S moke S ignals
FEBRUARY 15, 2015
Royalty seeking past members
for Chachalu display
Previous Grand Ronde Royalty queens and princesses are being sought
as the current Royalty Court is trying to compile a picture and biogra-
phy collection of current and past Royalty for the Chachalu Museum &
Cultural Center.
“It would be great to have any past pictures and dates that you were
on Royalty Court, as well as a short bio of who you are,” said Royalty
Coordinator Jackie Manyhides.
Please contact Manyhides at 406-450-2917 or through e-mail at jack-
iemanyhides@gmail.com. Letters can be sent to P.O. Box 419, Grand
Ronde, OR, 97347. n
St. Michael’s offers weekly brunch
St. Michael’s Catholic Church offers an open house brunch every Sunday
following Mass. The brunch is free to the community.
Brunch begins at about 11:30 a.m. following the 10:30 a.m. Mass. Mass
attendance is not required for brunch attendance. For more information,
contact Janelle Justen at 503-550-0923. n
Elders’ phone numbers wanted
The Tribal Elders Committee is compiling a volunteer phone list
of Elders. If you would like to submit your phone number and ad-
dress to be available to other Elders, send it to elders.committee@
grandronde.org or leave a message at 503-879-2231. n
9
Tribal Legislative
Day set for Feb. 19
Tribal leaders from throughout Oregon will have a chance to interact
with state legislators on Thursday, Feb. 19, during Tribal Governments
Legislative Day at the State Capitol’s Galleria in Salem.
Sponsored by the Legislative Commission on Indian Services and the
nine federally recognized Tribes in Oregon, the day will provide a time for
state legislators and government employees to visit and chat with Tribal
representatives, who will staff information and visiting tables. The event
is titled “Oregon Is Indian Country: Say Hello to Your Neighbors.”
Light refreshments will be served and the Grand Ronde Tribe is helping
to sponsor breakfast. Fry bread will be provided by the Native American
Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest at noon.
The more public 40th anniversary celebration of the Legislative Com-
mission on Indian Services is set for Thursday, May 14.
Tribal Council member Cheryle A. Kennedy is the Tribe’s longtime
representative on the commission. n
Health coverage sign-ups continuing
Native American and Alaska Natives can enroll year-round in
Medicaid and the Oregon Health Plan, as well as for private health
insurance coverage. For more information, contact Certified Appli-
cation Assisters Loretta Meneley at 503-879-1359, Sydney Clark at
503-879-2197 or call 800-775-0095 for an appointment to apply for
or discuss health insurance coverage. n
Tribe to create plant materials program
PLANTS continued
from front page
Applied Ecology. She was joined
by Ecological Education Director
Stacy Moore to lead a Native Plant
Propagation Workshop, an educa-
tion about how to plant and harvest
trees, shrubs and seeds native to
the Willamette Valley.
The workshop was held Thursday,
Jan. 29, outside in a chilly, sunny
area behind Chachalu Museum and
Cultural Center. Funding for this
and other projects comes from the
Oregon Watershed Enhancement
Board. The grant incorporates
traditional ecological knowledge
into restoration sites: one at the
Tribe, another at Champoeg State
Park and a third at Herbert Farm
in Corvallis.
“We are looking at introducing
traditionally cultural significant
plant species into these restoration
efforts,” said Moore. “As part of
this, Grand Ronde Elders have
come out to Champoeg and Herbert
Farm where they spoke about cul-
turally significant plants and those
they would like to see planted at
these sites.”
The institute also is collaborating
with the Tribe to create a Tribal
plants materials program.
Those attending this workshop
– Tribal and community members,
and employees of the Natural
Resources and Land and Culture
departments – used the hands-on
session to build on the Tribe’s early
successes.
First contact between the in-
stitute and the Tribe occurred in
2008 when the cooperative effort
prepared almost two acres behind
the Tribal Housing Authority office
for what became the Tyee Nature
Preserve. Clearing the land of un-
wanted species, the partners’ work
has blossomed into a field where 40
native wildflower and grass species
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Elder Terri Wood plants sea blush seeds while using seed propagation
to produce new plants during the Native Plant Propagation Workshop held at
Chachalu Tribal Museum and Cultural Center on Thursday, Jan. 29.
now grow. Once abundant in the
area, many of these plants have
been sparse for a century or more.
Among plants making a comeback
in the preserve today are tradition-
al camas roots and the threatened
Nelson’s checkermallow.
The Tribe’s work has focused on
“propagating and spreading the pop-
ulations of camas and other plants
crucial to our identity,” said Jordan
Mercier, Cultural Protection coordi-
nator, acting with the institute in a
technical advisory capacity.
Creating access to native plants
and increasing their availability is
a barrier at the moment, he said.
In that effort, the Tribe is in con-
tact with federal agencies to give
better plant access to members of
the Tribe.
At the same time, said Bobby
Mercier, Cultural Outreach special-
ist, “We’re finding thick patches of
native plants to gather from, and
we’re working to improve them.”
The population and diversity of
native plants “will never be like it
was before,” Jordan said, “but we
can do what we can.”
Moore and Guenther shared the
science of restoring native plants
and habitat, but the Tribe, Moore
said, shares the “cultural aspect.”
Institute staff brought many
native trees and shrubs for the
workshop. Those attending plant-
ed some in flower pots during the
workshop and took the rest home.
Tamping down the soil mix
around a start, Cultural Education
Specialist Brian Krehbiel wanted
to know if his plant needed more
water.
This was the kind of hands-on
work the institute fosters. When
not in Grand Ronde, the institute
brings workshops like these to two
state prisons and more than 40
schools in Oregon.
Dormant branches of Indian plum
(one of the first to bloom in spring),
dogwood (distinctive red stems that
stand out in winter), salmonberry,
twinberry (the flower is a source
of nectar for hummingbirds and
butterflies), snowberry, Douglas
spirea, mock orange (long-lasting,
citrus-fragrant, white blooms), Pa-
cific ninebark (believed to have nine
layers of shreddy bark on the stem)
and oceanspray were available.
Three different starts (lupine,
checkermallow and sea blush) and
packets of six different seeds (some
the same as the starts, and also
including willowherb and wooly
sunflower) were up for grabs.
Tribal Elder Terri Wood, who
attended with her daughter, Steph-
anie, came to get native plants for
placement around a pond on her
Dayton acreage.
Information for planting included
three ways to propagate new plants:
collecting seeds in the wild for plant-
ing, taking cuttings from existing
plants and layering, a process that
uses a branch from a tree like the
dogwood and runs it underground
for a short distance. Roots develop
underground and the branch can
then be separated to allow the new
plant to grow independently.
Cuttings may look much the same
on both ends during the dormant
period. Moore advised cutting the
bottom at an angle when the cut-
ting is first taken as a reminder
later on.
She also suggested that diehards
go to the national forests where
collecting is allowed. (Taking cut-
tings in federal or state parks is
not allowed.)
“Mark the plants in the summer
and fall when the leaves are still on
the trees,” Moore said. In winter,
during the dormant period when
it is time to take cuttings and the
leaves are gone, this may be the only
way to identify the desired plants.
“Don’t take whole plants out of
the wild,” said Moore. It risks both
a dead plant at home and a shrink-
ing species in the wild.
Re-establishing native plants as
the Tribe is doing here, said Chris
Adlan, a biology and botany stu-
dent, is “really, really cutting edge.”
“The more diversity of plants,”
said Guenther, “the bigger the
service we are doing for the com-
munity.” n