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Tribal Housing
annual Easter Egg
Hunt returns April 16
— pg. 3
april 1, 2022
Tribe leaves Willamette Falls Legacy Project
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
T
he Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
will no longer participate in discussions
regarding the Willamette Falls Legacy
Project, according to a March 17 letter from
Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy
that was sent to legacy partners.
The Legacy Project is a partnership between
Oregon City, Clackamas County, regional gov-
ernment Metro and the state of Oregon that has
been working since 2011 to open public access to
Willamette Falls, including a public riverwalk
alongside the Willamette River.
The Grand Ronde Tribe became a major play-
er in the Legacy Project when it purchased the
former Blue Heron Paper Mill site in Oregon
City in August 2019.
“As the owners of the 23-acre Blue Heron
property at Willamette Falls, we have already
made significant progress toward bringing new
life and public access to the site,” Kennedy said
in her letter. “We have released our vision for
the project, which centers around a commitment
to public access, environmental and cultural
restoration, and thoughtful economic develop-
ment. We have started demolition, embarked
See PROJECT
continued on page 7
Tribe intensifies
push to overturn
consent decree
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
T
The Corvallis School District will honor Grand Ronde Tribal Elder Kathryn Jones Harrison during a ceremony to
be held 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 14. Kathryn Jones Harrison Elementary School, located at 1825 N.W. 27th
St., was renamed for the 2021-22 school year and honors one of the most revered figures in the Grand Ronde
Restoration effort.
Corvallis School District to
honor Harrison on April 14
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
C
ORVALLIS — The Cor-
vallis School District
will honor Grand Ronde
Tribal Elder Kathryn Jones
Harrison during a ceremony to
be held 11:30 a.m. Thursday,
April 14.
Kathryn Jones Harrison El-
ementary School, 1825 N.W.
27th St., was renamed for the
2021-22 school year and honors
one of the most revered figures
in the Grand Ronde Restoration
effort and a Grand Ronde Tribal
Council member for 17 years.
Harrison, 98, is also the
Tribe’s eldest Elder and lives
See SCHOOL
continued on page 8
KATHRYN
JONES
HARRISON
ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL
N
Circle Blvd
NW Kings Blvd
See DECREE
continued on page 12
Photo by Kamiah Koch
99W
20
Willamette River
NW Harrison Blvd
NW 27th St
he Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde is intensify-
ing its push to overturn the
1980s consent decree that limits
Tribal members’ ability to hunt
and fish within their ancestral
homelands.
In November, Tribal Council
Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy
published an op-ed in The Orego-
nian in which she called the con-
sent decree “unjust.”
On the legislative front, Oregon
Sen. Jeff Merkley introduced a bill
in the U.S. Senate on Nov. 1, 2021,
that would allow the Grand Ronde
and Siletz Tribes to renegotiate
their consent decrees with the
state of Oregon. An identical bill
was introduced in the U.S. House
of Representatives by Oregon Rep.
Kurt Schrader and co-sponsored
by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici on Dec.
23, 2021.
Kennedy testified in support of
Merkley’s bill on Feb. 16 before the
Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee
and also expressed her support for
a similar bill affecting the Siletz
Tribe. The House bill still awaits
a hearing.
Recently, the Tribe posted
three three-minute videos on its
governmental website at www.
grandronde.org featuring Commu-
nications Director Sara Thompson,
former Tribal Council Chair Reyn
Leno and Cultural Advisor Bobby
Mercier discussing the restrictive
consent decree and how it affects
Tribal members. The videos can be
viewed by clicking on the History &
Culture tab and then Removing the
Consent Decree.
All of this, however, begs the
question for the average Grand
Ronde Tribal member: What is the
Circle Blvd
Corvallis
34
NW Arthur Ave
Clover City Park
20
Map created by Samuel Briggs III