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-
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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
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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.