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A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe
www.grandronde.org
November 15, 2000
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Third Hatfield Fellow
Heads for the Nation's Capitol
Inspirational story serves as an example for all Indian People.
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Alyssa Macy
Warm Springs
By Chris Mercier
Truth really is stranger than
fiction. Just ask Warm
Springs Tribal member
Alyssa Macy, the newest recipient of
the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde's Mark O. Hatfield Fellowship.
As a young girl her father Jimmy
revealed to her that the day she was
born, as the two new parents strode
out of the hospital, an eagle flew
above them. The same bird flew
mysteriously over their car as they
drove back to their home on the
Warm Springs Indian Reservation,
prompting her parents to conclude
that this infant girl was going to ac
complish something epic, something. . .
great.
Jimmy would continue to remind
her of this often while she grew up.
But Macy dismissed it as hokey and
concocted by a loving father to in
spire his daughter.
"Yeah, I never really believed it,"
Macy said when she called from
Tempe, where she recently gradu
ated from Arizona State University.
"But then my mother told me about
it one day, even though she didn't
know my father had already told me."
Now she believes it.
"I realize now that I have a pur
pose," she said. "But I am still not
quite sure what it is."
For now, her purpose lies in Wash
ington, D.C., where she is slated to
assume the new role as a liaison for
Native American issues under
Darlene Hooley. Although she is a
greenhorn to the political landscape
that defines our nation's capitol,
Macy feels reborn and faced with a
new challenge, a new avenue.
"Six months ago, I'd have never
guessed I'd be doing this," she said.
"But I'm open-minded about it, be
cause this fellowship may open new
doors."
"It's kind of like starting over," she
added.
That would be nothing new for
Macy, who has had to "start over"
one way or another more times than
she cares to remember, often invol
untarily. Macy grew up on the Warm
Springs Indian Reservation, a place
she defines as "a vacuum." Her par
ents are the late Jimmy Macy, a
Warm Springs Tribal member and
Carla Dalton.
They were both adamant Native
American activists, having met in
Portland during an American Indian
Movement rally. Jimmy was part
Wasco, and fittingly a descendant of
Billy Chenook, one of the Chiefs who
signed the Treaty of 1855 that de
lineated the territory of what is now
the Warm Springs Reservation. Her
mother is from Arizona, half-Hopi
and half-Navajo.
The two fell in love and eventually
married. Macy was the product of
that union, and at the age of five
when her parents divorced, became
sadly torn between the two of them
during a bitter custody battle. She
lived with Carla until the age of 10
then moved in with her dad, who died
in a car accident when she was 17.
Although Jimmy and Carla both
had children on other occasions,
Macy still grew up alone, never get
ting much opportunity to know her
three brothers or three sisters. Both
parents were alcoholics, and as a re
sult of that, she virtually raised her
self. "Growing up on a reservation was
a totally different experience," she
said. "It was like growing up in a
vacuum."
Macy loved both her parents de
spite the difficulties. And she man
aged to forge some lifelong friend
ships with many Elders in the Tribe,
whom she considers mentors and still
consults for advice to this day. Macy
had no educational role models, not
a single person to demonstrate the
rewards one might reap by pursu
ing higher learning.
As if that weren't discouraging
enough, she was ignorant of off-res-continued
on page 9
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
Community of Oregon
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Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347
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LOCAL PARTICIPATION - Amid the chants of "Proud to be Drug Free"
the entire student body of Grand Ronde Elementary School partici
pated in this year's Red Ribbon March from the school to the Tribal
Governance Center. Tribal Council walked with the students and the
Grand Ronde Veterans' Color Guard led the way. Photo by Justin Phillips
The Meaning of Red Ribbon Week
By Chris Mercier
Jp riday, October 27, students of Grand Ronde Elementary
J School marched from their building to the Tribal Offices
in recognition of Red Ribbon Week. The trek in essence marked
their decrees of living a life free of drug and alcohol use, a mes
sage not to be forgotten.
For those not in the know, the origin itself of Red Ribbon
Week is equally memorable, if less uplifting.
Three weeks. No two words could have meant more for Enrique
Camarena back in February of 1985. In three weeks, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration was to reassign Camarena, away
from his nearly five-year project of trailing some of Mexico's most
prominent drug barons. Camarena was in deep, too deep. His efforts
had been revealing, and he had come to suspect that this drug ring
extended well into the upper reaches of Mexico's government. Not
surprisingly, the bearer of such information was a marked man.
continued on page 8
Emergency Services Enhanced
Tribe builds new communications tower.
By Brent Merrill
A new communications tower located on the ridge di
rectly east of the Tribe's Spirit Mountain Casino will soon
make communications easier for emergency services in
the area.
According to the Tribe's Director of Public Works Eric
Scott, the project has three phases and should be com
pleted by the first of the new year.
Phase one is the site preparation work, including the
installation of power lines and telephone lines up to the
site, improving the existing roadway and
drainage ditches to the top of the hill and ;:;r:.----.-.
the actual construction of the building
pads and tower site.
Scott said 1,400 feet of conduit; tele
phone lines and power lines were placed
up to the tower site.
The critical work for phase one, which
is now complete, was getting the site pre
pared before the wet weather started.
continued on page 4
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