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PERMIT NO. 700
Willamina High
graduates 74 seniors
— pgs. 14-15
June 1, 2022
Indian boarding
school report
includes Grand
Ronde location
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
A
damning report on the federal govern-
ment’s 150-year effort to “civilize” Native
American children through the Indian
boarding school system released on Wednesday,
May 11, identifies nine such schools that oper-
ated in Oregon and includes the Grand Ronde
Boarding School.
The investigative report is the first compre-
hensive effort to address the legacy of federal
Indian boarding school policies and was the
result of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland
implementing the Federal Indian Boarding
School Initiative in June 2021. Haaland is the
first Native American to lead the Department
of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of
Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education.
The initiative’s investigation includes a 102-
page report as well as a complementary list
and individual profiles of the 408 federal Indian
boarding schools that operated across 37 states
or then-territories between 1819 and 1969. In
the Pacific Northwest, Washington state had
15 Indian boarding schools and Idaho had six,
the report states.
The most federal Indian boarding schools were
located in Oklahoma, 76; Arizona, 47; and New
Mexico, 43.
“The content of this document may be disturb-
ing or distressing,” the federal Indian boarding
school list cautions prospective readers.
The Grand Ronde Boarding School opened
on Oct. 1, 1862, and provided housing and
education, and received federal support. Fa-
ther Adrian Croquet also opened St. Michael’s
Catholic Church in Grand Ronde in 1862 and
the Interior report examines the complicity of
See SCHOOL
continued on page 8
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Tribal Elder and Marine Corps veteran Steve Bobb Sr. speaks during the Memorial Day celebration
held at the West Valley Veterans Memorial on Monday, May 30. Four names were added to the four
pillars, bring the total of names on the memorial to 2,378.
Honoring those who
paid the ultimate price
West Valley Veterans Memorial hosts ceremony for the 19th time
By Danielle Harrison
Smoke Signals staff writer
T
he Memorial Day ceremony returned to
Grand Ronde for the 19th time and in-
cluded the addition of four names added
to the four black granite pillars that represent
the major branches of the U.S. military.
Held at the West Valley Veterans Memorial
on the Tribal campus on Monday, May 31, the
event featured a boxed luncheon outdoors and
guest speakers in addition to the reading of
the names.
Tribal Council member Steve Bobb Sr., who
See MEMORIAL DAY
continued on pages 6-7
Tribal member, daughter struggle with abuse, prison
Tribal member
Courtney Perman
listens to her
mother, Tribal
member Nichelle
Perman, talk about
her addiction to
methamphetamine
in Nichelle Perman’s
apartment in
Portland on
Thursday, May 19.
Photo by Kamiah Koch
(Editor’s note: The U.S. criminal justice system disproportionately
affects Native Americans, women in particular, who are overrepresented
in the prison population with the highest incarceration rate of any racial
group. This story is the third in a series that examines the effects of mass
incarceration on Grand Ronde Tribal mothers and their children.)
By Danielle Harrison
Smoke Signals staff writer
B
y all accounts, Nichelle
Perman and her daughter,
Courtney, are a success sto-
ry: Despite years of struggling with
addiction, homelessness and the
criminal justice system, they have
both emerged sober, employed full-
time and have stable housing.
It was a hard-fought battle for
the two Tribal members, who both
dealt with physical and emotional
See PRISON
continued on page 10