Black Butte students sweep history honors

Seven Black Butte School students swept a state-wide history competition held in Salem on Saturday, April 19.

All seven placed either first or second in their categories, earning the right to comp

ete in national competition at the University of Maryland beginning June 15.

The competition's theme was "Tragedy and/or Triumph," and the students' objective was to show people facing and overcoming adversity in a historical context.

All of the Black Butte School students focused on the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs as the subject of their projects.

A clear favorite at the competition was Paul Head's and Bethany Benhower's moving video, "Culture Lost In Boarding School," which chronicles the experiences of Warm Springs Indians at a white-run boarding school from 1850 to 1958.

In oral interviews tribal members recounted "round-ups" of Indians at Celilo Falls and being herded like animals into trucks which took them to the boarding school. One woman tearfully recounted being raped at the school.

Head, a seventh grader, and sixth-grader Benhower placed first in the group media division.

Head said their project conveyed "the tragedy and suffering the children there (at Warm Springs) went through because of the white man's attempt to 'civilize' the Indians and assimilate them into their culture.

"It was overwhelming to do interviews with the Warm Spring Indians and to learn that this actually took place," he said.

Tenth grader Chris Garcidvenas used quotes from oral histories to tell about the boarding school. Garcidvenas, who went to the national competitions last year, could win college scholarship money.

Sixth grader C.J. Adams presented an individual exhibit called "Ebb and Flow, from Tragedy to Triumph."

He studied the effects of the loss of the tribes' fabled fishing ground at Celilo Falls due to the building of The Dalles Dam.

According to Toni Foster, head of Black Butte School, Adams explained that the federal government paid the tribes $4 million as compensation for inundating the falls behind the Dalles Dam.

The Tribes used $100,000 of that money to commission a study on how the tribes could become economically viable through use of their remaining resources. As a result, the Tribes became the first such organization to obtain a hydroelectric license.

Foster noted that Adams captured the irony that the very dam that took the falls from the tribes may have given the confederation the resources to flourish economically.

Sixth grader Owen Moore, wrote a 2,500-word research paper on an alleged puposeful effort by the U.S. government to exterminate the Indians. Moore studied government policies and United States Supreme Court decisions that stood for the proposition that Indians were a transient race and therefore had no valid claims to land.

Towner Dyer and Alan Dale, both sixth graders, presented "Surviving is the Triumph." When they asked a woman they were interviewing what the tribes' greatest triumph was, a woman responded, "Surviving."

Dyer and Dale explained how the tribes' culture, government, land and economy survived despite the early loss of their land.

The High Desert Museum sponsored the regional competition which seeks to to promote an interest in history.

There were about 98 students involved in the state competition, and 60 entries (some of the entries were produced by groups of students). Twenty-six students, or 16 entries, will proceed to the nationals.

All five of Black Butte School's entries won first or second place and will proceed to the national competition.

"Central Oregon kids went to the nationals in every category except one," said Tracy Wild, education specialist for the High Desert Museum. "And one-third of the entries going to the nationals are from Black Butte School."

The state competition included students from Ashland, Corvallis, Estacada, Beaverton, the greater-Portland area and Central Oregon.

"This year the competition was really stiff," Foster said. "There were many, many more entrants and the quality is picking up."

Tracy Wild was at the state competition.

"It was amazing." Wild said. "I was so impressed with everyone's hard work. There was much excitement, participation and support. It was quality work; I can tell they learned a lot."

Head, the champion of the group media division, described the competition as "nerve-wracking."

First the students show the judges their work, Head said, then, "the judges asked us questions for about 10 minutes. There were six judges, mostly historians and history teachers."

Parents and community members are scrambling to raise money for airfare and lodging for the students to get to the nationals in Maryland on June 15.

Donations to the Black Butte School field-trip fund can be sent to Box 150, Camp Sherman, 97730. For information contact Toni Foster, 595-6203