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Spilyay Tymoo,
November 29
State’s first tribal
COCC Madras campus expansion
affairs director
Shana McConville Radford, of
the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation, will
join Gov. Tina Kotek’s administra-
tion as Oregon’s first tribal affairs
director.
Mrs. McConville Radford, 39,
since May 2022 served as deputy
director of the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Shana lived in Warm Springs
until the fifth grade before her fam-
ily returned to the Umatilla Indian
Reservation.
She later worked several years
for the Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs as the Tribal Liaison
of the Health and Human Services
Branch. The in 2020, she worked
with the U.S. Census Bureau as a
tribal and Congressional lead to im-
prove census counts from tribal
nations in Oregon, including Warm
Springs, and in Idaho.
She holds a master’s degree in
International Law and International
Relations from the University of
New South Wales in Kensington,
Australia; and a bachelor’s degree
in Political Science from Portland
State University.
“Governor Kotek’s trust in me
underscores her respect and com-
mitment to strengthening, address-
ing, and understanding the distinc-
tive needs and the unique political
relationship with our tribal nations,”
Mrs. McConville Radford said.
The tribal affairs director role is
new to the Governor’s office. Gov.
Kotek’s top priority for the tribal
affairs director is to foster positive
relationships with Oregon’s tribal
Shana McConville Radford
nations through meaningful and
transparent consultation.
The governor said she chose
Shana based on her “extensive ex-
perience in tribal matters, policies
and government-to-government re-
lations.”
Ms. McConville Radford said
she will work to foster collabora-
tion and cooperation between the
sovereign governments of the nine
Oregon-based tribes, and the fed-
eral and state government.
“I will promote and practice
transparent and integrous policy
design and implementation by cen-
tering true collaboration through
curiosity, empathy, candor, and reci-
procity,” she said.
Before becoming deputy direc-
tor of the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Shana also worked with a number
of state leaders, federal agencies
and tribal governments, including
Warm Springs as mentioned above.
Central Oregon Community
College’s long-planned Madras
campus expansion has moved
closer to its fundraising goal,
thanks to a recently awarded $1
million grant.
The funding from from the
JTMF Foundation will support
COCC’s development of a
24,000-square-foot building de-
signed for early childhood edu-
cation programs, registered nurse
and other health career pathways;
and a 100-capacity child care cen-
ter to ser ve the community.
Groundbreaking for the new
Madras campus facility is ex-
pected in the spring of 2024.
Founded in 2020, the JTMF
Foundation partners with causes
and organizations across the Pa-
cific Northwest that strive to
make a profound difference in
communities, with a special fo-
cus on improving the lives of chil-
dren, veterans, seniors and those
with intellectual and developmen-
tal disabilities.
COCC’s expansion project in
Madras is a response to Jefferson
County’s needs related to early
childhood education and health
care workforce gaps, along with
a major shortage of child care
options in the region. Funding is
coming from public and private
sources.
“This is a monumental gift
from the JTMF Foundation and
a major investment in the future
of Jefferson County, with a reach
that will benefit countless lives,”
said Laurie Chesley, president of
COCC.
Story of legendary Indians football team
During the early 20th cen-
tury, the Carlisle Indian School,
of Pennsylvania, was a national
football powerhouse, regularly
competing against other major
programs such as the Ivy
League schools Harvard, Penn-
sylvania, Cornell, Dartmouth,
Yale, Princeton, Brown, and
Army (West Point) and Navy
(Annapolis).
Coach Pop Warner led a
highly successful football team
and athletic program at the
Carlisle School, and went on to
create other successful colle-
giate programs. He coached
the exceptional athlete Jim
Thorpe and his teammates,
bringing national recognition to
the small school.
By 1907, the Carlisle Indi-
ans were the most dynamic
team in college football. They
had pioneered the forward pass,
the overhand spiral and other
trick plays that frustrated their
opponents. The Carlisle Indi-
ans have been characterized as
the “team that invented foot-
ball.”
“If there was ever a book that
should be a mainstay in collections
strong in Native American history,
culture, and issues, or early civil
rights efforts, it should be Gridiron
Gypsies,” according to the Midwest
Book Review.
The story
Gridiron Gypsies: How the
Carlisle Indians Shaped Moder n
Football by Tom Benjey is a new
book about the lengendart Carlisle
Indian School football team.
After pleading with the school
superintendent to play football
against other schools, the small
complement of students old
enough competed against college
men from coast to coast.
Some had never seen a football
before, and most were learning En-
glish. Located in a small town in
Southcentral Pennsylvania, they
traveled considerable distances to
play all their important games on
the road, but still won most of them.
This is an incredibly detailed
story of one of the most legend-
ary of college football teams, one
whose reputation is still strong more
than 100 years after its final game
was played.
“Indeed, it would be a shame
to relegate Gridiron Gypsies to
sports collections alone, or limit
its audience to sports history en-
thusiasts, because its accompany-
ing insights into a small town
Pennsylvania school whose foot-
ball team become known nation-
wide against all odds offers rare
glimpses into the politics of the
sport.” — Midwest Book Review.
Story behind the story
“In the middle of a discussion
about a draft of an article about
the 1908 Carlisle Indian School
football team—the first year Jim
Thorpe was a starter—with the
editor who had requested the
piece for his journal, he asked why
I hadn’t written a complete his-
tory of the team.
‘The only previous attempt,
made in the 1950s missed some
games and included errors. So, I
took it on during my covid incar-
ceration and brushed up on the
ever-changing rules.” — author
Tom Benjey.
COCC
Architect’s rendering of the COCC Madras expansion.