Gratitude
I would like to express my gratitude to the Ya’Xaik people for their stewardship of this land and to pay my respects to their tribal members past and present.
An acknowledgment of the history of this land…
For at least 1,500 years (though some say stretching back as far as 5,000), the greater area of Yachats was home to the Ya’Xaik people. Of course, their descendents are still here today.
Close to the coast there is quite a bit of evidence of historic settlements. Around the mouth of the river are buried middens – mounds of shellfish, pottery, and other discarded objects. (Please note: should you come across one, it is not legal to disturb them.) The native people who lived along the coast would dig areas out of the earth for their homes, line it with vegetative matter, then build a roof over it. Some of those sites are known to historians and local residents.
As far as I know, there isn’t specific evidence of settlements as far inland as this farm. When I asked Robert Kentta, the Cultural Director for the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, about this land, he responded that he believed it was historically used by native people for hunting.
The Oregon coast has a terrible legacy of atrocities committed against the native people. Recently, there have been efforts by current residents to understand and acknowledge this history. One outcome is the dedication of the Amanda Trail, a hiking trail that was the last stretch of a trail of tears that native woman Amanda De-Cuys was forced to take around 1855. There was also a formal apology issued by the city of Yachats to the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz, which is our local currently existing tribal group. Specifically mentioned in the apology was the construction of Highway 101 directly over a known Native American burial site.
Resources for more information:
You can read the transcript of an interview I conducted with Robert Kentta for my past public access radio show here. It focuses on environmentalism, and also includes quite a bit of information about the history of the area.
Transcript of my interview with Joanne Kittel on the creation of the official Amanda Trail.
More information about the Amanda Trail
Article on the history of the native people in Yachats
BBC article about this part of the coast
Personal Reflections
I don’t know how to make sense of colonialism or how to best honor those that came before. When I think of how much richer our lives would be, how much less destruction could have happened on a different timeline where settlers hadn’t been focused on owning and mastering everything in their path — I feel heartbroken. What if settlers had seen the native people as equals and teachers? What would we know today and how would life look different? I suppose it’s futile to dwell on what could have been done differently — especially when the conquering mindset is still pervasive today.
What I can do now is live with as much respect for what came before as possible. I can dedicate myself to being a steward of the land. I can learn from indigenous teachers who are willing to share their knowledge.
My dedication to permaculture is part of this. Permaculture is a relatively new buzz word, but what it really means is gardening and farming in a generative (rather than destructive) way. I’ve long searched for a term that would encompass my ethos and mission better– something about returning to having a relationship with the land, instead of trying to dominate it… something that recognizes my being as *part* of nature, I do not think of nature as something “out there,” to be controlled.
One Teacher to Share
My favorite book of all time is called Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.* I wish everyone would read it. I have bought it to pass on to so many people, many of whom have also adopted it as their new favorite book.
The author, Robin Wall Kimmermer, does an incredible job of navigating between indigenous knowledge and the Western scientific outlook. In the book, she articulates something that I have struggled to voice: how she walks the line between a more holistic spirituality and our current culture. It helped me to find a space of more comfort than I previously had with the contradictions and tragedy we all live with. It provided me with a start toward healing my relationship with the world.
Quotes from the book:
“I wonder if much that ails our society stems from the fact that we have allowed ourselves to be cut off from that love of, and from, the land. It is medicine for broken land and empty hearts.”
“Wait a second,” he said as he wrapped his mind around this linguistic distinction, “doesn’t this mean that speaking English, thinking in English, somehow gives us permission to disrespect nature? By denying everyone else the right to be persons? Wouldn’t things be different if nothing was an it?”
“Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit. To recreate a home, the plants must also return.”
Recent History (1916 – current day)
This farmstead was first established in its relative current state in 1916. We live in the first farm house that was built here, called “the Saltbox,” by locals due to the shape of its construction. The guest house, which is my studio and our garage, was added in 2004 by previous residents.
I’ve been told that it was originally a schoolhouse, but I have not been able to definitively confirm that story.
The garden was minimally fenced, but quite underutilized when my family purchase the property in 2015. There were large established blueberry bushes, a raspberry patch, and one garden bed. There were no animal housing structures.
We have added quite a number of large hugelkultur garden beds, asparagus beds, and many other perennial edibles. We have built chicken coops, a quail aviary, a honey bee house, and a large rabbit hutch. We recently added fiber sheep in order to naturally manage the pasture through rotational grazing, a huge improvement to our previous reliance on mowing. Our livestock guardian dogs (and fencing) help us to keep predators away without the need for trapping and killing them.
We have planted quite a number of native plants, pollinator host plants, and varieties of willow for basketmaking. (Although we have yet to have a willow harvest, due to elk grazing. We will need to construct another protective fence.)
Resolutions
I will create more connections with current day tribal members and do my best to support their community.
I will actively pursue knowledge about the history of this land and how various inhabitants lived here throughout time. I will learn some of the skills they implemented, such as basket weaving and carving.
I will actively work to restore native plants and to eradicate invasive species.
I will do my best to minimize my reliance on fossil fuels.
I will not use toxic chemicals in my stewardship of this land.
I will maintain an active interest in becoming a better steward of the land over time, questioning my own assumptions as I go.
I will continue to research conservation easements to help protect this land in the future.
.
.
.
.
.
.
*affiliate link — helps to support our farm at no cost to you!