“We are more than feathers and beads,” Becky Archibald said. “We are also your neighbors. We come from all walks of life: teachers, doctors, lawyers, volunteers, veterans. People would not know our story or even know we are here if we didn’t come out and do this.”
Vancouver’s Water Education Resources Center has been hosting a Native American Heritage Month celebration for years, according to water and wetlands educator Cory Samia, but it’s usually been squeezed into the WREC’s Second Saturday schedule of events.
But three years ago, Samia and her friend Archibald, a community activist whose heritage is Soshone-Bannock (on her mother’s side) and Southern Sierra Miwok (on her father’s side), finally made good on their ongoing “threats to collaborate,” Samia laughed. Archibald “had this great idea for a ‘Native Runway.’ We’ve been doing that for the last three years now.” The next Native Runway takes place at 1 p.m. Saturday, during the Water Center’s Native American Heritage Month celebration.
What’s a Native Runway? Just what it sounds like: Native Americans in full regalia, strutting their colorful and jingly stuff as they proceed down a red carpet, one by one. They’ll be striding solemnly, as one does on a runway — but they’ll also dance in traditional fashion. Meanwhile, an emcee describes exactly what it all means: the regalia, the dance, even the dancer’s life and story in this community.
“We ask each dancer to write a paragraph about the origins and provenance of their regalia, the significance of the dance they’re doing, and to tell what their role is,” said Samia. “In that way it’s different from a powwow.”
If you like going to powwows, you’ll probably like this even more because, in addition to taking in a massive sensory spectacle, you can also take in some firsthand information and come away with a better understanding of what, who and why.
In the end, there will also be native drumming and audience participation, Archibald said. “What we’re trying to do is bridge the gap so our neighbors have a better understanding of Native American culture,” she said. “We have a large population of native people in the Portland and Vancouver area. But most of the time we’re referred to as invisible people — until there’s an event such as this. We are really pleased and honored to share this with the community.”
Holiday crafts
Saturday’s event is more than a runway show. There will be a holiday craft marketplace with upwards of 15 vendors, plus crafting activities for children, all sponsored by Native Vendors United and Sacred Waters Fish Company. There will be a Cathlapotle Plankhouse display, “since that’s whose land we are sitting on, here,” Samia said, courtesy of the Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. The Plankhouse display will stay up through early 2018.
The whole thing will begin and end with a color guard from the Northwest Indian Veteran Association. In fact, one of the reasons why this event has been moved out of the Second Saturday schedule is because this year, the second Saturday of the month also happened to be Veterans Day.
Many Native Americans are veterans who would want to participate in that day’s parade and observance, Archibald said, so the city’s annual Native American Heritage celebration was moved to this weekend so there wouldn’t be a conflict.
“Now it’s its own standalone event,” Samia said. “It gets bigger and bigger every year. I don’t know where I’m going to put everyone, but that’s a great problem to have.”
