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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2019)
2 S moke S ignals MARCH 1, 2019 Smoke Signals PUBLICATIONS OFFICE 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, OR 97347 1-800-422-0232, FAX: 503-879-2173 Website: www.smokesignals.org E-mails: news@grandronde.org Editorial.Board@grandronde.org Healing Our Tribal Families The 1953 Western Oregon Termination Act robbed the Grand Ronde Tribe of its federal recognition and its status as a Tribe. In the eyes of the government, we were left a scattered people without our social, economic and political structure and without a recognized identity. To them, we were no longer Native American. Since our Restoration in 1983, the Tribe has worked diligently to rebuild who we are as a Tribe, a government and a people. Today, we pride our- selves on taking care of our Tribal members and our community. However, some of our brothers and sisters remain living under the dark cloud of Grand Ronde’s Termination — a fate that is the direct result of the 1999 constitutional amendment and not an act of Congress. The 1999 constitutional amendment made important changes to our enrollment requirements that were designed to slow the number of indi- viduals enrolling in Grand Ronde. These changes resulted in a different enrollment status among siblings who were born to the same parents. It denied enrollment to some individuals in our Tribal families and created split families within our Tribal community. In their denial of enrollment comes the denial of the same services, pro- grams and cultural identity provided to their parents and their brothers or sisters. Services such as health care, education, employment services and all of those other benefits that are provided to their family members are denied to them. They have continued to live under the cloud of Termination because in 1999 we told them that they did not belong. The split family issue is one that all of us on Tribal Council would like to address, but is out of our control. Therefore, we have put a constitutional amendment before the membership that we believe will lessen the number of split families. The constitutional amendment before the membership will lessen the number of split families in our Tribe by allowing the en- rollment of applicants who have enrolled brothers or sisters by the same Tribal parent(s), and who meet the pre-1999 constitutional enrollment requirements. This constitutional amendment will not change the defini- tion of Grand Ronde blood. For Tribal Council, the split family issue is about fairness and every one of us supports passing this constitutional amendment. We recognize that all of our enrollment issues will not be addressed by this constitutional amendment, but history has taught us that taking on all of our enrollment challenges at once only complicates the matter. We believe that passing this constitutional amendment is an important first step in closing the divide in our community. That is why we are voting yes on this constitutional amendment — to help heal our split families. We hope that you will do the same. It is up to the Tribal membership to make these families whole again. — The Grand Ronde Tribal Council General Council meeting 11 a.m. Sunday, March 3 Tribal Community Center NOTICE — Monthly Tribal Council Wednesday Meetings DATE TIME Wednesday, March 6...........................................................................4 p.m. Wednesday, March 20.........................................................................5 p.m. Twitter: CTGRSmokeSignal www.facebook.com/SmokeSignalsCTGR/ www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDXdTzfGjzJ_j3NPpCrtcw DEAN RHODES CHELSEA BARANKSI DANIELLE FROST PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS/PUBLICATIONS ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT STAFF WRITER 503-879-1418 danielle.frost@grandronde.org 503-879-1463 503-879-4663 chelsea.clark@grandronde.org dean.rhodes@grandronde.org TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ GEORGE VALDEZ JUSTIN PHILLIPS PAGE DESIGNER PHOTOJOURNALIST GRAPHIC DESIGN SPECIALIST 503-879-1961 503-879-1416 justin.phillips@grandronde.org timothy.gonzalez@grandronde.org george.valdez@grandronde.org 503-879-2190 DEADLINE DATE JENNIFER CLARK SOCIAL MEDIA/ DIGITAL JOURNALIST 503-879-1461 jennifer.clark@grandronde.org ISSUE DATE Tuesday, March 5 ..................... March 15 Wednesday, March 20 .................. April 1 Friday, April 5 ........................... April 15 Friday, April 19 ............................ May 1 Monday, May 6 .......................... May 15 Monday, May 20 ..........................June 1 Editorial Policy SMOKE SIGNALS, a publication of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Commu- nity of Oregon, is published twice a month. No portion of this publication may be reprinted without permission. Our editorial policy is intended to encourage input from Tribal members and readers about stories printed in the Tribal newspaper. However, all letters received must be signed by the author, an address must be given and a phone number or e-mail address must be included for verification purposes. Full addresses and phone numbers will not be published unless requested. Letters must be 400 words or less. SMOKE SIGNALS reserves the right to edit letters and to refuse letters that are determined to contain libelous statements or personal attacks on individuals, staff, Tribal administration or Tribal Council. Not all letters are guaranteed publication upon submission. Letters to the editor are the opinions and views of the writer. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SMOKE SIGNALS. Members of: Native American Journalists Association Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association 2019 Tribal Council 1-800-422-0232 — tribalcouncil@grandronde.org Cheryle A. Kennedy Tribal Council Chairwoman — ext. 2352 Jack Giffen Jr. — ext. 2300 jack.giffen@grandronde.org cheryle.kennedy@grandronde.org Adult Members’ Trust and Minors’ Custodial & Rabbi Trust Funds Investments in the Adult Members’ Trust Fund and the Minors’ Custodial and Rabbi Trust Funds are updated each business day. If you are a trust participant and/or if you are the parent/guardian of a minor member, you can access and review your balance and your minor child’s balance by visiting www.401Save.com. To log-in, the initial User ID is your (or your child’s) Social Security number, and the initial Password is “00” followed by your (or your child’s) membership number. Once logged in, you can customize your User ID and password for security purposes. If you have any trouble logging in to or using the system, contact the 401Save Call Center at 1-888-700-0808 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific time, Monday through Friday. Chris Mercier Tribal Council Vice Chair — ext. 1444 Denise Harvey — ext. 2353 denise.harvey@grandronde.org chris.mercier@grandronde.org Michael Langley — ext. 1777 Jon A. George Tribal Council Secretary — ext. 2355 michael.langley@grandronde.org jon.george@grandronde.org Lisa Leno — ext. 1770 lisaleno@grandronde.org Kathleen George — ext. 2305 kathleen.george@grandronde.org Steve Bobb Sr. — ext. 4555 steve.bobb@grandronde.org
