History of the Natural Way
The Natural Way Program began in 1996 when Thomas Banyaca, Hopi elder, encouraged Akimel O’odham elder Rod McAfee and his wife Linda Neale to invite native elders to speak to their community. Originally held in their home, it quickly outgrew that venue and moved first to a church in Lake Oswego, then to Portland State University’s multicultural center.
The Natural Way series fills an important niche in our community, and has enabled elders like Sylvia Walalatum, Phil Lane, Jr., Vi Hilbert, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Harold Belmont, Agnes Pilgrim, Jake Swamp, and Ofelia Zepeda, to name but a few, to share their stories with a broad cross-section of the Northwest population. For a more complete list of presenters, click here.
Because many elders are dying without the opportunity to pass on their teachings to future generations, The Natural Way program has archived many presentations in audio, and more recently, video format and has begun to make these available to a world-wide audience through its internet Wisdom Education (i-WE) project. To Learn more, click here.