Smoke Signals May 1990
Page 7
Health and Human Services
Committee
Grant Guidelines
In accordance with duties prescribed in the Health and
Human Services Ordinance adopted on January 15,
1898, and as amended on October 4, 1989, the Health
and Human Services Committee has set aside funds for
"Health and Community Promotion" grants to eligible
applicants.
These grants are designed to promote health and
fitness; encourage community programs such as sports,
recreation and leisure activities; and to provide alcohol
and drug free activities for members of the Confeder
ated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon
and their families.
Application Guidelines
1. Individuals or Groups requesting funds must com
plete the Health and Human Services Committee Grant
Application.
2. Requests should not exceed $300 for groups, or $50
per individual. Any requests above these amounts
during the same fiscal year shall require a 1 : 1 dollar
match to be considered.
3. Eligible applicants shall include tribal members and
other individuals with close social and economic tics to
the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Commu
nity of Oregon.
4. Requests shall be submitted to the Health and
Human Services Committee. Applications will be
reviewed at the Committee's regularly scheduled
meeting, usually the first Tuesday of each month.
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Reporting Requirements
1. Individuals or Groups receiving funds; shall be
required to submit receipts on budget and approved ex
penditures. Failure to submit receipts shall result in no
further funding allocations to the applicant individual or
group.
2. A "Health and Human Services Final Report" shall
be completed and submitted with the receipts attached.
These reports are due no later than 15 days following
the scheduled activity or 15 days of the date of approval
of the grant request, whichever is later.
3. Applicants may be requested to attend a Health and
Human Services Committee meeting to report on the
activities approved for funding.
For more information contact Merle Lcno or Darlcne
Aaron at the Tribal Office. (503) 879-5211.
CENSUS REPORT:
Cherokees are Largest
American Indian Tribe
WASHINGTON (AP) - Cherokees are the largest
American Indian tribe, Tlingits the richest and Navajos
the poorest, the Census Bureau reported.
Chickasaws registered the highest median age, 27.6
years, while the best high-school graduation rate, 68.4
percent, was attained by the Comanches, according to
the bureau.
The report Tuesday on American Indians essentially
completed the agency's publications of 1980 census data
- just two months before the 1990 census gets underway.
Though data about Indians as a whole was published
previously, the tribal breakdown had to wait because of
budgetary constraints, the bureau said.
Tribal Court and
Child Custody
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Com
munity of Oregon has hired Lester Marston to be the
Chief Judge of the Grand Ronde Tribal Court. The
tentative date for the first session of the Tribal Court is
June 8, 1990. The Court will be in session at least one
day each month. This article will briefly explain the
function of the Tribal Court.
The Tribal Court is an entity distinct from the Tribal
Council. The Tribal Court's decisions on matters
brought before it are final. As with other kinds of
courts, the Tribal Court will function according to a
code of civil procedure. This code will inform persons
who wish to have a matter heard before the Tribal Court
of the paperwork they have to file, who they have to file
it with, the time limits for filing different kinds of
actions, and other procedural matters. This code is
currently being written by Judge Marston, and will have
to be approved by the Tribal Council before it becomes
effective. Judge Marston is also drafting a code of evi
dence, which will describe the kinds of testimony and
other written and physical evidence that can be pre
sented to the Court in a particular case.
The primary purpose of the Tribal Court, at the
present lime, will be to preside over cases involving child
custody matters: adoptions, foster home placements,
dependency proceedings, neglect and abuse. The Tribe
has a long-established right as a sovereign Indian nation
to determine issues of central importance to its children.
However, at the present time, the Court will not hear
divorce cases or custody issues as a part of a divorce.
Persons who are involved in matters concerning the
placement, education, treatment, etc., of Tribal children
may bring these matters before the Tribal Court. The
code of civil procedure will describe the specific steps
that must be taken in order to bring such a case.
A number of such cases are currently under the
jurisdiction of the state courts, and the Tribe has the
right to have such cases transferred to the Tribal Court.
The Tribal Court does not, however, have instant and
automatic jurisdiction over child custody cases that are
currently under state court control. The Tribal Council
has recently adopted an amendment to the Tribe's Child
Welfare Ordinance that sets out the specific steps that
must be taken in order to have a case currently in the
state courts brought into Tribal Court.
First, the Tribal Social Services Department will
examine the facts and circumstances of a particular case,
and decide whether or not it wants to recommend that
the Tribe request a change of jurisdiction. This recom
mendation is then reviewed by the ICWA Transfer
Committee, which makes the final decision whether or
not the Tribe will request a transfer of jurisdiction. The
ICWA Transfer Committee is the final authority for
such decisions.
If the ICWA Transfer Committee approves the
recommendation to request a transfer of jurisdiction, the
next step is for the Social Services Department and or
the Tribe's attorneys to go to the state court and request
the court to transfer jurisdiction to the Tribal Court.
Such a request may also be made by the child (or his or
her lawyer or guardian ad litem) or by his or her
parents. The state court is required to grant such a
request, unless it determines that there is "good cause"
not to do so.
Once the state court agrees to transfer jurisdiction, a
request must be made to the Tribal Court to accept
jurisdiction. Again, the Tribal Court is required to
accept jurisdiction unless it determines from evidence
and testimony presented to it that there is good cause
not to do so.
It is important to emphasize the matter of confidential
ity of these proceedings. Federal, State and Tribal law
all contain strict requirements protecting the confidenti
ality of parties involved in child custody proceedings,
especially where such proceedings deal with issues of
treatment of mental illness or emotional problems, or
involve allegations of alcohol or drug abuse. The Social
Services Department and the ICWA Transfer Commit
tee are strictly prohibited from releasing any specific
information on child custody cases to any person not a
party to the proceedings. Court hearings on these mat
ters, including those held in the Tribal Court, are strictly
confidential: the only people who may attend are the
parties involved and the caseworkers, their lawyers, and
any witnesses to be called.
The establishment of the Tribal Court is a great step
forward for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
towards taking control of its own destiny. As the Court
develops, it will expand its jurisdiction to preside over
other matters of concern to the Tribe and its members.
Rest Home Opens Cultural,
Social Doors
NESPELEM, WASH. - Gnarled fingers slowly twist
yarn or painstakingly weave water-softened pine needles
into baskets.
Eyes dimmed by cataracts peer closely at needlework,
while vojees sometimes rise in tuneless, age-old songs of
healing.
It is crafts time at the Colville Tribal Convalescent
Center, when paints, shellacs and yarns are trotted out
and patient, younger hands help older, palsied ones
create objects pleasing to the eye. Crafts time is a
respite from the loneliness, boredom ancThomcsickness
that trouble any rest home.
The picture is not entirely unfamiliar. But this is a
convalescent center with a difference.
The attractive 52-bed rest home, nestled in a wooded
glen just south of the tribal compound, is a vanguard for
convalescent centers around the country.
By Oct. 1, director David Murphy said, all U.S. nursing
homes will be required by federal law to become more
responsive to their residents' cultural and social needs.
Residents will have much greater control of their
activities, their diets and, to an extent, their bedtimes
and medications, Murphy said.
But the tribal-run convalescent center already docs
most of that and more, according to Murphy and Mike
Somday, a tribal councilman and member of the Indian
Culture Board.
When the home was opened in 1981, a mandate by the
council was to stress cultural identity for its residents,
primarily Colville, Yakima, Spokane and Cocur d' Alcne
Indians, with a 25 percent non-Indian minority.
That cultural sense pervades the building.
"It's all psychologically and spiritually medicinal,"
Someday said of the cultural atmosphere.
Murphy, who operated 200-bed homes in Seattle and
Spokane before accepting the tribal post in May, said he
didn't appreciate, at first, the depth of respect that
Native Americans have for their elders.
But he can see it day after day as children listen
enraptured to legends, then line up to solemnly shake
the hands of all elders before leaving after a visit.
- Courtesy of the Statesman Journal