14
S moke S ignals
august 15, 2014
‘There is a lot of need for education’
GOVERNOR continued
from front page
attend the Sept. 13 opening gala
for the Chachalu Museum and
Cultural Center.
Kitzhaber was then presented a
packet that included Tribal history
and an outline of Tribal concerns to
be discussed.
Leno touched on two Tribal edu-
cational efforts – its Tribal history
curriculum for fourth-graders that
was taught as a pilot project last
school year in the Willamina School
District and the Spirit Mountain
Community Fund-funded Chalk-
board Project analysis of how Na-
tive students are performing in
Oregon’s public schools.
Leno said the Tribally created
curriculum taught to fourth-grad-
ers is an effort to “teach our chil-
dren who they are and being proud
of who they are so that they will
want to stay in school.”
“There is a lot of need for educa-
tion, and more needs for our Tribal
kids,” Leno said, adding that the
challenge is to keep Native children
in school so that they can eventu-
ally take advantage of significant
Tribal assistance available for post-
secondary education.
The Chalkboard Project findings,
which discovered a high absentee-
ism rate among Native students, in-
dicated a great need among Tribal
students attending predominantly
rural Oregon public schools.
Kitzhaber said the upcoming
state budget includes another full-
time employee in the state Depart-
ment of Education to help Indian
Education Specialist April Camp-
bell, who is a Grand Ronde Tribal
member and former head of the
Tribe’s Education Department.
He also said he supports efforts to
help Oregon’s Tribal governments
combat Native student absentee-
ism and disseminate Tribal cur-
riculums to a larger audience.
Leno said the Grand Ronde Tribe
is moving beyond its cooperative
agreements with Willamina and
talking with educational represen-
tatives from Lebanon, Banks and
Tillamook about using the Tribal
history curriculum.
“We want to teach teachers about
us, and not just us, but about all of
the Tribes in Oregon,” Leno said.
George said that he wanted to
make sure that Kitzhaber under-
stands that the Grand Ronde Tribe
is not trying to disseminate its
specific curriculum statewide, but
that it wants to encourage through
Community Fund grants that the
eight other federally recognized
Tribes in Oregon create their own
curriculums that could be used in
nearby school districts.
George also wanted to know how
the state can hold parents account-
able regarding chronic student
absenteeism.
Kitzhaber said the state Depart-
ment of Education only starts track-
ing absenteeism in the sixth or
seventh grades, which can be a prob-
lem since the educationally harmful
habit starts much earlier. “This is a
family issue,” he said, adding that
he favors beefing up state invest-
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
From left, Tribal Council members Denise Harvey and Kathleen Tom, Tribal Council Vice Chair Jack Giffen Jr., Tribal
Council member Jon A. George, Gov. John Kitzhaber, Tribal Council Secretary Toby McClary, Tribal Council Chair Reyn
Leno, and Tribal Council members Ed Pearsall and Cheryle A. Kennedy gathered for a group picture in the Governance
Center Atrium after their meeting on Monday, Aug. 4.
ment in early childhood education
to save money in the future.
Regarding public safety concerns,
Leno briefed Kitzhaber on the Tribe’s
substantial investment in building the
fire station on Grand Ronde Road and
paying salaries of West Valley Fire
District employees who are stationed
there. In addition, Leno detailed the
creation and staffing of the Grand
Ronde Police Department, which is
now responsible for public safety in
much of Grand Ronde, including non-
Tribal areas, since the cash-strapped
Polk County Sheriff’s Office ended
its public safety agreement with the
Tribe beginning July 1.
“We put a huge amount of money
into this situation. Of course, we be-
lieve it to be part of our sovereignty
to have our Tribal Court and our
police,” Leno said. “We’re proud of
the fact that we have a police de-
partment, but we cover everybody,
and we get no help. We’re funding
all of this. … This is a burden on
us. Whatever dollar we take away
to protect the whole community is
a dollar we’re taking away from our
membership.”
“We’re in this megabucks,” Tribal
Council member Cheryle A. Kennedy
added, “but it is important to us.”
Kitzhaber said the state is looking
to increase funding for the Oregon
State Police, in part to help the
economically distressed counties
in southwestern Oregon that have
seen their public safety budgets
slashed substantially because of
reduced timber revenues. He said
he supports developing a partner-
ship where the state, counties and
Tribes can develop cooperative
agreements on public safety.
“The old system is not working
very well,” Kitzhaber said. “At the
end of the day, we’re having a real
problem with service delivery.”
Kitzhaber added that pooling re-
sources probably will be necessary
because “no magic pot of money
will suddenly appear. We have to
do a better job of leveraging the
resources that we have.”
Leno then switched to the Red
Hills controversy in which the
Warm Springs Tribe is attempting
to purchase land near Lafayette
in Yamhill County – smack dab in
the middle of Grand Ronde’s ceded
lands – as part of the Bonneville
Power Administration’s Willamette
Wildlife Mitigation Program and
with the cooperation of the Oregon
Department of Fish & Wildlife.
“They can buy 200 or so acres, but
that doesn’t mean that they buy
the history and the culture of it,”
Leno said about the Warm Springs
effort. “They could dig up artifacts;
they could dig up human remains.
They’re Grand Ronde, not Warm
Springs. They’re our people.”
Leno said the Grand Ronde Tribe
also is concerned the Warm Springs
Tribe will attempt to assert treaty
rights, which could lead to putting
land into trust and then possibly
building a new casino.
“We are extremely distressed,”
Kennedy said. “This is a violation of
the Willamette Valley Treaty. For
BPA and ODFW to put the treaty
aside and put another Tribe in the
middle of our treaty lands … that
is unacceptable.”
Tribal Attorney Rob Greene said
that the Tribe had heard that
Kitzhaber’s office was endorsing
the purchase and pushing the BPA
process forward without resolving
Grand Ronde’s concerns about en-
croachment.
Kitzhaber said he was not con-
sulted on the issue and will look
into it. “I don’t know where the
pressure is coming from, but I will
find out,” he said.
With time running out, Leno
quickly touched on two other issues
– the Tribe’s desire to see all veter-
ans at the Tribal Health & Wellness
Center and Grand Ronde’s contin-
ued support of Kitzhaber’s gaming
policy of one casino per Tribe on
reservation land.
Kitzhaber briefly talked about his
campaign against Republican Den-
nis Richardson for a fourth term.
He said he knows that the Koch
brothers will be spending money
in Oregon to support Republican
candidates and they will almost
certainly target the Cover Oregon
website troubles.
However, Kitzhaber said, he and
Richardson have different views on
how they envision Oregon and that
he hopes the Grand Ronde Tribe
will support him again.
To close out the meeting, Tribal
Council members congratulated Kit-
zhaber on that day’s announcement
that he and his longtime partner
Cylvia Hayes had become engaged.
“It is an honor to have you at our
table,” Leno said as the meeting
concluded.
Other Tribal Council members
who attended were Kathleen Tom,
Denise Harvey, Toby McClary, Jack
Giffen Jr. and Ed Pearsall.
Tribal staff who attended included
lobbyist Justin Martin, Acting Gen-
eral Manager Chris Leno, Police
Chief Al LaChance, Public Affairs
Director Siobhan Taylor, Education
Department Manager Eirik Thors-
gard and Tribal Council Executive
Coordinator Stacia Martin.