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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1990)
Smoke Signals July 1990 Page 7 1990 Tribal Council Candidates i Candy Robertson Dear Tribal Members; Hi everyone! My name is Candy Robertson and I hope that all is well with you. I am 43 years old and was born and raised in Grand Ronde, and have and still am raising my children here. My husband, Jess and I have 8 children all together, his, mine and ours, and we also have 7 grand-children. My mother was Alberta (Riggs) George and my grand mother, Lena Bobb. My very special Aunt and Uncle are: Verna Larsen and Lewis (Bud) Riggs. I have been a very fortunate person as to have served on the Tribal Council for close to 7 years now, currently serving as the Vice Chair. I serve on the Education, Fish & Wildlife and the Pow Wow Tribal Committees. By attending other Indian Organization events, I and other Council representatives are able to become knowl edgeable on major issues and concerns facing Indian country. We are then able to bring these concerns and issues back in order to keep specifics current, especially legislative issues that could have a crucial impact not only to our Tribe but to other Indian people as well. My thanks goes out to those people that have helped with achieving a majority of the Tribes' goals Staff, Committee Members, Volunteers - to all - Thanks! It has been such an honor and pleasure to have been a part of the many achievements and positive changes that our Tribe has seen since Restoration in 1983. I'm asking you to let me continue to be a part of our Tribes' achievements and re-elect me to serve you on Tribal Council once again - and remember, we will attain self sufficiency. Please, cast your vote for me - Thank you, Candy Robertson Ken Schmid My name is Ken Schmid and my wife, Karen and I live in Tillamook with 3 of our daughters, Crystal, who is 9 years old and is also running for Jr. Miss Grand Ronde this year, Nicole who is 16 years old and Lisa who is also 16 years old. I am retired from a career as a General Contractor and have spent the last 10 years of my life in all phases of Law Enforcement. I have also spent the last 4 years serving on the Pow Wow Committee, working hard to make every Pow Wow a successful one. And I have recently joined a few fellow tribal members on the Archeology Committee serving as the Vice Chair. A couple of my goals as a Council person would be to get more Tribal members involved in tribal activities and I would keep all members informed of all functions and issues going on with the Tribe to make that possible. Now that I'm retired, I have the time, energy and desire to be a good, dependable Council Member. mi Ts I - 1 . v at Kiiaj"u'Miiir' Russ Leno Hello, my name is Russ Leno and I am running for Tribal Council this year. I have lived in the Grand Ronde area for most of my life. I was elected to the Interim Council in 1983 and I have served on the Tribal Council two of the last three years. I have been serving the Tribe as the Chairman of the Ccmetary Committee and I have worked at the cemetary since I was very young. Also, I am currently on the Tribes' Fish and Wildlife Committee. I would like you all to know that I feel the most important issues we face as a Tribe today are: providing as many opportunities as we can for our Tribal youth, the proper management of our timberlands, taking care of the needs of our elders and the establishment of a competant and effective economic development plan. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the support you have given me in the past and I look forward to serving you in the future. Margaret Provost I ask for your vote in the up-coming Tribal Council elections. You can rest assured that I will serve you with the same dedication, commitment and honesty that I demonstrated while seeking the restoration of the tribe. For those of you who might not be familiar with the res toration efforts of the tribe, it was a long and hard road. I shared my vision of having the tribe restored to Indian status with other members of the tribe. Our humble tribal beginning began again with my calling the first meeting to discuss reorganization. I was elected as Chairperson at that first meeting and continuously served on the Council for many years. I reflect back at the moment I heard our bill was passed in Congress, what a reverent moment, my people were once again a Tribe. I do not take all the credit for working on the restoration effort, for it was many people who also toiled, giving of time and self to make this vision happen. It is with this same concept that I will carry out my responsibilities on Tribal Council. I know that it takes leadership, teamwork, integrity, hard work and commitment to make dreams become reality. I believe I have demonstrated those qualities and will continue to do so. I sincerely thank each of you for voting for me, it is an honor to serve you. Nan , Iff 1H Mr r Mark Mercier Dear Tribal Members: I have been involved with Tribal Council for over six years. In that time we have experienced some tremen dous changes. In 1984, when we were just restored to tribal status, we had nine employees and were com pletely dependent on Federal funds for services and operations. We now have an organization which employs over 55 full-time staff, most of whom are tribal members, and we have a natural resource base which allows us to fund special tribal programs in Health, Housing and Education. Our tribal resource base also provides us with the opportunity to purchase land for community development and to meet the needs of our members now and in the future. As you know, none of these things were done by any one person. These accomplishments are the result of a lot of people working together through both good and bad times to reach our goals. It has been my pleasure to have had the privilege of working with the other Council members over the past many years and to have been a part of the team when some of our dreams have been realized. It is within this spirit that I accepted the nomination to run for another term on Tribal Council. I believe that with your support we can continue to realize our dreams and provide a complete range of services and programs for our youth and elders, and in economic development. Some of our plans for tribal elders include the estab lishment of a comprehensive health program which would provide not only direct medical services, but would also provide payments for those minor medical services which the Indian Health Services does not pay for such as eye glasses, hearing aids and minor surgeries. In addition, we plan to start a senior housing develop ment to create new housing for our tribal elders and a senior services program to provide meals and other necessary services. For our Tribal youth, we have established and are now implementing a tribal scholarship program to provide financial support for a wide range of educational and training experiences which do not currently exist. With this kind of effort we hope to create opportunities which equip our youth with the necessary skills to succeed in their individual career choices. In all of our efforts over the next few years, I believe one of our greatest challenges will be to establish a firm economic development program which can provide jobs and job opportunities for all of our tribal members. A strong and diversified economic development program can have a lasting impact on the future of our Tribe and provide additional tribal revenues necessary to ensure a bright future for all our people. With your continuing support I believe all of these goals are obtainable and I look forward to serving the tribal membership for the next three years as we meet these challenges together. ! ii name you tor your vote of confidence. K r Ken Schmid
