‘Oregon Voices’ speak out in Newport
Scandinavian Logging Co. at work in Lincoln County, 1919
One of the region’s leading cultural educators will be the guest speaker at the Lincoln County Historical Society’s Annual Meeting and the opening of the traveling exhibit “Oregon Voices” on Saturday, May 23.
The afternoon includes a presentation by Honorable Alfred “Bud” Lane III, vice chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, focusing on the history of the Tribe and ongoing efforts to preserve and strengthen Siletz culture.
Lane has spent decades teaching and promoting Siletz traditions through language instruction, basket weaving, regalia-making and traditional foods gathering. After working for years in logging and at Georgia Pacific’s pulp and paper division, he joined the Tribe in 2003 as Language and Traditional Arts Instructor, allowing him to devote himself full-time to cultural education. He has studied the Athabaskan language with Tribal elders for more than 30 years and is now one of the Tribe’s most fluent speakers.
His basketry work appears in the collections of the Hallie Ford Museum and the University of Oregon, and he has served as a master artist with the Oregon Historical Society’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Lane has also participated in international cultural exchanges with Maori weavers in New Zealand and demonstrated Siletz weaving during the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s “Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions” exhibition in Washington, D.\C.
The event also celebrates the opening of “Oregon Voices,” a traveling exhibit curated by the Oregon Historical Society exploring the people, industries, organizations and movements that shaped Oregon from the end of World War II through 2020. Topics include migration and immigration, environmental change, Indigenous nations, social justice movements and the evolution of Oregon industries. Displays highlighting Lincoln County’s own diversity and history will also be included.
The schedule begins with exhibit viewing at 1 pm, followed by annual meeting updates and board voting from 1:30 to 2 pm. Lane’s presentation runs from 2 to 2:45 pm, with refreshments served afterward.
Saturday’s event takes place at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center, located at 333 SE Bay Blvd. in Newport. Admission to the museum during the event is free. For more information, go to lincolncountyhistoricalsociety.org.