Joe Tuckta, a 73-year old member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, has danced since he was a boy.

He danced in powwow competitions around the United States. He danced in eight countries overseas as part of Department of Defense heritage programs. He danced at ceremonies on the Warm Springs reservation and around Oregon.

But he was anxious to dance Saturday afternoon on the campus of Oregon State University-Cascades, adorned in bustles of eagle feathers, a beaded black vest and headdress of porcupine quills.

It would be one of his first performances since he stopped dancing after the death of his son last August.

“It makes me feel good to dance again,” Tuckta said. “When I can’t dance, I’m restless.”

Tuckta and other Warm Springs members danced last weekend as part of the second annual First Peoples celebration hosted on the campus in Bend. Beginning at 1 p.m. with a Native artist display and continuing into the evening, the event also featured a narrated “fashion show” of traditional regalia, a round dance from a Grammy-nominated drumming group and an Indigenous foods dinner.

The event was part of the university’s week of events in both Bend and Corvallis surrounding Indigenous Peoples Day, Oct. 14.

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OSU-Cascades celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day with Warm Springs tribal members

It was also part of a growing effort to facilitate a public relationship between the tribes and institutions in Bend.

OSU-Cascades Chancellor Sherm Bloomer told the crowd on campus they were gathered on land originally inhabited by the Warm Springs Tribes. He acknowledged Oregon State is a land-grant university, meaning it was created with money brought in by selling traditional tribal land.

“That is part of our history,” Bloomer said. “It is something we are mindful of and we think about. It comes with an obligation to steward the lands that we are on.”

In 1855, the tribes ceded 10 million acres of land to the U.S. government in exchange for the 640,000-acre Warm Springs Reservation, a small fraction of their original territory. The tribes retained rights through the treaty to hunt and fish on their original territory.

Today the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs include the Paiute, Wasco and Warm Springs tribes. Wasco Chief Jefferson Greene pointed out that various dialects of the tribes were spoken for thousands of years on land where the university now sits, while English has been spoken there for fewer than 200 years.

“It’s great to share a day like this to remind our community and the region that our people are still here,” Greene said in an interview. “We’ve always been here since the beginning of time. Our stories go back to the very first people.”

Greene said the event is not only an opportunity for nontribal people to witness expressions of Indigenous culture, but to learn about guiding principles of community and sustainability.

Government relations

In March, the city of Bend signed an agreement with the confederated tribes establishing annual meetings on areas of common interest, like water and natural resources.

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Bend, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to sign first-of-its-kind agreement

OSU-Cascades is also exploring an agreement with the tribes, said Mike Cooper, a writing instructor in the university’s American Studies department. The department initiated the First Peoples event two years ago with hopes to make the campus more welcoming to Warm Springs students and give American Studies students a real-life lesson in a nearby culture.

“You can read books and watch movies, or you can actually interact with people,” Cooper said.

Fiona White, a student who recently started her final year at OSU-Cascades, attended Saturday’s event as part of an American Studies capstone project. White, who is nontribal, was exposed to Warm Springs culture growing up in Madras through traditional dances at school assemblies.

“Even if you’re from Bend, it’s worth learning about people that inhabited this area and the people that are less than an hour away,” White said. “I feel like a lot of people in Bend feel very removed from that.”

At Saturday’s ceremony, Denyse Padilla, a 19-year-old Warm Springs member who graduated from Madras High School, wore traditional buckskin garment made of deer hide, with tan lace hanging from the sleeves.

“I’m still learning about this,” she said of the traditions. “As I’m learning, I’m trying to remember it to pass it down.”