DECEMBER 1,2008
Smoke Signals 7
CELEBRATION continued
from page 6
walls outside of the Cedar Plank
Buffet, sounded satisfied.
"It has been wonderful," said
Tribal Elder Charlotte Gray. "I've
received a lot of orders. People are
nice and friendly."
Tribal Council member Wink
Soderberg chaired the Vendors
Committee. "He has been just won
derful," said Tribal Elder Evelyn
Seidel.
"I know," said a buoyant Soder
berg. "It's just a gift I've been fight
ing all my life."
"This is a big deal," said Ca
sino Executive Chef Richard Burr.
"We're trying our best to revisit
the past, the beginnings, and we're
trying to concentrate on the berries
with, for example, a wild berry
cobbler."
Burr's team also designed salads
with hazelnuts and dried cran
berry. Ceremonial meats the
elk and venison and the fish
the lamprey and smoked salmon
were all made in-house.
"We wanted to do buffalo, but
none of the locals recall eating any
buffalo. It's not an indigenous food
for up here," Burr said.
"The camas was in such scarce
supply that we may only have a
jar or two. It just sat there like a
display a few years ago.
"We're bringing some of the wo
ven baskets from the archives in
plastic cases. It's just really going
to be an awesome event.
"The big thing, I think, will be
the ceremonial meats outside of the
hall. We did lamprey a couple years
back and we didn't think people
would like it, but it sold out with
90 pounds of the stuff."
As the event progressed, Burr
said it was the largest group he had
ever prepared dinner for.
He improvised some on the fry
bread. "If we had tried to do it the
traditional way," he said, "we would
have been swimming in grease." He
added a huckleberry butter on the
side, among the many offerings.
"We met several times with Trib
al Council to get the menu down,"
he said.
Rogue Rooms A & B were opened
for fun for the 3-12 age group, of
fering games, gift bags and chap
erones. "I had to come over for this," said
Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw
Tribal Council member and long
time Chair Ron Brainard, "to help
celebrate."
Brainard worked with Grand
Rondo's Tribal Council for years
and has been friends with Tribal
members and veterans from Grand
Ronde. As an Army veteran, he
flew three helicopters that went
down in Vietnam. But as a friend,
he remembers that all those years
ago Kathryn Harrison "talked me
into getting on council."
The Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siu
slaw will celebrate their 25th an
niversary of Restoration next year,
he said.
When the celebration was over,
the crowds receded and in the chill
air outside, a valet brought up a car
with a license plate that answered
the big question of the night: What
does Restoration mean?
Across an evening that told the
story, in a 1,000 different ways, of
respect sought and respect earned,
the license plate was more succinct
yet.
It read: MR LENO.
Then, Tribal Elder and Resto
ration Committee member Rus
sell Leno, surrounded by family,
stepped through the door of the
casino's Events Center, and picked
up the family car.
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Chairwoman Cheryls A. Kennedy speaks during the celebration.
P U
o 0
"
Tribal member Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach performs during the 25th Restoration Celebration. Playing drums Is
Joshua Humbly and on bass Is Mark (last name unknown).