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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2013)
Smoke Signals 15 JUNE 1,2013 Congratulations Peter on your graduation A? Your family loves you so much, Mom, Dad, RJ, Uncle & Auntie. Congratulations Mikayla Shea Mercier on finishing kindergarten! We're SO proud of you and love you "to the moon and back!" Mom, Dad and Ian. . ' I Z I V) ,. V ( , m -XT' -J Happy 8th Birthday Kandence Gilkerson June 11 Your family loves you! From Granny, Mom, Dad, Tyler, and the whole family. "HAPPY SWEET 16 KALLIE" Wishing you a wonderful day with all the love and happi ness to you that you so happily give to us. Love, Mom, Nekole, Grandma and Grandpa. r 'We D ouDir eGeiramis weiry year' Photo by Michelle Alaimo Senior Miss Grand Ronde Kiana Leno pours salad dressing on a salad as Junior Miss Grand Ronde Kailiyah Krehbiel waits for the dressing during lunch in the Tribal Community Center before the Memorial Day observance ceremony held on Monday, May 27. All of the Royalty girls prepared plates and brought them to Elders who needed help during the community meal. VETERANS continued from front page year's meal by Tribal cook Kevin Campbell. Tribal Royalty, including Senior Miss Kiana Leno, Junior Miss Kail iyah Krehbiel, Little Miss Kaleigha Simi, four Junior Miss Princesses Amelia and Amaryssa Mooney, Elizabeth Watson-Croy and Madi son Ross along with Veterans Queen Iyana Holmes helped serve the meal. During the subsequent Memorial Day ceremony, they also performed "The Lord's Prayer." Flags' were, at.half-staff as the lunch crowd moved out to the Veter ans Memorial and though the earlier rain held off, they sat protected from the temperature and wind under a series of overhead tarps. Tribal Enrollment Specialist Jo landa Catabay sang the national anthem. Wayne Chulik, carrying the Ea gle staff, led Navy veterans Gene LaBonte and Al Miller and Army veterans Shawn Robinson and Ray mond Petite in posting the colors. LaBonte represented the Tribe along with almost 20 others at lo cal cemeteries starting at 8:30 a.m. His wife, Billie, baked four dozen cinnamon rolls for the veterans and delivered them early in what Tribal Council Chair Reyn Leno called "a downpour. You were just huddled there under umbrellas," he said. "I think they appreciated them," Billie said. Leno, a Vietnam War-era Ma rine Corps veteran and master of ceremonies of the event, said that veterans only ask for recognition. "We earned the right to be called veterans," he said. He took a moment to reflect on the cold, windy and on-and-off rain, saying that in war veterans routinely see a lot worse weather and sacrifice so much for those back home. Put in that perspective, hon oring veterans in windy 57-degree weather on Memorial Day did not seem like much of a hardship. It is not so much for those present to honor warriors in "a little bit of weather," he said. And in fact, he added, this year's event had "one of the better turnouts." "We lose our veterans every year," he said. "Not having Mike Larsen with us this year brings that home." Larsen had long prepared the cem etery for Memorial Days gone by. He walked on in January. Tribal Council Vice Chair Jack Giffen, Jr. thanked the veterans for "doing whatever they had to do to keep our country free." "This is an emotional day for me," said Tribal Council Secretary Toby McClary. "From the veterans I have had the honor of working with, freedom is one thing I don't take for granted." He said he thought about the sacrifices that families of warriors routinely make. Tribal Council member Steve Bobb Sr. gave the invocation and later added that the memorial "be longs to all but we're honored to be caretakers. "When it comes to this nation, with all of the issues that we tend to have with each other, internal conflicts and prejudices, we will stand together in defense of this nation and its people. "The memorial sits on the cam pus of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, but belongs to all. We are privileged and honored to be the caretakers of the names of those who have served from our communities." "People take pause," Bobb added, "and quietly offer thanks to those now serving and those who served in times gone by; to those who sac rificed their lives. "We are a people, a nation defined by the words in our national an them: 'the land of the free and the home of the brave.' " Army veteran Shawn Robinson read the names of Marines added to the memorial this year. Navy veteran Gene LaBonte read the names of Navy veterans added. Tribal Council member and Army veteran June Sherer read the names of Army veterans added. And Air Force veteran Carl Lam bert read the names of Air Force veterans added. Twelve new names were added to the memorial this year with four names corrected. New additions included from the Marines: Cory J. Meneley and Gavin D. Van Soolen; from the Navy: Dennis E. Lund; from the Army: Shawn L. Robinson, Theo dore T. La Chance, Albert G. Endres, Teresa I. Cain, Helmer Naslund, Chancy Parazoo and Michael James Cain; and from the Air Force: Dennis E. Carlton and Raymond E. Cain. The additions bring the number of names on the memorial's four black granite pillars to 2,281. Sherer said that the memorial was "built to honor all people who serve." Bud Abbott read the poem, "Free dom Is Not Free." Tribal Land and Culture Depart ment Manager and award-winning musician Jan Looking Wolf Reibach played taps and "Amazing Grace" on a traditional Native flute that he made earlier this year for Larsen's funeral. Also, off in the distance, Willamina resident Bob Thornburg played tra ditional taps on the trumpet. Reibach's flute included beadwork by the mother of the Tribe's Cultural Protection Program Manager Eirik Thorsgard. Ardyth Hoffer-Hallicol-la's (Yakama) bead work includes military service ribbons from World War I, World War II, Korea, Viet nam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq. Seven dots on the Eagle feather hanging from the flute rep resent the seven generations and the seven service ribbons, Reibach and Thorsgard said. Meneley, a five-year Marine Corps veteran and member of the Tribe from Sheridan who served from 1991-96 in San Diego, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and El Toro, Calif., as a supply chief had his name added to the memorial this year. He posed for pictures of himself, his wife and three children in front of his name on the memorial. "It means a lot not only to myself, but to my family," Meneley said. "I consider it a huge honor, not for myself but for my brothers-in-arms that have fallen before me." The event was planned by Tribal Public Affairs Director Siobhan Taylor with help from her acting assistant, Chelsea Clark. The Grand Ronde Veterans Special Event Board hosted the event. H
