S moke S ignals
MAY 15, 2016
7
General Council briefed on salmon ruling, food access
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
General Council was briefed
on several food-related topics on
Sunday, May 1, during the meet-
ing held in the Tribal Community
Center, including the recent award-
ing of ishing rights for salmon at
Willamette Falls and work being
performed by the ad hoc Food
Access Community Team, which
includes Tribal Council member
Chris Mercier.
Tribal Council member Jon A.
George opened the meeting with
an invocation and Culture Depart-
ment employees Bobby Mercier
and Travis Stewart performed the
cultural drumming and singing.
Tribal Council Chairman Reyn
Leno talked about the Tribe’s
reaching of an agreement with the
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commis-
sion in April that will allow Tribal
members to ish traditionally for
as many as 15 salmon annually at
Willamette Falls.
The agreement allows the Tribe
to operate a traditional scaffold
to be constructed at the Falls for
ceremonial purposes.
“Hunting and ishing for Native
people is a way of life,” said Leno.
“It was a great day for us. I want
to thank Mike (Wilson, Natural
Resources Department manager)
and Rob (Greene, Tribal Attorney)
and Legal and all the people that
worked on this. We just have to
keep working.”
Tribal Council member Denise
Harvey echoed Leno’s comments.
“Thanks to our Natural Resourc-
es Department and our Legal De-
partment,” said Harvey. “I know
you guys have been working hard
Photo by Brent Merrill
Tribal Council member Chris Mercier gave a presentation to the general
membership regarding food access in Grand Ronde during the General
Council meeting held Sunday, May 1, at the Tribal Community Center. Mercier
talked about his participation with the Food Access Community Team and its
eforts to raise awareness of food access issues.
on this. I really appreciate the work
that you have done building a posi-
tive relationship with the Fish and
Wildlife Department.”
Wilson showed a video presen-
tation that was prepared by Fish
and Wildlife Program Manager
Kelly Dirksen and shown to the
Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commis-
sion during its meeting in Bandon.
The video used images of Natives
ishing at Willamette Falls on tradi-
tional scaffolds as far back as 1841.
“That was a great day and I’m
happy to be here to talk to you
about it,” said Wilson. “During the
restoration process for the Tribe,
we lost a good deal of our hunt-
ing and ishing rights and we are
continually working on that with
Child Care Development Fund Plan
available for comment
Come to the Tribal Community Input meeting on Wednesday,
June 8, or contact our ofice to review our draft Child Care Devel-
opment Fund Plan and provide comments. For more information,
contact Early Childhood Education Program Manager Angie
Blackwell at 503-879-2287.
Tribal Council, the Legal Depart-
ment and with the membership on
getting those rights back.”
Mercier followed with a presenta-
tion concerning food access aware-
ness in the Grand Ronde area.
Mercier said he has been par-
ticipating in meetings about food
access as part of the Food Access
Community Team since March
2015.
“Our goal is always to raise
awareness of food issues in Grand
Ronde and the surrounding com-
munities,” said Mercier. “We need
to assess what those issues are.
Food access is becoming a national
issue.”
Mercier presented survey results
that he and other members of FACT
conducted in regard to food access.
He said 222 people filled out
surveys and that 37 percent of re-
spondents were Tribal members.
Sixty-two percent of the respon-
dents were female and 90 percent
of respondents said they get their
food from a large grocery store.
Fifty-ive percent of respondents
said they accessed a food bank and
83 percent said they rely on their
personal vehicle to obtain food. As
many as 79 percent said they had to
regularly travel as far as 20 miles
to obtain food.
Mercier said about 40 people at-
tended the group’s community con-
versation on Thursday, Jan. 28, in
AMERICAN INDIAN TEACHER PROGRAM
Ad created by George Valdez
the Tribal Education Building. He
also thanked those who have been
working on FACT, including Lexi
Stickel-Tool and Ian Dixon-Mac-
Donald of Marion-Polk Food Share,
Nutrition Program Manager Kristy
DeLoe and Food Bank Coordinator
Francene Ambrose.
Mercier said the main idea to
come from the community outreach
portion of the group’s work has
been the idea of the community
getting a large, retail grocery store.
Mercier said his group is looking
to organize a food access fair on an
upcoming weekend.
“We will try to get as many people
there as we can,” said Mercier. “We
are looking at that as a chance to
expand awareness of the issues.”
Mercier turned over the presenta-
tion to Community Garden leader
and Tribal Elder Patricia LeClaire.
LeClaire, who also is the Tribe’s
Food Sustainability administrative
assistant, showed before and after
pictures of the garden and said she
was sad to learn that some people
did not know about the Community
Garden plot.
“It was really heartbreaking
when I found out there were a lot
of people in our community that
weren’t aware of the Community
Garden,” said LeClaire. “I try to
get the word out on Facebook and
I’m going to be putting up a sign at
the end of the road so people know
it’s down there. It was a very big
undertaking.”
In other action, it was announced
that the next General Council meet-
ing will be held 11 a.m. Sunday,
June 26, at the Tribal Community
Center for accepting nominations
for Tribal Council. The June 26
meeting will be the last General
Council meeting for the summer
and meetings will resume again
on Sunday, Sept. 11, following the
Saturday, Sept. 10, election.
Heather Petite, Penny DeLoe
and Michael Langley won the $100
door prizes and Linda LaChance,
Sally Petite, Cindy Larsen, Kathy
Provost and Peter Grout won the
$50 door prizes.
Veronica Gaston and Bob Duncan
won the beaded necklaces created
by George.
The meeting, in its entirety, can
be viewed on the Tribal website at
www.grandronde.org, click on the
News tab and then Video.