Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Grand Ronde, OR
About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2008)
4 NOVEMBER 15, 2008 Smoke Signals 1 " T ik. ?r! 7r i TTi .j7-- "" NOV. 22 continued from page 2 Or, as Elizabeth Furse, former Oregon Congresswoman and today director of the Institute for Tribal Government at Portland State Uni versity, said, "It was right after the war at a time when the U.S. was trying to save money. The federal government did not want to be in the Indian business." Termination also had the added benefit of opening vast Indian lands to development by timber and farm ing interests. Furse said it was no coincidence that the head of the U.S. Depart ment of Interior at the time was former Oregon Gov. Douglas McK ay, who had many friends in the timber industry who coveted the lumber on Native lands in Oregon, particularly the Ponderosa pine owned by the Klamath Tribe in southern Oregon. Without federal support systems, the Grand Ronde Tribe languished and many Tribal members moved away in search of jobs. Tribal Elder Dean Mercier moved to Brookings in 1959 to feed his family while Tribal Elder Leon "Chip" Tom moved his family to Colorado as part of a federal relocation pro gram. "People had to relocate to sur vive," recalls Tribal member Margo Mercier. The relocation program tried to get Native Americans to as similate into the dominant culture and through several generations of inter-marriage dilute Native blood so much that there were no longer Indians, thereby ending the government's trust relationship and responsibilities. Within homes and families, in dividuals worked hard, predomi nantly in the logging industry, and families helped each other maintain Tribal traditions. Those who remained in the Grand Ronde area fondly recall a tight-knit com munity. "We were more or less trying to survive," says Tribal Vice Chair man Reyn Leno. "There was no money in those days. There were hard-working people here. Every body worked." Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy remembers her grand mother, Pauline Johnson, prepar ing lamprey, collecting berries and weaving baskets, as well as speak ing Chinuk Wawa. Several Tribal members recall Elders speaking Chinuk Wawa not as an educational exercise, but to ensure the younger members of the family didn't know what they were saying. "We would go around and visit in those days and soon as the old folks got together they would start talking jargon," recalls Tribal Elder Russ 1rno. "They would be laugh ing and pointing at us." Reyn Lono remembers learning a few words of Chinuk Wawa from - y ; M V); S, . I : ,, . W v .,- -t e ''-ni -w- ' j Photo courtesy of Kathryn Harrison An early post-Restoration Tribal Council included, seated from left, Kathryn Harrison, Dean Mercier and Russ Leno, and standing, from left, Frank Harrison, Merle Leno, Darrell Mercier, Mark Mercier, Candy Robertson and Henry Petite. The Tribal Council met In the dining room of St. Michael's Catholic Church in those early days. his grandmother. Knowing some Chinuk Wawa words was a quali fication to eat at the family dinner table. Annual, well-attended picnics held at the Tribal cemetery on Memorial Day brought Tribal mem bers who had moved away back home at least once a year. Seeds of Restoration As the Civil Rights movement for African Americans reached a crescendo in the mid-1960s and Native Americans started insisting on social justice as well, President Lyndon Johnson officially spoke out against Termination as a fed eral policy in 1968. His successor, Richard Nixon, supported Indian self-determination as a federal policy. The work of Grand Ronde Res toration had the humblest of be ginnings. The year was 1972 and Nixon sat in the White 1 louse while the Vietnam War continued in southeast Asia. Tribal members Marvin Kimsey, Margaret Provost and Merle Hol mes attended a meeting held by an association of urban Indians in Lebanon and were subsequently inspired by other Tribal restoration efforts, such as the Menominees in Wisconsin, which became the first restored Tribe in the nation in 1973. The trio of Tribal members now known as a housewife and two truck drivers didn't know exactly what had to be accomplished to achieve Restoration and there was no ready source of funding for such a time consuming effort. During the first few years. Tribal Restoration was an after-hours project. All that remained of the once large Grand Ronde Reservation was the Tribal cemetery of approxi mately 2.5 acres that contained a 24-by-24-foot green shed. In June 1975, the Temporary Council of the Grand Ronde Indians started meet ing. The first Treasurer's Report delivered by Vicki Lawrence said the Tribe had a balance of $2.27 in its bank account. Between 1975 and 1979, few sub stantive gains were made, but those four years produced a core group of Marvin Kimsey, Merle Holmes and Margaret Provost, as well as Patti Martin, Vicki Lawrence, Darrell Mercier, Dean Mercier, Russ Leno, Les Houck and others who began laying the foundation of Tribal Restoration. It also produced long-lasting al liances with Furse and Wharton of Oregon Legal Service's Native American Program and Congress man Les AuCoin, Sen. Mark O. Hatfield and Oregon Gov. Victor Atiyeh. And a milestone of sorts occurred in 1979 when the first new seven acres of new Tribal property the front part of the cemetery were purchased for $3,250 per acre with money made at Tribal fundraisers. It came with at an office building that soon became the nerve center of Restoration efforts. Also in 1979, the Tribe received a $90,000 grant from the Administra tion for Native Americans, which allowed it to hire five full-time em ployees to work on Restoration. Tribal Elder Kathryn Harrison returned to Grand Ronde in 1980 with Restoration experience un der her belt, having helped the Siletz secure federal recognition in 1977. "The biggest issue we had was money," Harrison recalls. "Every general meeting was a bake sale or a raffle. People were buying things from each other to raise money. The Elders always gave us their full support. I remember Esther LaBonte; she was on Social Security and every month she gave us $20." The effort drafted Tribal children, too. Dean Mercier brought in his daughter, Jackie Mercier Colton, who drove in from Amity to help. She, in turn, drafted her children. Mike and Doug Colton remember picking huckleberries at South Lake for making jam that would be used to sell fry bread on the side of the road. Children also served as waiters and waitresses at pancake feeds at which their parents were cooks. Former Tribal Council Vice Chair Angie Blackwell, daughter of Can dy Robertson, remembers being the dishwasher at many of the fundraising potlucks. As the 1970s continued, a grow ing core of Grand Ronde Tribal members worked on Restoration and spent long days and nights in the crowded cemetery office, with neither heat nor plumbing, one phone line and a donated type writer. Their work was intent on satisfy ing the congressional criteria for federal recognition, namely that the Tribe exercised ongoing govern mental functions; proving the Tribe consisted of a community of Indians belonging to a formerly recognized Tribe; and that the Indians still lived in their aboriginal territory, maintaining their customs and language; and were poorer than the surrounding adjacent nonlndian population. With the help of a $9,000 grant, Jackie Provost, Margaret's daugh ter, was hired as secretary and con ducted a census of Tribal members, See NOV. 22 continued on page 5
