OR. COLL
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SEPTEMBER 1, 1998
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A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe
Umpqua Molalla Rogue River Kalapuya Chasta
Members choose new Council; Election Board posts results quickly
By Tracy Dugan, Editor
Once again, the people have
spoken. Three Tribal Coun
cil members were elected on
September 5. They are: Ed Larsen,
Kathryn Harrison, and Bob Haller.
Below is a list of candidates and the
number of votes each one received.
Tribal Council announced the win
ners at the September 13 General
Council meeting, and the winners
were posted at the Community Cen
ter after the polls closed on Saturday
night. Approximately 80 eligible
tribal members voted in person on Sat
urday, but by far the most votes came
in the form of absentee ballots.
Thanks to the help of Ink Impres
sions, Inc., a ballot tabulation com
pany out of Albuquerque, the ballots
were counted by computer, and the
winners were identified in less than an
hour. In recent years, it has taken
hours and hours for the Election Board
to count the ballots by hand, often with
anxious tribal members waiting just
outside the Community Center doors.
So far, public opinion about the new
ballots and the computerized tabula
tion system is very positive.
"Every year the number of tribal
member voters increases," says Val
Sheker, Election Board Chairperson.
"As recently as six or seven years
ago, there were only one or two hun
dred voters. Counting the ballots was
easy. Now, there are more than one
thousand voters. It's impossible to
count that many ballots by hand in
one evening," .. she said.
Some tribes in the Northwest are
so big, they take two or three days to
count the ballots and make sure the
tallies are correct for their Council
elections. But the members of the
Grand Ronde Tribe have become ac
customed to knowing the results the
same day.
"Not only is the automated system
faster," says Sheker, "but it's more
accurate. There is no chance of hu
man error."
Election results: ED LARSEN - 457; KATHRYN HARRISON - 357;
robert haller - 355; earl "butch" labonte - 319; marga
ret provost - 316; eugene labonte - 250; ken gregg - 184;
barbara lake - 150; delores edwards - 141; and richard
Mcknight 92.
fOruversit of Oregon Library
Received on: 09-02-98
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6
Interim Tribal Court Judge Katharine English swears in the newly
elected Council members. Kathryn Harrison will remain Tribal Chair,
and Reyn Leno was elected Vice Chair.
Tort One: fa.
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in this issue of The Review, we have begun a five-part series of in-depth articles on
each of Grand Ronde's five tribes. On pages 4-5, you will find the story of the
Molalla. We hope that you will find this series of stories interesting. PHOTO: Henry
Yelkis, a member of the Molalla Tribe, in Grand Ronde near the turn of the century.
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
Community of Oregon
9615 Grand Ronde Road
Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347
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Tribes seek new plan to divvy-up
scarce U.S. funding
By Oscar Johnson, Staff Reporter
Tribal and Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) representatives met last month
in Portland to develop an alternative
to the current method of distributing
federal funds in Indian Country. The
process is the continuation of a long
beleaguered struggle to adequately
fund much needed Indian programs.
The BIATribal Workgroup on
Tribal Needs and Assessments
formed early this year and is part of
more than a decade-long attempt to
come up with a more tribal-friendly
method for distributing Tribal Prior
ity Allocations (TPAs), the federal
dollars used for infrastructure, health
and social services as well as Con
tract Support Cost (CSC), the expense
of administering the various pro
grams. At last month's meeting, it was de
termined that a draft resolution be sent
to the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest
Indians (ATNI) for consideration.
The draft proposes that tribal claims
to millions of CSC dollars owed by
the federal government from previ
ous years be relinquished in exchange
for 100 percent funding of CSCs in
the upcoming year. If approved, the
proposal would then be put before
Congress as a short-term solution.
But Workgroup members say the
biggest challenge to their task is that
there is simply not enough money to
go around and federal policy makers
show no intention of doing anything
about a long-term solution.
"You're always trying to play catch
up with the (U.S.) government. We
do a workgroup, draft a proposal and
they don't do anything then we have
to start all over again," said meeting
attendee and Grand Ronde Self-De-termination
Coordinator, Janell
Haller. She said the biggest concern
for the Tribe is federal dollars for
CSC. "In the law it states that they
have to pay 100 percent of CSC but
for every dollar we have $0.62 goes
to these indirect costs."
This rate varies from tribe to tribe
but for the almost $2.1 million the
Grand Ronde Tribe receives in an
nual BIA funding for services such
as forestry, child welfare and educa
tion, only about $1,301,115 goes di
rectly to the programs and services
for which they are earmarked. The
remainder ($810,595) is used to pay
continued on page 2