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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2021)
8 JUNE 15, 2021 Smoke Signals Native American-themed books given to all Willamina students By Danielle Harrison Smoke Signals staff writer WILLAMINA — Every Willa- mina School District student has access to a Native American book collection this summer thanks to extra funds from an Oregon Depart- ment of Education grant. Rebecca Arredondo is the school district’s Tribal Attendance Prom- ising Practices Program advocate. Typically, the program provides dif- ferent incentives and celebrations to support Tribal families within the district and encourage regular school attendance for elementa- ry-aged students. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the program’s grant money wasn’t spent because in-person events and programs were canceled. “That left some unused funds and the ODE was able to pass along that money to TAPP sites across Oregon,” Arredondo said. “We were thrilled to get additional money to spend this year.” After brainstorm- ing ideas with Su- perintendent Carrie Zimbrick, the district decided to put togeth- er a list of 10 Native American-focused books for kindergar- ten through 12th grade students, and distribute a set to each district family. Tribal Librarian Kathy Cole, Chinuk Wawa Education Program Manag- er Ali Holsclaw and Tribal Youth Education Academic Coach Chey- anne Heidt helped select the books. The district received an extra $51,000 in TAPP funds, which was used to purchase approximately 550 copies of each book. Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” The book collection also will support the district’s efforts with Senate Bill 13, which requires Oregon schools to incorporate the Native American expe- rience and perspectives into lessons throughout different subject areas. In an effort to stay as local as possible, Arre- dondo ordered the mate- rials from McMinnville’s Third Street Books. She also used grant money to purchase “The First Or- egonians,” which will be given to all district teach- ers. It details the Native American experience in Photos by Timothy J. Gonzalez Oregon, much of which Willamina Elementary School Tribal Attendance Promising Practices Program Advocate is written by represen- Rebecca Arredondo is assisted by her son, Adrian, 9, on Wednesday, June 2, in packaging tatives from the state’s nine federally recognized books that were distributed to students on Friday, June 4. The collection focuses on the Tribes. Native American experience through a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. The books were sent One of the titles that the Willamina home with the youngest child in Elementary School Tribal each district family on Friday, June Attendance Promising Practices 4. Students who are in the compre- hensive distance learning program Program distributed to students. were given pickup times. Any extra books will be added to the library The books titles are: “Frybread: collection, given to new families as A Native American Family Story,” gifts or distributed to teachers for “When We Were Alone,” “Coyote in their classrooms. Love: The Story of Crater Lake,” “We are so excited to give you this “Indian No More,” “Jo Jo Makoons: collection of books and hope you en- The Used-To-Be Best Friend,” “In joy reading these with your family the Footsteps of Crazy Horse,” as much as we have,” Zimbrick and “Powwow: A Celebration of Song Arredondo stated in a letter sent and Dance,” “Native Athletes in home to district families. Action!” “Code Talkers” and “The “Kathy Cole also gave me a great list of books and helped with or- dering ‘Indian No More,’ and Ali Holsclaw helped review the list,” Arredondo said. “I was so excited about this because I love books. We had a big list and had to narrow it down to 10.” 2021 Grand Ronde Thursday, June 24 th via Zoom Please join us for the 5 th Annual Grand Ronde Education Summit from 9am to 3pm! Engage with other educators and join us virtually for a day of discussions around Grand Ronde history, Oregon Senate Bill 13, native based curriculum, ways to engage students in cultural based education, and more! You will earn PDU credits, gain access to useful materials, and it is all free! To register go to www.eventbrite.com and search 2021 Grand Ronde Education Summit Contact Justine Flynn at (503)879-2282 or Justine.Flynn@grandronde.org for more information. Tribe has not announced plans on how it will spend American Rescue Plan funds RESCUE PLAN continued from front page an Tribe, 6.9 million; the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, $10.355 million; the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw, 7.6 million; and the Burns Paiute Tribe, 3.6 million. The U.S. Department of Treasury held five Tribal consultations with 85 Tribal leaders in late March and early April to accept input on how to improve the allocation of funds for pandemic and economic relief. Tribal governments used the Treasury Submission Portal and completed various requirements to receive the two payments. In 2020, some Tribes had issues with the CARES Act methodology and sued the federal government. For instance, the Shawnee Tribe in Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians in Florida received the minimum $100,000 because Housing & Urban Development data said they had enrollment to- tals of zero. The Grand Ronde Tribe, as well as the other eight federally rec- ognized Tribes in Oregon, fared well under the CARES Act. Grand Ronde received more than $45 mil- lion and dedicated a considerable portion to fund coronavirus relief payments to adult Tribal members who received a combined eight pay- ments that totaled $4,400 in 2020. So far, the Grand Ronde Tribe has not announced any plans on how it will spend American Rescue Plan funds. During the Tuesday, June 8, Leg- islative Action Committee meeting, Finance Officer Chris Leno said the Tribe is still prioritizing how it will spend the remainder of its CARES Act funds that must be spent by the end of 2021 and the new Res- cue Plan monies, and that an an- nouncement would be forthcoming. Some of the expenditures permis- sible by the Treasury Department’s guidance include responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency and its negative economic effects, providing premium pay for essential workers, investments in infrastruc- ture like water, sewer and broad- band, and replacing lost revenues to provide governmental services. The $1.9 trillion American Res- cue Plan was signed into law by President Joseph Biden on March 11, 2021.