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,
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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