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PERMIT NO. 700
General Council
briefed on health
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— pg. 6
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February 15, 2020
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Smoke Signals
U M P Q U A • M O L A L L A • R O G U E R I V E R • K A L A P U YA • C H A S TA
An Independent Publication of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde • Smokesignals.org
So far away
Tribal member digs
living in Spain as she
studies paleontology
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series
of stories in 2020 about Grand Ronde
Tribal members who live abroad.)
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
W
hen it comes to the eight Grand
Ronde Tribal members who live
abroad, Sharrah Marie McKenzie
is the second closest.
Residing in Barcelona, Spain, McKenzie
is approximately 5,600 miles from Grand
Ronde. Just the continent of North America,
the Atlantic Ocean and most of the Iberian
Peninsula away.
When it’s noon on the Grand Ronde Res-
ervation, it is 9 p.m. in McKenzie’s flat in
the city center of the 5.5 million population
capital of the Catalonian region of northeast
Spain located on the Mediterranean Sea.
“My flat is located in a 200-year-old build-
ing,” McKenzie says via e-mail. “Most of the
architectural designs are traditional, such
Contributed photo
See SPAIN
continued on page 7
Tribal member Sharrah McKenzie and her golden retriever Gypsi enjoy going for walks along the
nearby Mediterranean coastline outside of Barcelona, Spain.
Grand Ronde Road seeing
more and more potholes
Kennedy testifies before Congress,
seeks fix to 26-year-old mistake
By Danielle Frost
Smoke Signals editor
W
Smoke Signals staff writer
A
nyone who’s driven Grand
Ronde Road on a regular
basis is familiar with the
increasing number of potholes.
Although the Tribal Public Works
Department performs regular
maintenance before the nuisance
becomes a potential hazard, every
year the potholes re-emerge.
“It’s a priority for us to get those
fixed, but the weather needs to
clear up a bit first,” Public Works
Manager John Mercier says. “I
know it’s frustrating and I appre-
ciate everyone’s patience.”
Grand Ronde Road was recon-
See POTHOLES
continued on page 8
By Dean Rhodes
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
A pothole on Grand Ronde Road,
near the Tribal Cemetery, is
representative of the many that
are occurring between highways
18 and 22.
ASHINGTON, D.C. –
Grand Ronde Tribal
Chairwoman Cheryle
A. Kennedy testified before the
House Subcommittee for Indige-
nous Peoples on Wednesday, Feb.
5, seeking to correct a mistake
written into the Grand Ronde
Reservation Act in 1994.
According to Kennedy’s pre-
pared testimony, the Bureau of
Land Management discovered a
survey error on the Grand Ronde
Reservation that dates back to
1871. The error was discovered
after passage of the Grand Ronde
Reservation Act in 1988 that re-
See CONGRESS
continued on page 9
Smoke Signals screen capture
Grand Ronde Tribal Council
Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy
testified before the Subcommittee
for Indigenous Peoples on
Wednesday, Feb. 5, seeking to
correct a 26-year-old mistake written
into the Grand Ronde Reservation
Act that prohibits further Tribal
land claims within the entire state of
Oregon. Tribal Attorney Rob Greene,
back, accompanied Kennedy on the
trip to Washington, D.C.