Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

There are plenty of historical museums and park sites in Oregon that walk visitors through the history of our state, but none tells the story quite like Tamástslikt.



The Tamástslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton is the rare museum in Oregon that speaks from a Native American perspective, and it does so with a beautiful design and brutal honesty that's both revealing and discomfiting.



The institute is part of the Wildhorse Resort & Casino, owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. It's home to event spaces, a cafe and a gift shop, but the 14,000-square-foot museum is the big draw.



Split into three sections – "We Were," We Are" and "We Will Be" – Tamástslikt lays bare the history of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes, collectively known as Natitayt (meaning "the people") who for millennia populated the Columbia Plateau.



"We'd like people who want to learn about American Indian culture to understand not only the longevity here of our homeland, but we also want them to understand the depth and the complexity of the story we're telling," museum director Bobbie Conner said. "It's not quite as easy as a cowboy and Indians B-Western movie."



The bulk of the exhibits are in the "We Were" section, which begins by showing the ancient cultural traditions of the tribes through baskets, stone tools, clothing and art. Nature sounds play over speakers hanging from the ceiling, where tall windows let sunlight stream in.



Once you leave the artifacts and recreated longhouse behind, the museum veers off into a more recent and painful history. It's one that all Oregonians – especially white Oregonians – should take the time to learn.

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John M. Vincent/The Oregonian, 2012

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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The Natitayt's first exposure to European culture came around 1730, when the Cayuse war chief Ococtuin obtained a mare and a stallion from a band of Shoshone. The story, written on an exhibit placard beside a mannequin on horseback, tells of the pivotal event for the tribes of the Columbia Plateau, who had never seen horses before.



The tribes began breeding horses and suddenly gained a much wider range of travel, leaving behind millennia of relative isolation to join a flourishing trade

network with other cultures. Artifacts in glass cases show the material possessions they gained: goods and food from neighboring tribes, guns and clothing from the Europeans and items from as far away as China.



But white settlers soon began to travel west. In 1805, Lewis and Clark arrived, and fur traders followed in droves. Fort Nez Perce was erected on the Columbia Plateau in 1818, hailed as "Gibralter of the Columbia" by whites, while the tribes saw it as "an unprecedented intrusion upon ancestral lands."



Along with goods, white settlers brought diseases that quickly crippled the tribes. Thousands died, decimating the local native populations. One museum display is built inside a facade of a tiny church, telling the story of missionaries who showed up with the goal of converting local Native Americans to Christianity. Their efforts ultimately inflamed tensions on the plateau.



The last section of "We Were" in the museum runs from trade to treaty, showcasing a stunning downfall of the Native people in less than a century's time. Quotes and informational displays tell how as white immigration crossed the Columbia Plateau, lawlessness and disease immobilized the tribes, leaving small bands to offer up any sort of resistance.



In 1855, the U.S. government called for treaty negotiations at the Walla Walla Council, where the tribes were forced to forfeit 45,000 square miles of aboriginal lands



"Can you prevent the whites from coming?" one displayed quote reads, attributed to General Palmer. "No! Like the grasshoppers on the plains; some years there will be more than others, you cannot stop them. Our chief cannot stop them, we cannot stop them."



Tribes were bound to their new reservation, which was soon reduced from 510,000 acres to 158,000 acres. The horses they bred (the economic livelihood of many Natitayt) had no space to roam and were sold to slaughter for dog food and glue – an event illustrated by a tall stack of old dog food cans beside photos of tribal horse stables.



Their children were also forced into boarding schools (including the Chemawa Indian School in Salem), where they were assimilated into white society and "taught to be ashamed to be Indian," according to the exhibit. School uniforms and pennants line the walls of the exhibit, as speakers play audio from tribal members who attended.



A sign on the wall of this final part of the museum simply reads, "when it did not go forth in a good manner."

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John M. Vincent/The Oregonian, 2012

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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"It's a lot to take in," Conner said. "Our goal was to be and it continues to be evocative. We want to provoke thought, invoke feeling, evoke an ethos that allows people to have their own exploration of the experience."



Conner said she understands that some people might have a resistance to hearing the story from a Native American perspective, that some might reject it completely, or even accuse them of being revisionist.



"We're not revisionist, we're additive," she said. "You have experienced for the most part the victor's perspective."



One way to think about it, she explained, is that Tamástslikt tells the story of westward expansion not through the eyes of the travelers, but of the residents who were already here – and who remain on this land today.



Moving into the "We Are" and the "We Will Be" sections of the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute museum is an emergence from grief of the past into hope and resilience of the present and future.



Photos and videos show the modern Natitayt, living in American society while working to retain their cultural heritage. Traditional headdresses are displayed alongside U.S. military uniforms, driving the point home.



This part of the museum is much smaller than the rest, contained in only a couple of rooms, but it underscores the resilience that has emerged from generations of hardship.



"There's a fortitude that comes with having endured," Conner said. "We're never leaving. We expect to be here forever and have always expected that this will be our home forever."



Tamástslikt highlights the atrocities of the past, but the institute doesn't seem interested in dwelling there. Instead, it offers messages of strength moving forward.



Tamástslikt means "interpreter," and the institute's mission is to connect history to the present day. In addition to the museum, the institute offers resources to teachers, hosts community events and displays exhibits addressing the persistence of Native American stereotypes.



"We're always looking for another dimension through which we can open the lens to others," Conner said. "We want to dispel stereotypes, we want to impress upon visitors about the fact that our culture is very much alive today."



The Tamástslikt Cultural Institute is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 47106 Wildhorse Blvd., Pendleton; $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and $7 for children and students; 541-429-7716 or tamastslikt.org.

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