Smoke Signals 9
AUGUST 1,2012
ADD 13 canncflDdattes
attend a mi row a II forum
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
Thirty Tribal and community
members turned out for the 2012
Tribal Council Candidates Forum
held Wednesday, July 25, in the
Tribal gymnasium to hear all 13
candidates introduce themselves,
answer two rounds of questions and
give a closing statement.
The event lasted two hours. In
dividual responses were limited to
one and two minutes.
Questions from the audience
covered such longstanding Tribal
issues as per capita, enrollment,
casino operations, economic devel
opment and ethics. A new topic of
inquiry was whether candidates
would support a urinalysis test for
Tribal Council members and back
ground checks for candidates.
Tribal Executive Officer Chris
Leno introduced the candidates and
read questions while Tribal Elder
Alton Butler was the timekeeper.
AV Sound Technician Wendell
Olson and Web Specialist-trainee
T.J. McKnight taped the event for
broadcast over the Tribal Web site,
where it is available for viewing at
www.grandronde.org.
The 13 Tribal members running
for Tribal Council are incumbents
Cheryle A. Kennedy and Toby Mc
Clary and challengers Billy Joe
Bobb, Jon George, Solomon George,
Charles Haller II, Denise Harvey,
Andy Jenness, Jesse Knight, Allen
Lane-Butler, Lonnie Leno, Mark
Mercier and Brenda Tuomi.
Ballots were mailed to Tribal vot
ers on July 25 and are due back by
Saturday, Sept. 8. B
ATTENTION TRIBAL MEMBERS
COMMITTEE AND SPECIAL EVENT BOARD VACANCIES
The following Committees and Special Event Boards have vacant
positions.
Social Services 2 Vacancies
Please send completed applications to the Lauri Smith, 961 5
Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347.
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Free online learning source
I The information includes:
Everyday life
I Math and money
I Computer training
Online classes
I Work and career information
Check it out at www.gcflearnfree.org
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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 to care for all patients and is critical to providing respon
sive, cost-effective health services. D
Tribe approached Congress twice in 20 years
ACT continued
from front page
land be designated reservation land
by Congress.
The amendment would allow
the Tribe to combine the two-step
process for real property that is
within the boundaries of its original
69, 100-acre reservation granted to
the Tribe in 1857.
The amendment is supported by
the U.S. Department of Interior
and by the boards of commissioners
in Polk and Yamhill counties.
Michael Black, director of the Bu
reau of Indian Affairs, testified that
the BIA supports the amendment to
the Grand Ronde Reservation Act.
Schrader, who attended the
House hearing, said his goal is to
deal with the process of bringing
off-reservation land into trust.
"The process is pretty Byzantine
and difficult," Schrader said, citing
the Western Oregon Termination
Act, which terminated the Grand
Ronde Tribe in 1954. "By establish
ing exterior reservation boundaries,
which reflect the Tribe's original
reservations, pre-Termination, as
I am seeking to do ... will provide
the BIA with the ability to process
the fee-to-trust applications as
on-reservation, thus expediting
the process, get rid of some of the
bureaucracy and make it much
easier for the Tribes to add to their
existing reservation lands."
"The Tribe is hampered in its
efforts to restore land within its
original reservation by a lengthy
and cumbersome Bureau of Indian
Affairs process," Leno testified. "Be-
Reyn Leno
cause the Tribe
does not have
exterior reserva
tion boundaries,
all parcels are
processed under
the more rigorous
off-reservation
acquisition regu
lations even
if the parcel is
located within the boundaries of
the original reservation.
"After the land is accepted into
trust, the Tribe must take an addi
tional step of amending its Reserva
tion Act through federal legislation
to include the trust parcels in order
for the land to be deemed reserva
tion land."
Leno said the Grand Ronde Tribe
has approached Congress twice in
the last 20 years to amend its Res
ervation Act to include trust lands.
The Tribe currently owns slightly
more than 10,312 acres that are
designated reservation status.
"This process is unduly time-consuming,
expensive, bureaucratic
and often takes years to complete,"
Leno said.
Leno said the amendment would
establish that real property located
within the boundaries of the Tribe's
original reservation will be treated as
on-reservation land and deemed part
of the Tribe's reservation once is it
taken into trust. In addition, it would
make it so that the Tribe's lands held
in trust on the date of the legislation
would automatically become part of
the Tribe's reservation.
"H.R. 726 would not only save
Grand Ronde time and money,
which would be better utilized
serving its membership, but would
also streamline the department's
land-into-trust responsibilities to
Grand Ronde, thus saving taxpayer
money," Leno said.
Siletz Tribal Chairwoman De
lores Pigsley and Robert Garcia,
chair of the Confederated Tribes
of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Sius
law Indians, said they support the
Grand Ronde bill.
Tribe opposes
Siletz legislation
As Kennedy did in February,
Leno also spoke in opposition to a
bill that would expand the Siletz
Reservation. Grand Ronde opposes
the bill H.R. 6141 and Senate
Bill 908 because it attempts
to re-characterize the Coast Res
ervation, which was set aside for
all western Oregon Tribes, as the
Siletz Reservation.
"We believe the purpose of the
Siletz legislation is to eliminate
the historic claims of other Tribes
to the former Coast Reservation,
which was set aside for all Tribes
in western Oregon, by equating the
boundaries of the Siletz Reserva
tion (established in 1875) with the
boundaries of the Coast Reserva
tion (established in 1855)," Leno
said in his written testimony.
Leno said the Coast Reservation
was set aside for Indians through
out western Oregon, including the
ancestral Tribes and Bands of the
Grand Ronde from the Willamette,
Umpqua and Rogue River valleys.
"Their proposed legislation is
nothing more than a veiled attempt
to eradicate the claims of Grand
Ronde and other western Oregon
Tribes to the Coast Reservation,"
Leno said.
As he also did in February before
the Senate, Garcia spoke against
the Siletz legislation.
"I regret that we must oppose (the
Siletz legislation) as introduced,"
Garcia said. "It would grant the
Siletz, just one of the many Tribes
forced to reside within the bound
aries of the Coast Reservation, a
unique right to claim favorable on
reservation treatment under the
IRA (Indian Reorganization Act) for
all land acquisitions in the area of
overlap, including land that my Tribe
lives on. ... The Siletz and only the
Siletz are entitled to have treated
as on-reservation acquisition of all
the property they propose for trust
within the 800,000 acres of the Coast
Reservation. To give the Siletz this
favorable treatment is unsupported
by law, is historically inaccurate and
is just unfair to my people."
Pigsley testified in support of the
legislation.
"We support the Siletz's objective
of taking into trust land in Lincoln
County that has historically been
within the exclusive reservation
land of the Tribe, but not -the re
writing of history to expand the
Siletz Reservation, and thereby ex
cluding other federally recognized
Tribes from their hereditary land
claims," Leno said in the written
testimony.
Also attending the House hearing
were Tribal Council Secretary Jack
Giffen Jr. and Tribal Attorney Rob
Greene.