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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2003)
4 AUGUST 1,2003 Smoke Signals Confederated Tribes Partner with Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Playing baseball is a part of Grand Ronde's Indian heritage. By Ron Karten As many as 4,100 Salem-Keizer Volcanoes baseball fans each game will know they have a partner in the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde this year, and likely long into the future. Under a recently signed sponsorship agreement, The Tribes' name will appear on a back-lighted sign on the scoreboard, making it a winning play for both the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and the many members of the Tribes. "To us, Tribal history is an important part of our history," said Lisa Walker, Co-Owner and Vice Presi dent of Marketing for the Volcanoes. The Volcanoes are the Salem-Keizer-based minor league affili ate of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants. The Volcanoes organi zation sees (the sponsor ship) as an honor and (our stadium) as a viable place for (the Tribes) to share their story. The Confed erated Tribes of Grand Ronde are a tremendous value to the entire area, and they offer so much." The Tribe will offer tick ets to Volcano games this season to families through the Tribes' Social Services Department, accord ing to Tribal Council Vice Chair Reyn Leno. The regular sponsorship deal entitles the Tribes to four season tickets for box seats, but the Tribes traded those in to make the opportunity available to more people. "We wanted to make it available to kids," said Leno. And the arrangement is good for the Volca noes, too. "Sponsorship tickets get a whole lot of people out here," said Walker. "Our desire is to bring people out who haven't made the time to come, yet, and once they do, they want to come back. When people come here, what we hope that they do is relax, forget about the work day, and just enjoy an atmosphere of fun and baseball because i life,. 0. ji,' .TnHn , ? Jt , M9 I :.4 4w i in Vi 'tf'i ., v '7-, print ads will be included in the team's "table top production, high-gloss, four-color" yearbook, said Walker. But for the Tribes, the interest in this sponsor ship goes to the heart of what it means to be an Indian in the Northwest. "It's kind of odd that we got connected with baseball," said Leno. "Here in Grand Ronde, when there was nothing here, you look at our old photos, and there's people playing baseball. Baseball was a big thing here." With general admission tickets only $5, Volcanoes baseball is an evening of fun that a great number of families are able to enjoy. "You're not dealing with major league prices," said Walker, "but with a com munity business that wants to give back to the community." In many ways, the Tribes are in the same kind of busi- The New Kids In Town The newest kids in town are this year's crop of young prospects playing minor league baseball for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. The Volcanoes, owned by Jerry and Lisa Walker, are the single A affiliate of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde are a corporate sponsor for this year's team and will be taking kids to games through the Tribe's social services program. ness. that's what it's all about. You never see the same game twice." The Tribes' $17,500-sponsorship also includes a one-minute radio acknowledgment of the Tribes to be broadcast during each game's play-by-play. The team has "several commercials" into which it will plug the Tribes' name, said Walker. In addition, the Tribes' name will appear on tickets and in print ads during the season. Those And business it is. The team has to sell 80 percent of its 4,100 seats every game to break even, said Walker. And to make it work, there is an intricate mix of facilities, community involvement and just good solid baseball that has to gel. The Volcanoes made the move to Salem in 1996 for the 1997 season. The Walkers invested $3.5 million in the deal "in the hope that people would see the value of minor league baseball returning to Salem," said Walker. "We knew it would work when within 48 hours of announcing the move, we had over 300 orders for season tickets." Indian Child Welfare Agency Sponsors Community Forum On the road to creating wellness in the community through a "wholistic, relational world view." By Ron Karten The idea was to look at the community today and describe its features its plusses and minuses; then visualize the kind of community the group would like to have five years down the road and describe its features. "We're starting a new process," said Dana Ainam, ICW Unit Supervisor for the Social Services Depart ment and emcee for the program, "getting more com munity input to provide better services to the com munity." At the same time, cautioned Indian Child Wel fare specialist Carolyn Maple, the community ought to look toward "models that reflect better our Tribal ways of thinking." "When we were disbursed," said Bob McElderry (Flathead), Grants Developer in the Policy and Plan ning Department, "we learned to act like white folks." He worried that now, "we're planning for a white community, not an Indian community." "There (first) needs to be some healing from intergenerational PTSD (post traumatic stress dis order)," said Ron Hudson, Program Coordinator for the Family Unit of the Social Services Department, "and acculturation of the Tribe due to termination." These things "fragment the philosophy and the mis sion of the Tribe," he said. Tribal ways of thinking, said Maple, "are tradi tionally more wholistic. . . it's a relational world view." For the 35 or so in attendance, the community today enjoys a new low-income housing development and top notch education facilities at the pre-school level, but suffers from a public school system that is "a mess," according to one participant and a dis mal local employment picture. The mixed bag noted "trash in the ditches," kids complaining that "there's nothing to do around here," problems at the health clinic, too little alcohol and drug dependency counseling or follow-up. In short, there was far more to ob ject to than to be thankful for. "So, why do you live here?" said Maple. "Because I was raised here." "You have a connection," said Maple. "It's important to acknowledge that as a positive." Joe Kirk (KlamathModoc), Employ ment and Training Specialist with the Social Services Department, said that the community needs an inventory detailing who is here and what is available before deciding how to proceed. The question then became more basic: what do we mean by "community"? Is it the whole Tribe? Tribal members in the ten local counties? All the people residing in Grand Ronde? "I don't know that that is yet defined," said Ainam. "Indian communities all over are struggling with these issues," said Maple, who then encouraged the group to "shift your thinking to where you want this community to be in five years." "There should be dinner at the community center with the whole community there," said another. Self-sufficiency was a big item for the future, as was an emphasis on spirituality, a drug-free com munity, residential alcohol and drug dependence . i jii .,. . - ..... -..j.i,, ... . p i . in ;hMfV: i it Dana Ainam, ICW Unit Supervisor care, a community culture where individuals feel valued and supported, a community norm of grati tude, open communication, volunteer clean-up and neighborhood work crews. The list kept growing: universal childcare, hous ing and other help for middle income folks who make too much to receive government help, but too little to actually afford such things as housing, health care and childcare, a park where families can gather and "more meetings like this." More such meetings were promised to continue this effort. Those in attendance voted for the most important items and these would be the items the community would "put energy into," said Maple. And so the process began.
