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The Grand Ronde Review
Tribes and state agencies touch on tough topics
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By Oscar Johnson, Staff Reporter
Oregon tribal representatives
heard testimonies and fired
questions at an array of state
agency spokespersons last month
during & meeting set to facilitate state
and tribal government cooperation.
The Legislative Commission on In
dian Service (LCIS), with represen
tation from the Grand Ronde,
Umatilla, Warm Springs, Coos,
Siletz, Klamath and Coquile Tribes,
met with state agency officials at the
Confederated Tribes of Umatilla's
new Tamastlikt Cultural Institute near
Pendleton.
The commission formed in the 1970s
to improve overall services to Native
Americans in the state of Oregon.
Representatives from Oregon's de
partments of human resources, trans
portation, occupational safety and
education briefed the group on a va
riety of agency efforts and issues
ranging from new public school stan
dards to how to deal with unearthed
Native artifacts.
State Representative Margaret
Carter also made an appearance to
assure LCIS members that her bid for
state Superintendent of Public In
struction was not intended as a "step
ping stone for a higher office," but
rather a goal "to be an active super
intendent." However, it was Oregon Depart
ment of Education's temporary liai
son, Nellie Vasquez, who was on
hand to outline the pros and cons of
new school standards which she
noted were developed without any in
put from Native Americans.
The new standards come without
new funds to provide adequate re
sources for poor schools found pre
dominantly in rural and minority ur
ban communities where test scores
are routinely low.
Vasquez also warned that Indian
and other minority parents get in
ivolved with their local jchod boards j
As an example, she noted that one
of the seven components of the new
Certificate of Initial Mastery. (CIM)
which will replace the old credit
based high school diploma will in
clude a second non-English language
that will be determined by individual
school districts.
The minority education advocate
cautioned that without minority par
ent involvement, districts stand a
good chance of favoring European
languages over those that might be
more relevant to students with Native,
Latino or other ethnic backgrounds.
"The Department of Education
tends to use a band-aid approach,"
she said citing the department's be
lated use of only a temporary minor
ity liaison position as example.
"They're not as sensitive as aware
as they should be when it comes to
minority issues."
.But LCIS members seemed to need
convincing that the State Department
of Human Resources' (DHR) new
office of Tribal Liaison was more than
just minority issues window dressing.
DHR's new Tribal Liaison, Rick
Acevedo, met with polite scepticism
from many tribal representatives
when he reported on department
plans for the new position.
While Acevedo spoke of the impor
tance of compromise and "give and
take" between Tribes and DHR in or
der to maximize government-to-government
relations, tribal representa
tives grilled the liaison for some surety
that future DHR contracts and train
ing would produce concrete results.
Although Acevedo admitted that,
"one of the problems in government
is that attention to Indian issues
doesn't go very deep," he believed
his new position would make a dif
ference by working more closely with
Tribes and reporting to the group on
a quarterly basis.
Pending reports from state agencies
on their implementation of the
The Tribe's Intergovernmental Affairs Specialist Justin Martin (far left)
listens with other tribal representatives to State Representative Mar
garet Carter at the Umatilla Cultural Center last month.
Governor's Executive Order 96-30,
due to be submitted to tribes in time
for the first annual government-to-government
meeting in Eugene next
month, were also discussed.
(The 1996 order mandates that state
agencies develop contacts with tribal
representatives; identify mutual
joints of interest; and. develop com
munication and cooperation with
their tribal counterparts.)
Oregon Department of Transpor
tation (ODOT) Deputy Director, Tom
Lulay, attended last month's meeting
to solicit tribal input for the Nov.
summit agenda.
While tribal representatives re
quested that they receive the 26 re
ports in plenty of time to study them
before the summit, they expressed
more interest in what Governor
Kitzhaber's agenda would be for the
conference.
Although Lulay was unable to speak
on the Governor's behalf, he made a
general call for "trust and under
standing, relationship building and
cultural sharing, despite that the out
come of our discussions have not al
ways been agreeable."
But ODOT Regional Manager, Tom
Schuft, indicated there is one area
where his agency and Tribes do
agree. Noting previous Memoran
dums of Agreement between his de
partment and the Klamath Tribe with
respect to identifying and repatriat
ing Native remains and artifacts, he
said the department was willing to
negotiate a memorandum with vari
ous tribes and develop a written pro
tocol for dealing with respected Na
tive sites and relics. s 1 1: ;
Although Umatilla representative ,
and LCIS Vice Chair, Jay Minthorne,
noted that in the last year ODOT's
commitment to respecting his Tribe's
sovereign rights to traditional sites
and unearthed artifacts and remains
appeared to have declined some, he
agreed that in general "these agree
ments in the past have worked pretty
good."
However, in the realm of workers'
safety reservation-based Native sov
ereignty has posed a formidable ju
risdiction challenge for the' Oregon
Occupational Safety & Health Divi
sion (OR-OSHA), according to
agency officials.
While authority to inspect work
sites, help develop training and safety
programs, respond to worker com
plaints and enforce health and safety
laws usually fall to state or federal
OSHA divisions, when it comes to
businesses on reservation land, the
officials complained that their hands
are tied.
"We're responsible for worker
safety in Oregon but because of sov
ereignty we don't have much author
ity on reservation land, said OSHA
Federal Liaison, Brian Sparks. "If an
employee is working on a reserva
tion they expect to call us if they have
a problem."
OSHA officials expressed a strong
desire to develop an ongoing three
way dialogue between Tribes, federal
and state agencies in order to wrap
up the jurisdictional clarification pro
cess which has received little atten
tion since the 1970s.
Meanwhile, at next month's sum
mit OSHA, 25 other state branches
and members form Oregon's nine
federally recognized Tribes will have
a chance to make headway on these
and other pending issues in an ongo
ing process of implementing what
some say could be a national model
of how states and Tribes can work
together.