10
S moke S ignals
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
'What can we do to make life
LENO continued
from front page
not elected. Did you ever think
about not trying again?
Leno: No. It was a different
atmosphere then. It was the Tribe
coming together. People were real-
ly, “What can I do for my Tribe?”
And, of course, I lived here all of
my life so what can I do for my
Tribe? I had kids so I knew poten-
tially whatever you decided would
impact the future. I had three kids
and hoping someday I would have
grandkids, which I got eight now.
So, no, I didn’t. I was working. I was
logging and the timber industry at
that time was good. I guess I didn’t
have nothing to lose. And it was
a lot different. You didn’t have to
spend $5,000 on an election and you
didn’t have to make signs. Basical-
ly, you just had to get the support
of the people and write your letter
for Smoke Signals and that was
pretty much it. There wasn’t really
a whole lot of cost to it.
Smoke Signals: You spent 16
years on Tribal Council as a
member and the last five years
as Tribal Council chair? Is
there a discernible difference
being the chair in trying to get
your legislative agenda accom-
plished?
Leno: I didn’t really have a leg-
islative agenda because my agenda
was always about the membership.
Come being here during Termi-
nation, living here in a very poor
community, that was always on
my mind right through the whole
21 years. What can we do to make
life better for the membership? I
look back at when logging was a
very tough occupation and you lived
from payday to payday. If there was
a snowstorm in between, you had a
very thin payday. It was very tough
and we were raising three kids and
you started planning in the spring
for buying school clothes in the fall.
There was a lot more to it than that.
It was tough.
I think the only difference is basi-
cally you have to gather a decision
from the council and deliver that
whether you like the decision or
whether you don’t like the decision.
You have to deliver that decision,
but realistically you don’t get a
vote on it unless there is a tie in
it. Your responsibility is changed
from being “Hey, I think we should
do this and here’s my vote” to “OK,
you eight have decided this and
now I have to deliver this to who-
ever, whether it be in Congress,
the governor or the membership.”
That’s my responsibility now, to
gather the decision of council and
deliver it.
Smoke Signals: What do you
think the biggest accomplish-
ment(s) have been by the Tribe
during your 21 years of service?
Leno: Oh, wow, that’s a long list.
I think, looking back, I always tell
people that I was very fortunate to
have been here in the first proba-
bly 10 years of the casino time. We
probably delivered more benefits
in that time. Of course, I was the
youngster on council, but we prob-
ably delivered more health care,
Smoke Signals file photo
Reyn Leno, serving as Tribal Council vice chairman at the time, testifies for the Tribe to get its ceremonial hunting
rights restored during an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting in 2008. Testifying with him
was then Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy, right, and then Tribal Council Secretary Jack Giffen Jr. The
Tribe received approval for its rights to be restored at this meeting.
per capita, Elder’s pension and
schools. I was here when we were
only giving three scholarships. All
of the different stuff … per capita.
We started pouring money into our
endowments and very fortunate
now that they just went over the
$700 million mark. Most important
ones, I would say things like health
care was a big one for me. Edu-
cation, obviously, because it was
something I looked at it was going
to make a better life for somebody
or their families. I think the sover-
eignty issues were always big for
me. The regaining of our hunting
rights, living here and hunting and
everything. The fishing rights two
years ago was a very emotional
time when we went up and watched
our fishermen. It was like watching
the people I knew fishing on the
rocks. Tribes don’t get an oppor-
tunity to regain sovereignty, but
Grand Ronde has regained two or
three different types of things with
sovereignty. It’s pretty huge. I don’t
know if people really realize how
big that is in Indian Country.
Smoke Signals: Do you have
any regrets or disappoint-
ments? Things you would have
liked to have seen accomplished
that were not?
Leno: One of them would have
been health care. For a long time,
and it goes back councils … oh, we’ll
never be able to endow … we got
a health endowment, but we don’t
have a health plan to use that en-
dowment or build that endowment
to provide that health care. I think
had we ever viewed it like we do
today … I believe now, and I have
talked to Cheryle (A. Kennedy),
who has been here a long time, now
today we’ve turned and said, “Hey,
we could do this.” It would take
some work to put it all together and
then take work to do the financial
side to build it up to enough to have
a health plan in place, but years ago
we always said, “We’ll never be able
to do that.” I wish we would have
recognized sooner that that was
potentially there and we could have
done it. I wish we had one in place
right now because if you really look
for a weakness that would probably
be one of the weaknesses. We have
money in the endowment, but do we
really have a health plan? And it’s
going to be very complicated. You
have people inside the six counties,
people outside the six counties.
Obviously, health care in Oregon is
different than health care in West
Virginia or New York. It’s going to
be a difficult task, but I really do
believe that now with the money
and the finances and where the
endowments are at, we can actually
do it. It would be a lot of work, but
I think it could be done.
Smoke Signals: As you leave
Tribal Council, where do you
see the Tribe heading?
Leno: I’ve seen the Tribe grow
from being just a Tribe in Grand
Ronde to a Tribe that is now recog-
nized both at the state and federal
levels. I see us moving forward.
We’re successful. A lot of people
would argue whether we’re suc-
cessful or not successful. We’re
very successful. It’s just can we
maintain that success on both the
government side and that success
of taking care of our membership.
I believe we can. I think it is work.
The going out with the state now
and the city of Portland, that’s the
newer part of it, but we also have
to make sure that we maintain the
benefits and services for our Tribe.
I believe we can keep making them
better and keep moving forward.
I think we need to quit panicking
over things and start accepting the
competition and getting better at
dealing with it.
Smoke Signals: With your
retirement, only two Tribal
Council members will be 60 or
older: What do you think of the
new generation of Tribal lead-
ers that is taking over?
Leno: There has been a change, I
believe. A lot more policy and stuff
that they use as opposed to direct
contact with the membership. I
don’t see our younger councilors
having as much interaction with
the Tribal membership as they used
to have. I can’t say there’s too much
policy because the Tribe has grown.
It’s just a lot different from when
you had 2,000 people and you had
that direct communication with
people and you had a 100 people
working for the government as
opposed to 400 people working for
the government and a membership
of 5,000. It’s just grown so big that
you got to have so much policy and
ordinances and everything to guide
you that you’ve kind of lost that
personal deal. A lot of older people
don’t deal with as much policy.
They like the word of mouth and
the face-to-face stuff.
Smoke Signals: During the
most recent Employee Service
Awards, it seemed like you
were hedging a little on this
being your retirement, hinting
that it might just be a “break” in
service. Will it be difficult to be
sitting out in the audience? Will
you consider running again?
Leno: Am I thinking about run-
ning again? Yes, I’m thinking about
running again. It’ll just depend on
what I see happening in the Tribe
because I care about the Tribe. Sure,
I’m thinking about running again.
Sitting out in the audience? I’m
looking forward to sitting in the audi-
ence with the membership again. So
many times that’s one thing I missed
on council: Just going to a function
and being treated just like a Tribal
member as opposed to a council