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NOVEMBER 1, 2021
Council members meet
Interior officials in Bend
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Tribal Council Chairwoman
Cheryle A. Kennedy and Secretary
Michael Langley traveled to Bend
on Thursday, Oct. 14, to confer
with Department of the Interior
representatives who were visiting
the state.
Unfortunately, Interior Secre-
tary Deb Haaland, the first Native
American to ever occupy a Cabinet
post in the history of the United
States, was unable to attend due
to the death of her mother.
Assistant Secretary for Indian
Affairs Bryan Newland (Ojibwe) and
Principal Deputy Assistant Secre-
tary Rachael Taylor visited southern
Oregon to highlight conservation
efforts, survey wildland fire damage
and discuss the department’s sup-
port for rural and Tribal communi-
ties. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley joined them.
The Interior Department con-
tingent visited Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument and toured
the site of the 2020 South Oben-
chain fire, which burned more than
30,000 acres and destroyed almost
100 buildings.
Department representatives and
Merkley also traveled to Crater
Lake National Park to highlight
ongoing and future projects to make
the park more accessible.
At Central Oregon Community
College in Bend, Newland met with
Tribal leaders to highlight the de-
partment’s work to strengthen the
role of Tribal consultation in federal
decision-making, support Indige-
nous resilience to the COVID-19
pandemic, combat the crisis of
missing and murdered indigenous
peoples and address the country’s
dark history with the Federal Indi-
an Boarding School Initiative.
“We did take the opportunity to
talk about, in the bureau budget,
the things that are lacking for our
Tribe,” Kennedy said during the
Tuesday, Oct. 26, Legislative Ac-
tion Committee meeting. “I want to
believe that they feel on open ears.
The things that I talked about were
public safety, fire management and
establishing a line item for cultural
recovery for all of the oversight in
the trust responsibility area.”
“I talked about education be-
cause, especially in our rural com-
munity, education is really, really
suffering,” Langley said. “It’s not
just that, it’s an economic issue, it’s
a mental health issue … there’s a
lot of issues that are wrapped up
in that. We think a lot of our urban
schools, but they actually have
way more resources than the rural
schools right now. I think more
attention needs to be paid to that
and that’s what I was asking for.”
The next day, Newland and Tay-
lor visited the Warm Springs Reser-
vation, where they met with Tribal
leaders and highlighted federal
investments that the bipartisan
infrastructure deal would make to
local Tribal water infrastructure.
The Warm Springs Tribe’s aging
water system has led to an urgent
need for investments in safe drink-
ing water and sanitation facilities.
Newland said the infrastructure
deal would make $250 million
available to help improve drinking
water quality and services for the
Warm Springs Tribal community.
Interior representatives ended
their Oregon visit on the Columbia
River, where they discussed ongo-
ing work to secure treaty fishing
on the river and ensure that Tribal
communities have the resources
they need to fish along their ances-
tral lands and waters. 
Tribe started demolition work
on the more than 50 buildings
BLUE HERON continued
from front page
for this funding as it moves through
Congress, and do everything I can
to support the sovereignty and
self-determination of Tribal nations
in Oregon.”
The funding will be included in an
upcoming Transportation, Housing
and Urban Development appropri-
ations bill, Merkley said.
“Since its foreclosure, the old
Blue Heron site has sat empty and
abandoned,” said Tribal Council
Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy.
“The funding allocated to the Grand
Ronde Tribe under the appropri-
ations bill will allow us to make
significant improvements to the
property’s infrastructure and take
this project one step closer to wel-
coming family and friends back to
Willamette Falls. We want to thank
our senators for work they’ve done
to highlight this important project.”
The bill also includes support
for a variety of other areas and
is the basis for negotiations with
the House of Representatives as
Congress works to fund the federal
government for fiscal year 2022.
Merkley is the first Oregon mem-
ber of Congress from either cham-
ber to serve on the Appropriations
Committee since Sen. Mark Hat-
field. He joined the committee in
2013.
The Tribe purchased the 23-acre
Blue Heron site in August 2019 for
$15.25 million. In addition to the
possible $2 million in federal fund-
ing, the Tribe received an $800,000
grant from the Environmental
Protection Agency in May to begin
environmental remediation at the
site, which has been home to a pa-
per mill and other industrial and
commercial uses since the arrival of
European settlers in the mid-1800s.
The Tribe started demolition of
the more than 50 abandoned and
dilapidated buildings in Septem-
ber. 
Smoke Signals
Elders dine-in
Photos by Kamiah Koch
Tribal Elder Bud White was one the first to enter the Elders Activity
Center as it opened its doors again to serve Elder lunches on Tuesday,
Oct. 19, after being closed for 19 months. Due to the COVID-19
pandemic, the center stopped serving indoor meals to Elders on March
13, 2020, and transitioned to serving to-go meals. Now with scheduled
time slots and a maximum capacity of 25 people, Elders can pick up to-
go lunches or sit down and enjoy the meal at a table.
Tribal Elder Marline Groshong was served fish tacos and a celebratory
cookie from Crumbl Cookies as the Elders Activity Center opened again
for indoor Elder lunches on Tuesday, Oct. 19. The EAC has delivered
meals or served to-go meals in a drive-through line since March 2020 to
combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Free Playgroup in
Grand Ronde!
*
When: First Thursday of each
month 10:00 am-11:30 am
Where: CTGR – Community
Service Center 9615 Grand Ronde
Road Grand Ronde, OR 97347
Who: Parents and caregivers of
children under 5 years.
Why: Come to play, have a snack
and have fun!