2l . .. . ....... l Juy l 1997
I : mW)& SMOKE SIGNALS
Tribe and Casino fund exhibition at Portland Art Museum
The Grand Ronde Tribe and Spirit Moun
tain Casino have announced a grant of
$100,000 from the Spirit Mountain Com
munity Fund to the Portland Art Museum
to underwrite a landmark exhibition of Na
tive American art, the first stage in the
Museum's plans for a permanent installa
tion for its remarkable Native American
collection. The Grant will also support art
education during a time of deep school fund
ing cuts by providing transportation and
admission costs to the exhibit for over
$3,500 Oregon public schoolchildren.
Lena' Taku Waste' (These Good Things):
Selections from the Elizabeth Cole Butler
Collection of Native American Art will be
on view at the Portland Art Museum from
July 12, 1997 through January 18, 1998.
Lena' Taku Waste' (pronounced: lay-nah'
tah-ku wash-tay') will represent a signifi
cant portion of the Museum's Native Ameri
can holdings, w hich contain more than 2,000
objects from numerous indigenous tribes .
and cultures, including examples of cloth
ing, adornments, masks and basket work.
The Lena' Taku Waste' exhibition follows
on the heels of last year's highly successful
Imperial Tombs of China exhibition at the
Museum.
"We Know from personal experience the
importance of preserving our cultural heri
tage. Our tribal culture isn't lost, we're re
gaining it with our youth," notes Kathryn
Harrison, Chair of the Grand Ronde Tribal
Council. "We hope this exhibition will build
new bridges between our tribe and every
Oregonian, young and old, by teaching
about cultural history of tribes and helping
others understand who we are and where
we come from."
The exhibition will mark the first time
most of the collection, considered one of
the finest in the nation, has been seen by
the public. "For some time, the Native
American collection has been identified as
a key aspect of the Museum's long-term
institutional goals," said John E. Buchanan
Jr., Executive Director of the Portland Art
Museum. "But spatial and financial limita
tions have thwarted our efforts to continu
ously exhibit the collection and, therefore,
limited the public's access to them. This
grant from the Grand Ronde Tribe will
greatly assist the Museum in its effort to
utilize the collection for education and cul
tural exchange."
The Tribe and the Museum agree that the
opportunity for over 3,500 public school
children to visit the Museum and tour the
exhibition is what makes this grant unique
and educationally significant. "The
Museum's Native American materials rep
resent the area of its collection that is most
often requested by area educators for tours
and classroom materials," notes Buchanan.
A portion of the grant will underwrite trans
portation and touring costs for school
groups from Portland, Salem and the west
Willamette Valley towns of Grand Ronde,
Willamina and Sheridan.
In addition to the school group tours, the
Spirit Mountain Community Fund grant will
also underwrite other educational programs
in conjunction with the exhibit, including a
Museum Family Sunday program, three
Living Traditions programs featuring Na
tive American artists, a seminar on collect
ing Native American art, docent tours, and
the publication of a fine arts volume show
casing the Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection
of Native American Art.
The first art museum in the nation to es
tablish a collection of Native American
material, the Portland Art Museum sees the
Lena' Taku Waste' exhibition as the first
step in a plan to install the Native Ameri
can collection in permanent galleries. Cur
rently housing the Pacific Northwest Col
lege of Art, the future exhibition space will
become available as the college begins re
locating in the next several years. As part
of the master plan for installing several as
pects of its permanent collections, the Mu
seum recently unveiled the first four newly
designed galleries, devoted entirely to the
East Asian art collection. The permanent
installation of the Native American collec
tion is scheduled for completion by the year
2000.
In anticipation of the permanent instal
lation, the Museum recently appointed Bill
Mercer to the position of Native American
Art. He will manage the Museum's collec
tion of Native American art, organize origi
nal exhibitions drawn from the material and
take an active role in the acquisition of new
works. Mercer's first major undertaking
will be the organization of the Lena' Taku
Waste' exhibition.
The Portland Art Museum gift is the third
grant made by the Spirit Mountain Com
munity fund. Previous grant recipients
have included the Life Flight Network and
the Oregon Problem Gambling Treatment
Foundation.
The Spirit Mountain Community Fund
was created earlier this year under a his
toric gaming compact between the Confed
erated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Commu
nity and Oregon's Governor John
Kitzhaber.
The Tribe annually contributes 6 of its
net profits from Spirit Mountain Casino to
the Spirit Mountain Community Fund to
be used for grants to community projects
in 1 1 northwest Oregon counties. The es
timated amount for the Community Fund
in 1997 is $2 million.
The seven-member Spirit Mountain
Community Fund Board of Trustees in
cludes Ed Pearsall, Chairman of the Board
of Trustees and Secretary of the Grand
Ronde Tribal Council; Oregon State sena
tor Kate Brown; Polk County Commis
sioner Ron Dodge; Kathryn Harrison, Chair
of Grand Ronde Tribal Council; Leon Tom,
Grand Ronde Tribal Council member; Portland-area
businessman and civic leader Sho
Dozono; and Chuck Galford, Marketing Di
rector for Spirit Mountain Casino.
Tribal Council candidate statement: Richard Mc Knight
EDITOR'S NOTE: In the last issue,
Smoke Signals published the personal state
ments from eleven of the twelve Tribal Coun
cil candidates. Candidate Richard
McKnight's statement is below. Also, a typo
occurred in the statement by Linda Olson.
It read in part: "The reasons why I wasn 't
to sen eon Council... " It should 'have read:
The reasons why I wanted to serx'e on Coun
cil... " We regret this error.
My name is Richard A. McKnight. My
parents were Tom McKnight and Elvira
(Langlcy) McKnight. I have lived in the
Grand RondcWillamina area all my life.
After I graduated Willamina High School, I
served in the U.S. Army, and I am a Viet
nam veteran. My wife Vivian and I have
been married 26 years. We have three adult
children: Tom, Leanna, and Jacob. Between
1989and 1991, 1 served on Tribal Council,
and served on the Fish and Wildlife Com
mittee for three years.
Why am I interested in serving on Coun
cil again? For the last four years, the U.S.
Congress has attempted to balance the fed
eral budget, with social programs taking
drastic cuts. In reading the newspapers, I
see where cities large and small are laying
scores of workers off due to budget cuts.
The state governments and counties are fac
ing the same budget woes. It appears that
ALL levels of governments are facing the
budget balancing dilemma, drastically af
fecting their ability to proidc adequate law
enforcement, medical care and other essen
tial scniccs that the American public has
taken for granted for a long time. I seri
ously doubt that anyone within the Tribe
would want to see a reduction in program
scn iccs that we now receive. We do have
an advantage to avoid the current problems
other governments are now experiencing.
We now have the Casino in operation,
and I can only assume it's doing well fi
nancially. However, the Tribe's annual
budget still relics heavily on federal sources
of money to operate many of its programs.
We need to use the Casino funds to fund
and strengthen programs for the future. The
Tribe needs to do other economic develop
ment ventures as well. Folks, federal
money won't be around much longer. On
June 12 of this year, the House Committee
on Ways and Means narrowly voted down
a provision to tax Indian gaming. But this
battle is far from over, since members of
Congress have vowed to pursue a tax on
Indian gaming in the future.
The Tribe needs to work closely with
other cities and counties within our local
area. Unlike Indian reservations in remote
locations, we have many neighbors, many
of them non-Indian. Cooperating with other
entities should help foster communication
and perhaps enhance the overall local
economy. The Council has many other
duties it needs to perform, such as long
range planning which is vital for all aspects
of development. The Council needs to re
view its governing documents to assure
consistent operations of its programs, and a
consistent state-of-the-art method in deal
ing with the growing number of employees
. working under the auspices of the Tribe. If
elected, I will work to see that my actions
will benefit the Tribe as a whole, not just a
select number of tribal members. When I
served on the Council in 1989, the Tribe
was operating under two roofs. We arc
growing big time. It is difficult to discern
i - - . , . i. .
fact from rumors, which there is plenty of
the latter going around. The tribal news
letter needs its ability to gather accurate
news and information expanded and up
graded to keep the membership informed
of what is really happening, in all levels of
tribal operation.
I need your votes to keep the Grand
Ronde Tribe a sound and financially sol
vent entity for the future. If not, we will
only have the problems other governments
now have.
Richard McKnight