By Corvo Rohwer, Puyallup Tribal News
Tribal youth and community members joined together to engage in cultural activities during the summer Gathering of Native Americans (GONA) Wolf Camp which was held Aug. 12-14.
Organized by the Puyallup Culture Department, Youth Coordinator Marsha Pluff described the GONA program as a diving board for youth to engage with their heritage in a community-focused setting.
“We show them how we do Protocol, starting with a prayer and a blessing from our Elder, and we also (start) with song and dance to get them up and going,” Pluff said. “We also do a prayer for our meal, just showing them the Protocol that our Native families practice.”
The three-day curriculum-based teaching camp had multiple Tribal departments participating, and featured a range of activities including drum making, painting and archery, along with guest speakers visiting to share stories and speak on their history.
“We go off of four pillars – belonging, mastery, interdependence and generosity. We are spending the day talking about mastery and belonging, so we had a native Elder speaker (Peggy McCloud) come in,” Pluff said. “She came in and told a story about belonging, our names and our history, our family history. She got the youth to participate in explaining who their family was, getting the connections of it.”
Each day was dedicated to one or more of those values, with the first day’s activities revolving around each participant making their own drum. The attendees were also given time to paint their drum on day two, which Pluff said was a valuable opportunity GONA Wolf Camp provides.
“The hand drum is really important in our Coast Salish songs – it is part of our identity to be able to sing our songs with the hand drum,” she said. “We want to teach them the importance of carrying a drum, of respecting it, you know, not leaving it on the ground and leaving the drum facing upward. Another thing is, painting it goes along with the identity – we have the Puyallup fish – for anybody who wants to identify. They can show that drum and people will know they are Puyallup. We have other Native animals, too, so if they want to choose any kind of animal that is calling to them, it’s part of their identity to be able to express themselves.”
GONA also hosts a camp in spring, and all ages are welcome to attend at either point in the year. Pluff hopes that by inviting all members of the community to join it will help spread both positivity and knowledge throughout the Tribe.
“They’ll learn those skills and hopefully bring them back to their siblings or their families and teach them. That is our hope,” Pluff said.
