6
AUGUST 1, 2003
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Marce Norwest Leads Veterans' Pow-wow For The Last Time
Tribal member and Navy Veteran Gene LaBonte and his wife Billie will take over now.
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By Ron Karten
Together, Tribal Elder Marce
Norwest and his wife, Sharon, built
the Grand Ronde Veterans' Pow-wow
from a dream. He did the groundwork
and she did the books.
Ten years ago, the event included
about 10 vendors and maybe 300-400
people, said Norwest. This year
marked the 11th annual of the event
(though there were some less formal
Veterans' Pow-wows going back to the
1980s), said Norwest, and it drew more
than 30 vendors and Norwest esti
mated as many as 2,500. At a compli
mentary dinner Saturday afternoon,
the Tribe fed about 1,000, according
to Tribal member Betty Lambert, who
was helping
the cook,
her sister,
Tribal
member
Carol
Nelson.
At the
end of this year's event, the Norwests
passed the leadership responsibilities
on to Tribal member Gene LaBonte
and his wife, Billie. They handed over
a Veterans' Pow-wow that has become
an institution in Grand Ronde.
"I want to take a rest for my wife, to
be with her, even though she works
as hard as I do," said Norwest, who
carried a hammer across the pow-wow
grounds as final preparations were un
derway. "We're a little late getting the bleach
ers in," he said, and with a power gen
erator humming behind him and
among dozens of people in various
stages of work and talk, he asked a
vendor how much space he needed.
"Sixteen feet."
He marked off a line in the dirt with
the edge of his shoe. "OK," he said,
"here's 20 feet."
This pow-wow included grass
dancers, who traditionally come out
first to trample the grass down, ac
cording to Norwest, and chase away
snakes.
"The older Elders like myself still
have the traditional ways and have the
culture," said Norwest. "Since termi
nation, we have lost a lot of ground
with the young .ones Now, we're
teaching the young ones so they'll
know."
The round dance, hoop dance, jingle
dress dance and butterfly dance were
among the fancy and traditional
dances of the weekend. Indians and
Veterans from Tribes all over the
United States come together for each
year's event.
Dancing in the owl dance was Tribal
member Tonya Heslet, wanting to
learn more about her roots. Heslet,
raised in Kansas and now enrolled at
Hunter College in New York City.
Sponsored by the Northwest Indians
Veterans Association (NIVA) with
funds from the Tribe, this year's Vet-
erans' Pow-wow offered more than the
usual attractions. At any time, you
could look over at the newly dedicated
West Valley Veterans' Memorial and
see people there looking for names on
the black carved monoliths.
"To me," said Norwest, "there is no
one greater than another. We honor
Veterans who paid a price and those
fighting now and their families and
kids."
The Veterans' Color Guard intro
duced the event each day and retired
the flags after each session. "We're
the last ones to leave," said Norwest.
"It took two hours to do the grand
entry Saturday morning," he added.
"There must have been 140-150 Vet
erans." Eighty three-year-old Art "Chief
Shilo (Yakama), wearing a P.O.W.
jacket, was attending his third Veter
ans' Pow-wow here in Grand Ronde.
As a ball turret gunner in the Army
Air Corps, precursor to the Air Force,
Shilo's plane was taken down during
World War II on his first mission,
somewhere between England and
Remy, France.
"Flak knocked us out," he said.
Shilo was one of three survivors of a
10-man crew, and spent the next 18
months in Stalag 17B in Krems, Aus
tria. He was a P.O.W. for nearly two
years altogether. "We had roll call
night or day. We'd stand for hours.
We were hungry most of the time. We
received a few Red Cross parcels, but
a parcel for one would be divided to
five or six people."
Tribal member and Little Miss
Grand Ronde Victoria Rios, 8, sat on a
cement divider in the parking lot of
the Social Services modulars as the line
for dinner extended from the Commu
nity Center doors out across the park
ing lot.
"I'm tired," Rios said.
A pow-wow dancer since she was six,
Rios had al
ready partici
pated this
year in tiny
tots, fancy
shawl and
three inter
Tribal dances.
"What's exciting to me is I have a
lot of fun, I get to represent my place,
and certainly, I get to dance."
Preparations for this and the other
summer events included a landscap
ing improvement project. The grounds
crew "hauled in 2,500 yards of fill dirt,
dressed it with fine river sand, put in
an underground sprinkler system. We
hydro-seeded, and then we all crossed
our fingers," said Eric Scott, the Tribal
Engineer, who organized the effort.
Gene and Billie LaBonte led an ef
fort that raised $500 as a spur-of-the-moment
send-off for the Norwests, who
had not previously announced their re
tirement. "I look for a lot of direction and I'll
be begging for a lot of help," said Gene
LaBonte of his new responsibilities.
"Marce is going to be here. I'll be try
ing to learn what all he's learned over
the next couple of years. I'm not go
ing to try to improve on it. How can
you improve on what's already well
done?"
Asked what accounts for his suc
cess, Norwest had one word: "Believ
ing." "It is work, believe me," said
Norwest, "but I wouldn't do it if I didn't
enjoy it."
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