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The Longhouse is the first building of its kind on
any US college or university campus. Traditional longhouses
served as the community center for families and villages
up and down the Pacific Northwest. In a traditional
longhouse you would find the post and beam structure
you see in this longhouse, but it would be one room,
with a fire pit in the middle and bench seating around
the sides. The floor would be dirt with wood shavings
on top. The Evergreen longhouse design is based on a
traditional longhouse with modern features. This longhouse
sits on Coast Salish land and so its appearance follows
that tradition.
On the exterior entrance, the first thing you see is
the Thunderbird. It was carved by Greg Colfax who is
Makah and Andy Wilbur who is Skokomish. Greg was a visiting
faculty member at Evergreen at the time and students
in the Native Studies program worked with him on the
sculpture. The Thunderbird is seen as the giver of knowledge
and so its presence on the Longhouse here is appropriate.
When people think of Pacific Northwest Coast Native
culture, they often think of totem poles. Poles are
traditional of northern cultures that you'd find in
BC and Alaska. In the Southern region among Salish people,
welcome figures are carved and placed outside of the
Longhouse. These figures on either side of the door
have their hands outstretched in a gesture of welcome.
The male figure is holding a platter which indicates
food. At Longhouses, food was ALWAYS present! Greg Colfax
and Andy Wilbur carved the welcome figures as well.
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