PRESORTED
STANDARD MAIL
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PORTLAND, OR
PERMIT NO. 700
Employees honored for
years of service — pg. 7
FEBRUARY 1, 2016
Tribal Council
OKs general
manager contract
David Fullerton offi cially hired
to lead Tribal government
Thorsgard joins
Yosemite staff
By Brent Merrill
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals staff writer
Smoke Signals editor
See COUNCIL
continued on page 9
rand Ronde Tribal member Eirik
Thorsgard began a new chapter in his
life and professional career when he
accepted a job with the National Park Ser-
vice at Yosemite National Park in Mariposa,
Calif., in December.
Thorsgard, who holds a doctorate degree
in archaeology from Flinders University in
Adelaide, South Australia, and a master’s
degree in applied anthropology from Oregon
State University, is the national park’s new
cultural anthropologist and American Indian
liaison.
Thorsgard, 38, will be working directly
with the seven Native American Tribes that
border the park.
Scott Carpenter, who heads up Yosemite’s
cultural anthropology program, said Thors-
gard will be very active in compiling “really
important information” about the park’s
history and the Tribes that border it.
Carpenter said the park has been doing a
lot of catching up over the last 50 years in
its relationships with area Tribes and that
Yosemite is one of only a few national parks
in the United States to have a full-time an-
thropologist.
The land for Yosemite National Park was
set aside when President Abraham Lincoln
signed a bill passed by Congress in 1864. The
park was actually created when Congress
passed the Yosemite Act in 1890.
Yosemite National Park covers an area of
747,956 acres of well-known granite cliffs,
waterfalls, pristine streams, giant sequoia
G
A
fter spending almost five months as
interim general manager, former Social
Services Department Manager David
Fullerton is now offi cially the Tribal governmen-
tal staff’s new leader.
Tribal Council approved an employment
agreement effective as
of Jan. 7 with Fullerton
during its Wednesday,
Jan. 20, meeting.
Fullerton started
working for the Tribe in
June 2001 as an Indian
Child Welfare case-
worker. He managed
the Social Services De-
partment from Decem-
ber 2001 through late
August 2015 when he
David Fullerton
was tapped to serve as
interim general manager.
Before joining the Grand Ronde Tribe, Ful-
lerton was the Social Services director for the
Quinault Indian Nation in Washington state.
He also has worked as a probation offi cer for the
Lake County Youth Court in Poulson, Mont., and
as a sociology instructor for Stone Child Tribal
College on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation
in Montana.
Fullerton earned a bachelor’s degree in sociol-
ogy from the University of Montana in Missoula,
where he minored in both Native American stud-
ies and criminology. He graduated from Jesuit
High School in Portland, Ore.
In other action, Tribal Council:
• Approved the Yeti Logging Unit timber sale,
Contributed photo
Tribal member Eirik Thorsgard is the new
cultural anthropologist and American Indian
liaison at Yosemite National Park in northern
California. The park includes several world-
famous landmarks, such as Half Dome,
Bridalveil Falls and El Capitan, and is the
third most-visited national park in the United
States, with almost 3.9 million visitors in
2014. Thorsgard is standing in front of Lower
Yosemite Falls in the national park.
See THORSGARD
continued on page 10
Education Board allows Indian mascot exceptions
Grand Ronde infl uential in
asking for government-to-
government consultation
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
ALEM – The Oregon Board
of Education decided to trust
Oregon’s nine federally rec-
ognized Tribes in deciding what
imagery associated with American
Indians and used by Oregon schools
S
“Putting this decision back in the hands of the Tribes to
work on these issues and to move through these exceptions
when it makes sense may be the most respectful act we can
make as a board.”
Oregon Board of Education
Vice Chairman Charles Martinez
as mascots is appropriate at its
Thursday, Jan. 21, meeting.
The issue of Native American
mascots used by Oregon schools has
been on the Board of Education’s
radar since a meeting in December
2006 and work groups were formed
in 2007 to decide whether Native
American mascots used by Oregon
schools should be banned.
After fi ve years of studies being
presented to the Board of Educa-
tion, its members adopted a res-
olution and rule that would have
entirely banned Native mascots
in schools by the end of the 2017
school year. In particular, the board
sought to ban names like Warriors,
See MASCOTS
continued on page 5