Imagine plucking history out of the archives and bringing it back to life.
That’s what Karen Rainsong gets to do every day.
Rainsong is the founder and executive director of Singing Creek Education Center, a nonprofit that offers educational programs for kids and adults that focus on local Indigenous cultures.
From basket weaving workshops to spring and summer history camps, “living history is more than just reading it in a book or watching a movie. You’re immersed in it physically. You’re around the objects and scenes and people dressed in old-fashioned clothing. You feel like it’s come to life in front of you, more like you’re stepping into a play,” Rainsong said. “It is bringing history to life.”
Singing Creek educators travel to schools, parks, and libraries to engage children and adults and collaborate with local culture bearers like Dietrich Peters, a Harrisburg-based Grand Ronde tribe member who teaches through storytelling, flute playing, and crafts, and Stephanie Craig, a Kalapuya basket weaver who gives demonstrations.
Rainsong said that popular program themes include the spring break camp focused on monarch butterflies, and summer camps like the Opal Whiteley nature fairy camp, a pioneer homesteading camp, and an Earth Ways Indigenous camp, as well as special programs for Guatemalan immigrant families in Cottage Grove.
Rainsong said hearing from students and teachers reinforces that these programs are making a difference.
“I remember a couple years ago, there was a Native American boy who said, when he did that (throwing an atlatl), ‘I feel like I’ve come alive for the first time.’ That was really meaningful,” Rainsong said.
She also recalls a response from an immigrant boy in Cottage Grove.
“Two years ago, a boy had just come from Guatemala. He didn’t even speak English yet, but he got enrolled in the summer camp. He said all they had was paper and pencils where he went to school. They didn’t have things like colored pencils or markers or any of the art supplies we had. This was his first time seeing these things … we get stories like that all the time. You never know who you’re gonna reach and how it’s gonna affect people.”
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Nineteen years ago, Rainsong found a way to merge her love for history with her passion for education.
“I’ve always been a teacher working with kids. Before this, I was an art teacher. … I got a job at Dorris Ranch (in Springfield), where they were doing living history programs for kids. And I was like, ‘What’s living history? I don’t know. Let’s figure this out!’ I fell in love with it and ended up leading that program.”
From there, Rainsong accrued staff and developed programs, traveling all over the state to learn more.
“And then I just — it was just right,” she said. “You know when something just feels right, it feels like what you’re supposed to do?”
From there, she established the Singing Creek Education Center on the 25-acre Alvord Farm and Museum farm in west Eugene. It then moved to the 250-acre Hunton family of Camas Country Mill farm in Junction City and, most recently, the historic Snapp House in Cottage Grove before going fully mobile a couple of years ago.
Rainsong said mobility adds flexibility and helps keep costs low, though she envisions having “our own wonderful place with some land around it” one day.
And maybe a creek that runs through it.
The name “Singing Creek” was inspired by the book, “The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow,” by Opal Whiteley, a lauded Cottage Grove historical figure.
“Opal Whiteley was a little famous girl who lived in Cottage Grove around 1900. You know about her statue in the library and the mural of her up in the town square? I adore her,” Rainsong said.
Born on Dec. 11, 1897, Whitley gained international fame for publishing her childhood diary for the meditations and nature observations recorded within.
“When I first read her work, I was really touched because I’ve always loved nature as a child, too. I just felt a kinship with Opal,” Rainsong said.
She appreciated Whiteley’s unique way of experiencing and describing the word, which Rainsong said might have been related to what we now understand as neurodivergence, though that diagnosis did not exist during Whiteley’s lifetime. “I feel like we’re friends in our hearts. She’s such a special person,” Rainsong said.
Through her work with SCEC, Rainsong’s driving forces for these programs are the myriad benefits for children: reducing screen time, experiencing hands-on activities (like washing clothes on a washboard), learning to care for and respect nature, and developing cultural literacy and appreciation and understanding of history from multiple perspectives—not just a white settler narrative.
“For so long, history has been taught in schools from a white person’s perspective – really glorifying white pioneer settlers, and if natives are mentioned at all, it’s really old-fashioned terms and often not portrayed in a very good light,” Rainsong said. “We’re trying to correct some of those stereotypes and assumptions and really bring forward not only the Native culture of the past but what Native people are doing today and how they are still here.”
When discussing her own role in teaching Indigenous history, she’s transparent that “I’m a white woman teaching about Indigenous culture.” She said she begins all of her cultural presentations by stating, “Though I’m not native myself, I’ve been learning about and from Native people for 20 years, and I have permission to share all this information with you right now. ” She said she vets all the programs with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
Rainsong said Singing Creek is committed to presenting a more inclusive, accurate, and respectful historical narrative centered around Indigenous perspectives and experiences. It has a board of directors, a paid staff, and numerous volunteers who help with programs and events. The organization has since expanded to include programs for adults with developmental disabilities. The board also recently welcomed Native American member Richard Vasquez.
Concerned about potentially not receiving federal funding this year, Rainsong said, “We just gotta keep on doing what we’re doing because we know it’s good work, and kids need us to keep going. Kids need these wonderful programs, so we’ll make it happen one way or another.”
Learn more at SingingCreekCenter.org.
