On behalf of our Board of Directors, I want to thank all who generously gave of their time to respond to our recent community and stakeholder on-line survey. We were delighted to read so many narrative comments, learn your views on our strengths and weakness, and gather your recommendations. Your input will definitely strengthen our first strategic planning effort. For those respondents who indicated they’d like to meet with us for further discussion, we will soon be setting up two virtual group meetings, so keep a look out for future emails.
In the next two newsletters, we would like to highlight one of our important focus areas, address some timely issues and opportunities, describe our current capacity to pursue our mission, and share some thoughts regarding our community conservation efforts in future.
One of our organization’s most rewarding work has been helping to accurately depict our local Indigenous history and culture. We have done so through tribally-supervised articles, establishing seven interpretive signs on the Ya’Xaik and Amanda Trails, building two bridges over the Amanda Creek by partnering with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) and Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI). VtF with a number of partners spearheaded the dedication of the Amanda Trail Suspension Bridge last May.
We also worked for over a year with the U.S. Geological Survey to officially name the creek Amanda and wrote grants and collected donations to help build the Ya’Xaik Trail. Over the years we have joined tribal members for Yachats-area talks and presentations, including sharing the local Indigenous history, and how a previously divided community came together. We have been a long-time supporter of the City’s annual Peace Hike, and many of our Board members who are also Yachats Trails Committee members have been closely involved in the planning and operation of this culturally significant event.
In addition to the seven interpretive signs installed along the Ya’Xaik and Amanda Trails, four additional interpretive signs about our local Indigenous history can be viewed on the kiosk
located at the Yachats State Park, at the the south entrance of the 804 North trail at Smelt Sands State Park, at the Yachats Cemetery, and on the north wall of the Ocean Cove Inn. All of these signs were tribally supervised and sponsored by others. These signs will soon be featured on our website’s View the Past page.
More references to our Indigenous history can be found at many of our local businesses, including the Drift Inn, Green Salmon, area gift shops, and the Yachats Book store, which sells the 2nd edition of the “Ya’Xaik People, Origins of the Yachats Name and the Prison Camp Years,” at cost. (Our promise to the CTSI and CTCLUSI was that this article, which presents tribal information, will never be sold for profit, a promise kept since first published in 1996.) VtF members have also authored several documents about how the Ya’Xaik Trail and Amanda Trail came about. These articles, as well as local history written by View the Future and other authors, can also be found at View the Past page on the www.viewthefuture.org website .
VtF is pleased to announce that the 3rd edition of “Ya’Xaik People, Origins of the Yachats Name and the Prison Camp Years” is being produced, with updated information and more pictorials, and is expected to be released as early as April of this year. This edition is also being tribally supervised, and we want to thank Robert Kentta, Cultural Resources Manager, CTSI; Patti Phillips, linguist; Julie Siestreem, Tribal Council member; Jesse Beers, Cultural Resources Manager, and Chief Slyter, CTCLUSI for giving generously of their time and expertise without compensation. We would also like to thank the Lincoln County Historical Society for their contributions, Mike Bahn for his research into his rich family’s past, and to Dr. Stephen Dow Beckham, the founder of the Amanda Story and a prolific researcher and author, for his contributions. Yachats resident Drew Caldwell is generously editing the drafts to produce a beautiful manuscript. We are extremely fortunate to have the help of such experts, giving this historical gift to our community and beyond.
