8
S MOKE S IGNALS
JANUARY 1, 2015
Education key to fi rst Tribal attorney
to work in the Legal Department
Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
Holly Partridge, 34, has been
headed for college and law school
for as long as she can remem-
ber.
“I always knew that I
would go to college,” she
says, but after her mar-
riage to Kelsey Partridge
in 1999, “life decided I
would have to put it off for
a while.”
Later in 1999, Kelsey went
from service in the Oregon
Army National Guard to active
duty at Fort Lewis in Tacoma,
Wash. He was transferred to Fort
Bragg in North Carolina where,
trained as a heavy equipment oper-
ator and a paratrooper, he deployed
twice for Afghanistan.
“Kelsey’s deployments were hard
on the whole family,” Holly says.
On his second deployment, “They
told the soldiers that they were
going on such a dangerous mission
that they needed to prepare their
families for the high likelihood that
they would not return.”
Also on the second deployment,
Kelsey had to ship out when their
second child (James, now 10) was
fi ve days old.
Back at Fort Lewis in 2005,
Kelsey deployed for a third time,
this one to Iraq, where he went as
support. He saw action in both his
second and third deployments.
It was also in Tacoma, with the
birth of her third child, Dawson,
now 9, that Holly could no longer
keep her education on the back-
burner.
She began her adventure in
post-secondary academics by call-
ing the Tribal Education Depart-
ment.
“They walked me through the
process of applying,” she says.
Holly enrolled at Tacoma Com-
munity College, where she began
her studies. Kelsey was in Iraq, and
their youngest child, Shane, now
7, was born during this busy time.
Still, Holly graduated in 2009
with an associate degree in Arts
and Science with a Gender and
Ethnic Studies certifi cate.
“This is where my pas-
sion for studying politics
and, in particular, Na-
tive American politics, as
it pertains to sovereignty,
started,” she says.
Meanwhile, their family had
grown to fi ve children – Austin,
now 19, Brandon, 14, James,
10, Dawson, 9, and Shane, 7.
By the time Holly graduated
from Tacoma Community College,
Kelsey had been promoted to drill
sergeant and the family was trans-
ferred to Fort Benning in Georgia.
Holly enrolled at Columbus State
University in Georgia. She grad-
uated magna cum laude in 2011
with a bachelor’s degree, a Political
Science major and a focus on Native
Policy and Sovereignty. During her
senior year, she interned at the
Columbus, Ga., District Attorney’s
Offi ce as a victim/witness advocate.
Later that year, Holly moved to
Oregon and enrolled in Lewis &
Clark Law School. Kelsey started
the medical retirement process,
and he and the boys moved a year
later when his retirement was
fi nalized.
Holly graduated with a law de-
gree at the beginning of 2013 and
passed the Oregon Bar in May.
Along the way, she volunteered
for six years with the Family Readi-
ness Group that supported families
with deployed soldiers.
She also served as a Native
American Law Student Associa-
tion board member, participated in
the NALSA Moot Court, a summer
Indian law program held on the
Flathead Indian Reservation in
Montana, and received a Pro Bono
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Holly Partridge is the Honors Attorney in the Tribe’s Legal Department. She is
the fi rst Tribal member attorney to work for the Tribe.
Honors award for her volunteer
work.
She also interned in Portland at
the National Indian Child Welfare
Association and at a law fi rm spe-
cializing in Indian law.
Kelsey is now himself enrolled in
college at Western Oregon Universi-
ty in Monmouth. The family moved
to Grand Ronde when Holly began
working at the Tribe in the Land
and Culture Department in April.
Since her days at Tacoma Com-
munity College, she has been fi red
up about Indian affairs, and since
those days she has been inexorably
headed to work at the Tribe.
In her first position, as a Ced-
ed Lands specialist, beginning
in April, she learned from Ceded
Lands Manager Michael Karnosh.
She served as Tribal representative
for the cleanup of the Portland
Harbor Superfund site. The Tribe
has long had an environmental
interest in making sure the harbor,
located in the Tribe’s ceded lands,
is cleaned up properly.
It was not even two weeks after
starting in Ceded Lands that she
passed the Oregon Bar, and with
that credential in hand it was only a
few more months before she became
the first Tribal member hired to
work in the Tribe’s Legal Depart-
ment. She was hired as an Honors
Attorney, a position designed for
Tribal lawyers without the requi-
site two years of legal experience.
The two-year program enables
Holly to work with staff attorneys
throughout the offi ce to gain the
legal experience required.
Today, she is again working on
the Portland Harbor cleanup, but
this time from a legal perspective.
From her earliest days, her fam-
ily, from Astoria, had only had a
cursory connection with the Tribe.
They had attended powwows and
other Tribal events when Holly
was growing up, she says, but not
much more.
Today, she says, she is getting
acquainted with her Tribal family.
Among them are cousins Marline
Groshong, who is chair of the Cere-
monial Hunting Board, and Sharon
Wattier, who works at the Tribal
Health Clinic.
Holly’s paternal grandmother,
who has walked on, was Genevieve
Ray (Lafferty).
Her parents are Tribal member
Wesley Shaw and his wife, Ronda,
who is a member of the Crow Creek
Sioux Tribe. The Shaws have fol-
lowed Holly and now live in Grand
Ronde.
Holly says she is passionate
about Tribal members receiving an
education.
“I would like to see all Tribal
members graduate from high school
and pursue some type of post high
school education,” she says. “Tribal
members should know that there
are other resources out there for
those that feel like there are too
many obstacles in the way, includ-
ing scholarships and programs
designed to help Native students
transition to college life.
“I would love to mentor other
Tribal members in their educa-
tional journeys. I want to be able
to show them that if I can make
it through college and law school
with all the hurdles I faced, then
anyone can.” n
Online degree programs
Turn your college credits or associate degree into a more
powerful four-year degree from Portland State University.
Undergraduate degrees offered: BA/BS in Social Science,
BA/BS in Arts & Letters and BA/BS in Liberal Studies.
For more information about online degree programs,
contact the PSU Salem Center at 503-315-4281 or e-mail
psusalem@pdx.edu. n
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