Doors

 

The Door

By Charles Tomlinson  (1927-2015)

Too little
has been said
Of the door, it’s one
face turned to the night’s
downpour and its other
to the shift and glistens of firelight.

Air, clasped
by this cover
into the room’s book,
is filled by the turning
pages of dark and fire
as the wind shoulders the panels,
or unsteadies that burning. 

Not only
the storm’s
breakwater, but the sudden
frontier to our concurrences, appearances,
and as full of the offer of space
as the view through a cromlech is.

For doors
are both frame and monument
to our spent time,
and too little
has been said
of our coming through and leaving by them.

 

Home Again, Home Again ... Yes!!

I returned home on last Thursday afternoon from my solo yurt camping trip to Bullards Beach State Park near Bandon, Oregon.  A yurt is round and 16 feet in diameter.  No cooking or no bathroom in a yurt.  

Now, Saturday, I am back to the comforts and pleasures of the nice company of my wife, Karen.  She is an excellent cook, so no more hohum campground foods or eating out at a local cafe in Bandon.  At home, unlike the yurt, there is more space, my interesting books, large padded chairs, a large nice bed, full private bathroom, and a big screen television set (and prerecorded sports and documentaries).  I had not watched television for four days.  

We live in a 50 year old suburban house in a quiet neighborhood of many seniors in Vancouver, Washington.  We live in the northeast part of unincorporated Vancouver, called "The Orchards."  There are four large Douglas firs in our backyard and many around in our neighbor's houses.

Here are some photos of our main living room looking to the north .  Here I enjoy reading and studying, chatting with Karen, and watching TV.  I read in a big green chair.  Karen took these photos on a dark, windy, and rainy day.  Bruno, our dog, hangs around and likes the warm indoors like us.  I can easily do a compact Yang Style Taijiquan in this room by moving a few chairs.  

Each season provides new views looking north into the back yard.
The maple trees are all leafless in January.
Many branches and limbs fell during a 45 mile windstorm.
A great view from our reading chairs.

Looking to the west.  Our fireplace is quite nice and large.
Yes, the Northwest has lots of dark clouds, fog, mist and rain.  
Karen's big black chair.

I 

I converted one small bedroom into my computer room, office, library, meditation room, floor yoga and standing Qigong practice area, and reading room.  The window in this room faces south.  I have a small Taoist altar set up. 

Looking south.

Taoist altar

Taoism

Here is how my former Druid altar (ancient Roman themed) 

looked in our old home in rural Red Bluff.  This room was my
reading room with a huge green chair that I still use. 
We lived and worked in Red Bluff from 1989 to 2017.

One Old Daoist Druids Final Journey

Cathlapotle House, Ridgefield, Washington

 About 15 miles north of my home in Vancouver, Washington, is the small town of Ridgefield.  It sits on a bluff above lowlands, bottomlands, lakes, sloughs, ponds, and swamps adjacent to the Columbia River.  The wetlands area is now part of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.  It is part of the "Wapato Valley" named by Lewis and Clark.  

In the 1990's Professor James Ames, Archeologist, Portland State University, led an excavation of the Indian ruins near Ridgefield in the bottomlands.  In 2005, as part of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration, a replica of a Native Indian cedar plank longhouse was constructed near Ridgefield on the Refuge.  

  

The Chinook and Cowlitz River and Lewis River Peoples all lived in this area for 1,500 years.  They all build wood houses, in which to smoke and store food, keep dry and warm, work, and socialize.  They all fished, hunted, and foraged in an environment rich in resources.  

The Chinook were traders and people speaking dialects of the Chinook language, or using a Chinook trading language and sign language, were active in trading goods from Ilwaco to The Dalles.  Canoes were in everyday use by all people living along the Columbia River.     

Ridgefield City   Images     Population 4,700   The small town is on a bluff above the lowlands by the Columbia River. 

Ridgefield - Chinook House  Cathlapotle Plankhouse   

Cathlapotle and its Inhabitants 1792-1860.  By Robert Boyd.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon, 2011.  Index, 209 pages, many maps and charts, place name index, detailed bibliography, art work.  FVRL.  Fascinating study of native people living the area from For Vancouver to Ilwaco, on both sides of the lower Columbia River.  I believe there is also one plankhouse reconstructed at Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon.  I visited Native American plankhouses and shelters in Northern California at Patrick's Point State Park. 

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, Ridgefield, Clark County   This large refuge includes an auto tour through the wetlands, sloughs, bogs, and lowlands along the Columbia River.  A few trails from this road are open only in the summer.  Many birds winter here.  A second area of the refuge consists of a walking path over the railroad, a reconstructed Chinoon style plankhouse, and many walking trails through these lowlands (soaked in winter). 

Ridgefield History

Ridgefield Visitors Guide

Ridgefield Library FVRL

Ridgefield Shopping 

Ridgefield Recreation

Ridgefield Information and Travel

Ridgefield Marina    On a slough of the Columbia.  Kayak rentals, small boat launch, mooring, picnic tables, fishing, restrooms, parking lot. 

Blog Posts to the Cloud Hands Blog by Mike Garofalo regarding travel adventures in Washington State.

The Chinook Indians: Traders of the Lower Columbia River.  Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown.  University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, 372 pages, index.  VSCL, FVRL. 

Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia.  Edited by Robert T. Boyd, Kenneth M. Ames, and Tony A. Johnson.  University of Washington, 2015, 464 pages.  VSCL.  Outstanding collection of articles.  First Choice!! 

Peoples of the Northwest Coast: Their Archaeology and Prehistory.  By Kenneth M. Ames.  Thames and Hudson, 1999, 288 pages.  FVRL.

Cathlapotle and its Inhabitants 1792-1860.  By Robert Boyd.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon, 2011.  Index, 209 pages, many maps and charts, place name index, detailed bibliography, art work.  FVRL.  Fascinating study of native people living the area from For Vancouver to Ilwaco, on both sides of the lower Columbia River.  

Willapa Bay Area Information 

Lower Columbia River: Ilwaco to Washougal 

Northwest Oregon: Astoria to Cape Disappointment

Chinook Indian Nation  "The Chinook Indian Nation is made up of the five western-most Chinookan speaking tribes at the mouth of the Columbia River.  Our nearly 70-year-old constitution codifies who we are and identifies our five constituent tribes – the Clatsop and Cathlamet (Kathlamet) of present-day Oregon and the Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum (Waukikum) and Willapa (Weelappa) of what is now Washington State."  Not federally recognized. 

Chinookan Peoples

 

The Northwest Coast: Or, Three Years' Residence in Washington Territory.  He lived in Willapa Harbor from 1849-1851.  By James Gilchrist Swan.  Adesite Press, 2017, 448 pages.  FVRL. 

"James Gilchrist Swan wrote an amazingly interesting and detailed account of his years in Willipa Harbor. The origin of some modern place names, I.e., Tokeland became very clear, for example. His treatise on the nature of Native Americans is especially significant, as is his description of their languages.  I especially liked his analysis of how the Hudson Bay Company's strategy to get along with the native people was compared with Governor Stevens' botched treaty proposition along the banks of the Chehalis.  Swan was an interesting man in his own right: pioneer, scientist, Indian agent, teacher, revenue agent, probate judge, cultural and natural historian and adventurer. He is buried in an unpretentious grave in Port Townsend, Washington." 

"In November 1852 James Swan moved to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington Territory. Fascinated by the Indian communities he encountered, Swan spent the remainder of his life studying their art, material culture, and history. The author of several books, he became the Smithsonian Institution's principal agent in the Northwest, collecting natural history and ethnographic objects from Gray's Harbor through the Alaskan panhandle. He lived among the Makah Indians of Neah Bay where he taught school and was among the first Americans to visit the Haida villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands."

Swan Among the Indians: Life of James G. Swan (1818-1900).  By Lucille McDonald.  Binfords and Mort, Portland, 1972.  Index, 233 pages.  FVRL. 

Coast Country: A History of Southwest Washington.  By Lucile McDonald.  Long Beach, Midway Printery, 1989.  Index, 183 pages.  TRLS. 

The Historical and Regional Geography of the Willapa Bay Area, Washington.  By Jean Hazeltine.  South Bend, 1956, 308 pages.  FVRL

Shoalwater Willapa.  By Douglas Allen.  Snoose Peak Publishing, South Bend, WA, 2004.  Index, notes, sources, 286 pages.  TRLS.  

Chinook Resilience: Heritage and Cultural Revitalization on the Lower Columbia River.  By Jon D. Daehnke.  Foreword by Tony A. Johnson.  University of Washington, 2017, 233 pages, index, bibliography, notes.  FVRL.  Interesting discussion of evidence for the distribution of Chinook speaking people, and the history of the people in the area.  A long and detailed discussion of the creation of the Cathlapotle House in Ridgefield. 

Chinook Texts.  Collected by Franz Boas.  1984.  Includes myths, beliefs, customs, tales, and historical tales as told by the Chinookan people. 

Columbia River: The Astoria Odyssey.  By Penttila Bryan.  Frank Amato, 2004, 96 pages. 

Chinook Art, Contemporary     Chinook Design Art Products: Hats   Bags

Chinook Merchandise

Chinookan Art Style