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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2009)
S 1 PRESORTED STD W0- f 5 P-3 P3 U.S. POSTAGE PAID fj serials petpt. - knight librarv permttno. i7 , ....JBagy 1299 UNIVERSITY" OF OREGON SALEM. OR EUGENE OR 9?403-1205 -':V'"."T"J'"":'"' " . "SiO&SttilBns lYifiTiTtlT" lliliiliiililiillliiiiillinillulilllimlilililiililiiMilll A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe J J j( 0 ssS HbhSS WWW.grandronde.org TJMFQTJA. a MOLALLA a ROGUE RIVER a KALATOYA. a CHASTA V 000900 7rba Eder Steve Rife repeats Trail of Tears trek By Ron Karten Smoke Signalt itaff writer Tribal Elder Steve Rife is at a rest stop a little north of Sutherlin, which itself is about 120 miles and a five-day walk north of Table Rock near Medford. Rife's in the midst of making his third com memorative walk from Table Rock to Grand Ronde. He is walking up Interstate 5, approxi mating the actual route of the Applegate Trail. Today, Applegate Trail is better known as the Trail of Tears that brought several Tribes and Bands from southern Oregon's Umpqua Basin and Rogue River Valley together for a 33-day, 263-mile march in 1856 to what has become the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. Settlers here and there along the way set up ambushes to kill Natives, according to a diary of the forced march written by Indian Agent George Ambrose, who escorted them to Grand Ronde. Rife relives some of the memories of those times. Photo by Michelle Alalmo At two tractor-trailers drive past him. Tribal Elder and veteran Steve Rife walks mile 1 43 of Interstate 5 north in Douglas County on Wednesday, July 1, during his Trail of Tears walk. They're throwing (expletive) at me, like they do every year, but I just stay right there," Rife says. He's been out on the highway, on the outside See TRAIL OF TEARS continued on page 6 More than 1,000 attend three-day event at Uyxat Powwow Grounds By Ron Karten Smoke Signal tlnff u-nter On Friday, July 10, as final preparations were being made for the 2009 Veterans' Powwow, Tribal member Prank Hostler was arriving in Iraq for his second tour of duty, said his mother, Tribal Elder Linda Olson. "There are lots of troops coming and going now," Olson said. For the veterans at home, it was spectacular weather all Friday afternoon. Warm and breezy until around 6:30 p.m. when bolts of lightning and thunder crackled across the sky. "They could have given us some warning," said Tribal Housing Au thority Housing Services Special ist Deb Kroeker, who staffed the Housing booth this year, showing the array of environmentally sound products now available through the department. The Culture Committee adver Used a program of speakers coming to Grand Hondo to discuss ways of saving water. The weather hop-scotched all weekend from beautiful to dark and cloudy to torrential rains that drove everybody under the big tent for the last two hours of the powwow on Sunday. Inside the tent, dancers had a thick carpet of grass on which to work their magic. The beautiful green stretched beyond the tent to include most of the vendors' booths. Drummers were moved to center stage this year. Master of cer emonies Nick Sixkiller (Oklahoma Cherokee) called it "Oklahoma stylo." It made more room for spec tators and the sound system was reconfigured to accommodate the new arrangement. Tribal member and Tribal Audio-Video Network Technician Wendell Olson and his team put in 12 man-hours to make the new ar rangement work. I lenvy wires were hoisted over the first level of tent See POWWOW continued on page 10
