Introduction So Far

On November 9, 1989 representatives from fifteen countries gathered together to discuss the politics of food. From their discussion the Slow Food International movement was formed and began to promote their manifesto that, “[i]n the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer” (“Manifesto” par. 8). Since its inception the Slow Food movement has spread to 122 countries. This movement is not the only one of its kind. In recent years the focus on food has been a critical part of the ecological movement, introducing new concepts and even new language to describe the human relationship with food (locavore for example). These movements represent a sensible ordering of thought around a logical central idea. Food is a logical point around which to organize ones feelings and actions regarding their relationship to nature and resource use, because food is one of the few items that make obvious human reliance on and interconnection with the natural world.

The body of American literature contains multitudes of works focused on humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Many of these works, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, rely upon a worldview which vilifies the urban and elevates the wild as a sacred place apart. This tension between urban and wild is a central element in Willa Cather’s 1925 novel The Professor’s House. Characters such as Tom Outland and Louis Marsellus seem emblematic of this dichotomy. Even their names provide support for this concept, Outland (out-land) as the mesa dwelling place apart, and Marsellus (mar-sell- us) as the eager capitalist who Cather portrays as corrupter of Outland’s legacy. While this division has been widely accepted in many circles for generations, the concepts of glorified “wild” and vilified “capitalist” are not in the end polar opposites, but rather reflections of a similar human desire to manipulate and organize the natural world while conveniently ignoring the relationship between humanity and nature that exists at all levels of landscape.

A useful place for interrogating this binary in The Professor’s House rests in Cather’s representation of gardens. According to garden enthusiast and philosopher Mara Miller, “[t]he task of the garden is to mediate those tensions or polarities which are important for a given culture” (25).

Ending with a Boom/ Beginning with Slow Food

It was the last regular day of 121 for my classes today. We ended on a great note, especially in my 10 am class. They were so intensely interested and interactive, it was tremendous. We laughed and joked and learned. I was totally delighted by the experience and I hope some of them will end up in my 214 class. 

In my own work, I've been pleasantly surprised to find that very little has been done addressing food and ecocriticism. In my brief preliminary search I found only a few links. One of the most interesting was a Call For Papers that I wish I'd found sooner.  Even this however does not make the link between food, ecocriticism and fiction. It seems much more interested in the literature of slow food or locavore movements. 

I am eager to really begin the paper, hopefully my enthusiasm will last. 

I also need to find a copy of "Loving Ourselves Best of All". A brief glance at this article has me pretty excited.

Ecocriticism and the Locavore

Today I started working on the introductory paragraphs of my Cather seminar paper. In the paper I intend to look at how productive garden's in The Professor's House occupy a place between the idealized wild and vilified city. For me the garden is a place that destabilizes the civilization/nature binary. 

To kick off the essay I've begun by looking at how food has become intimately related with ecology and environmental movements. I will claim that food is a logical point around which to organize ones feelings and actions regarding their relationship to nature and resource use... then examine it in the Cather novel... 

It is only a beginning, but if feels like a good move.

In Light of This

Some of my conferences are frankly depressing. I know that I've done my best as far as instructing these students but many of them are quite transparently trying to pull the wool over my eyes. Many have submitted frankly useless drafts which seem to have been put together in one night. There are few if any quotes, no citation and little organization. It is overwhelming because I am not sure what more I could do.

In light of this let's forget about 121 for a moment....

Here's a little floundering bit of semi-recent poetry


Yaquina Head

Sooth on sooth the sea
tosses and wears away the meanings

in an arching skyward cauldron
combusting ginkgo

A delta leaf vein tremulous
stilled in Holocene weed fields

Rosebay pointing up and up
spike on spike between clusters

Salal all finger-linked haunched
and sea air rounded in great hills

It's Electric!

So recent research into our energy use has yielded fantastic results. As most readers know, we are serious about reducing our energy use. We moved to a small place, we replaced all of our bulbs with CFLs and we have been minimizing electricity use in every way practical.

The other day we went to Energy Star to test our usage. Our total source energy consumption is 51,111 KBTUs which is well below that of 99% of US homes. That is still a lot of energy, we cook and heat with electric. We watch TV in the evenings and use our computers quite a bit, but still we're doing pretty well.  

CFL's and unplugging everything when not in use are probably the main reasons for our reduction.

Thesis Thursday Strikes Again

Meeting with Betj today to discuss the thesis. I've been entertaining thoughts of adding Cather to the mix, but perhaps I won't. I don't know. I am feeling some confusion about the whole thing. I've started looking at Dana Phillips' Truth of Ecology again, and I am really enjoying it. So far the book sticks it to Buell and most ecocritics, accusing them of being more interested in their own personal revelation than in either ecology or literature. It is hard for me to hear this in some ways because I'd been willing to call myself an "ecocritic".... however I don't share these views or methods. I think the "pastoral" in literature and life has been a mess. People deluding themselves into deepening the illusory divide between humanity and nature... I see no such divide. 

Phillips writes: "ecocriticism ought to cultivate an attitude of wary impartiality, which should be the best way to avoid what Buell calls the "environmentalist's dilemma of having to come to terms with actual natural environments while participating in the institutions of a technological culture that insulates one from the natural environment and splits one's allegiances." This is a dilemma that Buell say the pastoral "anticipates," and I agree, because I think it's a dilemma that by anticipating the pastoral first helps to create, then sustains and exacerbates. The pastoral does this when it buys wholesale the distinction between natural environments and "technological culture"" (19).

Oh yeh, I'm with this. This idea is pretty much at the base of my thesis. We'll see how the day goes.

Nature, Identity and Force: Cather's Alexander's Bridge

Prepare for rambling...

In our class examination of Willa Cather's first novel Alexander's Bridge (1911), I was particularly struck by the final sentence of the work (pre-epilogue). This sentence reads, "The mind that society had come to regard as a powerful and reliable machine, dedicated to its service, may for a long time have been sick within itself and bent upon its own destruction". 

What is so striking about this idea for me is the way this text, or rather my reading of this text, establishes a close relationship between scientific, mechanic and market forces in futile opposition against nature and identity. 

This final line is tremendously loaded. Following the destruction of the bridge and the death of Bartley (and many of his workers), this line seems at first glance to allude only to the death of the protagonist, but for me it is suggestive of so much more. 

Allusion to the mind suggests the scientific energy of the Professor, which is predominantly voyeuristic and taxonomic. Emblematic of the mind and connected with Psychology, the Professor seeks to document, organize, and control the natural force of human thought and behavior just as the mechanical force of Bartley's bridge building and engineering. Furthermore I think other forces are also subtly implicated such as notions of romance, and the forces of the market, which also seem to be reliable forces "in service" of society, yet act in this text to bring about destruction. 

Although by the end of the work most readers seem to regard Bartley Alexander as an unsympathetic character who has perhaps used and manipulated those around him, (as the Professor suggests, "He belonged to the people who make the play, and most of us are only onlookers at best") I think this assessment is deeply complicated by B.A.'s own sense of his lost identity.

A number of times in the text it is suggested that B.A. has progressively lost control of his identity. This suggestion is made explicit in his letter to Hilda. The text also seems to couple this loss of identity with a move away from the west where Bartley was raised. Although this loss is initially perceived as a loss of youth, or a quest to regain the energy and bliss of young love, it seems as though the reunion with Hilda is insufficient precisely because it does not allow Bartley to regress far enough, to a place where he felt he still had command of himself.  

This agency of youth seems linked to nature, the very thing that the protagonist in his maturity has worked successfully to overcome. 

I don't know...just some thoughts.

Arrr!!!

Greetings on Talk Like a Pirate Day! Although I spent most of this day gardening in true landlubber fashion, I do live in the home of this blessed day, and I tip my ratty tri-corner hat to all of the pirates out there fighting global warming. Because as we know more pirates=less global warming....

Sustaining Community

Recently, while looking for a plant identification book for completing these vegetation surveys, I stumbled upon a book called Food Not Lawns. The subtitle of this book is,  How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and your Neighborhood into a Community. This got me thinking.

Being raised in frosty old New England my concept of community is somewhat jaded. At this moment in my life I find that this word strikes the same cord in me as "self actualized", "inner-child", and whole host of other jargony catch phases that make me feel a little queasy. I don't know that I believe community is possible without radical change, change that far exceeds food choices and even ecological choices. 

Maybe I am wrong about this. Unlike inner-children, I want to believe that community is possible. I think Corvallis, while not a "community" in this new-agey sense, does have a unique culture evolving within its borders. The agriculture/food centered culture that exists within this town is unlike any I've ever known, and it seems to be a site of genuine creativity. This gives me hope.

Another thing I've been mulling over lately is elitism. I think that ultimately community fosters elitism and maybe I am ok with that. To be honest, I think my way of doing things is good (though not the only good way), I think it could be improved upon, but I decidedly feel that there are other ways which are not good. I don't mean not good for me. I mean immoral, wrong, not good. Does this make me an elitist? Perhaps, I'm still sorting this out. Opinions are welcome. At any rate I think a group of people who share enough resources and values to be a community will by virtue of those shared resources, values, and collective identity be expressing their sense of a superior way of life that they have found or created.

I don't know. What I do know is that the sustainability journey here at Casa Colibri is going reasonably well. We're deciding to unplug the tv altogether one day per week (it should totally be more, but I have come to love some mindless tv). We've also been put up large quantities of plums, and have harvested many more tomatoes. We've only filled our gas tank once this month (12 gallons), and we're down to 1-2 gallons of trash per week (not compacted).  

The beat goes on.

Free Fruits

We went to EE Wilson for the second day of vegetation surveying. Things went smoothly. I saw a lovely dry marsh and plenty of fruit trees growing wild. I ate some Asian pears and apple or two. Bird and I filled her pockets with plums and a big bowl of blackberries. All delightfully free.
a little more fruitiness... is this a Georgia Peach

Timid Men Prefer the Calm of Despotism to the Tempestuous Sea of Liberty

Although I had been planning to avoid politics today I was the recipient of a "banned book list" that Palin supposedly tried to push for while mayor. Book banning is another one of those issues that gets me up in arms so I had to look into it. Although fact checkers have found that the supposed "books banned by Palin" list is questionable, the fact checkers (even the rather right leaning ones) concede that Palin did ask about how to get books banned from the library in Wasilla. The fact checkers also concede that Palin fired (although under pressure from local citizens she later rehired) the librarian whom she originally asked about book banning. Why did she fire the woman? Because she felt the librarian was not "loyal" enough. 

Loyal enough? Is Palin a duchess or a queen? Since when are librarians expected to swear their loyalty to the mayor? Ridiculous.

To me, book banning is just a vile perversion of what America at its very best might stand for. In some odd way I know that I am deeply "American". I believe in freedom, liberty, and equality as guiding principles. Despite the troubling violent and oppressive foundation of our system I think that these ideas remain woven in the fabric of our national identity, even if they are only something to be dreamed of and worked for, something not yet achieved.

Enough politics for now. Today was day one of our multi-day vegetation surveys. We surveyed 20 plots today at E.E. Wilson. Most of what we saw was thick blackberries and roses, but there was also substantial thistle of several kinds, asters, cow parsnips, apples, hawthorns, and hazelnuts. Outside of the plots we found some pears and brought six or seven home. A lovely but tiring day.

A Day in the Park

Today we went to Avery Park for a walk around the loop trail and down to the edge of Mary's River.  Freyja and Moose had a splendid time swimming around. Especially Freyja who thinks she is part river otter.  

In the course of our walk we saw many delightful things. The rose gardens still had plenty of flowers blooming, and the native plant garden--although well past blossoming-- was fantastic and inspiring. As I walked I thought about this blog and what I might say regarding sustainability. The Avery Park composting display seemed promising, and the apparent health of the River did too, but then this appeared...   

beneath the shrubs between the native plants and the playground. Although by this point in the walk I had already picked up a dozen cigarette butts, a burger king wrapper, a kiddie drink cup, two pull tabs, and a heap of fishing line, I found this particular object worthy of a photograph. In fact upon inspection I found it worthy of two photographs.

This label states that this particular bottle is designed to contain 30% less plastic than the "typical" bottle. While I think this is admirable in someways it is also misleading. Minor efforts like this seem to lull the consumer into thinking that such a purchase is "ecofriendly"-- a positive act. 

Plastics in general are toxic. While they are used medically to save lives as the plastics industry has reminded us in their advertisements, they are not really safe for eating and drinking. They are especially unsafe for children. 

It was only about a year ago when I discovered that many plastics contain toxic chemicals that leech into the foods and beverages stored in them. The main toxin that I have read about are phthalates.  Granted this is only one toxin group but it is enough for me to be very wary. 

Despite the fact that the Phthalate Information Center (a group with panel members from BASF Corporation, Eastman Chemical Company, and ExxonMobile) claim that "Phthalates have established a very strong safety profile over the 50 years in which they have been in general use". I tend to put some stock in the numerous university studies that show a correlation between phtalates and endocrine anomalies, reproductive harm, and carcinogenic effects.

Beyond the toxicity, another issue is the waste of resources involved in the production of plastic bottles. Although plastic is recyclable it can only be recycled so many times before it is no longer usable. Much of what plastic is recycled does not re-enter the consumer market. Most if not all of the plastic bottles consumers purchase are of virgin plastic. Plastic is a petroleum product that is energetically costly to produce. 

Bottled water is especially troubling since it is mostly a "luxury" purchase.

 

Americans shell out more than $20,000 "every minute of every day" or up to 60 cents for a glass of bottled water

1978 Consumption = 415 Million Gallons**

2006 Consumption = 8.2 Billion Gallons***

For comparison, Worldwide Consumption = 

41 Billion Gallons***

It takes 1,851 gallons of water to refine one barrel of crude oil.**

Twenty-four gallons of water are needed to make one pound of plastic. **

1.5 to 2.7 million tons of plastic used per year to make bottles for bottled water.***

That’s 24gal/pd X 2000 pd/ton x 1.5 million tons = 72 billion gallons of water or 24 times the quantity of water used by the City of Corvallis every year to make bottles that are empty. 

 

**Emily Gersema, Associated Press (2003)

***FAO and Earth Policy Institute (2006)

Disturbing. At least to me and to Bird. Although it is seemingly impossible to avoid plastics altogether, it is easy to substantially reduce how much plastic one uses. We've stopped all plastic shopping bag use by bringing our own bags. We've started saving bread bags and produce bags to reuse them. We're slowly but surely converting to bell jars for all of our storage needs, and are in the process of phasing plastic utensils out of our kitchen with the help of our local Goodwill's utensil bin. It's an uphill battle, but a fantastic adventure.

Some tips for reducing plastic use. 

Tons of good links for sustainablity issues and info.

Ode To the Polar Bear

Since Gov. Palin thinks Polar Bears don't deserve protection I would like to take a moment to revel in the glories of the Polar Bear.

This past Monday I spent a good amount of time gazing at Conrad and Tasul. These two bears were the highlight of my day. I know I'm "radical" for believing that all life, not just human, is sacred, but that is my stance.
These excellent creatures and their kind deserve our respect.

Sustainability Sunday: Here Comes the Rain Again

For those who may now know it, Rain is the name of the game in many parts of the Pacific Northwest. Newport Oregon for example receives an average annual rainfall of 68 inches. Here in the Willamette Valley however we receive an average of 42 inches per year. This is not drastically different from the annual precipitation back in Blackstone Ma (48 inches). The main difference here is that our average winter temperature in Corvallis is near 40 F compared to Blackstone's 22ish degrees. 

A late summer downpour has inspired me to start seriously thinking about how I intend to confront the coming winter. I want to grow crops all winter since the weather is so nice, but what I will need to do is construct some sort of rain rerouting system to keep the plants from drowning.  I'm open to thoughts and suggestions. 

It's all about water and food these days.  My thoughts seem to continually run back to the basics, the most basic of basics.  Having enough to no longer need to fret about supply (as back in the living in a van days) the real concern now is quality. Most recently I've been thinking about Genetically Engineered or Genetically Modified foods (GE, GM, GMOs). This practice is so disconcerting.

I've been disturbed by GMOs since the late 1990's, but I suppose I never imagined that they would become so prolific and nearly inescapable. Recent reports that even Organic products like veggie dogs and cereals have been contaminated with GMOs are distressing. These companies are trying to avoid GMOs but can't.

"North American production of corn, soybeans and canola is now more than 50% with transgenic traits (herbicide tolerance or bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) resistance), while milk from the United States (US) is mostly produced with recombinant bovine somatatrophin (rBST), and meat is being produced with various biotechnologically-based growth hormones" (Peter W.B. Phillips and Grant Isaac).

Furthermore it seems as though there is little control over inadvertent hybridization between GMO and non-GMO crops. 

Solution? I don't have one. For me the ideal solution is radical. Stop GMO production altogether and/or mandatory labeling on all products containing GMOs (this of course doesn't even take into account all of the international implications of GMO agribusiness).

Barring this I feel as though organic and local is the best bet. All Local eating is a major challenge but one that I may undertake soon if only for my own piece of mind.


GMO Labeling: Threat Or Opportunity?
Peter W.B. Phillips and Grant Isaac
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
AgBioForum

A Water What?

In the course of an instructional video I learned the depressing fact that 60% of adults polled in a survey conducted by the USFS did not know what a watershed is. 10% of those who didn't know thought that watershed is a synonym for a waterworks. Ironically 65% of people boil or filter their tap water. This means that more people are concerned about the health of their water than know where their water comes from. In a way this is a good thing because it means that these people might want to know what they can do to protect their water and themselves.

The more I learn about water issues the more passionate I become about watershed heath. Many of the Pacific Northwest natives recognize water as the first food, the most sacred gift. Without water we are going nowhere fast. 

Soon my online class will be over and I'll have a few weeks to dedicate to my thesis. This information about watersheds couldn't have come at a better time.  

Edith Wharton in talking about her character Lily Bart said: "a frivolous society can acquire dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys. Its tragic implication lies in its power of debasing people and ideals". If Wharton was interested in illustrating the tragedy of how frivolity destroys I find that she was enormously successful, and the ecological implications of this are what I intend to locate in her works and describe in my thesis.

Ecocritic Meets the VP Nominee

Although I have been frankly anti-political since the Bush fiasco began, this upcoming presidential election is starting to get my attention. Initially, when it started to look like Obama and McCain might be the front runners, I felt both pleased and apathetic. I've always thought of McCain as a somewhat moderate Republican. This simply means that his name does not inspire me to do anything reactive...like scream. In that light he seemed like an acceptable possibility if the more desirable outcome of a Democratic (or more Ideally Green president) could not be achieved. I hadn't looked much into his policies because I already knew that he is anti-Gay marriage and thus I am anti-McCain. 

Recent nominations for VP however have prodded me into action. 

My first stopping place for information was Leauge of Conservation Voters since environmental policies are really my major concern. While it was no surprise that McCain has a worse environmental voting record than Obama I was shocked by how wide the margin was (I was also shocked by how often McCain fails to do his job). I was also pleased to see that Biden ranks reasonably high (though certainly not as high as I'd like ideally).  

LCV couldn't help me however when it comes to the Republican VP nominee.  For info on Sarah Palin I had to hunt through some news clippings. Googling her name and environment turns up some things. Such as "4 Things Sarah Palin Believes About the Environment" and "Palin Not Convinced on Global Warming".

Ok...ok...

Obama for president (despite the fact that I was recently warned that he intends to raise taxes for those making over 250,000 per year**gasp** as if that would ever effect me or apx 90% of Americans).

Zooliteracy

Today we took a break from schoolwork and went on a date to the Oregon Zoo.  

We've been wanting to check out the zoo for sometime. I've never been, and Bird hadn't been in a long time. We had a lovely time and invested in an annual pass. Polars, Beaver and Bats were among my favorite exhibits. 

Sadly our fellow zoo goers were remarkably irritating. The number of people with young children who either refused to answer their kids' questions altogether or gave them misinformation was amazing! The Oregon Zoo, like most zoos, provides ample signage indicating what animals are in the exhibits, where those animals come from etc... Rather than read the signs, or tell their children to read the signs most parents gave amazingly false answers such as "those are monkeys" while looking at an enclosure of orangutans which is topped by an enormous sign announcing not only the name of the animals inside but the meaning of the word Orangutan.

Sunday with Soil, Sustainability, and Cinema

We went to the garden center today and picked up some more seeds and soil. There was a lot to be done in the garden this weekend. First order of business involved stabbing a number of holes into the bottom of a forlorn and lidless rubbermaid tub thus transforming it into a cuke-topia! There are two fair sized cucumber plants comfortably situated in there now. I also re potted another bean plant, harvested a crop of baby carrots, re-tied the tomatoes and trimmed the fuscias, tomatoes, and strawberries (which have amazingly started flowering again).  By the end of the day there will be some newly planted peas and lettuce.

Since it is Sunday I thought I'd put my dos centavos in about sustainability. On my mind at the moment is soap. We really love the new citrus Dr. Bronners. We use it for hands, dishes, and laundry. We've even cleaned the toilet with it. We get the liquid in bulk which saves on money and plastic. We also have a few Ecocloths that we recently picked up. This link is for a similar product since at the moment my memory on the exact brand we own escapes me. Oh, another thing about cleanliness and sustainability is the issue of chemical hazards in soaps, shampoos and beauty products. The website called Skin Deep will tell the consumer what products contain potentially harmful chemicals.  (cha-ching...maybe more next Sunday)

Tonight we're watching the film version of The Age of Innocence. I'm hoping it will be as well done as Ethan Frome.

Woolen Mills Finale & Round-up Tease

Despite the bleak outlook, textile production at Pendleton was not over. In February 16, 1909, ownership of the Pendleton Woolen Mills changed hands. New owners, from a prominent family with a history of successful textile businesses, Clarence and Roy Bishop “eagerly accepted the challenge of the management of the new company” (Lomax 274) The Bishops felt that the mill needed substantial physical and mechanical improvements before the business could resume. Working alongside a construction crew, the Bishops oversaw the building of a new three-story cement facility on land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad Company’s tracks. By September 1, 1909 construction was complete (274).

            The Bishops intended to continue the Pendleton production of Indian blankets and robes. The brothers employed Joe Rounsley, of the Philadelphia Textile school, to develop designs for the company’s Indian blankets. Rounsley’s product was “pure art, conceived by…living with the Indians” (276).

            In 1912 the Bishops procured the recently foreclosed Wahougal Mill in Washougal Washington (277). This purchased marked the beginning of a series of expansion moves the Bishops would coordinate. The expansions were used as a way to diversify product lines. During WWI Washougal produced army blankets while the Pendleton mill continued to produce Indian products (277) After the war, Pendleton began to develop virgin wool products and market them under the Pendleton blue and gold brand (279). By the late 1940’s Pendleton Woolen Mills  Inc. came to include facilities as far away as Nebraska (300).  Today Pendleton Woolen Mills is still operated by the Bishop family, and consists of seven facilities and 75 stores. The mill located in Pendleton Oregon continues to be the site of all Pendleton Indian blanket production (“About Pendleton”).

I'm hoping to find information regarding the ecological impact of the Indian blanket production that goes on at Pendleton. I am concerned that the intense colors of the blankets may mean that significant pollution from dyes is part of the process. So far I have found very little information. What I do know is that Pendleton has taken a public position advocating sustainability. Of course in this political and social climate this is a smart market move, but it is still significant. 

My next research endeavour is the Pendleton Round-up. So far I have a lot of fantastic vintage pictures depicting the Round-up's history, stay tuned for the visual feast.

Image of Pendleton Round-Up Blanket

Lomax, Alfred F. 1974. Later Woolen Mills in Oregon, First Edition, Binfords & Mort,Portland, 301.

 

Pendleton Woolen Mills and Woody Guthrie

As promised here's part two of the Pendleton Woolen Mills Saga:

In the late 1890’s the pro-business East Oregonian newspaper ran an editorial extolling the virtues of suits made from wool that was raised, spun, and woven in Umatilla county. Although this promotion likely helped business at the young Pendleton Woolen Mills, manager and stockholder Theron E. Fell’s plan was not to focus on the production of suiting materials but rather to focus attention on selling blankets and Indian robes to the nearby Umatilla reservation (261) The total Indian population of the United States at the dawn of Pendleton Woolen Mills was approximately 263,000 people. Populations in the Northwest were approximately 4000 in Oregon, 10,000 in Washington and 12,500 in California (261).

 

Shortly after the opening of the scouring plant, then scouring plant manager Theron E. Fell had “talked hopefully of a woolen mill” (257).  By mid-July 1898 Pendleton Woolen Mills was legally incorporated and plans for the mill were made public. However, raising money for the venture was slow. Lomax states that “Money-raising was always a difficult task…but especially at this time when the country was just emerging from the panic conditions of the early 1890’s” (258). Despite delays caused by the economic slump the Pendleton Woolen Mills began operation on September 7, 1896 (260).

 

“The company took particular pains to weave the correct designs and color demanded by the Indians…Robes with colors acceptable to the Crows in the north were unacceptable to the Navajos in the southwest. To meet this diversified demand and to assure accuracy in manufacture, a factory representative visited the various reservations” (261). Such attention to detail paid off, and Pendleton blankets sold well on the reservations. One store in Yakima, Washington placed an order for 1000 blankets in March 1897 and estimated that an additional 1500 would be sold that year (262).

 

Pendleton products also sold well off the reservation. Robes in school colors were popular at colleges and universities, steamer rugs sold well in the east. But Pendleton remained primarily focused on the production of Indian blankets and robes. They worked to capitalize on the idea of the “romantic western Indian” to sell these products off the reservation. Early advertisements explicitly announced the connection between the Pendleton Mills and the Umatilla reservation pointing out that Pendleton robes are to Indians what a “Paris hat is to a Chicago girl on Easter morning” (264). In 1902 further investments were made in advertising. A number of well-known Indians were photographed wearing Pendleton robes, and these images along with a variety of images depicting Pendleton’s being used indoors and out were reproduced. An eight page booklet showing suggested uses for Pendleton robes was also produced from these images (268)

 

Despite initial success, the first woolen mill at Pendleton did not last long. Using a number of primary source documents including legal proceedings, newspaper articles, and property leases Lomax infers that the Pendleton Mill went idle around 1907 (271). His sources seem to indicate that both economic problems in the region and legal problems at the mill played a role in the company’s collapse.

Photo:. Umatilla County: A Backward Glance. Compiled by theUmatilla Historical Society. Published by E. O. Master Printers, Pendleton. 1980.

Lomax, Alfred L. Later Woolen Mills in Oregon. Portland:Binfod and Morts, 1974.

As an aside to all this Pendleton talk, I had the privilege of watching a 1950 film called "Columbia" which was put out by the Boneville Power Administration. It was one giant ode to dam building as a force for colonization and weapons manufacture. It was totally disturbing and would have been funny had it been fiction. The entire musical score was Woody Guthrie...