PORT ANGELES — The 2003 discovery on Marine Drive of an ancient Lower Elwha Klallam village known as Tse-whit-zen — and the subsequent halting of the state Department of Transportation’s graving yard project on the site — resulted in “a very tumultuous time,” Tom Keegan recalls.
That tumult and division stalled fundraising for a collaborative project.
Keegan, Peninsula College’s president from 2001 to 2012, wanted to work with local tribal leaders to build a Native American longhouse on campus.
“The larger community needed a safe place to come together,” Keegan has said.
Film premiere
The story of that place — and how its builders got together — is told in “House of Learning: The Spirit of the Peninsula College Longhouse,” the film to premiere in the college Little Theater this Friday.
Tickets to the 7 p.m. screening and dessert reception afterward are $10 at www.BrownPaperTickets.com.
If still available, tickets also will be sold at the door of the theater in the J Building on the main Peninsula College campus, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Roger Fernandes, a Klallam artist, storyteller and culture keeper, will serve as the event’s master of ceremonies.
People connected to the Longhouse’s creation and use also will speak, and Longhouse tours will be available.
Collaboration
When the cedar-bark ribbon was cut and the doors opened for the first time in October 2007, the structure was the fruit of collaboration among college officials and six local tribes: the Hoh, Quileute, Makah, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam and Lower Elwha Klallam.
“Making the Longhouse come alive took the vision, commitment and dedication of the area tribes together with the college, which doesn’t happen very often in this country,” said Ami Magisos, the college’s tribal liaison and interim associate dean for student success.
The building is a historic one, she added, since it was the first Northwest Native longhouse built at a community college in this country.
“It is a part of us,” Jamestown elder Elaine Grinnell says in the film.
Then she extends an invitation to people on campus, off campus and coming to campus some day: “Whoever you are, come in. Come on in.”
The 30-minute movie, made by Christopher Wright’s Kokopele Productions of Port Angeles, shows how the Longhouse came to be and how it’s used now: for college and community classes, statewide and regional conferences, drum and dance circles, and as a Native American art gallery.
Who’s in it
Haida student Susan Hamilton; Makahs Jeanne Vitalis, William Melville and Dwayne Johnson; Jamestown S’Klallam chairman Ron Allen; Quileutes Wally Jackson and Chris Morganroth III; Hoh tribal member Maria Lopez; and Lower Elwha Klallam leaders Frances Charles and Jamie Valadez are among the Native voices in the film.
The Longhouse represents “a mutual respect,” Valadez says, “for walking in two worlds.”
She and other tribal members also speak of the message it sends to young Native Americans: You belong on this campus. Conceived by elders, this place is for our young people, the tribal members in the film agree.
“Long live education,” Grinnell says. “That’s the spirit of the Longhouse.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
