2 NOVEMBER 15, 2013
Smoke Signals
Nov. 22, 2013, marks 30th anniversary of Tribal Restoration
Diamond anniversary a time to remember members who made it so
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signal editor
Nbv. 22, 2013, marks the mwt
important day in modern
Grand Ronde history: the
30th anniversary of Presi
dent Ronald Reagan signing House
Resolution 3885, which became Public
Law 98-165, the Grand Ronde Restora
tion Act.
President Reagan's signature officially
ended 29 years of the federal govern
ment not recognizing what many Grand
Ronde Tribal members knew deep in
their hearts - that they were Native
Americans and the federal government
had responsibilities to uphold because
of that status.
The fact that the federal government
doesn't extend recognition doesn't mean
that you're not a Tribe, or not indeed a
government," said Don Wharton.
In the late 1970s, Wharton founded
Oregon Legal Service's Native American
Program, which assisted terminated
Oregon Tribes pursuing Restoration.
"The Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde existed as a Tribe and a gov
ernment; they just didn't have federal
recognition,'' he said.
At its Diamond Anniversary of Res
toration, members of the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde have much to
celebrate and be thankful for.
Spirit Mountain Casino unveiled in
May 2008 its fourth major expansion
since opening in 1995. The proceeds
from that successful gaming enterprise
provide the financial foundation for
important educational, health and so
cial benefits for more than 5,200 Tribal
members today.
Since the Tribe's 25th Restoration cel
ebration in 2008, the Tribe has partici
pated in the five Gathering of Oregon's
First Nations powwows, created and
held in late January to remind Orego
nians that the state's history did not
begin with statehood and that Tribal
members have lived in what is now
Oregon since time immemorial.
Tribal flags were added to the Walk
of Flags area at the state Capitol in
Salem in 2009 and Grand Ronde had its
ceremonial hunting rights re-authorized
by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Com
mission in 2009 as well.
Recently, the Tribe has seen the re
turn of its ceded lands at Rattlesnake
Butte near Junction City and at Cha
halpam on the North Santiam River
near Stayton.
Culturally, the Tribe is resurgent.
More and more Tribal youth participate
in powwows and learn to speak Chinuk
Wawa in school. .Tribal members.young. . .
C'lr " ft
Photo courtesy of Land and Culture Department
From left, Tribal members Marvin Kimsey, Margaret Provost and Merle Holmes
started the Tribe's Restoration effort in the early 1 970s.
and old learn traditional crafts, such
as basket weaving and making hand
drums, through Land and Culture
classes. Tribal youth have participated
in the annual Canoe Journey experience
since 2005 when they first paddled to
Elwha in Port Angeles, Wash.
In addition, the Tribe started holding
a First Salmon Ceremony in December
201 1 and held a First Salmon Ceremony
in West Linn in 2013, marking the first
time in 130 years Tribal members held
such a ceremony on the banks of the
Willamette River.
Also, the first Coming of Age ceremony
was held in more than 100 years for a
young Tribal woman in 2013.
The Tribe constructed a traditional
plankhouse Achaf-hammi at the
new Uyxat Powwow Grounds near Fort
Yamhill State Park, which held a grand
opening in September 2010. Plans are
under way to build a cultural center
museum to display Tribal artifacts and
teach visitors about Grand Ronde his
tory at the former middle school, which ;
the Tribe purchased in 2011.
And there's much to look forward to as
Tribal Council and Tribal members seek
to improve Tribal services and diversify
the Tribe's economy. Just earlier this
year, the Tribe became a minority owner
in SAM Medical Products in Wilsonville
and purchased Shasta Administrative
Services in late 2012.
Remembering the Restoration effort,
the almost 30 years of Termination
and the tortured history of the bands
and Tribes that form the foundation of
every living Tribal member is appropri
ate at 30.
Tribes rounded up
In the early 1850s, the ancestors of
the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
signed seven ratified treaties with the
federal government Jthat ceded, most of. .
western Oregon, from the California
border to the Columbia River and up the
Columbia River Gorge to Mount Hood
in return for promises of a reservation.
Members of several Native Ameri
can Tribes and bands were rounded
up by the U.S. Cavalry and walked
under armed guard to the Table Rock .
Reservation near present-day Medford
in 1853-55. The area was a temporary
gathering place for Native peoples before
the 33-day, 265-mile journey north to the
Grand Ronde Indian Reservation that
occurred in February and March of 1856.
Chief Bogus, late Tribal Elder Nora
Kimseys grandfather, died on the march
to Grand Ronde, which occurred during
cold and wet conditions. In all, eight
Tribal members died and eight were
born on what would become the Rogue
River Tribe's Trail of Tears.
Grand Ronde ancestors who lived in
the Willamette Valley spoke dialects of
Molalla, Kalapuya, Clackamas, Chinook
and other languages from neighboring
Tribes. Those from the Rogue River
Valley spoke dialects of Athabascan,
Penutian and Hokan. In all, Reservation
residents spoke more than 25 different
dialects from at least four different
language families when they arrived in .
Grand Ronde.
The only Native language in common
was Chinuk Wawa, which became the
primary language for most reservation
residents. While many of the ancestral
languages were spoken for generations
after relocation, eventually Chinuk
Wawa became the common Native
language for the Tribe and today is the
recognized Native language for Grand
Ronde. (In 2012, the Tribe published a
new Chinuk Wawa dictionary, "Chinuk
Wawa: As our elders teach us to speak
it.")
Despite relocation to the supposed
safety Qf.thefirandJioAd.eJiesexyatippi .
the assault on the Tribes' ways of life
continued unabated by the influx of
white settlers to Oregon.
The 69,100-acre Grand Ronde Res
ervation granted by President James
Buchanan's Executive Order in 1857
survived only until the value of the
timber and mineral resources were
recognized.
The 1887 General Allotment Act
divided 33,000 acres of the reservation
almost half - into 270 allotments of
land to Indians at Grand Ronde. The
goal was to make farmers out of Indians
and the act allowed Tribal members to
live on their land tax free while it was
held in trust. At the end of 25 years, the
land was transferred from trust status
to fee status and became taxable in an
attempt to allow the Native families to
eventually own the land.
' However, most of the allotments went
out of Indian control with "alarming
rapidity," according to the Tribe's 1985
Reservation Plan. "This was true not
only at Grand Ronde, but across the
nation wherever allotments had been
made under the General Allotment Act."
In 1901, following negotiations initi
ated by federal Indian Inspector James
McLaughlin, the federal government
declared 25,791 acres "surplus," and
purchased it from the Indians for $1.10
an acre or a per capita of $72. Much of
that land was then sold to local timber
interests.
Many of the allotments that remained
in Tribal member possession were
eventually lost as indecipherable tax
laws pushed some Tribal members to
forfeit their land, while others sold out,
raising money to survive. In addition,
the Bureau of Indian Affairs would sell
Tribal lands and not allow children to
inherit the land.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1936
enabled the Tribe to again purchase
land on which to build homes for Tribal
members on the reservation. Six ranch
properties and one building site totaling
537 acres were purchased by the Tribe
with IRA funds.
For those who stayed, life was hard.
Tribal Elder Nora Kimsey remem
bered making baskets to take to McMin
nville in a horse-and-buggy to trade for
clothes. She remembered long trips to
Dallas to purchase groceries, as well
as washing clothes in local creeks and
catching crawfish and boiling them in
tin cans.
Many Tribal members were sent to In
dian schools and adopted by non-Native
families, threatening the Tribe's heritage
See NOV. 22
continued on. page. 4 . . .