A 'First' for Native American History

 

(National Register Nomination Form)

The next Portland residence to be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places is unlike any other landmark in town.

It is not in an upscale neighborhood.

It is not grandiose.

It does not have an architectural pedigree.

It was not the home of a wealthy white person.

The modest 1930s shingle-sided house in the 10800 block of Northeast Fremont Street was the childhood home of jazz saxophonist Jim Pepper and the site of continuing inspiration while he was earning musical notoriety by blending Native American rhythm into jazz fusion. 

 The Pepper house is the first property in Portland to seek placement on the National Register because of its significance with Native American ethnic heritage and performing arts.

 Pepper’s parents, Floy and Gilbert Pepper, who came to Portland shortly before World War II, were descendants of Kaw and Muscogee Creek Native American tribes of Oklahoma.  Because of ethnic prejudices of the era, Floy and Gilbert Pepper experienced racism that affected their opportunities for employment, housing and credit in Portland. Jim Pepper was born in 1941, and after the outbreak of the war the family moved to Vanport, but lost everything in the 1948 flood.

 The family bought the home on Northeast Fremont in 1941, which at that time was outside the Portland city limits.  Jim attended Parkrose High School but transferred to Madison High School after becoming a target of bullying at Parkrose. He already was performing as a Native dancer and musician before his graduation from Madison in 1959.

Pepper played in several Portland jazz clubs with many of the city’s leading jazz artists in subsequent years.  After 1972, he lived in San Francisco and New York, and spent many years playing in Europe.  He said European audiences were more welcoming of evolving musical styles than in America, where  music was more dominated by the pop music industry. 

His influential album, “Pepper’s Pow Wow,” was recorded in New York, but Jim Pepper wrote many of the tunes on it with his father at their Portland residence, which he often visited.  The album contains perhaps his most famous song, “Wi Chi Tai To,’ which is heavily based on native rhythm of a Comanche peyote song, which Pepper said he remembered hearing at age 3.

Album's back cover

 The “Pepper’s Pow Wow” has been described by one scholar as “something of a musical ‘bible’ for Native artists."  Pepper’s performance of Wi Chi Tai To, a lengthy chant and song, can be seen here, as performed by Pepper in 1980:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiFU85j0mO4

 The National Register nomination includes a detailed history of Pepper’s musical career, written by Architectural Resources Group historians. Some of Pepper’s original musical notes and his saxophone have been donated to the Smithsonian Institution.  Pepper died of cancer in 1999.

As for the Pepper house on Fremont Street, “No other place is as closely or consistently associated with his development as a musician or with his productive period as an artist,” the nomination states.

The nomination will be reviewed by the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission on Jan. 23.  If positive recommendations come from the landmarks commission and the the Oregon State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation, the nomination would head to the National Park Service for final review. 

 ----Fred Leeson

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