10
FEBRUARY 15, 2017
Smoke Signals
welcomes intern
Smoke Signals welcomed on
Monday, Feb. 6, its first college
intern in at least 10 years. Bethany
Bea will be working for the Tribal
newspaper for five weeks to fulfill
the final requirements of receiving
a bachelor’s degree in journalism
from the University of Montana.
Bea grew up in Seattle and moved
to California after high school in
search of warmer, drier weather.
Unsure of what she wanted to
pursue for a career, she enrolled
at Santa Barbara City College. Af-
ter taking a news reporting class,
she said she had found the perfect
way to combine two of her favorite
things – writing and talking to
people.
Despite the almost constant
sunshine of California, Bea said
she decided on a different place
and climate in which to pursue a
journalism degree. A 2009 road
trip with friends took her through
Missoula, Mont., and as she drove
past the University of Montana’s
“beautiful” brick-and-ivy campus,
she decided that was where she
wanted to attend college.
Bea began classes at the Uni-
versity of Montana in 2010 and in
November of that year she expe-
rienced her first-ever zero degree
temperature. She said she also
learned that if you park your car in
deep slush overnight, it can freeze
in place. Fortunately, Missoula
is small and flat, so walking was
never a problem, she added.
The University of Montana jour-
nalism school is more than 100
years old, as well as the smallest
of the schools and colleges at the
university. Classes were rarely
larger than 26 students, which
meant help was always available
and expectations were very high,
Bea said.
The university has between
12,000 and 15,000 students, with
a quarter attending from out of
state. Montana’s mountains and
plains attract people from all over,
which is how Bea met Grand Ronde
Tribal member Torey Wakeland.
He moved to Montana in 2011,
looking for cowboy culture and a
wildlife biology degree. The two met
in September 2012 and recently cel-
ebrated four
years of being
together.
One year
for spring
break, Wake-
land and Bea
drove from
Montana to
t h e O r e go n
Bethany Bea
coast, stop-
ping for a tour of Grand Ronde
along the way. Wakeland showed
her landmarks and told her stories
about summers fighting fires for the
Tribe. Though they were enjoying
life in Montana, they knew even-
tually they’d be back to the Pacific
Northwest, she said.
In 2015, the opportunity to move
to Oregon arose. Bea took a tem-
porary position as a project coor-
dinator with the Coquille Indian
Tribe in Coos Bay. Soon after, the
Coquille Tribe hired Wakeland as
a biological technician.
From the moment they arrived
in Coos Bay, however, they knew it
would be temporary. The coastline
near Coos Bay is pretty, Bea said,
but it still felt far from friends and
family as Coos Bay was only one
hour closer to Seattle than Mis-
soula.
Bea’s parents still live in her
childhood home in the Green Lake
neighborhood of Seattle, and her
sister and brother-in-law live four
blocks from them. Wakeland grew
up in Salem and most of his friends
still live there.
In November 2016, Wakeland was
hired as the aquatic biologist for the
Grand Ronde Natural Resources
Department and they moved again,
settling in West Salem.
Though she grew up in the Pacific
Northwest, Bea has never lived
in Oregon. During her internship
with Smoke Signals, she said she is
looking forward to using the skills
she gained at the University of
Montana, as well as developing new
ones, all while learning as much
as she can about the Grand Ronde
Tribe and this part of the country.
Bea can be contacted via e-mail
at bethany.bea@grandronde.org or
by phone at 503-879-1461 through
Friday, March 10.
S moke S ignals
ATTENTION CTGR TELEPHONE SERVICE
If you have an emergency and need to dial “911” you must first dial a
“9” (9911). The only calls that do not require that you dial a 9+ are those
made from the CTGR extensions within the CTGR campus and/or those
who use CTGR Tel for their home phone service.
Name changes in Tribal Court
Tribal Court provides both minor and adult name changes to enrolled
members for a filing fee of only $30.
If you have any questions or would like to request a packet, contact
Tribal Court at 503-879-2303.
AMERICAN INDIAN TEACHER PROGRAM
Ad created by George Valdez