Opening Ceremonies for Destination: The Pacific
November 2005Many chapter members participated in the bicentennial "signature event" on the Oregon coast in November 2005, called "Destination: The Pacific". At the opening ceremony, held at Ft. Stevens on Veterans Day, and the next day at the Oregon Historical Society, tribal representatives carried in their flags. The flags of 50 “encounter tribes” were on display, provided courtesy of chapter member Ted Kaye.
On Veterans Day 2005, the opening ceremonies of Destination: The Pacific, the national bicentennial event for Oregon and Washington, began a week-long commemoration of the arrival of the Corps of Discovery in 1805. The Oregon National Guard hosted the event with military precision, appropriately honoring the first U.S. Army exploring expedition and veterans from all wars. 50 tribal flags flew in the wind and rain at Oregon’s Fort Stevens State Park at the mouth of the Columbia River, representing the tribes encountered by the explorers Lewis & Clark.
Over 2,000 attendees heard speeches from governors Kulongoski and Gregoire, other politicians, the adjutants general, and Indian leaders. Military bands played an opening concert and background music. Katie Harmon, Oregon’s 2002 Miss America, sang the national anthem. A junior fife and drum corps in 1800s uniforms followed the color guard. Re-enactors in buckskins with flintlock rifles recalled the original expedition members; veterans in period uniform represented all major US wars. But easily the most colorful aspect of the event was the tribal representatives (all veterans) parading the flags in, one by one, as their tribe, name, rank, and branch of service were announced.
The flags represented Indian nations from the Otoe-Missouria (the first tribe to council with Lewis & Clark) to the Clatsop-Nehalem (hosts to the Corps of Discovery for the winter of 1805-06). The event took place at the site of the Clatsop village of Chief Coboway, to whom the explorers gave their winter quarters, Fort Clatsop, on their departure in March 1806. Ted Kaye, Oregon Chapter secretary, also supplied flags representing the 17 Lewis & Clark “trail states” from Virginia to Oregon.
Despite a third of an inch of rain, the event came off without a hitch, perhaps due to the intensive advance work by the National Guard. The event ended with a flyover by F-15 jets (unseen in the clouds—it was re-characterized as a “noise-over”) and Blackhawk helicopters, and with a 21-gun salute from modern howitzers and a Civil-War-era cannon. The following morning, the tribal/state flag display and presentation by tribal representatives was repeated in Portland. The Oregon Historical Society opened a four-month run of the national Lewis & Clark bicentennial exhibition, the most comprehensive collection of expedition artifacts, artwork, and documents ever assembled (more than 600 artifacts that have not been viewed together since the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis in 1806). In a reflection of local tribal politics, the Grand Ronde and Chinook tribes, who had boycotted the event the day before, participated in and helped sponsor the Portland ceremony.
A key goal of the Lewis & Clark bicentennial has been to remind Americans of the role of the native peoples through whose homelands the Corps of Discovery passed. Displaying the flags of today’s tribes has advanced that goal in a meaningful and memorable fashion. Long after the band music and the speeches are forgotten, the attendees will likely remember the colorful panoply of tribal flags and their significance in representing the original peoples of the American West.
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