Smoke signals., January 01, 1992, Page Page 3, Image 3

LIEAP - WHAT IS IT?
Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP)
funds are federal funds which provide assistance to
those persons under 125 of the federal poverty level
with one time assistance with their winter heat bills, etc.
A representative for LIEAP will be coming to the
Grand Ronde area on January 22, 1992 to assist Polk
County residents with applications for energy assistance.
All elders and anyone with a handicap may call directly
to the Polk county office at 623-8429 without making an
appointment. This service is also available to non-tribal
members.
To make an appointment to meet with a representative
from LIEAP on January 22, 1992 here at the Depot in
Grand Ronde, please contact Mychal Childers in the
Social Services Department at 1-800-422-0232 or 879
5211. Forestry Department needs YOU!
The Forestry Department is compiling list of people
with Forestry and logging skills. This list of qualified
people will be made available to any interested parties.
We are looking for the following skills: faller & bucker,
chokersetter, landing chaser, rigging slinger,'
hooktendcr, yarder engineer, loader operator, skidder
operator, grader operator, tree shear operator, de
limber operator, log truck drivers (long logger, short
logger and self-loader), low boy driver, mechanic,
logging contractors, and log truck owneroperators.
At this time we are not hiring and do not know of
anyone who is. However, we foresee a need for this list
and would like to have it on file for possible referrals.
For further information contact Connie at 879-5522.
Smoke Signals is the monthly publication of the
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Commu
nity of Oregon; P.O. Box 38, Grand Ronde, OR
97347. Phone: (503) 879-5211
Fax: (503)879-5964
Greg Archuleta
Cathy Clme
Karen Lord
Program Operations
Newsletter Director
Word Processing
It is the goal of Smoke Signals to inform and
represent the tribe on community, economic,
health, education, family, arts and national Native
American political issues. We feel we can best do
this with tribal member input. Please feel free to
comment on any issue published in the newsletter
or any issue that has not been addressed in Smoke
Signals. If you would like to see event announce
ments such as; births, weddings, grand openings,
etc, published send us a copy. Any item to be
published in Smoke Signals must be received by the
end of the second week of each month. Smoke
Signals reserves the right to not publish any item
submitted to us. All material is subject to editorial
changes.
U.S. Tries to Market Indian Reservations as
Storage Facility for Country's Nuclear Waste
So far, few tribes show interest in storing spent radioac
tive fuel
David H. LeRoy, the Bush administration's chief
nuclear waste negotiator, tried yesterday to sell
Native American leaders on a controversial deal to
set aside tribal lands for federal storage of spent
radioactive fuel from the nation's nuclear power
plants.
There was no rush to sign up, however, at a
Burlingame convention of the National Congress of
American Indians, the largest Indian organization in
North America. More than 1,500 delegates are
attending the week long gathering.
Recalling traditional Indian respect and reverence
for the land, LeRoy promised that any tribes who
commit to building
nuclear waste storage """
facilities will "dictate
the terms," as well as
retain control of
health, safety and
environmental protection.
At the same time, he
held out to financially strapped tribes the prospect of
more federal money for public works improvements,
health care, education and other economic benefits
for those willing to help the government solve the
critical problem of disposing of 20,000 metric tons of
spent nuclear fission rods from 110 power plants.
At least one Indian official saw a contradiction in
Le Roy's pronouncement about the Indians' "timeless
wisdom" in the use of ancestral land and the notion
of turning a large chunk of reservation over to
nuclear waste storage.
"That is the grandaddy of all oxymorons," shouted
an exasperated Mark Mercier of the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde, Ore.
"That is the grandaddy of all
oxymorons,"
Mark Mercier, Chairman of the
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
Others rejected the proposal as political suicide.
"Look at the Three Mile Island deal," said Kesley
Edmo, council chairman of Oklahoma's Shoshone
Bannock tribe. "We're not going to have anyone ship
nuclear waste onto our reservation," he told LeRoy.
Federal law requires that the nuclear fuel, now stored
in pools at the plants, be permanently buried in a deep
repository. Yucca Mountain in Nevada is the only
permanent site now under consideration. But the site,
already entangled in lawsuits and protests, cannot be
ready before the year 2010, according to the depart
ment of Energy.
Meanwhile, the tribes and state governments have
been asked whether they are interested in negotiating
for 450-acre storage sites that would be used for no
more than 40 years.
" LeRoy mailed letters
outlining the nuclear
waste proposal to about
650 tribal leaders and
state governors in
October. The deadline
m for filing an application
for a $100,000 study
grant is December 31. But LeRoy conceded that only
10 tribes, none in California, have expressed any
interest.
So far, only the commercially savvy Mescalcro
Apache tribe of New Mexico, which has developed a
ski center and golf resort, among other money making
projects, has taken grant money and is now hiring
experts to advise the tribe on whether to set up a
nuclear waste facility at the vast 720 square mile
reservation.
Wendell Chino, Mescalcro tribal council president,
acknowledged, however, that there is reason to
mistrust the federal government in view of the historic
mistreatment of Indians and breaking of treaties.
Courtesy of Chronicle Peninsula Bureau
Experts: Reservation Lands are a Gold Mine of Potential
They say mineral deposits beneath some American
Indian lands arc a gold mine of potential, but most
tribes are cautious about development.
(APSpokane Wash.) Vast mineral riches beneath the
nation's Indian reservations could provide jobs and
wealth, but most tribes are only slowly and cautiously
developing them.
Cultural reverence for the land and historic distrust of
whites seeking minerals have kept many poverty-stricken
tribes from developing the potential wealth they need to
start social and economic programs, industry experts
say.
"It's an irrevocable commitment," Donovan
Shangreaux, director of the Oglala Sioux Tribe's
minerals study program, said.
In 1988, the last year figures were available, Indian
lands produced more than $161 million from leases,
mostly oil, gas and coal.
At a recent trade show at the Northwest Mining
Association convention here, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs sponsored booths where 11 tribes from across
the country exhibited their mineral potentials.
"Some tribes have made a conscious decision not to
mine because of conflicts with other values,: said
Richard Wilson, chief of a BIA division established in
the 1970s to help tribes identify and develop their
natural resources.
"There isn't any tribe out there who wants their land
torn up and abandoned," Wilson said.
Most tribes have some lands that are inviolate to any
kind of development, while others open their reserva
tions to expolorations wherever minerals are found,
Wilson said.
Don Aubertin, a branch chief in Wilson's office and
member of Washington state's 7,500-member Colville
tribe, said reservation governments were like those
everywhere and had their dissenters.
It took several years for members of his own tribe to
become comfortable with his work and to share infor
mation with mining companies, he said.
-Courtesy of Statesman Journal
44HHIIHIHHHW
U.S.D.A.
Commodities distribution
dates for January are the
14th, 15th, and until
noon on the 16th. You can
pick them up at 1697 25th
Street (Behind K-mart) ,
in Salem.
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