Free, family-friendly event invites the public for a guided tour of uncovered springs, explore ecological restoration and learn Indigenous knowledge 

By Sydney Seymour, Ashland.news

Local nonprofits Lomakatsi Restoration Project, the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission and other partners are co-hosting a free, family friendly event for a day of learning Indigenous knowledge, restoring the land and honoring Native American Heritage Month at an event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, at Blue Heron Park in Phoenix. 

Tribal members and leaders, community leaders, restoration practitioners and cultural educators will honor Indigenous land stewardship and five years of ecological recovery since the Almeda Fire. 

“It’s bringing indigenous traditional ecological knowledge into the context of ecosystem restoration,” said Marko Bey, Lomakatsi Restoration Project Executive Director. 

Around 9:30 a.m., tribal and community leaders will share reflections on restoration, renewal, peace and recovery. Throughout the day, attendees will participate in basket weaving and watch Klamath tribal drummers, singers and dancers. There will even be a ceremonial song and a poem offered. 

Tribal historian and Oregon State University Anthropology and Indigenous Studies Professor Dr. David Lewis will share his perspective and knowledge during a guided tour around 11 a.m. where participants will see one of the 16 natural springs uncovered by the fire. They will learn why they are now central to local restoration and peace-building efforts, earning the name the “Miracle Mile.” 

The cold water springs not only benefit salmon but also “bring tribal community members together to honor those springs through an indigenous traditional ecological knowledge lens,”  Bey said to Ashland.news via Zoom.

The event is intended to build unity, create a circle of healing and learn together in an “outdoor classroom,” said Belinda Brown, Pit River Tribe member and Tribal Partnerships Director for Lomakatsi Restoration Project. 

Participants can also explore interactive demonstrations about Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and even observe a live streamside restoration project at Blue Heron Park. Lomakatsi’s Inter-Tribal Crew will be “willow staking” — planting willow trees in the ground to stabilize soil, improve water quality and create cover to incentivize more salmon to come back. 

The Inter-Tribal Crew, Bey said, are “unsung heroes” who are reducing fire hazards around Rogue Valley and beyond. The event honors the Inter-Tribal workforces and their restoration work for the Rogue Valley, not only post-Almeda Fire, but for the last 15 years.

Co-hosted by a coalition of organizations — including Ashland-based Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library, Phoenix Art & Culture Council, Save the Phoenix Wetlands, Rogue River Restoration Project, Rogue River Watershed Council, Red Earth Descendents and the Inter-Tribal Ecosystem Restoration Partnership — the event brings together multiple multicultural communities. 

According to Bey, the event is also being organized by tribal citizens in the Rogue Basin and adjacent areas in the south, north and Siskiyou and Klamath Counties. 

By bringing community partners together in “like-mindedness,” Brown said in a Zoom call with Ashland.news, the event hopes to “build bridges of a deeper understanding of what it means to care for these areas and the recovery of these areas so that people are connected, which is more important now than in the past.” 

They also aim to raise awareness of where restoration is today, show people what needs to be done and how they can help, Brown said. 

“All of our elders tell us that our voice that speaks for the fish, for the birds, for the air, that’s the voice that they need.” She continued, “How can we help each other and help the land? In our way, it’s thinking with seven generations in mind and how we live in peace and unity together.”

Unity, peace and healing 

The event is in part to raise awareness for the Oregon Peace Trail, a 308-mile peace pilgrimage from Oregon City to Ashland modeled after the historic, world-renowned Camino de Santiago in Spain walked by 500,000 people each year. 

The Peace Trail is a collection of existing trails — including the Miracle Mile — connecting Rotary Clubs and highlighting noteworthy locations in each community across Oregon that foster ecological and cultural peace. It is expected to be walked, biked and driven in a year’s time, according to David Wick and Irene Kai, the co-founders of the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission. 

Kai said over the phone to Ashland.news, “There is a spiritual component to walking the trail — it’s not just a sight-seeing tour. It’s a transformative experience to come to the peace flame and reflect on our history with each other and with the land. Like the pilgrims in the trail of the Camino de Santiago ending at the (Santiago de Compostela) church, Ashland is the destination.” 

The trail, which begins in Oregon City to mark the end of the original Oregon Trail, ends at the Southern Oregon University campus in Ashland at the World Peace Flame Monument, a symbol of “well-being, health, peace of all people.”

In the same phone call, Wick, who co-founded the Oregon Peace Trail one year ago with two other Oregon Rotarians, Al Jubitz and Larry Strober, said it is “an expression of unity within Oregon, with Rotary and with the indigenous land.” He also said it’s another way to provide and help support a culture of peace.

Kai added that other states and countries are expressing interest in the Oregon Peace Trail and hoping to establish a similar peace trail. 

Phoenix Mayor Al Muelhoefer especially hopes young people and children attend Saturday’s activities to “carry these values and the history of the land with them through their entire life,” he said on a phone call to Ashland.news. “After the Almeda Fire, it’s an event to come out and see and better understand how Indigenous tribes restore land after fires, and how they’ve done it for thousands of years. We could really learn how to be better stewards of the land by listening.” 

Brown continued to encourage anyone to attend this Saturday. “Even though we are aboriginal to this place,” she said, “we always try to share that everybody’s Indigenous to somewhere on the globe. They have a connection to the Earth, the sea, the heavens and live better when they’re connected to those elements.” 

Email Ashland.news reporter Sydney Seymour at [email protected].

Oct. 28: Corrected story to say tour would visit one of the springs, not all the springs; that Dr. Lewis will speak during a tour, not lead it; and to be more specific on the founding of the Oregon Peace Trail.