10 DECEMBER 15,2012
Smoke Signals
Dear Smoke Signals:
Firstly, I have no problem with the budget, but there is Homething that
makes me more curious every year.
Where does this magic number "gaming dividend" come from? It just ap
pears, provides the bulk of revenue and everything seems to balance with
this number.
I would really like to see an income statement from Spirit Mountain. An
income statement has sales less expenses that equal income. I can only as
sume that this magic number "gaming dividend" is a percentage of income,
and I wonder why we, the members, don't get to see where this most important
number comes from, or do we and I don't recognize it.
Just curious as I said; it would be a learning experience to see how this
number is arrived at.
Judith Pettibone
Roll 717
Dear Smoke Signals:
I want to find out why the Community Health is not going to deliver the
meds to the Elders anymore.
I am in a wheelchair and when it rains I am not going to get wet. This is
crazy. Are they going to stop going to see the Elders on the home visits, too?
If you ask me, this is just stupid. Some of us don't want to get sick and this
is not saving money for the Tribe sending out the meds by mail when we live
here on Tribal land or not too far away. We can go collect them ourselves.
Or if we can't, we had someone from Wellness deliver our meds to us. So
if you want to save money, quit sending them here locally. Start saving and
quit spending.
Samantha Dala
Roll 382
Elders' garage sale seeking donations
Tribal Elders are regularly seeking donations for fundraising garage
sales. To donate an item or items, contact Tribal Elders Linda Brandon
at 971-267-0918 or Duane Wheeler at 541-992-3254. D
Cultural Trust Board
seeking grant applicants
The Tribe's Cultural Trust Board received $6,359 for the 2013
grant year and is accepting grant applications through Dec. 15.
The board will finalize grant awards by Jan. 10 and applicants
will receive notification of their grant application status by Jan.
15.
This is the earliest the board has ever opened the grant cycle to
allow more time for grantees to complete their cultural projects
since final reporting is due to the Oregon State Cultural Trust
each year by Aug. 31.
Since 2009, when the Grand Ronde Cultural Trust Board started
giving cultural grants, it has funded individuals' participation in
Tribal Canoe Journey, sewing classes, moccasin making classes, an
ethno botany project, a Chinuk Wawa project, research for a book
about Tribal member families, camas digging, huckleberry picking,
regalia making, wood carving and other cultural projects.
Grand Ronde Cultural Trust Board members include McDaniel,
Contreras, Vice Chair Betty Bly, Secretary Stephanie Wood and
board member Claudia Leno. D
O'Neal can now teach and work with students
ARCHIVIST continued
from front page
Indian was "a perfect fit," she said
back in 2009, she had spent eight
years in the nation's capital when
she accepted the University of Or
egon job.
"I had never really anticipated
staying on the East Coast for so
long," she said. "It's difficult be
ing so far from home and a large
extended family."
In addition, the archives at the
University of Oregon and the scope
of the new position looks to be a big
jump and provide challenges that
O'Neal has been looking for from
the beginning.
Just by the numbers, the Na
tional Museum of the American
Indian holds some 1,700 linear
feet of manuscripts and media with
about 325,000 photographs, while
the university holds more than
20,000 linear feet and more than
3,000 collections.
"The University of Oregon Spe
cial Collections and University
Archives is a major regional reposi
tory," she said, "holding primary
sources of national importance in
areas including Northwest history,
culture, environment and land
scape; documentary photography;
intentional communities; lives of
women; children's literature; pulp
literature; film, radio and TV; and
the history of the university."
The National Museum of the
American Indian has been ar
chiving material for only 10 years
while the university has been at
it for more than 60 years, O'Neal
said.
In addition, the Oregon position
enables O'Neal to teach and work
with students, possibilities not af
forded by the national museum.
In Washington, she reported, "I
oversaw the daily management of
the Archive Center and worked on
innovative projects with amazing
staff, but I hadn't had the opportu
nity to teach or work directly with
students, which was something I
really wanted to do with my ca
reer." One of O'Neal's "immediate"
goals for this position is "to increase
our instruction efforts with various
disciplines across campus. Our goal
is to have our collections utilized as
much as possible across numerous
disciplines and incorporated into
the various curriculums so that all
undergraduates have a chance to
use our collections."
She is also seeking to document
university professors' research,
to find and fill gaps in historical
records and to conduct research
projects documenting university
history.
For example, she said, "I would
like to create a comprehensive
timeline for milestones in uni
versity history and develop an
interactive Web site with images
and details. I also want to create a
'frequently asked questions' page
about university history."
O'Neal serves on the universi
ty's Native Strategies group that
"works collaboratively to ensure
that Native issues and projects are
archieved across the university."
The group focuses on Northwest
Indigenous Research Center, Na
tive Studies, Recruitment and
Retention, Tribal Outreach, Gov-ernanceInfrastructureDevelop-ment,
and Communications and
Collaborations.
"I hope that through serving on
this group and focusing on specific
projects I will be able to make a
difference for the Native people of
Oregon and across the country,"
she said. "I want to ensure that our
history is told from our perspective
and that we are represented cor
rectly at the university."
Another university project cur
rently moving forward comes out
of the faculty papers of Ted Stern,
an anthropology professor at the
university from 1948-87.
"He worked with and studied the
Umatilla and the Klamath Tribes.
Thus, we are currently undertaking
a project to have each specific Tribal
community work with and process
the records from this collection that
relate to their Tribe. The collection
not only contains manuscripts from
his book, but most importantly the
field notes and genealogical infor
mation about individuals in each
community.
"This collaborative effort will en
sure that the records are properly
described by the communities and
that they have an opportunity to
utilize the records for their own
Tribal history. The goal is to also
eventually organize a gathering in
each community with scholars and
Tribal Elders to discuss the records
and the project."
While her work took her to the
U.S. Department of State's Office
of Treaty Affairs in Washington,
D.C. as well as archival positions
at Princeton University and the
University of Arizona before land
ing at the National Museum of the
American Indian, O'Neal also has
participated more recently in archi
val projects in Oregon.
In August, Oregon State Univer
sity Libraries hosted the Oregon
Tribal Archives Institute, a project
created through a two-year grant
from the Oregon State Library
that focused on providing in-depth
archives and records management
training for Oregon's nine federally
recognized Tribes.
O'Neal gave the keynote for the
opening event and taught sessions
on archival basics, social media
and professional development net
works. The Institute was designed to
help Tribes establish an archives
program and gave representatives
of Oregon Tribes a chance to col
laborate and identify ways to work
together.
The Institute was an opportunity
for professional development, net
working and community building.
"The group also took field trips
to the Siletz and Grand Ronde
Tribal communities and the Benton
County Museum to look at their
archival and museum facilities,"
she said.
In addition, as one of the organiz
ers and current chair of the Society
of American Archivists' Native
American Archives Roundtable,
she said that the organization
"continues to grow" as it advocates
for continued and growing profes
sionalism among Native American
archivists.
O'Neal earned a master's in Li
brary Science from the University
of Arizona, as part of the Knowledge
River program for Native American
and Hispanic students, and a mas
ter's in History from Utah State
University. Her research interests
include international indigenous
activism, cultural heritage, tra
ditional knowledge, intellectual
property rights, digital humanities
and indigenous use of new media
and technology.
"I couldn't have received these
degrees without the help of Tribe,"
she wrote. Tribal financial help
included the Eula Petite Scholar
ship. She continues to work on her
doctorate through Georgetown Uni
versity in Washington, D.C.
"My research focuses on the
move toward international activ
ism within the American Indian
Movement in the later 1970s and
early 1980s, specifically focusing
on the international interactions
between U.S. and Canadian indig
enous activist groups, specifically
the National Congress of American
Indians and the National Indian
Brotherhood."
O'Neal is the daughter of Al and
Tribal Elder Marta (Parazoo) Clif
ford of Springfield and Ron and Sue
O'Neal of Bend.
Her heritage is Chinook, Cree
and Cow Creek. B