18 NOVEMBER 15, 2008
Smoke Signals
Furse aided
Tribe in
many ways
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Elizabeth Furse was an
employee of Oregon Legal
Service's Native America
Program during the early
1980s and instrumental in helping
the Grand Ronde Tribe during its
Restoration effort.
Afterward, she became a U.S.
Congresswoman, succeeding Les
AuCoin in the House of Repre
sentatives, representing Oregon's
1st Congressional District. She
currently directs Portland State
University's Institute for Tribal
Government at the Hatfield School
of Government.
Below are excerpts from a 43-min-ute
interview with Furse conducted
Aug. 1, 2008, at her Portland State
University office. To hear the com
plete interview, contact the Tribe's
Cultural Resources Department. A
compact disc copy was donated to
the department for Tribal historical
purposes.
Q. Why don't you start and
then I will follow up with ques
tions. A. To understand the Restora
tion of the Grand Ronde Tribe, you
have to understand the context
in which it occurred. ... It was
in the era of the real hot fishing
and hunting rights battle both in
Oregon and Washington state. A
member of Congress, who was an
excellent member, Congressman
Les AuCoin, felt that he had really
spilled a great deal of political blood
on the Siletz (Restoration in 1977).
Therefore, when Grand Rondes
came to him for this bill, he told us
very early on ... that there would be
no hunting or fishing rights.
At the time, I was working for Le
gal Services. I knew enough about
legislation to know that it is almost
impossible to get a highly contro
versial bill through the Congress.
Any hunting and fishing rights
would have been very controversial,
to the point that I do not even think
the Senate would have appreciated
them.
So, what we got was a very strong
bill for Grand Ronde with the op
portunity to come back two years
later to do a reservation bill. Sen.
Mark I latfield, who is probably the
preeminent supporter of Indian
Tribes, he and Senator Inouye
(Daniel Inouye of I Inwaii) are prob
ably the two who most supported
Indian Tribes.
Sen. Hatfield told us right at
the beginning ... he told us very
clearly that we would need to get
the support of other Tribes in Or
egon, especially the Warm Springs
Nntion. At the time, right after the
Grand Ronde Restoration there wiw
n thing put together called "New
Tribes Money that meant that if n
Elizabeth Furse
1 services that
are available
to a federally
recognized
Tribe. That
was what
the Tribe
was after,
and quite
rightfully
so.
As soon as
the Presi
dent signed
the bill ...
that same
day federal
Tribe became federally recognized,
for five years that the monies for
that Tribe came out of a separate
fund other than the BIA.
New Tribes Money was very im-.
portant, but prior to Grand Ronde,
that was not set aside. Specific
monies meant that if a Tribe were
federally recognized, monies that
would go to that Tribe would come
out of Tribal monies for all Tribes.
So, in other words, to get a Tribe
newly restored or newly recognized
in the state, it meant that Tribes
in the state were going to take a
financial hit. I do not think people
understand that.
Following Sen. Hatfield's ad
vice, Tribal Council and I went
to the Warm Springs Council and
presented the possibility of a bill.
Warm Springs very graciously and
very enthusiastically supported it
despite the fact it would mean a
lessening of their Tribal money.
When we had that support, we
went to Sen. Hatfield with that and
he was very pleased. It made a big
difference to him because he is very
close to the Warm Springs people.
We also received the support of
the other federally recognized Tribe
in Oregon, the Umatilla Tribe. The
Siletz was federally recognized very
shortly before that ... I think it
was in 1977 when Siletz were rec
ognized and the Menominee were
recognized in 1973.
So, the political climate in Oregon
was quite difficult for the idea that
a Tribe would be newly restored.
There was a huge amount of op
position from hunters and fishers.
There was tremendous opposition
from John Hampton, who owned
Hampton Lumber. He was deeply
opposed to any idea that the Tribe
would receive any kind of federal
lands. ...
I think people have to understand
what the political situation was like
in Oregon and Washington state at
that time. There were effigies hung
of Judge (George) Boldt, who did
the Boldt decision in Washington
state. People's political lives were
very much involved in this tremen
dous controversy.
... So, hunting and fishing was
never a part of the idea of what the
Tribe would be restored to nnd what
the Tribal Council wanted. Tribal
Council wanted services, such ns
education, health services, nil of the
services are available for Tribal
members. At the time of Restora
tion, the Tribe only owned the
cemetery and a very small shack.
We did most of this work; well
Tribal Council met and worked all
the time, no running water. The
differences and changes that have
occurred because of federal recog
nition would be hard for people to
understand, to truly understand.
Tribal Council did the great bulk
of the work, especially Kathryn
Harrison. She went around the
state, particularly in that area,
doing educational forums. Kath
ryn would go to the most hostile
groups and explain the reasons for
this act of Congress, and receive
support. When this bill was intro
duced, we had access to hundreds
of letters of support. That made a
huge difference because the Tribe
said that it was an issue of justice,
and, of course, it was. I think that
we should really thank and con
gratulate that Council for sticking
with it.
For the people of Grand Ronde
who funded these trips, there was
no money to go back to Washington,
D.C. There was nothing. There was
no funding for those Council mem
bers to have salaries; everything
was done on raised money. We got
a couple of foundation grants that
helped some. By and large that ef
fort was funded by Tribal members.
People would do bake sales, people
would do little get-togethers.
When we finally went to what
was called the Indian Subcommit
tee on Indian Affairs, which is now
in the Natural Resources Commit
tee, when the Tribe testified they
testified on the issue of justice.
They testified on the issue that they
once more wanted to join the family
of Indian Nations to work together
with other Indian Nations to sup
port Tribal programs and Tribal
people. It was a very impressive
testimony.
Q. What is your memory of
the first time you went out to
Grand Ronde and met with
Tribal Council?
A. I had talked to Marvin Kimsey,
who was chairman, and said, "lift
me come out and meet with you."
I went out and there was this tiny
concrete building, nnd in it were the
Council members. They very gra
ciously hnd coffee nnd cookies. We
met there, a very simple place, but
they were all working together.
We set out a strategy on how
to get this Restoration legislation
passed. It was not an easy thing,
and when I say not an easy thing I
do not mean it was hard for me. I
mean it was a hard piece of legis
lation. We think, "Oh, there have
been lots of Restoration bills." ...
It took awhile. We had to intro
duce it, too, I believe two different
Congresses because it did not go
through the first time. We went
back the second time and we in
cluded in that bill that there would
be an opportunity to come back in
two years, a mandate really to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs to come
back with a reservation plan.
Basically, my job was to be a
cheerleader, to try to sort things
out, to smooth out things as they
happened. They were feeling pretty
remote and isolated at the time.
They had been told they were not
an Indian people, that they were
not a Tribal government. This was
a very discouraging time for them.
They were an amazing people
though. They had grit and persis
tence. ... Therefore, we set out a strat
egy and stuck to it. We were going
to get the support from the com
munity, and that the Tribe would
agree not to fight. It is absolutely
vital that you have the support of
the community. You cannot have
people in the middle saying, "I do
not like this" or "I do not like that"
when you are doing legislation. You
cannot present a controversy to
the member of Congress; they will
stand away from it, and rightly so.
Why should they get in the middle
of someone else's fight?
The Council was excellent at
keeping everybody together. We, of
course, had many public meetings,
explaining to the Tribal members
what was in the bill, what the bill
was going to have. I think every
body was very apprised of what
was in the bill. They had the op
portunity to have Don Wharton as
counsel because they really could
not afford counsel at the time. He,
as the director of Legal Service's
Native American Program, pro
vided them the legal counsel. He is
an excellent lawyer. 1 le has worked
nationwide on many important
Tribal issues. So, they had excellent
legal advocacy.
Q. Don Wharton said that
when you came onboard you
were very good at your people
skills, contacts, helping to put
Tribal members up in Washing
ton, D.C, when they went to tes
tify, your ability to handle the
media by creating slideshows
and things like that.
A. Well, you know I really was
working full time on it. The issue
for the council was that they had
jobs; they were not being paid to
be Council members as they are
now. They had to have other jobs.
So, what I was able to provide them
Sec FURSE
continued on page 19