8
S moke S ignals
MARCH 1, 2019
Ballots must be
returned by March 22
Elder Valentines
AMENDMENT continued
from front page
requirements. Applicants also must
meet the five-year relinquishment
requirement if they enrolled in
another Tribe.
Tribal Council was encouraged
to move the proposed amendment
forward by a positive September
advisory vote. Tribal voters favored
a similarly worded proposal 839 to
365, for a 69.7 percent majority.
To amend the Tribal Constitution,
two-thirds of those voting must
approve of the change.
Only two proposed constitutional
amendment changes have ever re-
ceived sufficient yes votes to pass
– the July 1999 enrollment require-
ments that created the split-sibling
situation and the 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 outright defeated.
Since the election is being super-
vised by the BIA, Tribal members
wanting to vote on the issue had to
specially register. The BIA still su-
pervises Grand Ronde constitution-
al amendment elections because
a proposal to remove the federal
government from the process was
defeated 381-230 in 2015.
Two-thirds of those who vote will
have to approve for the amendment
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.
to pass, as well as 30 percent of
those who registered – 388 – must
cast a ballot for the election to
count. In the last three constitu-
tional amendment elections, turn-
out has not been an issue with an
average of 61.3 percent of those
who registered to vote eventually
casting ballots.
Ballots are scheduled to be mailed
to Tribal members who registered
on Friday, March 1, and must be
returned by Friday, March 22, to
count.
The registered voter list can
be viewed at https://drive.google.
com/file/d/1cWdnz90ySZ-8ALke-
stT-C0MsCg6-uUr0/view
Photos by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Tribal member Linda and Cecil Donahue (Kiowa,
Pima, Maricopa) posed in the kissing booth during
the Valentine's Day lunch held at the Elders Activity
Center on Thursday, Feb. 14.
Tribal Council member Jack Giffen Jr., second from left, joins in the
Valentine's Day lunch held at the Elders Activity Center.
Tribe receives $250,000 transit grant
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde was notified on Wednesday,
Feb. 13, that it is the recipient of a $250,000 Federal Transit Administra-
tion grant that will help purchase two buses for an upcoming Dallas route.
The award was part of $5 million awarded to American Indian and Alaska
Native governments under the Tribal Transit Program that supports 36
projects in 14 states.
Tribal Transit grants are designed to help connect Tribal residents with
jobs, school, health care and other community services.
Ad created by George Valdez