PRESORTED
STANDARD MAIL
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PORTLAND, OR
PERMIT NO. 700
TERO holds on-campus
training — pg. 12
NOVEMBER 15, 2018
Celebrating a people restored
If you go
35th Restoration
Celebration
When: Doors open at 10 a.m.,
a meal will be served at noon
and a powwow will follow at 3
p.m. All are welcome
Where: Spirit Mountain
Casino, 27100 S.W. Salmon
River Highway
RSVPs: Not necessary
More info: 503-879-1418
35th anniversary of Restoration will be feted on Sunday, Nov. 18
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
N
ov. 22, 1983, is a day that
will forever be etched in
Grand Ronde Tribal history.
It was the day that President
Ronald Reagan signed House Res-
olution 3885 restoring the Tribe,
which had been terminated 29
years earlier, to federal recognition.
His signature on the bill offi cially
ended a dark time.
The Tribe is preparing to cele-
brate 35 years of Restoration and
all of the accomplishments that
have come with it.
Tribal Council Secretary Jon A.
George grew up in Grand Ronde
during the 1960s and ’70s, when all
the Tribe had left to its name was
a 2.5-acre cemetery. Most people
who lived in the area struggled to
make ends meet in a rural econo-
my with scant opportunity. Many
Preparing for the worst
Tribal members moved away after
Termination in 1954 to survive,
leaving their roots so they could
feed their families.
The seeds of Restoration were
just beginning as George became
a young adult, but he always knew
his Tribal family was important.
“To see how far we have come
See RESTORATION
continued on page 7
Thomas hired as Economic
Development director
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
T
ribal member Bruce
Thomas is coming
home. Thomas, for-
mer chief executive offi cer
of Spirit Mountain Casino
from 1993 to 2000, has been
hired as the Grand Ronde
Tribe’s new Economic De-
velopment director.
According to his Linke-
dIn profile, Thomas de-
Bruce Thomas
veloped Spirit Mountain
Casino from the very beginning with consulting
See DIRECTOR
continued on page 4
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Crisis actor Nick Williams, of Molalla, portrays a deceased victim during the emergency
management training event held at the Governance Center on Thursday, Nov. 1.
Emergency Management organizes disaster exercise
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals staff writer
ragedies such as offi ce shootings and
other workplace acts of violence have
made headlines for several years,
prompting numerous businesses to engage
in simulated exercises to help prepare em-
ployees for the worst.
On Thursday, Nov. 1, Tribal employees
experienced a practice exercise involving an
explosion of unknown origin that occurred in
the Governance Center.
All employees were evacuated from the
building as alarms sounded. Others on the
Tribal campus were directed to shelter in
place.
T
The exercise was organized by Tribal Emer-
gency Management Assistant Brandy Bishop
for her capstone project in the Master Exercise
Practitioner Program, a series of two courses
on advanced program management, exercise
design and evaluation practices in each phase
of the Homeland Security Exercise and Eval-
uation Program.
Typically, the capstone project takes up to
18 months to complete. Bishop organized it in
eight months and thanked fellow employees
and public safety departments for helping her
accomplish this goal.
See EXERCISE
continued on page 8
35th Restoration issue inside