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NOVEMBER 15, 2008
Smoke Signals
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Attorney helped terminated Tribes regain recognition
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Don Wharton was the
founding director of Or
egon Legal Service's Na
tive American Program
from 1979 to 1983 and assisted
the Grand Ronde Tribe during its
campaign for Restoration.
Wharton, now a senior attorney
in the Boulder, Colo., office of the
Native American Rights Fund, re
called the Grand Ronde Restoration
effort during a July 23, 2008, phone
interview.
Excerpts of the interview run
below. To hear the entire 32-min-ute
interview, contact the Tribe's
Cultural Resources Department.
A compact disc containing the in
terview was donated to the depart
ment for Tribal archival records.
Q. How did you become in
volved with the Grand Ronde
Tribe and its Restoration ef
forts back in the late 1970s?
A. In 1978 in Oregon, Legal Ser
vices started a program called the
Native American Program and they
asked me if I would be the director
of that program. I was in Washing
ton, D.C., at the time. I said that I
would, so I moved to Portland.
We went around Oregon and as
sembled a board of directors. That
board of directors was taken from
various Tribes, both recognized and
terminated. We set priorities for
what the program was to focus on.
Their determination was that the
most important thing to focus on
was the Restoration of the Tribes
that had been terminated.
The Siletz Tribe had been re
stored, so the other Tribes in Or
egon who had been terminated, and
there were many, also wanted to
seek Restoration. We called around,
and there were some that had of
fices and some that did not... We
were able to get a hold of the folks
at Grand Ronde and they invited
us to come out and meet with them.
So a young attorney that I had
just hired at the office and I drove
out to Grand Ronde to meet with
them. We met in the cafeteria at
the elementary school because they
had no offices or buildings of their
own. And, as best I can recall, at
that meeting were Dean Mercier,
Jackie Colton, Marvin Kimsey,
Margaret Provost and, 1 think,
Merle Holmes; maybe Kula Petite
as well. ... And we said what I have
basically told you, that we started
a ICgnl Service's program and that
our priority was Restoration. Were
they interested? They were very
interested in doing that.
Q. What were the legal hur
dles that the Tribe had to over
come? A. There wos only one woy to deal
with Termination and that was to
get Congress to pass legislation
extending recognition to the Tribe
unlike those Tribes that had not
yet been recognized that could go
through the Federal Acknowledge-
A 7 f x
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Don Wharton
ment Program. That was not avail
able to terminated Tribes because
Congress had passed legislation
terminating their federal government-to-government
relationship
and the only way that could be
restored was by Congress.
Therefore, we had to put together
a legislative program to go and seek
legislation. Now understand that
this is not the only problem the
Tribes were facing. ... This simply
was the priority.
The next time I came out, we
met in that little green house in
the cemetery. ... that is where they
convened an official meeting of the
Tribe. You know, the fact that the
federal government doesn't extend
recognition doesn't mean that
you're not a Tribe, or not indeed a
government. So the Confederated
Tribes of the Grand Ronde existed
as a Tribe and a government; they
just didn't have federal recognition.
Therefore, they convened the meet
ing of the Tribe and voted. They
voted to say that they wanted Res
toration and to retain the Native
American Program to assist them
in that process.
... I think you can fairly say that
the little green building out there is
the birthplace of Restoration for the
Grand Ronde Tribe and the Grand
Ronde people.
I think this is very apt because
it is so modest, and it represents
what things were like then. You
know, it was a very modest begin
ning because the aspirations of that
time were equally modest. I can
remember Jackie Colton saying,
"You know what I want more than
anything is for my grandmother
to be able to have medicine." You
know, that was her goal for the
time ... to have the ability to have
educational opportunities for their
children, to try to figure out some
way to create economic opportuni
ties in the community so the young
people would not have to move
awny to find jobs or to progress in
their education.
... There was another person
that was always around at these
meetings and was an enormous
amount of support ... Candy Rob
ertson. Candy wos always in the
background and always organizing
things to make sure that the place
was open nnd that the lights were
on. Out of all the meetings, Candy
was always in the background. She
never came out front, but she was
always there working hard, as were
all of these people.
Q. What were some of the
tangible things that hiring the
Native American Program's
legal services did for the Tribe
that helped them go through
this and set up the legislative
agenda to get Congress to OK
federal recognition?
A. The thing about legislation is
that it is political. It wasn't a legal
problem in the sense that it was
trying to figure out a lawsuit to se
cure hunting and fishing rights, or
something under a treaty, No, this
was a political process. Now it cer
tainly has its legal elements. That
is, the legislation itself. The legal
elements of the legislation have to
be drafted and all of this has to be
put together, but in the very begin
ning before you even start writing
all that stuff you have to survey the
political landscape and start figur
ing out how to do the advocacy. The
advocacy is local; it is not running
off to Washington, D.C. It is about
going to the local community. To
the county commissioner, the local
town, the city council, the school
boards, to all of those people in the
community that have some interest
or concern about what happens to
their community and then begin
building the relationship that you
need.
We went to the state, to the Legis
lature and to the Governor's Office
to explain what we were about.
When I say we, the Grand Ronde
were one Tribe amongst many
who were coordinating their efforts
here. There were the Grand Ronde,
Cow Creek, the Coos, the Lower
Umpqua and the Klamath. There
were a number of Tribes working
together to make this work and
going to these places. However, for
each Tribe they had to work in their
own communities to get this done.
Then they had to convince the
most important person in this pro
cess, which was their congressper
son. Each of them had a different
one. I n Grand Ronde, it was Les Au
Coin. Therefore, they had to go to
their congressperson and say, "We
want you to assist us in introducing
this legislation." Now, we also had
to go to the senators. The senators
were not going to do anything if the
local congressperson did not sup
port us. We had to get the support
of our congressperson first.
Well, we went to lies AuCoin, who
had supported and accomplished
the Siletz Restoration. He did not
jump right on board and soy, "Yes,
I have done this before so let's do
it." No, he asked us some very hard
questions like: What does the local
community think? Where ore these
people? What is your plan? How is
it all going to work? Why do you
need this legislation? Well, we had
to get all of this addressed and part
of that effort included doing radio
shows.
I can remember we needed to go
on the local radio station and talk
about why the Tribe wanted Res
toration, what it meant and what
the history was. One of the hardest
things to do was to teach the local
people their own history mainly
because they believe that they al
ready know it, and, of course, they
did not know a thing about Grand
Ronde history. They did not under
stand what Termination was. They
did not even know that the Tribes
were in fact governments. There
were so many things that they did
not know.
We had to begin the education
process just to help people under
stand the horrible inequity Ter
mination was, and why there was
the importance of Restoration. We
needed to explain why Restoration
needed to take place, not just as a
moral matter, but also as an ethi
cal matter.
... The first radio show we did, I
remember I asked Dean (Mercier),
Marvin (Kimsey) and Margaret
(Provost). They all had business
they were taking care of, so I went
to Jackie Colton. Jackie was a very
modest, very shy person. ... She
was very active in her community
and very charming, but the idea of
going on the radio was terrifying
to her.
But you know what, Jackie
bucked up because the one thing
that drove all of these people who
gave of their own time, who were
never paid for this, who donated
all of their travel and money to
make these things work was that
they had focus, and that focus was
on the future. That future was the
future of their own children, the
future of the Tribe and the ability
to take care of their elderly, to take
care of issues concerning education
and housing. I mean, they really
focused on that.
This was a dedication to what
needed to be done for the future
of the Grand Ronde people, for the
future of their families, their loved
ones and the larger community. So
they made these contributions. No
one paid them, no one asked them
to do this; it was all volunteer.
Q. What was it about the era
of the late '70s and early '80s
when you started seeing the
terminated Tribes in Oregon
pursue Restoration? Was there
a common theme, an event that
maybe encouraged all of the
Tribes to do it?
A. There were two things that
were going on. As you recall in the
'60s there was the civil rights move
ment. The civil rights movement
focused its larger lens on the issue
of minority rights. ... What was go
ing on in the '70s is that, ns a result
of civil rights and a number of other
See ATTORNEY
continued on page 17