DECEMBER 1, 2005
Smoke Signals 7
1
Family Comes First
Tribal member Jeremy Haller recently earned his
Journeyman Electrician license after a 5-year apprenticeship.
By Ron Karten
As a kid, Tribal member Jeremy
I laller's ambition was "to make as much
trouble as I could," he said in a recent
interview at his new home in Keizer.
It doesn't take too long to see that
that may be the only thing he wasn't
so successful at.
In middle school at Willamina, he
was chosen to go to the White I louse for
an environmental conference. He shook
I hands with then Vice President Al Gore.
"My whole family was loggers," he
said. "I wanted to tell him, 'What are
you going to wipe with if you don't cut
down the trees?'"
In high school at Willamina, he
played both offense and defense for the
Bulldogs' football team. In his senior
year, as a member of the league's All
Star team, he went to England where
it turned out that the team played a
bunch of English pub teams.
"They were ruthless," he said. "We
played on sand. It was the worst turf.
They'd say, 'I'm going to kill you, you
bloody American.' And then, we'd go
to the pub and they give you dinner and
it was like we were best friends. We
traded footballs and jerseys."
"He hung out with his grandpa more
than me," said Tribal Elder Val Grout,
Jeremy's grandmother. "With me, I
was just grandma. But he was a good
kid. I couldn't ask for a better grand
son. He never gave me any problems."
When Jeremy was 4-5 in there, Jeremy
and his sister, Valerie, stayed for a year
with Val and her husband, Pete Grout.
"I always tell Janelle (Tribal member
Janelle Haller, Jeremy's mom) that I
had him during his formative years.
That's why he turned out so good."
Jeremy exchanged the compliment
with his grandmother. "Every year,"
he said, "we try to get Val a sentimen
tal gift to get her to cry." Most recently,
it was a collection of photos of her hus
band, Pete, who has passed on.
Sandie remembered what has
since become a fun family memory of
Grandma Val lining all the kids up
around the coffee table for one mis
deed or another and then going
around the table and giving each a
whack on the behind.
Jeremy remembered driving around
town with his grandfather. "We'd be
out and around the town," said Jeremy,
was the family's gift to him.
Jeremy also wanted to make sure the
story included family from all sides for
his love and compliments. Sandie
talked about how Jeremy is the same
way with his neighbors: "Jeremy's the
first one to jump in to help the neigh
bors across the street," she said. "I Ie
dug all the fence posts. He mows our
lawn and then he mows their lawn."
Haller has been a hard working,
money making type from his early
days. In his early teens, he worked
with Tribal Elder Merle Leno helping
prepare the pow-wow grounds. One
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Successful Tribal member Jeremy Haller (3rd from left) watches his sons
Jaden (standing) and Jacob with his wife Sandie. Haller attended a 5-year electri
cian apprenticeship and has recently earned this Journeyman Electrician license.
"and he'd yell out the window (to girls
walking) 'Jeremy Haller loves you!'"
Jeremy's revenge came one night at
a Sheridan stop light. There was a
woman on the corner there, he re
membered, "with more hair on her
upper lip than I could grow and I
yelled out, 'Pete Grout loves you!'
Grandpa turned every shade of red,"
he said.
"My family is half crazy," he said.
For his great grandmother's 90th
birthday, the family got "a stripper
dude" to perform.
Jeremy also remembered fishing with
his dad and grandfather in Alaska for a
week. They caught halibut, salmon,
went clam digging. His grandfather,
Pete, had wanted to go to Alaska before
he died, and this, Jeremy remembered,
year, he cooked 300-400 pounds of
salmon for a pow-wow.
"I guess I could cook," he said. One
of his favorite dishes to prepare is pork
chops with pepper jelly, mashed pota
toes and gravy and green beans.
For five years in his later teens, he
worked at both Fort Hill and the ca
sino, mastering a bunch of jobs, includ
ing dishwashing, prep cook, cook,
pantry steward and receiving clerk.
He said he's always been tight with
money (though you should see his
house, and he wired it himself). "If I
don't have cash," he said, "I don't de
serve (to have the things)."
Before he turned 21, he had a truck,
a 4-wheeler and a ski boat, and all
were fully paid except the truck. "I've
never had one late payment on a bill,"
he said.
I lis latest success is his Journeyman
Electrician's license, received May 18
this year, after a five-year apprentice
ship. He studied math for the licens
ing test with Sandie's dad, who is an
air traffic controller.
Before deciding on electricity, I Ialler
took on another course in getting people
wired he went to bartending school
and was ready for that career.
"He's always looking for his next in
vestment," said Sandie. "He became a
certified bartender and then got ac
cepted in the journeyman's program."
"I'll have my own shop in five years,"
said Haller. He intends to retire by the
time he's 50.
"We have a picture of Jeremy doing
his work (his apprenticeship) with Jacob
on his lap," said Sandie. Jacob is four
now. "And we have the same picture a
few years later with Jaden in his lap."
Jaden is not yet a year old. "He amazed
me with his commitment to get
through school."
"When opportunity knocks," said Jer
emy, "you have to jump."
That might not be exactly the right
terminology for an electrician who also
spends his time "trying to avoid getting
killed," he said. "It's always on your
mind. But I do a lot of new construc
tion. The bad situations are few and
far between."
He does admit to having been hit
with 277 volts to the back of his hand,
which looks just fine now.
"I just enjoy making electricity work,
creating circuits, tying ends together."
He takes satisfaction in "being able to
go in and create all of the electricity and
lights for the future (of a house)."
He hunts (and son Jacob has gone with
him twice this year) and fishes and plays
golf. He likes Texas Hold 'Em poker,
which is the longest that anybody can get
him to sit down for. And watch out: "I'm
a huge Duck fan," he said.
"One thing I know," said mom,
Janelle Haller, "is that I'll never have
to worry about Jeremy. Jeremy is so
grounded (No pun intended). Some
times, it's like role reversal, like he's
the parent and I'm the child."
Sandie's family always moved around
a lot and didn't experience extended
family life as much as Jeremy. "Here,"
she said, "there's not a holiday that the
family isn't together."
Native American Author Vine Deloria, Jr. Passes At The Age of 72
Vine Deloria, Jr. (1) pictured here with
Billy Frank, Jr. of the Northwest Indian
Fish Commission
Across the country, educators and
the ranks of Indians interested in
culture and history mourned the
death of Vine Deloria, Jr., who died
recently in Colorado. The writer,
scholar and activist had retired in
2000 from the staff at Colorado Uni
versity. He was 72.
Deloria is author most famously of
Custer Died For Your Sins, an Indian
Manifesto, but also many other books
and scholarly articles including: Aggres
sions of civilization: federal Indian
policy since the 1880s, Behind the
Trail of Broken Treaties: an Indian dec
laration of independence, For this land:
writings on religion in America, Frank
Waters: man and mystic, God is red: a
native view of religion, The Indian af
fair, Indians of the Pacific Northwest,
Native Americans and the myth of sci
entific fact, among many.
"Vine Deloria Jr. has contributed more
to Indian Education than any other,"
said Ryan Wilson, president of the Na
tional Indian Education Association.
"We know our friends and colleagues
in the National Indian Education As
sociation (NTEA) and throughout Indian
Country will sorely miss Vine Deloria
Jr.," said National Education Associa
tion President Reg Weaver, "but we
want them to know they are not alone.
"NEA will not rest until every child
in America, including every Indian
child, has access to a great public
school and every high school gradu
ate, regardless of their family income,
has the opportunity to attend college.
We are in this battle together."
"Vine Deloria Jr. was born a
Lakota, he lived his life as a Lakota,
and he died as a Lakota," said NIEA's
Wilson. "The soul of a Lakota man
does not dwell on the past or dream
of things that could be. Vine Deloria
Jr. understood that his time on this
earth was precious, and he cherished
life in a manner that compelled him
to live it to the fullest each and ev
ery day. He lived life so well and
true, that few have done it better."
"Vine Deloria will always be remem
bered as one of the superb Tribal lead
ers of our time and one of the most
effective executive directors of the Na
tional Congress of American Indians
(NCAI)," said NCAI President Joe
Garcia on behalf of the NCAI Execu
tive Committee and staff.
I read all his books," said Elaine
LaBonte, Tribal Tourism Coordina
tor. "I think he was one of the
greatest Native philosophers there
was. In the mid-1990s, I met him
at an AISES (American Indian Sci
ence and Engineering Society) con
ference and I talked to him, and he
was an inspiration to me to con
tinue in school. I am now a Ph.D.
candidate. He put a different spin
on science than the dominant cul
ture does. Very inspiring. He re
minded me of my uncle."
"Vine, of the Standing Rock Sioux,
was the preeminent scholar-activist of
American Indian treaty law and au
thor of several best-selling and influ
ential books ("Custer Died for Your
Sins" comes to mind)," wrote Osha
Gray Davidson, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated
environmental Journalist whose
2004 story for Rolling Stone magazine,
"A Wrong Turn in the
Desert," described the plight of Pfc.
Lori Ann Piestewa, the first Native
American woman to die in combat on
foreign soil. "(Deloria's) books are re
quired reading for anyone writing on
Indian issues and the environment
and, for that matter, for anyone want
ing a more complete understanding of
the United States.
"I had the privilege to study treaty
law with him for a semester at the
University of Arizona. Sitting in a
small room with six other students,
twice a week for three hours a shot,
while Vine walked us through the le
gal relationship between whites and
Indians from first contact through the
early 20th Century was one of the
great experiences of my life. Read
him; you won't be sorry."