Local News
Breakfast
Pushout
Goldberg also spoke to the controversy
surrounding CoverOregon’s failed website
launch, which has led to calls for the feder-
al government to take it over.
“It’s been a disappointment for con-
sumers, for the state, and for me,” he said.
“Because here’s the thing: We have eleven
health care plans that have joined Cover
Oregon. We want people to be able to get to
them...
“We’re making improvements as we work
to get up our full website,” he said. “ I want
to ask this of you – stay with us.”
(Read full speech as prepared for
delivery in our opinion commentary
section.)
In a departure from the usual
breakfast format, Goldberg took
questions from the floor from The
Skanner News’ Lisa Loving.
“We’re actively signing people up
-- Bruce Goldberg and we will get everyone signed up,”
he said. “We also are asking for sub-
sidies for people who from no fault
of their own were not signed up in
CareOregon – spoke about his career dedi- time.”
Scholarship winners for 2014, and their
cation to community health and his wide
experience in addressing health disparities. community sponsors, include: Kaitlan
“But first, I want to say it is very person- Purkapile, Portland State University, the
al for me, as I know it is for everyone in the Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpen-
room, to honor Dr. King and to reflect on ters; Marneet Lewis, Warner Pacific Uni-
his work and his legacy, and on what it versity; the Portland Division of Safeway;
Selam Wako, the University of Oregon,
means to us,” he said.
“Indeed, it is shocking and inhumane that Portland Development Commission;
for generations in our country – and in our Shaniece Curry, University of Oregon, the
state – there has been a great divide in University of Oregon; Alyson Knapper,
Rice University, Oregon Health & Science;
health and health care.”
and Pastor Wheatfall.
Hales read out a city proclamation
announcing that The Skanner News Martin
Luther King Jr. Breakfast is now a “central
event in the life of the city.”
“Dr. King helped us understand equal
rights are not a destination, but a journey,”
Hales said.
Highlight of the event was the keynote
speaker, Interim Executive Director of Care
Oregon, Bruce Goldberg, M.D.
Goldberg – who was tapped to speak at
the breakfast before his appointment to
‘We’re actively signing
people up and we will get
everyone signed up’
PHOTO BY THE SKANNER STAFF
continued from page 1
Community organizers with the Portland Students Union, the Portland
Parents Union, and the Portland Association of Teachers held a press
conference calling for more resources for classrooms to address school
push-out as it impacts the schools-to-prison pipeline. The demonstration
came in light of the Portland Public Schools’ announcement that they have
a budget surplus. Read the whole story on www.TheSkanner.com.
Christine Trinh, Georgetown University,
Providence Health Systems; Ashleigh
Miller- Hayes, currently attending Franklin
High School and heading to Seattle Pacific
University, Home Forward; Dayja Curry,
attending DeLa Salle North Catholic High
School and heading to the University of Illi-
nois, Family Care; Hanna Atenafu, Oregon
State University, Legacy Health Systems;
Henry Sissac, attending DeLa Salle North
Catholic High School and heading to Wash-
ington State University, Vancouver, Wells
Fargo Bank; Veronica Medhanie, Portland
State University, Pacific Power & Light,
and Sanrawit Dagne, attending Reynolds
High School and on his way to Oregon State
University, and Michelle Carr, Kent State
University, and Kevin Jones, Oregon State
University, The Skanner Foundation.
government should stay out of most tribal
membership disputes.
Mass disenrollment battles started in the
1990s, just as Indian casinos were establish-
ing a foothold. Since then, Indian gambling
revenues have skyrocketed from $5.4 bil-
lion in 1995 to a record $27.9 billion in
2012, according to the National Indian
Gaming Commission.
Tribes have used the money to build hous-
ing, schools and roads, and to fund tribal
health care and scholarships. They also
have distributed casino profits to individual
tribal members.
Of the nearly 240 tribes that run more
than 420 gambling establishments across 28
states, half distribute a regular per-capita
payout to their members. The
payout amounts vary from tribe
to tribe. And membership
reductions lead to increases in
the payments — though tribes
deny money is a factor in disen-
rollment and say they’re simply
trying to strengthen the integrity
of their membership.
Disputes over money come on
top of other issues for tribes.
American Indians have one of the highest
rates of interracial marriage in the U.S. —
leading some tribes in recent years to elim-
inate or reduce their blood quantum require-
ments. Also, many Native Americans don’t
live on reservations, speak Native lan-
guages or ``look’’ Indian, making others
question their bloodline claims.
Across the nation, disenrollment has
played out in dramatic, emotional ways that
left communities reeling and cast-out mem-
bers stripped of their payouts, health bene-
fits, fishing rights, pensions and
scholarships.
In Central California, the Picayune
Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians has
disenrolled hundreds. Last year, the dispute
over banishments became so heated that
sheriff’s deputies were called to break up a
violent skirmish between two tribal factions
that left several people injured.
In Washington, after the Nooksack Tribal
Council voted to disenroll 306 members cit-
ing documentation errors, those affected
sued in tribal and federal courts. They say
the tribe, which has two casinos but gives
no member payouts, was racially motivated
because the families being cast out are part
Filipino. This week, the Nooksack Court of
Appeals declined to stop the disenrollments.
including the water bill collector and the gas
company – to build community around their
programs and booklists.
In the mid-1950s, the county library sys-
tem moved to expand into six larger, full-
service libraries, and the North Portland
Library we know today – with some 30,000
books – evolved.
The library’s Black Resource Center
opened in 1987, putting North Portland
Library on the map for anyone interested in
reading up on racial equality sand Civil
Rights, among many other related topics.
Library-lovers today often enjoy the orig-
inal art of beloved painter Charlotte Lewis,
who died in 1999. One of many key cultur-
al figures in Portland, Lewis especially
loved the North Portland Library and start-
ed the annual Kwanzaa celebration there in
1993.
Welch says she was surprised some few
years ago when she got the library’s piano
tuned for the first time in years.
“I thought it was an old player piano until
I got it tuned,” she said. “This is the library
that has Steinway piano donated from the
community.”
If you have library memorabilia, call the
branch at 503-988-5394 or just stop by.
For more information about the North
Portland Library and all the system’s offer-
ings go to www.MultcoLib.org.
Native
continued from page 1
debate over identity — over who is ``Indian
enough’’ to be a tribal member.
“It ultimately comes down to the question
of how we define what it means to be
Native today,’’ said David Wilkins, a politi-
cal science professor at the University of
Minnesota and a member of North Caroli-
na’s Lumbee Tribe. ``As tribes who suffered
genocidal policies, boarding school laws
and now out-marriage try to recover their
identity in the 20th century,
some are more fractured, and
they appear to lack the kind of
common elements that lead to
true cohesion.’’
Wilkins, who has tracked
the recent increase in disen-
rollment across the nation,
says tribes have kicked out
thousands of people.
Historically, ceremonies
and prayers — not disenrollment — were
used to resolve conflicts because tribes
essentially are family-based, and ``you
don’t cast out your relatives,’’ Wilkins said.
Banishment was used in rare, egregious sit-
uations to cast out tribal members who com-
mitted crimes such as murder or incest.
Most tribes have based their membership
criteria on blood quantum or on descent
from someone named on a tribe’s census
rolls or treaty records — old documents that
can be flawed.
There are 566 federally recognized tribes
and determining membership has long been
considered a hallmark of tribal sovereignty.
A 1978 U.S. Supreme Court ruling reaf-
firmed that policy when it said the federal
Wilkins, who has tracked the recent
increase in disenrollment across the
nation, says tribes have kicked out
thousands of people
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com
Books
continued from page 1
Albina first gathered 500 books in a reading
room in 1909.
In 1911 that collection was merged with
another to form the first North Portland
Library.
But just one year later, local residents
donated the land for construction of the cur-
rent building after Carnegie donated
$60,000 — to build a total of four libraries
in Portland.
After construction, library staff worked
through close neighborhood contacts –
January 22, 2014
The Portland Skanner Page 3