PRESORTED
STANDARD MAIL
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PORTLAND, OR
PERMIT NO. 700
Summers Collection items
arrive in Grand Ronde
— pg. 9
JUNE 1, 2018
13 names
added to
Veterans
Memorial
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
T
he 16th annual Memorial
Day event held at the West
Valley Veterans Memorial
on the Grand Ronde Tribal campus
was highlighted by 13 names being
added to the four black granite
pillars that represent the major
branches of the U.S. armed forces.
Tribal Elder Steve Bobb Sr.,
chairman of the Tribe’s Veterans
Special Event Board and a Marine
Corps veteran from the Vietnam
War era, gave the invocation and
served as master of ceremonies.
The event began at noon Mon-
day, May 28, with a meal of turkey
gravy, potatoes, green beans, rolls,
salad and cupcakes served by
Veterans Royalty, Grand Ronde
Royalty and Royalty parents to
approximately 175 attendees in the
nearby Tribal Community Center.
The outdoors ceremony began at
1 p.m. under a clear, breezy sky
with Grand Ronde drummers led by
Cultural Education Specialist Bri-
an Krehbiel and Cultural Advisor
Bobby Mercier playing a memorial
song. Tribal youth JC Rogers sang
the national anthem as she did
in 2016 and ’17 and Grand Ronde
Royalty and Veterans Royalty per-
formed “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Tribal Council Chairwoman
Cheryle A. Kennedy, Vice Chair
Chris Mercier and Tribal Council
member Brenda Tuomi, who is an
See MEMORIAL DAY
continued on page 11
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Elder Steve Bobb Sr. shakes hands with Willamina School District Superintendent Carrie Zimbrick after
receiving his high school diploma during Willamina High School’s Class of 2018 graduation ceremony held at
the school on Saturday, May 26. Bobb was on track to graduate 51 years ago with the Class of 1967. However, he
dropped out three months shy of earning his diploma. On the right is Principal Tim France.
The graduate
Tribal Elder Steve Bobb Sr. receives high school diploma at age 69
Smoke Signals staff report
W
ILLAMINA — Tribal Elder Steve Bobb
Sr., 69, finally received a Willamina
High School diploma on Saturday, May
26, during its Class of 2018 graduation ceremony.
Bobb was on track to graduate 51 years ago with
the Class of 1967. However, he dropped out three
months shy of earning his diploma after he and
two friends were suspended for tampering with a
fire alarm.
One of his friends returned to high school and
graduated. Bobb and the other friend did not.
Bobb went on through life without a high school
diploma, serving in the Marine Corps during the
Vietnam War and starting his own custom auto
painting business. He also is a longtime chairman
of the Tribe’s Veterans Special Event Board, a two-
See GRADUATION
continued on page 12
Honoring the samfn
Ceremonial
fisher Joe
Loomis dip
net fishes
during
ceremonial
fishing at
Willamette
Falls in
West Linn
on Monday,
May 14.
Tribal members dip net at Falls, fete catching first fish
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
W
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
EST LINN – Standing above
the falls at Willamette Dam
is the culmination of a dream
decades in the making for Grand Ronde
Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A.
Kennedy.
Despite enduring a recent death in
the family, she felt called to the falls on
Monday, May 14, where Tribal members
fished using traditional dip nets under
a clear, warm sky for the first time in
more than a century at a location on the
West Linn side of the Willamette River.
See FISHING
continued on page 8