Tire Cover “Ex-Antelope Resident” OHS Mus 97-3-1

The last decades of the twentieth century saw a nationwide fascination with cultural roots, and a re-discovery of Native American culture. In writing and the visual arts, the central Oregon “scene” shifted north to Madras and Warm Springs. Warm Springs artists Lillian Pitt and Elizabeth Woody and Madras natives Craig Lesley and Jarold Ramsey all have reached national audiences.

Born in Warm Springs, Lillian Pitt is a highly regarded sculptor and muralist known primarily for her masks, ceramics, and mixed media sculptures which celebrate the cultural traditions, legends, and spirit of the Columbia River people. As Pitt describes it:

I use the ancient stories of my ancestors as a basis for the imagery I create. By doing this I maintain the memory of an ancient culture and keep the beliefs of my people alive.

A member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Elizabeth Woody is an artist and writer who claims kinship with “a people who cherish the land.” A 1990 American Book Award winner for her book of poetry, Hand into Stone, Woody is a professor of Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts and currently associated with Ecotrust, a non-profit environmental organization in Portland.

Craig Lesley is the author of three novels editor of two collections of short fiction. In his novels Winterkill and Sky Fisherman, Lesley explores the social tensions in post-industrial eastern and central Oregon. His work has received numerous awards including a 1996 Pulitzer Prize nomination for Sky Fisherman.

Folklorist and poet Jarold Ramsey is probably best known for Coyote Was Going There, a re-telling of oral stories of Oregon Indians in writing. He also provided a book of scholarly analysis of Native American folklore. In company with another folklorist, he has produced The Stories We Tell: An Anthology of Oregon Folk Literature. His most recent work is New Era: Reflections on the Human and Natural History of Central Oregon. Ramsey’s poetry spans four decades and is collected in four volumes.

© Ward Tonsfeldt & Paul G. Claeyssens, 2004.

Themes: Arts

Regions: Central Oregon

Date: 1990-Present

Author: Ward Tonsfeldt & Paul G. Claeyssens

Summary:
The last decades of the twentieth century have seen a nationwide fascination with cultural roots and a re-discovery of Native American culture.