Smoke Signals March 1990
Page 13
Barbara Roberts Joins
Goyenors Race
Former Student of Eula Petite
Secretary of State Barbara Roberts, a former student
of the late Tribal Elder Eula Petite, recently accepted a
surprise hand-off from Gov. Neil Goldschmidt and
announced her bid for governor.
"I don't believe I've ever said of any Oregon problem,
'It's not my job"' Roberts said.
Goldschmidt said Wednesday that he would not seek
re-election because he and Margie Goldschmidt, his
wife of 25 years, were separating, and he wanted to '
devote time to his family.
Roberts, S3, said Goldschmidt let her know Sunday
that he was thinking about not running and called her
early Wednesday with his decision.
"This was a statement I had hoped to make in 1994,"
Roberts said. ""Gov. Goldschmidt's announcement
yesterday has not changed my goal - it has simply
changed my timetable."
Fellow Democrats were relieved that Roberts was so
quick to respond.
"We are very pleased that Barbara is going to get in
the race, and she is apparently going to be the consensus
candidate," Paddy McGuire, the Oregon Democratic
Party executive director, said. "I think she's extremely
well-prepared, given for the last five years she's been a
heartbeat away."
Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer, the declared
Republican gubernatorial candidate, said Thursday in
Eugene that he was not ready to go head-to-head with
Roberts. He called it premature and "utterly presump
tuous" to consider her his opponent in the race.
Both candidates must pass a May primary, but so far
no serious contenders have come forward to challenge
either of them. The filing deadline is just a month away.
The change in opponents appeared to stun
Frohnmayer.
He said his strategy would remain basically the same,
but his tactics would change. He called the
Goldschmidt's separation a tragedy and admitted a
feeling of emptiness with Goldschmidt out of the race.
"The strategy was always to bring before Oregon the
issues," Frohnmayer said. However, "it does obviously
change the dynamics of the campaign."
One noticeable change was that Frohnmayer no longer
had an incumbent to attack.
Roberts was quick to assume the role of a challenger.
She said Frohnmayer has rarely played out of position in
his 10 years as Oregon's attorney general.
"He has not been as visible on the issued that matter as
I've been," Roberts said. "I haven't seen him out there
on issues broader than his office."
Blackfeet Reburial
Ceremonies Held in Montana
In September 1988, the Smithsonian Institution
returned 16 Blackfeet remains to their tribe. The
Blackfeet conducted a traditional reburial ceremony for
the remains in May 1989 in Browning, Montana. Elders
from the tribe hosted a three-day event at Old Agency,
where more than 600 Blackfeet perished during what is
known as the Starvation Winter of 1883.
The Blackfeet began the ceremonies in advance of the
actual reburial, to prepare the spirits of the living and
the dead. Both before and after the ceremony, the
traditional leaders conducted a sweat-lodge ceremony to
purify and pray for the spirits and ask for guidance.
The actual reburial ceremony took place on May 26.
The entire Blackfeet community, as well as Smithsonian
representatives and members of the press, were invited
to observe this solemn occasion.
In addition to serving as secretary of state since she
was elected in 1984, Roberts said she took on concurrent
roles as chairwoman of the Governor's Task Force on
Workers' Compensation Reform and a member of the
Task Force to Finance Long Term Care.
"The job is dearly not done yet, but I wasn't afraid to
tackle the issue and risk the controversy," Roberts said.
Although he wouldn't take any direct shots,
Frohnmayer did defend himself.
"I have a very full plate of issues on which I have spent
an enormous amount of time," he said. "It's premature
to pick a quarrel with the secretary of state, but I'll let
my record speak for itself."
Roberts also said her small town upbringing and blue
collar background brought her closer to Oregonian's
than Frohnmayer's background. Roberts was born in
Corvallis, and Frohnmayer was born in Medford.
"I can't compete with his money, his Oxford degree or
his experience as a lawyer," she said.
Roberts said that she could compete on the issues,
however, and that the race would focus on workers'
compensation reform, financing for elementary and
secondary schools, and the personalities and back
grounds of the candidates.
McGuire said that Roberts would have an uphill battle,
but that she has high name familiarity.
"For us, we're definitely back at the drawing board, but
the Republicans are, too," McGuire said. "Dave
Frohnmayer's strategy was to make this a referendum
on Neil Goldschmidt, and he can't do that."
Craig Berkman, the Republican Party chairman,
pointed out that a race between Frohnmayer and
Goldschmidt was expected to be close, and that Roberts
did not have the incumbent's advantage.
Berkman also questioned Roberts' qualifications for
the job.
"I'm not aware of anything in her background that
shows executive experience in managing large groups of
people and complex programs that a chief executive of
state has to deal with on a daily basis," Berkman said.
Roberts started her political career as an advocate for
disabled children's educational rights. She served on the
Parkrose School Board for a decade beginning in 1973
and was a Multnomah County commissioner.
. She was elected as a state representative in 1980 and
served two two-year terms, including a stint as the state's
first woman
House majority leader. She was elected secretary of
state in 1984 and re-elected in 1988.
She does not have to give up her current position to
run for governor.
Roberts is married to state Sen. Frank Roberts, D-
Portland, and is the mother of two sons.
- Courtesy of the Statesman Journal
Area Updates
CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF SILETZ
Tim Wapato, former Columbia River Intertribal
Fish Commission Director, and now Director of the Ad
ministration for Native Americans, was this year's
keynote speaker for the Silctz Restoration Celebration
which has been held in November of each year since
1977. Key government activities have concerned health
care plans, and personnel changes. The tribes have
recently undertaken a program of contract health
services for eight counties. Plans also are moving
forward to locate their health clinic in the city of Silctz.
In personnel issues they are working on comprehensive
manual, and they have made major position changes.
The former Tribal secretary has been promoted to
Program Manager and member John Roe has returned
as their Chief Judge of the Tribal Court.
Coos Tribe Claims
Federal Land
COOS BAY - The Confederated Tribes of Coos,
Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians have a claim on
federal land being considered as the site of a new pulp
mill.
The claim adds a new dimension to the battle about a
$400 million pulp mill proposed by a Japanese paper
company. The battle has pitted people interested in the
mill's 300 new jobs against those fearing that it would
use too much water and create an ugly smell.
Tribal administrator Joseph Miller said the Confeder
ated Tribes' claim to the land as part of a new reserva
tion predated by two months the action taken by the
Oregon International Port of Coos Bay.
Port officials have been working to arrange an ex
change with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for
173 acres on the North Spit, an arm of sand that forms
the bay here.
The port's request for the exchange was published in
the Federal Register on Nov. 27. The Confederate
Tribes submitted its plan for creating a new reservation
Sept. 30, Miller said.
The Confederated Tribes' claim has been backed by
the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has asked the
Bureau of Land Management to stop any attempts to
transfer the land to anyone but the Confederated Tribes.
Paul Vetterick, the bureau's associate state director,
said the bureau was working on a response.
Port Manager Paul Vogcl said he never had seen the
Confederated Tribes' reservation plan but thought that
the port's claim was solid.
Miller said the plan for assembling a new reservation
was a requirement of 1984 congressional action restor
ing tribal status to the Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw Indians.
Like many others, the Confederated Tribes were
dissolved by federal action in 1954 in an effort to
assimilate them into the general population. The tribes
now number 425 members.
The Confederated Tribes had given up their ancestral
lands in 1855, when they were uprooted and moved first
to the north spit of the Umpqua River and a year later
to Yachats.
In 1875, the tribes were told that their treaty never had
been signed by the president, and they could no longer
stay at their camp in Yachats. But when they returned
to Coos Bay, they found that their lands were occupied
by settlers.
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