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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2016)
PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID PORTLAND, OR PERMIT NO. 700 Float wins Queen's Award — pg. 12 JUNE 15, 2016 Tribe prepares for massive earthquake By Brent Merrill Smoke Signals staff writer T ribal member Lacy Leno and Tribal Police Department Records and Evidence Clerk Egypt Leno carried body bags one by one to a casualty collection point while an Oregon Lifeguard air am- bulance helicopter landed in a ield across from the Tribal Governance Center to ferry out the seriously injured. Lacy and Egypt were part of a major Tribal effort to support Cascadia Rising, an emergency pre- paredness exercise held Tuesday, June 7, through Friday, June 10, throughout the Paciic Northwest, including Grand Ronde. Event organizers acted as if a dev- astating 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami had wreaked havoc throughout the Paciic Northwest. In Grand Ronde, the simulated devastation included 33 deaths and many seriously injured, the total destruction of the Governance Center, the bridge on Grand Ronde Road collapsing and an influx of refugees from the Coast who used Spirit Mountain Casino as an emer- gency shelter. The four-day event focused on inter-agency and multi-state coor- dination and emergency manage- ment centers were established on the local, state, federal and Tribal See CASCADIA continued on page 5 Courtesy photo by Kelly Dirksen Tribal Lead Maintenance Technician and Tribal ceremonial isherman Andrew Freeman holds up the irst salmon that was netted during a ceremonial ishing harvest at Willamette Falls in Oregon City on Wednesday, June 8. This was the irst ceremonial ishing to take place at Willamette Falls by Grand Ronde Tribal members in approximately 120 years. On the rocks Tribal ishermen return to Falls, net 15 salmon ping of rock, Tribal Lead Maintenance Technician By Dean Rhodes Smoke Signals editor O REGON CITY – The approximately 120- year break in Grand Ronde Tribal members ishing for salmon at Willamette Falls is over. Surrounded by the rushing waters of the Wil- lamette River and standing on a slippery outcrop- Andrew Freeman stuck the long handle of a dip net out into a whitewater torrent and caught a salmon on Wednesday, June 8. Freeman was accompanied by fellow Tribal ceremonial ishermen Bobby Mercier, the Tribe’s See SALMON continued on page 17 Veterans Afairs secretary visits Tribe McDonald seeking ‘strategic partnerships’ with Indian Country By Dean Rhodes Smoke Signals editor S ecretary of Veterans Affairs Rob- ert McDonald visited the Grand Ronde Tribe on Wednesday, June 1, in his pursuit of strategic partner- ships with the Indian Health Service and sovereign Tribal governments to improve health care for veterans, par- ticularly Native veterans. Grand Ronde was chosen, in part, Photo by Michelle Alaimo because the Tribe was one of the irst in the Northwest to sign a direct care services reimbursement agreement with Veterans Affairs in June 2013 that allows the Tribe to request reim- bursement for direct care provided to eligible Native American veterans. After visiting Chemawa Indian See SECRETARY continued on page 10 Secretary of Veterans Afairs Robert McDonald addresses a Town Hall meeting of Grand Ronde and community veterans in the Tribal Community Center during his visit to the Tribe on Wednesday, June 1. Seated, from left, are Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno, Tribal Council member Jon A. George and Heidi Marston, McDonald’s staf assistant.
