Archway in the news!!!

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2008: Archway, National Park Service to develop projects at Kearney attraction

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Rescue in Progress: Ancient corn varieties being grown from decades-old seed give Pawnee tribe hope for passing on tradition

By LORI POTTER, Hub Staff Writer

08/25/2007

Only then will she know the Pawnee Seeds Preservation Project has been successful. Only then will the Pawnee Nation’s seed bank in Pawnee, Okla., be full enough to allow corn to be eaten and not just saved as seed for future crops.

“We recognize that this corn we have is more than corn,” said Echo-Hawk, who is Pawnee Nation education and training director and Pawnee Nation College director of admissions. “It’s our heritage. It’s one of the things that defines us as a people.”

When she sees ears of ancient varieties, she thinks of her Pawnee ancestors who grew the same eagle, blue, white, yellow and flint corn many years ago on their Nebraska homelands.

“My brother and I were growing eagle corn for many years,” Echo-Hawk said in a phone interview, “and I have yet to taste it ... I hope to see the day when we’re utilizing our own seed in making corn soup and meal.”

“Corn is sacred to the Native American nations,” said Ronnie O’Brien, director of educational programs at The Great Platte River Road Archway near Kearney and coordinator of a partnership between Nebraska gardeners and Pawnee leaders to build a seed bank for corn and other Pawnee crops.

O’Brien said about 3,000 Pawnees from Nebraska were relocated to Oklahoma by the U.S. government in 1873 and 1874. Only about 1,200 survived the journey.

Government officials had denied Pawnee leaders’ requests to have one more buffalo hunt so they’d have something to eat along the trail, saying there were too few buffalo left. “You hear about the Cherokee (relocated from North Carolina to Oklahoma) and their Trail of Tears, but the Pawnee had their own,” O’Brien said.

Nebraska Pawnees planted crops each spring and harvested them after returning from the annual buffalo hunt. She said they often planted sunflowers around the field borders to hide crops from human or animal predators.

Harvested crops were stored underground in buffalo robes. O’Brien said not all the corn could be hauled to Oklahoma, and the kernels in the elders’ sacred bundles weren’t enough to feed the people.

Corn seeds that did make it to northeast Oklahoma didn’t grow well in the different soil and climate. “They thought the corn god wouldn’t let them grow it down there,” O’Brien said. “So they just quit growing it.”

Echo-Hawk and other seed preservation project leaders have had to teach their neighbors how to garden and grow Pawnee crops. Their work includes a youth gardening program.

“Our young people, they don’t have it in their minds how important this corn is to their bodies. They don’t have gardening ways,” Echo-Hawk said.

Pawnee elders and educators are changing that by tending a garden in their Oklahoma community of about 1,000 people and teaching children as young as 4 how to plant a garden. “None of them have set foot in a garden before,” she said about Pawnee teenagers.

A new goal for Pawnee Nation College, which started in 2005 and is working on accreditation for its American Indian studies and general education courses, is to add to the curriculum a class in horticulture and its ties to Pawnee culture, Echo-Hawk said.

She believes in the healing qualities of Pawnee corn, especially the potential for providing better nutrition for a large diabetic population.

Older Pawnee women make a blue corn pudding as “medicine” for people in the hospital. A 96-year-old woman is sharing her blue corn recipes with Echo-Hawk.

The struggle continues to grow Pawnee crops in the clay soil of Oklahoma. The gardeners must rely on tillage help because the tribe doesn’t own its own tractor and plow.

“It’s a lot of work,” Echo-Hawk said. “I really appreciate everyone who spends time out in the garden ... . I’ve broken three hoes this summer. There have been a lot of prayers said over our garden. That’s how we proceed.”

She sees the Pawnee partnership with O’Brien and other Nebraska gardeners continuing for many years. “Ronnie, she’s a beautiful person. She’s a true corn sister. I really feel close to her,” Echo-Hawk said.

Late-planted blue corn will be harvested by Echo-Hawk in mid-September, but seeds planted early didn’t survive Oklahoma’s wet spring and summer.

Better progress has been made in rebuilding yellow corn seed stocks. “It’s nothing like what the Nebraska farmers are used to,” Echo-Hawk said. “I’d better re-define ‘lot’ by cardboard boxes.”

Pawnee watermelons have been revitalized to the point where they can be enjoyed at festivals — with the seeds saved, of course.

O’Brien said Pawnee leaders also are working to bring back their language. Like corn, it had almost died out.

Meanwhile, she’s educating archway visitors about Kearney-area ties to the Pawnee Nation that go back much further than the seed preservation project.

Nebraska history often focuses on Genoa when discussing Pawnees. “But right here is where they were. Right here along the Platte River by Kearney ...,” O’Brien said. “We are in true Pawnee territory.”

Family links have been found. She said Echo-Hawk is one of several Oklahoma Pawnees who can trace their ancestors to the Pawnee scouts at Fort Kearny.

“I think things happen for a reason,” O’Brien said about how her interest in planting an archway garden resulted in meeting Echo-Hawk and becoming a partner in preserving Pawnee corn. “I wouldn’t have had the wildest dream when I called them for seeds that there were none.”

“They are bringing the corn back for their history,” O’Brien said. “But we’re bringing it back for Nebraska, too. It’s also our history.”

e-mail to:
lori.potter@kearneyhub.com

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Archway Named One of the Top 10 Cool Kids Museums in the Nation

The Miami Herald newspaper in Florida has recently named the Great Platte River Road Archway as one of 10 cool kids museums in the nation. Travel writer Michael Schuman and his family toured the country, noting museums that appealed to youngster's special interests.

Schuman describes the Archway as a "splashy, loud and brassy history museum that uses film, computer graphics, light and sound, life-size dioramas, re-enactors and classic cars to document 150 years of transportation and communication across America."

The list of 10 cool museums, excluding children's museums, includes

1. Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, Mass

2. Muse'e Me' canique, San Francisco, CA

3. Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World, New Orleans, LA

4. International Spy Museum, Washington, D.C.

5. Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, Louisville, KY

6. The Great Platte River Road Archway, Kearney, NE

7. Astronaut Hall of Fame, Kennedy Space Center

8. International Bowling Hall of Fame, St. Louis, MO

9. The Crayola Factory at Two Rivers Landing, Easton, PA

10. Dr. Seuss National Memorial, Springfield, Mass

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"Lincoln Highway bricks unearthed" is an article by Ed Balint that is featured on the CantonRep.com

Lincoln Highway bricks unearthed
Thursday, August 9, 2007
By ED BALINT
REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER

CANTON Bricks unearthed from the original route of the Lincoln Highway may be the pharaoh’s tomb of road construction.

Dug up as part of ongoing reconstruction work on parts of Tuscarawas Street W, the engineering artifacts are being salvaged and delivered to the Great Platte River Road Archway Museum in Kearney, Neb., where they will be cobbled together to represent a portion of the original Lincoln Highway 16 feet wide and 30 feet long.

The museum is on Interstate 80, a few miles from the Lincoln Highway. Kearney also is at the halfway point of the Lincoln Highway.

“We thought our only option would be to find some kind of a brick company that would work with us, because all the Lincoln bricks are in place (throughout the country) and they’re valuable,” said Ronnie O’Brien, director of operations at the Archway museum.

“We were hoping just to get some original bricks, a few, but the whole thing is going to be original, which is just really amazing,” O’Brien said. “I just never dreamed it would happen.”

Details are being worked out by the city Engineering Department. The museum, featuring an arch spanning I-80, documents the history of transportation in America, from wagon trails to roadways, including a large exhibit paying tribute to the creation of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile route across America.

One issue to be hammered out is whether the bricks will be loaned or donated to the museum. City Council must approve the transaction. The city will not pay any of the cost of shipping the bricks to Nebraska, a task being handled by the Lincoln Highway Association, said Bob Lichty, past president of the national group.

If necessary, “I’ll do it with my own truck to make it happen,” the Canton resident said enthusiastically.

For lovers of the revolutionary road, the first to link the west and east coasts, preserving the bricks means keeping the spirit and significance of the iconic path alive.

“It really makes me proud that we can take the bricks ... to a museum that understands the depth of this history and put them on display,” Lichty said.

The brick pavers, unearthed at Tuscarawas Street and Cleveland Avenue in downtown Canton, will be used to recreate the Lincoln Highway outside the museum. The project may not start until 2013 to coincide with the Lincoln Highway Centennial Celebration, O’Brien said.

‘REALLY COOL STUFF’

Traversing 13 states and covering 3,389 miles, the original Lincoln Highway was dedicated in 1913. Numerous realignments were made over the years as the road improved. Nicknamed the “Main Street Across America,” the highway still meanders through portions of Stark County, including Massillon and Canton and from East Canton to outside Minerva before the road continues to East Liverpool.

At the dawn of the road, the Lincoln Highway connected to an already-existing Tuscarawas Street. Bricks on Tuscarawas predated those on the Lincoln Highway. Bricks were replaced on Tuscarawas (the Lincoln Highway) in 1914, according to records in the engineering department.

Moeglin considers the bricks to be engineering gems.

“I tend to appreciate ... our forefathers that came before us that built these brick streets ... and these cross-country roads,” he said.

Nick Loukas, assistant city engineer, agreed.

“This is some real history and it’s something people can relate to,” he said. “People can see the brick, knowing what it was used for, and that’s really cool.”

CANTON CONNECTION

The Great Platte River Road Archway is a fitting home for the Lincoln bricks in Canton, said O’Brien. Not only is the museum near the Lincoln route, but a metal bridge erected by the Canton Bridge Co. Builders is at the museum site. The 135-foot-long metal bridge, with a wooden floor, traverses a lake.

Spanning the Elkhorn River, the bridge — at one point the longest in Pierce County — was dismantled in the early 1990s and put into storage by the Nebraska Department of Roads due to its good condition and historical value, O’Brien said.

“We’re kind of getting a connection to Canton here,” she said.

Reach Repository writer Ed Balint at (330) 580-8315 or e-mail:

ed.balint@cantonrep.com

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Archway Re-enactors Recognized by the

National Oregon California Trails Association

Archway –  On August 10, 2007 The Great Platte River Road Archway re-enactors were the recipients of the 2007 Outstanding Educators Award from the National Oregon California Trails Asssociation (OCTA) during the 25th annual convention of the Oregon California Trails Association in Gering, NE.

              Two of the Archway’s re-enactors went to Gering, NE, to accept OCTA’s National Outstanding Educator’s Award which recognizes excellence in teaching about the westward overland migration.

The re-enactment program was developed in 2000, the year the Archway opened, and has been a staple program at the Archway since that time.  “Our re-enactors know each character from history and the character’s story inside out,” said Ronnie O’Brien, Director of Operations and Education Program Director.  Five different re-enactors tell ten different 15-minute stories known on a local or national level from the trails.  Dressed as the character, each re-enactor brings out the personality of the person they portray.

The Re-enactors

Sharon Von Ashwege portrays Eliza Donner and Virginia Reed, both of the Donner Party.

Del Peck portrays George Francis Train railroad promoter, and mountain man and trail guide James Baker.

 Steve Halbert portrays Frank North, commanding officer of Fort Kearny’s Pawnee Scouts, and John C. Fremont, the man who mapped the Oregon Trial.

Curly Ladd portrays Johnny Hodges, telling a local story from the Oregon Trail, and Pony Express rider Billy Campbell.

Ronnie O’Brien tells two stories of Ellen O’Brien, a local pioneer and family ancestor.

“The Archway is well deserved of this prestigious trails award,” said William E. Hill, trails author and award presenter during the national convention.  After reading several of the Archway’s nomination letters at the conference, Hill said, “I used to be a teacher myself.  You know a program is of the highest standard when teachers bring more and more students and more and more classes for it every year.”

For more information about this or other educational programming at the Great Platte River Road Archway, contact (308)237-1000.

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