Date: February 6, 2021

Time: 01:00 PM - 08:49:36 PM

Leading: Glen Kirkpatrick

Phone: 503-829-4292

Email: glen9774@gmail.com

Online Event via: Zoom

Old John was a Klickitat Indian who lived on the lower Columbia River near present day Sandy Oregon. He said when he was a boy the first 'Bostons' on the Columbia River gifted his father with a cast iron three legged skillet, also called a spider skillet. This skillet was donated to the Oregon Historical Society in 1905 by one of Old John’s neighbors, Mrs. Benson, daughter of D.S. Dunbar on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Anonymous 1905, OHS Indian John Vertical File). Evidence suggests that this skillet was part of the equipment of the Corps of Discovery.

Melissa Darby is an affiliated research faculty in the Anthropology Department at Portland State University. She is principal investigator and sole proprietor of Lower Columbia Research & Archaeology. Darby has worked for over forty years as an archaeologist and historian in the Northwest and is a noted authority on the ethnohistory of the Native people of the lower Columbia River region. Her research on Native American cultures of the area includes important works on settlement patterns, plankhouse architecture, and plant foods used by the indigenous people of the region. She has contributed substantially to our understanding of the Native peoples and the world they inhabited prior to European colonization. Her book Thunder Go North the Hunt for Sir Francis Drake’s Fair & Good Bay was published by the University of Utah Press in 2019 and is about the mysterious and vexed question of where Francis Drake landed the Golden Hind in the summer of 1579.

Mark your calendars, Saturday July 25 at 2:00 pm the Oregon Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation will host a virtual presentation on the Confluence Project. Originally planned as our summer potluck, the event has changed to a virtual meeting allowing us to enjoy this Lewis and Clark event from our own homes and stay safe! We are also inviting the Washington Chapter members and the Sons and Daughters of Oregon Pioneers to virtually join us.

Confluence at 18: A Look to the Future

Confluence began during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial as a series of art installations by the celebrated artist Maya Lin. Eighteen years on, five of those projects are complete while one remains to be done. Along the way, Confluence has evolved its role in education as interest in Native American history and cultures have grown. Now in the current pandemic, that work has gone entirely online. Join Confluence Executive Director Colin Fogarty for an update in the mission of this small nonprofit and a look to the future.