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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2013)
Smoke Signals 9 JULY 15,2013 Adult Members' Trust and Minors' Custodial & Rabbi Trust Funds Investments in the Adult Members' Trust Fund and the Minors' Cus todial and Rabbi Trust Funds are updated each business day. If you are a trust participant andor if you are the parentguardian of a minor member, you can access and review your balance and your minor child's balance by visiting www.401Save.com. To log-in, the initial User ID is your (or your child's) Social Security number, and the initial Password is "00" followed by your (or your child's) membership number. Once logged in, you can customize your User ID and password for security purposes. If you have any trouble logging in to or using the system, contact the 401Save Call Center at 1-888-700-0808 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. Committee seeks Elders' phone numbers The Tribal Elders Committee is compiling a volunteer phone list of Elders. If you would like to submit your phone number and address to be avail able to other Elders, send it to elders.committeegrandronde.org or leave a message at 503-879-2231. Yamhill County seeking volunteer drivers Yamhill County is seeking volunteer drivers to transport local veterans to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland. Volunteers are unpaid, but a meal is provided for their time. For more information or to volunteer, call Jim Cox at 503-472-4771. HeaDftlh) & WeflDiniess Ododdc offffeired services SUMMIT continued from page 8 stress reduction and living in bal ance in today's world. Thursday afternoon workshops keyed in on benefits coordination and dealing with federal agencies, such as the Social Security Ad ministration, National Cemetery Administration and Veterans Af fairs. On Friday, the summit concluded with a blessing provided by McDon ald in Navajo and veterans joining TailFeathers for a talking circle. It was followed by a Parade of Color Guards that was led by all the eagle staffs followed by veterans, honor guards and Tribal Royalty. The Grand Ronde Tribe provided meals each day, starting with lunch on Tuesday and ending with lunch on Friday. The Food Services staff provided breakfasts and lunches while the Social Services Depart ment provided dinners, which in cluded elk stew and fry bread on Tuesday, goulash on Wednesday and a smorgasbord of meatloaf, roast beef and seafood on Thursday. The Grand Ronde Canoe Fam ily sang and danced for summit attendees in the plankhouse on Tuesday and Wednesday. In addition, every day started with a somber ceremony to honor and remember those warriors still held captive or missing in action. A Veterans Honor Wall allowed attendees to post names of relatives and friends who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Af ghanistan and other conflicts. Outside the big tent, veterans talked with representatives of the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs, which brought its mobile veterans center to the summit. Em ployees handed out publications to help veterans understand and ob tain their benefits, such as "Health Care Benefits Overview 2012." A banner also advertised a phone number that could help veterans with readjustment counseling. Representatives of the Veterans Stress Project attended to explain its Emotional Freedom Techniques to combat pain and stress. Tribal Health & Wellness Clinic staff offered dental exams, blood pressure and blood sugar check ups and chiropractic care during the summit. Throughout the event, the Grand Ronde Tribe was consistently 'V - . . .- O IS Photo by Michelle Alaimo Students from the Chinuk Wawa Immersion Class sing a song and present a poster that reads in Chinuk Wawa, "Thank you to the soldiers" to Navajo code talkers Peter McDonald Sr. and Bill Toledo during the "Veterans Summit: Gathering of Warriors" at Uyxat Powwow Grounds on Thursday, July 1 1 . VisiUheTrihek- page to see more photos thanked and complimented for hosting the event as a lead-in to its annual Marcellus Norwest Memo rial Veterans Powwow. Leno attended one of the first summit planning sessions held last November in San Diego. He returned to Grand Ronde and re ceived enthusiastic support from the rest of Tribal Council to volun teer the Tribe to host the event. Rand Rydell, a Grand Ronde area Army veteran w ho served in Vietnam in 1969-70, said that the Veterans Summit provided an "ex cellent program." "There have been a lot of inter esting stories from the speakers," Rydell said. "It is sponsored by a na tionwide group and it is an honor to have it here. I hope it grows bigger because it is a needed service." "This is what happens when you have an initial event," Joseph said. "Of course, our vision was much larger and our hopes were much larger. We knew that one big challenge was people having the funds to get here because of the calls we were receiving for fi nancial assistance to get here. We could not meet the need of all the travel scholarships. We did what we could and we know that for next time that is an area to work on. "But we're not disappointed be cause when you discount the people who are here, you're disrespecting them. What we focus on is the peo ple who did make it here and being inclusive of the people who aren't here with the MIAPOW ceremony we do every morning and then thinking of the people who aren't here and what can we do to ensure they are here next year." "It has been a powerful event," said Linda Woods (Ojibwe), an Air Force veteran who served from 1962-66 and gave a presentation on Tuesday about instilling hope in female warriors. "It has been very moving. I don't think a day has gone by that I have not cried. Something happened, the sharing of stories, to make me cry. I absolutely think this should become an annual event if the word gets out." "The seeds are planted," said Wame, who owns Warrior Society Develop ment in San Diego, Calif., and worked with the Native Wellness Institute to plan the summit. "Now the moccasin telegraph will take over. It's better than e-mail. Just a year ago, we were sitting in Jilene's kitchen, talking about this, and now here we are. I keep calling it 'first annual' because I want this to continue." The Planning Committee for the Veterans Summit included Tribal employees David Fullerton, Social Services manager; Deborah Kroeker, Housing Services coordinator; Public Affairs Director Siobhan Taylor; Public Affairs Administrative As sistant Chelsea Clark; Community Health Manager Kari Culp; Health & Wellness Accreditation Coordina tor Jill Hafliger and Clinical Services Director Julie Davis; and Cultural Education and Outreach Program Manager Kathy Cole. Veterans Spe cial Event Board members Wayne Chulik, Raymond Petite, Gene La Bonte, Wink Soderberg and Reina Nelson and Tribal Elders Committee member Violet Folden also served on the Planning Committee. In addition, Fullerton said, about 25 other Tribal members or employ ees contributed to putting on the Veterans Summit. During his welcoming speech, Leno compared the first Veterans Summit to the Grand Ronde Tribe and how it started after almost three decades of Termination with only the cemetery property to its name. "I look at our Tribe," Leno said. "This reservation is about 160 years old and many know that we were terminated for 30 years. Termina tion was just the government saying we weren't Indians anymore. That wasn't the belief here at Grand Ronde. We knew who we were. We didn't need to have some paper tell ing us who we were. We held on to those ideals and we were restored. "We started out at that little building at the cemetery and now we've bloomed into what we are today. I hope for this summit we can do the same. We can start out small, but if we get other Tribes and other people in other regions to reach out ... you know, these veterans deserve this."
