Lana Jack Joins the Red Road to DC to Seek Federal Recognition of Celilo Wy’am Tribe
Delivering Kindness, in the form of Water And Ice. Lana Jack, a matriarch of the Celilo Wy’am and Andrew Cushman handing out water, ice, and food to people at Lone Pine In Lieu, during a record-breaking heatwave where temperatures reached nearly 118 F last week.
Through her activism Lana Jack has helped to bring basic necessities like food, water, and some kindness to Lone Pine village when it is needed. She has been delivering food and water for nearly 8 years.
Lana Jack is on a mission to get to Washington DC and ask them to honor their unfulfilled promises to her people.
Pictured, image of totem pole from totempolejourney’s instagram.
She has been invited to join the House of Tears Carvers and the Native Organizers Alliance on The Red Road to DC, a cross-country journey that will deliver a 24-foot Totem Pole weighing nearly 5,000 lbs from the coastal Salish Lummi Nation to Washington DC, stopping at nine Sacred Sites along the way.
The purpose of the journey is to raise awareness of critical issues facing the Indigenous Peoples of America and bring them to the attention of the Biden-Harris administration including protecting sacred sites, honoring treaties, missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits, truth and reconciliation, and protecting water.
Judith LeBlanc, director of the Native Organizers Alliance said bringing the pole to the nation’s capital will encourage national leaders to “recognize what their ancestral responsibilities are.” “We sat nation-to-nation and signed agreements,” LeBlanc said. “We gave up land that mattered in order to receive health care, education and housing. Those treaty rights have been denied all through history.”
Lana Jack said she viewed this as an incredible opportunity for her speak the truth to those in power.
“I need to get my wisdom in front of the decision-makers of this country!” said Lana Jack.
You can follow the totem poles journey across the US here on instagram.
Lana Jack will be lobbying for federal recognition of the Celilo Wy’am people, a band of Columbia River Indians that didn’t join the confederated reservations and were denied Federal rights to tribal sovereignty.
“We were denied the right to self-determination, and the ability to practice their traditional way of life on our sacred lands and waters,” said Lana Jack.
She also said she hoped that her journey to the 9 Sacred Sites, including Standing Rock, and eventually Washington DC would help bring her healing that she could then share with her people.
She will also seek to have her identity as a Celilo Wy’am matriarch affirmed and federally recognized.
Lana Jack said she will lobby to have her status as a member of the Celilo Wy’am Tribe federally recognized so that she can receive funding to bring much-needed services to Celilo, Lone Pine Village, and other individually unrecognized tribal members in the Columbia River Gorge.
Currently, the Celilo Wy’am are considered a federally unrecognized tribe.
There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S.
But it’s estimated there are at least an additional 400 unrecognized tribes that exist in the U.S.A. today.
And in Oregon, there are ten federally RECOGNIZED tribes including
In Oregon federally UNRECOGNIZED tribes include
the Celilo-Wyam Indian Community
the Chetco Tribe
Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes
Confederated Tribes: Rogue, Table Rock & Associated Tribes
Tchinouk Indians
Tolowa-Tututni Tribe.
TRIBAL MAP. For more information about Indigenous History in Oregon click here, please be aware that the site was compiled by Pacific University's archivist, Eva Guggemos, MA, MLS, who is a non-Native with a background in academic historical scholarship. It is based on tribal websites and other published sources. Corrections, comments, questions, etc. are welcome! Please email archives@pacificu.edu.
Non-federally recognized tribes fall into two categories: 1. State-recognized tribes that are not also federally recognized and 2. Other groups that self-identify as Indian tribes but are neither federally nor state recognized.
Some non-federally recognized tribes are eligible to receive funding either because of their status as a non-profit or as a state-recognized tribe.
The Celilo-Wyam is currently neither state nor federally recognized and doesn’t hold status as a non-profit, making it nearly impossible to receive funding.
As a partial result of being unrecognized, many people including individuals that live in Celilo and Lone Pine Village, an In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing site built by the Corp of Engineers, to replace villages and fishing sites that were lost when the The Dalles Dam went in, currently exist in a kind of legal limbo which makes it extremely difficult to access a variety of services.
“We’re not anybody’s jurisdiction,” said Lana Jack. “We’re not their problem.”
“You see my gas gauge, it’s at two bars, I operate like this all the time, here I am, I can’t even afford gas and I’m still bringing others water and ice on this hot day,” said Lana Jack, with a gesture to her car’s dashboard. “I need funding.”
Lana Jack’s got a new ride. Lana Jack, and her grandson pose with Gary Brace and Miracle on Sixth Street employee in front of her new 2007 GMC Trailblazer with just 100,000 miles on it. She traded in her Prius and Honda which each had over 200,000 miles on them for the GMC.
“This is my miracle car,” said Lana Jack.
Lana Jack said that being one of the last members of an unrecognized tribe brought her great pain.
Over the years she has felt the weight of rejection stemming from her unrecognized status as neither Yakama nor Warm Springs.
“I am one of the last remaining survivors of my Mother’s people, the Celilo Wy’am. We are a band of Columbia River Indians that refused to join the confederated reservations and have therefore been denied our Federal rights to tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and the ability to practice our traditional way of life on our sacred lands and waters. We hold aboriginal title to Celilo Falls, a Sacred fishing site that was drowned and silenced by the Army Corps of Engineers when they dammed the Columbia River in 1957 - a blatant violation of existing treaty negotiations. My people were separated, assimilated, and exterminated by boarding schools, institutions, and policies set by the United States government, and the slow genocide continues to this day,” said Lana Jack.
Lana Jack and Andrew Cushman Delivering Ice and Water to Lone Pine In-Lieu.
She hopes that achieving recognized status will bring her some peace and allow her to fund her activism on behalf of her community.
“We are one people. This is my family. We need to treat each other like family,” said Lana Jack as she wiped a tear from her eye and gestured to the Lone Pine Village. “I’m doing this for my people.”
“Federal Indian law protects tribes and individual Indians,” said Lana Jack of the Celilo Wy’am “Nobody has set precedent with the federal Indian law that protects individual Indians.”
If Lana Jack manages to have her tribe the Celilo Wy’am federally recognized, she may potentially set precedent for other federally unrecognized individuals.
“My biggest request is for your prayers, that’s my number one,” said Lana Jack. “This is a historic opportunity to take action and make real change, especially with Deb Haaland - the first Native American Cabinet Secretary leading the Department of the Interior which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The time to act is now! I believe things can change. I have to.”
Delivering Ice and Water to Lone Pine In-Lieu. Lana Jack, matriarch of the Celilo Wy’am people, and Indigenous activist said that a lack of electricity and running water are key issues for the people of Lone Pine during this historically unprecedented heatwave.
Those at Lone Pine without any AC congregated around the water and went swimming to cool down. But cooling down food without a refrigerator is another matter and requires ice and a good cooler. Unlike the subdivision of the same name which sits on the other side of the bridge, Lone Pine lacks high-quality infrastructure to support the health and wellness of its residents.
Something Lana Jack hopes can change in the future.
