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DECEMBER 1, 2021
9
Appeals Court tosses
Oregon sacred site case
Submitted photos
Grand Ronde Tribal member Maya Frost, center, received her Ph.D. in
Polymer Engineering from the Technological University of the Shannon:
Midlands Midwest in Athlone, Ireland, on Oct. 29.
Tribal members in
Ireland graduate
Harrison is the eldest Elder of
the Grand Ronde Tribe at 97
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
Grand Ronde Tribal members
Maya Frost, 52, and her son, Liam
O Gallachoir, 17, have graduated
from a doctoral program and high
school, respectively, in their adopt-
ed homeland of Ireland.
Frost and her son were featured
in a March 2020 “So Far Away” sto-
ry about Tribal members who live
overseas and significantly distant
from the Reservation.
Liam graduated from secondary
school – the equivalent of a U.S.
high school – and received his first
choice of universities. Starting in
October, he began attending the
British Irish Modern Music In-
stitute through the Technological
University of Dublin.
“He is doing a bachelor of arts in
Commercial Music in drumming,”
Frost said in an e-mail.
Because of the COVID-19 restric-
tions in Ireland, there was no grad-
uation ceremony, but Liam received
a Pendleton blanket from the Tribe.
Frost graduated on Oct. 29 with
a Ph.D. in Polymer Engineering
from the Technological University
of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest.
She wore a button blanket robe
during the ceremony and feathers
in her hair. She thanked her cous-
in, Dolores Parmenter, for help
and guidance and Bobby Mercier,
Greg Robinson and the Tribe for
inspiration. The feathers were a gift
from Lands Manager Jan Michael
Looking Wolf Reibach who visited
them in 2012.
“My research explored the synthe-
sis of thermosensitive polymers for
use in drug delivery applications,”
Frost said. “I succeeded in creating
a novel, less expensive, more envi-
ronmentally friendly method of syn-
thesis of a safe, non-toxic polymer
suitable for use in targeted drug
delivery platforms. This is a means
of delivering a needed medication to
a person at the site of the disease in
the body rather than to the person
systemically which can have an
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal appeals court dismissed a law-
suit involving the bulldozing a Native American sacred site near
Mount Hood in 2008 to add a turning lane to a nearby highway.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with the fed-
eral government on Wednesday, Nov. 24, saying the case was moot.
Grand Ronde Tribal Elder Carol Logan joined members of the
Yakama Nation to say that the federal government broke numer-
ous laws by destroying the site, including the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act and several environmental laws.
Logan and the other Native leaders alerted the federal government
to their use of the site before construction began, but their pleas went
unheeded. In response to their original lawsuit, the government
claimed it has complete authority to destroy sacred sites located on
federal land and a trial court agreed.
The oral argument in Slockish v. U.S. Federal Highway Adminis-
tration was presented by Becket Fund for Religious Liberty attorney
Joe Davis in the Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
The Appeals Court ruled that since the Oregon Department of
Transportation had been dismissed from the lawsuit, the remain-
ing federal government defendants did not have the authority to
make the changes sought, such as removing the guard rail and
reconstructing the stone altar.
The site was called Ana Kwna Nchi Nchi Patat, or Place of Big
Big Trees. 
TiMet bus continued
from front page
Tribal member Liam Ó Gallachóir
graduated from secondary school
recently in Ireland. He is attending
the British Irish Modern Music
Institute through the Technological
University of Dublin where he is
pursuing a degree in Commercial
Music. He is wearing a blanket sent
by the Tribe.
effect on the body as a whole.”
Frost is currently working as a
research scientist at the Techno-
logical University of the Shannon
on an Innovations Partnership
Program with Nelipak Healthcare
Packaging headquartered in Cran-
ston, Rhode Island.
“I have been able to do this be-
cause of support through the Con-
federated Tribes of Grand Ronde,”
she said. “I had never expected to
get this far and it has been a tough
journey, but worth it. I can only
ever encourage people to educate
themselves, whether it is academ-
ically or through experience. We
can only be better for it. You have
all made it possible … hayu masi,
tilixam!”
Frost, who is Molalla and Chi-
nook, is descended from her
great-grandmother, Esther La-
Bonte. She grew up in Oregon City,
overlooking Willamette Falls, and
has lived in Ireland for more than
20 years. 
ant Tribal leaders,” said a TriMet
website post about the bus wrap.
“She is known especially for her
work as a member of the Tribal
Council of the Grand Ronde and
for her contributions during the
Termination era, a time when
the Eisenhower administration
deprived Tribes of formal recog-
nition.”
Other Tribal leaders to be
featured on the bus wrap are
John “Buzz” Nelson (Oglala La-
kota), Se-ah-dom Edmo (Shosho-
ne-Bannock/Nez Perce/Yakama),
Ed Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock),
Christine Dupres (Cowlitz/Cree),
SandeBea Allman (Oglala La-
kota/Nimiipuu), Terry L. Cross
(Seneca Nation), Tawna Sanchez
(Shoshone-Bannock/Ute/Carrizo)
and James Parker (Chippewa
Cree).
The TriMet bus wrap effort
also has honored leaders in the
Black, Asian American/Pacific
Islander, Hispanic and LBGT+
communities.
Harrison, 97, is the eldest
Elder of the Grand Ronde Tribe
and is still active in the Tribal
community. During her time on
Tribal Council, she helped guide
the Tribe into gaming through
the signing of a compact with
Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts in
July 1993. She also suggested the
Tribe start endowment funds to
benefit education, health care,
economic development, and
social and cultural programs.
Those funds continue to be an
important economic resource to
this day for the Tribe.
Some of her more recent hon-
ors include being named to the
American Museum of Natural
History's Board of Trustees in
2018 and having Jaguar Elemen-
tary School in Corvallis renamed
after her earlier this year, of
which Harrison said she was
“humbled and very flattered.”
“We are profoundly humbled
to have our school named for
Kathryn Jones Harrison and
we are hoping to engage our
students, staff and community
in the change,” Principal Beth
Martin said. “For us, there is
such immense opportunity and
learning that can take place. At
the same time, we want to ensure
we move through this change in
a way that honors who she is as
well as the collective culture she
represents.”
Harrison lives at the Tribe’s
Adult Foster Care housing in
Grand Ronde.
To find out more about the bus
wrap and read about all of the
Native leaders honored, visit
trimet.org/celebrate/nativelead-
ers.htm. 
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