This entry combines the earlier discussions here in Olyblog about police abusing their power and the Olympia/TESC town-gown war. In the 1970s, public transit to and from Evergreen left a lot to be desired. We students had four basic modes of transportation: Bicycles, Volvos and VWs with lots of stickers on the back starting with words like "Stop" "No" and "Don't" (OK, I'm kidding ... sort of), a green van the College provided since the local public transit system saw fit to give us very limited service (the drivers called us "The Poet Run"), and finally, my favorite method, hitchhiking. The latter activity was more common in those days for a variety of reasons.

The most popular spot to get a lift was on the east end of the 4th Ave. Bridge. Usually we got rides from other members of the Evergreen community, as was the case one day in about 1975 when faculty member Cruz Esquivel gave me a lift. We got to the area where Goodwill now sits, which was all woods back then, and ran into a police checkpoint. Cruz had a ponytail, which was still unusual in Olympia 30 years ago, and he was pulled over. I don't remember which law enforcement agency this was, city or county, I just knew there were a lot of them and they had badges and guns. Anyway, while I sat in Cruz's car while they were checking out his I.D. and all that, I noticed every car they pulled over had someone connected with Evergreen behind the wheel. All of my fellow natives were waved through. The police were highly selective in who they stopped.

I'll respect Cruz's right to privacy about what happened to him, but witnessing this treatment really brought home why Evergreen community members felt embattled at that time. What happened to change this? Money, mostly. Evergreen people started investing in Olympia. There was one diner (now defunct) which refused to serve any man who had a beard or long hair in the pre-TESC days. But when faculty started hanging out there, and they were followed by students, which filled the place, that very diner became a chic spot to be seen and the owners loved it. And by the end of the 1970s, Evergreen started enjoying frequent public transit and the hitchhiking days dwindled away.

Greetings;

You are invited to visit two new exhibitions installed at the Longhouse through November:

"tuwaduq Soul Recovery Exhibit" Assembled by subiyay (Gerald Bruce Miller), the exhibit is one of the rarest collections of South Puget Salish ceremonial paraphernalia ever assembled in the past three generations. The exhibition shares most of the items the tuwaduq used in what is known in English as the Soul Recovery Ceremony.

The Longhouse is honored to be the first venue to host this exhibition, which was funded by the Ford Foundation as part of the Longhouse's Artist-in-Residence program. Gerald Bruce Miller was awarded the National Heritage Award by the National Endowment for the Arts and was a founding member of the Longhouse's Native Arts steering committee until his passing in February, 2004. His nephew, Dr. Michael Pavel, completed work on the project along with various apprentices from the Skokomish community.

The "Journeys in Creativity: Explorations in Native Art and Culture" features work by Warm Springs and Portland area youth. In June 2005 the Oregon College of Art and Craft partnered with the Warm Springs Museum to bring native and non-native youth (ages 15-19) to the college to create art with noted Native artists Lillian Pitt, Pat Courtney Gold, Marie Watt and Ramon Murillo.

We are pleased to have the work of contemporary Native youth exhibited alongside the work of one of our beloved NW elders.

Tina Kuckkahn, director
Longhouse Education and Cultural Center
(360) 867-5344

I wonder if this will significantly impact the number of transfer students to Evergreen or St. Martin's:

South Puget Sound Community College is poised to make several changes as it prepares to usher in a new president.

South Puget Sound, and community colleges across the state, might begin granting bachelor's degrees as part of a state effort to expand student access to four-year degrees across Washington.