OHS Research Library, org. lot 667, folder 3 Oregon Roma (Gypsies)

A Hidden History

CAROL SILVERMAN

SINCE THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, generations of Roma have made homes and built communities in Oregon. Portland’s Rose City Cemetery has one of the largest collections of Romani graves in the United States, evidence of the community’s vitality. Still, most Oregonians either know nothing about the Romani people or know them only through “gypsy” stereotypes based on romanticism or criminality. Despite continuous discrimination and racial profiling, Oregon Roma have shown a remarkable ability to conserve their language and culture and have even experimented with several novel forms of institutional education. This article demonstrates that continuity and innovation through an exploration of the historical tra- jectory of Roma in Oregon to the present, focusing on work, residential patterns, family and ritual life, religion, gender, education, legal status, and interethnic relations. Oregon Roma squarely illustrate the shared history of American Roma in terms of culture, marginality, and adaptation, while the local forms of exclu- ROMA GATHER in Portland, Oregon, on May 4, 1955, for a three-day celebration in honor of the St. George slava (saint’s day) and a new Gypsy “king,” Steve Ephrem. sion they have faced also specifically articulate Oregon’s history. Historians have demonstrated that Oregon lawmakers and enforcers have enacted restrictions and exclusions on Indigenous peoples as well as non-Europeans, such as African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos, while at the same a strong negative connotation. In English, for example, “to gyp” means “to time welcoming Euro-American and European immigrants, including Jews.1 swindle.” Many Oregonians, and many Americans, today do not know that Roma are an exception to this welcoming pattern. Although Roma emigrated Gypsy refers to a specific ethnic group but rather believe the term refers from Europe, many Oregonians treated them not as White, European “insid- to a chosen lifestyle associated with creativity, musicality, freedom, and ers” but rather as racialized and othered “outsiders.” Newspapers, political nomadism.2 These two stereotypes — positive and negative — are often leaders, and police viewed and depicted them as criminal nomads. A combi- paired. Here, I use Roma as an umbrella ethnonym (singular Rom, adjective nation of three negative concepts — race, nomadism, and criminality — has Romani) because it emerged as a unifying, mobilizing term during the past defined Roma for Oregonians even until today. four decades. Approximately one million Roma live in the United States, Those outside the community often refer to Roma as Gypsies, and some hailing from diverse Romani sub-groups.3 Kalderash and Machwaya, from Romani speakers of English have claimed that term for their use as well. eastern Europe, are the largest sub-groups in the United States and also in Gypsy connotes Egyptian origins, which are false for Roma, and usually has Oregon, where they number several thousand.4

518 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 © 2017 Oregon Historical Society Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 519 OHS Research Library, neg. no. 070855 I have been doing advocacy work with Oregon Roma for over two decades, have been involved in several court cases, and have served as a consultant regarding Roma for three Oregon hospitals. In addition, I did fieldwork in the 1970s with Kalderash and Machwaya in New York City, and I have worked with many other sub-groups of Roma in Europe for three decades.5 Written historical sources on Roma are scarce, but I have found records in archives of the Oregonian and several other newspapers, as well as in several unpublished theses and reports.6 Photographs archived at the Oregon Historical Society, the Alfred Monner photography collection at the Portland Art Museum, and in private family collections have proved valuable sources.7 Classic works on American Roma and ethnohistorical information obtained from Romani families by other scholars have been useful as well.8

MIGRATION: INDIA TO EUROPE TO OREGON

Linguistic evidence reveals that Roma are originally from India and that they migrated westward, reaching Europe in approximately 1300 AD. Romani, which Kalderash and Machwaya in Oregon still speak as their first language, is descended from Indo-Aryan.9 Roma migrated throughout eastern Europe by the fourteenth century and western Europe by the fifteenth century, some ROMANI WOMEN pose in an undated photograph, approximately early twentieth century. Roma settling and others following a nomadic way of life. Roma have been indispens- originated from India, migrating west toward Europe during the twelfth century. able suppliers of diverse services to non-Roma, offering music, entertainment, fortune-telling, metal working, horse dealing, wood working, sieve making, basket weaving, comb making, and seasonal agricultural work. Making a living from many of these trades required nomadism or seasonal travel.10 European peoples and rulers’ initial curiosity about Roma quickly gave and sexuality. Ken Lee explains the standing of Roma by extending Edward way to hatred and discrimination, a legacy that has continued until today. Said’s concepts of Orientalism: “Whilst Orientalism is the discursive construc- Despite their small numbers, Roma inspired fear and mistrust; virtually every tion of the exotic Other outside Europe, Gypsylorism is the construction of the western European territory has expelled them. Authorities paid bounties for exotic Other within Europe — Romanies are the Orientals within.” Roma are their capture, dead or alive. Additional repressive measures included con- both orientalized and exoticized.12 Katie Trumpener emphasizes the associa- fiscation of property and children, forced labor, prison sentences, whipping, tion of Roma with an ahistoric, timeless nostalgia: “Nomadic and illiterate, they branding, and other forms of physical mutilation. In the eighteenth century, wander down an endless road, without a social contract or country to bind the Austro-Hungarian Empire attempted assimilation by forcibly removing them, carrying their home with them, crossing borders at will.”13 Simultaneously, Roma children from their parents and by outlawing nomadism, traditional they are reviled as unreformable, untrustworthy liars, and they are rejected occupations, and Romani language, music, and dress. Similar assimilationist from civilization. For centuries, Roma have served as Europe’s quintessential legislation was enacted in Spain after 1499.11 other; the double-edged stereotype continues to today. The mixed coding of Romani otherness — as criminals and romantic figures In Romania, Roma were enslaved from the fourteenth to the nineteenth — hinges on their depiction by non-Roma as free souls who are outside the centuries. As bonded serfs owned by noblemen, monasteries, and the rules and boundaries of European society, on their association with the arts state, they were sold, bartered, and flogged; even their occupations and and especially music and the occult, and on their perceived proximity to nature marriages were strictly regulated.14 Slavery was abolished in 1856, and freed

520 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 521 North, such as in a New England newspaper editorial stating that Johnson did not believe “in compounding our race with niggers, gipsies and baboons, neither do we . . . [or] our whole Democratic people.”17 The largest numbers of Roma arrived between 1880 and 1920 as part of the second wave of migration from eastern Europe. They settled in cities all along the East Coast. By the 1930s, Roma were migrating west in large numbers to take advantage of warmer climates, the relative freedom found in less populated regions, and new markets for their occupational niches.

OHS Research Library, neg. no. 003923 neg. no. Library, OHS Research Oregon was an especially attractive destination because of its mild weather, wide expanse of land, and untapped customer markets for Romani trades such as metalcraft. Unlike the Chinese, Japanese, and African Americans who migrated to Oregon to seek work in mines, on railroads, and in agriculture, and as domestics, Roma worked only in their family settings and specialized in service trades such as metalwork, horse sales and doctoring, car sales and repair, carnival ride repair, and fortune telling.18

EARLY OREGON HISTORY

The earliest documentation of Roma in Oregon appears in several 1893 news- paper articles, in which journalists accused Roma of kidnapping a young girl. A ROMANI WOMAN cooks over an open flame at a camp in1916 , possibly in the Guilds Lake area of Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian reported that “Gypsies” had been coming to the Northwest for two years. “They are divided into small gangs in the summer and in the winter unite and usually camp in the hills near Chehalis, Wash.”19 The article accuses them of stealing animals as well as the girl, thus doubling the thief stereotype. A close reading of the Athena Press article (reprinted from the Spokane Review) reveals several prevalent themes: Roma then migrated from southern Romania to neighboring countries, to western Europe, and to North and South America. Many Oregon Roma are The Lost Little Alma descendants of those slaves. J.W. Miller. Of Summerville OR, father of the little girl who was stolen from her According to Ian Hancock, “discrimination against Romanies (Gypsies) in home by gipsies [sic.] last fall and traced as far as Moscow, Idaho is in Spokane America dates from colonial times; three were with Columbus. . . . Romanies on the hunt after the child. . . . About that time a band of gypsies with four or were shipped as slaves to Virginia, Jamaica and Barbados from England five wagons did pass east of Spokane and were overhauled, but no trace of 15 and Scotland and to Louisiana from France and Spain.” Hancock posits the little girl was discovered. It was thought that the abductors had probably that anti-Gypsy sentiment was bolstered by discrimination against Blacks gone northward to the British line and had transferred their precious capture after slavery was abolished and that discrimination continued during the to some other tribe. . . . It is certain, however, that the girl was taken by these Reconstruction era. In the nineteenth century, non-Roma referred to Roma roving nomads. . . . The kidnapping proclivities of gypsies are historical, and it as “colored.” President Andrew Johnson, when vetoing the 1866 Civil Rights is also known that the booty stolen by one band is transferred at regular gipsy Bill, said: “This provision comprehends the Chinese of the Pacific States, [sic] depots to other tribes and pass along from one band to the other until Indians subject to taxation, the people called gypsies, as well as the entire it is safely beyond the reach of detection. This may be the mode that these race designated as blacks, people of color, negroes, mulattoes, and persons wanderers have of getting rid of their live plunder when they see fit to resort of African blood.”16 Racist views supporting the veto were published in the to child stealing.20

522 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 523 In quick succession, readers are presented with a series of impressions in the state. . . . Oregon itself didn’t ratify the 14th Amendment — the Equal Pro- cloaked as “facts”: “the kidnapping proclivities of gypsies are historical”; they tection Clause — until 1973. . . . It didn’t ratify the 15th Amendment, which gave transfer their “booty” or “live plunder” to other “tribes” or “bands” at “regular black people the right to vote, until 1959. . . . This history resulted in a very white gipsy depots”; and they are masters of deception. In other paragraphs of state. . . . The rise of the Ku Klux Klan made Oregon even more inhospitable this article, the seven-year-old is described as “slender, small for her age,” for black people. The state had the highest per capita Klan membership in the and her father as “broken down. . . . The tears rolled down his cheeks and country. . . . Democrat Walter M. Pierce was elected to the governorship of the he sobbed audibly.” There are clearly two sides here — innocent vs. guilty state in 1922 with the vocal support of the Klan.26 — and all gypsies, the article implies, are guilty by their very nature. Note Facing such hostility, only a small population of African Americans lived in that the article presents no evidence for the assumed abduction. In the Oregon before World War II, when large numbers arrived to take part in work early-twentieth-century media, Roma were regularly accused of child theft, related to the war. despite their small numbers and the lack of evidence. Parents warning their Like African Americans, some Roma were lured to Oregon in the 1940s children would often threaten: “The Gypsies will steal you if you misbehave.”21 by jobs building war vessels in the Kaiser shipyards near Portland.27 Both Early-twentieth-century Oregon newspaper articles reveal a preoccupa- groups, however, were barred from unions and from skilled jobs, many tion with ridding the state of Roma, whom the writers racialized as dangerous of which were advertised as “white only.”28 According to Darrell Millner, others. A 1916 article, for example, reported that sheriffs guarded150 gypsies professor emeritus of Black Studies at Portland State University, “After who were near Roseburg on their way to a reunion, even though no illegal the war, blacks were encouraged to leave Oregon . . . with the mayor of activity was witnessed. “No trace of a white child was found when the officers Portland commenting in a newspaper article that black people were not searched their camp tonight. It was reported . . . that a child resembling a welcome.”29 In December 1944 — in the middle of a severe winter and missing Newport lad was with the gypsies. The gypsies were refused admis- when their labor was no longer necessary — the city forcibly removed sion to Roseburg today and will be sent north tomorrow.”22 A 1906 article Roma. Portland mayor Earl Riley (one of the most corrupt mayors in the chronicles the efforts of a Portland Union Station depot policeman to remove city’s history) issued one-way gas rations to dozens of families, half the Roma: “The police allege that the gypsies have such a penchant for steal- Roma population of the city. The Oregonian stated: “We are right proud ing everything that is not nailed down that it is necessary to ‘keep an eye of our mayor. Some people will say the gypsies are colorful . . . but after a on them’.”23 The Ashland Daily Tidings in 1916 wrote: “True to their inborn while any town will reach the end of its patience. . . . For a gypsy is always instincts, the horde of gypsies which passed through Ashland last Sunday a gypsy, and a gypsy is ever a problem. To municipal authorities gypsies failed to get out of the country without committing a serious depredation.”24 are not less than a protracted headache.”30 Racialization is evident here when the journalist implies that “committing a serious depredation” is somehow “true to their inborn instincts.” WORK, TRAVEL, AND RESIDENCE The racist underpinnings of Oregon Romani history can fruitfully be compared with the state’s Asian American and African American histories. When Kalderash migrated to the United States, they maintained a semi- Chinese Oregonians suffered brutal discrimination as a result of various acts nomadic way of life, moving seasonally in the vast American landscape during the Exclusion Era, from 1882 to 1943.25 A quick overview illustrates for work as “service nomads.”31 They often set up tents during the summer Oregon’s long-term exclusion of African Americans: months and rented cheap apartments during the winter. In Oregon, men worked in metalwork (such as copper and brass plating and forging, and When the state entered the union in 1859 . . . Oregon explicitly forbade black people from living in its borders, the only state to do so. . . . In 1844, the provisional sheet-metal work) and in fashioning and repairing kitchen pots, hardware government of the territory passed a law banning slavery, and at the same time for looms, and horse gear. Until the 1920s, when stainless steel came onto required any African American in Oregon leave the territory. Any black person the market, kitchen pots, pans, and utensils in both restaurants and homes remaining would be flogged publicly every six months until he left. Five years had to be re-plated; this was a Romani skill, sometimes a monopoly. Roma later, another law was passed that forbade free African Americans from enter- transported mobile forges along regular circuits, first by horse and cart and ing into Oregon. . . . In 1857, Oregon adopted a state constitution that banned then in cars and trailers. Young boys learned the craft from their elders by black people from coming to the state, residing in the state, or holding property observing and practicing in an apprenticeship.32

524 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 525 to patronize approved shops for body work, which dramatically curtailed business for Roma.33 Although Roma travel decreased during the mid twentieth century, it remained part of the ethos of Romani life, serving economic functions as well as promoting spiritual health. Travel was also a mechanism to solve conflict. One elder member of the large, extended Ellis family narrated how “getting on the road” was beneficial “for health and business — to feel better, to get more contacts.”34 Men regularly traveled from Oregon to southern California and Nevada to buy cheap used cars that they resold at a profit in Oregon, OHS Research Library, org. lot 667, folder 6 Library, OHS Research sometimes bringing along their large extended families. During the 1940s and 1950s, American Roma began to spend more time in cities, including Portland. As they began to rent apartments for longer periods of time in the downtown areas of northwest and southwest Portland, they also used those locations as fortune-telling parlors.35 Many Romani families have narrated stories of harassment while living in downtown store- fronts. A 1957 archival photograph documents one such residence with the label: “store building at 1331 Southwest First Avenue serving as a home for a family of Portland Gypsies. Many Gypsies in the Portland area resorted to living in such buildings.”36 Romani families targeted streets where there was considerable foot traffic to attract customers. The fortune-telling par- lor was located in the front, and the family lived in the rear, reflecting the desire to keep work within the family. Housing regulations often prohibited A STORE BUILDING at 1331 Southwest First Avenue in Portland, Oregon, served as a home for these living arrangements, and families were fined and evicted. Matt Salo a family of Portland Roma. Many Roma in the Portland area resorted to living in such buildings. documents similar widespread harassment, surveillance, and searches by This photograph was taken on August 22, 1957. police of Romani fortune-telling establishments in the 1970s in other United States locations.37 Similarly, Hancock lists many state and city residential and licensing laws specifically against Roma.38 Legal disputes over downtown residences located in storefronts were During the 1930 into the 1950s, Roma transferred their metalwork skills numerous. A 1966 Oregonian editorial, for example, stated: “Some years to the emerging car market. This was especially important in the American ago the City of Portland sought to halt the endless complaints about Gypsy West, with its wide expanses and lack of public transportation. Roma in activities by enforcing its housing ordinances and evicting the occupants of Europe had also been trained in the horse trade, and they used this sales storefront dwellings. But the Gypsies who are smart enough to pay generous acumen in the expanding car transportation trade in the United States. Men rentals, and on time, found the building owners made powerful legal allies.”39 became experts in both car body and fender repair and in selling used and Simultaneously, the editorial denigrates Gypsies for their “activities” and also new cars and trailers. The Ephrem family’s male elders had several car lots for paying their rent on time. The editorial also claims Roma are “unmindful of in Portland in 1950s; in the 1970s, one brother moved his residence and lot decrees emanating from officialdom” and warns “gullible male pedestrians to Eugene, where his sons and grandsons still deal in recreational vehicle who . . . eventually should learn that the thing to do when walking past a Gypsy sales today. Until the 1980s, bodywork was usually solicited face to face by establishment is to keep on walking.”40 Note that deception related to Roma Roma approaching owners of damaged cars in parking lots. The work was work — implicitly including fortune telling, the main occupation in storefronts done on site or at the home of Roma, and there was no need to rent a shop — is assumed. In 1962, the Oregonian reported on “The mayor’s committee site. During the 1980s, insurance companies began requiring customers on the Gypsy problem,” which had been formed in response to “numerous

526 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 527 land Art Museum, Portland, Oregon. Gift of the Artist, 91.77.2. Alfred A. Monner, Gypsy Home of Ruby Ristick , ca. 1955, gelatin silver print 7 9/16 in x 9 in. Port - During the 1960s and 1970s, Roma began to buy homes and move from downtown to outlying Portland neighborhoods, where they also established car sales lots. A 1967 article reports that five hundred Roma lived in the Southeast Eighty-Second Avenue neighborhood, and several Romani car lots are still in that area today.44 They also continued to live on the west side of downtown until they were forced out during the 1970s by high rents and by citations for violating city residential codes.45 In addition to work related to cars, other Romani males’ occupational niches in Oregon included occasional seasonal agricultural work (such as picking fruit), middleman peddling (such as selling Christmas lights from parking lots), construction trades (such as black-topping, roofing, plastering, and painting), and repairing stoves, furnaces, boilers, shopping carts, and carnival rides. Working the summer carnival circuit, many Romani families owned and repaired rides, and operated rides, animal shows, photography seum, Portland, Oregon. Gift of the Artist, 94.58.11. Alfred A. Monner, Ristick Family Party , 1958, gelatin silver print, 7 5/8 in x 9 9/16 in. Portland- Art Mu

RUBY RISTICK’S HOME and family are pictured here in Portland, Oregon, in about 1955. Ristick family members were leaders in the Romani community.

complaints regarding Gypsy families living in store buildings in the downtown area and ‘preying on’ passersby.”41 The mayor’s committee recommended that they move out of the area. Gradually, they did move, due to continual citations. This pattern of residential displacement has clear parallels with the experiences of African Americans in Portland. As the population of African Americans increased in the 1940s, housing available to them was mostly in the wartime development of Vanport. After the war, when their labor was no longer needed, “the Housing Authority . . . mulled the dismantling of Vanport,” but the flood of 1948 did it for them.42 Many African Americans then moved to the Albina neighborhood, which “was identified by the city’s finan- cial and political power structure as a target area for black resettlement.”43 After several displacements for development, the area has recently become gentrified, forcing Blacks to the suburbs. It is clear that the residences of THE RISTICK FAMILY poses for a photograph in 1958 at a family saint’s day celebration in people of color in Portland have been subject to economic and social control. Portland, Oregon.

528 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 529 Museum, Portland, Oregon. Gift of the Artist, 91.77.3. Alfred A. Monner, Gypsy Fortune Tellers, ca. 1955, gelatin silver print, 9 3/8 in x 7 1/2 in.Portland Art booths, and most notably fortune-telling booths. In the 1970s, public assis- the telephone company tance, or welfare, became an important source of income for Kalderash; because there are lots of many Oregon families applied and were approved.46 people. . . . in line.” Kali Romani occupations in Oregon required adaptation and flexibility in also used her skill to bar- response to changing markets and legal constraints. These characteristics ter for reduced prices on are emphasized in the literature about Kalderash throughout the United goods: “This carpet wasn’t States.47 While they alternated between nomadism and sedentarism, as too expensive because, required by work situations, one constant preference in Kalderash traditional when we went to the occupations is a basis in family enterprises. Family, however, is large and factory to get it, I told a extended; kin includes everyone in a person’s vitsa (relatives who descend couple of fortunes to the from a real or mythical ancestor). salesladies in the waiting Soon after Kalderash migrated to America, fortune-telling became the room and so they knocked quintessential female occupation. It remained the main source of family off $100 here and there.”55 income until the 1980s, when many Roma converted to Evangelical Chris- Many women stressed tianity. Fortune-telling struck a resonant chord with non-Romani clients of to me that fortune telling varied backgrounds. In addition to street walk-ins, women often had steady rarely means merely pre- customers who patronized them for years, even over long distances via dicting the future. Rather, telephone and letters. Males worked much less regularly than females, and it encompasses character women therefore were expected to provide most of the family income.48 readings, spiritual advice, At a young age, girls learned the trade by observation and apprenticeship, dream interpretation, and a woman’s worth as a bride often depended on her skills in fortune- psychic insight, palmistry, telling.49 A Romani elder told me in 1980: “For a woman not to be able to tarot-card readings, and read a palm is an insult.”50 Roma women are experts at sizing up a person by the selling of amulets. An TWO ROMANI women stand next to a table set up for palm what they say, wear, and do, and they learn and employ the belief systems elder woman explained, “I reading and fortune telling in Portland, Oregon, in about 1955. of American clients from many cultural backgrounds to offer them what I used to be so exhausted label “folk psychotherapy,” meaning a traditional way of doing therapeutic after a full day . . . believe character readings.51 me, sitting there hour after As early as 1920, advertisements for divination appeared in Oregon hour hearing the same newspapers.52 A survey of “Oregon’s historic newspapers reveal[s] that for- stories, the same problems. Everyone thinks they’re different, but they have tune telling and divination were often newsworthy topics of interest in the the same problems. All they need is confidence and strength and a friend early 20th century, touching on notions that continue to fascinate people.”53 and that’s what I am. They need to know they’re not crazy. I try to help people Fortune-tellers advertised via printed handbills distributed in parking lots get strength. Of course there’s the money, but I believe I’m helping them.”56 and on street corners. Although most Romani women were illiterate, they Despite the popularity of fortune-telling, authorities targeted that work. In composed creative flyers by dictation, incorporating the symbols and beliefs 1980, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) represented Roma seeking of their customers.54 to overturn a Roseburg, Oregon, regulation outlawing “arts of the occult.” Kali, a Romani elder woman, narrated various strategies for attracting While a Roseburg pastor labeled fortune-telling “a form of witchcraft,” the customers during the 1950s through the 1970s. At the motel where she was ACLU argued that there was no ban on astrology columns common in many staying, she passed out handbills among the maids and waitresses and did newspapers and stressed unequal enforcement of the regulation. The readings in her room. Likewise, when visiting the hospital, she advertised Romani plaintiffs highlighted racial discrimination, stating: “We belong in the among the nurses and attendants, and she always gave her driver a handbill darkness? Why? Because we have dark skin? . . . When people hear the word when taking a taxi. Another woman remarked, “I like to take handbills to Gypsy, the first thing they think of is we steal.” Romani elders corroborated

530 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 531 these sentiments, narrating continual police harassment for fortune-telling. reserved for non-Roma. I measured my own “acceptance” in part by the The Roseburg case was dismissed because the family moved to a location dishes on which I was served. At first, I was served on dishes reserved for outside the city limits, but similar cases have been won elsewhere.57 non-Roma, but after being integrated into the community, I was served on In 1984, the California Supreme Court overturned, as an unconstitutional dishes that Roma themselves used. In the scholarly literature, this purity- infringement of free speech, an Azusa, California, ordinance that banned pollution distinction is termed the marime system, referring to the word fortune-telling. The court held that astrologers and fortune-tellers have the for ritual pollution.62 same constitutionally protected right to charge for their opinions as other The marime system is intricately tied to strict gender roles. Females mainstream forecasters, such as stock advisers and political pollsters. The are inherently polluting, especially during menstruation and childbirth. All case, Spiritual Psychic Science Church of Truth, Inc., et. al. v City of Azusa, was discourse about and supplies related to these functions, and to sexuality based partially on considering fortune-telling to be part of Romani religion.58 in general, are strictly relegated to the private realm. Menstruating women As Hilary George-Parkin explains: “While the ruling applies only in California, a do not cook for others, and pregnant women do not attend public Romani handful of other courts have since followed suit in response to claims brought events. When a Romani woman and I were doing a joint presentation for a by fortune-tellers and the [ACLU]. They . . . hold that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Beaverton, Oregon, hospital in 2014, for example, she excused herself from consistent opposition to prior restraint means that blanket bans on fortune- the room when we discussed sexuality and menstruation. telling should hold no weight under the Constitution.”59 In Oregon, I uncovered Men and women after puberty socialize and eat separately in public, and one current law against fortune-telling, in Yamhill.60 Note that fortune-telling women do not let their bodies appear higher than men’s bodies in public. fraud is illegal, as is all business fraud; however, the assumption that all Roma A woman, for example, does not walk across a seating area occupied by fortune tellers are involved in fraud remains widespread. men. Women wear long skirts and do not wear pants, but low-cut tops and breast feeding in public are acceptable. Married women wear a head scarf. PURITY/POLLUTION BELIEFS, RELIGION, RITUAL, AND GENDER At large family banquets, and even at home whenever guests are present, Kalderash explain their preference for family-centered work by underscoring there are separate tables for men and women.63 the importance of maintaining the boundary between Roma and non-Roma. Intermarriage automatically makes a person marime, and it therefore is Their cosmological structure emphasizes the divide between Roma and severely avoided. One forty-six-year-old woman told me she was “disowned” non-Roma. Roma demonstrate ritual purity by following rules of symbolic by her family when she divorced her Romani husband and married a non- and gendered cleanliness. Because non-Roma lack these rules, their world Romani man. Notably, only a woman can deliberately make a man marime is unruly and impure, and it should be avoided when possible. Thus Roma by defiling him in public, which she can do by touching him with a shoe or should not marry, socialize, eat with, or work with non-Roma.61 slip. When a person is marime, he or she is ostracized and cannot social- The Kalderash body is divided into the clean upper half (with the head ize with other Roma. This is a grave social stigma and is enforced by other and mouth as the center) and the impure, polluted, lower half, associated Roma, lest they, too, become marime. The length of marime status and its with bodily functions, sexuality, and reproduction. Roma do not sit on tables revocation are usually conferred by a kris, the internal legal system. The or other eating surfaces. Many Roma bring their own pillows to hotels and kris is composed of elder men and occasionally elder respected women hospitals. Roma always use a separate towel for the head. One elder man who represent extended family units, vitsi, who rule by consensus in a face- never uses a towel to dry himself when he showers, preferring to use new to-face meeting.64 paper towels. Food and anything it touches is especially screened. When In general, Kalderash society is patriarchal: men occupy all public author- moving into a new apartment, Kalderash will install new kitchen and bath- ity roles as head of families, descent is patrilineal, post-martial residence is room sinks; if they cannot afford them, they use new basins to wash food, patrilocal, and the kris is a male realm. A big man (baro Rom) serves as head but never use them to wash underwear or a floor mop. of his extended family. There is no inherited royalty, although powerful men Kalderash eat only at restaurants that other Roma recommended. I may claim the title “King” as a broker with the non-Romani world. Women have observed many elders using disposable plastic ware or their hands, defer to men in public, and men occupy the best chairs and eat first. Still, rather than the establishment’s silverware, which might be unclean. A there are many spheres of female power. Women wield the powers of provid- non-Romani person who eats in a Kalderash home, is served on dishes ing larger incomes (if they do well in fortune-telling), budget management,

532 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 533 3/8 in x 10 7/16 in. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon. Gift of the Artist, 91.77.6. Alfred A. Monner, Gypsies Preparing Feast for St. George’s Day, 1953, gelatin silver print. 7 ceremonial Kalderash life. Luck comes from and is also manifested by health, travel, respect, a large family, and doing things the Romani way. Roma respect their ancestors and the spirits of the dead, and thus closely scrutinize death rituals. Funerals are very important, and a lavish memorial feast, or pomana, is held at several intervals after death. If the dead are disrespected, people may fall ill, and tragedies may strike. Ancestors communicate with the living through dreams and signs in nature that gifted elder women can interpret. This focus on the dead inspires Kalderash to spend generously on huge gravestones and to visit cemeteries regularly to honor and share food with the dead.67 Rose City Cemetery in Northeast Portland has a large section devoted to Romani graves.68 Ornately decorated gravestones display photographs of the deceased, making a cemetery visit a personal experience. Family members always request to be buried together. In 1975, a “King” died in Kansas and his body was shipped to Portland for burial at Rose City Cemetery, where a three-day wake was scheduled for “thousands of Roma.”69 This illustrates the national importance of Rose City Cemetery. A series of photographs from the 79.12.3. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon. Museum Purchase: Caroline Ladd Pratt Fund, Alfred A. Monner, Wake for Lena Ephrem, 1954, gelatin silver print, 7 in x 10 1/8 in. ROMA ROAST whole lambs and chickens in Portland, Oregon, for the St. George’s day feast in 1953.

fertility, knowledge of folk beliefs, and the threat of making a man marime. This threat is a primary mechanism to redress injustices against women, such as domestic abuse.65 Gender roles are variable through the lifetime, with elders (including women) achieving enormous respect. Roma do not utilize old-age homes. Young people tend to listen to their parents, respecting their experience. Dating is prohibited, and marriages are arranged by elders; young people can exert control over marriage choices by appealing to kin or by eloping. The groom’s family pays a bride price to the bride’s family ($5,000 to $6,000 in the 1980s, and now about $10,000), indicating the bride’s status as an income producer. In the case of divorce, a kris decides how much of the bride price to return. Weddings are lavish, multi-day performative events, with many rituals and with Romani music and dance. Machwaya also celebrate a slava, 66 honoring the family’s saint’s day. LENA EPHREM’S FUNERAL took place in Portland, Oregon, in 1954 with an open casket and The concept of luck, or bakht, and its absence governs much daily and lavish decorations.

534 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 535 Museum, Portland, Oregon. Gift of the Artist, 94.58.13. Alfred A. Monner, Costello Family Graves, 1977, gelatin silver print, 7 1/2 in x 9 9/16 in. Portland Art and wine by the graves of their dead. . . . [Director] Ollerenshaw . . . said . . . they had been drinking and carrying on. . . . Alcoholic beverages are not allowed. The . . . director said . . . the burial site is “not a picnic park.”71

This Rose City Cemetery dispute illustrates two points: first, the combination of having a very large number of Roma buried there and the utter importance of respecting the dead in Romani culture both make Portland a significant location for Roma. Secondly, non-Roma continue to stereotype and misin- terpret Romani culture. OHS Research Library, org. lot. 667, folder 4

COSTELLO FAMILY GRAVES in Rose City Cemetery in Portland, Oregon, are pictured here in 1977.

1950s and 1960s reveals that funerals were large and featured processions to the cemetery, where Roma stopped at every corner to pour water on the ground to honor the deceased.70 On Easter, birthdays, and other memorial dates, groups of extended families still visit the cemetery to eat and drink with the spirits of the dead. Socializing, pouring drinks on the ground and leaving food are required practices that have generated complaints by non-Roma. In 1978, such dis- putes were reported in the Register Guard:

About 200 Gypsies were asked to leave the cemetery following complaints. . . . “We THIS PHOTOGRAPH of a Romani funeral procession was published in the Oregon Journal on came from many miles to visit, said [James] Marks . . . Marks said his people were January 5, 1960. Mourners follow the funeral casket as they pour water on the ground to honor asked to leave because they were practicing a tradition of pouring soda pop, beer, the deceased and to wash away evil .

536 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 537 EDUCATION One Portland effort was a vocational rehabilitation program focusing on used cars, which ran from 1970 to 1975. Another was a vocational and Given the family orientation of work, the rules of cleanliness and ritual, and educational program at Portland Community College for adults between the primacy of the Roma/non-Roma boundary, it is not surprising that for many fifteen and fifty-two years of age, from1970 to 1974. There were also two decades after first arriving in Oregon, Kalderash did not see the need for literacy programs, one in the 1975–1976 academic year at Woodmere School institutional education of their children. They taught the youth their trades in Southeast Portland, for Roma between sixteen and twenty-one years old, at home, and literacy was not valued. They hired non-Roma for tasks such and one in 1977, for children from six to eleven years old. All these programs as writing fortune-telling correspondence and handbills and for paying bills, initially included small stipends to entice participants to attend school. After or they learned just enough to cover vital tasks. One elder woman in the the grant money ran out, attendance dwindled.76 Ephrem family, for example, managed the paperwork for her husband’s car In 1978, Ellis boldly asked Oregon Governor Robert Straub for a Romani business for thirty years even though she was largely illiterate.72 community center that would include a classroom. He had helped form In the 1960s, Oregon Roma began occasionally sending their children the Oregon International Gypsy Foundation in 1972, and he kept abreast to public schools, in part to avoid truant officers who regularly visited their of other Roma school experiments in Seattle, Tacoma, Baltimore, Chicago, homes. Attendance was sporadic. Children were reluctant to mix with non- Philadelphia, and Richmond, California.77 A center was never established, Roma and often faced prejudice and taunting, but they usually acquired the but Portland school administrators wanted to cooperate with Ellis to form a necessary literacy skills. Some families kept their children in school for years school. They insisted that the eventual goal would be mainstreaming; like- while others took them out when traveling for business or ritual purposes. A wise, Romani leaders insisted that Romani culture needed to be respected, series of Oregonian articles in the 1960s portrays a hopeful but tense relation- not assaulted. In the summer of 1978, the school district established the ship between Roma and school authorities. A 1969 article claims the principal Vestal School Gypsy Education Program in Northeast Portland for children “has not had to seek court action to get Gypsy families to send their children ages six to seventeen. Instruction of Roma children took place in a separate to Couch. Although they still come and go, Gypsy enrollment was placed at classroom, with all ages combined, but recess was integrated with the other 36 earlier this year. . . . They’re actually an asset to the school when they’re here because of what they teach the other kids. . . . With consideration for children. One teacher and two aides worked in the classroom. Thirty children one another, loyalty and cohesiveness, and the older children look out for the enrolled, and an adult summer evening session was added, administered younger.”73 A 1967 article attributes school attendance progress to: by Portland Community College. In 1979, an afternoon session was added to the children’s evening session.78 Ellis and two other leaders, Lee Ristick 1) efforts by the Gypsy Kings to convince more of their people so that the [20] and Coy Ristick, were put on the payroll as Special Gypsy Counselors — that children should be in school and, 2) the continued drive by school officials to is, as mediators between Romani families and the school administration.79 attract the Gypsy youngsters to the school and keep them there. . . . [School By 1979, forty children attended Vestal. The Oregonian reported: “The officials] agree that they have never seen mothers and fathers more devoted Gypsy leadership has also come to realize the value of skills learned in to their children than are the Gypsy parents. They add that the children seem school. . . . Ellis . . . attends class with the Gypsy children. . . . He also recruits inherently bright and are rarely problem children when they are in school. They children in to the program, transports them to and from school in his van add that the children are seldom if ever involved in police or juvenile problems.74 and advises the teacher.”80 Indeed, in the 1970s, “King” John Ellis, a bold, visionary leader who amplified In evaluating the Vestal program, anthropologist Steven Rubin states that the ethnic-rights discourse of the time, took a prominent role in convincing it lasted longer (three years) than other programs in Oregon and that the two community members that schooling was necessary. He set an example by hundred children who attended at various times demonstrated huge progress enrolling his three children, and he advocated for special Romani class- in literacy and developed positive attitudes toward school. He attributes these rooms. Several Portland programs were launched that aimed at fostering successes to the rejection of the “Anglo-conformity model” and the sensitivity work skills and literacy for Romani youth; they represented a rare attempt to to Romani culture, family orientation, and scheduling; for example, the school address Romani education. Only a handful of other cities (including Seattle, was closed for community weddings, funerals, and other rituals. The goal of Washington; Richmond, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) have mainstreaming, however, was not met. The biggest problem was attendance.81 tried Romani-centered schooling.75 Education scholar Yvonne Egan concurs that the carnival circuit and other work

538 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 539 and ritual obligations were more important to families than school and notes that “frequently the parents’ worst fears for their children came true — they felt shamed and ridiculed.”82 Discrimination was a significant problem, also identified by Harper: “The children encounter prejudice among the children in the regular Vestal School. They are occasionally subject to taunts like ‘Here come the Gypsies, better watch out that they don’t steal anything’.”83 In some cases, school materials were racist. In 1983, for example, Eugene Roma elder Jack Ephrem requested that the children’s book Blaze and the Gypsies, in which a horse is stolen by gypsies, be removed from Springfield’s Guy Lee OHS Research Library, org. lot 667, folder 2 Library, OHS Research elementary school because it perpetuated stereotypes.84 Another experiment in innovative education for Portland Roma began in 1996, during a decade when Roma were negatively affected by the federal curtailment of welfare benefits. Many families could not afford to pay fines for violating mandatory education laws. After John Ellis died, his brother Pete Ellis approached the David Douglas School District about a Romani evening school to solve problems of truancy and job training. The superintendent stated that, “frustration made the district receptive to a short trial.”85 The first group of seventeen students grew by 1998 to seventy students, aged five to twenty-one years. The evening school, which operated year-round except during August, was located at Alice Ott Middle School. Ellis received $20,000 a year to be a liaison; two teachers and one aide worked in the program. Approximately two thirds of the attending children were from outside the school district, and parents were allowed to sit in on the classes, often also learning literacy skills. In a 1998 interview, Pete Ellis said: “The bottom line is we live in a computer world. We want to make something of ourselves. We want to be doctors. We want to be lawyers. . . . We’d like to keep our culture but we want to be part of this world.” Even though the school was successful, it only lasted a few years due to absences and the growing popularity among Roma of home schooling.86 Today, there are no special programs for Oregon Roma, and some parents send their children to neighborhood schools. Attendance varies tremendously from family to family, and children rarely attend past sixth grade. Parents today say they are “afraid of drugs, sex, and guns” in public schools. Thus, home schooling has emerged as a viable alternative. Many families hire tutors at home and/or encourage their children to learn to read and write through the internet. The wealth of information available on the internet has motivated many Roma (young and old) to become literate. The internet and social media are becoming especially important to the younger SARAH CARTER (RIGHT), program director at Woodmere School in Portland, Oregon, generation. Obtaining a drivers’ license serves as another motivation for answers student questions during a three-hour evening session. This photograph appeared education. Still, middle-aged and elder Kalderash today tend not to be liter- in the Oregon Journal on February 6, 1976. ate, and this is a huge challenge for the future.87

540 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 541 CHANGES SINCE THE 1980S and some men have subsequently increased their car businesses. Body and fender repair, however, is now additionally perilous due to the huge Significant changes in Romani life began in the 1970s, including curtailing bureaucracy. Transactions require submitting vast paperwork to insurance travel, moving from downtown Portland storefronts to Northeast residences, companies, and many Roma do not have the skills to deal with these and employing tutors at home. The most striking recent change for Oregon institutions. Still, most Kalderash and Machwaya are still reluctant to work Roma, and indeed for all American Kalderash, however, has been the wide- for non-Roma. Rarely do women work, and boys still learn the used car spread conversion to Evangelical Christianity since the 1980s. Pentecostalism business from their fathers.91 spread to American Roma via Romani pastors from western Europe. Portland The health of Oregon Roma has declined steeply with a noted increase currently has two churches, the largest of which is Grace Ministries with in rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and hypertension; few Roma live God’s Gypsy Christian Church, where pastor John Ellis (Mancho) presides.88 beyond sixty years. Eating caloric and fatty foods, smoking, and sedentary Although there is scant scholarship on American Romani Pentecostalism, we lifestyles may all contribute to this decline. Roma regularly utilize doctors, and can observe similar patterns to the rise of European Romani Pentecostalism, when someone is very ill and hospitalized, relatives are obliged to hold a vigil namely prohibition of fortune-telling, drinking alcohol, and enacting funerary around the sick person. This surge of visitors of all ages, who want twenty-four- 89 rituals such as pomeni. Machwaya have converted in fewer numbers than hour access, often conflicts with hospital rules. To promote cultural sensitivity, Kalderash; Machwaya, in fact, still celebrate their Saint’s Day celebration, I have lectured with Roma on health beliefs in several Portland hospitals.92 slava. Some Machawya, and even some Kalderash, also still tell fortunes. Oregon Roma also face problems because they do not have legal Sunday Romani evangelical church services in Portland are very dynamic, documents. Middle-aged Roma often lack birth certificates because they with sermons in Romani and English and with live music (Jesus praise songs were born at home and lack marriage certificates because they did not file in both languages) and bodily movement. Roma of all ages attend, and the legal documents. Some also have multiple names. Traditionally, Roma are church has become the focus of community life. In smaller Oregon towns known to other Roma through designation of their vitsa plus a kin location, such as Eugene, the few Romani families attend mixed Roma and non-Roma such as “Jack’s son Pete.” Nicknames are also common. If legal forms were evangelical congregations. In general, leadership of the Romani community filed, they were usually filled out by non-Roma and may contain variable has become more fragmented, and the kris is rarely assembled. Weddings names. In the past, Roma were distrustful of governments and preferred to and funerals are still very lavish events that attract hundreds of Roma, many operate below the radar of officials. Even today, some government office regularly travelling long distances from neighboring states to these rituals. workers treat Roma with disdain. An elder woman from the Ellis family nar- Christmas and Easter have also become important holidays. Video clips of rated: “Whenever I walk into the social security office, clerks close their these events are frequently posted on YouTube. Young people are taking windows; they see my long skirt and diklo [headscarf], hear our language more vocal roles in their marriage arrangements, although the elders are and run.”93 Name discrepancies and lack of documents have led to prob- always the public ritual spokespersons. Intermarriage occurs more frequently lems with social security and drivers’ licenses. I have been involved in but is still not ideal. The marime system has declined somewhat, but many several legal cases where we showed that consistent oral testimony from families still follow bodily rules; even Christian families own multiple wash- community members was proof of a birth or marriage despite lack of, or ing machines. One elder Ephrem family woman narrated: “we can afford it, contradictory, documents. so we have four washing machines — for male and female, and for top and Another troubling problem facing current Oregon Roma (and all Roma) is bottom.”90 persistent stereotyping regarding criminality. Historical tropes about laziness, The steep decline in fortune-telling is due both to Pentecostalism, thievery, and curses are still used in the media and surface in court cases.94 which defines it as a sin, and to non-Romani competitors moving into the The most famous U.S. case involved the family of self-styled “Roma Senator” spirituality niche. During the 1990s, non-Roma began to provide similar Jimmy Marks in a decade-long battle against the city of Spokane, Washington, services under the rubric of new-age spirituality, and Roma women lost regarding a 1986 sting operation that involved a ten-hour illegal search of two their monopoly. For many families, core income has dramatically decreased, homes that made the family marime. The police “characterized the Markses as

542 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 543 a crime family.”95 For the first time in the United States, Roma sued a city based INVADED!! There is no city in North America that is safe! . . . on violation of their civil rights and police misconduct. After much publicity, FACT: Criminal gypsies/travelers make an estimated $17B/annually and don’t mostly negative, the case was settled out of court in 1997 for $1.43 million, in pay taxes. favor of the Markses. Most of the money was spent on lawyers’ fees.96 Criminal and exotic stereotypes resurfaced in the 2000s, when two FACT: The criminal Travelers/Gypsies have targeted the Pacific Northwest for reality television shows debuted: My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding decades. (TLC channel, with spinoff shows), about Romnichels and Travellers, and FACT: We have made a database with approximately 4,000 suspects. . . . American Gypsy (National Geographic channel) about Kalderash in New Criminal element of the gypsy and traveler communities has invaded every York City. These shows are advertised as exposés of various frauds, and major metropolitan area in the U.S., our friends in the Pacific Northwest and they emphasize violence, opulent wedding dresses, and over-sexualized north of the border as well.105 young girls. Writers published critiques of the stigmatizing shows, including the wildly popular British show, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, which inspired Roma are beginning to fight these portrayals with legal assistance from the 106 the American versions.97 Oregon Roma are vocal in condemning these pro- American Civil Liberties Union. grams; a middle-aged car salesman told me: “These shows are disgusting; A final challenge that Roma face in Oregon today is appropriation of they have nothing to do with us!”98 Many Oregon Roma resort to “passing” their culture. Gypsy costumes are ubiquitous on Halloween, contra danc- as another ethnic group to avoid the stigma of being gypsy. ers call a seductive move “the gypsy,” and Portland is home to the “Gypsy 107 Media outlets report cases of fortune-telling and other business fraud as Caravan Tribal Belly Dance” company, with no Roma. “Gypsy chic” is a if Roma ethnicity is linked directly to thievery, revealing a pattern of racial widespread clothing genre, “hipsters” are now “gypsters,” and food prod- profiling. Until recently, for example, the Oregonian reported these cases ucts range from “Gypsy Crunch Cereal” to “Gypsy Tea” to “Gypsy Rub” by citing gypsy ethnicity.99 Education media scholar Theresa Catalano’s for ribs. It is clear that many Americans embrace either a fantasy idea of analysis of thirty-five U.S. and Canadian newspaper articles about “gypsy Gypsies as free wanderers or a criminal idea of them as thieves — or both crime” revealed that Roma are often portrayed as “lacking family values,” simultaneously. and that words such as “prey and cockroaches,” “gypsy scam,” and “gypsy CONCLUSION: WIDER FRAMEWORKS fraud” and phrases contrasting “us and them” are frequently used. These repetitions create the metaphor of Roma as criminals.100 In considering the local case of Oregon Roma, we need to examine the For several decades, specialists in so-called “gypsy crime” have trained wider framework of recent European Romani history and political mobiliza- officers in police departments in many cities, perpetuating widespread tion. No Oregon Roma are currently activists, but from the 1970s to 1990, ethnic profiling. Dennis Marlock of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police the Portland Ellis family lead pioneering education reforms. I believe that department, who leads seminars on “gypsy scams,” defined Gypsy as “a if more Roma knew their history, they would be more activist; however, it criminal lifestyle of thievery and deception dating back to 1000 AD.” 101 In is neither taught in schools nor discussed at home. Thus Kalderash often response, Hancock has led a tireless exposé of this widespread “institu- do not know, for example, about the Holocaust, when a Nazi extermination tional antigypsyism within American law enforcement.”102 According to campaign murdered approximately 600,000 Roma.108 Only recently, very a 2016 Oregonian article, Portland police admitted that they hosted the few Roma have received monetary compensation, and rarely have Roma seminar “Without Mercy: Criminal Gypsies/Travelers & the Elderly,” given received recognition in museums and memorials as victims . After World by retired detective Gary Nolte, head of Gryphon Training Group.103 Nolte’s War II, the communist regimes in Eastern Europe continued to define Roma resume erroneously claims: “it should be noted that ‘Gypsy’ is a lifestyle as a social problem. Targeted for integration into the planned economy, and not specific to any one ethnicity.”104 The training materials imply that Roma sometimes were forced to give up their traditional occupations and all gypsies commit elder fraud, and that elder fraud is regularly committed were assigned to the lowest-skilled and lowest-paid industrial and agri- by gypsies. The seminar flyer reads: cultural state jobs (such as street cleaners). Nomadic Roma were forcibly

544 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 545 settled, settled Roma were sometimes forcibly moved, and sometimes In 1992, the New York Times published an American poll that surveyed aspects of their culture, such as music, were outlawed. Specific policies public opinions of fifty-eight different racial and social groups over a varied by country; for example, forced sterilization was common in Czecho- twenty-five-year period. “Gypsies” were consistently ranked at the very 109 slovakia and Sweden until the 1970s. Some Oregon Roma have heard bottom — even lower than a fictitious group of “Wisians.” “European groups of more recent abuses. generally monopolized the top of the ladder” and non-Europeans the In the post-socialist period, harassment and violence towards the bottom, but Roma were the exception.115 I hold that the potent combina- Roma of Eastern Europe have increased, along with marginalization and tion of three concepts — racialization, nomadism, and criminality — have poverty. Today, they are the largest minority group in Europe (population negatively defined Roma. approximately ten to twelve million) and have perhaps the lowest stan- In this summary of the history of Roma in Oregon, I have attempted to dard of living in every country, with unemployment reaching 80 percent highlight the tension between continuous discrimination and the challenge in some regions.110 Roma face inferior and segregated housing and educa- tion, including tracking of children into special schools for the disabled in of keeping Romani language and culture vibrant. This testimony from an nations such as Hungary. Poor health conditions, specifically higher infant elder in 1980 summarizes his frustration and echoes many narratives I mortality and morbidity, shorter life expectancy, and higher frequency of heard from Oregon families: chronic diseases all plague European Roma. Discrimination is widespread I’ll tell you, I had pressure all my life in the United States from people being in employment and the legal system, and even educated people routinely prejudiced on the Gypsies. When they hear Gypsy people, they don’t let me express disdain for gypsies. Hate speech and racial profiling are common advertise in the newspapers, they don’t let me get a license. They kick you in the media. Perhaps most troubling are the hundreds of incidences of out of the counties because they don’t want them to settle down and tell physical violence against Roma perpetrated by ordinary citizens and also their fortunes . . . they run them outta town. I’ve been runned and marked, just by the police.111 by . . . saying I’m a Gypsy.”116 Some Oregon Roma are aware of the European Romani human rights movement that has mobilized in the past twenty years via a network of In spite of long-term structural racism, Roma still seem resilient. In a NGOs (non-governmental organizations) such as the European Roma 1988 article, I analyzed how changes in language, occupation, residence Rights Centre. This movement has drawn much public attention and fund- patterns, frequency of travel, and means of transportation do not signal ing, but material conditions have hardly improved. The “Decade of Roma assimilation because the foundational Roma/non-Roma boundary is main- Inclusion,” inaugurated in 2005 by the Open Society Institute and the World tained.117 This still holds true. Despite changing economic and cultural Bank and endorsed by many European governments, aimed to ensure conditions, Roma still feel strongly that they are Roma, and they live their that Roma have equal access to education, housing, employment, and lives as Roma. They have not assimilated and have only selectively inte- healthcare. Unfortunately, most agree that the decade’s goals have failed.112 grated. Gropper and Miller term this “selective multiculturalism,” and I add Although political mobilization is rare among Kalderash today, there are 118 a few activists, such as George Eli in New York.113 In contrast, Oregon Roma that it evinces a fine-grained ability to adapt without losing core identity. try to keep a low profile so they are not targeted; this is a historical tactic of Sutherland similarly claims that Roma exhibit a “high degree of cultural 119 survival. In explaining their low visibility, we need to remember that Oregon flexibility.” Strategic adaptation plus a strong sense of group identification is a very White state and that Portland is the whitest large city in the United have helped Roma negotiate challenging historical circumstances. In the States (72.2 percent White and only 6.3 percent African American).114 Rates future this combination will be important in response to new challenges of prejudice against Roma are quite alarming all over the United States. related to gender, education, and work skills.

546 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 547 (Boston: Gemma, 2009); Carol Miller, The H. Cox, Politics, Principle and, Prejudice, NOTES Church of Cheese: Gypsy Ritual in the Hey- 1865–1866 (Atheneum 1969), 212. day (Boston: Gemma, 2010). This short book 18. Personal communication with au- by Gabrielle Tyrnauer-Stastny, The Gypsy thor, ER, sixty-year-old Oregon woman, 1. See, for example, Ellen Eisenberg, among American Gypsies” (Ph.D. diss., in Northwest America (Pacific Northwest April 15, 2015. Abbreviations are used to Embracing a Western Identity: Jewish University of Pennsylvania, 1979). Books, 1977), and the film American Gypsy: preserve the anonymity of consultants. Oregonians 1849–1950 (Corvallis: Oregon 6. Edward Harper, “Family Organization A Stranger in Everybody’s Land (Jasmine 19. “Lost Child Found: Alma Miller, Who State University Press, 2015); Elizabeth of the Portland Gypsies” (B.A. thesis, Reed Dellal, 1999, www. americangypsy.com) was Kidnapped by Gypsies, Located at McLagan, A Peculiar Paradise: A History College, 1951); Steven D. Rubin, “The Assimi- both deal with Washington Roma. Search- Eugene,” Oregonian, August 4, 1893, p. 4. of Blacks in Oregon, 1788–1940 (Portland: lation and Education of Portland Gypsies: A ing for the Fourth Nail is a documentary film 20. The Athena Press (Athena, Or- Georgian Press, 1980); “Darrell Millner, Participant-Observation Study” (B.A. thesis, directed by American Rom George Eli (www. egon), July 28, 1893, p. 4, http://chroniclin- “Blacks in Oregon,” The Oregon Ency- Reed College, 1980); Michael Dunham, “The searchingforthe4thnail.com). gamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96088356/1893- clopedia, https://oregonencyclopedia. Marks Family: An Introduction to Gypsy Life” 9. Hancock, We Are The Romani Peo- 07-28/ed-1/seq-4 (accessed June 5, 2017). org/articles/blacks_in_oregon/#.WThcNc- (Corvallis: Randall Mills Folklore Archive ple, 2. Hancock notes that Kalderash and 21. Personal communication, EP, forty- m1ut8 (accessed June 5, 2017); Erlinda Project, University of Oregon, 1980); Carol Machwaya are part of the Vlach Romani year-old Oregon man, February 20, 2010. Gonzales-Berry and Marcela Mendoza, Miller, “Macwaya, Gypsy Marime” (M.A. the- dialect group. 22. “150 Gypsies are Herded,” Morning Mexicanos in Oregon: Their Stories, Their sis, University of Washington, 1968). 10. Rombase, University of Graz, Aus- Oregonian, May 14, 1916, p. 14. Lives (Corvallis: Oregon State Univer- 7. Oregon Historical Society Ethnic tria, http://rombase.uni-graz.at (accessed 23. “Welch Watches Gypsies: Wander- sity Press, 2010); Douglas Lee, “Chinese History Collection, http://content.libraries. July 20, 2017). ing Band of Vagrants Gives Station Police- Americans in Oregon,” The Oregon Ency- wsu.edu/index.php/cdm/search/collection/ 11. Rombase: Didactically edited in- man Trouble,” Oregonian, December 1, clopedia, https://oregonencyclopedia.org/ wsuvan1/searchterm/Gypsies/field/all/ formation on Roma, “History and Politics,” 1906, p.10 articles/chinese_americans_in_oregon/#. mode/any/conn/and/cosuppress (accessed University of Graz, Austria, http://rombase. 24. Quoted in Lisa Loving, “Community WTcq9Mm1ut8 (accessed June 5, 2017); February 12, 2017); Collection of Alfred uni-graz.at (accessed July 20, 2017). in Flux: A Long-persecuted People Begins and Linda Tamura, The Hood River Issei: Monner photographs from the 1950s, http:// 12. Ken Lee, “Orientalism and Gy- to Speak Out,” Oregon Humanities (Fall/ An Oral History of Japanese Settlers in portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb. psylorism,” Social Analysis 44:2 (2000): Winter 2015), http://oregonhumanities. Oregon’s Hood River Valley (Urbana: Uni- exe?request=record;id=5148;type=701 (ac- 132; Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: org/magazine/move-fall-winter-2015/ versity of Illinois Press, 1993). cessed February 12, 2017). Vintage 1978). community-in-flux/1385 (accessed Febru- 2. This is illustrated by the use of 8. Rena Gropper, Gypsies in the City 13. Katie Trumpener, “The Time of the ary 12, 2017). “gypsy” in the names of dance and music (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 2005); Matt Gypsies: A ‘People Without History’ in the 25. Lee, “Chinese Americans in Ore- groups, in foods, and in fashion. Salo, ed., The American Kalderas: Gypsies Narratives of the West,” Critical Inquiry 18:4 gon”; and Eisenberg, Embracing a Western 3. Ian Hancock made this population in the New World, Gypsy Lore Society North (1992): 853. Identity, 125–35. approximation in his April 6, 2011, Voice American Chapter Publications, no. 1, 1981; 14. Rombase, “History of the Vlach 26. Alana Semuels, “The Racist History of America article: “For Roma, Life in US David J. Nemeth, The Gypsy-American: An Roma,” University of Graz, Austria of Portland, the Whitest City in America,” Has Challenges” https://www.voanews. Ethnographic Study (Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mel- http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cgi-bin/art. The Atlantic, July 22, 2016, https://www. com/a/for-roma-life-in-us-has-challeng- len Press, 2002); Anne Sutherland, Gypsies, cgi?src=data/hist/modern/vlach.en.xml theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/ es-119394819/163156.html (accessed June The Hidden Americans (New York: The (accessed June 5, 2017). racist-history-portland/492035 (accessed 6, 2017). Free Press, 1975); Anne Sutherland, Roma: 15. Hancock, “Gypsy Mafia, Romani June 5, 2017). 4. Kalderash comes from the Romanian Modern American Gypsies (Long Grove Ill.: Saints,” in Danger! Educated Gypsy, 196. 27. Tyrnauer-Stastny, The Gypsy in word for copper pot. Machwaya refers to Waveland Press, 2017); Ian Hancock, Dan- 16. James D. Richardson, A Compilation Northwest America, 25. Machva, a region in Serbia. I use Kalder- ger! Educated Gypsy (Hatfield: University of the Messages and Papers of the Presi- 28. McLagan, A Peculiar Paradise, 174. ash as an umbrella term for both groups, of Hertfordshire Press, 2010); Ian Hancock, dents, volume 6: Andrew Johnson, speech 29. Semuels paraphrases Millner in because they are intermarried in Oregon. The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy to the U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., March “The Racist History of Portland,” and I quote There are no official census figures for Roma Slavery (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Karoma, 1987); Ian 27, 1866, p. 105–112, http://www.dominiopu- Semuels here. in Oregon. My number is an approximation Hancock, We Are The Romani People: Ame blico.gov.br/download/texto/gu012755.pdf 30. “Gypsies off for Texas,”Oregonian, based on community members’ estimates. Sam e Rromane Džene (Hatfield: University (accessed, February 12, 2017). December 28, 1944, p.10. Loving also deals 5. See, for example, Carol Silverman, of Hertfordshire, 2002); Carol Miller, Lola’s 17. New York Herald, February, 24, with this eviction in “Community in Flux.” “Expressive Behavior as Adaptive Strategy Luck: My Life Among the California Gypsies 1866, Quoted in LaWanda Cox and John Mayor Earl Riley’s corruption is docu-

548 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 549 mented in Robert Donnelly, Dark Rose: dance of Gypsy Youth Shows Little Prog- 59. Hilary George-Parkin, “When is 75. Ian Hancock, “The Schooling of Ro- Organized Crime and Corruption in Port- ress,” Oregonian, April 9, 1967, p.21. Fortune-Telling a Crime?” The Atlantic, mani Americans: An Overview,” in Danger! land (University Washington, 2011), 46–72. 45. Personal communication, BE, fifty- November 14, 2014, https://www.theatlan- Educated Gypsy, 137–42. 31. See David Nemeth, “Service No- nine-year-old Oregon woman, January, tic.com/business/archive/2014/11/when-is- 76. Rubin, “Assimilation and Educa- mads: Interim Masters of Imperfect Markets,” 10, 1997. fortunetelling-a-crime/382738 (accessed tion,” 45–48. Nomadic Peoples no. 21/22 (1986): 135–51. 46. Ibid. February 4, 2017). 77. Rubin, “Assimilation and Education,” 32. Personal communication, JM, sixty- 47. Matt Salo, “Kalderas Economic 60. “Editorial: A Few Unknown Oregon 46; Sutherland, Roma, 3; Tyrnauer-Stastny, two-year-old Oregon man, June 10, 1999. Organization” in The American Kalderas, Laws,” Willamette University Collegian, Oc- The Gypsy in Northwest America, 29–32; 33. Personal communication, TE, sixty- 92–94. tober 14, 2009, p. 10. http://willamettecol- Hancock “The Schooling of Romani Ameri- four-year-old Oregon man, March, 12, 1998. 48. Carol Silverman, “Everyday Drama: legian.com/archives/2009-2010/7/opinion. cans,” 137–42. I taught at the Philadelphia 34. Personal communication, MJ, fifty- Impression Management Of Urban Gyp- pdf (accessed February 4, 2017). school in the 1970s. nine-year-old Oregon man, February, 4, sies” Urban Anthropology 11:3-4 (Fall/ 61. See Sutherland, Gypsies, 257–87; 78. Rubin, “Assimilation and Educa- 1996. Winter 1982): 377–98. Miller, “Macwaya Gypsy Marime”; Silver- tion,” 49–53. 35. A 1944 article reports Roma living 49. Ibid., 77–98 man, “Pollution and Power,” 55–70 79. Hancock, “The Schooling of Ro- in “vacant store buildings at 616 NW 10th 50. Personal communication, BB, 62. Sutherland, Gypsies, 257–87; mani Americans,” 137–38; Yvonne Egan, Avenue,” in “Gypsy Families Continue sixty-one-year-old Oregon woman, Janu- Miller, “Macwaya Gypsy Marime”; Carol “Portland Gypsies See School in their Egress from Portland,” Oregon Journal, ary, 21, 2000. Silverman, “Pollution and Power,” 55–70. Future,” American Education 16:2 (March December 28, 1944, p. 7. Oregon Historical 51. Silverman, “Everyday Drama,” 386. 63. Ibid. 1980): 21. Society Ethnic History Collection, http:// 52. See, for example, “Madam Rosa” 64. Ibid. 80. Huntly Collins, “Special Program content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/singleitem/ Evening Herald (Klamath Falls), August 65. Ibid. Educates Gypsies,” Oregonian, October collection/wsuvan1/id/1801/rec/1 (accessed 26, 1920, p. 8, http://tinyurl.com/6wqhlcs 66. Ibid. 14, 1979, p. C6. February 12, 2017). (accessed February 4, 2017). 67. Miller, Lola’s Luck; Sutherland, 81. Rubin, “Assimilation and Educa- 36. “Abandoned store and home to 53. “Fortunes Forecast, Lucky Charms,” Gypsies. tion,” 72–81. Portland Gypsies, August 22 1957,” Oregon Evening Herald, December 23, 1920, found 68. “Best Gypsy Cemetery,” Willamette 82. Egan, “Portland Gypsies,” 21. Historical Society Ethnic History Collec- on Oregon Digital Newspaper Program, Week, July 21, 2009, http://www.wweek. 83. Rubin, “Assimilation and Educa- tion, http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ https://odnp.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/ com/portland/article-10802-best-sights. tion,” 81–82. singleitem/collection/wsuvan1/id/1801/rec/1 fortunes-forecast-lucky-charms (accessed htmls (accessed June 5, 2017). 84. Lisa Strycker, “Ban Asked for Clas- (accessed February 12, 2017). February 3, 2017). 69. Joe Frazier, “Gypsy King Buried,” sic on Gypsies,” Eugene Register Guard, 37. Salo, “Kalderas Economic Organi- 54. Carol Silverman, “Rev. Sister Na- Eugene Register Guard, March 4, 1975; January 9, 1983, p. 1B. zation,” in The American Kalderas, 75–76. vajo: Reader and Adviser: Deciphering Controversy Flares,” Eugene Register 85. Henry Stern, “A Gypsy Yearning 38. Hancock, “Gypsy Mafia, Romani Gypsy Fortune Telling Handbills,” New Guard, May 4, 1975. to Learn,” Oregonian, December 6, 1998, Saints,” 197–99. For a longer historical view York Folklore 6:1-2 (Summer 1980): 29–43. 70. Oregon Historical Society Ethnic p. A01. of anti-Gypsyism in America, see the blog 55. Silverman, “Everyday Drama,” History Collection, http://content.libraries. 86. Stern, “A Gypsy Yearning to Learn,” “big-gadje-world”: http://big-gadje-world. 393–94. wsu.edu/index.php/cdm/search/collection/ A 01. tumblr.com/post/84637851971/history-of- 56. Ibid., 386. wsuvan1/searchterm/Gypsies/field/all/ 87. Personal communication, NN, anti-romani-racism-antiziganism-in (ac- 57. Bruce Bartley, “Gypsies Suit Puts mode/any/conn/and/cosuppress (accessed thirty-five-year-old Oregon woman, Janu- cessed February 11, 2017). Court Battle in City’s Future,” Oregonian, February 12, 2017). ary, 17, 2014. 39. “Nice Try, Judge,” Oregonian, Sep- July 26, 1980, p. A13. 71. “Gypsies Outraged by Burial Dis- 88. Gypsy Christian Church, http:// tember 21, 1966, p. 26. 58. Jay Jacobs, “The Law and Astrology,” pute” Eugene Register Guard, May 30, portlandchurch.50megs.com (accessed 40. Ibid. Association for Astrological Networking, 1978, p. 7A. February 11, 2017). The church is located 41. “Group Asks Gypsy Ouster,” Orego- http://www.afan.org/inside/legal/the-law- 72. Personal Communication, TE, sixty- at 7115 S.E. Woodstock Street in Portland, nian, August 30, 1962, p. 30 and-astrology (accessed February 4, 2017). four-year-old Oregon woman, May 4, 2016. Oregon. It has its own video channel where 42. Semuels, “The Racist History of For other ordinances, see “Fortune Telling 73. Richard Colby, “Gypsy Pupils Im- baptisms and other services are posted: Portland.” and the Law” http://faculty.law.lsu.edu/ prove Attendance,” Oregonian, January http://www.ustream.tv/channel/portland- 43. Darrell Millner, “Blacks in Oregon.” ccorcos/biblio/fortune%20telling%20and%20 12, 1969, p. 27. gypsy-church. Pastor Ellis is a member of 44. John Guernsey, “School Atten- the%20law.htm (accessed February 4, 2017). 74. Guernsey, “School Attendance” p. 21. the large Ellis family mentioned above.

550 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 551 89. Ellen Sato, “The Social Impact of nytimes.com/1992/04/14/us/police-raid- “Portland Gypsy patriarch sentenced to short aclu (accessed September 11, 2017). the Rise of Pentecostal Evangelicalism and-suit-open-window-into-gypsy-life.html prison term in tax case,” Oregonian, April 11, 107. Gypsy Caravan Tribal Bellydance, among the American Rom,” in Cara da (accessed February 12, 2017). 2011 http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/ http://gypsycaravantribalbellydance.com Silva, Joanne Grumet, and David Nemeth, 96. See Dellal, American Gypsy, a index.ssf/2011/04/portland_gypsy_patriarch_ (accessed September 11, 2017). eds., Papers from the Eight and Ninth documentary film about the case. sente.html (accessed February 11, 2017). Also 108. Hancock, Pariah, 81. Annual Meetings, Gypsy Lore Society, 97. Oksana Marafioti, “Why TLC’s My note the large number of online comments 109. Hancock, Pariah; Hancock, We Are North American Chapter (N.J.: Centenary Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding Doesn’t maligning Roma. The Romani People; and Dimitrina Petrova, College, 1988), 69–94; Rena Gropper and Represent the Romani,” Slate (blog), May 100. Theresa Catalano, “The Roma and “The Roma: Between A Myth and A Future,” Carol Miller, “Exploring New Worlds in 15, 2012, http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_ Wall Street/CEOs: Linguistic construction Social Research 70:1 (2003): 111–61. American Romani Studies: Social and factor/2012/05/15/is_my_big_fat_gypsy_ of identity in U.S. and Canadian crime re- 110. Frequently Asked Questions on the Cultural Attitudes among the American wedding_unfair_to_the_roma_community_. ports,” International Journal of Compara- European Roma Population, http://www. Macviaia,” Romani Studies 11:2 (2001): 81– html (accessed February 11, 2017). Romani tive and Applied Criminal Justice (2013): romaeducationfund.org/frequently-asked- 110; Sutherland, Roma, 97–102; and David writer Oksana Marafioti also published 1–23, http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/ questions-european-roma-population, (ac- Thurfjell and Adrian Marsh, eds. Romani her memoir of immigration from Russia to viewcontent.cgi?article=1181&context=te cessed September 17, 2017). Pentecostalism: Gypsies and Charismatic California, American Gypsy: A Memoir (New achlearnfacpub (accessed February 12, 111. Petrova, “The Roma” and FRA Christianity (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2014). York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2012). 2017). Second European Union Minorities and 90. Personal communication, DE, sixty- See also, Marcelle Hutchins, “What Does 101. Dennis Marlock, Gypsy Talk: Law Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS II) Roma— three-year-old Oregon woman, January, it Mean to be American Romani or Gypsy,” Enforcement’s Guide to the Secret Lan- Selected findings, November2016 , http:// 4, 2015. PRI The World, July 3, 2014 https://www.pri. guage of American Gypsies (Street Smart fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2016/eumidis- 91. Personal communication, TE, thirty- org/stories/2014-07-03/what-does-it-mean- Communications, 1990), 6. ii-roma-selected-findings (accessed Febru- five-year-old Oregon woman, February be-american-romani-or-gypsy (accessed 102. Hancock, “Gypsy Mafia, Romani ary 12, 2017). 21, 2015. February 12, 2017). See Amy Addison-Dunne, Saints,” 209. 112. Petrova, “The Roma” 111–61; and 92. Simina Mistreanu, “Roma minority “Big fat Gypsy Lies,” http://oxfordstudent. 103. Lizzy Acker, “ ‘Gypsy’ crime class FRA Second European Union Minorities has special sensitivities, health-related com/2012/07/31/big-fat-gypsy-lies/#top (ac- raises questions about racial profiling,” and Discrimination Survey. beliefs, professor, doctors say, Oregonian, cessed February 10, 2017). Oregonian, November 14, 2016, http://www. 113. His film Searching for the Fourth February 1, 2014, http://www.oregonlive. 98. Personal communication, PE, oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/in- Nail is about his family, Romani culture and com/portland/index.ssf/2014/02/roma_mi- thirty-five-year-old Oregon man, January, dex.ssf/2016/11/gypsy_crime_class_raises_ history, see www.searchingforthe4thnail. nority_has_special_sens.html (accessed 23, 2016. quest.html (accessed September 11, 2017). com (accessed September 11, 2017). February 11, 2017); and Sutherland, Roma, 99. Here are examples of articles: 104. For Gary Nolte’s resume see, 114. Semuels, “The Racist History of 74–77. Maxine Bernstein. “Portland man accuses https://media.dojmt.gov/wp-content/ Portland.” 93. Personal communication, BB, sixty- Hawthorne psychic of defrauding him of uploads/Detective_Gary_Nolte_2015_ 115. Tamar Lewin, “Study Points to In- one-year-old Oregon woman, January, 21, $150,000 including cash, Rolexes and a Hum- CV.doc. Note that Acker wrote “ ‘Gypsy’ crease In Tolerance of Ethnicity,” January 8, 2000. mer,” Oregonian, May 10, 2010,http://www. crime class” article after several activists 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/08/ 94. For a collage of headlines until 1987, oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/05/ located in other states (as well as I) pro- us/study-points-to-increase-in-tolerance- see Hancock, Pariah Syndrome, 145–62. portland_man_accuses_hawthorne.html tested a scheduled Bellingham, Washing- of-ethnicity.html (accessed June 5, 2017). Note that I did not locate any cases of (accessed February 11, 2017); Brian Denson, ton, “gypsy crime” training. 116. Dickie (Beejoe) Marks, interview violent crime regarding Roma in Oregon, “Portland car dealer gets prison for bilking in- 105. “Without Mercy: Criminal Gypsies/ recorded in Albany, Oregon, May 9, 1980; although Sutherland reports several cases surance companies,” Oregonian, November Travelers & the Elderly,” https://fortress. Dunham, “The Marks Family,” p. 71. in other regions of the United States. Suther- 5, 2015, http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/ wa.gov/cjtc/www/administrator/class/4828. 117. Carol Silverman, “Negotiating land also points out, and I agree, that Roma index.ssf/2015/11/portland_car_dealer_gets_ pdf (accessed September 11, 2017). Note ‘Gypsiness’: Strategy in Context,” Jour- are using the U.S. court system more to ad- priso.html (accessed February 11, 2017); that this Bellevue training was cancelled nal of American Folklore, 101:401 (1988): dress both in group conflict and injustices “Leader in Portland Gypsy community pleads after objections from Romani activists. 261–75. among themselves (Roma, 81–90). guilty to filing false tax return,” http://www. 106. “ ‘Gypsy Scam’ Bulletin released 118. Gropper and Miller, “Exploring New 95. Timothy Egan, “ Police Raid and oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/01/ by Arapahoe Sheriff Criticized by ACLU,” Worlds, ” 106–107. Suit Open Window into Gypsy Life,” New leader_in_portland_gypsy_commu.html http://aclu-co.org/gypsy-scam-bulletin- 119. Sutherland, Roma, 23. York Times, April 14, 1992, http://www. (accessed February 11, 2017); Brian Denson released-by-arapahoe-sheriff-criticized-by-

552 OHQ vol. 118, no. 4 Silverman, Oregon Roma (Gypsies) 553