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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2006)
Smoke Signals 3 OCTOBER 1,2006 Grand Ronde Vets Are Now Eligible For Disability Compensation From The Tribe The benefit aids those covered by the Vets Administration, but will not double up with other Tribal benefits. By Ron Karten Here is the story of the little guy who saw a problem with govern ment, which is not all that difficult, but he kept chipping away at it un til the government saw the problem, too, which is a little less common, and he kept chipping away until the government did something about it, which is something to shout about any day. In this case, the little guy was Tribal member Ron Rife, 53, a Vet eran of the Gulf War, who emerged from the military alive but eligible for full disability. "I seen at the Tribe there were only a few disabled Veterans receiv ing disability. The main thing I saw was that it was just people that was on Social Security Disability that was getting paid. I asked:. 'Don't Veterans that are on Veterans' Disability qualify?' They said, 'No. We only recognize those on Social Security Disability.' That's when I began working on this." He said he's been working on it for four or five years, and in the last two, "we were getting a hold of it and making progress through the (Tribal Council) deal." He gave Tribal member and 1 L ' Tribal member and Tribal Member Services Specialist Reina Nelson helps Grand Ronde disabled Veterans with a new program aimed for ages 18-54. interim General Manager for the Tribe Chris Leno credit for making the effort happen. "I did the legwork," said Leno, "gave council some options, and they decided whether to implement the program or not. And that's the way a lot of programs go." Late last year, Leno took the proposal possibilities before coun cil and with the idea of supporting disabled Vets at the same level that the Tribe sup ports disabfed Elders. The council approved the program as part of the 2006 budget. That means maximum payments of $800month for Vets receiving 100 percent disability pay ments from the Veter ans Administration, and pro-rated payments for those with less than 100 percent disability. The Tribal program be gan in July, and now helps 11 disabled Tribal Vet erans. One receives 100 percent disability payments ($800) and one at the other end of the scale receives 10 percent disability pay ments ($80). "It's not intended to supply all their needs," said Tribal mem ber and Tribal Member Services Specialist Reina Nelson. "It's a Museum) Feaftures Tribal Elder Chuck Williams continues to show his outsized talents. By Ron Karten On Thursday, October 5, Tribal Elder Chuck Williams will share the center room at the Clark County His torical Museum with Native Artist Lillian Pitt (Warm SpringsWasco Yakama). The event is the last leg of a three-part, year-long series explor ing much from the Native point of view the Northwest contribu tion to the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery. Williams' photographs from the 1990's feature Columbia River people from Grand Ronde and Nez Perce Tribes. And from Lillian Pitt, the Museum is show some of her masks and a salmon dry ing rack. The exhibit, "Full Circle: Yes terday, Today and Tomorrow," runs from Thursday, October 5 Decem ber 30, and is free on First Thurs day evenings each month. The Museum chose Williams's "wonderful contemporary images," said Museum Director Susan Tis sot, "because we want this exhibit to close with the idea that Native Americans are your neighbors, not just stereotypes." . "These are the last museum quality prints made directly from slides," said Williams. His gigantic library of film and slide photographs, and growing collection of digital photographs, all now go through the digital process for printing. Changing times are bring ing new challenges to longstanding professional photographers, and Wil liams, for one, doesn't think that a digital print holds a candle to an "R" print from a Kodachrome slide. In an artist statement that Wil liams still was preparing as Smoke Signals went to press, he intended to say that the Columbia River Indi ans were in the process of outliving photographic film. This show marks a departure for Williams, who early in his career photographed only nature. Being a "purist," he said, he refused to include people. Which he now regrets. "I was so fanatic," he said, that he used to run around with a bunch of wild and now famous rock&rollers and he never took a single shot of them. What Wil liams has ac complished photographi cally, however, is an historical record of North west celebra tions Indian and otherwise that is prob ably unparal leled. "I used to shoot upwards of 1,000 rolls a year, mostly slides," he said. "Now, only a third or so are slides, and the rest are digital. I shoot 3,000 digital images a week end and 10 rolls of slides." His photography has been shown in museums and galleries across the Northwest. Williams, 63, lives in The Dalles and has used his art in service to the environment for most of his life. He was the National Parks Expert for the environmental group, Friends of the Earth, Public Information Manager and Publications Editor for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. He has produced newsletters and publications for the Yakama Indian Nation and co- T V ' V , tu O '', ' ' '." ' u A ' S " : ' . fc-w. ' ' " ,2 .Q O o x: Tribal Elder Chuck Williams founded and managed for its first year Salmon Corps, a program on five Northwest Reservations in which Na tive American youth restore salmon and wildlife habitat while earning Ameri'Corps college scholarships. Williams also is the author of three books: Bridge of the Gods, Mountains of Fire: A Return to the Columbia Gorge, an illustrated history told from the perspectives of both his Indian and pioneer ancestors; Mount St. Helens: A Changing Landscape; and Mount St. Helens National Vol canic Monument, a mountaineers guidebook. Williams's Indian pedigree goes right back to the heart of Northwest Indian history. His great great grandfather, Tumalth, a Cascade Indian, was hung by then Lieutenant Phil Sheridan, in a case that Wil liams' writing shows to be a miscar riage of justice. Famous Indian chronicler Edward Curtis, whose 20 volumes of photog raphy and 20 of prose detail Ameri can Indian life, told the Indian side of the story, said Williams. On a school field trip to the Sonoma Mission, one of the early Spanish missions, many years ago, Williams refused to enter the Phil Sheridan room, telling his teacher that the soldier had killed his forebear. She told his mom, who was not Indian, "He has quite an imagination." "I'm the white sheep of the family," said Williams. supplement." It might cover, for example, post traumatic stress and other "war diseases" that Social Security Dis ability payments do not cover. Those enrolled to date include Veterans from all the wars since Vietnam. They vary in age from 29-53. (Tribal Veterans from 18 51 are eligible. At 55, Tribal lOlder benefits kick in, including pensions providing $l,0()0month.) And they live all across the country. In the spring, Nelson is planning a membership forum to describe all of the member benefit programs, including this most recent addi tion. Along with the forum, said Nelson, she will be doing a direct mail outreach campaign to make sure that all disabled Tribal Veter ans eligible for the program know about it and have an opportunity to be part of it. The annual cost of the program to the Tribe is $40,320 for this first year. For more information, contact Reina Nelson in the Tribal Member Benefits office, 503 879-2223. H i --figs ,S5D The Clark County Historical Mu seum is located in Vancouver, Wash ington at 1511 Main St. Find it on the web at: www.cchmuseum.org. The exhibit opens with a blessing at 5 p.m. on October 5. Also on exhibit, "Our Woven History: Native Ameri can Basketry," both thru December 30. Williams also will speak at the Museum on Thursday, December 7, at 7 p.m. on the subject: "We Were Here When the Pioneers Arrived: American Indians at the End of the Oregon Trail." Also, on Thursday, November 2 at 7 p.m., Robert Miller, who is both Associate Professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and Chief Justice on the Grand Ronde Tribal Court of Appeals, will speak on the subject, "Native America Discovered and Conquered." He is a member of Circle of Advisors to the National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial and specializes in Treaty Law. He has a new book out, not surprisingly, called, Native America Discovered and Conquered.
