Thank you for your interest in reading The Astorian. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

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One photograph shows a mother and her 6-year-old daughter as they harvest nettles to cook and make tea with.

In another, set against a red gallery wall backdrop at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, a woman leads a group of dancers in traditional regalia.

They’re doing a welcome dance, explained Tony Johnson, chairman of the Chinook Indian Nation, during an opening reception Thursday at the Astoria museum for “ntsayka ilíi ukuk: This is Our Place,” the new exhibit both images belong to. Johnson led tribal members in drumming and singing the accompanying “Willapa Bay Welcome Song.”

Johnson spoke to the significance of the exhibit, which includes more than 20 photographs by Amiran White, who has been documenting the Chinook for more than eight years.

“They wanted us to leave our country. That was the, quote, negotiation, was ‘you will sign this document and leave your land.’ Well, ntsayka ilíi ukuk, ntsayka ilíi ukuk, this is our place,” Johnson said. “The treaties we negotiated kept us right here.”

See the story by Lissa Brewer by clicking here.

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Seaside will relocate the homeless encampment to a space behind the public works building in an effort to mitigate the effects campers have had on residents and businesses.

The homeless encampment, on Avenue S by the city’s recycling center, has been a source of contention since it was moved there in 2023 after concerns about flooding at the former Mill Ponds site.

Mill Ponds was designated as a centralized site for a homeless encampment in 2022 following federal court rulings that held that homeless people had the right to camp on public property if there were not adequate shelter beds available.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that standard, ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson that the enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. The state Legislature will likely weigh the issue in next year’s session, but many cities are struggling to strike a balance.

People who live and work near the Avenue S homeless encampment have repeatedly voiced their exasperation at City Council meetings, describing sanitation issues, increased levels of crime and loss of revenue for their businesses.

At a City Council meeting Monday night, city councilors opted for the site in the southwest corner of the public works yard near Avenue V over the other potential location on Alder Mill Avenue.

“I will say, when it was first proposed to our staff of locating it behind public works, they had the same reaction as the other neighbors,” City Manager Spencer Kyle said. “We all understood, though, that we can’t ask anyone else to do something that we are also not willing to do.”

Read the story by Jasmine Lewin clicking here.

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Three Seaside residents took on an artistic challenge over the past few weeks by transforming a sewer pump into a lighthouse, using a little paint and a lot of imagination.

Laura Jacobson, an artist, partnered with her husband, Dean, and friend and neighbor Rhonda Elston to create the S. Downing Street attraction, intending to inspire a positive difference in the neighborhood.

The residents, who are relatively new to the area, grew close when Jacobson hosted a private painting class, with Elston attending as a student. As they walked outside afterward, Elston remarked on the noisiness and unsightliness of the sewer pump, which is located in front of her house.

“She said, ‘What can we do with this?’ and just threw the question out there,” Jacobson said. “So we started thinking about it.”

They went through several ideas before deciding on turning the pump into a lighthouse, emblematic of the community’s love for the ocean.

Take a look at the story by Jasmine Lewin by clicking here.

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— Derrick DePledge