4 MARCH 1,2007
Smoke Signals
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(Note: If you missed Parts I, II,
and III, see the December 1, 2006,
January 1, 2007, and February 1,
2007 Smoke Signals issues).
By Angie Sears, Tribal Mentee
On November 22, 1983, the fight
for restoration finally came to an
end, but that was not the end of the
struggle and the fight for justice
for the Grand Ronde Tribe. There
would be no rest for Tribal Coun
cil, as they were just beginning to
embark on a whole new set of chal
lenges in hopes to better the lives
of the Grand Ronde people.
At the time of restoration, there
still wasn't a lot of money and the
Council continued to work out of
the confined space of the cemetery
office.
The first issue at hand for the
Council was to begin drafting a con
stitution for the Tribe that would
need to be approved and presented
to the general membership and the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
This whole process took a little
more than a year.
In the mean time, the Tribe
moved to the old Rail Road Depot
building and hired three full-time
employees, a general manager, a
planner, and a financial person,
who would begin helping Council
build the foundation for the Grand
Ronde Community.
These first Tribal employees
would begin the process of re-enrolling
Tribal members who were
on the rolls prior to termination. In
1 983, there were a total of 862 mem
bers who were officially enrolled in
the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde. In 1984, the rolls were
opened up to new members and the
membership grew to 1,156.
By the end of 1984, three more
employees had been hired to help
in providing the Tribal member
ship with much needed services.
Among those hired was Cher
yle Kennedy, Rogue River and
Umpqua Tribal member. Ken
nedy was hired as the Health
and Social Services Director, and
was responsible for conducting a
needs assessment for the Tribal
membership to determine what
programs the Tribe needed to
focus on first.
"I conducted a social economics
survey to get a better understand
ing of our education levels, our fi
nancial levels, and to gather health
data for Tribal members. The needs
assessment was a huge project be
cause we decided to do it one-on-one
with every Tribal member. We got
a list from the restoration roll and
started training interviewers. We
tried to contact everyone on the
termination rolls, and used the
Smoke Signals to let people know
we needed to contact them and get
their information. The members
who we knew were deceased were
taken off the rolls, but there were
some that we didn't know about,"
said Kennedy. "But that's kind of
what set all of our programs in
motion."
The surveys determined that
the Tribe had a special need to
provide health care services for
its membership in Grand Ronde,
rather than requiring members to
be seen at Chemawa clinic, which
is the federally provided Indian
Health Service (HIS) for Native
Americans in the area.
The Tribe began to move forward
with plans of opening a medical clin
ic, and provided the first services in
1985 with a registered nurse to see
patients. Shortly after, they were
able to bring in a family nurse prac
titioner, and slowly began building
the services from there.
While the Tribal employees were
working on this process, Council
was working towards regaining the
Tribal lands that were taken from'
the Tribe so many years ago. Coun
cil worked closely with Elizabeth
Furse, who also played a significant
role in helping the Tribe win the
fight for restoration.
Furse, who is not Native Ameri
can, has dedicated her life to fight
ing against unjust issues, and has
spent 38 years working with some
of the Native American Tribes of
the Northwest in an attempt to
Council and staff continued to work
on the development of programs to
benefit the Tribal membership.
In 1991, the Tribe built a com
munity center to serve as a social
gathering place. The building was
utilized as a place to hold general
council meetings and as a meal site
for Tribal Elders.
By now, the Tribe was seeing
substantial growth in its member
ship and in its success of creating
programs to benefit its Tribal
members. In 1991, the member
ship had grown to more than 2,800
members.
The Council and staff had suc
cessfully created programs to sup
port Tribal members in areas such
as education, health care, social
services, and emergency housing
assistance. But that was not the
biggest benefit Tribal members
were seeing. Many Tribal mem
bers were beginning to see a sense
of pride that had been renewed.
There was vindication, and there
Tribal member April Campbell
ensure that justice is met for these
Tribes.
After nearly four years of lob
bying and going before Congress,
the Tribe finally succeeded with
what is probably its second great
est achievement. On September
9, 1988 President Ronald Regan
signed the Grand Ronde Reserva
tion Act, and 9,81 1 acres of original
reservation land was returned to
the Tribe.
"The most impressive thing about
restoration for me is that a group
of Tribal members had the faith to
keep going at it. It was not an easy
thing to do. It took a long, long time,
and it took a great deal of personal
sacrifice. That is the most impres
sive thing about restoration for any
of the Tribes I worked with," Furse
said. "It took a group of people who
were dedicated and never lost faith
that they would indeed succeed."
"The establishment of reserva
tion timber lands brought in new
revenues and allowed the Tribe
to begin purchasing other lands,"
said Mark Mercier, Rogue River
and Umpqua Tribal member, and
former Tribal Council member.
"The money that the Tribe received
from the Federal Government at
restoration could only be used for
certain things, such as health care,
education, and housing... so this
was a good thing."
As the Tribe began to grow, the
was recognition for who they were
as Native people.
"I was in the navy for four years
and I went to Vietnam for a year.
I was in support activity, and was
not in the fighting; I thank God for
that. A lot of people lost their lives
over there. One of my best friends
lost his life the same day I found out
I was going over there. There were
several Tribal members that were
in Vietnam. The Native Americans
volunteered for hazardous duty
more than any other race in the
Vietnam War. We went back in
1992 as a 10-year anniversary of
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
there. Four of us got to go back to
D.C. from the Tribe, and we actual
ly got to march down Philadelphia
Ave. carrying the Grand Ronde
Tribal flag," said Mike Larsen,
Umpqua and Chinook Tribal mem
ber. "It was quite an honor. They
asked all the Native Americans to
lead the parade. So we were right
out there with those little Yakama
Indian ladies."
In the early 1990's, Council began
talking about the idea of getting
involved in gaming. There was
some apprehension in the decision
to embark on a venture as big as
opening a casino, but current eco
nomic situations in the area aided
in Council's decision to go ahead
with the plan.
"In the 1980's there were envi
ronmental concerns about logging
as a whole. A lot of people were
seeing their livelihoods being jeop
ardized as a result of the spotted
owl controversy and the fish habitat
destruction. As a result, some of
the local mills were being forced
to shut down and many jobs were
lost," said Mercier. "It was esti
mated that there would be 1,200
full-time positions established if we
built the casino. So on an economic
standpoint people thought it would
be a good thing for the area."
Once Council made the decision
to go ahead with gaming, they
began negotiations with Congress.
Siletz was attempting to establish
gaming in Salem at the time, so for
Congress, there was some concern
about gaming saturation across
the nation.
"It took a lot of leg work and many
trips to D.C. to meet with Congress
... and then Congress developed
the National Indian Gaming Com
mission, so we had to do a lot of
leg work through them as well,"
Mercier said.
Once the approval was given
for the Tribe to go ahead with its
venture, they moved the office for
the forestry department and broke
ground for the casino.
On October 17, 1995, the Tribe
held its Grand Opening for Spirit
Mountain Casino. The casino was
an instant success arid soon became
one of Oregon's leading attraction
with a consistent and large follow
ing. The success of the casino has
enabled the Tribe to enhance its
current Tribal programs and fur
ther develop the Grand Ronde
community.
In 1997, the Tribe opened its
doors to the new Health and Well
ness Center, which houses a health
clinic that offers medical services,
ex-ray, urgent care, contract health,
optometry services, dental services,
and pharmacy services.
In 1997, the Tribe developed
the Spirit Mountain Community
Fund as a means to carry out the
tradition of giving back to the com
munities. The Tribe allocates six
percent of the casino's revenues
to the Community Fund, which
distributes the funds to non-profit
organizations residing within an
eleven county area. From the time
the Fund was developed, the Tribe
has given more that $40 million to
charitable organizations.
In 1998, the Tribe opened the
Governance Center, which houses
Tribal Council, Executive Office,
Legal, Tribal Court, Public Affairs
Publications, Spirit Mountain Com
munity Fund, Member Services,
Human Resources, FinanceAc
counting, and Grants and Devel
opment. By this time, the number of Tribal
employees had grown to 250 em
ployees, and that didn't include the
more than 1,000 employees work
ing at the casino.
The casino created many employ
ment opportunities for Tribal mem
bers and non-Indian members of
the community, and paved the way
See RESTORATION
on page 5