Yakama couple to teach twine making

TOPPENISH — A Yakama couple will teach how to make twine from natural plants, thanks to a $5,000 grant from the Ford Foundation.

Tribal members Martha and Christopher Paul will head the workshop on dogbane-cordage making, a twine commonly used in basket weaving.

The workshop will be recorded and used to continue the teaching, said Lavina Wilkins, who heads the Yakama Nation Language Program and wrote the grant.

“These two are a young couple who learned from their elders from the Wanapum tribe,” she said.

The workshop has yet to be scheduled, but Wilkins suspects it will be held sometime before the end of the year.

She said many native plants have disappeared, and that the workshop will help raise awareness of preserving the plants that are still here and passing along their use to younger generations.

Dogbane cordage is a natural plant with a red stalk but a yellowish color on top, and now mostly found in fields and near ditches, she said.

“It’s this old weed you see growing around right now in the fall,” she added.

Twine is pulled from the tall plant once it’s dried.

“There’s a process to get the string, and it takes a long time,” she said.

-- Phil Ferolito

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