Culture: Teamwork was key in battle site find - It took a team effort by historians, archaeologists and other researchers to rediscover the long lost 1855 Hungry Hill battle site, said Mark Tveskov. "Oftentimes historians are like dragons sitting on a hoard of treasure; they don't want to share," he said. "The success of this effort was because everyone was willing to share information and work together."

Culture: Kent, Covington youth team up with UPS to create culture - Kent and Covington middle and high school students with the Institute for Community Leadership recently teamed up with United Parcel Service volunteers to paint cedar canoe paddles and create community spirit. A dozen UPS team members from Northwest District headquarters – including seven states – joined the diverse youth as part of a three-year cultural project between the institute and Quinault master carver, Guy Capoeman.

Culture: Native American Heritage month celebrations planned - November is National Native American Heritage month, and several celebrations are planned from the Tri-Cities to Pendleton.

Culture: At 15, Hallie Ford Museum Of Art Shines Beyond Salem - At dusk, the second-floor windows at Willamette University’s Hallie Ford Museum of Art shine out to passersby in amber, blue, clear, green and red. The patterns are at once new — made from modern safety reflectors — and old, echoing the designs of Native American weavings within.

Culture: Portland's Wisdom of the Elders: 20 Years of Priceless - Fire-cooked salmon, a tomato giveaway, flute-playing and stories of the Athabaskan caribou people were some of the highlights of The Wisdom of the Elders’ 20th anniversary celebration at the Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center in Portland, Oregon, in April. More than 150 people gathered to honor the work the organization has done in preserving Native oral history and culture, and promoting multimedia education and race reconciliation.

Culture: Soap Lake Powwow restores bridge between city, native community - For the first time in more than three decades, Native Americans from across the northwest and elsewhere gathered on the shores of Soap Lake June 7-9 to celebrate a bridging of communities.

Culture: Water Festival offers insight ‘camaraderie’ - Morning clouds and cool temperatures didn’t stop visitors from heading to the Penn Cove Water Festival. Racers from tribes all over the Pacific Northwest gathered in Coupeville to take part in the annual festival, which aims at maintaining a cultural relationship with Pacific Northwest Native Americans.

Culture: Coupeville Water festival honors tribe history - Held in downtown Coupeville, the festival allows guests to relive history while honoring ancestors and those who first hosted the festival in the 1930s. The event was an annual affair until it was cancelled during World War II and then resumed 21 years ago.

Culture: Seattle's Native American art reconnects with Salish tribes' traditions - It's impossible to picture the Pacific Northwest without the image of a totem pole. Considered by many as the emblem of the native people of North America, the poles have been the iconic symbol of the region since the late 19th century. But the poles are not indigenous to this region.

Culture: Wisdom of the Elders Nonprofit Celebrates 20-Year Journey - Founded in 1993 by the late Lakota spiritual leader and medicine man Martin High Bear and his partner Alaskan Athabascan Rose High Bear, Wisdom of the Elders in Portland, Oregon, is a small nonprofit that has created powerful health and wellness curricula, a cultural radio series, a television show and storyteller events.

Culture: History lesson blooming in Steilacoom - Two centuries ago, a small pink flower framed the hills and prairie around the main village of the Steilacoom Indian tribe in what is now west Pierce County.

Culture: Camas In Bloom Again - Camas, a perennial plant from the lily family, has played a vital part in the lives of Willamette Valley people for hundreds of years. Though its range sharply decreased with the arrival of Europeans – and continues to shrink today – the efforts of many suggest that camas may be revived in the future. Its purple-blue flowers bloom in Salem right now.

Culture: At first foods ceremonies along the Columbia River, prized spring chinook is scarce - The First Foods Ceremony last weekend in this tribal village had plenty of dancing, drumming and solemn celebration of the Northwest's springtime bounty.

Culture: Tribal voices to echo in ‘hip’ new anthology - The book collects verse and prose from Lower Elwha Klallam tribal members Suzie Bennett, Brenda Francis and Dee Koester; Makahs Reggie, Meredith Parker, Tor Parker, Rachel Parker and Jon Heilman; and Coeur d’Alene tribal member Christopher Thomas. Quileute-Makah Joseph William Penn, Alaskan Athabaskan Mary Kate Dennis, Skokomish-Elwha Klallam Patti Miller and Muckleshoot-Elwha Klallam Juanita Edwards complete the list.

Culture: American Indian artists demonstrate their crafts at La Conner museum - Traditional American Indian artists from several area tribes displayed their work and discussed their creative techniques during the annual Gathering of Native Artists at the Skagit County Historical Museum.

Culture: A row back in time - Duane Pasco, 80, is an Alaska-born artist who creates Northwest Coast Native-style art; his wife, Betty, is a noted Suquamish weaver. Pasco has assisted Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish Tribal members in building canoes since the first Canoe Journey in 1989

Culture: Learning to build traditional canoes by hand - Saaduuts Peele teaches a canoe building class to a group from Americorps on the shores of Lake Union. Peele is a part of the Haida tribe. As participants awkwardly wielded the flat blades to chop away at the wood, he alternated positive encouragement with jokes and jabs like "What are you doing? You're fired!"

Culture: Canoe-carving project to teach, inspire about Native culture - The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF), the Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) and Antioch University Seattle launched a project on Oct. 30 to carve Native canoes at Seattle’s Lake Union Park. The canoe project will produce the first canoes carved on the west side of the park, where UIATF also plans to build the new Northwest Native Canoe Center.

Culture: Central Oregon Coast Boasts Native American Festival This Weekend - In conjunction with the Lincoln City Visitor & Convention Bureau (VCB), the Lincoln City Cultural Center will be celebrating Native American Heritage with a free afternoon festival on November 10, 2012. The event is highlighted by a show from recording artist and flute healer Jan Michael Looking Wolf.

Culture: ‘Smoke Signals’ burn stereotypes - One perspective constantly lost on the cutting room floor is that of indigenous Native Americans. Contemporary film depictions of this group are few and far between, but certain films have pervaded as successful representations of these marginalized people. Chris Eyre’s 1998’s, “Smoke Signals,” is one of these films, one of the few features able to infiltrate the mainstream culture of American film. Despite its release date, Eyre’s film provides a timeless narrative of contemporary Native American life.

Culture: Tribal horse culture: Measuring wealth in big dogs - When the ancestors of present-day Cayuse and Walla Walla peoples greeted and took care of the members of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Northwestern Discovery in 1805 and 1806, local Tribal horses were admired and prized for trading. The expedition journals reflect the observation that local horses “appear to be of an excellent race, lofty, elegantly formed, active and durable; many of them appear like fine English coursers and resemble in fleetness and bottom, the best blooded horses of Virginia.”

Culture: Riverfront powwow: together again - For several years, the Riverfront Park powwow was threatened by funding shortfalls. Last year, the powwow didn’t happen. This year, however, organizers’ dedication to holding the Spokane Falls Northwest Indian Encampment and Powwow proved successful.

Culture: Pink Breechcloths, Political Correctness and Pretend Traditions (Like Two-Spirits) - Around my fifth community college, this anthropology professor told me about how homosexuals were revered in “Native Americans” communities; he said that there was traditionally a special place for so-called berdaches and so-called two-spirit folks. I had to call “B.S.” “I’m not sure which Native American community you’ve been to, prof, but unless ‘revering’ means ‘getting beaten and left in an alleyway,’ you’re way off base.” In the past several hundred years, our modern traditions—because traditions do, in fact, change—gay people (and even those perceived to be gay) caught hell. Gay and lesbian Native people undoubtedly deserve to be treated humanely and civilly just like any other person within our communities; that’s true whether being gay is “traditional” or not.

Culture: Washington State History Museum gets “In the Spirit” for the seventh year at the annual Native American arts festival and exhibit - Contemporary Northwest Native American art is in the spotlight at the Washington State History Museum right now, and it’s looking more innovative than ever. The 7th annual “In the Spirit” exhibit is up in the galleries for a couple of weeks, highlighted this Saturday by the annual market and festival of Native dancers, musicians, storytellers and artisans in the plaza outside.

Culture: Clatsop, Tillamook, Lincoln Counties cultural and tribal coalitions land grant money - The Oregon Cultural Trust Board has granted a total of $502,552 in competitive cultural development grants, along with its annual coalition and partner grants, including a grant of $4,800 to the Coos Art Museum on the Oregon Coast. In addition, Oregon Cultural Trust awarded $55,368 in cultural participation grants to the cultural and tribal coalitions of the coastal region, including Clatsop, Coos, Curry, Lincoln, and Tillamook Counties, the Coquille Indian Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw.

Culture: In search of camas, a Native American food staple - Skull Island sits in Massacre Bay, in Washington's San Juan archipelago. Here, in 1858, Haida raiders killed a band of Coast Salish and left the bones behind. I can think of other, perhaps more cheery spots to look for flowers, but Madrona Murphy's enthusiasm is unstanched. "Look!" she calls as our boat nudges against shore. "There's some camas right over there." On Skull Island, Murphy points out camas, chocolate lily and wild onion, all of which the Coast Salish grew for food, though she doubts they were actively cultivated here. Although the physical evidence goes back only 200 years, Murphy suspects that Native Americans cultivated camas for over 2,000. "The Coast Salish are frustrating to archaeologists," she says. "A lot of their culture was very compostable, so there aren't many beautiful artifacts."

Culture: Native American boundary issues explored in July 20 and 22 lectures in Friday Harbor - A regional historian and international scholar/mediator will each explore the nature of borders and their impacts on American Indian, First Nations and Inuit peoples in successive lectures scheduled for 7 p.m., Friday July 20 and Sunday July 22 at Skagit Valley College’s Friday Harbor campus. Historian Lissa Wadewitz on July 20 will discuss how borders have been central to salmon management customs on the Salish Sea particularly their various effects on the Northwest salmon fishery.

Culture: Frybread has evolved into cultural, family tradition for American Indians - Frybread was created from rations the U.S. government gave to native populations forced off their homelands and onto reservations and, later, to low-income families as commodity food. In recent years, fattening frybread has drawn criticism amid concerns about the increase of obesity and diabetes in American Indians. Comment: It's not the fat, but the flour that's the poison.

Culture: Cancellation of powwow illustrates need to recharge United Indians - It's one of those signature Seattle stories, how a group of Indians and their allies, led by Bernie Whitebear, climbed the fences and laid claim to Fort Lawton. They didn't give up until the government turned over the 20 acres that now house the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center at Discovery Park. Whitebear died in 2000, and the organization he helped found, the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, recently has struggled financially. The foundation has canceled its biggest event, Seafair Indian Days Powwow, which would have celebrated its 27th year in July.

Culture: Google's Endangered Languages Project - The Endangered Languages Project, is an online resource to record, access, and share samples of and research on endangered languages, as well as to share advice and best practices for those working to document or strengthen languages under threat.

Culture: All Nations Native American camp a spiritual gathering - They call it a spiritual powwow. Every June, All Nations Center in Wapato hosts a Native American Camp Meeting to worship with and honor their Yakama neighbors as well as people from tribes around the Northwest. This year's camp, the 14th annual, begins at 7 p.m. Friday and runs through July 1. Activities, everything from speakers, singers and worship, take place at the center, 3020 Ashue Road. Tribal members from five Northwest reservations -- Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Umatilla, Colville and Yakama --attend.

Culture: Join Puget Sound Tribes in Praying for Snoqualmie Falls - As part of National Sacred Places Prayer Days there will be a gathering, rain or shine, on Friday, June 22nd, at 11:30 a.m. at Snoqualmie Falls in Snoqualmie, Washington. Snoqualmie Falls is one of the state’s most popular scenic attractions, attracting more than 1.5 million visitors a year. Snoqualmie Falls is much more than a tourist attraction, however. It’s been a sacred place for the Snoqualmie and other tribes of the Puget Sound region for thousands of years.

Culture: Hands weave local heritages - Tightly woven through the Olympic Peninsula’s history, baskets come to the forefront in a new book reviewing the culture and artistic abilities of local Native American tribes. Anthropologist Jacilee Wray of Olympic National Park hopes readers will gain a new appreciation for basketry and the local craftsmen who have created baskets for centuries through “From the Hands of a Weaver: Olympic Basketry through Time.” She has worked for years compiling it with help from researchers and tribal basket makers to explore the history and how-to-process of baskets within the Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Skokomish (Twana), Quinault, Hoh, Quileute and Makah tribes.

Culture: Celilo Memory Sharing - Please join the Confluence Project, in partnership with the Museum at Warm Springs, to record your Celilo stories, an opportunity to create a cultural resource, in the form of a website, for the future. When: June 12th, 2012, 1:30-4:30 p.m. Where: Museum at Warm Springs, 2189 Highway 26, Warm Springs, OR, 97761

Culture: Children allowed at prison powwows - In Washington, an estimated 750 Native Americans are incarcerated — though Minty LongEarth, a prison program director for the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, believes the number is much higher, possibly double, given that many inmates don’t identify themselves as Native to prison officials. After months of discussions between tribal leaders and the Department of Corrections, Native-American inmates now can request that children be allowed to participate in significant, yearly religious or cultural events such as powwows.

Culture: An Oral History of the Ancient Game of Sla-Hal: Man Versus Animals - Sla-hal, to Native people of today, is a game. Sometimes called stick game or bone game, a gambling game that once determined territory and settled disputes and where friends and family now come together to play, to sing, to laugh, and to compete. On May 5, it was featured yet again as people came together from many walks of life to share the discovery made by Dr. Carl E. Gustafson, validated by carbon dating in October of 2011, and celebrated by Tribal leaders and community members from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

Culture: Native Habitat for America’s Last Wild Buffalo Is Guaranteed by Treaty, Tribes Say - Can this country restore the last genetically pure wild buffalo penned in at Yellowstone National Park (YNP) as wildlife? James (Jimmy) St. Goddard, hereditary chief of the Blackfeet Nations, believes so. Behind St. Goddard are the eleven member tribes of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. They’ve passed a resolution requesting protection for the 3,700 wild American buffalo that live in or near the park.

Culture: Tribal gathering celebrates unifying culture of an ancient game - Washington tribal families gather at Seattle Pacific University to celebrate the unifying culture of Sla-hal.

Culture: How to Help an Endangered Language - Members of the Siletz Indian tribe in the northwestern state of Oregon take pride in their language. Their language, they say, "is as old as time itself." But today very few people can speak it fluently. In fact, you can count the number of fluent speakers on one hand. Bud Lane is one of them. BUD LANE: "We had linguists that had come in and done assessments of our people and our language and they labeled it -- I'll never forget this term -- 'moribund,' meaning it was headed for the ash heap of history."

Culture: A Powerful Exhibit About the Survival of Washington Indians Opens Soon - A powerful, four-part art exhibit is coming to the Office of the Secretary of State in Washington State—We’re Still Here. The Survival of Washington Indians. Govenor Chris Gregoire, Secretary of State Sam Reed, state Representative John McCoy, and Nisqually tribal leader Billy Frank Jr. are among those speaking at the unveiling event. Performances from the Chehalis Canoe Family and Chief Leschi Schools Drum and Dance Group will round out this special day.

Culture: Heritage Center exhibit opens April 24 in Legislative Building - A powerful new exhibit about Native Americans in Washington opens soon in the Office of Secretary of State’s front lobby at the Capitol. The privately funded exhibit is called “We’re Still Here. The Survival of Washington Indians.” It was created by the Washington State Heritage Center, a part of the Office of Secretary of State. The free exhibit’s launch will take place during a special program April 24 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Capitol Rotunda.

Culture: Celebrating culture at Springfield powwow - Native people of all ages and tribes gathered together on Saturday, April 21st to celebrate their heritage through an annual powwow at Springfield High School.

Culture: Nisqually film festival connects viewers with the environment - The Nisqually Wild and Scenic Film Festival will feature nearly 20 films with the goal of encouraging attendees to become better stewards of their environment. Among the films that will be screened are three locally produced films: “Lost and Puget Sound,” “Canoe Way: The Sacred Journey” and “Shadow of the Salmon.” “Canoe Way” was produced by Tacoma filmmaker Mark Celletti and executive producer Robert Satiacum, a member of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians and son of the late chief Bob Satiacum. It tells the story of the annual tribal journey taken aboard more than 100 American Indian canoes. “Shadow of the Salmon” is the story of a young Lakota Nation man who visits his Coastal Salish relatives in the Northwest. During his visit, he learns about salmon and the Northwest environment.

Culture: ‘Crooked Arrows’ Earns Standing Ovation at Sneak Preview - Neal Powless calls Crooked Arrows the “first Native American family movie”—and it received a standing ovation at the sneak preview. Among those who stood to praise the film was CBS News correspondent Hattie Kauffman, Nez Perce. Crooked Arrows will see its theatrical release May 18.

Culture: Adam McIsaac fell in love with Columbia River art; now others are loving his art - Adam McIsaac has no Native American blood. He is German, Scottish and Irish. But his biologist father taught him to love the Columbia River, its history and its natural beauty. Enchanted by art, he left Clark College to study the ways of the early Columbia River people. Over the past 18 years, he has chiseled his way into their history.

Culture: Off The Rez brings Native American food to Seattle - Mark McConnell's mother grew up on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, and he grew up in Seattle eating the frybread and "Indian tacos" and other foods that his mom and grandmother would cook for gatherings and special occasions. At some point, he noticed that our region, despite its many tribes, had no everyday eatery for Native American foods. We had "a large community, but no cuisine," he said, a phenomenon that has confounded onlookers for years. Enter Off The Rez, the big blue food truck McConnell and partner Cecilia Rikard recently opened.

Culture: Tribal art show in Toppenish displays the art of legend - The 48th annual "Spilyay Art Show, Native American and Western Show" takes center stage this weekend in the Winter Lodge at the Yakama Nation Cultural Center in Toppenish. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $2.

Culture: Celilo Falls and Celilo Village - For more than 12,000 years, native people inhabited several villages clustered around the roar of Wyam of N’ch-iwana — Celilo Falls on the Columbia River — the center of a vast salmon-based fishing and trading economy and the nucleus of many sacred sites, petroglyphs and burial grounds. Today, Celilo Falls and Celilo Village are rarely marked on any maps.

Culture: Bald eagle permit a victory for tradition - A federal government decision to allow a Wyoming tribe to kill two bald eagles for a religious ceremony is a victory for American Indian sovereignty as well as for long-suppressed religious freedoms, the tribe says. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted a permit March 9 to the Northern Arapaho Tribe allowing it either to kill or capture and release two bald eagles this year.

Culture: 2012 Canoe Journey stops at Port Gamble S’Klallam July 20, Suquamish July 21-22 - The 2012 Canoe Journey / Paddle to Squaxin will stop at Port Gamble S’Klallam July 20 and Suquamish July 21-22, according to a map posted online after the March 3 canoe skippers’ planning meeting at Muckleshoot. The Squaxin Island Tribe recently launched PaddleToSquaxin2012.org, an information and news website for the final stop in the 2012 Canoe Journey.

Culture: Some American Indian Tribes Recording Faster Growth Than Rest of US - In the United States the rate of natural increase is about one percent a year. However, over the past ten years, growth rates for some American Indian tribes have been two to three times higher than the national average. The federal government recognizes five hundred sixty-six American Indian and Alaska Native tribes within the United States. In some ways the tribes are nations within a nation. They can make their own laws on their reservation lands. And their governments have complete authority to decide who can be a member of the tribe. Tribal citizenship is based on the blood lines of ancestors.

Culture: Traditional foods are treaty foods - Wildlife habitat in Western Washington is disappearing rapidly. Deer, elk and other wildlife are being crowded into smaller and smaller areas in the remaining good habitat, making it difficult for tribal members to exercise their treaty hunting rights. If we lose our ability to hunt, we lose an important source of traditional food, and we can't afford to do that. Indian people evolved eating traditional foods like elk, salmon, clams and berries. These are the foods that are best for our bodies.

Culture: Memorial Totem Pole Raised At Seattle Center - On Sunday at Seattle Center, a totem pole was raised in memory of John T. Williams. Members of Native American tribes from around the region celebrated Williams' life and the traditional woodcarving he practiced. They hope Williams' death at the hands of a Seattle police officer will ultimately result in greater understanding and acceptance.

Culture: Memorial totem pole for slain carver being raised Sunday - Slain carver John T. Williams' family and friends carved a memorial totem pole being raised now in commemoration of Williams' birthday this month.

Culture: Totem pole raised in honour of man killed by officer - A massive totem pole was carried by 120 people along the Seattle waterfront on Sunday as a tribute to a man who was shot to death by a police officer in 2010.

Culture: John T. Williams totem pole raised - PHOTOS

Culture: Totem pole to honor slain Seattle woodcarver - A procession of hundreds of community members carried the totem pole from Pier 57 to the Seattle Center, where it will be gifted to the city of Seattle.

Culture: The tribes of the Klamath River - There are five Indian tribes - the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, Shasta and Klamath - that have lived, worked and played along the banks of the Klamath River since time immemorial.

Culture: Is it time to rename Mount Rainier to its former native name? - Mount Rainier was once known by its many native names. Now, an alliance of tribal members is moving forward with a proposal to restore an original name to this Northwest landmark. But a long bureaucratic process lies ahead.

Culture: Gathering of Oregon’s First Nations Powwow - American Indians from Tribes across Oregon and the United States celebrated their shared history during the fourth annual Gathering of Oregon’s First Nations Powwow held at the Oregon State Fairgrounds on Saturday, January 28. With tables in the atrium of the fairgrounds’ Salem Pavilion, many of the five sponsoring western Oregon Tribes showed their histories and cultures as hundreds came by for the powwow inside. About 50 vendors – all with Native-made goods – dotted the outside circle with their wares.

Culture: How to eat local forever: lessons on food security from First Nations - With the ongoing controversy over the Enbridge oil pipeline, the connection of First Nations people to their land has come into focus. In this article, members of the First Nations community show the way they live off the land and eat local, natural foods. This is a treasured way of life that will be threatened if a pipeline carrying oilsands from Alberta cuts through their territories.

Culture: Oregon tribes meet at annual gathering - Two canoes easily suited for a dozen paddlers sat on trailers in the Pavilion at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. They were among the exhibited items of interest to Saturday's powwow visitors. The canoe exhibits marked a piece of the fourth annual Gathering of Oregon's First Nations, a Fairgrounds powwow that featured tastes of Native American culture from western Oregon ranging from handcrafts to canoes, along with a plenty of dancing in colorful attire and native chanting with the rumble of accompanying drumbeats.

Culture: Five Tribes, Fourth Year: The Gathering of Oregon’s First Nations Powwow - What started out as a reminder to Oregonians that Native peoples had called the Pacific Northwest home long before statehood was established has now become an annual celebration. We’re talking about the fourth annual Gathering of Oregon’s First Nations powwow, which starts today at noon and goes until 9 p.m.

Powwow: Tribes hold fourth annual First Nations Powwow - Looking for a little weekend excitement? Plan to visit northeast Salem on Saturday for the local tribal powwow. The fourth annual Gathering of Oregon's First Nations Powwow is scheduled from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Pavilion at Oregon State Fairgrounds & Exposition Center, 2330 17th St. NE. The free event is organized by the five federally recognized tribes in western Oregon — the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, Coquille Indian Tribe, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and Confederated Tribes of Siletz — and it serves to recognize and celebrate native people who pre-date Oregon's 1859 statehood.

Culture: Salish Bounty: traditional foods exhibit at the Burke Museum - Native people of the Salish Sea have lived off the bounty of this place for thousands of years. A new exhibit at The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington campus, created in collaboration with area tribes, explores and explains the indigenous foods of the region as well as their gathering and use. Salish Bounty: Traditional Native American Foods of Puget Sound focuses on the revival of traditional food gathering and use in the region, but also provides an intimate look into the past.

Culture: Popular powwow returns to Oregon State Fairgrounds - Anyone up for a powwow should plan to visit northeast Salem Saturday, Jan. 28. The fourth annual Gathering of Oregon’s First Nations Powwow is scheduled from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Pavilion at Oregon State Fairgrounds & Exposition Center. The free event is organized by the five federally recognized tribes in western Oregon, and it serves to recognize and celebrate native people who pre-date Oregon’s 1859 statehood.

Culture: Native Americans gather for powwow in Portland to celebrate the New Year without alcohol - Possibly the largest Portland party tonight is the powwow at the Oregon Convention Center, where thousands of Native Americans and others will close out the year with drums, songs, dance – and not a drop of alcohol. Some authorities say the term powwow comes from the Algonquin Indian word "pau wau," referring to a gathering of medicine and spiritual leaders in a healing ceremony. Powwows have become increasingly popular and organized nationwide over the past century as intertribal gatherings where Native Americans can share cultural traditions. They continue to have healing and spiritual qualities.

Culture: Native Americans gather for powwow in Portland to celebrate the New Year without alcohol - Possibly the largest Portland party tonight is the powwow at the Oregon Convention Center, where thousands of Native Americans and others will close out the year with drums, songs, dance – and not a drop of alcohol. Some authorities say the term powwow comes from the Algonquin Indian word "pau wau," referring to a gathering of medicine and spiritual leaders in a healing ceremony. Powwows have become increasingly popular and organized nationwide over the past century as intertribal gatherings where Native Americans can share cultural traditions. They continue to have healing and spiritual qualities.

Culture: Reconciling Christianity and Native Beliefs: Bridging the Gap - Jesuit priest and author Patrick J. Twohy is a Washingtonian of Irish ancestry who has worked among the Plateau and Coast Salish peoples for almost 40 years. His book, Finding a Way Home: Indian & Catholic Spiritual Paths of the Plateau Tribes, first published in 1983, is in its fifth printing, the latest made possible by a grant from the Puyallup Tribe.

Culture: How Do You Prove You’re an Indian? - Who is and who isn’t an Indian is a complicated question, but there are many ways to answer it beyond genetics alone. A respect for blood is a respect for the integrity of that survival, and lineage should remain a metric for tribal enrollment. But not the only one: bending to a common purpose is more important than arising from a common place.

Culture: Faux Native American fashion - Native-inspired art walks a fine line

Culture: Indian artifacts a tough sell for SOHS: Sale could raise $500,000 for historical society, but upsets tribal members

Culture: High Schooler First Not Allowed, Then Allowed, to Wear Eagle Feather in Graduation Cap

Culture: Painted Sky Northstar Dancers connect to Native American heritage through music, dance

Culture: Learn about canoes at Nov. 12 Family Native American event