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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2015)
PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID PORTLAND, OR PERMIT NO. 700 General Council briefed on Community Fund — pg. 7 OCTOBER 15, 2015 Dry conditions kept Tribe’s fi re crews busy Attacking absenteeism By Brent Merrill Smoke Signals staff writer T he Tribe’s Fire Protection Program had a record-break- ing year this fi re season both in the amount of large fires it dispatched crews to fi ght and the amount of revenue the program earned for the Tribe. And even this late into October the season isn’t over yet. Tribal firefighting crews were sent to 13 large fi res in three states – Oregon, Washington and Cali- fornia. A large fi re is considered to be100 acres or larger. Tribal Silviculture and Fire Pro- tection Program Manager Colby Drake said the revenue generated by the Fire Protection Program could be as much as $250,000 and it will be the third year in a row that the program has generated at least $200,000 for the Tribe. “We defi nitely had a record-break- ing year on the perspective of our engine revenue,” said Drake. “That’s with only sending three of our four engines out because we kept the fourth engine back all summer to help out with the Res- ervation patrol. “Usually, if we can get over $150,000 that’s our main goal. Overall our total reimbursement for the year, which will include the engine crews, the hand crews, gas, lodging and food, will be right around $1.2 million, which is on the high end. That is the money we put out to run our whole program through the three or four months of fi re and then we get reimbursed through the BIA.” See FIRE continued on page 10 Spirit Mountain Community Fund created a series of posters to help encourage Native American students to stay in school. Tribal members who were featured include, from left, Miguel Adams and Kaylene Barry; Kaelynn Simmons, Tynan George and Andrea Grijalva, middle; and Halona Butler and Hawk Squetimkin, right. The posters were distributed to the nine federally recognized Tribes in Oregon. Community Fund creates posters to encourage school attendance By Brent Merrill Smoke Signals staff writer S pirit Mountain Commu- nity Fund’s work with ECONorthwest to respond to results of a decade-long study into Oregon public schools now includes a series of posters encouraging Tribal students to stay in school. The study was part of the Chalkboard Project that was established in 2004. According to Community Fund Director Kathleen George, seven of nine Oregon Tribes, including the Grand Ronde Tribe, participat- ed in the Chalkboard Project. The study’s results, published in 2014, from the Tribal per- spective are that Indian stu- dents are not doing as well as they could be, especially when it comes to attendance. The fund helped pay for the study conducted by ECONorth- west, a consulting fi rm estab- lished in 1974. “The results of the report were not a surprise to people who work in Indian Country in that it found that our Tribal students, generally speaking, are doing poorly in the Oregon education system,” said George. George said that the study found that only 55 percent of Native students are graduating from high school in the state and that one-third of Tribal students were chronically absent – missing 10 percent or more of school days – with the highest rate at the high school level. The results prompted Tribal leaders to start thinking and strat- egizing about the future of Tribal children. “It is a tremendous concern,” said George. George said that although edu- cators of Tribal children knew they had a problem, they did not have comprehensive data to support their concerns and often struggled to get the data they needed from the state. See POSTERS continued on page 14 I’m a Pepper: Performance, workshop honor jazz musician By Brent Merrill Smoke Signals staff writer T he Jim Pepper Project tour made its way to Grand Ronde for a performance in the Tribal gym on Friday, Oct. 2, and an acting workshop the following morning. The original play was presented by Don Horn’s Photo by Michelle Alaimo triangle productions! to honor the legacy of Na- tive American jazz musician Jim Pepper. The original production is touring Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes throughout See PEPPER continued on page 11 Tribal Elder Beverly Kingbird, middle, poses for a family portrait with Matteo Bucknell, left, Maury Evans, middle back, and Matt Bucknell as they act out being a family of monkeys during a workshop with “The Jim Pepper Project” actors in the Tribal gym on Saturday, Oct. 3. Evans plays Pepper’s grandfather in the triangle productions! play and Matt Bucknell is the Elementary lead with the Tribe’s Education Department and brought his children to the workshop.