Yachats trails leader and advocate for Native American truths wins national award from state parks directors

 

 

 

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews

YACHATS — She’s a self-described “country bumpkin” who hates the spotlight.

But Joanne Kittel will have to endure heaps of attention at a Lake Tahoe resort this month when the National Association of State Park Directors presents the Yachats resident with its highest individual honor — the President’s Award.

“I was in shock,” Kittel told YachatsNews when she learned of the award in August from Lisa Sumption, director of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Sumption, the association’s current president, nominated Kittel.

“Joanne has worked tirelessly and compassionately” to help create the Amanda Bridge and trail, said Sumption, one of the key government figures who has supported Kittel’s efforts and worked with her the last few years. “She’s such an incredible human. Without her ability to bring people together, I don’t know how we could have gotten where we are.”

As Sumption noted in her nomination, Kittel’s signature effort was to build and highlight Amanda’s Trail – a route also called “Oregon’s Trail of Tears” that often ended in death for indigenous people.

“For many tribal members in Oregon, this site … was a place of horror and genocide for their people,” Sumption wrote. “Joanne is the pollinator and the glue that has sewn together this place of bridging cultures with creating knowledge and understanding.”

Bridge project

The Amanda Bridge, dedicated in May 2022, was a six-year, $434,000 project championed by Kittel and carried out with the help of dozens of individuals, civic groups, and local, state, federal and tribal governments.

Like the Amanda Trail and Amanda Creek on the south end of Yachats, the bridge honors Amanda De-Cuys, a member of the Coos tribe. Blind, she was forced by government troops in 1864 to leave her husband and daughter and walk barefoot from Coos Bay to what was basically a prison camp in Yachats. Amanda was one of many indigenous people relocated by the U.S. government, suffering and dying in Yachats.

Since moving to Yachats with her late husband, Norman, in 1993, Kittel has labored to promote the truth about what she calls “U.S. government genocidal policies” toward Native Americans on the Oregon coast. The couple donated two of their acres for a section of the trail, and Kittel went on to become a key driver behind Yachats’ reputation as a “trails city”.

A 72-year-old retired psychotherapist, Kittel was among the first to join the Yachats Trails Committee, formed in the late 1990s. Today, the group is a major force in tending the city’s numerous trails and open spaces.

The committee — recently re-named Yachats Trails Team — is an all-volunteer squad of more than 30 regulars which through much of the year weeds, clears, shovels, rakes and improves Yachats’ trails to keep them safe and clear.

“Joanne is just a master at getting people to work together as a team,” said Loren Dickinson, one of the trails team’s current leaders. “She gets people to want to volunteer … and she has a lot of wonderful contacts. She’s a real ball of energy.”

Kittel also devotes some of that energy to View the Future, a local land conservancy that she joined in 2003, its founding year. Now co-chair of the nonprofit, she musters her personal and professional skills to help promote the group’s vision.

Having worked with Kittel and the group since 2017, board member Michael Hempen is impressed by her talent for collaboration and teamwork.

Her secret for getting people to work together? “Her background in trauma therapy,” Hempen says. “She understands the human condition. Joanne is an extraordinary woman. She has a high regard for integrity and transparency.”

He called the national parks award “a tremendous honor for her.”

Kittel says she is “very moved and honored” by the award, which will be conferred in Lake Tahoe Sept. 12-15. “I don’t stand alone. It’s a miracle how well so many people have worked together” to create the Amanda memorials.

Tribal trust and contributions

Always quick to credit others, Kittel is especially grateful for the help and cooperation of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, of which she’s an honorary member.

“It’s a miracle they all gave me the opportunity to earn their trust. None of this would have happened without the gracious contributions of the tribes.”

When she receives the President’s Award at a banquet and ceremony Sept. 15, Kittel won’t be garbed the way she’s almost always seen while working on Yachats trails with other volunteers.

“I won’t be wearing my usual jeans and work shoes,” she says, planning on going through her closet to find something more formal. Still, at heart “I’m a country bumpkin. They’ll just have to accept me the way I am.”

She plans to display the award in a prominent place in her home, next to a framed document designating her as an honorary tribal member of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw tribe.

No cash prize goes along with the parks directors’ award nor is there any travel compensation available from the national parks group for recipients. Kittel will drive to and from Lake Tahoe with her great grand-niece Cassie Genc of Eugene. And, she’ll spend her own funds for a two-night stay at the conference location, Bally’s Lake Tahoe.

Says the living face of Amanda, “It’s too big a deal for me to not go.”

• Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com