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PERMIT NO. 700
General Council briefed on
Health & Wellness — pg. 4
JANUARY 15, 2018
Tribal Council
appoints Appeals
Court judges
Presidential plunge
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
T
ribal Council appointed Robert Miller,
Patricia Paul and Patricia Davis Gibson to
serve on the three-member Grand Ronde
Court of Appeals during its Wednesday, Jan.
10, meeting.
Miller and Paul have pre-
viously served on the Tribe’s
highest court while Gibson is
a new appointee. Their terms
will run two years and start
on Feb. 1.
The vote was 6-1 with Trib-
al Council member Jack Giff-
en Jr. dissenting and Tribal
Robert Miller
Council member Brenda
Tuomi absent.
Tribal Court Administrator
Angela Fasana said at the
Tuesday, Jan. 9, Legislative
Action Committee meeting
that 14 people applied to
serve on the Appeals Court.
Paul (Inupiaq) is a busi-
ness and estate-planning
Patricia Paul
lawyer specializing in land
use law and federal Indian
law. She lives on the Swin-
omish Reservation, where
her husband serves on the
Tribal Senate. She earned a
bachelor’s degree in liberal
studies from Antioch Univer-
sity in 1993 and a law degree
from Seattle University in
1998.
Patricia Gibson
Miller (Eastern Shawnee)
graduated from Northwestern School of Law at
Lewis & Clark College in 1991. He has worked
See JUDGES
continued on page 6
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Grand Ronde Tribal member Lisa Watson is the current president of City Club of Portland’s Board of
Governors. She is the first Native American female leader of the club.
Tribal member Lisa Watson is City Club’s
first Native American female leader
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
P
ORTLAND — Tribal member Lisa
Watson smiles when she is asked about
her quick rise from member to presi-
dent of what is known to many as Portland’s
most influential civic club.
“It’s been a really crazy ascension to this
position,” Watson, 51, says. “I was asked
in late March to be president-elect, which
meant taking on the role of president in 2018.
I thought about it for a few weeks and said,
‘Yes.’ ”
However, after the president resigned this
past summer for opportunities out of the area,
See LEADER
continued on page 7
Native four-year graduation rates remain a concern
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
t first glance, the graduation
statistics for American Indi-
an/Alaska Native students
at Willamina High School appear
alarming, with just slightly more
than half graduating within four
years.
But looking beyond the arbitrary
four-year requirement, the num-
bers show 100 percent of AI/AN
students completing high school in
Willamina.
Tribal High School Lead Tiffany
A
'Typically, all of our students
do graduate, it may just not
be within the four years.'
~ Tribal High School Lead Tiffany Mercier
Mercier said that while the four-
year statistics may sound concern-
ing, the story behind the numbers
is far more encouraging.
“Those numbers only include stu-
dents who graduate in four years,
not those who take a little longer,”
Mercier said. “Typically, all of our
students do graduate, it may just
not be within the four years.”
In 2015-16, 64.1 percent of stu-
dents overall and 54.5 percent of
American Indian/Alaska Native
students graduated on time from
Willamina High, according to a
statewide audit recently conducted
by the Oregon Secretary of State’s
Office and based on the Oregon
Department of Education’s Oregon
Report Card, among other research.
Overall, 75 percent of Oregon
students graduated on time in
2015-16, compared to 56.4 of AI/AN
students. Nationally in 2015-16,
See EDUCATION
continued on page 8