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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.