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Tribes — pg. 11
JUNE 1, 2017
10 names added
to West Valley
Veterans Memorial
Focus on youth
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
F
or U.S. Navy veteran Dennis Kleffner,
who also is a member of the Grand Ronde
Honor Guard, seeing his named etched
on the Navy pillar of the West Valley Veterans
Memorial elicited ambivalent feelings on Mon-
day, May 29.
“I wish my mom could see it,” Kleffner said
before the annual Memorial Day event held on
the Grand Ronde Tribal campus. His mother
walked on two years ago. “She would be very
proud of her son, but it makes me feel good being
up on the wall.”
Kleffner served 10 years in the Navy from
1980 to 1990 as an interior communications
technician.
For Tribal descendant Steven Rife Jr., who
served in the Navy from 2000 to 2006 as a gas
turbine systems technician and was stationed at
Bremerton, Wash., and Pearl Harbor, seeing his
name added to the Navy pillar was “exciting.”
“It’s kind of exciting that I will always have a
place in this world,” Rife said after the ceremony.
“I made a spot for myself.”
“You know I’m proud of him,” added his father,
Tribal Elder and fellow veteran Steve Rife.
Kleffner and Rife were among the 10 veterans
added to the West Valley Veterans Memorial
during the annual Memorial Day observance
held in Grand Ronde. The 10 new names bring
the total number of veterans memorialized on
the four granite pillars to 2,335.
Added this year were Navy veterans Rife Jr.,
Russell H. Talmadge, Kleffner and Ryan D. Jack-
man; Air Force veteran Walter F. Schmale; Army
veterans Harold R. Hobbs, Dennis D. Ylitalo and
Charles M. Parker; and Marine Corps veterans
and Tribal members Gerard C. Bolden and Dru
See MEMORIAL DAY
continued on page 7
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Eva Rose Jurado leads a paddle dance as some of the Tribe’s youth perform during the Legislative
Commission on Indian Services/Nine Tribes Spring Celebration held at the State Capitol in Salem
on Thursday, May 18.
Tribal children take center stage at State Capitol
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
S
ALEM – Grand Ronde Tribal youth
from kindergarteners through teenag-
ers serving on the Youth Council took
center stage during the 2017 Legislative
Commission on Indian Services/Nine Tribes
Spring Celebration held Thursday, May 18,
in the State Capitol.
Tribal children in the K-3 and Lilu pro-
grams in Grand Ronde performed two
dances and the song “Tumala (Tomorrow)”
and five members of the Grand Ronde
Youth Council – Payton Smith, Madalyn Volz,
Raven Harmon, Izaiah Fisher and Isabelle
Grout – accompanied Tribal Council Vice
Chair Cheryle A. Kennedy when she spoke to
approximately 200 people gathered under the
Capitol’s Rotunda.
The theme of the Spring Celebration was
“Sharing Our Traditions: Teaching Our Chil-
dren to Build Strong Tribal Nations.”
The event opened with a Grand Ronde drum
See YOUTH
continued on page 8
First Foods celebration set for June 3 at plankhouse
Mabel Brisbois
prepares jerky
to serve at the
Tribe’s annual
First Foods
celebration held
at the Tribal
Community
Center in May
2016. This
year’s event
will be held in
achaf-hammi,
the Tribal
plankhouse.
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
T
Smoke Signals file photo
he evolution of the Tribal
Culture Committee’s annual
First Foods celebration con-
tinues this year with a gathering
component being added to the
events schedule.
The theme for this year is a
celebration of Tribal foods from
pre-contact to post-Reservation.
“The best way for us to learn is
to be active and doing it,” Tribal
member and Culture Committee
Chairperson Francene Ambrose
said from her office at the Trib-
al Food Bank, iskam mfkhmfk
haws. “We want it to become living,
breathing again and part of every-
day activities.”
This year’s First Foods event will
be held at achaf-hammi, the Trib-
al plankhouse, adjacent to Uyxat
Powwow Grounds off of Hebo Road.
Ambrose said the event will begin
at 10 a.m. with a traditional wel-
coming and guest speakers who will
be talking about cultural practices
around traditional foods.
“We’re going to open up a micro-
See FIRST FOODS
continued on page 12