16
S MOKE S IGNALS
OCTOBER 1, 2015
'We survived and we’re still here'
ENCAMPMENT continued
from front page
Recreation Site that included coffee
brewed by Tribal Council member
Jon A. George and conversation and
community while beading.
The Friday event attracted at-
tendees from the Medford and
Grants Pass offi ces of the U.S. Bu-
reau of Land Management, Eugene
offi ce of the U.S. Army Corps of En-
gineers and the Southern Oregon
Historical Society.
After an invocation by George and
drumming performed by George
and Cultural Protection Coordina-
tor Jordan Mercier, Tribal Council
Chairman Reyn Leno welcomed
those in attendance.
“This is always a meaningful trip
for us to come down here,” Leno
said. “We always talk about Table
Rock and our treaties down here.”
Leno said that Tribal members
now identify themselves as Grand
Ronde, but before Restoration in
1983 they had to state which Tribe
they were from, such as Rogue Riv-
er or Umpqua.
“A lot of people at Grand Ronde
are Rogue and Umpqua,” Leno
said. “That’s how we grew up. …
Our grandparents and our aunts
and uncles and our families talk-
ed about Table Rock. They knew
where they were from. They knew
their history and their culture. So it
was a meaningful thing to us to get
to where we could come down and
do this event and know we walk in
the footprints of our ancestors and
what Table Rock means to us.”
Mercier presented an overview of
the Tribe’s two treaties ceding land
in the area to the U.S. government
and discussed the Tribe’s history in
southern Oregon, from pre-settler
arrival to the Rogue River Indian
Wars to the Trail of Tears that
started at Table Rock on Feb. 23,
1856, and ended on March 25, 1856,
in Grand Ronde.
Mercier said he can trace his an-
cestry back to Martha Jane Sands,
a member of the Takelma who was
one of the fi rst people to arrive in
Grand Ronde.
“We survived and we’re still
here,” Mercier said. “We still view
this place and our lands as sacred.
We have a deep spiritual connection
to these lands. This is where we
come from. We have stories that tie
us to these lands. We have stories
about the creation of Table Rock.
… We’re tied to these land's in an
inseparable relationship.”
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno, right, talks with Pat Harper, left, and Diane Drews from the Southern Oregon
Historical Society during “Coff ee & Conversation with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde” at the Courtyard
Marriott in Medford on Friday, Sept. 25. Omar Ortiz with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also attended.
Mercier said that is how the Grand
Ronde Tribe approaches development
projects that is it asked to review in its
ceded lands, such as timber harvests,
construction of cell phone towers or
proposed sewer projects.
“The Tribe brings a perspective to
projects that no one else has,” Mer-
cier said. “We are the inheritors as
the Tribe and peoples of this land.
We have that special interest and
way of looking at it.”
Diane Drews, development director
with the Southern Oregon Historical
Society, said she attended the Coffee
and Conversation event because her
organization is preparing to create a
Native American encampment at its
Hanley Farm site in Central Point,
just north of Medford.
Drews said the Historical Society
wants to partner with the Grand
Ronde Tribe, as well as the Siletz
and Cow Creek, to ensure the en-
campment will be historically and
culturally accurate.
“This is singularly important
to us that this be done correctly,”
Drews said about the project, which
is in the beginning stages of a fi ve-
year plan.
Drews said she has already con-
tacted Grand Ronde Tribal Historic
Preservation Offi cer David Harrel-
son about the project and Mercier
encouraged her to keep the Tribe
informed as the project progresses.
Mercier said Hanley Farm is a
known Native American village site
that is on private property and that
the Tribe appreciates the Historical
Society’s desire to partner.
Drews was accompanied by His-
torical Society archivist Pat Harper.
Cheryle Foster-Curley, district
archaeologist and Tribal liaison
with the Bureau of Land Man-
agement’s Medford District offi ce,
asked about partnership opportu-
nities with the Grand Ronde Tribe.
Leno said the Tribe is always in-
terested in partnering with county,
state and federal agencies and men-
tioned the recent land donation the
Tribe accepted from the Tillamook
County Board of Commissioners at
Kilchis Point as an example.
“I think there is a lot of opportu-
nity and we’re certainly open to it,”
Leno said.
After Public Affairs Administra-
tive Assistant Chelsea Clark and
Tribal Council Chief of Staff Stacia
Martin helped George distribute
gifts and informational packets,
the meeting ended, but the conver-
sation did not.
Tribal Attorney Rob Greene talk-
ed with BLM archaeologists while
Leno continued talking with Drews
and Harper about historical Tribal
cultural practices.
Also attending the Friday event
were Tribal Council Secretary
Cheryle A. Kennedy and Tribal
Council members Ed Pearsall and
Tonya Gleason-Shepek, Tribal
Council Administrative Assistant
Shannon Simi, Interim General
Manager David Fullerton, Tribal
Elder Laura Gleason and Tribal
youth Desirae Martin.
After the Coffee & Conversation
event ended, Greene lead a Tribal
hike up Table Rock that included
George, Gleason-Shepek, Clark,
Simi, the Martins and Tribal pho-
tographer Michelle Alaimo.
The next day along the shores of
the Rogue River, a Tribal encamp-
ment occurred at TouVelle State
Recreation Site from 10 a.m. to 2
p.m.
Tribal artisan Travis Stewart
and his wife, Esther, and daughter,
Sophia, drove down so that he could
display woodwork he has been
carving as a member of the Tribe’s
Culture Department.
Meanwhile, George, Simi, Clark,
Martin, Gleason-Shepek and her
mother, Laura, beaded and drank
George’s wagon trail-strong coffee
as the sound of nearby rapids ser-
enaded them.
The encampment provided Tribal
Elder Kathy Kain and her hus-
band, Rick, a chance to visit with
fellow Tribal members. Kain, who
is descended from the Molallas,
lives in Phoenix just south of Med-
ford. She drove up to TouVelle to
inquire about Tribal colors for a
Native American afghan she plans
on making.
Kain and her husband received
necklaces created on the spot by
George and also pre-packaged bead
packets to take home from Clark.
“We missed this last year’s event
because I had to go to Georgia to
visit family,” Kain said.
Meanwhile, Gleason-Shepek
helped Clark and Desirae Martin
gather rocks along the river’s shore
to add to the Atudship rock mound
adjacent to the Tribal Cemetery in
Grand Ronde.
The encampment also gave Tribal
member Lisa Huff and her daugh-
ter, Kaylie, a chance to visit her
brother, Travis Stewart.
The encampment celebrates the
anniversary of the 1853 treaty
signing at Table Rock, as well as
the Tribe’s 2011 memorandum of
understanding with the Bureau of
Land Management and The Nature
Conservancy.
The memorandum gives the
Grand Ronde Tribe the right to
manage almost 5,000 acres of pris-
tine land around Table Rock. Each
year since 2012, Tribal members
have set up demonstrations of
Grand Ronde culture and hands-
on experiences at the state park.
Tribal Council member Tonya Gleason-Shepek, left, and Tribal members
Desirae Martin, middle, and Chelsea Clark, also Tribal Public Aff airs
administrative assistant, collect rocks from the Rogue River to add to the
Atudship rock mound at the Tribal Cemetery during the Table Rock Tribal
Encampment at TouVelle State Recreation Site in Central Point.