PRESORTED
STANDARD MAIL
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PORTLAND, OR
PERMIT NO. 700
Tribe shares vision for
Blue Heron site — pg. 5
april 1, 2021
Tribe fighting
efforts to rewrite
history of Falls
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
T
he Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde is once again
rebutting claims by Colum-
bia Plateau Tribes, particularly the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatil-
la Indian Reservation, regarding
historical usage of the Willamette
Falls fishery by Native American
Tribes.
In November 2020, the Umatilla
Tribe sent Gov. Kate Brown and
other officials a document titled
“Traditional Use Study of Willa-
mette Falls and the Lower Co-
lumbia River by the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation”
in that Tribe’s efforts to get Grand
Ronde to dismantle its ceremonial
fishing platform and prevent it
from exercising its cultural prac-
tices at the falls.
In response, the Grand Ronde
Tribe once again turned to Dr.
Stephen Dow Beckham, who wrote
a 205-page analysis of the Umatilla
document.
Beckham’s assessment said that
the Umatilla study is filled with
errors of fact, faulty conclusions
based on misunderstanding of
primary and secondary sources,
and accepting as “truth” virtually
anything that is in print.
“In sum, CTUIR’s study is intel-
lectually dishonest,” Beckham said.
Beckham, a professor emeritus of
history at Lewis & Clark College,
had previously prepared a 160-page
report commissioned by the Grand
Ronde Tribe in 2018 that rebutted
assertions by the Columbia Plateau
Tribes that their ancestors also
See FALLS
continued on page 7
Dunk shots
Tribe records 13 assists, vaccinates most Trail Blazers
By Danielle Harrison
Smoke Signals staff writer
T
he Portland Trail Blazers
had 13 of their 15 players
vaccinated on Monday,
March 22, at the Tribal gym,
using some of the extra vaccine
supply from the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde.
The Trail Blazers posted news
of the team vaccination efforts
to its various social media chan-
nels and website that same
morning, and players also post-
ed pictures to their social media
accounts on Twitter.
“Today, 13 Trail Blazers play-
ers received their first dose of
the Moderna COVID-19 vac-
cine,” the team said. “Access to
this excess supply of vaccines
was through the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde who be-
gan offering the vaccine to the
general public in February as
a way to help Oregon and the
nation move past the pandemic.
“The Trail Blazers organiza-
tion and players are grateful
to the Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde for making these
vaccines available to the gen-
eral public. … Players were
excited and enthusiastic about
getting their first dose. It all
went very smoothly.”
The statement encouraged
others to get vaccinated as well.
“As vaccination efforts con-
tinue to ramp up, we will con-
tinue to use our platform via
public service announcements
and other messaging to raise
Photo courtesy of Twitter
Portland Trail Blazers forward Robert Covington posted a photo of
himself getting the first dose of the two-dose Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
at the Tribal gym on Monday, March 22, to his personal Twitter account.
The Tribe vaccinated 13 members of Portland’s professional basketball
team, using some of its excess supply of vaccines.
awareness on the safety, efficacy
and importance of vaccination so
our state and communities can
come out of this awful pandemic
as soon as possible.”
Center Enes Kanter posted a
selfie of himself getting vacci-
See BLAZERS
continued on page 6
Revitalizing Chinuk Wawa during a pandemic
Zoey Holsclaw, 25,
is a post-elementary
Chinuk Wawa
teacher and Grand
Ronde Language
Department
outreach
coordinator. She sits
outside her office
building on the
Grand Ronde Tribal
campus on March 12.
Photo by Kamiah Koch
(Editor’s note: This story was originally produced as part of a collabo-
ration between the Native American Journalists Association and NPR's
Next Generation Radio.)
By Kamiah Koch
Smoke Signals social media/digital journalist
A
s a young Grand Ronde Tribal
member, Zoey Holsclaw learned
storytelling happens from the first
frost until the frogs sing.
Wintertime was when activity would
slow and the Elders of the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde could share their
stories and history in Chinuk Wawa, their
Native language.
“I love speaking the language, and part
of why I want to teach people to speak in
Chinuk Wawa is because we don’t have
that many speakers right now,” Holsclaw
See WAWA
continued on page 9