Smoke Signals
Oregon's First Indian Housing Fair Highlights Collaboration
The complex housing industry is made simpler when Tribes and other governments work together.
6 SEPTEMBER 1, 2004
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By Ron Karten
Tribal Housing Authority Executive Director Ca
rina Kistler-Ginter put in months of planning for
Oregon's first Indian Housing Fair. It filled the gym
nasium at the Chemawa School at the end of July
with more than a dozen vendors. They brought gifts
of logo-laden pads, pens, pencils, mints and flash
lights that accompany all the big conventions.
The traffic was on and off all afternoon but for
those who made the trip, the message was simple:
housing opportunities are available for Natives; and
the folks at Chemawa on July 31 were on hand to
help make the kind of connections that cut red tape.
Sources were available to help finance, build, in
sure, insulate or otherwise improve a house, trailer
or double-wide.
"I'm a bundler," said Scott Hansen, HIP (Housing
Improvement Programs) CoordinatorAV eatherization
Hi--
Potential home owners at the Washington Mutual booth.
Specialist for the Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw
Indians. He does everything he can to bring together
all the necessary elements to make a service avail
able to Natives in the housing market
place, although that can take the coor
dination of as many as a dozen differ
ent governmental and private indus
try sources.
The Federal Trade Commission was
there with information about scams to
avoid. Hansen had information about
installing solar power for a home.
Warm Springs, Siletz, Grand Ronde
and the Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw Tribes all were represented,
as was HUD's Office of Native Ameri
can Programs and Oregon's Depart
ment of Housing and Community Ser
vices. Washington Mutual and Wells
Fargo banks were there. Building companies were
on hand including Advanced
Native Construction, a 100
Native American-owned com
pany. Folks from the Oregon
Veterans Home also were
there.
"We were able to offer our
services to veterans we
haven't previously had con
tact with," said John Coffey,
Underwriter for the Oregon
Department of Veterans Af
fairs. All afternoon, specialists
held workshops to teach at
tendees about credit counsel
ing, predatory lending, home
energy efficiency, home safety
improvement and other home
repairs. Others taught about
weatherization rehab ser
vices and Indian Health Service water and sewer
assistance.
"Nobody knows about us," said David Foster, Policy
'U-iLf fx
Lyle Rhoan (l)of the Warm Springs Housing Authority
Board, Tribal Housing Authority Executive Director
Carina Kistler-Ginter, Max Rice (r) of the HUD office
of Native American Programs in Seattle
Strategist with Oregon's Department of Housing and
Community Services. "We do almost everything
through local partners."
The Indian Health Service's (IHS) Patrick Craney
described how his agency was "hugely successful" in
the 1950s when they were first installing large com
munity water systems. Today, he said, the agency
is more involved with upkeep of those systems, and
sounding what turned out to be the theme of the
day, he added, "We're only as effective as our part
ners." "A lot came from out of state and other Tribes,"
said Nancy Holmes, Homeownership Coordinator for
the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, "but with
all the federal agencies on hand, we can get them
help, too."
"I'm thrilled at the great cooperation we got from
among all the partners of this event," said Kistler-Ginter.
Amanda Back For Pow-wow Again This Year
Tribal member needing new heart and lungs continues to fight difficult disease.
By Ron Karten
Nineteen-year-old Tribal member Amanda
Jones-Schulte was excited to see the pow-wow
again this year. She had been counting on com
ing since last year's event, which she watched
mostly from a wheelchair.
The family had just learned
that Amanda would need a
heart-lung transplant, and at last
year's pow-wow, they started rais
ing money to help with extra ex
penses for when operation time
came, and that's when the rest of
us learned about Eisenmanger
Syndrome.
Amanda was born with a hole
in her heart, one result being that
she does not make enough oxy
gen to feed her body. Another is
that the syndrome has given her
and her folks, Dean Schulte and
Tribal member Tracy Schulte,
more heart than almost anybody
around.
They are out there in territory
not many of us will ever get to.
This year, courtesy of another
"episode," Amanda is on a power
ful medication to expand her
blood vessels. The stuff, called Flolan, is a life
saver but requires Amanda to mix a new batch
herself every day. It must be kept on ice all the
time, and from a pack she carries with a shoul
der strap, it is constantly fed directly into a port
in her upper chest. If she mixes it wrong, she's
in trouble. If the machine stops working for six
minutes, again, trouble. Out of all the potential
for problems, the family acts instead on all the
likelihood of success. Amanda and mom, Tracy,
were here for pow-wow, living large.
Last year, Amanda and Tracy set up a booth
to raise money for extras that undoubtedly will
be needed when it is time for the transplant;
IHIIIlMiWI ' .."'"
a.
Doing Better Despite needing a heart and lung transplant, Tribal member Amanda
Schulte traveled all the way from Modesto, California to be at the Grand Ronde Pow-wow.
Schulte, pictured here with mother Tracy, is doing better this year and plans on attending
college in the fall.
lar circumstances, Tracy has said. And there
will always be another. On the other hand, the
family has a goal of $100,000 for the fund raiser,
so Tribal members and others may still contrib
ute the remaining $25,000 to:
Help Hand Amanda Heart & Lungs Organi
zation co Oak Valley Com
munity Bank
4120 B Dale Rd
Modesto, CA 95356
Acct 007 000847
This year, Amanda and
Tracy played a more tradi
tional part in pow-wow: they
strolled and chatted and felt
the powerful beat of host
drummers Black Lodge
(Washington), Perfect Storm
and Black Stone (Canada).
They perusec' the many arts
and crafts booths, the fry
bread stands, and they stand
out among the brightest
strands in this year's pow
wow fabric, a combination of
delicacy and raw courage, a
testimony to determination
that has sustained Indians for
and announced, as much to themselves as to
Tribal members across the country that their
battle against Eisenmanger Syndrome had been
engaged.
Over the last year, the family has raised more
than $75,000 for operation time, and they
haven't touched a penny of it. If they never
need it, they will pass it along to another in simi-
more than 10,000 years.
The short story is this: Amanda is stronger this
year. She graduated high school and is attend
ing college, and though she passed out on the
trip up, and almost cancelled the whole thing,
her doctors encouraged her to keep going, keep
living and that's what pow-wow was about for
her this year.