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.
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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