S moke S ignals
april 1, 2014
5
Tribe joins in the protection, restoration of Forest Corridor
By Ron Karen
Smoke Signals staff writer
The Grand Ronde Tribe has
joined a wide-ranging group of
Tribal, public and private interests
in a plan to protect, restore and
enhance the South Santiam Com-
munity Forest Corridor.
On March 10, the Tribe joined
other stakeholders in signing a
Declaration of Cooperation for the
project. David Harrelson, interim
Cultural Protection manager, is the
Grand Ronde Tribal lead on the proj-
ect. At the signing, Harrelson was
represented by Michael Karnosh,
the Tribe’s Ceded Lands manager,
because he had bronchitis. The
Tribe’s Public Affairs Department
also funded a reception for signers.
The Willamette National Forest
has been seeking federal protection
for this South Santiam corridor for
about 15 years, said Karnosh. The
culturally significant area is 12
miles long and covers more than
2,500 acres in Linn County in the
foothills of the west Cascades.
The effort takes an “All Lands
Approach,” an initiative of the U.S.
Forest Service. It was defined in the
2008 federal Farm Bill as recogniz-
ing that “public benefits as well
as forest threats cross boundaries
and are best addressed through
integrated partnerships.”
As a result, stakeholders include
the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde, Siletz and Warm Springs,
Linn County, the city of Sweet
Home, the Sweet Home Economic
Development Group, the South
Santiam Watershed Council, the
Army Corps of Engineers, Oregon
State Parks, Willamette National
Forest and Cascadia Timber Con-
sultants, which represents the
private timber company owning
important parts of the area.
The project is backed by all the
stakeholders as well as the state of
Oregon and stake-holding federal
agencies.
There are shared interests among
Harrison to receive honorary degree
from Willamette University in May
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Former Tribal Chairwoman Kath-
ryn Harrison will receive an honor-
ary doctorate during the Sunday,
May 11, commencement ceremony
at Willamette University in Salem,
said the university’s Director of
Special Projects and Events Colleen
Kawahara.
Harrison will be honored for her
outstanding accomplishments, par-
ticularly her leadership in achieving
federal recognition for the Grand
Ronde Tribe and her continuing dedi-
cation to serving the community.
“One of the members of our selec-
tion committee called her ‘an Or-
egon treasure,’ ” Kawahara said.
Harrison was born March 28,
1924, the descendant of an Alaskan
Native (Eyak) mother, Ella, and
Henry William Jones (Molalla), in
Corvallis. She was named Kathryn
May Jones in honor of her great-
great-aunt Molalla Kate.
She graduated from Chemawa
Indian School in 1942 and subse-
quently married Frank Harrison,
with whom she had 10 children.
In 1972, she became the first Na-
tive American graduate of the nurs-
ing program at Lane Community
College and worked at Sacred Heart
Hospital in Eugene. Eventually,
she became an alcohol rehabilita-
tion counselor for the Confederated
Tribes of Siletz, where she became
instrumental in helping the Tribe
regain federal recognition in 1977.
In the early 1980s, Harrison re-
turned to the Tribe of her father
– the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde – and became involved in her
second Restoration effort, helping
Grand Ronde
regain feder-
al recognition
in November
1983.
Kathryn,
her son,
Frank, and
her daugh-
ter, Karen,
testified be-
Kathryn Harrison
fore Con-
gress about
restoring the Grand Ronde Tribe,
which was terminated in 1954.
Following Restoration, Harrison
served on the Grand Ronde Tribal
Council from April 1984 through
September 2001, never losing an
election. She served as chair of the
Tribal Council for six years and was
vice chair for nine years. She over-
saw the Tribe’s resurrection from
Termination and guided the de-
velopment of gaming as a revenue
source to fund Tribal educational,
health and cultural efforts.
Harrison, 90, continues to be an
occasional spokeswoman for the
Grand Ronde Tribe. Her life was
detailed in a book, “Standing Tall:
The Lifeway of Kathryn Jones Har-
rison.”
In September 2012, she was
named a History Maker by the
Oregon Historical Society and re-
ceived the Betty Roberts Woman
in Leadership Award from Emerge
Oregon, a Portland-based training
program for Democratic women.
In May 2013, she received an hon-
orary degree from the University
of Portland. She also received an
honorary doctorate from Portland
State University in 2003. n
Important notice to full-time students
All full-time students must submit verification that they have applied to a
scholarship outside the Tribe before funding will be released for the term/se-
mester. Verification can include a scholarship award or denial letter, e-mail
verification that an application was submitted, a copy of the application or
the financial aid award letter that lists an outside scholarship. Please contact
Education at 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2275, if you have any questions. n
participants and individual inter-
ests.
For Willamette National For-
est, this development will be the
fulfillment of a 15-year effort to
bring this special area, virtually
inaccessible, minimally protected
and privately held back into the
hands of the public to be protected
and to provide many public uses not
now available. Virtually all of the
stakeholders, including the private
owner, are fully behind the effort.
For Linn County and the city of
Sweet Home, a community with 22
percent unemployment where 67
percent of students receive free or
reduced cost lunches, the benefits
are economic first, but also include
the chance for the city to be re-
branded as a hub of recreational op-
portunities and cultural tourism.
This timber town that has fallen
on hard times has been losing its
connection with the forest for years.
The protection, restoration and
development of the many valuable
public uses of this forest corridor
will provide jobs in educational and
recreational tourism, and steward-
ship for the people of Sweet Home
and Linn County.
The interest of the Grand Ronde
Tribe is for greater protection of
this culturally significant and his-
torically relevant area.
The project will reconnect the
Foster Reservoir in Sweet Home
to the upland national forest in the
South Santiam River corridor. The
community forest will create public
access along the picturesque clear,
opal-colored South Santiam River
as well as upland forests through
the acquisition of private, indus-
trial timberlands.
The acquisitions will reconnect
the community of Sweet Home to
historic Fish Lake Stagecoach and
Remount station and Clear Lake
resort, according to a project white
paper. Plans will position the his-
toric Santiam Wagon Trail to the
top of the pass as backbone of the
reconnections.
The Tribe’s Land and Culture De-
partment is working with the group
toward “gaining federal ownership
of key parcels of land that hold sig-
nificant cultural resources and are
in need of greater protection in the
project area,” said Harrelson.
The Tribal involvement in the proj-
ect coincides with the Tribe’s ongoing
strong relationship with Willamette
National Forest, which was rein-
forced in February with the signing
of a memorandum of understanding
between the Grand Ronde Tribe and
Willamette National Forest.
As a result of that MOU, said
Karnosh, “The Tribe has a seat at
the table, plus a really, special direct
line with the national forest.” n
Ceremonial Hunting update
First off, I would like to congratulate our four hunters who have
harvested deer this year. They are Tracy Howerton, Kevin Ruggles,
Andrew Freeman and especially Brennon Bobb for his first deer ever.
We are off to a great start and feel our hunters are putting a lot of
effort into providing meat for the Tribe.
We will be hunting elk starting April 1 and I look forward to a good
harvest of them this year. We have more than 100 pounds of venison
available for request for cultural activities. Forms are available at
Natural Resources.
To those hunters who don’t know, there are maps of our hunting
areas available through the GIS Department that you can pull up on
your computer or phone.
Anyone with questions, please feel free to call Marline Groshong at
503-474-7000. Thank you. n
Help wanted
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde’s 477 Employment
and Training Program and Land and Culture Department have
resources that can be utilized along with community members
who have a passion for gardening or want to learn the art of ag-
riculture. If you are a Grand Ronde Tribal or community member
and want to be a part of the planning, preparation and cultivation
of the Tribal garden and orchard site for this year’s planting sea-
son, contact Barbara Gibbons at 800-242-8196, ext. 2135, or e-mail
barbara.gibbons@grandronde.org. n
Emergency Management
meet and greet slated
New Tribal Emergency Operations Coordinator Jamie Baxter will
hold an Emergency Management meet and greet from 9 to 10:30 a.m.
Monday, April 7, in the Community Center.
For more information, contact Baxter at 503-879-1827 or by e-mail
at Jamie.baxter@grandronde.org. n