S moke S ignals
october 1, 2014
‘Fire in the Valley’ dinner has Tribal flavor
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
OREGON CITY — Willamette
Partnership’s “Fire in the Valley”
dinner held Thursday, Sept. 25, at
the Museum of the Oregon Terri-
tory was steeped in Grand Ronde
seasoning.
Held on the museum’s third floor,
the more than 100 attendees looked
down on Tumwater Falls, where
Grand Ronde ancestors lived in
a village for tens of thousands of
years along the Willamette River
and caught abundant salmon and
lamprey. Today, Grand Ronde
claims the area as part of its ceded
lands through the 1855 Willamette
Valley Treaty and continues its tra-
ditions by harvesting lamprey and
salmon from the site annually.
The menu featured the tradition-
al foods of salmon, venison, huck-
leberries and, in a light-hearted
touch, mini ELTs – smoked lam-
prey sandwiches on fry bread.
And, of course, there was the
modern infusion of the Grand
Ronde Tribe, which included open-
ing prayers and songs from the
Tribal Canoe Family, as well as an
opening speech from Tribal Council
member Jon A. George.
Willamette Partnership Exec-
utive Director Bobby Cochran
thanked the Grand Ronde Tribe for
its participation in the partnership,
which started in October 2004.
“In 2014, we’ve done really cool
things,” Cochran said. “This year,
we want to achieve environmental
goals that we’ve been working on.”
The dinner celebrated some of
the partnership’s accomplishments.
Among them, according to a pre-
dinner slide show, is restoring four
miles of stream along the Rogue
River across five separate projects
to reduce water temperature. The
area near Medford also is within
the Tribe’s ceded lands.
In addition, 140 acres of prairie
in Thurston County, Wash., in
the Puget Sound area, are in the
process of being acquired for envi-
ronmental conservation.
And five Willamette Valley vine-
yards have signed up for the part-
nership’s Salmon Safe program,
which aims to prevent agricultural
runoff into Oregon streams and riv-
ers that could adversely affect fish.
Even the name of the dinner
– “Fire in the Valley” – harkened
back to Native practices in being
good stewards of the environment
in the Willamette Valley. The
dinner’s name was suggested by
Tribal cultural consultant Greg
Archuleta.
George said during his opening
remarks that it was an honor to
stand in the Tribe’s ancestral home-
lands and “hear our
drums over the falls
again.”
George thanked
Willamette Part-
nership for working
with the Tribe.
“We want to say
thank you for the
partnerships that
we have, especially
in Clackamas Coun-
ty. The (Willamette)
Partnership lets you know that this
is what we (Tribal ancestors) did,”
George said. “It is important to take
care of the land. It’s also nice that
people don’t think that everywhere
we go we want to put in a casino.”
Land and Culture employee Bob-
by Mercier, who led the Canoe
Family in two songs, discussed how
Clackamas Chief Wachino used to
ATTENTION TRIBAL MEMBERS
WITH CONTRACT HEALTH SERVICES
As most of you are aware, Contract Health Services (CHS) is feder-
ally funded program and a payor of last resort. With all of the health
care changes recently, we would like to take a minute to remind you
that ANY alternate resource you have needs to be utilized correctly.
That means in order for CHS to cover a “patient responsibility,” you
must use providers who are in network with whatever health care
coverage you have primary, including the Tribal Health Assistance
Program: Skookum.
If you choose not to use providers that are in-network or receive
services that are not covered, you will be responsible for any patient
balance. Services include: Medical, Dental and Behavioral Health.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, but in order
to keep serving our Tribal community, we must exhaust all other
resources available to our membership.
CHS also wants to remind you that there are some services that
are not covered by CHS, but are covered by Skookum.
If you choose to receive these services, you will be responsible
for paying the co-payments. They are as follows: Chiropractic care,
Naturopathic care, Massage, Acupuncture, as well as outpatient
drug and alcohol treatment.
This does not mean that you cannot use those services; it simply
means that CHS will not be responsible for any patient balances.
You can still keep those appointments; you just need to pay
whatever your co-pay is. We understand that this can all be a little
confusing, so please feel free to give us a call if you have ANY ques-
tions and we’ll be happy to help.
Tauni McCammon, 503-879-1406
Erica Mercier, 503-879-2080
Melody Baker, 503-879-2011
Tresa (Teri) Mercier, 503-879-2008
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Above, Tribal Council member Jon A. George
says thank you after receiving a drawing of
a heron from the Willamette Partnership
during the “Fire in the Valley” dinner at the
Museum of the Oregon Territory in Oregon
City on Thursday, Sept. 25. At left, Tribal
Services Representative Lisa Archuleta,
waits for Ruben Samoilich, right, to add
vegetables to a venison dish so she can top
it with a camas bulb during the Willamette
Partnership’s “Fire in the Valley” dinner
at the Museum of the Oregon Territory in
Oregon City on Thursday, Sept. 25. Her
brother, Greg Archuleta, gathered the
camas. In the background is Janel Bennett,
the wife of Matt Bennett, who was chef for
the dinner. Samoilich is a cook at Bennett’s
Albany restaurant, Sybaris.
control the falls below.
“This was a wealthy place,”
Mercier said. “Other Tribes
used to come here to take
salmon from the falls, and
they brought their wares to
trade.”
Willamette Partnership
Board Chairman John Miller
thanked the Tribe and other part-
ners for their contributions over the
last decade.
“There are some real innovators
in this group,” Miller said. “People
came to the table with a lot, but
they went away with more than
they came with.”
Matt Bennett, who owns Sybaris
restaurant in Albany, continued
his five-year association with the
Grand Ronde Tribe by serving
traditional foods of the first Orego-
nians in modern cuisine.
Attendees were served smoked
salmon head chowder, 36-hour
venison shoulder with wild herbs
and huckleberry s’mores. The
venison dish included camas picked
by Archuleta and cooked for the
required week.
“If you eat it (camas) before it is
fully cooked, like Lewis and Clark
did, then you can get really not
happy,” Bennett said.
Bennett told an amusing sto-
ry about how he learned to cook
camas from Tribal member Eirik
Thorsgard. About five years ago,
he said, he asked about camas and
Thorsgard told him the traditional
method for cooking the root veg-
etable is five days underground like
you would a pig.
Then Thorsgard told Bennett he
was going to have camas for dinner
that night. “You really cook it un-
derground like that?” Bennett said
he asked Thorsgard, who replied,
“No, we use crock pots.”
Grand Ronde Tribal members
and staff who attended included
Tribal Attorney Rob Greene, Tribal
Historian David Lewis, Land &
Culture Department Ceded Lands
Specialist Holly Partridge and Trib-
al Elder Dolores Parmenter. Public
Affairs Director Siobhan Taylor
and Administrative Assistant Chel-
sea Clark were instrumental in
organizing the dinner. Clark and
Portland office Tribal Services Rep-
resentative Lisa Archuleta helped
serve the meal.
The event wrapped up with
George being presented a drawing
of a heron created by seventh-grader
Jada Fouch. The drawing appeared
in Willamette Partnership’s annual
“Honoring Our Rivers” anthology,
which received 900 writing and art
entries from students in 30 Oregon
counties in 2014.
The dinner was sponsored by the
Port of Portland, Wildwood Ma-
honia, Northwest Natural, Clean
Water Services, the city of Port-
land, Perkins Coie law firm, The
Freshwater Trust, McDonald Ja-
cobs accounting firm, Tonkon Torp
law firm, Bethel Heights vineyard,
Mahonia vineyard, Maysara, King
Estate and Oregon State Univer-
sity College of Forestry.
“I want to give a big thank you to
the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde,” Cochran said. “Our part-
nership and friendship gets stron-
ger every year.” n