Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1999)
Smoke Signals November General Council meeting Memmbeirs dfecyss Ibnodlgefi: and 'census By Tracy Dugan Tribal finances and the 2000 Cen sus were among the topics of discus sion at the last General Council meeting held on November 7. After an invocation by Nancy Coleman, Margo Mercier, Enroll ment Coordinator for the Tribe, spoke about Census 2000 and how the Tribe is working with the Cen sus Bureau to encourage tribal mem bers to fill out their census question naire and answer questions from census takers. "The census is important because federal dollars are allocated for In dian programs according to the num bers of people counted," said Mercier. "In 1990, the census undercounted Indian people by twelve percent." Mercier said that when the census comes, Grand Ronde tribal members should include their tribal affiliation in their responses. In upcoming months there will be notices in Smoke Signals, and promotional materials available through the En rollment office. Rob Greene, Tribal Attorney, said that the Legal staff and Council have been busy working with the BIA to get the Tribe's per capita request ap proved, and that everything the Tribe is required to do for approval has been done. He said to watch for notices in the Smoke Signals regard ing the per capita distribution (Cor porate Dividend) for this year. The main item on the agenda was the Calendar Year 2000 Proposed Budget Hearing. Tribal members had an opportunity to review the budget and give formal oral testi mony to be considered by Tribal Council before the budget is adopted. Bob Saunders, Financial Officer, and Val Sheker, Health Plan Manager, explained the breakdown of tribal revenue, and allocations to member benefit programs. A copy of the Pro posed Budget was mailed to tribal members last month. All tribal mem bers are free to review the Proposed Budget and submit comments to Tribal Council before the approval process. The deadline for written com ments is December 4, 1999, and they should be mailed or hand-delivered to the tribal offices at 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347. Attention: Lauri Smith. All written comments must be signed. If you would like a copy of the Proposed Budget for CY 2000, please call Jus tin Phillips at 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2190. The meeting concluded with sev eral door prize drawings. Cash prize winners were: Chris Leno, $50; Cliff Adams, $50; Kim Contreras, $50; and Clarice Ellison, $100. Also three drawings were held for Safeway gift certificates. The winners were: Roxanne Teeter, $60; Dan Ham, $60; and Connie Holmes, $90. The Wellness program held a raffle, too. The winners were: Linda Hale, Marcia Bolton, Kim Contreras, Arlene Beck, Connie Holmes, Harriet Peters, Wanda McCoy, and Trish Jensen. Shirley Larsen won a 5050 drawing held for tribal member Kristi DeLoe, a student who is rais ing money to attend the National Leaaersnip uonierence in Washing-, ton, D.C, qsuiisd camms Kitzhaber denies Cascade Locks casino The governor says he wants to stem the spread of gambling, but the Warm Springs Tribe may re consider a Hood River site. Gov. John Kitzhaber on Novem ber 4 turned down the Warm . Springs Tribe's proposal to build a casino in the Columbia River Gorge town of Cascade Locks, cit ing his desire to stem the spread of gambling throughout the state. The governor's closely watched decision blocks the Warm Springs Tribe from building a full-scale casino on a four-lane freeway just 40 miles from downtown Portland. But it also leaves open the possi bility that the Warm Springs may build a casino on tribal land near Hood River inside the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. They would not need Kitzhaber's permission to build there. Federal gaming law allows tribes to build casinos on land held in trust be fore October. 17, 1988. Building a casino at Cascade Locks would have been a boon to the Warm Springs because it would . have placed them in a position to challenge the Grand Ronde as the most successful gambling tribe in the state. Tribal officials said building a ca sino on the Hood River property is still an option. Bob Whelan, an economist who tracks gambling in Oregon, said that if the Warm Springs do build in Hood River, they could still chal lenge Grand Ronde's Spirit Moun tain Casino. "It's really not a bad location from an financial standpoint," Whelan said. Eight of nine tribes in Oregon op erate casinos on reservation land. reprinted in part, from The Oregonian Hundreds rally to demand release of Indian activist Leonard Peltier WASHINGTON (AP) With drums and prayers, signs and chants, a couple of hundred protesters gathered near the White House recently to demand the release of American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, con victed a generation ago of kilhng two FBI agents on an Indian Reserva tion in South Dakota (Oglala). Peltier, now 55, himself addressed the crowd in a recorded message from Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas, telling supporters, "I still can not understand that with the millions of people around the world de manding my freedom, the government can still ignore it." On June 26, 1975, FBI agents Ronald A. Williams and Jack R. Coler pursued a robbery suspect into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. A shoot-out erupted with activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM), and the agents were first wounded, then shot in the head. Two suspects were acquitted and a third freed for lack of evidence. Peltier, after fleeing to Canada and being extradited back to the United States, was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in 1977 despite defense claims that evidence against him had been falsified. Organizers (of the Peltier protest) said they plan to drop off thousands of petitions at the White House demanding Peltier's pardon. A pardon application was filed in 1993 and is still pending. Peltier's last parole bid was turned down in 1996; he is not eligible for another full hearing until 2008. Basket fragment found in 1993 is 2,900 years old PORT ANGELES, WA. (AP) Tests show a fragment of an Indian woven cedar basket that was found in 1993 is about 2,900 years old, making it the oldest dated artifact found in Olympic National Park. Unusually warm temperatures at the time exposed the fragment, which was found by a Florida family at the edge of a snowfield 200 yards from the parking lot at Obstruction Point, about 18 miles south of Port Ange les, park archaeologist Paul Gleeson said. The piece remained in storage until last summer, when park officials scrounged up the $800 to pay for a radiocarbon analysis that determined it dated from about 900 B.C., 150 years before the founding of Rome, Gleeson said. The find links the Obstruction Point area with other aboriginal sites on the Olympic Peninsula, including the Hoko River and Ozette archaeo logical digs, proving that Indians who lived on the coast ventured into the Olympic Mountains during the summer, Gleeson said. The basket is being kept in the park's archaeological collection. ' According to Jamie Valadez of the Lower Elwha band of the S'Klallam Indians, the basket was known as a burden basket. It was carried by men and women on trips to the high country and could have contained plants, dried meat, clams and mussels. "It was like having a backpack," said Valadez. Squaxin Island Tribe to roll its own SHELTON, WA. (AP) The Squaxin Island Tribe of Indians, looking to breath more life into its reservation economy, plans to manufacture its own cigarettes. The 650-member tribe has signed a deal with Hercules Devel opment Group of California, The company will provide the equip ment, money and know-how for the 22,500-square-foot cigarette plant under construction next to the tribe's Little Creek Casino, east of Olympia. Cigarette manufacturing may be controversial, but the tribe cannot afford to pass up any possible source of revenue, Executive Di rector Bobby Whitener said. "When you see an opportunity to bring money back in, there's no question whether we should do it or not," Whitener said. "We're pre sented with a no-choice situation." Some profits will finance anti smoking programs for tribal mem bers. A 1998 Surgeon General's study found that nearly 40 percent of Indians smoke compared with 25 percent of the general population. Lung cancer deaths rose among American Indians between 1990 and 1995, even as they were fall ing among other minority groups. Whitener acknowledged the irony, but he noted that the tribe has been selling cigarettes for 25 years. Whitener said the unemploy ment rate is 20 percent for the tribe and there is not enough money for social services, education, roads, sewers, water systems, police and the tribal court system. "Without a tax base and with no land base, we have to do things like this to fill in the gaps," said Whit ener. If the plant begins production in January, it would make the Squaxin Island Tribe the second in the country to produce its own ciga rettes. The Omaha Tribe has been . producing Omaha brand cigarettes on its reservation in Nebraska for about two years.
