Lyric Aquino
Underscore Native News
The Pearson Air Museum’s Historic Hangar was packed to the brim with music and laughter for the annual Confluence Legacy Maker Gathering fundraiser on Sept. 20. This year’s theme, “Honoring Story Bearers,” brought local community members and Tribal leaders together to commemorate the work of three elders of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs for their contributions to the culture, creativity and education in the Pacific Northwest.
Lillian Pitt, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Wasco and Yakama, is a sculptor and mixed medium artist whose work is influenced from over 10,000 years of Indigenous history found within the Columbia Gorge.
Oregon’s first poet Laureate Elizabeth Woody, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Navajo, Wasco and Yakama and author has spent her career writing about the complexities of being an Indigenous woman.
Traditional dancer Linda Meanus, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, is known for dancing as an elder and also for writing her book, “My name is Lamoosh,” which details her life before the Dalles Dam was built and how it affected her life as a Columbia River person.
Each was surrounded by friends and family who joined in the celebration of their life’s work.
“It’s such a humbling experience,” Pitt said. “The fact that people came and people paid lots of money to come and be a part of this is humbling. I was thinking that I’m not even worth that.”
The evening was hosted by Confluence, a nonprofit that aims to connect Native Nations along the Columbia River to, “history, living cultures, and ecology of the Columbia River system through Indigenous voices,” with community gatherings, and educational programming in the arts. Proceeds from ticket sales, the silent auction and raffle go back to Confluence for future programming. Executive director, Leah Altman, Oglala Lakota, said the night was about honoring local elders with a party and giving them a chance to enjoy their time with loved ones and community.
“This was the time to honor them, while we can and to make sure that they know how much we appreciate them,” she said. “We really wanted it to feel like an honoring event, rather than expecting them to perform.”
Altman said each woman brought her own artistic flair to the surrounding Native community and further illustrated that Indigenous culture isn’t uniform.
“A lot of the women in our communities have different artistic practices and work with different media,” Altman said. “It crosses over from like art to utilitarianism to dance and really honoring that there’s like a confluence of different art styles in our practices. What we’re trying to help people understand about Native people is that our art can’t be put in a box.”
Making a Legacy
When Pitt first began dabbling in art in 1981 she had no idea where it would take her. While she pursued her associates of arts degree in mental health and human services, Pitt took a ceramics class that led her life-long pursuit of art.
Now, over 40 years later she has become known for her work which is rooted in iconography and petroglyphs from her ancestors which is found throughout the Columbia River Gorge. Her most notable works include 26 bronze plaques at the Oregon Convention Center, a 50-foot sculpture in Portland State University’s Native American Student and Community Center, and famously the Welcome Gate of the Vancouver Land Bridge. Her work often highlights her large projects but Pitt also creates fine jewelry.
“What inspired me is the love of my ancestry, the love of my people and the love of my artwork speaking for me,” Pitt said.
In her work, Pitt often features the iconic pictograph and petroglyph “She Who Watches,” whose Native name is Tsagaglal in the Wasco-Wishram language. Pitt said the petroglyph holds deep sentimental value and is found throughout her artwork because her great-great grandmother came from the same village that Tsagaglal came from.
“Knowing that, it gave me focus to continue what I’m doing and knowing what I’m doing is correct,” she said. “Having that knowledge just made everything feel really right for me.”
As Linda Meanus thinks of her life purpose she thinks of her great great grandfather and hopes that she channels his authenticity. She remembers the way he told stories, from his heart, and continues on that legacy today in her own work.
“I always felt that sharing our stories from the heart is the truth, because you can always change your mind. That’s the way I was taught,” she said.
In 2023, Meanus published a book she said she wrote with her grandparents in mind. Her book, My name is Lamoosh, chronicles her life as she grew up with her grandmother, Flora Thompson and her grandfather Chief Tommy Thompson, a former Salmon Chief of the Celilo Wyam people. In her book, Meanus talks about her life before the creation of the Dalles Dam which flooded her ancestral home of Celilo Falls and highlights Indigenous ways of the Columbia River People.
“I always wanted to share my story about a historic place that should have never happened,” she said. “They took away a beautiful history but our light, it still lives on.”
A powwow dancer and beadworker, Meanus is an example of a woman who loves her culture. In every facet of her life, Meanus focuses on remembering her ancestors and living to teach the youth about who they are.
“Our history of stories, our legacy and our way of life, should have never been taken away, but we still continue carrying on our culture,” she said. “We still teach our younger generation that it’s always important to carry out our way of life before it’s all gone.”
Elizabeth Woody is Oregon’s first Native American poet laureate. A wordsmith in her own right, Woody explores her identity as an Indigenous woman and the beauty and darkness the identity holds in her work.
In 1990 she received the American Book Award and the William Stafford Memorial Award for Poetry, and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards in 1995.
Woody gives back to her community by leading workshops and lectures and as a founding board member of Soapstone, a literary organization based in Portland, which focuses on uplifting women writers who face obstacles in finding space and time for serious writing by giving them opportunities to do so.
In the coming months, Confluence will continue as a Native-led organization that focuses on serving Native communities as its primary audience. However, Altman hopes to start a new project dedicated to educating non-Natives about Indigenous peoples.
As she continues to settle into her role after being the organization’s first Indigenous executive director, Altman said she looks to the legacy of strong and powerful Indigenous women — particularly this year’s legacy makers to inspire her.
“They’re important to me because I grew up learning their stories and their art and following them, following in their footsteps,” said Altman. “People of my generation and younger are going to be carrying their stories forward and learning from their art forms and moving that forward too.”