[Heritage] Corps 2 begins Oregon site visits

[Heritage Info]

A National Park Service traveling exhibition "Corps of Discovery II: 200 Years to the Future" opens in Oregon for the first time on Oct. 21. It will visit six Oregon sites before it leaves the state next spring.

"Corps of Discovery II: 200 Years to the Future" supplements local and national observances throughout the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," said Gerard Baker, superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. "It is an occasion to learn more about our nation's history, including the history of American Indians, and to think about our nation's future, where we want to be in 200 years."

Corps II is a joint effort of federal and state agencies, private and nonprofit organizations, and American Indian tribes. The National Park Service provides major funding, exhibit design and production, transportation, and support staff through the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, based in Omaha, Neb. The central features of Corps of Discovery II is the "Tent of Many Voices." This 150-seat auditorium is a venue for cultural arts demonstrations, folklore, music, living history presentations, readings from the expedition journals and more. Programs reflect a spectrum of nature, culture and history topics..

During the Corps II four-day appearance Oct. 21-24 at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute at Pendleton, Corps II, as well as Tamástslikt's permanent exhibits and its new living culture village, will be open to the public with free admission. Hours are 9-5 daily.

Tamástslikt will enhance the visit by providing other displays--a presentation of live raptor birds native to our region, a display on the restoration of the Umatilla River Basin restoration of salmon runs after 70 years absence, plus displays about the initiatives of the Tribes to restore freshwater mussels and eels, two species common when Lewis and Clark visited the region.

A myriad of presentations, music and historical interpretations will take place during four days. Amy Mossett of the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, with whom Lewis and Clark and their men spent their first winter, is said to provide the best contemporary interpretation of Sacagawea, the only woman on the expedition. Blackfeet singer and story teller Jack Gladstone will entertain and inform.

"Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery arrived in this region 200 years ago," said Bobbie Conner, director of Tamástslikt. "Our people helped them with food, directions, information and transportation."  Conner is the vice-president of the National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial and will be a presenter in the Tent of Many Voices 
while it's at Tamastslikt. She has joined the Corps II exhibit at several of its stops during the past two years to speak on the Indian role in the expedition and its impact on the many tribes it encountered.

Betty Boyko, assistant superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, said Lewis and Clark noted rivers teeming with fish and thousands of people living in the area of the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers. "But what happened to the tribes after Lewis and Clark was unkind at best," she said. "That's a large part of the story 
we are going to look at when Corps II is at Tamástslikt."

Conner said the captains saw thousands of pounds of drying fish, healthy horses, handsome and respected leadership, heard multiple native languages, "and of our people they said, 'they are the most hospitable, honest and sincere people that have met with in our voyage.' "

In addition to a walk-through exhibit, Corps of Discovery II has a 25-foot keelboat replica, a 16-foot diameter Plains Indian lodge and an explorer camp complete with a 25-foot dugout canoe. Steve Morehouse of the Bureau of Reclamation interprets Lewis and Clark, dressed in period clothes, and tends a cook fire where the menu sometimes includes beaver tail.

Corps II is largely staffed by the National Park Service but involves more than two dozen federal agencies, 41 Indian nations, 18 Lewis and Clark Trail state commissions, dozens of state and local agencies, non-profit groups and thousands of individual volunteers. More than 300,000 people have visited Corps II in 68 cities near and along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

The Tent of Many Voices schedule is available online at www.lewisandclarkgnet.com and www.nps.gov/lecl and at Corps II. The entire list of Corps II activities at Tamastslikt can also be found at http://www.tamastslikt.com/

For further information about Corps II and the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial please visit www.nps.gov/lecl or www.lcbo.net or www.lewisandclark200.org 
or www.lewisandclark200.gov or www.lewisandclark.gnet 

Other Oregon visits by Corps II include:
Oct 28-31  The Dalles, Columbia Gorge Discovery Center 
Nov 19-22   Seaside, Convention Center 
Mar 13-20   St. Helens, Waterfront  
Mar 25-Apr 2  Grand Ronde, Grand Ronde Reservation 
Apr 22-25   Warm Springs, Warm Springs Reservation 
Apr 29-May 7 Pendleton, Umatilla Reservation