S moke S ignals
JANUARY 15, 2019
9
Tribal Council members were uniformly upset
AMENDMENT continued
from front page
removed from a template used for
a previous election. Tribal voters
rejected changing the definition of
Grand Ronde blood during the last
constitutional amendment election
held in July 2016.
Keller said that the incorrect
information sheet was reviewed
by the Tribal Attorney’s Office,
BIA Election Board and New Mex-
ico-based contractor Automated
Election Services and was not
caught.
Keller added that Tribal Council
is not involved in the election pro-
cess after its passes its authorizing
resolution.
Tribal Council members were
uniformly upset and disappointed
that the incorrect information was
sent out and could possibly become
a distraction or create distrust
among Tribal members. The incor-
rect information prompted some
Tribal members to question the
veracity of Tribal Council on social
media sites.
Tribal Council Chairwoman
Cheryle A. Kennedy called the mis-
take “sabotage,” but later backed
away from the word because she
said she realizes that BIA employ-
ees are human and make mistakes.
To hear Social Media/Digital
Journalist Jennifer Clark’s
report on the upcoming
constitutional amendment
election, visit www.spreaker.
com and search for “Smoke
Signals podcasts” or follow
the link on Smoke Signals’
Facebook page.
“It gets very discouraging to know
that these things can happen,”
Kennedy said, adding that this is
the third time a BIA mistake has
affected a Tribal constitutional
amendment election. “Now we’re
back at the table, defending the ac-
tions of Tribal Council after having
advisory votes, public meetings and
being transparent in the process.”
Tribal Council member Jack
Giffen Jr. said the mistake might
derail the amendment, which he
said he thinks has a slim chance of
Program problems are
reported to the committee
MEETING continued
from page 6
Members of the Health Commit-
tee are Chairwoman Bernadine
Shriver, Secretary Darlene Aaron,
Gladys Hobbs, Faye Smith, Claudia
Leno and Empey.
“Our purpose is for us to serve
as advisors to the health director
and to Tribal Council,” Ham said.
“We strive to stay informed so that
Tribal members can get the best
health care possible.”
Ham said that program problems
are often reported to the commit-
tee, who then work with Rowe to
address them.
Committee members also attend
trainings and events throughout
the year, such as the Gathering of
Grand Ronde Tilikum in the spring
and an opioids awareness training
in December.
Hamm received one question
from those in attendance.
After the presentation, Kennedy
praised the committee members for
their work.
“There is a wealth of knowledge
embodied in our Health Commit-
tee,” she said.
Dan Ham, Khani Schultz, Nancy
Norton, Tonya Gleason-Shepek and
Wayne Peters won the $50 door
prizes while Barbara Steere, Lise
Alexander and Kryshanne Smith
won the $100 door prizes.
Earlier in the meeting, Kennedy
addressed the Bureau of Indian Af-
fairs error in the voter registration
packets sent to Tribal members
beginning in late December.
She said there will not be a vote
on a possible change to the defini-
tion of Grand Ronde blood during
the Feb. 25 constitutional amend-
ment election. The only proposed
change Tribal members will vote
on is whether nonTribal siblings
who have brothers and sisters
enrolled in the Tribe and have the
same parents, and who meet the
membership requirements under
the Tribal Constitution before Sept.
14, 1999, should be allowed to en-
roll to resolve the split-sibling issue
affecting some Tribal families.
“There has been a lot of discus-
sion about the upcoming election,”
Kennedy said. “This matter came
about as a result of advisory votes.
Overwhelmingly, split families
were at the top. We did this by
resolution and it was done very
publicly.”
Local educational meetings for
the constitutional amendment
election will be held 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 16 and Feb. 20,
at the Tribal Community Center.
Dinner will be provided.
Offsite meeting dates will be held
5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30, at
Portland State University’s Native
American Student and Community
Center, and 5:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Feb. 13, at the Lane Community
College Longhouse in Eugene.
Tribal Council Secretary Jon A.
George led the cultural presenta-
tion to open the meeting.
The entire meeting can be viewed
by visiting the Tribal website at
www.grandronde.org and clicking
on the News tab and then Video.
being adopted. He also called for a
forensic audit to determine where
the breakdown occurred.
“We just can’t keep going on like
this,” Giffen said.
However, other Tribal Council
members, such of Michael Langley,
said that the mistake will not derail
the effort to resolve the split-sibling
situation as long as Tribal Council
is unified in its message that the
Grand Ronde blood definition lan-
guage on the information sheet was
included in error.
“It’s very unfortunate, but not
unprecedented,” Tribal Council
member Kathleen George said. “We
need to send a consistent, unani-
mous message that it will be correct
on the ballot.”
Hernandez said Tribal staff will
post a corrected information sheet
on the Tribal website and on Face-
book, and the topic was discussed
during the Sunday, Jan. 6, General
Council meeting.
“It’s an unfortunate error that
we can overcome,” Hernandez said.
“There is no smoking gun. It is a sim-
ple error on the information sheet.”
Election process
Tribal members must specifically
register to vote in BIA-run constitu-
tional amendment elections. Being
registered to vote in annual Tribal
Council elections is insufficient.
Tribal Council approved an au-
thorization to proceed in October
to move forward with a proposed
amendment designed to address
the issue of siblings who are not
Tribal members despite having
brothers and sisters who are and
have the same parent(s).
Tribal Council was encouraged to
move the proposed constitutional
amendment to a vote by a positive
Sept. 8 advisory vote result. Tribal
voters favored a similarly worded
proposal 839 to 365, for a 69.7 per-
cent majority. To amend the Tribal
Constitution, a two-thirds majority
is necessary.
Only two proposed constitutional
amendments have ever received
sufficient yes votes to pass — the
July 1999 enrollment requirements
that created the current split-sib-
ling situation and a February 2008
proposal to increase the relinquish-
ment period from one to five years.
Other constitutional amendment
proposals have either failed to gar-
ner the two-thirds majority man-
dated by the Tribal Constitution or
have been defeated.
Registration packets were mailed
in late December and started ar-
riving in Tribal members’ mail
soon thereafter. Tribal members
will have until Friday, Jan. 25, to
register to vote in the election and
ballots are scheduled to be mailed
on Friday, Feb. 1.
Two-thirds of those who vote will
have to approve for the split-sib-
lings amendment to pass. In ad-
dition, 30 percent of those who
register to vote must cast a ballot
for the election to count.
In the last three constitutional
amendment elections held in 2016,
2015 and 2012, an average of 1,248
Tribal members registered to vote
in BIA-run elections and turnout
averaged 61.3 percent.
As of the September 2018 Tribal
Council election, more than 4,150
Tribal members were 18 or older,
making them eligible to register in
the upcoming election.
In the run-up to the election,
Tribal Council has scheduled four
educational sessions:
• 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16, in
the Tribal Community Center in
Grand Ronde;
• 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30,
at Portland State University’s
Native American Student and
Community Center;
• 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13,
at the Lane Community College
Longhouse in Eugene;
• 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, at
the Tribal Community Center in
Grand Ronde.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs con-
tinues to run Tribal constitutional
amendment elections because a
proposal to remove the federal
government from the process was
defeated in March 2015 by a vote
of 381 to 230.
As Kennedy pointed out, it is not
the first time that mistakes by the
BIA have affected Tribal constitu-
tional amendment elections. Most
recently in May 2014, Tribal Coun-
cil requested the bureau cancel a
scheduled election because proce-
dural errors at the Siletz Agency
Office “seriously compromised” the
integrity of the election process.
Tribal Council unanimously
agreed during its Jan. 2 meeting
to create policies on running BIA
elections at the urging of Giffen.
“Three times is three strikes,” he
said. “I’m not going to have egg on
my face a fourth time.”