8 JANUARY 15, 2012
Smoke Signals
Toinra addresses Race Talk odd Jamu H (0)
Tribal Council member tells her personal story to more than 100 people in Kennedy School gym
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
PORTLAND Tribal Council
member Kathleen Tom's personal
story of being a half-Irish and half
Native urban Indian, experienc
ing discrimination, moving from
Grand Ronde because of the federal
government's relocation policies of
the 1950s and, ultimately, personal
and Tribal Restoration highlighted
the Jan. 10 Race Talk held at
McMenamin's Kennedy School gym
in northwest Portland.
The monthly meetings, which
received a $5,000 Spirit Mountain
Community Fund grant in 2011,
are put on by Uniting to Under
stand Racism and designed to
encourage interracial community
dialogue.
Tom spoke to the packed gym
at the Kennedy School about 'The
Experience of Native Americans in
Oregon Today" along with Richard
Twiss (Rosebud LakotaSioux).
After being introduced by Race
Talk founder Donna Maxey, Tom
educated the more than 100 people
in the audience, informing them
that there are nine federally rec
ognized Tribes in Oregon and that
attendees were sitting in the ceded
homelands of one of those Tribes
the Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde.
"Ceded lands are the lands that
we used to have," Tom said as she
held up a map showing the land
ceded by the Grand Ronde Tribes
to the federal government through
seven ratified treaties in the 1850s.
"This whole Willamette Valley is
the ceded lands of the Grand Ronde.
So you are sitting here today in our
homelands and we welcome you."
Tom then told her personal story of
being a mixed race Native American.
Her father, Leon "Chip" Tom, is full
blooded Indian while her mother,
Marianne, was full-blooded Irish.
f x
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Council member Kathleen Tom, middle, participates in a group
discussion during the Uniting to Understand Racism Race Talk meeting at
McMenamin's Kennedy School in Portland on Tuesday, Jan. 1 0. The theme of
the night's discussion was "The Experience of Native Americans in Oregon
Today" and before the group discussion Tom gave a speech about her personal
experiences being Native American and Grand Ronde Tribe's history.
"I was raised in a house with dif
ferent values from different sides
of my family," Tom said, "which I'm
very thankful for."
When the Grand Ronde Tribe was
terminated in 1954, the Tom family
moved to Denver, Colo., as part of
the federal government's relocation
policy. Her father, who was trained
as a logger, was expected to move to
a new community and start anew.
"It didn't take long for my family
to figure out that we didn't belong
in Colorado and that my dad was
not going to be a drafter," Tom said.
"He had never drafted, but that was
the plan the federal government
had for our family. Without any
funding, we were just put there."
After returning to Oregon, the
Tom family moved to Dallas, where
Tom remembered one of the times
she faced discrimination because
she was half-Indian.
"There were water fountains for
blacks and Indians, and then wa
ter fountains for the non-Native
people," Tom recalled. "I think that
was the first time I realized that I
was Indian when I went to grade
school in Dallas." . t
But, she added, the close-knit
confines of her family helped her
brush off any scars from being dis
criminated against.
"I've been able to live in an as
similated family and flourish," Tom
said. "Growing up in my family was
just like any normal kid. In high
school, we made friends."
Tom then segued into telling the
Tribe's history of being terminated
in 1954, the 29 years of hard work
by Tribal members to get restored
in 1983 and the subsequent eco
nomic and cultural resurrection of
the Tribe.
"It was one of the happiest days of
our lives," Tom said about Restora
tion on Nov. 22, 1983. "For a long
time, we weren't Indian. People
said we were terminated, but you
can't terminate people who were
still there, living and still walking
and practicing their culture."
Since then, Tom said, Restoration
and the economic success of Spirit
Mountain Casino has enabled the
Tribe to get back on its feet and
provide health care, social services,
education and housing to Tribal
members.
"In the short time since we've
been restored, we've come a long
way," Tom said, adding that the
Tribe is also rediscovering its cul
tural traditions as exemplified by
the recent construction of a plank
house. "We're still here, we're still a
Tribe and we're still telling our
story," Tom added.
After the presentation, Race Talk
attendees broke into discussion
groups. Tom sat at a table with 10
other people and found out almost
immediately that her talk touched
and educated some in the audi
ence. "Ceded lands ... termination ...
these are all new terms for me," said
Glenna Ashley from Wilsonville, who
was attending her first Race Talk
event. "I thought I was educated, but
that really surprised me."
Tom said education is one of the
current focuses of the Grand Ronde
Tribe, which is still lobbying for a
Native American education special
ist in the Oregon Department of
Education.
"Our textbooks don't teach about
Oregon's Tribes," Tom said. "It is
like we're invisible, not here. That
is part of discrimination. Why
would Oregon schools not want to
tell that story?" D
G iff en to speak to southern Oregon watershed council
v f m i Fitzeerald I' """ " ""' i r 1 T - ' i ' ' T 's--
iodic ot speecn win oe , QO r i r YN. J
Tribal history, traditions
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Tribal Council Secretary Jack
Giffen Jr. will continue the Grand
Ronde Tribe's educational effort
in its ceded lands in southern Or
egon on Tuesday, Jan. 24, when
he speaks at the annual general
membership meeting of the Seven
Basins Watershed Council at the
Gold Hill Library.
The Seven Basins Watershed in
cludes almost 261,000 acres in the
Rogue River Valley in southern Or
egon northwest of Medford. Approxi
mately 13,000 people live within the
watershed's boundaries.
Giffen was invited to speak at
the meeting in late November by
the Watershed Council's Assistant
Coordinator Alicia Fitzgerald. She
asked Giffen to focus on the his
tory of the Grand Ronde Tribe in
southern Oregon.
The invitation was prompted,
Tribal Council
Secretary Jack
Giffen Jr.
Fitzgerald
said, by sev
eral Seven
Basins Water
shed Council
board mem
bers reading
about the Sept.
10 signing of a
memorandum
of understand
ing between
the Tribe, Bu
reau of Land
Management and Nature Conser
vancy regarding management of the
Table Rocks area near Medford.
"We would love someone from
your council to come speak about
Native American history in this
region and learn more about how
the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde passes on traditional cus
toms and knowledge," Fitzgerald
wrote in a Nov. 1 1 e-mail.
Fitzgerald says as many as 40
people will attend the annual gen
eral membership meeting.
The Seven Basins Watershed
T71
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STZr T
I y ' i - ' ; f ' -
I- " V-J"--4L-' ' ' Seven Basins
I Eugen Watershed District
f I I f CmnnIMm
S Mwlfonl :.
Council organized in the summer
of 2001 after the dissolution of the
Evans Creek Watershed Council. Its
bylaws, mission statement and first
election of board members and offi
cers were hammered out by January
Map created by George Valdez
2002. It meets the third Tuesday of
every month at the Gold Hill Public
Library northwest of Medford.
More information about the coun
cil is available at www.sevenbasins.
org. D