4 FEBRUARY 1.2008
Smoke Signals
tffflmran
0
V U I
J
Photos by Ron Karten
Attending the Jan. 1 2 Canoe Family Winter Gathering in the Grand
Ronde Tribal gym were Grand Ronde's senior Tribal Elder Nora
Kimsey, 99, along with fellow Tribal Elders June Bolden, left, and
Charlotte Gray, right.
Dancing at left are two Squaxin Island Tribal members, Aleta Poste,
center, and Janessa Kruger, right. At left, in the row behind, is Grand
Ronde Tribal member Cody Haller.
Ann Lewis joins Land Management Department
Tribal member returns home after living in southern Oregon
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
It has been a long trail home for
Tribal member Ann Lewis, who has
been hired as the Tribe's new realty
specialist.
Her new home in McMinnville
is the closest she has lived to the
Tribe. She spent her early years on -the
family farm in Moses Lake and
attended school in Spokane, Wash.
She lived most of her married and
family years in southern Oregon
"on a ranch with Table Rock in front
and Mount McLaughlin out back,"
she said in her new office in the
Tribal Community Center.
Her desk has a view of Spirit
Mountain.
"An experienced real estate broker
from southern Oregon, Ann brings
a great deal of knowledge of the
'fee' realty world to the position and
has long wanted to move back near
the Tribe," said Tribal member and
Tribal Land Management Manager
Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach.
"About three years ago, I started
attending meetings," she said.
"And every time I came up here, I
loved it."
Tribal interests were "huge" to her
mother, Yakama Tribal Elder Edna
Bobb, who has walked on. Ann's
grandfather, Wilson Bobb Sr., was
a Grand Ronde Tribal Elder.
"My mother was very active with
our heritage," Lewis said. "Those
were the '60s and '70s and she
was involved with AIM (American
Indian Movement), and had din
ner with Cesar Chavez (the farm
worker leader). I remember her
with a knee band (representative
of Wounded Knee), protesting. We
also attended council meetings and
pow-wows all over."
Lewis' mother also was a story
teller in the grand Indian tradition.
"My biggest regret is that I never
recorded her telling stories," Iiewis
said. Today, Ix'wis said she no longer
remembers her mother's stories.
"She strongly instilled (a love of
Name: Ann Lewis
Age: 48
Tribal job: Realty specialist
Family: Married to husband,
Ken, and has three children,
Kenneth Sequoia, a junior at
McMinnville High School, Ray
;, ona Torres of Moses Lake and
Felicia Lewis of Medford.
Quote: "About three years ago,
I started attending meetings.
And every time I came up here,
I loved it."
Contact information: ann.
lewisgrandronde.org or 503-879-1329.
the culture) in all her (eight, Lewis
being the youngest) children."
Because summer is time for heavy
farm work, the family often sent
Lewis to stay with her uncle, Yaka
ma Tribal Elder Isaac Bobb, or her
aunt Caroline Strong, also a Tribal
Elder who has passed on. They were
Edna's brother and sister.
"Uncle Ike" told her stories about
how Indians used to read snow melt
on the mountains. When the melt
on Mount Adams left behind the
image of a horse in full run with
head up and tail straight out, the
huckleberries were ready, he told
her. The rest of the year, anybody
could see, the scene on the moun
tain looked like a horse grazing (tail
down, head down).
In her time in southern Oregon,
Lewis also learned that when the
snow on Mount McLaughlin looks
like an angel, the steelheads and
salmon are running.
Aunt Caroline, her mother's
oldest sister, and her husband, Si
mon, managed an all-Indian base
ball team, the Yakama Nation,
and before Lewis was growing up,
the family had another team, an
all-girls' team. Aunt Caroline and
Simon did so much with baseball
in their time that many baseball
fields in the area are now named
L . . . .
. i
, - -, -v. j. J
Photo by Ron Karten
after Simon.
For Lewis' part: "I shagged balls,"
she said.
Uncle Ike took her camping and
picking huckleberries on Mount
Adams.
"He fed his family, 12 kids plus
me, off elk and venison," Lewis said.
"And we were not that far from Top
penish and Yakima, so we'd spend
a lot of time there.
"Even though we're half-Native,
we're pretty much whole Native."
Meanwhile, at around the same
time that Edna Bobb was protest
ing injustice, Lewis' soon-to-be hus
band, Ken Lewis, was growing up
in the Moneypenny family of Long
Island. The Wall Street banking
Moneypenny family.
Ken's father was president of
the Ivy League's Dartmouth Col
lege, which coincidentally started
as a school "for the education and
instruction of Youth of the Indian
Tribes in this Land ... and also of
English Youth and any others."
"Samson Occom, a Mohegan
Indian and one of Wheelock's (the
founder) first students, was in
strumental in raising substantial
funds for the college," the Dart
mouth Web site says.
The couple met in an airport in
central Washington, where Ken
was a pilot. Ken built his life and
business in the field, ultimately
running his own company supply
ing pilots and maintenance services
for corporate jets.
Ann built her professional life
in real estate, starting out as a
seller's agent. Starting in 1994,
she began representing buyers, a
new field at the time, with her own
agency called FBO (For Buyers
Only) in Medford. (Although many
buyers do not realize it, real estate
agents represent the seller's inter
ests; only a buyer's agent works on
behalf of the buyer.)
Ultimately, the difficulty of
breaking traditional ranks among
real estate agents sent Lewis back
to the seller's side, and in 2000 she
went back into business as VIP
Real Estate in Eagle Point.
Soon after, she began coming to
Grand Ronde meetings and, finally,
she knew it was time to move to
Grand Ronde. Ken, near retire
ment, is moving his business to the
Hillsboro airport.
"Most of his pilots lived in Port
land," she said, "so the move turned
out to be win-win for us."
"She will eventually facilitate
Tribal fee-to-trust conversions, and
will work in all aspects of the de
partment including leases, property
management, land acquisitions and
federal realty," Reibach said.
"We are very pleased to have Ann
as the realty specialist. Her vast
experience in fee realty and posi
tive outlook will be very helpful to
the Tribe."
The department provides five
necessary duties for the Tribe:
land acquisition and sales; fa
cilitating fee-to-trust conversions
and actions that require process
ing from the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, such as leases and ease
ments; property management;
commercial leasing; and general
realty activities.