2007 Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award
Finalist: Alfred (Bud) Lane III
Alfred (Bud) Lane III (Photo by Alfred Lane)
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"Knowledge allows us to see further."
—Bud Lane
Alfred (Bud) Lane III is an honored 2007 Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award finalist for his tireless efforts to restore, teach and promote understanding of Siletz tribal culture. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians were detrimentally impacted by a war for their homeland, the removal policies of the 1800s and termination policies of the last century. For many years, Lane and his family have focused on strengthening Siletz cultural activities through basket making, teaching the Athabaskan language and helping build the Siletz Dance House and restore its ceremonial activities. He and his family are all enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.
In 2003, the Siletz Tribal Council recruited Lane to fill a newly created position, Language and Traditional Arts Instructor. This enabled Lane to leave his union job at a local paper mill and devote all of his energy to teaching the Siletz culture. In this position, he focuses much of his time on language instruction, but also teaches basket weaving, regalia-making, and traditional foods gathering and preparation.
Lane has studied the Athabaskan language with the tribal elders for nearly thirty years and is now one of the tribe's most fluent speakers. He teaches community classes and helps with elementary, middle and high school classes at the Siletz Charter School. Lane has also produced language CDs, DVDs and an Athabaskan dictionary.
Lane's basketry work is featured in collections of the Hallie Ford Museum and University of Oregon. He has served as a master artist with the Oregon Historical Society's Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Lane is a member of Willamette University's Native American Advisory Council. In 2008, the Hallie Ford Museum will host The Art of Ceremony: Regalia of Native Oregon and Lane is providing guidance and assistance to the curator of this exhibit.
Since 2005, Lane has served on the Board of Directors of the Northwest Native American Basket Weavers Association. He hosted a group of Maori weavers when they visited Oregon and then traveled to New Zealand in 2005 and 2007 as part of a cultural exchange. Lane also demonstrated Siletz weaving at the Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions exhibition at the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Lane is currently Vice-Chairman of the Siletz Tribal Council. He has served on the Tribal Council since 2004 and previously served from 1984 to 1990. In this capacity, he oversees tribal business, legal, financial and social matters and represents the tribe on a regional and national level.
Because his father was in the military, Lane grew up away from the Reservation, but returned to Siletz, Oregon in 1975. After graduating high school, he went to work as logger for thirteen years and then worked for fifteen years at the Georgia Pacific Corporation Pulp and Paper Division. Lane and his wife Cheryl still live in Siletz, Oregon. They have two children and one grandchild.
