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Smoke Signals
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By Brent Merrill
Mhen Attorney Donald Wharton first heard
of the Grand Ronde Tribe in the late 1970s,
there was no Tribe.
Federal Recognition of the Grand Ronde Tribe didn't
come until years after Wharton first met with Tribal
members Dean Mercier, Marvin Kimsey, Margaret Pro
vost, Merle Holmes, Merle Leno, Jackie Colton
(Whisler), Eula Petite, Candy Robertson and Kathryn
Harrison among others.
Wharton remembers meeting at the Grand Ronde
Elementary School because the only thing the Tribe
had left was a little green building (now it's yellow) at
the cemetery. He remembers watching a hat passed
around the room so coffee could be purchased for
the next meeting.
Wharton, who works in Boulder, Colorado for the
Native American Rights Fund, recently returned to
Grand Ronde.
Executive Secretary Jackie Whisler led Wharton on
a tour of the Tribe's facilities. Wharton said he was
pleased with what he saw.
Smoke Signals spoke with Wharton about his re
turn to Grand Ronde.
Interview with DON WHARTON:
What were some of the changes you noticed?
"There was very little compared to what you have now,"
said Wharton as the interview began. "It was quite dra
matic to see the difference between the very modest
beginnings of the people who were seeking restoration
and what the Tribe has achieved over the years in rela
tively short time. I mean we're talking 17 years. That is
less than a generation to work this complete transfor
mation of the Tribe and its outlook."
Have you had experience with other Tribes
where maybe you could give some perspective
on how long things take and are we on the right
track?
"Well, I have perspective with other Tribes and other
Tribes are not as fortunately situated as the Grand Rondes
and so they don't have all the same opportunity that you
have," said Wharton. "But, to the Grand Ronde's credit,
what you have done is very effectively take advantage of
the opportunities that you have."
When you say situated do you mean area wise
or business wise?
"The geography of where you are," said Wharton. "The
fact that you do have a casino opportunity a gaming
opportunity where you have a market where you can
draw on. As I'm sure you are aware of, there are other
Tribes with casinos that don't have that kind of market
and can't make that kind of draw. I'm sure that you
would agree that the success of your casino has given
you a lot of opportunities that wouldn't otherwise neces
sarily be the case."
I think sometimes people focus a lot on our ca
sino, when we try to look at it as just one of our
enterprises. It has provided a lot of things and I
think we are all really thankful for that. I just
wonder if people focus on that too much or that
they fail to see some of the other things that we
have going on out here.
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The Tribe's first Attorney Don Wharton visits with Tribal Council Chair Kathryn Harrison (left) and
Executive Administrative Assistant (and tour guide) Jackie Whisler. They are pictured inside the
1-12 year old Tribal Governance Center one of the many new buildings constructed since
Wharton's last visit. Photo by Kim Muener
"People do over-focus on Indian gaming, because they
are fascinated by it," said Wharton. "You are absolutely
right to point out that for instance, you have your timber
enterprise which was the foundation of your enterprise
set in place at the time of Restoration and shortly there
after to provide for your economic viability. The timber,
while very good, and I'm sure you are all very grateful
for it, couldn't provide you with the range of economic
opportunities that you have with gaming. The hotel of
course depends upon the gaming; it couldn't stand on its
own. If you have other enterprises, then I'm not aware
of them."
There are several real estate ventures, a new
office complex in Portland; we have interest in
some commercial enterprises all throughout the
state of Oregon.
"Where did the opportunity to make those investments
come from?" asked Wharton rhetorically about casino
profits. "But, what you have done is taken that resource
that opportunity from gaming and used it to your ad
vantage," said Wharton. "My point is that the Grand
Rondes have been very effective at using their opportu
nities to the greatest advantage to the benefit of their
people. You (the Grand Ronde Tribe) take much more of
the long-view of how things should be done, rather than
having for instance, like some Tribes do, of having per
capita distributions dominate how you prepare for the
future."
Every Tribe has that issue as an ongoing dis
cussion. How could we draw a parallel to some of
the other Tribes that have had those per capita
payments and our Tribe that has been more fo
cused on the long haul and focused on the Tribe
in general?
"You can't," said Wharton in quiet, but emphatic voice.
"Every Tribe has its own priorities for reasons that are
endemic to that Tribe. To draw a kind of comparison to
the Grand Ronde and other Tribe's isn't helpful because
it invites the suggestion that somehow the Grand Rondes
have done better than the other Tribes and are wiser
than the other Tribes. What that doesn't take into ac
count is that the Grand Rondes don't have to deal with
the same things or make some of the same hard choices
that some of the other Tribes have to make. Which,
doesn't take away from the wisdom or the laudability of
the choices that the Grand Ronde have made. They've
been very good. You could have made different and less
supportive choices for the future and you didn't, you made
supportive choices for the future to your credit. But, that
is not a comparison to what other Tribe's choices have
been. Other Tribes have other things to deal with that
Grand Ronde doesn't face."
To read between the lines of what you are say
ing, our people should be thankful of what has
happened.
"They should be real thankful, but they also should have
a lot of self-confidence about who they are and what
they have done," said Wharton. "They deserve not to be
egotistic, but to be self confident about themselves. To
congratulate themselves and say we have done well and
we deserve to feel good about that."
What about your personal perspective of what
you witnessed before when the Tribe was just
starting their struggle to gain independence and
start some of these endeavors. Maybe you can
tell me what you think the strengths were. Was
it just the people we had in place or does it get
back to what you were talking about only ge
ography and the fact that we had a lot of oppor
tunities? "I never said it was only geography," said Wharton. "I
said geography was a terrific benefit. I want to empha
size that it is the people. From the very first time I met
with representatives of the Grand Ronde Tribe in 1979, it