Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2013)
PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID SALEM. OR PERMIT NO. 17S P-l PI 10 OR NEWSPAPER PROJ. UO LIBRARY SYSTEM PRE 1299 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON EUGENE OR 97403-1205 FEBRUARY 1,2013 A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe www.grandronde.org UMPQUA IVTOLAXjIjA. ROGUE RIVER a KAIi-AJPXJYA CHLAJ3TA Tribe protests UofO reorganization affecting Native American students By Ron Karten Smoke Signals staff writer The Grand Ronde Tribal Coun cil has drafted a letter ex pressing its "great alarm and concern" to University of Oregon President Michael Gottfredson regarding a restructuring that has ended the contracts of three top diversity officers, including former Klamath Tribal Chairman Tom Ball. Ball has served since 2005 as one of three assistant vice presidents in the university's Office of Equity and Inclusion, formerly known as the Office of Equity and Diversity. He was the top Native American diver sity administrator at the school. The Grand Ronde Education De partment has worked with Ball for years and the Tribe sees him as a "key liaison" and his position being "of critical importance" to Oregon's nine Tribes, said Grand Ronde Tribal Chairman Reyn Leno. "Now that his position has been eliminated, many of the concerns from these communities will not be heard," Leno said. He called the po tential negative effects to the more than 250 Native students at the university and Oregon's nine Tribal communities "tremendous." New Equity and Inclusion Vice President Yvette Alex-Assensoh, the apparent architect of the re structuring, recently said in the Eugene Register-Guard that her See PROFESSOR continued on page 12 n v iv OCi O : V I O r t it i ' ' r I 1 , v Cr Photo by Michelle Alaimo Kyoni Mercier leads the Grand Ronde Canoa Family girls in a paddla danca during tha fifth annual Gathering of Oregon's First Nations Powwow held at the Salem Pavilion at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem on Saturday, Jan. 26. Annual Gathering of Oregon's First Nations Powwow attracts crowds By Ron Karten Smoke Signals staff writer SALEM Oregon State Fairgrounds' Salem Pa vilion was packed on Sat urday, Jan. 26, for the 1 p.m. grand entry of the fifth annual Gathering of Oregon's First Na tions Powwow. Leading grand entry were four Eagle staffs carried by Robert Van Norman, a Tribal Council member for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians; Warren Brainard, chief of the Confed erated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians; Jack Lenox, Tribal planner See POWWOW continued on pages 8-9 (PetLaoudoong IhxDinrae a IheaDftlhy message Medical student engages Tribal youth in video effort to fight obesity ,. C2 r " ' CI.'" Photo by Michelle Alaimo Allison Empey goes over a SMART goal that Kailiyah Krehbiel set as Empey works with her and other fifth- and sixth-grade Tribal youth on healthier living at Youth Education on Tuesday, Jan. 1 5. By Ron Karten Smoke Signals staff writer On her way to a medical career in pediat rics, Allison Empey recently spent two months in Grand Ronde. Her stopover ended late in January, but if she has been suc cessful, her work with Tribal fifth- and sixth graders will carry on. The fourth-year medical student at the Uni versity of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and Tribal member from McMinnville, is taking a class focused on community engage ment. As part of the class, she needed to bring a com munity together around a public health issue. She chose to do it at the Tribe and her students chose to make it about obesity. The plan was to gain the support of the com munity. "It is so important to be out here," Empey said. She consulted with Elders and Tribal staff members for their ideas and support. She re cruited almost a dozen fifth- and sixth-grade Youth Education students. "My goal was to recruit youth and let them come up with the issue," she said. "When you do community engagement, it's important that See VIDEO continued on page 5
