07/19/2024
Each year, a Tribal Delegation travels to New York City for a ceremony with Tamanowas. Below are excerpts from the diary of a tribal elder visiting Tamanowas for the first time. There will be another excerpt tomorrow.
Day Zero, the Prep-
As I prepare to visit tamanowas, a whirlwind of thoughts fills my mind. Although I have never seen tamanowas, I once held a fragment that radiated immense power. The prospect of meeting tamanowas thrills me, and I wonder how my spirit will respond to its overwhelming medicine. To honor tamanowas, I am wearing a buckskin skirt adorned with numerous medicines around my neck, to show my deep respect and reverence. I believe tamanowas will appreciate the traditional dress since it has witnessed generations of native women dressing this way while seeking help and healing.
Imagining the size of a 15.5-ton meteorite baffles my understanding of reality. Yet, in 1905, Ellis Hughes using a handmade, log-framed trailer slowly moved the immense weight (taking three months to move it about three-fourths of a mile) from the Oregon Iron and Steel Company to his private property without permission of the owner. Until then, tamanowas sat, a silent witness to history – they say it was created about 4.5 billion years ago in space, and it has been on earth for thousands and thousands of years. Tamanowas witnessed the great floods 10,000 years ago and rode its waves to present-day West Linn. Tamanowas witnessed the loss of traditional lifeways of the Clackamas people, it witnessed the disappearance of the Clackamas people, and it stood victim to the lack of respect and disregard for its existence once the tribal folks were removed. Thankfully, Tamanowas is again treated as the sacred being that it is, at least once per year when the Tribal delegation visits.
📸AMNH Special Collections, Photographic Negative Collection: 314892
