Smoke signals., November 01, 2016, Page 13, Image 13

S moke S ignals
NOVEMBER 1, 2016
13
'Everything we did will last far beyond our lifetime'
RESTORATION continued
from front page
of American Indian Tribes in the
United States and make recom-
mendations. Task Force 10 was
specifically concerned with western
Oregon’s terminated Tribes.
Kimsey and Holmes, as well as
representatives from as many as
nine other Tribes, recounted the
effects of Termination and what it
had brought upon the Tribal peo-
ples of Grand Ronde.
Kimsey and Holmes said that
Tribal members did not understand
the devastation that Termination
would wreak on the community.
They explained how the last 820
acres of the Tribe’s original land
base was sold and that the Tribe’s
cemetery was all that remained
of the more than 60,000 acres of
Reservation land — land that was
reserved for the Tribes by President
James Buchanan’s executive order
of 1857.
“The American Indian Policy
Review Commission found exten-
sive problems in Indian Country,”
says Dr. Stephen Dow Beckham.
“Many related to the breach of
federal trust responsibility and the
unwillingness of Congress to fund
programs adequately. The problem
areas included poverty, education,
housing, health, violation of treaty
rights and the lack of means to
achieve self-sufficiency.”
Beckham, who is the Pamplin
Professor of History, Emeritus,
at Lewis and Clark College in
Portland, said the solution was
Restoration for terminated Tribes.
However, Congress left it up to
individual Tribes to raise their
own resources and gather their
evidence for Restoration. Tribal
members had to travel back and
forth to Washington, D.C., to argue
their cases before congressional
committees.
Beckham, who traveled to Wash-
ington, D.C., in 1973 to push for
examination of terminated Oregon
Tribes, said that 14 Tribal members
filled out detailed questionnaires
for Task Force 10. Among those
providing information were Russ
Leno, Velma Mercier, Kimsey,
Holmes and others.
Those Tribal members, working
in concert with Oregon Sen. Mark
Hatfield and his staff and repre-
sentatives at the Native American
Program Oregon Legal Services,
provided information about em-
ployment, health, housing, edu-
cational needs and the problems
associated with not having a land
base. Together, they strategized
how to achieve Restoration.
Beckham says there were years
of meetings, scores of letters writ-
ten and many trips to the East
Coast before Restoration could be
achieved.
Remembering the phone call
Tribal Elder and former Tribal
Council Chairwoman Kathryn
Harrison says she remembers the
evening Tribal members found out
the Tribe had been restored.
Harrison says she received the
news over the phone while sit-
ting with Dean Mercier, Merle
“Basically we had a name and a cemetery.
Nothing more than that. Everything on top
of that people should be very thankful for.”
~ Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno
Leno, Russ Leno, Candy Robertson,
Mark Mercier, Margaret Provost
and Jackie Colton Whisler, among
others, in the little office in the
Tribal Cemetery.
“Les AuCoin called my phone and
he said, ‘Kathryn, your bill passed’,”
remembers Harrison of that sem-
inal moment in Tribal history. “I
always refer to that long walk up
here; those people didn’t make that
walk in vain. When we felt discour-
aged we would go by that cemetery
and think how could you give up
(on Restoration efforts) when there
are all those people that walked up
here. We would all be encouraged.
It inspired everybody.”
“I said Kathryn, ‘Our bill has
passed,’ ” remembers AuCoin of the
phone call. “Everything we did will
last far beyond our lifetimes.”
Harrison called Holmes at his
home right after the call from Au-
Coin to share the news with him.
Smoke Signals reported in the
Dec. 4, 1983, issue that everyone
would be informed of progress as
it was being made on the efforts to
restore benefits to the membership.
“Through the Smoke Signals
we will do our best to keep you
informed of our progress in the
development of procedures for the
health, education and other entitle-
ments that our Tribal members are
now eligible to receive. There will
be many rules and regulations that
we will have to observe.”
Smoke Signals reported that the
Tribe was planning a commemora-
tion of the historic event.
“We are now planning to have a
Restoration celebration tentatively
sometime during the early part of
1984,” the paper reported.
Harrison says everyone involved
had a sense that there was some-
thing larger than themselves hap-
pening when Tribal members were
working for Restoration.
“When we got restored, there
was something going on,” says
Harrison.
Today, former Congressman
AuCoin is among the most revered
and respected Oregon politicians by
the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde. His role in the Restoration
has become legend.
AuCoin’s press secretary, John
Atkins, remembers working on the
Grand Ronde Restoration Bill while
working for AuCoin, who is retired
and lives in Bozeman, Mont.
“I was there at the House of
Representatives and so was Kath-
ryn when Congressman AuCoin
dropped the bill in the hopper,”
remembers Atkins. “The bill was
approved by the House and by
the Senate and has done much to
restore the dignity and the history
and the culture of the Tribe and
all the Tribes that are a part of the
Grand Ronde. I was just absolutely
thrilled to have been part of that, to
have been witness at the hearings
that led up to the introduction of
the bill.”
Atkins said he talks to AuCoin
often.
“He has told me more than once
that Tribal Restoration for the
Grand Ronde was one of the best
things he had ever done in his
career as a congressman,” says
Atkins. “It was one of the most
satisfying things I have ever been
associated with.”
“There was nothing like that
feeling because I knew what it
meant to a whole bunch of people in
generations to come,” says AuCoin.
“I always had a place in my heart
for situations where I could give to
others — that’s why I was hooked
as soon as I understood what the
stakes were for the Grand Ronde.”
Sponsored by AuCoin, the Grand
Ronde Restoration Bill had 57 let-
ters of support and no opposition.
The bill passed the House on Nov.
7, 1983, and was introduced in
the Senate by Hatfield four days
later. The bill passed the Senate
by a voice vote without going to
committee.
Times were much different then
and AuCoin says he faced a great
deal of political and personal op-
position when he was fighting for
Restoration.
“I had to face, as the Tribal
Council did, the most surprising
amount of bigotry I would have ever
guessed,” says AuCoin. “No one
threw any parades for me on this.
I did it because I identified. I didn’t
give a damn whether people wanted
to throw me a parade or not. I was
going to get this thing done because
it was the right thing to do. There
was a lot of bigotry; there really
was. I don’t think Yamhill County
would want to admit that now, but
I can see the faces still today.”
A path into the future
Beckham says Restoration cre-
ated a path for the Grand Ronde
peoples into the future.
“Restoration became the most
significant landmark in the Tribe’s
modern history,” says Beckham.
“The law opened doors for Tribal
members to use the Indian Health
Service. In time the Tribe assumed
more and more responsibility for
administering and operating its
clinic, pharmacy and programs for
drugs and alcohol, mental health
and dental care. The Tribe received
core management funds to hire
staff and to provide direct services
to members.”
Leno says he is proud of every-
thing the Tribe has achieved since
Restoration, but that it has been
hard work and those efforts should
not be forgotten. He says it is im-
portant for people to remember that
the Tribe was held hostage when
Restoration was accomplished.
“The most important piece for me
is the sovereignty that was taken
from us in our hunting and fishing
rights and why nobody could justify
that because hunting and fishing
is a way of life for Tribal people,”
says Leno. “They basically gave
us a choice and I don’t think a lot
of younger people see that piece of
it; how hard it was for our leaders
back in that time to say, ‘OK, we
have a choice here to take care of
our people as a federally recognized
Tribe but we have to give up our
way of life in hunting and fishing?’
That was a very difficult decision
to make.”
“The Tribe had to pay a high price
in 1983 to secure Restoration,”
says Beckham. “Combined forces
from the non-Indian community
fought efforts to affirm hunting and
fishing rights. The Restoration Act
compelled the Tribe to enter into
agreements with the United States
and the state of Oregon governing
the exercise of animal gather-
ing rights, trapping, hunting and
fishing. In spite of the extensive
ratified treaty cession areas of the
ancestor Tribes moved to Grand
Ronde, the agreement defined a
limited geographical area available
for subsistence activities.”
Atkins says Restoration started
turning things around for the Tribe.
“Think of the fact that at the time
of Restoration the Grand Ronde
was down to five acres, just the
cemetery. Everything else had been
lost,” says Atkins. “It was just a
watershed event in Oregon history,
undoing so many wrongs that had
occurred up until that point”
Beckham says many Oregonians
are familiar with the Tribe’s story
of struggle and perseverance.
“None of these accomplishments
has been easy,” says Beckham.
“They have required faith that
there can be a better future. They
have demanded hours, weeks,
months and years of hard work by
Tribal leaders, Tribal members and
staff to make things happen. They
have necessitated planning and
dreaming of what might be. The
record is a good one.”
‘Restoration means
everything’
Tribal Council member Chris
Mercier says he is one of the bene-
ficiaries of those people who worked
so hard to achieve Restoration.
“For me, Restoration means ev-
erything,” says Mercier. “It would
have been much harder to get
through college without the finan-
cial support I received from the
Tribe. So just getting the Tribe
restored and the Tribe being where
it is now I think has helped a lot of
people improve their lives.”
Mercier says he has dedicated
most of his adult life to working for
the Tribe.
“I’m 41 and I’m going on my 12th
year on council, so I have spent
almost a third of my life on council
so this Tribe has been my life,” says
Mercier. “It is so hard to imagine
where my life would be if this Tribe
didn’t exist and it had not been
See RESTORATION
continued on page 18