Native Portland Series, 4: Lewis and Clark College, and a Mysterious Totem Pole

Find all Native Tour stops on the tour map.

Lewis and Clark Flanagan Chapel

Nestled in the hills of one of the most elite residential neighborhoods in the greater Portland area is Lewis and Clark College.  As you can imagine, Lewis and Clark figure prominently in Oregon: they literally blazed the trail for settlement, and although they never ventured up the Willamette River, their expedition ended at the mouth of the Columbia River, some 70 miles north and west.  On the leafy, quiet campus of this liberal arts school are some nods to the connection (for better or for worse) between Oregon and national history and the Native people.  I do not know much about how the school makes an effort to encompass a consciousness of Native history and present in their curriculum or in their outreach to Native communities, but I did encounter the following public art there.

The prominent Agnes Flanagan Chapel, completed in 1969, is designed by architect Paul Thiry to resemble the conical shape of Northwest Coast Native American structures.  The bridge is flanked by figures of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, designed by Chief Lelooska of the Cherokee tribe, who apparently designed them to combine Christian symbolism with the symbolism of Northwest Coast Native Americans.  Can anyone tell which is Matthew, Mark, Luke or John? I cannot. I think these are really cool.  I hope the students appreciate them!

 

Sacagawea

Around the back of the Frank Manor House is one of two Sacagawea statues that I know of in the greater Portland area.  Sacagawea is most famous for having accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition and she was instrumental in saving them numerous times.  (For an excellent site dedicated to the real story of Sacagawea, which is extremely sad, see here.)  This one, installed in 2003, is by Glenna Goodacre, supposedly the same person who designed the portrait on the Sacagawea dollar which none of use.  This is a beautiful representation of her with her little son Jean-Baptiste peeping over her shoulder.  It is regrettable that it includes no information about a remarkable Shoshone woman who, through no choice of her own, and receiving nothing but disease and pain for her service, put her mark on history.  

 

Wouldn't it be nice if Lewis and Clark put
an inscription on the base?

A Mysterious Totem Pole

Not far from Lewis and Clark, next to the Chart House restaurant on Terwilliger Boulevard and overlooking Portland, is an absolutely gigantic totem pole.  I have never been able to find anything out about it; it pre-dates the restaurant. Apparently, there was an "Indian Curio Shop" on this location dating to the 1930's, which may account for it.  In any case, it's pretty spectacular.