Smoke Signals 23
NOVEMBER 15,2013
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Furse aided
Tribe in
many ways
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By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
lizabeth Furse was an
employee of Oregon Legal
I Service's Native America
Program during the early
1980s and instrumental in helping
the Grand Ronde Tribe during its
Restoration effort.
Afterward, she became a U.S.
Congresswoman, succeeding Les
AuCoin in the House of Represen
tatives, representing Oregon's 1st
Congressional District.
Below are excerpts from a 43-min-ute
interview with Furse conducted
Aug. 1, 2008, at her Portland State
University office.
Q. Why don't you start and
then I will follow up with ques
tions. A. To understand the Restoration
of the Grand Ronde Tribe, you have
to understand the context in which
it occurred. ... It was in the era of
the real hot fishing and hunting
rights battle both in Oregon and
Washington states. A member of
Congress, who was an excellent
member, Congressman Les AuCoin,
felt that he had really spilled a great
deal of political blood on the Siletz
(Restoration in 1977). Therefore,
when Grand Rondes came to him
for this bill, he told us very early on
... that there would be no hunting
or fishing rights.
At the time, I was working for
Legal Services. I knew enough about
legislation to know that it is almost
impossible to get a highly controver
sial bill through the Congress. Any
hunting and fishing rights would
have been very controversial, to
the point that I do not even think
the Senate would have appreciated
them.
So, what we got was a very strong
bill for Grand Ronde with the oppor
tunity to come back two years later
to do a reservation bill. Sen. Mark
Hatfield, who is probably the pre
eminent supporter of Indian Tribes,
he and Sen. Inouye (Daniel Inouye
of Hawaii) are probably the two who
most supported Indian Tribes.
Sen. Hatfield told us right at the
beginning ... he told us very clearly
that we would need to get the sup
port of other Tribes in Oregon, es
pecially the Warm Springs nation.
At the time, right after the Grand
Ronde Restoration there was a thing
put together called "New Tribes
Money" that meant that if a Tribe
became federally recognized, for
five years the monies for that Tribe
came out of a separate fund other
than the BIA.
New Tribes Money was very im
portant, but prior to Grand Ronde,
that was not set aside. Specific
monies meant that if a Tribe were
federally recognized, monies that
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Elizabeth Furse
would go to that Tribe would come
out of Tribal monies for all Tribes.
So, in other words, to get a Tribe
newly restored or newly recognized
in the state, it meant that Tribes
in the state were going to take a
financial hit. I do not think people
understand that.
Following Sen. Hatfield's ad
vice, Tribal Council and I went to
the Warm Springs Council and
presented the possibility of a bill.
Warm Springs very graciously and
enthusiastically supported it despite
the fact it would mean a lessening
of their Tribal money. When we
had that support, we went to Sen.
Hatfield with that and he was very
pleased. It made a big difference to
him because he is very close to the
Warm Springs people.
We also received the support of
the other federally recognized Tribe
in Oregon, the Umatilla Tribe. The
Siletz was federally recognized very
shortly before that ... I think it was
in 1977 when Siletz were recognized
and the Menominee were recognized
in 1973.
So, the political climate in Oregon
was quite difficult for the idea that
a Tribe would be newly restored.
There was a huge amount of op
position from hunters and fishers.
There was tremendous opposition
from John Hampton, who owned
Hampton Lumber. He was deeply
opposed to any idea that the Tribe
would receive any kind of federal
lands. ...
I think people have to understand
what the political situation was like
in Oregon and Washington state at
that time. There were effigies hung
of Judge (George) Boldt, who did the
Boldt decision in Washington state.
People's political lives were very
much involved in this tremendous
controversy.
... So, hunting and fishing was
never a part of the idea of what the
Tribe would be restored to and what
the Tribal Council wanted. Tribal
Council wanted services, such as
education, health services, all of
the services that are available to a
federally recognized Tribe. That was
what the Tribe was after, and quite
rightfully so.
As soon as the President signed
the bill . . . that same day federal ser
vices are available for Tribal mem
bers. At the time of Restoration, the
Tribe only owned the cemetery and
a very small shack. We did most of
this work; well Tribal Council met
and worked all the time, no running
water. The
differences
and changes
that have
occurred
because
of federal
would
be hard for
people to un
derstand, too
truly under
stand. Tribal
Council did
the great
bulk of the
work, especially Kathryn Harrison.
She went around the state, particu
larly in that area, doing educational
forums. Kathryn would go to the
most hostile groups and explain
the reasons for this act of Congress,
and receive support. When this bill
was introduced, we had access to
hundreds of letters of support. That
made a huge difference because
the Tribe said that it was an issue
of justice, and, of course, it was. I
think that we should really thank
and congratulate that Council for
sticking with it.
For the people of Grand Ronde
who funded these trips, there was
no money to go back to Washington,
D.C. There was nothing. There was
no funding for those Council mem
bers to have salaries; everything
was done on raised money. We got
a couple of foundation grants that
helped some. By and large that ef
fort was funded by Tribal members.
People would do bake sales, people
would do little get-togethers.
When we finally went to what was
called the Indian Subcommittee
on Indian Affairs, which is now in
the Natural Resources Committee,
when the Tribe testified they testi
fied on the issue of justice. They
testified on the issue that they once
more wanted to join the family of In
dian Nations to work together with
other Indian Nations to support
Tribal programs and Tribal people.
It was a very impressive testimony.
Kathryn; her son; Marvin (Kim
sey); her daughter, Karen, testified
at that hearing. In the Senate, we
were very fortunate because we had
Mark Hatfield as a great advocate.
Mark Hatfield was chairman of
the Senate's Committee of Indian
Affairs. He and Sen. Inouye, the
ranking Democrat on that commit
tee, worked together to get this to
happen.
Q. What is your memory of the
first time you went out to Grand
Ronde and met with Tribal
Council?
A. I had talked to Marvin Kimsey,
who was chairman, and said, "Let
me come out and meet with you."
I went out and there was this tiny
concrete building, and in it were
the Council members. They very
graciously had coffee and cookies.
We met there, a very simple place,
but they were all working together.
We set out a strategy on how to get
this Restoration legislation passed.
It was not an easy thing, and when
I say not an easy thing I do not
mean it was hard for me. I mean it
was a hard piece of legislation. We
think, "Oh, there have been lots of
Restoration bills." ... It took awhile.
We had to introduce it, too, I believe
two different Congresses because it
did not go through the first time.
We went back the second time and
we included in that bill that there
would be an opportunity to come
back in two years, a mandate really
to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to
come back with a reservation plan.
Basically, my job was to be a
cheerleader, to try to sort things
out, to smooth out things as they
happened. They were feeling pretty
remote and isolated at the time.
They had been told they were not an
Indian people, that they were not a
Tribal government. This was a very
discouraging time for them. They
were an amazing people though.
They had grit and persistence.
... Therefore, we set out a strategy
and stuck to it. We were going to get
the support from the community,
and that the Tribe would agree not
to fight. It is absolutely vital that
you have the support of the com
munity. You cannot have people in
the middle saying, "I do not like this"
or "I do not like that" when you are
doing legislation. You cannot pres
ent a controversy to the member
of Congress; they will stand away
from it, and rightly so. Why should
they get in the middle of someone
else's fight?
The Council was excellent at
keeping everybody together. We, of
course, had many public meetings,
explaining to the Tribal members
what was in the bill, what the bill
was going to have. I think everybody
was very apprised of what was in
the bill. They had the opportunity
to have Don Wharton as counsel
because they really could not af
ford counsel at the time. He, as the
director of Legal Service's Native
American Program, provided them
the legal counsel. He is an excellent
lawyer. He has worked nationwide
on many important Tribal issues.
So, they had excellent legal advo
cacy. Q. Don Wharton said that
when you came onboard you
were very good at your people
skills, contacts, helping to put
Tribal members up in Washing
ton, D.C, when they went to tes
tify, your ability to handle the
media by creating slideshows
and things like that.
A. Well, you know I really was
working full time on it. The issue
for the Council was that they had
jobs; they were not being paid to be
council members as they are now.
They had to have other jobs. So,
what I was able to provide them was
sort of full time.
We went and got a grant from
Church Women United to do a little
slideshow on the Oregon Trail of
Tears. Sue Shaffer's daughter pro
See FURSE
continued on page 24