Volunteers, supporters applaud each other for shaping cultural center
Visit the Plankhouse
The Cathlapotle Plankhouse will reopen for the 2015 season on April 12. For information about upcoming events at the plankhouse, visit www.ridgefieldfriends.org/plankhouse/programs
How to Volunteer
Those interested in volunteering at the Cathlapotle Plankhouse are invited to attend a volunteer orientation 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the plankhouse, on the Carty Unit of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.
RSVP for the event by contacting Sarah Hill at 360-887-4106 or sarah_hill@fws.gov.
RIDGEFIELD — When volunteers showed up at the Cathlapotle Plankhouse on Sunday afternoon, this time it wasn’t to work.
They were there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Chinookan plankhouse replica that was built on the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, and to be thanked for making the cultural center a reality.
“Your efforts, the way in which it was (built), are well within how it’s been done for 7,000 years,” said Ken Ames, a retired professor emeritus of anthropology at Portland State University who served as principal investigator for the plankhouse project.
“I applaud you,” he told the more than 125 past and present plankhouse volunteers and supporters who had packed into the building. They sat around the inside perimeter of the house as two fires burned inside, sending smoke up through openings in the roof.
Since the building was constructed a decade ago — mostly by hand and following many traditional techniques — the plankhouse has drawn about 50,000 visitors and additional 40,000 students, most of them third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, said Sarah Hill, the Cathlapotle Plankhouse’s coordinator.
“So many people who visit us, their minds are kind of blown,” Hill said, when they learn that Chinookan people once lived right where they stand, and that many built plankhouses similar to the Cathlapotle Plankhouse. “This house really has a long legacy.”
The plankhouse has gained national attention, earning a Preserve America Steward designation, complete with a letter from first lady Michelle Obama. The honor is given to programs that make effective use of volunteer time to preserve history.
The plankhouse program is a joint effort between several groups, including the Chinook Indian Nation, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the nonprofit Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge has a staff of about eight or nine people, and the nonprofit Friends group has two full-time staff members, Hill said, so “we really do rely on our volunteers.”
There are about 20 regular volunteers working at the plankhouse and another 20 plankhouse supporters throughout the area who help promote the program, Hill said. The volunteers are the face of the program, serving as docents who answer plankhouse visitors’ questions.
Ron Ward of Vancouver has been volunteering at the plankhouse since it was built. The former Union Ridge Elementary School teacher retired 14 years ago, but “being a docent was one way to continue teaching,” Ward said. “It’s just a lot of fun for me.”
He’s there every other Saturday. He said the plankhouse also makes for a fantastic field trip, which allows students to tour the building, learn about Chinookan culture, and also explore the natural habitat outside the plankhouse walls.
“It’s good for everybody to understand different cultures,” Ward said.
Tribes from other parts of the Northwest have played a role in supporting the plankhouse, too. Returning on Sunday was didahalqid, whose English name is Mike Evans, of the Snohomish Tribe of Indians. About a decade ago, Evans was an assistant fire marshal for the city of Kent and offered to look over the plankhouse plans to make sure they met building standards, he said.
Members of the Snohomish tribe were there when the first post of the plankhouse was blessed, and they’ve since returned for winter gatherings and canoe paddles.
“You’re our family too, so thank you for inviting us,” Evans, chairman of the Snohomish tribal council, told the crowd on Sunday. He then lead a group in a table song before volunteers were treated to a meal just outside the plankhouse.
The Chinook Indian Nation includes several tribes indigenous to parts of Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon near the Columbia River.
Tony Johnson, chairman of the Chinook Indian Nation’s cultural committee and a member of its tribal council, told volunteers Sunday that the Chinook community hopes to build another plankhouse in the future. That plankhouse could be built somewhere closer to the mouth of the Columbia River, or perhaps near the Chinook Indian Nation’s council offices in Bay Center, he said.
“We expect that’s still going to happen,” Johnson said. “We’ve done it once, so let’s do it again.”
