S moke S ignals
OCTOBER 15, 2017
9
'It feels like I’m coming home'
MOU continued
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since time immemorial and were
held there temporarily until they
were force-marched to the Grand
Ronde Reservation during 1856’s
Trail of Tears.
Since the signing of the 2011
memorandum of understanding,
the Grand Ronde Tribe has held
an annual event in Medford to es-
tablish and maintain relationships
with federal, state, county and city
officials in the area.
This year’s event held at the
Courtyard Marriott near Medford
Airport attracted six attendees,
including Jackson County Commis-
sioner Bob Strosser, Nature Con-
servancy employees Molly Morison
and Darren Borgias, and Bureau of
Land Management employees Jen
Sigler, Teresa Trulock and A.J.
Donnell.
Tribal Council Chairwoman
Cheryle A. Kennedy and Secretary
Jon A. George led a contingent of
Grand Ronde elected representa-
tives, which included Tribal Coun-
cil members Lisa Leno, Michael
Langley and Jack Giffen Jr.
Tribal Attorney Rob Greene,
Tribal Council Chief of Staff Stacia
Hernandez, Natural Resources De-
partment Manager Michael Wilson,
Cultural Resources Department
Manager David Harrelson and
Public Affairs Administrative As-
sistant Chelsea Clark were among
the Tribal employees who attended.
Tribal member Stephanie Craig
(Wood) also attended with her hus-
band, Joe (Umatilla).
After George and Harrelson
opened the meeting with cultural
drumming and singing backed by
Leno, Clark and Tribal Council
Administrative Assistant Shannon
Simi, Kennedy gave a welcoming
speech.
“It feels like I’m coming home,”
Kennedy said about returning
to the land of her Rogue River
ancestors. She also discussed her
grandfather, who was a medicine
man who used plants and minerals
to heal others, and how a Native
remedy resolved a nagging softball
injury when she was younger. “I
know that the ways we were taught
were good ways,” she said.
“We came from this community
and we’re coming back to share our
stories,” Giffen said. “We’ve had
a rich partnership with all of you
folks in this community and hope-
fully we’ll be able to expand on that
foundation that we’ve been able to
enjoy for the past few years.”
Harrelson gave a 20-minute
presentation on the Rogue River
peoples who inhabited the area,
the treaties they signed with the
federal government and the Trail
of Tears that occurred during the
winter months of February and
March in 1856.
Harrelson said the history of the
Grand Ronde Confederation was
important for attendees to know
to understand why a Tribe that is
five hours away by car is sitting in
a room in Medford discussing its
concerns.
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy speaks during “Coffee & Conversation with the Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde” held at the Courtyard Marriott Medford Airport in Medford on Friday, Sept. 29.
“Our connections go to all the riv-
ers where the fishing occurred, all
of our village sites, all of our prayer
locations that are scattered around
the mountains,” Harrelson said.
“The places where our ancestors
and our people still go to gather
their basket material, where they
go to hunt. We, as a people of Grand
Ronde, are connected to this place.”
Harrelson said that the treaties
are not just important to the Tribe,
but also to those who live in Tribal
ceded lands because they form the
legal foundation for land owner-
ship.
“In the United States, there was a
decision made not to claim land by
right of conquest,” Harrelson said,
“but on a moral philosophy and
basis that if we are going to have
rights to the land we’re going to en-
ter into treaties because it will give
us the right to those lands. Subse-
quently, everything that happens
on those lands, all the commerce,
all the money that is generated, all
of the development on those lands
will become ours through those
treaties. … The treaties are not just
our treaties, they are every single
landowner’s and business owner’s
in a given area. Without the basis
of those treaties, they have no right
to be where they are, own what
they do, be the owners of what they
produce from the land.”
Wilson followed Harrelson with a
presentation about Tribal natural
resources efforts and Tribal use of
Native plants in the area.
“Tribal people used plants in ev-
ery facet of their life,” Wilson said.
“They used them for food, shelter,
clothing, medicine …. We’re still
using them and that’s important,
and that’s why we are talking about
them now.”
Wilson also discussed the Tribe’s
effort to grow Native plants, such as
camas, in a nursery at the Nature
Resources office on Hebo Road.
With smoke still in the hazy
Medford air from the Chetco Bar
fire, discussion invariably touched
on forest management practices
and how Native Americans knew
well before the arrival of European
settlers that regular fires consume
fuel on the forest floor and prevent
major infernos.
Wilson said that Tribal fire crews
had just performed a prescribed
burn earlier in the week in the
Champoeg area.
“The Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde don’t only want to
identify situations, but come with
solutions,” Kennedy said. “There
are knowledges that we hold that
will result in saving money.”
The Nature Conservancy’s Mor-
ison and Borgias also discussed
using fire to actively manage the
land. Morison said the organization
recently held a prescribed burn on
50 acres that cleared the area so
that 600 pounds of Native grass
seed could be sowed.
Borgias said that a recent sam-
pling of tree stumps in the area
confirmed the historic role of fire
used by Natives in managing the
forests. He said cross sections of
tree stumps confirmed that fires oc-
curred on average every eight years
in the area, which was frequent
enough that fuel could not build up
and contribute to catastrophic fires.
Borgias added that the sampling
of tree stumps also aligned with a
story documented by a member of
a U.S. expedition that rode through
the Rogue River area in the early
1840s. A member of the expedition
wrote that the party came across
a Native woman with a fire brand
who was setting fires to clear the
undergrowth.
During closing remarks, George
said the annual Coffee & Conver-
sation event is an opportunity for
Grand Ronde Tribal leaders to con-
tinue telling the Tribe’s story and
share the Tribe’s concerns within
its ceded lands.
“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t
think it was important,” George
said. “Our ancestors are here and
our hearts are here.”
Giffen asked those in attendance
to help the Grand Ronde Tribe ex-
pand its role in their community.
Strosser complimented the Tribe
for its “innate sense of caring about
the land.”
After the meeting concluded,
Harrelson discussed Tribal acorn
harvesting practices that included
the use of fire with the three Bureau
of Land Management employees.
The Tribe also hosted a three-
hour encampment starting at 11
a.m. at the trailhead to Lower Table
Rock. Clark, Simi and Tribal Coun-
cil Senior Administrative Assistant
Lauri Smith beaded necklaces
while Greene led a hike to the top
of Lower Table Rock. Southern
Oregon University Native Amer-
ican Studies assistant professor
Brook Colley joined the group on
the hike. 
Clothes Closet open Friday mornings
The Clothes Closet is open from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the first and
third Fridays of the month and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. all other Fridays
on the Tribal campus near the Elders Activity Center at the end of
Blacktail Drive.
The Clothes Closet accepts clothing, small appliances, small pieces
of furniture, electronics and household goods that are clean and in
good condition. It does not accept books, large TVs or large furniture,
but there is a community board where people can post those items.
Donations are accepted during regular business hours.
For more information or emergency clothes, contact Lori Walk-
er-Hernandez at 559-847-7565. 