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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2011)
Smoke Signals 7 OCTOBER 1,2011 Tribal member Kathleen Feehan George to run Community Fund By Dean Rhodes Smoke Signals editor Tribal member Kathleen Feehan George is the new director of Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Confeder ated Tribes of Grand Ronde. George, 40, succeeds Tribal mem ber Shelley Hanson Sneed, who resigned in April to become admin istrator of the Oregon Landscape Contractors Board in Salem. Spirit Mountain Community Fund formed in 1997 and distrib utes 6 percent of Spirit Moun tain Casino profits to charitable organizations in 11 counties in western Oregon and the other eight federally recognized Oregon Tribes. Since its creation, the Community Fund has granted almost $55 million. George will run a program that includes three other employees. "I think it is just such an honor to be able to work for Spirit Moun tain Community Fund," George said. "When I applied for the job, I thought about the work that the fund does, which is support ing nonprofits in communities, promoting education, health care, environmental protection, public safety, culture and the arts, his- 4-1 A?) 11 Kathlaan Faahan Gaorga toric preserva tion and the things that make our com munities such great places to live. That is the work the Community Fund sup ports. "So when I thought about that job, I just was so excited about the possibility of contributing to the work in those communities and to working on behalf of our Tribe to share our good fortune to do good work on the ground in the communities of western Oregon." George, who was raised in Mil waukie, was the Tribe's Environ mental Coordinator for six years from 1996 to 2002, developing the Tribe's first environmental pro gram. She then moved to Pendleton to work for the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Reservation where she honed her skills as a water quality policy analyst and senior policy analyst. In 2010, she left the Umatilla Tribe to open Cedar Consulting, a natural resources consulting firm. George said her environmental consulting work will "take a huge back seat" once she starts working for the Community Fund. "The focus of my work will be working for Spirit Mountain Com munity Fund," she said. Tribal Council Vice Chair Reyn Leno, who also sits on the Com munity Fund's Board of Trustees, said he thinks George's previous experience working for the Tribe will be a great asset as Community Fund director. "I think Kathleen will be a great benefit to the program," Leno said. "Her previous employment at Natu ral Resources gave her knowledge of all of the Tribe and its history. "She'll be delivering the message that the Community Fund is not just the casino; it's all of the Tribe. Having her here will be a great thing for the Tribe." George said her first task once she starts working for the Commu nity Fund in October is to become familiar with its current operating procedures and its 14-year his tory. "It's going to be exciting time to look over the success of the fund to date. We're coming up on a 15-year anniversary of huge contributions to communities and nonprofits," she said. "I think 15 years is a wonder ful opportunity to look at our suc cess to date, look at the goals of the fund and see how much progress we have made in accomplishing those goals, and are there any ways in which the Board of Trustees and Tribal Council might want to pur sue those goals differently in the next 15 years." George received her bachelor's degree in Environmental Biol ogy from Dominican University of California. She is married to Rick George and has two sons, Noah, 7, and Sean, 3, who are both members of the Grand Ronde Tribe. The family is moving back to the Willamette Valley, perhaps to the McMinnville area. "That was another huge appeal of this position," George said. "It was a wonderful opportunity for my family and my two little boys to move back closer to the Tribe, to Tribal culture and family. We're really looking forward to it." According to her Linkedln profile, George's hobbies include garden ing, hiking, basket making and beadwork. 'Tltooir ara p3)pQ airo IbotiCn sidles' ENROLLMENT continued from front page to send a bundle of four proposed enrollment changes to the General Membership. The all-or-nothing proposal would change the following requirements for Tribal enrollment: It would reduce the relinquish ment time from five years to two years that a person must wait to become a member of the Grand Ronde Tribe after officially leav ing another Tribe; It would eliminate the require ment that new members have a parent on a Tribal membership roll at the time of their birth; It would redefine Grand Ronde blood as "all Indian blood derived from a direct ancestor whose name validly appears on any roll or record of Grand Ronde mem bers prepared by the Department . of Interior or the Tribe prior to or since the effective date of this Constitution." And it would establish an annual quota of no more than 5 percent of currently enrolled members may be accepted as new members. The "bundled" approach was supported by Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy, who broke a 4-4 tie. Also in favor of sending the bundled proposal to Tribal voters were then-Tribal Council Secretary Kathleen Tom and Tribal Council members Valorie Sheker, Chris Mercier and Wink Soderberg. Voting no were Leno and Tribal Council members Jack Giffen Jr., Toby McClary and Steve Bobb Sr. Since then, Soderberg lost his re-election bid and Bobb was un available to attend the Sept. 14 meeting because of health issues. In addition, Giffen was elected Tribal Council secretary, replacing Tom in the officer position, and June Sherer returned to Tribal Council. McClary encapsulated much of the debate and cast what might have been the deciding vote. McClary said that he strongly supports giving the Tribal member ship a say in Tribal decision mak ing through advisory votes, but he also felt a responsibility to support previous decisions made by Tribal Council. He added that although he favors splitting up the amendment pack age into separate votes, he could not support overruling a previous coun cil's decision in the "11th hour." "I don't know that just because the makeup on council has changed, I don't know that that necessarily means that we should overrule a decision that has already been made by council," McClary said. "I think tonight I will be voting no to suspend this because I feel very passionately about supporting deci sions that council has made." Sheker said she has heard opin ions on both sides of the issue, supporting both the bundled and separate approach. "There are people on both sides. . . . We're just going to have to make an executive decision," she said. Tribal member Denise Harvey, who finished fifth in this year's Tribal Council election, said how an amendment is proposed is the kind of decision that Tribal Council members are elected to make. "We elected you guys as our Council leaders and when it comes to a decision on how something is put out to vote, it should be a deci sion the Council comes to terms with and makes a decision," Harvey said. "I believe you guys are elected officials and you should be able to make those decisions yourself. We'll live the consequences of that." Tom objected to Leno's assertion that the Tribe might be flooded with new enrollment applications, not ing that the bundled amendment includes a limit on how many new Tribal members can be enrolled in a year. "It would be more restrictive than flooded," Tom said. Giffen said he would support halting the election and seeking an advisory vote only if Tribal Coun cil vowed to proceed immediately with an enrollment requirement amendment vote after receiving the advisory results. Newly elected, but veteran, Tribal Council member June Sherer said she was against the one amend ment approach before she left Tribal Council in September 2010 because it might cause Tribal vot ers to subvert their stand on one issue in order for another part of the amendment to pass, such as the parent on the roll clause. 'The only way for Tribal members to have a real vote and express their opinion on the different issues is to be able to vote on them separately," Sherer said. Other Tribal members, such as former Tribal Council member Angie Blackwell, said that Tribal Council held an advisory vote in September 2010 on the Tribal elec tion process regarding a possible primary and term limits and has yet to act on those results. "We've not seen any change or result from that," Blackwell said. "Saying that you want to give the Tribal members a voice by doing an advisory vote that you don't have to do anything with is nothing compared to giving the membership a meaningful voice by sending out the constitutional amendment and letting them decide there. That's where their voice will be heard." "We have worked on this for a year or better," Sheker said. "We have asked for feedback from the membership. It's not like we have denied the membership a voice. We have asked them to please com ment. ... We're not blackmailing. We are not forcing. We are not do ing any of that. ... It's the member ship that told us they want this to go out for another vote. We're just trying to proceed it through." Leno, Giffen and Sherer support ed stopping the current enrollment requirement amendment election while McClary, Mercier, Tom and Sheker voted against it. Election registration packets from the Bureau of Indian Affairs were sent out on Friday, Sept. 16. Tribal members have until 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, to register to vote in the election. Ballots will be due no later than noon Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the BIA Siletz Agency Office. To amend the Tribal Constitu tion, at least 30 percent of regis tered voters must cast ballots and an amendment must be approved by more than two-thirds of those Tribal voters. The video of the entire meeting can be viewed on the Tribal Web site at www.grandronde.org under the Videos link. Discussion about the election starts at the 30-minute mark of the video.