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Guest Viewpoint: Talking Stones' words are timeless - The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oreg4.. Page 1 of 3 <br /> www.registerguard.com I ©The RegisterGuard, Eugene, Oregon <br /> May 30, 2003 <br /> Guest Viewpoint: Talking Stones' words <br /> are timeless <br /> By David Sonnichsen <br /> Written in stone. <br /> The phrase suggests permanence, with perhaps an emphasis <br /> on the past. <br /> Sometimes, however, through a fortuitous melding of art, <br /> history and public involvement, the present carries the past <br /> into the future. <br /> This is the case with the Talking Stones of the Whilamut <br /> Natural Area of Alton Baker Park, which will be dedicated this <br /> Saturday by Kalapuya elder Esther Stutzman and all others <br /> who choose to lend their voice and spirit. <br /> Kalapuya people, this area's first human inhabitants, say "We <br /> have always been here." Their word for the river, Whilamut, <br /> means "where the water ripples and runs fast," and probably <br /> mutated into what we now know as Willamette. <br /> Last September, Alton Baker Park's 237-acre Whilamut Natural <br /> Area became the first place in Oregon to officially adopt a <br /> Kalapuya name. Springfield's Willamalane Park and Recreation <br /> District, Eugene's Parks and Open Space division, the park's <br /> Citizen Planning Committee and city administrators worked <br /> together to make it happen. In his <br /> final act in office, former Eugene City Manager Jim Johnson <br /> signed an order amending the name of Eugene's portion of the <br /> park. <br /> But the elation of the renaming and December's installation of <br /> the Talking Stones turned into anger and frustration after four <br /> of the stones were vandalized on the first night in their new <br /> home. <br /> Two stones, one in each city, were painted with a familiar <br /> semicircular fish outline, another had part of its Kalapuya text <br /> chipped off, and one had its engraved surface packed with <br /> mud. <br /> A way needed to be found to speak to this ugly act without <br /> introducing the stones to the public as defenseless victims of <br /> haters. The response was heartening. People rallied, led by <br /> http://www.registerguard.com/cgi-bin/printStory.py?name=a 13.ed.col.stones.0 5 3 0&date=2003.. 6/4/03 <br />