[data] title=Stand In our Ways and Beliefs Slideshow, Johnpaul Jones [1] img=1.jpg caption=Stand in Our Ways and Beliefs [2] img=2.jpg [3] img=3.jpg [4] img=4.jpg caption=I was the only American Indian student in the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon back in the 1960s. One of the requirements of study in the School of Architecture was to take a 3-times-a-week 2-year course about the history of World & American Architecture. [5] img=5.jpg caption=Not once during the entire 2 years did the professor show or talk about the history of American Indian Architecture. [6] img=6.jpg caption=We mainly studied the great architectures of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Modern America. As a young American Indian studying the history of Architecture, I was not given a complete picture. [7] img=7.jpg caption=There are some really magnificent ancient structures, all over America, built, built, by our indigenous ancestors. [8] img=8.jpg [9] img=9.jpg caption=A lot of these ancient structures have not even been uncovered, let alone restored. [10] img=10.jpg caption=We have been here a long time…we have a deep history in this country! There is not a place in America without an indigenous story. [11] img=11.jpg caption=Our ancestors have left many signs that rival anything left by ancient people anywhere in the world. [12] img=12.jpg caption=However, much of what our ancestors have left us is verbal. It was passed down through many generations. Stories from experience!
These verbal stories are the most important thing for us to listen to! These are the things that can help us span two worlds. These are the things that we as American Indians can bring to the planning and design table that can help solve difficult issues and problems.
Before I show you what my indigenous family gave me as a gift to help solve difficult planning and design problems, there are three things that it would be good to remember about indigenous people of America: [13] img=13.jpg caption=Northwest coast tribal people [14] img=14.jpg caption=#1: We are a diverse people that have survived!
We are not just "Native Americans" living in tipis, chasing buffalo—we are not what you see in movies! [15] img=15.jpg caption=We are an ancient people that span the entire country—
north to south
east to west
cold to hot
wet to dry
And we don't all live on reservations. [16] img=16.jpg [17] img=17.jpg caption=without our indigenous ancestors and our relatives in the Americas, there would be no "hot salsa" [18] img=18.jpg caption=no "corn chips"
no "tomatoes"
no "pumpkins" for Halloween
no "French fries" to go with your hamburger
We are a diverse people that have given many things to the human family. [19] img=19.jpg caption=#2: We are still here; we have survived! Even though the American government has tried repeatedly to eliminate us in many ways. This story is often not understood by the non-Indian public! [20] img=20.jpg caption=Relationships with everything around us. It might be good for others to know about these ways and beliefs. They just might be helpful in solving some of our American problems. [21] img=21.jpg caption=However, we are still here and we still practice what our ancestors passed on to us. The government was not successful in eliminating our ways, beliefs, and practices. [22] img=22.jpg [23] img=23.jpg caption=Today we influence and bring changes in the American legal system about the care of this country: the land, the rivers, the desert, the air we breathe, and the animals that share these places with us. [24] img=24.jpg [25] img=25.jpg caption=Without our insistence concerning our treaty rights in the Pacific Northwest, the salmon fisheries would be in worse shape than they are now. Our Northwest relatives are working hard to bring back the Salmon people to our rivers and lakes.
We are still here and we have survived. [26] img=26.jpg [27] img=27.jpg [28] img=28.jpg caption=#3: We have unique ways and beliefs. [29] img=29.jpg [30] img=30.jpg [31] img=31.jpg caption=As American Indians involved in planning and design we should use what our ancestors verbally passed on to us. We should stand in their ways and beliefs—not somewhere else!
These ways and beliefs were sent to guide us in whatever we do. [32] img=32.jpg caption=There is a canoe sculpture by the late Northwest Indian artist Bill Reid that expresses some of these organic ways and beliefs: [33] img=33.jpg caption=There is hardly any room in the canoe—it's full of animals, humans, spirits, and nature. It's a canoe with a message, like most of our stories.
We have some unique ways and beliefs that are worth remembering and listening to.
My Indian grandmother and mother verbally gave me something to use as a young man. It's a gift made up of four worlds—not one or two worlds, but four worlds. And I was asked to use them in solving planning and design issues and problems.
This gift that was given to me has allowed me to live in two worlds without going crazy. I use these four worlds every day at Jones & Jones. [34] img=34.jpg caption=

Natural World
Seasons • Cycles
Cardinal directions • Various doors to our universe
Equinox • Solstice
Organic • Nature of life • Plants • Rocks • Soil • Water
Plants with power • Healing • Blessing • Cleansing
Sky • Earth connection (above • below) • Clouds
Non-structured places
Mountains • Horizon • Orientation
Sunrise • Sunset • Beauty • Color
Night • Day
Odor • Smell
Rivers • Lakes • Streams • Rain • Oceans
Power of natural elements • Living

[35] img=35.jpg caption=

Animal World
Connecting to family • Power
Messengers • Spirit lines
Protection
Healing power • Ceremonial ties
Connection to seasons and cycles
Non-structured places for animals
Sounds • Color • Beauty

[36] img=36.jpg caption=

Spirit World
Creation • Renewal
Continuum of time
Visioning • Dreaming
Fire • Smoke • Healing • Cleansing
Ceremony • Many Worlds
Symbolism at all levels
Songs • Ritual • Renewal
Birth • Death

[37] img=37.jpg caption=

Human World
Teaching / transfer of knowledge
Community / family
Structured places
Welcome / hospitality
Humor / looking at self
Support / helper / unity
Celebrate
Connection to past / generations
Respectful
Color symbolism
Female/male
Creativity

[38] img=38.jpg [39] img=39.jpg [40] img=40.jpg caption=What I've found using the Four Worlds approach in planning and design is that it connects the point of view of Indians and non-Indians into a solution much different than "what happens currently"…where our ways and beliefs are left out…where only one world is considered.
Find your message from your ancestors and try using it to solve issues and problems in planning and design. We need to move beyond one stereotyped way of solving problems, to solutions that represent us.
Where what our ancestors verbally passed on to us is "somewhere where we can stand."
And I invite you to stand inside your ancestors' ways and beliefs—not somewhere else! [41] img=41.jpg caption=The National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall
Washington, D.C. [42] img=42.jpg [43] img=43.jpg [44] img=44.jpg [45] img=45.jpg [46] img=46.jpg caption=workshop [47] img=47.jpg [48] img=48.jpg [49] img=49.jpg caption=floor plan [50] img=50.jpg caption=North elevation upper walls [51] img=51.jpg [52] img=52.jpg [53] img=53.jpg [54] img=54.jpg caption=Ground plane at North elevation [55] img=55.jpg [56] img=56.jpg [57] img=57.jpg caption=East entry [58] img=58.jpg caption=enlarged Potomac plan [59] img=59.jpg [60] img=60.jpg caption=interior of Preparatory Theatre [61] img=61.jpg caption="Visitors take a break in the Potomac space to check out the Native boatbuilding exhibition and the prism reflections on the interior walls." [62] img=62.jpg [63] img=63.jpg caption=model of Preparatory Theatre, 4th Floor [64] img=64.jpg [65] img=65.jpg [66] img=66.jpg [67] img=67.jpg [68] img=68.jpg caption=Evergreen State College Longhouse
Education and Cultural Center
Olympia, Washington [69] img=13.jpg caption=Northwest coast tribal people [70] img=70.jpg [71] img=71.jpg caption=cedar logs for columns and beams [72] img=72.jpg caption=interior sketch [73] img=73.jpg [74] img=74.jpg caption=East elevation with Thunder Bird [75] img=75.jpg caption=Main Hall [76] img=76.jpg caption=Indian artists [77] img=77.jpg [78] img=78.jpg caption=Northwest Native Canoe Center
Seattle, Washington [79] img=79.jpg [80] img=80.jpg [81] img=81.jpg [82] img=82.jpg [83] img=83.jpg [84] img=84.jpg [85] img=85.jpg [86] img=86.jpg [87] img=87.jpg caption=Vancouver Land BridgeVancouver, Washington [88] img=88.jpg [89] img=89.jpg [90] img=90.jpg [91] img=91.jpg [92] img=92.jpg [93] img=93.jpg [94] img=94.jpg [95] img=95.jpg [96] img=96.jpg [97] img=97.jpg [98] img=98.jpg caption=Agua Caliente Cultural Museum
Palm Springs, California
basket-making materials [99] img=99.jpg [100] img=100.jpg [101] img=101.jpg [102] img=102.jpg [103] img=103.jpg [104] img=104.jpg [105] img=105.jpg caption=upper floor plan [106] img=106.jpg caption=model—West area [107] img=107.jpg [108] img=108.jpg [109] img=109.jpg [110] img=110.jpg caption=The Southern Ute Museum and Cultural Center
La Plata County, Colorado [111] img=111.jpg [112] img=112.jpg [113] img=113.jpg [114] img=114.jpg [115] img=115.jpg [116] img=116.jpg [117] img=117.jpg [118] img=118.jpg [119] img=119.jpg caption=Southern Ute tribal elders [120] img=120.jpg [121] img=121.jpg [122] img=122.jpg [123] img=123.jpg [124] img=124.jpg [125] img=125.jpg caption=Welcome Hall study model [126] img=126.jpg [127] img=127.jpg [128] img=1.jpg