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
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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
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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.