County briefed on Lone Fir memorial design and community request for apology over Chinese section erasure

Multnomah County commissioners heard a presentation on the history of the Chinese section of Lone Fir Cemetery and a community request that the county issue a formal apology for past actions that led to the erasure of graves and funerary practices.

The presentation, given to the Board of Multnomah County Commissioners during a board briefing, combined archival research, community testimony, and preliminary designs for a memorial and interpretation at Block 14, the burial area historically used by Portland’s Chinese community. Helen Ying, immediate past president and current vice president of the Portland Lodge of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, and Karen Vick Kaye, senior planner with Metro and project manager for the memorial, led the presentation along with Michael Yuan, principal and lead designer at KNOT Studio.

The request for an apology grew from community meetings and research that documented removal of burials, incomplete cemetery records, and construction over portions of the Chinese burial ground in the mid-20th century. Karen Vick Kaye said research identified "a minimum of 2,892 Chinese people" once buried at the site and that…