Smoke Signals 3
MAY 1,2008
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Photo by Michelle
Kelly Dirksen, Tribal Fish & Wildlife coordinator, talks about the Tribe's stewardship efforts regarding fish and wildlife on
reservation land during the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting in Salem on Friday, April 1 8.
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife
Commission approved a rule change
on April 18 that returns big game
hunting rights for cultural ceremo
nies to Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde members.
The Tribe has worked hard to
regain these aboriginal rights since
losing them in 1954 at Termination
and agreeing to abide by state
sanctioned hunting seasons as part
of the Consent Decree in the early
1980s as it sought state support for
Restoration.
"A great day ... a historic day,"
said Tribal Council Vice Chair
man Reyn Leno after the almost
unanimous vote at the commission's
headquarters in Salem. "I wish every
Tribal member knew what was going
on here today."
The new ceremonial game hunting
rights apply in the Trask Wildlife
Management Unit where Tribal
members have hunted since time
immemorial and during state-sanctioned
hunting seasons since Res
toration. The agreement gives Grand Ronde
Tribal members the right to take 15
deer, nine elk and three bear outside
standard state-established hunting
seasons. These hunts will provide
game to serve at traditional cultural
ceremonies, such as powwows.
Trask unit harvests in 2006, the
last year for which numbers are
available, were 887 deer, 810 elk
and 24 bear, according to the com
mission. The Tribal harvest in the
Trask unit that year amounted to
42 deer, 19 elk and no bear.
Following a presentation to com
mission members by Tribal Cultural
Resources Manager David Lewis
and Fish and Wildlife Coordinator
Kelly Dirksen and an introduc
tion by Fish and Wildlife Regional
Manager Chris Wheaton, Tribal
Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy,
Leno and Secretary Jack Giffen Jr.
testified.
During the effort to win back cer
emonial hunting rights, the Tribe re
ceived support from the Multnomah
Anglers & Hunters, which sent a
letter to the commission in support
of the rule change.
There are probably more animals
lost to poachers than the Tribe will
ever get for their ceremonial and
cultural harvest," the letter said.
In fact, Dirksen said, the harvest
numbers allowed with the rule
change will not come close to sup
plying fresh game for all Tribal
members who attend Grnnd Ronde
ceremonial events. Some 60 deer
would be required to feed all who
attend ceremonial events like pow
wow, Dirksen said.
The rule change establishes "a
new type of permit ... to be issued to
recognized Tribal leaders and would
allow for hunting of wildlife for
ceremonial purposes by authorized
Tribal members," according to the
commission's fiscal and economic im
pact statement on the rule change.
Karlicr this year, the Tribe se
lected 17 Tribal members as po
tential ceremonial game hunters in
anticipation of the new rules bring
adopted.
The commission said that the new
rules "are believed to be fully com
patible with legislative direction on
the goals of wildlife management in
Oregon."
In addition to ceremonial hunts,
the Tribe also regained some man
agement authority on the Reserva
tion. The Consent Decree assumes
ultimate authority over all wildlife
management on Tribal lands and
the Stewardship Agreement allows
the Tribe to establish its own man
agement plans for wildlife, Dirksen
said.
Tribal stewardship honored
The Stewardship Agreement
states that the Tribe adopt on an
interim basis the existing state man
agement plans for black-tailed deer
(when adopted by the commission),
elk, black bear, wild turkey and
cougar, along with the Oregon Plan
for Salmon and Watersheds, Native
Fish Conservation Policy, Oregon
Native Fish Status Report and the
Oregon Conservation Strategy while
the Tribe and state work to develop a
Grand Ronde Management Plan.
"They're fairly general," Tribal
Natural Resources Division Manag
er Michael Wilson said. "We'll meet
next year to see how we meet those
obligations. They're good plans and
broad enough that they allow flex
ibility for the Tribal perspective."
The commission also OK'd a reso
lution "recognizing Tribal steward
ship of lands that they own and
manage."
"This agreement is the outcome of
government-to-government negotia
tions between the Tribe and slate,"
said Tribal Attorney Rob Greene.
"The rule and resolution are signs
of the strong working partnership
the Tribe and state have established
to address natural resources and
wildlife management issues.
"As a consequence of the Oregon
Fish and Wildlife Commission reso
lution ami the resolution passed by
Tribal Council, the Tribe's Natural
Resources Division will have greater
day-to-day authority to manage
Tribal lands."
The Grnnd Ronde Reservation
encompasses more than 10.000
acres within the Trask Wildlife
Management Unit, which runs
approximately from McMinnville
sou t hwest on It igh way 1 8 to Sal mon
River and west to the Pacific Ocean,
north to Tillamook Bay, east along
Highway 6 to Gales Creek and then
southeast on highways 8 and 47
through Forest Grove back down to
McMinnville.
Dirksen presented the commis
sion with an overview of the Tribe's
stewardship efforts regarding fish
and wildlife, and Fish and Wildlife's
Wheaton said: "The Grand Ronde
Tribe is really an expert manag
er. They are good stewards of the
land."
None of this was news to the com
mission. Last summer on Aug. 2
(See Smoke Signals, Aug. 15, 2007,
issue), Gov. Ted Kulongoski and
commission members toured Grand
Ronde forests to see the Tribe's
stewardship firsthand and signed a
proclamation supporting ceremonial
hunting rights for the Tribe.
Since the August tour and right up
to the April 18 vote, Tribal Council
members and the Tribe's Legal De
partment and Natural Resources
Division staff worked diligently to
see that the proclamation became
reality.
Siletz objection
Removed from the ceremonial
hunting rights proposal were two
parcels amounting to 327 acres that
the Tribe purchased and placed into
trust. Uecause they are located south
of Highway 18 in theStott Mountain
Wildlife Management Unit, where
the Siletz have hunting rights, the
state wanted approval from the Si
letz before including the land.
The Tribe could not obtain Siletz
support and, in fact, the Siletz ulti
mately opposed the entire commis
sion action based on their claim to
the historic Coast Reservation.
Cathern K. Tufts, a Tribal attorney
for the Confederated Trills of Siletz,
said that the Siletz had "primary
treaty hunting rights" in parts of the
Trask unit, and said that the Siletz
and Grand Ronde Tribes have to "get
together and work things out" before
any ceremonial rights are returned
to the Grand Ronde.
Turts' testimony elicited a lone ab
stention from Commissioner Carter
Kerns of Pendleton.
Commission Chair Maria Rae said
that the rule change should not be
delayed.
"When we addressed this last
summer," Rae said, "we were not re
opening the Consent Decrees."
"We're extremely disappointed at
Siletz coming in at the last minute
and testifying against our proposal,"
Leno said. "We approached them
early in February about this issue
and then for them to come in at the
last minute, we felt was very inap
propriate. You'd think as a neighbor
ing Tribe, they'd try to have better
communication with us and more
respect for us."
Lewis noted after the hearing
that the Grand Ronde Tribe can
claim traditional homelands of the
Nehalem Tillamook people who had
been relocated to the Salmon River
Agency about 1856, and who were
subsequently removed to the Grand
Ronde Reservation after 1875 when
the Salmon River Agency closed. The
Nehalem aboriginal claim to lands
in the Trask unit precedes the Coast
Reservation claim, Lewis said.
For Giffen, the return of Grand
Ronde stewardship over the land
represented the day's most signifi
cant development.
"(The Consent Decree) was a pro
cess that couldn't be re-opened, but
the governor and the Fish and Wild
life Commission worked together to
develop a workable process for the
Tribe to secure these cultural tags,"
Giffen said.
"I think the stewardship is the
biggest gain. Any time you get stew
ardship over your own land, in my
mind, that's huge."
After the commission action.
Chairwoman Kennedy's face was
awash in smiles, and her eyes tcared
up as she gave and accepted con
gratulations, but she was speechless
when asked for a comment.
"It was overwhelming to witness
the approval of our request because I
was on the first Tribal Council when
the (Consent) decree was signed,"
she said a few days later. "And
now that an important piece of our
culture is respected by (the state)
agreeing to our ceremonial hunts,
that is fantastic."
Dirksen said on April 2!) that
the Tribal hunting tags had hvvn
printed and should lie in the Tribe's
possession by May 2M