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Elders fishing trip — pg. 8
OCTOBER 1, 2017
Health & Wellness Center feting 20th anniversary
Building’s construction changed
medical care in Grand Ronde
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
T
Smoke Signals file photo
The Tribal Health Committee and Human Services
Division staff arranged for then-Human Services
Division Manager Cheryle A. Kennedy to break
ground on the site of the Health & Wellness Center
with a backhoe in August 1996.
he Grand Ronde Health & Wellness Cen-
ter will celebrate its 20th anniversary of
providing health care to Grand Ronde
Tribal and community members from 3 to 5 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 6.
The center, one of the first buildings con-
structed by the Tribe after the 1995 opening of
Spirit Mountain Casino and subsequent influx
of gaming revenue, opened with 20 programs
and 61 employees.
The celebration will open with the Grand
Ronde Veterans Color Guard bringing in the
colors accompanied by Grand Ronde drummers
and singers. After an invocation, there will be
comments from Tribal Council members and
Health & Wellness staff.
The celebration also will include honorings,
facility tour and light refreshments.
According to back issues of Smoke Signals,
construction of the Health & Wellness Center
started in October 1996. It was built simulta-
neously with the Natural Resources office off of
Hebo Road.
See CELEBRATION
continued on page 9
Native American
absenteeism rates
improving locally
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
F
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Elder Rosetta LaBonte Manangan has traced the non-Native side of her family back to being some of the
first settlers in Oregon. Her great-great-grandfather Louis LaBonte was on a list of Astorians of the Pacific Fur
Co. who lived near the Columbia River during the winter of 1813-14.
Deep Oregon roots
List of ‘Astorians’ includes first LaBonte in area
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
W
hile most Grand Ronde Tribal members
know that their Native lineage traces back
through time immemorial before written
records were kept, Tribal Elder Rosetta LaBonte
Manangan knows exactly where her non-Native
ancestry begins in Oregon.
Manangan, 90, knows that her great-great-grand-
father Louis LaBonte was on a list of Pacific Fur Co.
employees who lived near the Columbia River during
See LABONTE
continued on page 11
irst-year numbers recently
released by the Oregon De-
partment of Education indi-
cate that an effort to combat Native
American student chronic absen-
teeism in the Willamina School
District by district employees in
collaboration with the Confederat-
ed Tribes of Grand Ronde is having
a positive effect.
Chronic absenteeism is defined
as students missing 10 percent or
more of school days annually.
According to the Department of
Education, the percentage of Na-
tive American students who were
chronically absent in Willamina
decreased in all three schools – el-
ementary, middle and high.
At the elementary school, the
percentage dropped from 43.22
percent in 2015-16 to 36.51 per-
cent in 2016-17. The middle school
saw a smaller decrease from 45.45
percent to 42.42 percent while the
high school dropped more than 7
percentage points from 55.36 per-
cent to 48.28 percent.
In 2013, Spirit Mountain Com-
munity Fund financed a study by
ECONorthwest and the Chalk-
board Project that compared the
membership rolls for seven par-
ticipating Oregon Tribes with
data from the state Department of
Education.
One of the most disturbing find-
ings from that study released in
early 2014 was the elevated rates of
chronic absenteeism among Native
See EDUCATION
continued on page 10