Vancouver Land Bridge and Interpretive Trail; René Senos, a key contributor to the native landscape architecture and design; Lillian Pitt, Pacific Northwest Native American artist whose work at the site includes the Welcome Gate and Sculpture Baskets. Another artist contributing to the site is Peter Attila Andrusko, a master artisan who is creating a 400-pound stone circle.
The bridge is again closed while further work is completed. It will be fully accessible and a dedication is expected to be held in mid-2008. Watch for more information in coming months.
Move to Ridgefield a success
The move of one of the Confluence Project’s seven sites from Frenchman’s Bar Park to Ridgefield celebrates the convergence of beauty with utility. In collaboration with Washington State University and the Port of Ridgefield, artist Maya Lin is crafting an environmental research center that perpetuates the Confluence Project’s vision of preserving natural resources for future generations. Ridgefield, located just 10 miles from the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers, hosts one of North America’s primary reserves for migrating waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway—a path of travel for migratory birds spanning from Alaska to Patagonia. The 5,217-acre refuge shares its fertile wetlands with an iconic past, including the Cathlapotle townsite, an ancient community discovered in 1806 by Lewis and Clark.
The decision to move to this historical and ecological crossroads has been met with great optimism. Hal Dengerink, Washington State University chancellor, calls the concept “a nice focal point for our aquatic and environmental research as well as our interest in environmental stewardship.”
Brent Grening, executive director of the Port of Ridgefield, also endorsed the move. “The idea supports the vision the Port has of developing the waterfront and the Port’s vision for North Clark County,” he says.
Maya Lin’s design integrates green building practices, maintaining the Confluence Project’s goal of promoting sustainability.
Celilo Park artwork revealed
Maya Lin has completed a model of the artwork for Celilo Park, near The Dalles, Oregon. The work will take the shape of a simple wooden arc inspired by the iconic fishing platforms where Indians, using lines, spears and long-poled dip nets, risked their lives to catch salmon in the turbulent water of the falls. Celilo Falls was an important gathering place for Northwest Native Americans for 10,000 years before its inundation in 1957 by The Dalles Dam.
The model shows a gentle ramp that, when completed, will span 300 feet and take the viewer from land to a point cantilevered over the water. Text set in the ramp will chronicle the history of the falls, from a geologic description of its formation, to accounts of its existence in both mythic and oral histories of the tribes who inhabited the area, to Lewis and Clark’s accounts, to the poignant testimonies of the tribes who protested the dam. The final text, at water’s edge, will describe the lost sound of the falls.
Completion of the work is expected in early 2009.
Visit Confluence twice in St. Louis — Maya Lin’s Confluence Project + Systematic Landscapes
An exhibition of models, drawings and photographs of Maya Lin’s Confluence Project are featured at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. Concurrently, Maya Lin’s series of new sculptures, drawings and installations, titled Systematic Landscapes, will be presented at the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum, from September 9, 2007 to January 6, 2008.
CIS Circle of Friends symposium a great success
The Confluence Project in the Schools program came full circle on March 24, 2007, with a culminating symposium uniting all 29 participating schools. Participants at the daylong event, Circle of Friends Gathering, celebrated CIS successes and recounted the stories of how communities created exceptional collaborations and learning experiences. Attendees were also given a special treat when Solo and Larry Greene sang the Nez Perce Flag Song, expressing their gratitude and appreciation for the work done by students and community members.
Hosted by John Deeder and John Erickson, superintendents for Evergreen and Vancouver Public Schools, the event’s breakout sessions included Sustaining Legacy of the Artworks over Time and Inspiring Stewardship of Natural and Cultural Resources. Janet Gallimore, COO of the Confluence Project, was the emcee.
Speakers included Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard, Washington Arts Commission Executive Director Kris Tucker, Confluence Project Chairman Antone Minthorn, Confluence Project Executive Director Jane Jacobsen and Chinook Tribe Chairman Ray Gardner. Representatives from the Umatilla, Warm Springs, Nez Perce, Chinook and Wasco tribes performed a blessing near the Web of Life artwork, and Maya Lin was present in a video appearance, thanking the schools and communities for their participation and hard work.
The CIS program, envisioned as a bridge linking the Confluence Project and the communities surrounding each of the seven project sites, encouraged students and community members to explore connections between history, culture and environment while creating lasting works of art. This event was sponsored in part by the Washington State Arts Commission.
To view video coverage of the entire event, please click here.
Celilo Park Blessing, March 18, 2007
Nearly 200 people participated in a Native American ceremony blessing the land where the Confluence Project will install an artwork by artist Maya Lin. The event occurred on March 18, 2007, and was linked to the commemoration of the 50th year of the flooding of Celilo Falls.
On an unseasonably warm day marked by blue skies and a fresh breeze, tribal elders led the crowd in a processional and drum ceremony. Speakers including tribal leaders, Maya Lin and Confluence Project executive director Jane Jacobsen offered words of remembrance for the falls, flooded by backwaters created by The Dalles Dam on March 10, 1957. For thousands of years Celilo Falls served as a gathering place and economic center for tribal nations. Speakers suggested the Confluence Project’s art installation would be the beginning of a more hopeful legacy- a time of planting new life for the gathering of new generations at Celilo.
Confluence Project
Spring-Summer 2008