DECEMBER 15, 2003
Smoke Signals 3
Member Services Gives Tribal Council Report
Cheryle Kennedy honored as "Woman Of The Year."
By Ron Karten
The December General Council
meeting was held on Sunday, Decem
ber 7, at the Tribal Community Cen
ter in Grand Ronde. Here are the
highlights:
Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle
Kennedy called the meeting to order;
Tribal Council member Jan D.
Reibach gave the invocation.
Director of Operations and Tribal
member Chris Leno presented the
program report on Member Services.
Highlights included increases in
Tribal support for Elder pensions,
which are set to rise at the first of the
year and for burial benefits with an
additional increase for providing a
meal for relatives.
Overall, Tribal members receive
medical and dental insurance, annual
per capita and timber distributions,
pensions and disability insurance,
Medicare Part B reimbursement, tax
preparation assistance, enrollment
and burial assistance.
Elders also are entitled to non-member
spousal health insurance.
In 2003, the Tribe enrolled 90 new
members, 70 of them minors.
D 601 members received Elder pension
SSISSD.
B 113 received non-Elder SSISSD.
H 4002 received medical insurance
3,833 received dental insurance.
For questions about an individual
account, please contact the following:
Blimmiiiiir-"T"in-liI Tim Itl Wmh ,,Mi.m,M I jum t O.
Respected The Board of Directors of Celebrating Traditions & Medicine Winds News
present Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle Kennedy with the group's award for Woman of
the Year 2003-04. L to R: Mike WhiteHawk, Ian Kerchee, Nakima Kerchee, Lesa Kerchee;
not pictured: Ellen WhiteHawk.
Liz Leno, Member Services Coordina
tor regarding per capita and timber dis
tributions, 503-879-2082; Margo
Mercier, Enrollment Coordinator re
garding Enrollment and burial ben
efits, 503-879-2253; Amy Whisler,
Member Services Specialist regarding
Elder pensions, SSISSD and non-Elder
SSISSD; and Francine Peterson,
Member Services Assistant regarding
medical and dental insurance issues.
Those out of the area may use the
Tribe's toll free number: 1-800-422-0232,
and ask for the last four num
bers of your party's full phone num
ber. The Board of Directors of Celebrat
ing Traditions & Medicine Winds
News based in Oakridge, Oregon, pre
sented Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle
Kennedy with its third annual
Woman of the Year Award for 2003
2004. It is presented to Indian women
who, among other things, "contribute
to the well-being of her people first,
but also promote the well-being of
the community in which she lives,"
according to Co-President Nakima
Kerchee (Lakota Ottawa), who
made the award presentation along
with four others from the board.
A group led by Tribal member
Rebecca Crocker pressed the coun
cil to revise Enrollment rules, spe
cifically as a result of changes to
the rule made in 1999.
From Tribal member Tracy
Howerton of Grand Meadows to
Tribal member Leroy Good of
Michigan, speakers described the
difficulty and seeming unfairness
of having one child honored as a
Tribal member while another in
the same family, with the same
blood quantum, only born after the
1999 amendment, is denied mem
bership in the Tribe.
Door prizes included $50 winners:
Tribal members Kayla Koumentis,
Gary LaChance and Policy and Grants
Development Director Kim Ray Rogers,
who again donated his winnings to the
fund to help Amanda Schulte with the
expenses surrounding her needed heart
lung transplant. Tribal Elder Ruby
Bigoni was the $100 winner.
A basket filled with goodies to raise
money for Elders' Committee pro
grams and eight turkeys also were
raffled.
Tribal member Brad Leno reflects on tragedy.
Editor's Note: This was a tough story. But, it was a story that had to be told if for no other
reason than the age-old possibility that some young person might read the story and be
changed, or moved not repeat the actions of the young men involved in this tragedy. This is a
Tribal story because so many of those involved are members of the Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde. It is also a universal story of growing up in small town America. Many in this
particular group of individuals have been united by the tragedy. They look for the good. They
wear forgiveness on their sleeves, and from the ruins of many lives, ask that the harsh light of
judgment be reserved. They each have suffered plenty. We wish them strength from their
ordeal and courage as the days go by. We wish them healing.
Kids at the edge of adulthood with access to alcohol and drugs and cars in every town and
village of this country face the choices that made the difference in this story. But for fortune...
"When will they ever learn?"
"When will they ever learn?"
From 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone?' By Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson
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Consequences Tribal member Brad Leno sits on a bunk at the
MacLaren Correctional Facility for Youth in Woodburn.
By Ron Karten
Tribal member Brad Leno wants to leave the world
a better place. He's gone through tragedy to bring
this to the top of his list, but there's no doubt about
it in his mind now. He resides at the MacLaren
Correctional Facility for Youth in Woodburn, incar
cerated for being young and making poor choices,
the last of which ended in the death of his friend in a
car he was driving with his blood alcohol level twice
the legal limit.
He takes full responsibility for the death of his
friend. It is something he says he will live with
every day of his life. But a question comes up. It
comes up for those who love him and those close to
the other boys involved. And it comes up for the
wider community.
Can you prevent a tragedy, even when all the in
gredients to that tragedy are out there in plain sight?
Leno, now 19, remembers the experts coming to
Willamina Middle School when he went through
there, telling him about the evils of drugs and alco
hol, the dangers of mixing them with driving, but
he thought: 'It won't happen to me.'
"I just think kids are young and they're going to
learn in their own ways. I know I did," said Tribal
member Wendy Scott, who barely knows Leno, but
she knew Matthew Castellon, the boy who died, only
too well.
Only a few months before the fatal accident, a 17-year-old
Leno was involved in his second recorded
car accident cited for careless driving in a head
on collision on State Highway 22 and was sen
tenced to write an essay on traffic safety.
His essay said in part, "If I got into a head on
collision and killed somebody I would have to live
with that guilt on my mind for the rest of my life. I
would rather have died too, than live knowing I
killed someone... I know from now on I will be a
more cautious and careful driver and obey the speed
limit at all times, so that this will never happen
again."
Yamhill County Circuit Judge Ron Stone wrote
him back in March of that year, "The essay reflects
thoughtfulness and concern on your part. I am sure
you have learned from your experience."
He knew. He'd experienced consequences, small
though they were. He thought he had it straight.
The judge thought he had it straight. So, what went
wrong?
Roll the calendar forward only a few months to
the Saturday evening of July 14 that same year,
2001. It was the evening of the Veterans' Pow-wow.
Leno was home, "watching TV and stuff, getting
bored. I decided to go into town to see what every
one else was doing. I was saying to myself, 'I should
stay home,'" because he had been in trouble a few
weeks earlier, partying when he had promised to
help his dad, Tribal member Lonnie Leno, "buck
hay down at the beach."
He decided to leave anyway, he said, "and then
(like his conscience was telling him something, he)
kept forgetting things my shirt, my keys, the
phone."
The story covers a lot of ground from there, head
ing to Sheridan and coming back with a video called,
"Dude, Where's My Car," ("the parts I saw were
funny," said Leno), a trip for methamphetamines
("I didn't do the meth," said Leno. "I had made a
promise to my sister Tribal member Brandy that
I wouldn't do it anymore... we made a deal: if I
stopped doing meth, she'd stop smoking cigarettes,")
Brad Leno continued on next page