Smoke Signals 5
Restoration Celebration To Take Place At Casino On November 22
NOVEMBER 15, 2003
Restoration continued from
front page
Tribal Council member Valorie Sheker
Robertson was 21 at the time. "My mom
told us all that the Tribe had been re
stored, to get our birth certificates and
come on over and enroll," she said.
She grew up in Portland, "knowing I
was a Grand Ronde Indian all these years
whether or not we had a roll number."
So when Restoration came, she said, "I
was thinking, I know I'm Grand Ronde.
Why do I need to enroll?"
"When we first got restored and started
having the Pow-wows," said Tribal Coun
cil member Jack Giffen, Jr., "everything
(like preparing meals) was done by Tribal
members themselves. It was done by all
the families." When the Contest Pow
wows began, preparations became more
institutionalized, Giffen recalled, and
said, "I look at Restoration as more like
those early year pow-wows, like the fam
ily gatherings again."
"As you get older, you really do appreciate the
value of family and your heritage," said Tribal
member Lorri Smith of Seaside. "It was a pretty
exciting time. I remember my Grandmother
(Tribal member Sylvia Laree Vivette
Legashinski) was very excited that us kids would
have a heritage, something for the future, some
thing to be a part of."
Young, old and in between will find that this
heritage is alive and well, and moving into the
future this Saturday at the Spirit Mountain
" j -
Charles In Charge Tribal
member and Tribal Council Liaison
Charles Haller II is in charge of coor
dinating the Tribe's 20lh Restoration
ceremony on Saturday, November 22
at Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand
Ronde. For more information about
the Restoration celebration contact
Haller at 503-879-1309.
Casino. All are encouraged to
attend. B
Restoration Governor Impressed With Tribe Today
"You were nowhere and now you're somewhere."
That's how former Oregon Governor Victor Atiyeh described the effect of Resto
ration on the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. He has long been a friend of
Oregon's Tribes. He was Governor when Restoration came through for the Grand
Rondes, and will be one of the featured speakers for the Restoration celebration
November 22.
"When I think of where you are today and where you were before Restoration,
it's absolutely amazing," he said.
Although the order restoring the Grand Ronde Tribe came from Congress, ev
erybody knew that passage would have been much tougher without the support
of the governor.
"That was not going to be my way of doing business," he said recently from his
office in Portland. "I'm proud that it happened, as they say, on my watch." He
called it, "one of the things I feel a great sense of pride in personally, and as
Governor."
His thinking, then as now, came from the importance he places on history. "I
happen to be a strong believer, unless you have some sense of where you were,
you're just sort of floating in space. Once you have that, then you become an
identifiable part of..." and he looked around for a word large enough to do this
idea justice, "... life," he finally settled on.
As a result, he sees great value in Native Americans "retaining their traditions."
He credited the Grand Rondes with "establishing a pattern of giving," that was
followed as other Tribes came into their own.
1
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Friend Of The Tribe Republican Governor Vic Atiyeh was the Governor of Oregon in 1 983
when the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon achieved federal recog
nition as a Tribe. Atiyeh said he was "proud" that the Restoration of the Tribe occurred during his
turn as governor.
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