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FEBRUARY 1,2013
A Publication of the Grand Ronde Tribe
www.grandronde.org
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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
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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