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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2003)
2 NOVEMBER 1, 2003 Restoration Issue ,l'J I V nj i.k .1 VrJ jJ yij kMWfl ufmw Xir ItfiitHMgir Restoration and tern By Ron Karten From the telescope of time, fifty years is not even a blip in the 8,000 year history of Oregon's indigenous peoples, the ancestors of today's Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Still, 30 years of termination on top of 20 years of Restoration look pretty big to the seventh genera tion that lives on the land today. For the Confederated Tribes of Grand They put in endless hours of their own time. These things don't hap pen because you want them to. It takes an incredible amount of hard work. They had to be able to per severe." Four acknowledged leaders of the effort, people who put in the countless hours, spent their own money, and ultimately led the Tribe to success in this effort were Tribal knowledge of what it means to be an Indian. Tribal Council member Ed Larsen said that before Restoration, "It wasn't like we were a Tribe. We were told we were Indians, but we didn't know the traditions you should learn growing up." Restoration also finally was ftiuilb fiv mite tiw$ m w wmmttt Mtum x Ronde, the Wj tmmiter dtiua w (ikH mm item mm V. l" Anm- I versarv of Rfistora- wit tion is a record of survival survival of the failed federal policies of extermination and then assimilation and also a record of the great success that we see in Grand Ronde today. "The most important investment the Tribe can make today," said former Oregon Governor and Sena tor Mark O. Hatfield, who was in strumental in passing Restoration legislation for the Tribe, "is to make Indian leaders." For Elizabeth Furse, former Con gresswoman from Oregon and to day Director of the Institute for Tribal Government at Portland State University, what is vital for young Tribal members to remem ber is "the sacrifices made by lead ers. They had no money at all. Elders .Merle Holmes, Marvin Kimsey, Margaret Provost and Tribal member Jackie Whisler. The celebration honoring them and marking 20 years of Restoration is scheduled this year for November 22 at the Spirit Mountain Casino. (A detailed schedule, which starts at 2 p.m. and will include appear ances by many Tribal leaders and friends of the Tribe, Native foods, Native music and a concert by Crys tal Gayle, will appear in the Novem ber 15 issue of Smoke Signals.) Restoration marked the end of nearly 30 years in the wilderness for a people stripped of traditional lands and practices, and in many circumstances, without even much u I I I t :" f i - Cw. V " u acknowledgement by the dominant culture that America's indigenous peoples were entitled to their tradi tional lands and culture, and that the country had erred in taking them away. Restoration offered hope for Tribal members here in Grand Ronde not that they could survive, which they had already done, but that they could thrive again. It is not the Indian way to look ' , 'J, " . "I . i 1 d' 3 u S " H " 1 . iff f s - ' (W I " i i i ' I " o.-1jh.ftoJJiJLantii M .aanjj..-, ik....,... Children Tribal children and children from the community of Grand Ronde gather for a picture on the steps of St. Michael's Church in 1945. White settlers in the northwest brought with them their religions the dominant religion in the Grand Ronde Agency was Catholicism. The Tribal children who grew up in Grand Ronde attended school at St. Michael's. Pictured are (front row, left to right) Lillian Smith, Buddy White, Donna Bean, Dennis Murphy, Myra Langley and Leonard Langley (cutoff), (back row, left to right) Irma Jean Jensen, Emerson Bobb, Violet DuCharme, Donica Gardner, Isaac Bobb and Joanne Weaver. forward without also looking back. "To me, the most important part (of Restoration) was looking at tomb stones in the cemetery," said Tribal Elder and former Chairwoman Kathryn Harrison. "We owed it to those people." In Grand Ronde, the 60,000-acre reservation granted in 1857 to those who ar rived by way of The Trail of Tears sur vived only until the value of the timber re source was recognized. The 1887 General Al lotment Act translated into 270 allot ments of land to Indians at Grand Ronde, but in 1901, fol lowing negotiations initiated by a federal Indian Inspector, the tederal gov ernment de clared 25,791 acres "surplus" and purchased it from the Indians for $1.10 an acre or a per capita of $72. Much of that land was sold to local timber inter ests. Even many of the allotments were sub sequently lost as indecipherable tax laws pushed some to forfeit their land, while others just sold out in an effort to raise the money to sur vive. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1936 enabled the Tribe to agaia purchase land to build homes for Tribal members on the Reservation, but that promise soon fell to the fed eral plan for termination of the Tribal-federal relationship. In 1954, when termination be came the law of the land, the 60,000-acre Reservation granted to the Grand Rondes in 1857 had dwindled to a 2.5 acre cemetery. Termination came in the name of freeing Indians from reliance on the government, freeing them to join the fabric of American life on a basis equal with other Americans. Or put another way, "It was right after the war at a time when the U.S. was trying to save money," ac- cording to Elizabeth Furse. "The federal government did not want to be in the Indian business," she said. It came at a time when conserva tives sought to reduce government, when they looked at Indians' com munal reservations as too close to communism, and of course, it had v-Nc 111 II 11 s I 1111 II I mm m m mi Tribal Logi by Roger
