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PORTLAND, OR
PERMIT NO. 700
MARCH 1, 2016
Tribe readies for second hunting season
46 Tribal hunters
received tags in 2015
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
G
rand Ronde’s initial Tribal-
ly-managed hunts occurred
in 2015 during deer and elk
seasons and Natural Resources
Department staff members are
preparing for them to occur again.
Last year’s hunting tags were
the first ever issued by a Native
American Tribe in Oregon to its
members for hunting on its own
land. The hunts were scheduled at
times that were offset from regu-
lar state-sanctioned hunts, giving
Tribal members an opportunity
they would not have otherwise had.
“This is a huge step in Tribal
sovereignty,” said Tribal Wildlife
Biologist Lindsay Belonga. “This
was the irst ever Tribally-managed
hunt on our own lands that we’ve
ever done.”
Belonga said the opportunity
came about because of the hard
work done by Natural Resources
Department staff and Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
Commission staff to pass a Tribal
Wildlife Management Plan in Sep-
tember 2014.
By approving the plan, the state
commission delegated its authority
to the Tribe to be exercised on Res-
ervation and trust lands in accor-
dance with the provisions outlined
in the management plan.
“It took eight years to get to that
point,” said Belonga.
The collaboration of hard work
finally paid off when four hunts
See HUNTING
continued on page 13
Elders’ pension
payments moving
to irst of the month
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
B
eginning June 1, Grand Ronde Tribal
Elders will start receiving their pension
beneit nine days earlier when the pay-
ment date changes to the irst day of the month.
“The reason that we’re doing it is last year we
looked at the calendar for this year and for 2017,
and the way that the per capita has been falling
it’s either on the same day as per cap or one falls
on one day and the other falls on the next,” said
Member Services Department Manager Penny
DeLoe. “That’s a lot of work on us and it’s a lot
of work on Finance.”
Tribal Council held a irst reading on amend-
ments to the Elders Retirement Program and
SSI Program Ordinance during its Wednesday,
Feb. 17, meeting, which was the irst step in
approving the change in payment dates.
DeLoe said she participated in a meeting with
Enrollment Specialist Jolanda Catabay, Con-
troller Linda Hanna, Staff Accountant Michelle
Peterson and Senior Staff Attorney Deneen Au-
bertin Keller to discuss the beneit distribution
and that they agreed the change in distribution
dates made sense.
“Everybody was on the same page with it
because in June they are also bringing all the
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Elder and the Tribe’s oldest
member Pearl Lyon looks at a
card that the Elders made for her
and gave to her during her 104th
birthday celebration held at the Elders Activity Center
on Friday, Feb. 19. Her birthday was Feb. 20.
Lyon’s 104th birthday
Tribal Elder Pearl Lyon talks with fellow Elder Kathryn
Harrison during her 104th birthday celebration.
See MEETING
continued on page 11
Friends again: Val Grout, Beryle Contreras reconnect at AFC
Tribal Elders
Val Grout, left,
and Beryle
Contreras talk
in the Tribe’s
Adult Foster
Care Cougar
Lodge on
Friday, Feb.
19.
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
T
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
wo of the Tribe’s most cele-
brated Tribal Elders — Val-
rene May (Houck) Grout and
Beryle Larose (Langley) Contreras
— have come full circle from their
days as childhood friends to their
current days of being residents
at the Tribe’s Adult Foster Care
lodges.
The two Elders say they couldn’t
be happier about completing that
circle back home in Grand Ronde.
Grout lives in Elk Lodge and
Beryle lives in Cougar Lodge.
Both ladies, each 80, were recent-
ly surrounded by family at the El-
ders Activity Center as they sat by
See FRIENDS
continued on page 9