Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2002)
Smoke Signals 5 MAY 15, 2002 The Tribe's New Employment and Training Specialist Is Thankful, Busy Klamath-Modoc Tribal member Joe Kirk is helping Grand Ronde members get jobs and keep them. By Peta Tinda The first thing you notice when you walk into Joe Kirk's office is the smell of sage. Kirk, the Grande Ronde Tribal Employment and Training specialist, burns sage each Mon day and offers prayers for the week. "I smudge my office with the sage and I say prayers and give thanks. I think about things, like what I'm doing and why," said Kirk. What he's doing all week is helping Tribal members find jobs, fill out applications and man age their budgets. He also handles all the re quests for Tribal assistance. He sometimes goes to his client's houses to check on them and pretty much does whatever he can to help. "I've got 63 clients. When I get here in the morning, this thing is lit up," said Kirk, point ing at his telephone's message light. "But we don't do it for them. We just help the clients." said Kirk. That help can range from getting a client re ferred to the education department for job skills training, to helping someone get a set of tires so they can drive to work. "We do all kinds of assistance. It all depends on the person's situation and every individual is different," said Kirk. "We help people put their lives back in order." Kirk was hired by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde early this year. His wife Joyce, a Grand Ronde Tribal member, was hired a few months later as an Administrative Assistant in the Social Services program. Now they work in the same office buildings. "I really like working together," said Joyce. "But it's no different than working with another fellow counselor, except we take our vacations at the same time." Kirk's resume speaks of a life spent helping others. He graduated from Southern Oregon s .... . u 1 f i" if I iff w ' Ad O 0" .. i. t i if Family Grand Ronde Tribal member Joyce Kirk (Bean) poses for a photo with her husband Joe Kirk. The Kirks recently moved to Grand Ronde after working for the Klamath Tribe in southern Oregon. Joe is the Tribe's new Employment and Training Specialist in the Adult Vocational Rehabilitation program and Joyce is the Social Services program's new administrative assistant. University with a degree in social sciences. Af ter that he attended Oregon State University and got a degree in education. He worked for the Navajo Tribe for 16 years at a public school and then was a dorm manager at Chemawa Indian School. He went back to Klamath in 1987 and began working as director of social services while he helped raise his daughter with Joyce -Jocelyn. Kirk also spent time working in an alterna tive school where Native kids who had been dis missed from public schools were given a second chance at getting an education. "I always knew I wanted to be in social ser vices," said Kirk. "The best part of this job is seeing people succeed. Getting a call and it's someone saying T found a job,' or when they realize that they can have control over their lives. There's a certain self empowerment in that.? "Joe has always worked in social services. Even in college his idea was to educate himself to help people," said Joyce. "His whole goal in life has been to help Indian people." B Tribal Leaders Express Dismay and Disappointment With Warm Springs' Casino Approach Poll shows majority of Oregonians do not want an expansion of gaming. Tribal leaders from Cow Creek have joined Grand Ronde's Tribal council in raising serious issues surrounding Warm Springs' attempts to place a new casino in or near the Columbia Gorge. Pointing to legal problems, unfortunate timing, and the possibil ity of setting off a major proliferation of Indian casinos near or inside of urban centers, the lead ership is urging Warm Springs to reconsider their efforts. . Earlier this month, every Tribal chair joined Governor Kitzhaber on stage at the 5th Annual Government-to-Government Summit. But it was the summit's master of ceremonies, the governor's chief legal counsel Danny Santos that put a frame around the legal issues surround ing Warm Springs' attempts. Santos has repeat edly explained that it's the opinion of the governor's office that Warm Springs can't locate a casino outside of it's original reservation, with out seriously altering the initial gaming com pacts that each Tribe has signed with the state. Simply put, that means tearing up the current rules and starting all over again with automatic compact negotiations allowing for the possibil ity of each Tribe building a casino on lands that are placed in trust. "If Warm Springs prevails, clearly we'd have to look at casino locations much closer to Port land," said Grand Ronde Tribal Chair Cheryle Kennedy. "I know that Siletz would look at Sa lem and Burns at Bend. Cow Creek would have to come close to Eugene. Reservation locations have always been a quirk of history. As a ter minated Tribe we have approximately 10,000 acres, while Warm Springs has over 600,000 acres within its initial reservation, filled with all sorts of resource opportunities that we don't share. If they want to change the rules and essentially build a casino off-reservation, all Tribes will be forced to stay competitive and that will lead to changing Indian gaming from an entertainment destination to convenience gam bling. I don't think the majority of Oregonians want to see that day." A new statewide poll shows that while most Oregonians have a positive impression of Indian gaming, especially for the community funded programs that are now established across the state, 80 percent don't want to see any further expansion of gaming. Yet that's exactly what some within the main stream business community are pushing for. There's the usual noise about racetracks and card rooms, not to mention the lottery expan sion and line games. But with all the pressure mounting to replace a nearly billion dollar bud get shortfall with any possible new revenue source, many within this community are just waiting for any excuse to pounce. "We're looking at a very tense special session in June," said Grand Ronde's Intergovernmen tal Affairs Director Justin Martin. "After that, when Oregon elects a new governor along with a new legislature this November, there will no doubt be enormous pressure to add gaming op tions outside of our reservations. I'm hoping no one, especially Warm Springs will give anyone the excuse they need to justify the expansion of gaming." Martin went on to say that he's dismayed that Warm Springs' staff have been trying to insinu ate that there's a full-scale lobbying effort to keep Warm Springs from succeeding. "We've communicated with Warm Springs on numerous occasions before we ever went public with our objections," explained Martin. "We've told them repeatedly that we stand behind them and would help them in any way we can as long as they build a replacement casino within their existing reservation lands. We've expressed our concerns that the Warm Springs' Gorge site poses such numerous engineering, environmen tal and economic issues that it will require the Tribe to initiate a huge loan to even attempt to build there and that's only after they've paid for all their litigation expenses. Then, if they open the casino, they've got labor issues inter nally if they're going to try and offer casino jobs to Warm Springs Tribal members and convince them to commute a substantial distance. Frankly, while they may not see it yet, we're quite concerned about their future (Warm Springs) and we're very concerned about the future of Indian gaming if this proposal moves forward."