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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2016)
14 S moke S ignals DECEMBER 15, 2016 Letters Dear Smoke Signals: We just found out Saturday, Dec. 3, that my granddaughter Amelia, who is 1.5 years old, has cancer on her left hip that extended into the bone and is protruding against her spinal cord. My daughter, Samantha Cunningham (roll #3630), also has two older daughters, Jazmine who is 5 and Lena who is 3. She is also pregnant with my grandson, Gavin, who is due Feb. 10. They are a family of five soon to be six. They have been trying to figure out what is wrong with my granddaughter for the past month and a half. Amelia had stopped walking around Oct. 10 and was very fussy and said “Ow!” a lot. They took Amelia to the emergency room several times. The first time she saw the doctor they said Amelia was constipated and told her to give Amelia fiber. When that did not help, they took her to one ER and waited five hours with a crying baby without any assistance. Then they took her to another ER that finally saw her and found out she had a massive urinary tract infection. Even after the antibiotics, Amelia was still not walking and we could see that her legs were limp when you picked her up, and when she did try and stand with assistance from furniture, her legs were very wobbly. She was finally seen by her pediatrician on Dec. 2 and they referred her to the children’s hospital where they diagnosed her with Ewing Sarcoma and began chemo treatment. My daughter and her husband will miss quite a bit of work and have to remain in Seattle instead of being able to come home to Olympia, Wash. The doctors do not want Amelia to be more than 45 miles from the hospital in case she gets a fever or has complications from her treatment, and they live 75 miles away. Unfortunately, Samantha and Todd were already struggling to keep the bills caught up and with missing work and Christmas right around the corner, it will be very difficult for them financially as they have to stay in Seattle for the next eight months. The cost of living is quite higher in Seattle than it is in Olympia. I am hoping that you will find it in your hearts to help my daughter, her husband, my granddaughters and my soon-to-be grandson. It would mean the world to me to be able to relieve some of the stress that my daughter and her husband are facing during this difficult time. That way they can focus on helping my granddaughter get better rather than worrying about how they are going to take care of the rest of their family. I appreciate any prayers, sharing the Go Fund Me page (www.gofundme. com/amelias-medical-fund) and/or assistance you can provide. Melinda Bonson Roll #2110 Flute Circle slated for Dec. 19 A Three Feathers Flute Circle will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Dec. 19, in the Tribal Community Center. Everyone is welcome. For more information, contact Tony and Marcella Selwyn at 971-237-8530. Reservation Act will speed up process in restoring land RESERVATION ACT continued from front page Ad created by George Valdez then request the land be designated reservation land by Congress. The amendment will allow the Grand Ronde Tribe to combine the two-step process for real property that is within the boundaries of its original 69,100-acre reservation established in 1857. “The Tribe is hampered in its efforts to restore land within its original reservation by a lengthy and cumbersome Bureau of Indian Affairs process,” Leno said. “After it acquires a parcel in fee, the Tribe must prepare a fee-to-trust appli- cation package for the BIA. Then BIA processes the application as an ‘on-reservation acquisition’ or an ‘off-reservation acquisition.’ “Because the Tribe does not have exterior reservation boundaries (in- stead, it has distinct parcels deemed reservation through legislation), all parcels are processed under the more rigorous off-reservation acqui- sition regulations – even if the par- cel is located within the boundaries of the original reservation. “After the land is accepted into trust, the Tribe must take an addi- tional step of amending its Reserva- tion Act through federal legislation to include the trust parcels in order for land to be deemed res- ervation land. Grand Ronde has been forced to come to the U.S. Congress three times in the last 20 years to amend its Reservation Act to secure reservation status for its trust lands. This process is unduly time-consuming, expensive and bureaucratic, and often takes years to complete.” The amendment states that all real property taken into trust with- in the boundaries of the original reservation after Sept. 9, 1988, will be considered reservation land. In addition, the amendment pro- hibits the use of any land taken into trust to be used for any gaming ac- tivity unless it is located within two miles of Spirit Mountain Casino. Leno said passage of the legisla- tion will save the Tribe and federal government time and money by streamlining the process. The Tribe has been working on getting amendments to the Grand Ronde Reservation Act enacted since the summer of 2010.
