22 NOVEMBER 15,2013
Smoke Signals
"This was a dedication
to what needed to be done
for the future of the Grand
Ronde people, for the fu
ture of their families, their
loved ones and the larger
community. So they made
these contributions. No one
paid them, no one asked
them to do this; it was all
volunteer."
ATTORNEY continued
from page 21
was changing in terms of looking
at and seeing what a mess they had
made of Indian policy and Indian
administration. ... Therefore, the
consciousness, if you will, about
that issue was changing. People
were just simply more aware of
the concerns of minority people;
particularly for our purposes, of Na
tive people in their own community.
So Congress in 1977 adopted the
Restoration Act of the Siletz Tribe.
In 1973, the Menominee Tribe
was the first Restoration and that
seemed to have broken a hold that
Termination or that federal assimi
lation had on that policy. In 1977,
with the Siletz being the second Res
toration, it was like, "OK, Menomi
nee was not unique, but actually the
beginning.
Now that Si
letz has been
restored, it
is important
to keep mov
ing." So, the
other Tribes
said, "Yes,
we want
this, just like
the Menomi
nee and the
Siletz have
achieved."
Not every
one jumped
on board,
but we had a much more open
atmosphere towards accepting the
idea of Restoration. There was still
a lot of work to be done and people
were getting organized around do
ing just that. They were doing good
on their own. People were paying
for themselves. People like Jackie
Colton, who would have never got
ten on the radio before, got on and
explained what it was that was go
ing on and why it was so important.
Others had bake sales, trying to
help pay for this.
When we had to go back to Wash
ington, D.C., Merle Holmes paid for
his own ticket. This was the kind of
stuff that was going on. People were
seeing that this was important, and
it was certainly important to them
personally. But more importantly to
the future of the community and to
the future of the Tribe.
Q. I have read about the
Tribe's Restoration that the
late '70s was kind of the tread
ing water situation, and then
finally when the Tribe received
an ANA grant to help, people
actually quit their jobs and
worked on this effort full time,
and it seemed like a dam was
broken through. Was that the
period where they were going
around talking to the commu
nity to elicit local support?
A. It is exactly as you suggested
in that it wasn't that there was no
progress; it's that there was a lot
of groundwork that needed to be
done. One of the things that had
to be done was what you have just
identified. We had to find funding
for the Tribe, we had to have more
people putting more time and effort
into this, and the ANA (Adminis
tration for Native Americans) was
the place to get it. Well, one of the
places. We went all over the place.
We went to the Catholic Church.
We asked everywhere for help with
funding. The ANA was one of the
primary focuses.
If they had given us funding in
1978, it wouldn't have made any
thing go any faster. People simply
weren't prepared yet to go there. I
mean they, the local community in
particular, had to keep hearing this
over and over again to become used
to it, to be able to come to some level
of understanding and acceptance
in their own
sense. What
they think is
going on and
whether they
fully under
stand it or not,
they have to
come to some
understanding
for their own
purposes.
You know,
not everybody
agreed; there
were certainly
people who op
posed it. Op
position meant that there was just
a lot more work to be done with
and around those people. And, just
as importantly, while I have given
you the core of people that were
working on this, there were others
that had to work in their own com
munities to spread the word and to
recruit greater participation. There
is Kathryn Harrison. She was a
part of that, and she brought an
enormous amount of credibility and
focus to this leadership. She was
a very important part of coming
along and adding to the Restoration
effort a little later down the road.
She became an icon for the Tribe
and its efforts. She continues to be
very important part of the history
of the Tribe.
Q. Can you talk about how the
work was divided up between
yourself and Elizabeth Furse
as far as working on this effort?
A. Well, we worked very closely
together so there really wasn't
an awful lot of division. A lot of
what was important to moving us
forward was Elizabeth had been
to law school. She had not gradu
ated, she was not a lawyer, but she
understood the law and she was
terrific at community organization.
She was terrific at talking to people
in positions of power in the Legisla
ture, and in other places, Congress,
etc. She just had a real touch for
that. She knew she had access to or
knowledge of an enormous amount
of resources.
For example, when we went back
in D.C., we stayed at a Friend's
house ... a house where we were
able to find a place for all of the
Tribes to stay so that it would be
less expensive for them. It was our
first trip back to D.C. to go and visit
the jurisdictional committees in
Congress, in the Senate and to talk
to the local congressmen and sena
tors about what was going on here.
Each Tribe had to talk to their own
congressman; they did not really
share that many in common. She
knew about resources and was very
good about getting them together.
She was terrific in the community,
and she really had a touch for talk
ing to and understanding people.
We had to put together a lot of
educational material; this was
something I was not particularly
good at. She understood media,
and she, with a friend of hers, put
together a slideshow that talked
about Termination. I did a good bit
of the writing, but they actually put
together the slideshow that would
give people a visual to follow and to
understand that this was a very dif
ficult story. This is not a story that
people intuitively understand. This
is a story about what happened to
Tribes; we have to be able to over
come people's misconceptions about
the way the world was. About how
"The West was won." About how
the cavalry came in and defeated
the Indians, how they began to
disappear and how they became
the vanishing America, that myth.
We had to start by saying, "No,
that's not the way that it was." It's
not like telling people a story that
they're going to hear for the first
time. You have to overcome their
misconceptions and turn them
around. You have to get them to un
derstand what really went on and
why this is important. She was very
good at putting together that kind
of information and helping people to
understand what this was all about.
Particularly the people we needed
most to understand: The congress
men and their staff, the people
in the state Legislature, the local
government, people in positions of
relative influence; the churches,
folks that you do not usually think
of; the Ecumenical Council that had
its seat in Portland.
Q. Was there a moment or
event that felt like, yes, we fi
nally have accomplished this
or yes, this is going to happen?
A. Well, we all believed, certainly
I always believed, this was going to
happen. It was never a question in
my mind, or in our minds, that this
was going to happen. It was in our
view inevitable. I was just a matter
of just when and how. I left to go to
work for the Navajo Tribe in 1983,
so I left before it was done. It was
after that that Elizabeth took over
and saw it through to its conclusion.
Q. How did you feel when you
heard about it?
A. Well, I was elated, very happy.
I knew how much it meant, I knew
what it took to get there. I knew
how much personal sacrifice and
commitment, as well as effort, it
took the people of the Tribes, spe
cifically with respect to the Grand
Ronde. All of the Tribes individu
ally in their settings, but for Grand
Ronde what an enormous effort
it took, how much heart it took.
I mean endless meetings. I know
that you may have talked to the
very young people, but the people
who were children at the time will
tell you that they almost began to
hate the Tribe because it took their
parents away from them so much
just to do all of this.
That is just a little window into
the level of commitment and effort
it took in the behalf of the commu
nity to get this done. The people
who were actually there did that,
the names I gave you and others, of
course, but certainly the names that
I gave you were the ones that were
most involved through the entire
process, and worked the hardest to
get this done. Knowing what a sac
rifice they made, this was so richly
deserved. It was important to them,
and to their future. It was terrific.
Q. Is there something that you
think Tribal members should
know, say 50 years from now,
about this effort?
A. I think that this is a story that
needs to be told and remembered,
so that people understand their own
history of where they came from
and the roles people played. Not
that there is some reason to canon
ize these people, but to understand
that they came from a place where
people were committed to some
thing that they had no reason to
believe could be done on a rational
basis. But they had so much com
mitment and belief that it had to
be done that they were committed
to the thing until it was done. As a
result of that, it was done. It was
their belief and commitment that
made it get done, because at every
turn they could have easily turned
away.
I mean, the first time they went
to see the congressman, he basically
said, "No, I'm not going to risk my
career on this. You have to do all the
work." The kind of work he was tell
ing us to do was something that we
were not accustomed to doing. They
all had to learn how to do it. They
all had to take enormous personal
risks in terms of who they were
and to get out there and do things
that they were very uncomfortable
doing. But, they understood that it
had to be done.
So that story of personal com
mitment and personal sacrifice, I
think, is an important touchstone
for understanding who the Grand
Ronde people are and where they
came from.
Reprinted from the Tribe's 25th
Restoration special edition.