A Place to BringLife Into Balance - Breitenbush Hot Springs

Sept 26 - 29 Jeannie Edwards & Kassy Daggett
REFLECTIONS: Choosing What Really Matters!
10-Year Anniversary Celebration!
How do you spend your unique
life energy? Are you choosing
wisely? What are you ready to
release? What are you ready to
create? What gets in your way?
What do you want more of?
What do you want less of? Or,
to quote Mary Oliver, “Tell me,
what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
How we live each moment determines how we live our
lives. Imagine joining a transformational women’s circle
committed to offering and receiving support. See yourself
renewed and refreshed by recalling what really matters. Quiet
the inner critic, remember who you are, and embrace your true
nature.
Through group activities, dialogue, breathwork, music,
and creative exercises, you’ll explore your next steps toward
choosing freedom, authenticity and satisfaction. We invite you
to join us for this special 10-year anniversary event. 18 CEs.
Jeannie and Kassy each have a thriving practice in Eugene.
They’ve been described as “gentle, playful, and flexible;” and their
facilitation style is “nurturing, caring, and supportive.”
More participant comments at http://vrkd.com/workshops/
reflections
REG: & INFO: Jeannie 541.344.4374 or jeannie@efn.org or www.
kassydaggett.com BEGINS: Thu dinner ENDS: Sun lunch COST: $325 ($295 if
registered by 8/30) plus lodging DEPOSIT: cost of lodging
Breitenbush History
Human Roots
by Dav’id Rath
A sandal 14,000 years old was found in the Oregon desert east of Bend, and given how ancient
and pervasive was the North American aboriginal people’s belief in the healing powers of heat and
sweat, it is reasonable to assume that human beings have been using the hot springs around what is
now known as Breitenbush for over 400 generations.
Accessible only for the 5 or 6 months before the snows, it offered a river to fish without dams,
easy hunting as the deer were attracted to the salts percolating up from the springs, close access to
the huckleberry fields, a place to heal the body, a place for visioning through the steam, and even
a means to easily cook food in baskets dipped in the hottest water. Most importantly it offered
interactions with visitors from the other directions, with resulting trade, learning, and kinship
opportunities . A number of archeological surveys of debris piles (middens) have been done on the springs, and although many of
the reports are kept secret to respect tribal historical privacy, it is known that seashells from the coast and obsidian from the deserts
to the East have been found.
The border of the Warm Springs reservation, one of only two reservations in the country that have no non-native in-holdings,
is only about 20 miles from Breitenbush. In its oral tradition the keepers of the history are actually the singers. We have spoken
with elders of that tradition and they tell the story of these springs being a place where no particular clan or tribal group ever
claimed traditionally that it belonged to just them. All peoples were welcomed, and if you had a pre-existing dispute with another
group you put it aside during your season at the springs.
Beyond this, little is directly known of Native American history because there sadly was little interaction between the
indigenous people and the eventual settlers of the area due to the catastrophic collapse of the native population. In 1804 Lewis
and Clark estimated about 3000 individuals in the Molalla villages not far from here. In 1859 when they were moved to the Grand
Ronde reservation only 79 of them remained. Europeans had lived in cities and with farm animals, and had evolved diseases only
their immune systems could cope with.
There was some continued usage however and Hattie (Mansfield) Bruckman (first wife of the original homestead grantee of
Breitenbush, and second wife of Merle Bruckman whose ice cream cone invention money built the lodge) painted some pictures
of Natives at the springs that were purchased by the English viceroy to India and hung in Buckingham palace. Merle Bruckman’s
granddaughter Betty Fairham remembers Natives on horseback stopping at the springs to sell the restaurant huckleberries they had
gathered.
Living as close to natural things as we do, Native American spiritual practices continue to influence this community, informing
our environmental and ritual life. We continue to offer a totally cost-free traditional sweat once or twice a month in respect to
those hundreds of generations. We continue the tradition of no one claiming exclusive ownership of these springs, with each of
the Breitenbush owner/members holding title collectively, equally, and for only as long as they continue to live and work here. The
human roots of this place are long and strong.
www.breitenbush.com • 31