Smoke signals., November 01, 2006, Page 3, Image 3

Smoke Signals 3
NOVEMBER 1,2006
Report Reveals Long-Threatened Hood River Casino A Mirage
nil
Tribal Attorney Rob Greene (I) and Tribal Council member Cheryle Kennedy
(center) were present at the press conference.
REPORT continued
from front page
Grand Ronde members continue to
use the Cascade Locks area.
From the Grand Rondes' point of
view, the issue is also a question of
fairness. "We sat down with the Gov
ernor," said Tribal Council member
Wesley "Buddy"' West, "and asked
him if of off reservation gaming was
going to be made available to all the
Tribes in Oregon. He indicated it
would not."
That all changed after the last
election. Within days of Governor
Kulongoski's election, the Governor,
reversed his campaign promise of
one casino on reservation land per
Indian Tribe to allow the Warm
Springs Tribe to build a casino on
a parcel of land in Cascade Locks.
The policy switch was only applied
to the Warm Springs Tribe, none of
Oregon's other eight federally recog
nized Tribes would be treated like the
Warm Springs.
The Governor continues to hold to
the policy switch in spite of the fact
that public sentiment thinks poorly of
all off reservation gaming. A Warm
Springs casino, said Nick Graham of
the Oregon Family Council, "needs
to be on Tribal lands." Though the
group is generally opposed to gam
ing, Graham offered support for the
Tribes' sovereign right to build a
casino.
Michael Lang of Friends of the Co
lumbia Gorge, called the Hood River
area "one of America's national scenic
treasures," and "not for the first off
reservation casino."
The Warm Springs Tribe has failed
to argue the merits of the Hood River
study. Instead, they say that the
Grand Ronde Tribe was terminated
in 1954 and only recently restored,
and question whether Spirit Moun
tain Casino is even located on reser
vation land.
"If you start from zero, thirty years
ago, who even had a reservation?"
said Louie Pitt of the Warm Springs
Tribe. "The Klamath, no reserva
tion. The Coquelle, no reservation.
The Grand Rondes itself, (put their
casino) off reservation. So there are
only three Tribes that did have ca
sinos built on reservation land: the
Burns Paiute, the Umatilla and the
Warm Springs."
The Grand Ronde Tribe sees Warm
Spring's position as disrespecting
other Oregon Tribes. "Being some
body who lived here all my life,"
said Tribal Council member Reyn
Leno, "I know our old reservation
boundaries and our casino sits right
in the middle of our old reservation.
And anybody who lived here would
know that."
The Warm Springs compact for
a Cascade Locks casino was dis
approved in May of 2005 by the
Department of the Interior. The
Department said that appropriate
state and local officials, including of
ficials of nearby Tribes, must first be
consulted. Grand Ronde is a nearby
Tribe. The Department also said that
an off reservation casino on newly
acquired trust lands must be in the
best interest of the Tribes and their
members, and may not hurt the sur
rounding community. It is only after
this determination that the Governor
can decide if he will agree with the
determination, and only then can a
compact then be reviewed.
The Coalition study can be found
at www.nogorgecasino.com
ReimewabBess Dim The Tribe's Fontaire?
Dave Berger offers options to Tribal members.
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From left, Tribal Council member Wesley "Buddy" West, Dave Berger and his
wife, Julie, at the Tribal Community Center.
By Ron Karten
For Tribal Council member Wes
ley "Buddy" West, renewables could
"give Tribal members a voice in their
future. As far as I know," he said,
"Tribal members have never had a
presentation that allows them to get
involved with the Tribe's economic
development, and I thought this was
a good chance."
That's why he called on renewables
presenter Dave Berger and his wife,
Julie, to bring possibilities and ideas
to the Grand Ronde community. In
introducing Berger, West invited a
group of 50-75 community members
attending the October 14 meeting at
the Tribal Community Center, "See if
these ideas are worthwhile."
Berger is a retired Portland Com
munity College (PCC) professor who
has also spent four years in Africa,
in Kenya and with the Massai in
Tanzania. He also has worked with
the indigenous people of Chiapas
in Mexico, and seen solar cookers
at work in Mali. With solar heat,
you can create "cost-effective, on
demand" hot water for cooking, he
said. "Face your home to the sun
and you've created a passive solar
heating system."
He spread a virtual library full of
information across a table at the front
of the room, and said that he sees him
self as more of a clearinghouse than an
expert in the field. "I can lead you to
the experts," he said.
Among his projects over the years,
Berger has brought injured wildlife
into schools to teach about the wil
derness. He has built trails through
wild country where there were none
before. And he knows about revolv
ing loan funds that make money
available for environmentally sound
projects.
"I think this is important for us to
get involved in," said Tribal member
Eric Bernando of Portland. "This will
help us in the future because we need
to be independent of casino funds."
"The way to get things done," said
Berger, "is to have a personal rela
tionship - kind of like what I'm doing
here to get things started."
"At PCC,"-he said, "we built a home
of straw to show that it would hold
up in the Northwest."
"On a large scale, wind is very
cost effective," he said. With small
hydropower systems, you can create
electricity without harming fish.
"But the most important thing you
can do is reduce the amount of en
ergy that you use."
Among the information available at
the meeting were two documentaries,
one about the growth of solar power
from the company, Solar Energy
International (SEI) and the second
about Tribal wind power efforts.
"The big wave coming is renewable
energy," said an advocate for the SEI
group.
"There's a huge amount of capital
coming in for renewable energy," said
another.
"Oil is about to peak or has peaked
(as a source of energy)," said Berger.
"We're not running out now, but we
have to plan now for that day. And
folks are learning by doing."
Not coincidentally, the process at
SEI is to bring people in to let them
learn "by doing," and then, (and
they've seen it happen), each of the
students uses their new knowledge to
create a renewable system for them
selves while teaching others.
The documentary called, "Wind
Powering Native America," de
scribed the efforts in South Dakota
at the Rosebud Sioux Reservation to
build a wind turbine. The finished
product that started producing elec
tricity in 2003, the Sioux believe,
will "go a long way to building a
sustainable way of life."
"It is clean and inexhaustible. It's
been used for ages," said the Sioux,
"but never on a scale like this."
The Tribe found a half million dol
lar grant from the Department of
Energy to complete the project. The
money enabled the Tribe to remain
as sole owner. In addition, there is
a market for clean energy credits
among those who pollute, or in the
case of the Sioux, those who would
buy those credits for clean energy and
then take them out of circulation.
In all, the Sioux have an income
of $100,000 a year from just one
wind turbine.
In addition to the Sioux, the Mandan,
Hidatsu and Arikara Tribes also have
invested in wind energy. The Arikara,
for one, say that they can produce 1 7,000
times as much energy as they need,
making their potential investment in
wind turbines valuable indeed.
The council has long acknowledged
the value of diversifying Tribal
income, and for West, renewable
energy could be one answer to bring
ing that diversification to life here in
Grand Ronde.
For more information, contact
Tribal Council member Wesley "Bud
dy" West locally at 503 879-2353,
long distance, toll free at 1-800-422-0232,
extension 2353, or by email at:
wesley.westgrandronde.org