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A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe
www.grandronde.org
November 1, 2000
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Holiday Closures
The Grand Ronde Health and
Wellness Center and Tribal
offices will be closed the
following days:
Friday, November 10
to honor Veterans' Day
Wednesday, November 22
Tribal Restoration Day
Thurs. & Fri., Nov. 23 & 24
Thanksgiving Holiday
Grand Ronde
Restoration
Celebration
Sunday, November 19
Grand Ronde Elementary School
Lunch served from noon to 1 p.m.
Pow-wow from 2 to 6 p.m.
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Lynn Robertson returns to Grand Ronde after four months.
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By Justin Phillips
With 1,200 hours of over-time in four months, Tribal
member Lynn Robertson returns from the Inter
agency Hotshot Firefighting Crew (IHC). Robertson
worked throughout Washington, Wyoming, Colorado,
Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Oregon.
Robertson's firefighting crew consisted of 20 individu
als. He said the crew would go to bed about four or five in
the morning and get up about eight and start all over
again. They worked an average of 18 hours a day. For
every two weeks worked, they got one day off, or every
three weeks worked they got two days off.
"It was a lot of hard work, but it's worth it because we
got a lot of community support from the people whose
homes we were saving," says Robertson.
Sleeping bags would be flown or drove in and they slept
next to the fire most of the time.
"What was good about our crew, is we got to build more
fires than we put out," said Robertson. "We got to initiate
the tactics of fighting fire with fire."
The process consists of burning out land in front or by
the fire, producing "safety zone," so when the fire reaches
the burned out areas, there is no place for it to burn any
more. The crew was flown into various places with a helicop
ter, which would otherwise be unreachable by foot be
cause of the rough terrain. Robertson said they were al
ways thankful when the helicopter was around for their
advantage.
When the fire takes a turn for the worst, Robertson's
crew was equipped with cell phone to call in air support,
in which retardant was dropped on the fire. Sometimes
some of the crew got "painted" with the retardant also.
The favorite thing Robertson liked to do is cutting trees.
"Anything having to do with chain saws I really like," says
Robertson. "It was the most physical thing you could do."
The crew also attended classes when not in the field to
continue his firefighting training.
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Grand Ronde Tribal member and Firefighter lynn
Robertson (top left) took four months out his life
to participate in an elite firefighting crew that
battled blazes in several states. Out of control
fires plagued many Western States throughout
the summer and Robertson's crew spent much
of that time on the front lines of the fight many
times catching what sleep they could get right
next to the fires. The dramatic photo by Robert
son above shows a stand of trees in full blaze.
Robertson missed the last two weeks because a
tree snag fell and hit him on the head and top of
his shoulder. Parts of his vertebrae and neck com
pressed tearing some muscles.
"All in all this was a good experience and made
a lot of good friends while I was there," says
Robertson. "I enjoyed it while I was there, but
my loyalty is still here with the Tribe and the
people I work with here."
Robertson has worked for the Tribe's Natural
Resources department for five years as a techni
cian in the silviculture and protection program.
He would like to send special thanks Karen
Larsen, Cliff Adams, Jeff Kuust and his girlfriend
Jennifer while he was away.
Photos courtesy of Lynn Robertson
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
Community of Oregon
9615 Grand Ronde Road
Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347
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Received on: 11-01-08
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The Hotshot crew waits to get on a helicopter to take them to the next fire.