华工遗骨在波特兰的报道 Portlands Old Chinese Burial Grounds

张益池先生提供  黄安年的博客/2013年7月14日发布

近日在和侨居美国的张益池先生通信中,问及华工遗骨问题在波特兰被发现一事,今天收到他的回信，信中谈到:

美国的华工最早是筑路，但其后相当一部分进入矿山工作。我在Idaho时，曾和该州历史学会有过接触。美国每个州，都有历史协会，该机构不仅有图书馆，同时又收藏文物，有点像博物馆。Idaho的历史协会就收藏不少华工遗物。该地区的华工人数曾达整个人口的70%左右，具体来说就是三千多人，而当时白人才一千多。其时印第安人是不计入人口统计的。我看到过的华工遗物，有中药方。这说明当时有中医，也有中药。而且从药方来看，字迹秀丽工整，说明医生的文化程度还是不错的。当地地方报纸有许多有关华工的报道，实为宝贵史料。其他地方的历史协会也可以查到很有用的资料，特别是地方报纸。我发现过梁启超的新大陆游记所记行程，和地方报纸所载他的实际行程有出入。这说明因游记是结束旅行后，他根据回忆所写，因而有误。所以要花点功夫研究华工问题，不妨到一些地方的历史协会查阅地方报纸，必有收获，如洛士丙泠案件（Rock Spring），即华工被杀事件，怀俄明州地方报纸就有许多资料，但此类报纸，各大学图书馆通常并无收藏。只有各地历史协会才有。

老兄所说的波特兰地区的华工坟墓，过去全不知情。以往我住在波特兰郊区，类似大兴顺义之于北京。您说起后，才在网上查了一下，果然有此墓地。目前我住处，离开波特兰有点距离。当尽量设法了解情况。这里有个资料讲该公墓，发过来供您参考。

Portland s Old ChineseBurial Grounds

Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon

CHINESE BURIALS and BLOCK 14 Wetend to whitewash history, viewing the past as an era of innocence. Portlandwas no different from many places, formed by people eager to better theirlives, often at the expense of others. All the greed and cruelty in the worldtoday was around long before Portland wasborn.The building that once stood on the southwest corner of the cemetery wasbuilt in 1952 by Multnomah County. Prior to thattime, this was Block 14 of Lone Fir Cemetery.This section was set aside for Chinese immigrants, and referred to as the OldChinese Burial Ground. Chinese have been in Portland since 1850 and were integral in thebuilding of the city. They performed much of the most brutal work buildingrailroads, mining, and in Portland also built the seawall, the original sewersystem and chopped the stumps out of the roads after the ancient fir trees werecut. They chopped firewood and ran laundries and grew produce for the entiretown.
According to Chinese custom, immigrants were buried here for a short time, withtheir bones later dug up and returned to China, to be reunited with theirancestors. This went on for a time, until the County wanted the land for use asa maintenance yard for the highway department. In 1948, this block was excavatedwith a bulldozer. All remains found were packed off to China and thebuilding was built shortly thereafter.
In January of 2004, Multnomah County held a hearing,planning to sell the property as surplus, to the highest bidder, presumably fora high-rise condo/business establishment. Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery was able to notify communitymembers and packed the hearing room with 150 people. Over the course of thenext six months, information was gathered which indicated that intact burialsmight well exist beneath the asphalt here.
Records at the Oregon Historical Society and the Chinese ConsolidatedBenevolent Association (CCBA) showed that not all of the Chinese buried herewere meant to be returned to China, and had probably been left when theexcavation occurred in 1948. County Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffeycommissioned an archaeological investigation. Using ground-penetrating radarfor a preliminary test, several anomalies were identified. In January 2005, ateam of archaeologists found two intact burials. At this point, it became clearthat this land, still classified as a cemetery and a historical landmark, couldnot be sold for commercial development. The County recognized its civic duty toremove the building and repatriate it with the rest of Lone Fir Cemetery.
In 2007, the building was removed; the ground was leveled and returned tograss. Multnomah County and the City of Portland of Portland collaborated tocomplete the project and then deeded Block 14 over to Metro, which manages therest of Lone Fir Cemetery.
In 2008, the Block 14 Work Group comprised. Coordinated by Metro, the workgroup comprises representatives from Friends of Lone Fir, CCBA, BuckmanNeighborhood Association and other community groups. Lango Hansen LandscapeArchitects is leading efforts to create a memorial to honor the Chinese whohelped build Portland.With more than 130 of Dr. Hawthorne’s patients buried nearby, a memorial to theasylum patients who died without family, and were given a decent burial by thegood doctor, has also been designed. Creating an entrance to the cemetery thatreflects its original look and feel as well as an interpretive area that sharesthe history of Portland through a timeline of Lone Fir Cemetery, are also a partof the plans being considered. These enhancements to the cemetery will elevateits significance to Portland.Like many great cities around the world that encourage the community andvisitors from around the world to learn about its oldest cemeteries, Portland will do the samewith Lone Fir.

Founded in 2000, Friends of Lone Fir Cemeteryis an all volunteer, 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to education, preservationand restoration efforts for the cemetery. With its first burial dating back to1846, Lone Fir is the oldest cemetery in the Portland area and the largest of 14 pioneercemeteries managed by Metro regional government. Through fundraising events,monument repair workshops, clean up days and historic tours, Friends of LoneFir strives to raise dollars and awareness to overcome the inevitabledeterioration that many of America’soldest cemeteries face. Metro still coordinates burials nearly every week inthe cemetery, and Friends of Lone Fir seeks to honor the deceased and theirsurvivors through encouraging community involvement in this treasuredgreenspace. Lone Fir Cemeteryis on the National Register of Historic Places and was named one of the top 10cemeteries in the world to visit by NationalGeographic Traveler Magazine..

Come Together Home  

was selected to screen at both the Astoria International Film Festival and the Minneapolis / St. Paul Asian FilmFestival.

Discover the remains of earlyChinese immigrants, and their extraordinary final journey from Portlandto Hong Kong. Block 14 in Lone Fir Cemetery, the first Chinese burialground in Portland—and site of as many as 1,500 burials—now stands as a fencedoff void of gravel after most of the remains were exhumed and shipped back toChina in 1928 & 1949. Sixty years later, Director Ivy Lin follows thefootsteps of the missing 1949 shipment in an extraordinary journey from Portland to Hong Kong.
Film review from Aaron Mesh of Willamette Week, 07/21/2010:

"Portland documentarian Ivy Lin hasa patient, naturalistic eye for the boarded-over and fenced-off bits of thecity;s history; her camera is an unflashy reservoir of lost places. As in herfirst movie (Knowing All of You Like I Do, which chronicled the shuttering ofNorthwest 23rd Avenue's Music Millenium), she has a direct narrative to propelher along: The story of Chinese railroad workers buried at the edge of Lone FirCemetery, the removal of their bones when the Multnomah County decided to builda warehouse, the traditional (and desired) shipment of those remains back toChina, and the now-confirmed possibility that not every body was dug up whenthey were supposed to be. She gets strong assistance—and most of the hardreporting—from Brent Walth of the Oregonian, who is an excellent storyteller.Lin's eventual journey to Hong Kong doesn't quite get to where the bodies areburied, but the mystery slides smoothly into an understanding that when itcomes to honoring the dead, it's the thought—any thought—that counts. Her movieshould, at the very least, leave smug Portlanders a little uneasy about thecity's liberal inheritance."

Posted by Chinese Historical Society ofSouthern California at 8:23 AM

Labels: Come Together Home, Come Together Home Death. Disinternment. Reburial., Lone Fir Cemetery

《沉默的道钉--建设北美铁路的华工》（黄安年编著）中关于当年华工遗骨在波特兰郎花墓地被发现的叙述：

当年华工遗骨在波特兰郎花墓地被发现。150多年前那里是一片农场，一棵高大的枞树孤独地挺立着。当农场变成了墓园，枞树就成了墓园的标志。墓园的名称也由此而来——Long Fir’s Cemetery。从1891年到1928年，有1000多名华人劳工被埋葬在这里。当地地方志记载：当时，大部分华工从事着修建铁路或者挖金矿这样繁重的下层经济体力活。在波特兰用来安葬拓荒者的先驱的墓地，华工却被要求与他国人隔离安葬。墓区对所有的安葬者都有详细的登记，惟独没有华工的姓名，有的只是为统计人数需要而被加以标注的、一连串的“Chinaman”。

   （见黄安年编著《沉默的的道钉——建设北美铁路的华工》第102页，图125选自http://www.guxiang.com/haiwai/youzi/tianya/200504/200504060016.htm或http://news.china.com/zh_cn/international/hwhr/11027615/20050315/12170441.html，参见田涛：《寻找华人先民的遗骨》，《南方周末》2005年3月3日。朗花墓地是波特兰城内最早、最大的纪念墓园；有四任州长和六任市长安葬在这里；墓园内除了葬有美国本土的移民先民外，还有日本、俄国、爱尔兰、中国等国家的移民先民。2003年地方政府决定将的郎花墓地大楼和停车场作为商业用地拍卖，此举遭到郎花之友的强烈反对。中华会馆保存的中两本中文名册记载了从1891年－1928年埋葬在朗花墓地的华人，以及两次拣骨后返回故乡的亡灵，人们相信朗花坟场的大楼或停车场下很可能还残留有华人的遗骸。协商决定于2005年1月11日开工挖掘查实是否存在遗骨。政府行政官员道歉说：“过去的历史曾经给华人带来了伤害，是一个错误。今天我们的责任就是，用最高度诚意的关心和敬意尊重华人，尊重亚裔社团的意见，纠正所发生的错误。”1月19日继续开挖，在大楼前的空地位置，4英尺深的土层里，历史终于显露出了它真实的一面：棕红色的已经化成粉状的线条清晰地勾勒出棺木的形状，长度和宽度的比例都不大，上面有一些白色的粉末。考古专家推测棕红色的粉末可能是腐朽的棺木木屑，白色的粉末是原来棺木两边的金属把手。轻轻拨开白色粉末，立即看到已经变成褐色的排成一列的两截骨头。考古专家怀疑它们是孩子的手臂骨──前臂和后臂两截。在场的中国人亲眼见证了历史，那些与自己同出一源的先民的遗骨，被深埋在地下，没有亲人来探视，没有纪念的墓碑，他们差一点就被历史遗忘，现在是到了应该为他们想想的时候了。）