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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2002)
MARCH 1, 2002 Smoke Signals 5 New General Manager; From California to Pacific NoiHiwest to Germany and Back New General Manager Cliff Adams was the Tribe's Natural Resources Director for 14 years. the A?a.im By Chris Mercier What exactly then do Scio, Se attle, and Kaiserslautern have in common? Nothing, really, aside from the fact that the Tribe's new General Manager Cliff Adams has lived in all three and then some. Adams' vagabond days are over, he will tell you, and they have been for quite a while. But on par with many people who've put their time in at the Tribe, Cliff has his own background and history. He was born 1946 in Santa Monica, California. Yet at a young age his parents moved the whole family to the Pacific Northwest, where aside from a three-year stint in Germany while with the Army, Adams has made his lifelong home. Scio was where he spent his early childhood. The mid-childhood years were passed in Silverton, and the late childhood and teen years were passed in Orfino, Idaho, where Adams' father opened up a sawmill. Ultimately, Adams graduated from Seattle's Ingraham High School during the 1960's. Journeyman tendencies always die hard, and in that vein he toiled briefly at Centralia Community College in Washington, before pur suing an interest in teaching that took him to the Eastern Oregon College of Education in La Grande. Adams' college career was inter jected by a notable event of the late 1960's, the Vietnam War. Not wanting to be drafted, he en listed in the U.S. Army in 1967. As luck would have it, though, they elected to send him over the other ocean, Atlantic that is, to a recu perating Germany. West Germany, to be specific. Count Adams among the scores of U.S. serviceman who was quickly enamored with the Vaterland. "I loved Germany," he told me. "It was just a really beautiful country." The Army stationed him first in Ulm, of the Schwabia province, and then later in northern Germany, in Kaiserslautern. Reassignment once again took him elsewhere, to Ba varia, that southern province which captures the country's essence. "Bavaria was the area that I re ally liked," he said. ( 4 "I'm excited about this because now I really get to see everything. In Natural Resources I dealt strictly with forestry and things like that. Now I get to know about all aspects of what goes on." Cliff Adams, General Manager The majority of his time was spent as a personal assistant to a Major, though he began with a Signal Outfit in the 1st Signal Battalion, a communications team. Adams earned the rank of Special 5th Class, which in three years is an admirable achievement. Ironically, communi cations was not the field he'd hoped to end up in. "Originally, I wanted to fly phan tom jets," he explained. "But I lacked the 2020 vision." It didn't seem to bother him too much. Adams traveled throughout Germany, at one time taking a two week biking trip through Bavaria. And the proximity of the Austrian Alps occasioned more than one ski trip. When he returned to the states in 1970, he brought back a small collection of Bavarian beer steins as keepsakes. Eager to resume his academic pur suits, Adams enrolled at the Uni versity of Washington, though that lasted only one quarter. Why? He'd developed an interest in For estry, one that brought him to Reedsport where he worked for the Oregon Forestry Department for one year. A well-paid job at a pulp and paper mill sidetracked him for yet another six months. Finally he picked Oregon State University to finish up the college career, though even that was prolonged. Adams' married during college, and that meant sitting out two quarters to adjust. But by 1976 he would graduate with a degree in Forest Engineering, only a decade after embarking on his college ca reer. Adams laughed when re counting. He wouldn't have done it any other way. The pulp and paper industry was a prosperous one, and liking the lower Willamette Valley, Adams stopped in at the International Pa per Company in Veneta, though that affair lasted only three months. The real riches, however, lay in Tillamook, where the Adams' fam ily opted to move next, this time with an odd company of Crown Zellerbach, one that "struggled un der different names" after being bought out by a larger company. Adams left that mess in 1985, de voting two years as a contractor for ester, a venture paying none too well, he reflected. By 1987 Cliff Adams first entered the Tribal scene, beginning as a simple forester one year before ac quisition of the Grand Ronde Res ervation and 14 years later occu pying the position of Natural Re sources Manager. A lot has hap pened in between. "It's an amazing story, this Tribe," Adams said, grinning. "Watching this Tribe, it's been quite a resur rection." Adams ought to know, since when he first came on board, there ex isted only a meager forestry depart ment just off Highway 18 in a field of what is now the valet parking lot for Spirit Mountain Casino. Now, they've a nice big building, and Forestry is but one section of the larger Natural Resources De partment. He saw it all, the expan sion of the staff, the new buildings, the timber, etc. As a matter of fact, he played a large role in master minding a good deal of it. "I liked that opportunity," he said. "I liked being able to develop the Forestry Department into Natural Resources." That said, Adams had exhausted his avenues in Natural Resources. The only way to go was up, and he couldn't balk at the chance provided when the new General Manager position opened. "I'm excited about this because now I really get to see everything," he told me. "In Natural Resources I dealt strictly with forestry and things like that. You couldn't help but feel away from the Tribe some times. Now I get to know about all aspects of what goes on." Cliff and his wife Wanita pres ently live in Tillamook. They have four children, though two, Jason and Rebecca, flew the nest long ago. Timothy and Chance are still in high school. Eventually, Adams said, they would like to live closer to Grand Ronde, but no immediate plans loom. The demands of being General Manager probably won't signify a lighter workload, but that prospect fazes him little, as he makes time for hobbies by habitually cutting out television from his daily routine. When the time presents itself, he'll play basketball, hunt, fish, or best of all, read. "There's nothing better then building a fire and reading a good book," he said. He also owns a Harley-Davidson, though has yet to make any grand trips. It substitutes for a horse, which one day he'd also like to own. The Business of Fancy Dancing By Sherman Al Continued from front page half Jewish. Although not born or raised on the Spokane reservation, she was in love with Seymour in college but separated from him when she learned that he was gay. She too, has not seen Seymour in years, but is more forgiving than most of the others, perhaps because of her present life as a sixth grade teacher on the reservation. Once at his friends wake, the ten sions are intensified because Aristotle and Agnes have become lovers and Aristotle's longtime bit terness is revealed by Seymour's arrival. Will the friends be able to reconcile their differences? And will Seymour's people be able to accept him for what he is? You'll have to see the movie to find out. "The Business of Fancy Dancing" although humorous and light hearted in its narrative style, is a very serious movie. It deals with many of the issues that Natives don't like to talk about: homosexu ality, separation, and the differ ences between urban and reserva tion Indians. One of the more dis turbing scenes is when Aristotle and Mouse are driving on a reser vation back road and get out to talk to a stalled motorist. Aristotle sud denly pummels the man to the ground while Mouse videotapes the beating. Aristotle then convinces Mouse to hit the man after he's down. It would be folly to say that simi lar incidents haven't happened for real, but to see it on the big screen is somewhat unsettling. This movie is filled with tension and the characters seem incredibly real, almost familiar. Alexie's bril liance shines through in the witty yet darkly ironic dialogue. This movie is definitely worth seeing, but be prepared to look on some skel etons hiding in the Indian closet. B
