Oregon’s Totem Pole Of Friendship

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29234, 18 June 1960, Page 2

Oregon’s Totem Pole Of Friendship

(By TUI THOMAS! When Horace Greeley sent out his challenge: “Go West, Young Man,” all the most hospitable, generous Americans who heard him must have hitched up their waggons in 1859 and bumped over the Oregon Trail. One hundred years of progressively easier, more gracious living have not dulled these pioneer qualities which flow out warmly to greet a stranger in “the West” today.

The people of Oregon and their kin across the Columbia river in Washington State are the kind who will serve you a Thanksgiving Dinner in May. A busy working-wife will somehow find time to show you everything she feels you ought to see in Portland. Word goes round there is a tourist in the community and invitations become overwhelming. “Come for the weekend,” a note will say from someone you have never seen. Forests In Spring

My hosts for two weeks last May, Mr and Mrs Leverett Richards, hired an aircraft to show me the Washington forests in their spring-time beauty from the air. We had already travelled hundreds of miles sight-seeing by car.

Oregonians and their neighbours like people from other places. They want to know more about them and where they come from. They will ply you with questions, listen fascinated to a peculiar accent, laugh in good humour at a strange brand of slang. VZhen you go dry with talking they will urge you on, pour more coffee. You will be exhausted when you say goodbye to these tireless Americans, pounds heavier jn body, and luggage. Your notebook will be full of the names of new friends and recipes for cookies and clam chowder. But you will wonder why you ever left the Pacific seaboard

when you meet, what seems by comparison, the chilly indifference of Eastern Canadians. Second Home

The people of Qregon are quick to acknowledge a kindness to

their own folk. Many of their men came to Christchurch on their way to serve with the United States task forces. On'their return they talked of Christchurch as their home away from home. Two of them, Major A. J. Thompson, of the United States Air Force, and Mr Leverett Richards, aviation editor of the “Oregonian” in Portland, began thinking in terms of a people-to-people gift. Oregon's Centennial Commission took over the idea. As a result, Oregon’s “Friendship Totem Pole” will arrive in Christchurch tomorrow as a token of appreciation.

This pole, carved by the famous cherokee Indian artist (Chief Lelooska), is a replica of his Oregon Centennial pole which stands in the Portland Zoological Park. Here also are the penguins taken back from the Antarctic by the zoo’s superintendent (Mr Jack Marks).

And it seems to me there should be another pole standing in this park besides the centennial totem —a replica of the famous Maori pou in New Plymouth, as a reciprocal gift from the people of Christchurch.