S moke S ignals
july 15, 2014
Summit promotes benefits
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
In the wake of the national con-
troversy regarding exceedingly long
waits for veterans to receive health
care nationwide at Veterans Affairs
hospitals, the second annual Na-
tive Wellness Institute’s “Veterans
Summit: Gathering of Warriors”
concentrated on helping veterans
– Native and otherwise – access
benefits they deserve for service to
their country.
Hosted by the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde at Uyxat
Powwow Grounds on Thursday
and Friday, July 10-11, the summit
brought representatives from the
Portland Veterans Affairs Medical
Center out to Grand Ronde to talk
about how veterans can navigate
the federal agency, which has a
reputation for its bureaucracy.
Even Joanne Krumberger, the
new director of the Portland facil-
ity, traveled to Grand Ronde on Fri-
day to participate in an afternoon
listening session.
A similar Thursday informational
panel featured five staff members
from the Portland Veterans Affairs
Medical Center to talk about the
MyHealtheVet program (www.
myhealth.va.gov), programs specifi-
cally for veterans of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, suicide preven-
tion, the women’s veterans program
and minority veterans. The Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs mobile
Vet Center also was parked on the
powwow grounds.
The Veterans Affairs represen-
tatives were not immune to the
frustration that veterans across
the country feel about their post-
service care, or lack thereof, from
the federal government.
About 20 veterans and fam-
ily members during the Thursday
afternoon informational panel
chastised Veterans Affairs repre-
sentatives for everything from dif-
ficulties in obtaining a needed
walker, a long delay in obtaining
an identification card and speaking
a bureaucratic language that most
Native Americans, and Americans
for that matter, do not compre-
hend.
One of the primary organizers
of the Veterans Summit, Charles
Tailfeathers (Cree/Blackfeet), com-
mented on the issue during his
opening speech on Thursday.
“It has been 43 years since I’ve
been out of Vietnam,” he said.
“Three weeks after I left, I applied
for services. I haven’t heard from
them since.”
Tailfeathers said the major im-
petus of the Veterans Summit is to
help veterans obtain benefits they
deserve. “We can do more for our
soldiers … our children.”
In addition to Veterans Affairs
representatives, this year’s Veter-
ans Summit featured tables from
the Yamhill County Veterans Ser-
vices Office, WorkSource Oregon
and the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Tribal Health and Wellness Depart-
ment staff members were on hand
once again to provide blood pres-
sure checks and dental exams.
“I served in Vietnam,” said Tribal
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Navajo code talker Peter MacDonald Sr., right, speaks after he was presented a donation of $5,000 from the
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde to help build a Navajo Code Talker Museum. The check was presented
during a dinner in his honor by the West Valley Veterans Memorial on Thursday, July 10. The check was
presented by Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno, second from right, and Tribal Council members June Sherer,
next to Leno, and Jon A. George, behind Sherer, and Tribal Council Secretary Jack Giffen Jr., left. MacDonald
spoke earlier in the day at the second annual “Veterans Summit: Gathering of Warriors” that was held at Uyxat
Powwow Grounds.
Tribe awards $5,000 to code
talker museum effort
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde donated
$5,000 to help build a Navajo Code Talker Museum
on Thursday, July 10.
During a dinner in honor of Navajo code talker
Peter MacDonald Sr. held under a tent near the West
Valley Veterans Memorial, Tribal Council Chairman
Reyn Leno presented the check.
“You have done our Native people proud,” Leno
said.
“This is a really great honor given to the Navajo
Code Talker Association,” MacDonald said. “This is
the first donation received from another Tribal unit.
I hope others will follow you.”
MacDonald said the proposed museum will pre-
serve the legacy of the code talkers, who used their
language to speak a code during World War II that
was never broken by the Japanese. He said the
name of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
will be in a place of honor in the museum once it
is built.
MacDonald, 86, said he is the youngest of the
30 surviving code talkers because he was only 15
when he enlisted in 1944.
The dinner, prepared by Spirit Mountain Casino
Executive Chef Richard Burr and coordinated by
the Tribal Public Affairs Director Siobhan Taylor
Council Chairman and Marine
Corps veteran Reyn Leno during
his opening remarks. “It was al-
ways about taking care of the guy in
front of you and the guy behind you
… the guy out in the foxhole in the
dark. I see this Veterans Summit as
an extension of veterans trying to
take care of other veterans.”
The Veterans Summit opened
Thursday morning with a bless-
ing given by Tribal Elder and
longtime Tribal Council member
Kathryn Harrison. The colors were
brought in by an honor guard that
included Tribal Veterans Special
Event Board members Wayne
Chulik, Steve Bobb Sr. and Ray-
mond Petite. Other Honor Guard
members included Tribal member
Brenda Tuomi, Veterans Royalty
Queen Savannah Ingram and Ma-
and Administrative Assistant Chelsea Clark, included
entrees of chicken, salmon and prime rib.
Tribal Council members June Sherer, Jack Giffen
Jr., Leno and Jon A. George attended. George gave
the invocation.
Marine Corps veteran and Veterans Special Event
Board Chairman Steve Bobb Sr. provided the invoca-
tion and introduced board members in attendance
– Wink Soderberg, Wayne Chulik, Raymond Petite
and Annette Ingram.
The dinner opened with cultural drumming and sing-
ing performed by Jan Looking Wolf Reibach, Mike
Karnosh, George, Kathy Cole, Travis Stewart and
Veterans Royalty Queen Savannah Ingram and Junior
Veterans Queen Amelia Mooney.
Leno said the Grand Ronde Tribe will place Mac-
Donald’s name on the West Valley Veterans Memo-
rial, which is usually reserved for veterans who live in
Grand Ronde, Willamina and Sheridan.
MacDonald then presented Leno with a necklace
that had been blessed by the Navajo in appreciation
for the Grand Ronde Tribe’s hospitality and generous
donation.
“This is the nicest reservation I have ever visited,” he
said, praising the leadership of the Tribe as evidenced
in the development of the Tribal campus. n
rine Corps veteran Percy “Gunny”
Brandon.
Land and Culture Manager Jan
Looking Wolf Reibach, an award-
winning Native flutist, performed
taps to open the ceremony.
In addition to Leno, Tribal Coun-
cil members Toby McClary, Ed
Pearsall, Jack Giffen Jr., June
Sherer and Jon A. George attended
all or part of the summit.
Navajo code talker Peter Mac-
Donald Sr., 86, returned to the
Veterans Summit for the second
consecutive year to recount how
members of his Tribe were recruit-
ed by the U.S. military to speak
Navajo code to secure American
communications during World War
II from Japanese code breakers.
The code was never broken.
“When our way of life is threat-
ened, we all come together to de-
fend this great country of ours,”
MacDonald said about his service
in the Marine Corps. He is one of
30 surviving code talkers.
MacDonald was greeted by a song
from the Tribe’s Chinuk Wawa Im-
mersion preschool children.
Other dignitaries who attended
this year’s Veterans Summit in-
cluded Oregon Department of
Veterans Affairs Director Cameron
Smith, a Marine Corps veteran, and
Terry Bentley (Karuk), the Veter-
ans Affairs Department’s Tribal
Government Relations specialist
for the western region.
“I want to thank our hosts,” Smith
said. “This is a powerful statement
See SUMMIT
continued on page 5