2 NOVEMBER 1, 2003
Restoration Issue
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Tribal Logi
by Roger