Smoke Signals
4
New economic development project announced
Grand Ronde Tribe joins with Portland developers to build lofts along Pearl District streetcar line.
The Grand Ronde Tribe announced
today that it is joining with Portland
developer John Carroll to build a
$36.6 million loft project in the Pearl
District, complete with residential
condominiums, office and storefront
retail space.
The Gregory, located between
Glisan and Flanders on the new
streetcar line on 10th Avenue, is
scheduled to be complete in 2001.
The Grand Ronde Tribe, through
its business arm, Spirit Mountain De
velopment Corporation, is a major
investor in the project. It is the
Tribe's second investment in transit
oriented development in the Portland
area. Russellville Commons, along
with the eastside MAX light rail line
in the Northeast Portland, opened in
January of 1999 and offers a mix of
multi-family rental units, office and
retail space.
"The Gregory is appealing to the
Tribe because it is high-quality
project that will enhance Portland's
livability by using transit and focus
ing development downtown, which
saves farmland," said Bob Watson,
Interim CEO, Spirit Mountain Ca
sino. "This also provides an excel
lent opportunity for the Tribe to work
toward self-sufficiency and diversify
its economic base."
Once an industrial area, the Pearl
District has become a center for art
galleries, restaurants and lofts.
uThe Gregory further enforces the
idea that there are options to the sub
urban experience," said John Carroll.
"Residents will have great access. Art
and industry, sophistication and sim
plicity, work and play are all here."
The Gregory is located directly be
tween the new streetcar routes on
10th and 11th Avenues. The street
line, which will connect Portland
State University and Northwest Port
land, is expected to begin operation
in spring of 2001.
Adults and youth learning
to speak Chinook Jargon
Continued from front page
Through attrition, Jargon became
the universal language of the Grand
Ronde reservation and is the only re
maining tribal language still spoken
and practiced. For this reason, Jar- .;
gon is the focus of the Tribe's lan
guage efforts.
A revival of the language is cur
rently taking place, little by little, in
Grand Ronde. Classes are being
taught to tribal members young and
old. As an aging generation of Jar
gon speakers searches for someone
to carry on the traditions, a growing
group of tribal youth seems poised to
listen and take their place in the talk
ing circle.
A new relationship with the Uni
versity of Oregon has enabled the
Tribe's Chinook Jargon classes to re
cently begin again. The U of O's
Northwest Indian Languages Insti
tute will sponsor the classes in Grand
Ronde every Monday night through
May 15. Classes began in March.
Class participants can now get col
lege language credits for attending
the classes.
Language specialist and teacher
Tony Johnson is pleased with the
latest turnout and expects to one day
build a core of Jargon speakers to
carry on the once popular tribal lan
guage. Besides teaching Jargon to
adults and families on Monday
nights, Johnson said he will begin to
try to establish a working relation
ship with the Tribe's preschool pro
gram to introduce Jargon to children
as young as two years old.
Johnson, a member of the Chinook
Tribe in Southwest Washington, said
he envisions a future population of
young tribal members speaking Jar
gon as their second language.
"We want to work real intensively
with Head Start to really create
speakers of Chinook," said Johnson
of the language program's possible
connection to tribal youth. "The Head
Start program is real relevant to us.
We're working on a grant (applica
tion) right now that would fund a
Jargon program at the tribal pre
school (Head Start). Regardless of
whether we get this grant, I'm going
to keep looking for funding for the
same program."
Another Jargon teacher could be
hired to help with the new program.
"We have to get at least another
teacher hired and really intensively
trained in Chinook," said Johnson.
"If we get funded for this thing and
we train a couple of teachers then,
we would do a test program with
Head Start."
Johnson, who switches easily from
conversation in English to one in Jar
gon and back again, envisions an
immersion program where two and
three-hour sections of each morning
would be set aside for Jargon speak
ing. All conversations and teaching
would be conducted in Jargon. Chil
dren would respond in Jargon.
For now, Johnson settles for teach
ing as many adults as he can because
he knows they will teach their chil
dren and the cycle will begin.
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I Easter Egg Hunt
Saturday, April 22
9:30 am
0
Grand Ronde
Health and Wellness Center
- RAIN OR SHINE -
This is a free event for children 0-8 years old.
Bring your Easter Basket.
For more information,
please call the Wellness department
at (503) 879-2078 or 1-800-775-0095.
O
Li I 0
O
Deputy helps in
cyber-threat case
Grand Ronde family calls Deputy O'Brien
after receiving ominous e-mail.
By Brent Merrill
A 19 year-old Grand Ronde resi
dent may have averted a tragedy
by having her father, James Gor
don, contact local authorities about
a threatening e-mail she received
from a 17 year-old high school stu
dent in Virginia.
The local young woman had been
communicating back and forth with
the Virginia boy for several weeks
when the tone of one of his mes
sages turned threatening. He
spoke of taking a gun to school and
shooting his principal and 30 stu
dents before killing himself.
Alarmed, the young woman
shared the message with her fa
ther who contacted Polk County
Deputy Tom O'Brien.
O'Brien said he got the call about
ten o'clock in the evening and be
gan investigating the case. The
investigation led O'Brien into the
latest in electronic technology and
started an odyssey that would put
him in contact with at least ten
different police agencies in eight
different counties.
According to O'Brien's police re
port, the boy had mentioned at
tending a particular high school in
Virginia. The search for the boy's
location began shortly after O'Brien
received the initial report. The boy
had also sent a scanned photo of
himself to the woman and that was
used in the search effort as well.
O'Brien worked with the com
puter crime team in Hillsboro and
with the FBI as well as several
county and state police agencies in
Virginia to initiate the search.
O'Brien's investigation then led
him to a telephone conference call
with a special agent in the White
House in Washington D.C.
O'Brien said all police agencies
he worked with took the threats
seriously and wanted to locate the
suspect before school began the
next morning. Correspondence
continued across the country
throughout the night until the FBI
tracked down the source of the
threatening e-mails in Powhatan,
Virginia through America Online.
Powhatan is 30 miles from Rich
mond, Virginia.
Agents then observed the boy's
home and searched the school be
fore school started. Agents
stopped the boy on his way to
school that morning and found
shotgun ammunition, but no gun.
Police did find a knife on the boy.
Later, a search of his home turned
up a rifle in his bedroom.
The boy is still under investiga
tion and has been released.
He told authorities he made the
threats, but had no intention of
carrying them out. In a subse
quent e-mail message, the boy
apologized to the local woman and
claims he would have turned him
self in. He also claims not to re
member what put him in the
threatening mood in the first place.
O'Brien said the incident kept
him up all night on adrenaline
and he was amazed at how
quickly officers from all over the
country went into action.
"It was a rush," said O'Brien.
"Everybody worked so hard and
it was just a good effort. What
really impressed me was a deputy
in the Pacific Northwest, in the
middle of the night, can get such
a major response to something like
that with so many people and
agencies responding."
O'Brien also said he sometimes
wonders what the world is com
ing to.
"What makes me really upset is
somebody like this (the Virginia
teen) can generate so much move
ment and can get so many people
involved and so much money is
spent," said O'Brien. "Everybody
took this seriously. He did admit
to making the threats, but said he
was just fooling around."
According to O'Brien, whether or
not the boy was serious about his
threat to join his community with
others across the country that have
experienced real tragedies, there
is no question the local woman and
her family made the right choice
in notifying law enforcement.
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