S moke S ignals
MAY 15, 2018
Millions of Native Americans
rely on welfare programs
STATUS continued
from front page
Merkley did not hesitate to crit-
icize the effort following his Fri-
day, May 4, meeting with Tribal
Council.
“When it comes to the Trump
administration, it starts from a
place where my assumption is it is
probably a bad idea,” Merkley said.
“And since it regards undermining
Tribal sovereignty, I’m certain that
it is a bad idea.”
Merkley was one of 10 U.S. Sen-
ators who signed an April 27 letter
to Department of Health & Human
Services Secretary Alex Azar ex-
pressing concerns about a Jan. 17
“Dear Tribal Leader” letter that
said the federal agency is unable to
require states to exempt American
Indians and Alaska Natives from
work and community engagement
requirements because it is “con-
strained by statute.”
“The views expressed fail to rec-
ognize the unique legal status of
Indian Tribes and their members
under federal law, the U.S. Con-
stitution, treaties and federal trust
relationship,” the letter states.
Nationwide, Tribal leaders have
been seeking an exemption from
new Medicaid work rules being
introduced in several states, but
Trump administration officials
in the Health & Human Services
Department contend that Tribes
are a race rather than separate
governments. They contend that
exempting Tribal members from
Medicaid work rules would be ille-
gal preferential treatment.
The website Politico reported
in April that the new ruling was
driven by political appointees in the
general counsel and civil rights of-
fices at Health & Human Services.
Tribes insist that any claim of
“racial preference” is moot because
they’re constitutionally protected
as separate governments, dating
back to treaties signed by President
George Washington and reaffirmed
under Republican and Democratic
presidents alike.
“The United States has a legal re-
sponsibility to provide health care
to Native Americans,” said Mary
Smith, acting head of the Indian
Health Service during the Obama
administration and a member of
the Cherokee Nation. “It’s the larg-
est prepaid health system in the
world – they’ve paid through land
and massacres – and now you’re
going to take away health care and
add a work requirement?”
Tribal leaders and public health
advocates also worry that Medic-
aid work rules are just the start.
Trump is eyeing similar changes
for the nation’s welfare programs,
which almost 3 million Native
Americans rely on.
The Trump administration’s early
relationship with Native American
Tribes has been less than friendly.
Trump stopped holding the annual
White House Tribal Nations Con-
ference instituted by the Obama
administration and held annually.
He has also proposed significant
cuts for the Indian Health Service
in last year’s budget, although
Congress ignored those cuts in its
funding package approved in March.
This year, the White House has
proposed eliminating popular ini-
tiatives like the community health
representative program.
“Work requirements will be dev-
astating,” Smith said. “I don’t know
how you would implement it. There
are not jobs to be had on the Res-
ervation.”
The letter co-signed by Merkley
asked the Department of Health
& Human Services to supply infor-
mation on how the department and
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services reached their conclusion
that allowing exemptions for Amer-
ican Indians and Alaska Natives
“could raise civil rights concerns.”
They have yet to receive a response,
Merkley’s state communications
director, Sara Hottman, said.
Includes information from Polit-
ico.com.
Massage at Health & Wellness Center
Mind, Body & Soul Therapeutic Massage started at the Health & Well-
ness Clinic last year.
Remember: Appointments for massage are not managed by the Health
& Wellness Center staff. To schedule an appointment, call 971-237-2561.
2018 Community Input Meeting
The Grand Ronde Tribe’s annual Community Input meeting on pro-
grams and projects will be held at the Tribal gym on Wednesday, June
13, starting with dinner at 6 p.m. After a brief introduction, the meeting
mostly involves visiting open house tables with their posters and photos
on programs and projects and providing your comments. Open house
tables will include Health and Wellness, Education, Cultural Resources,
Housing, Social Services, Police, and several other departments and
tables on the community development, transportation and transit plans.
The meeting will end with door prizes, including a Pendleton blanket.
This meeting is offered as an opportunity for members to provide com-
ments and suggestions that will help guide Tribal programs and grant
applications (i.e. ANA, ICDBG, CCDF, Head Start, CSBG and others).
Those unable to attend can submit written comments and suggestions
to: Mr. Kim Rogers, Planning & Grants manager, Confederated Tribes
of Grand Ronde, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347.
For additional information, please contact Rogers at 503-879-2250.
13
Kennedy to convene Tribal meeting
about Chemawa Indian School fixes
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Grand Ronde Tribal Chairwom-
an Cheryle A. Kennedy and Siletz
Tribal Chairwoman Dee Pigsley
will convene a meeting of Oregon
Tribal representatives to compile
a list of concerns to be addressed
along with possible solutions
regarding how Chemawa Indian
School in Salem is operated.
The scheduled meeting is a
result of a Thursday, May 3, ses-
sion held in Salem that attract-
ed four members of the Oregon
congressional delegation – Sens.
Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden
and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici
and Kurt Schrader.
Leaders from seven Ore-
gon Tribes also attended to
express concerns and press
school administrators for an-
swers following an Oregon Pub-
lic Broadcasting series that
aired last fall that documented
long-standing concerns over stu-
dent safety, academics, school
management and finances.
The group ended up with im-
mediate and long-range plans
to reform Chemawa, which is
the country’s oldest federally
run boarding school for Native
American youth. Goals includ-
ed greater transparency, more
Tribal involvement and a po-
tential overhaul of the how the
school is governed.
Kennedy, whose father was
a vocational teacher and head
of maintenance at the school,
said that money is high on the
list of concerns, along with the
lack of Native Americans on the
teaching staff.
During the Tuesday, May 8,
Legislative Action Committee
meeting, Kennedy said Che-
mawa does not receive enough
funding to be a 24/7 residential
boarding school.
“None of the programs have
sufficient funds … to do it in a
quality way,” Kennedy said.
The list of Tribal concerns will
be sent to lawmakers and the
Bureau of Indian Education,
which operates the school, with-
in a month.
“I believe that most of the
Tribes there expressed that the
method for selecting faculty
seemed to be not very open, be-
cause Tribes had talked about
they had Tribal members who
were teachers who weren’t
hired,” Kennedy said.
The meeting included Bureau
of Indian Education Director
Tony Dearman.
Lawmakers said they want
more rigorous financial audits of
Chemawa and that they might
introduce legislation to increase
transparency at the school.
Chemawa is one of four fed-
eral board-
ing schools
for Native
youth still
operating in
the United
States and
one of 183
schools over-
Cheryle
seen by the
A. Kennedy
Bureau of
Indian Education. The largest
population of students at Che-
mawa hail from Arizona.
Reforming Chemawa, how-
ever, might be difficult. Under
the Trump administration, the
Bureau of Indian Affairs has
experienced significant turmoil,
including the resignation of Di-
rector Bryan Rice in April after
only six months on the job.
And while Oregon Tribes are
taking a renewed interest in the
school’s management, the vast
majority of students – 92 per-
cent – come from other states,
according to the school’s 2014-15
enrollment data.
In addition, reform efforts in-
volving dozens of Tribes might
be more than Oregon’s nine
Tribes can manage.
“I believe that we’ll look back
to the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and say that they have a re-
sponsibility here themselves,”
Kennedy said.
“I thought it was an import-
ant conversation,” Merkley
said during his Friday, May 4,
meeting with the Grand Ronde
Tribal Council. “I just thought
about what a complex govern-
ing system it is because the
(Chemawa School) board doesn’t
have real power and the board
is spread out over a long space,
and the contracts that need to
go through a big bureaucracy,
and whether it might be time
to try a significantly different
experiment in how to run the
school. … It needs to have the
ability to respond more quickly
to circumstances.”
“I would say the meeting was
somewhat tense to begin with,”
Kennedy said. “But, I believe, by
the end of the meeting everyone
understood that we were all
there for the same reason, and
that is to supply a good, quality
education to Native American
students who come there from
around the country. … I want
things to be better.”
Also attending the Chemawa
meeting was Tribal Council
Chief of Staff Stacia Hernandez.
To hear the OPB series about
problems at Chemawa Indian
School, visit www.opb.org/news/
series/chemawa/.
Includes information from
opb.org.
Name changes in court
Tribal Court provides both minor and adult name changes to enrolled
members for a filing fee of only $30. If you have any questions or would
like to request a packet, contact Tribal Court at 503-879-2303.