8 JULY 15,2012
Smoke Signals
Grand Ronde Health and
Wellness Center institutes
Broken Appointment Policy
In an effort to make medical services more efficient, the Grand
Ronde Health and Wellness Center (H&WC) has approved and
instituted a broken appointment policy for medically-related ap
pointments at the H&WC. To qualify as a broken appointment a
patient must either not show up for their appointment, show up
more than 10 minutes late or give less than 24 hours notice of can
cellation. When any of these events occur, the patient is notified in
writing. After the third broken appointment in a six-month time
frame, the patient will not be allowed to schedule routine appoint
ments. However, they will be offered a "sit and wait appointment"
the chance to sit and wait for an opening with a provider. This
probationary period will last for six (6) months. The H&WC has a
process for reminding patients of appointments and strives to notify
patients of appointments the day before.
The broken appointment policy is very important as broken or
missed appointments create unused time in a provider's schedule,
which is inefficient financially and leads to barriers to accessing
care. Ultimately, a broken appointment policy exists to improve
access tq care for all patients and is critical to providing responsive,
cost-effective health services. B
EFFECTDWE MOW
Changes to Social Services
Emergency Assistance
and Medical Gas Voucher Program
For all income criteria programs, wage verification for past 60
days (wage stubs) will need to be submitted. If client has not worked
for a period of time, client will need to submit a printout from their
State Employment Office or printout from Oregon Self-Sufficiency
Office as verification of income. Rentaldeposit or utility assistance
may be utilized only one time in a 24-month rolling calendar pe
riod and is not to exceed the maximum contribution of $1,000 per
household within any 24-month rolling calendar period.
Medical Gas Vouchers
Social Services will not provide gas vouchers for medical ap
pointments, counseling or drug & alcohol treatment. The only
exception to this is for scheduled treatment plans, (i.e.: radiation,
chemotherapy, surgery, etc.) and has caused hardship on the fam
ily, medical gas vouchers can be distributed to meet the need of the
circumstances. A copy of all scheduled treatment plans must be
received before client is eligible to receive this service. Assistance
will end on the date of the last treatment appointment.
For a complete copy of policy or questions, please contact Tammy
C. Garrison at 503-879-2077. D
BOW continued
from front page
the finished bows and arrows over
their shoulders.
Bringing Back the Bow is an
Oregon nonprofit funded for this
summer's three-day camp by a
$3,500 grant from Spirit Moun
tain Community Fund, the Grand
Ronde Tribe's philanthropic arm.
Founded and run by lifelong bow
hunter Jack Holthaus of Spring
field, Bringing Back the Bow also
brings bow-making camps to Tribes
in South Dakota.
After his third retirement,
Holthaus said, "I wanted to hunt
with a traditional bow." From that
experience, he turned to teaching
bow making to a select few and
grew the camps from there. As a
corporate turnaround specialist in
his business life, his interest was
in growing companies, he said.
With the bow camps, his interest
is similar.
"Ideally, I want to put myself out
of a job and hope that the people of
the Tribe will take this camp and
make it bigger and better every
year," Holthaus said.
From Krehbiel's point of view, "It's
beautiful. I couldn't ask for anything
better. Everybody here helps every
body else. They put what they're
working on aside to help somebody
else. Everybody's made a bow al
ready, if not two or three."
The camp was a joint venture be
tween the Cultural Resources and
Natural Resources departments
and volunteers from Traditional
Archers of Oregon.
At different stations, bow staves
were shaped with the help of a
band saw and string was wound
and waxed by longtime bow mak
ers from the Traditional Archers
group.
Three kinds of wood were used
and templates helped the new bow
makers refine the ends where the
string was hooked and tightened
",'"? A (' -V ".. " :' :.; r .-.... l
Photo by Grayson Winters
Bobby Mercier, Tribal Culture and Language specialist, helps his son,
Kaikanim, align his arrow during the Bringing Back the Bow event at Uyxat
Powwow Grounds on Friday, July 27.
on the bow.
Kaleb Reid, 11, son of Erica Mer
cier, carried his bow over his shoul
der with the string loose. "I'm
keeping it slack," he said, "or the
string will loosen."
He had sanded his bow and paint
ed it, then thought of a better idea
and sanded it again. "I like the
natural look," he said.
"I was better at making the bow
than my mother," said Elizabeth
Watson-Croy of her mother Glenda
Croy, who sat across the table.
"Don't rub it in," said her mom.
"But she shoots straighter than
me," said Watson-Croy.
Jeremy Lane, 16, gave his first
bow to his uncle because "it's tradi
tion to give away the first bow you
make. He hunts with a bow and I
thought he'd like it."
"For a lot of kids, this is where
they came from," said Bobby Mer
cier, Tribal Cultural and Language
specialist for the Tribe. "Our grand
father (Jessie Smith) was a bow
maker."
"It took a lot of work," said Da
kota Ross, 11, of the sanding, shap
ing and painting he had done. The
shooting, he added, "was hard at
first, but I got the hang of bring
ing the arrow back." After maybe
five rounds of shooting, he said, he
started hitting the targets.
In addition to bow making and
shooting, the camp brought youth
to see the local woods from which
bows are traditionally made. There
is a year or more of drying that goes
into the wood staves before they
are ready to become a bow, but lo
cal hazel (nut) wood is plentiful in
the area. Bows also are made of a
bamboo species called rattan and
service berry wood, neither of which
are local, said Krehbiel.
Vine maple, however, is local and
makes some of the best bows, said
Mercier.
Cultural Protection Coordinator
Eirik Thorsgard gave a presenta
tion on flint knapping to show how
early arrowheads were made.
Stone blades were used until
Lewis and Clark came through,
said Mercier, and Native Ameri
cans switched to metal blades. Even
earlier, in the late 1700s, Native
Americans bartered for metal with
Canadian traders, he said.
The camp pierced the hearts of
Tribal interns and staffers, too.
"They're so excited to be shoot
ing," said Kiana Leno, 16, a summer
intern with the Cultural Resources
Department. "It's really cool that
they get the experience, and for me,
too. I made a bow yesterday."
"I got into it," said Melisa Chan
dler, a site monitor in the Cultural
Resources Department. "I took my
time and was working on it all day,
off and on." As for the youth, she
said, 'They're seeing what can hap
pen when the work on it, and how
they can shape things."
Before it was over, Rick Thomp
son, president of Traditional Ar
chers of Oregon, honored the Tribe
with a bow he had made. He pre
sented it to Tribal Council member
Toby McClary, who said he knew
how successful the camp was even
before he showed up because he was
seeing a continuous feed of photos
on Facebook.
Then everybody headed over to
the targets.
"Nock your arrows," said Kreh
biel. The arrows went up in the bows,
pointing every which way.
"Fire away," he said, and a hail
of arrows came down on half a
dozen targets set at six different
distances. That was the only place
in camp you didn't want to be over
the weekend. B