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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2022)
sNok signflz NOVEMBER 15, 2022 9 Getting saucey ‘Today is a great day for the Tribe’ VOTERS continued from front page Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez From left, Tribal Elder Marion Mercier, Ben TO SEE MORE PHOTOS Moore, 13, Landon Langley, 15, Jenevieve Davis, 15, Youth Prevention Program SmokeSignalsCTGR Manager Amber Mercier and Rhet Kimsey, 6, prepare apples during the applesauce canning event held at the Elders Activity Center on Thursday, Nov. 10. Tribal Elders and youth partnered to prepare 50 pounds of Golden Delicious apples for 60 applesauce jars that will be distributed at the Nov. 22 Restoration event. Tribal Elder Deitz Peters speaks at West Point By Danielle Harrison Smoke Signals assistant editor/staff writer Grand Ronde Tribal Elder Deitz Peters has long been an advocate of Native culture and how it relates to military service. Now, he has had the opportu- nity to travel to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., to talk to students about the expe- rience of growing up in a Native military family and also to share more about Grand Ronde Tribal culture. Peters left on Sunday, Nov. 13. West Point was established in 1802 and is the oldest of the five American military service acad- emies. Its purpose is to educate future officers for commission into the Army. Peters was asked to speak by his cousin and fellow Grand Ronde Tribal member Patrick Sorensen, who is an Army net- work operations chief with West Point connections. “I thought it was pretty cool that he asked me to do this,” Peters said. “At that point, I told him it would be fun and we continued talking about it, but with no particular timeline.” Peters and Sorensen connect- ed earli- er in the year before Veterans Powwow in July when P e t e r s made 12 necklaces and five beaded Deitz Peters feathers for a future West Point graduation ceremo- ny. While they were beading, he played the flute as he always does while working with feathers. “(Sorensen) recorded it and said it was beautiful,” Peters recalled. “He included it with a video that was to be played at the graduation ceremony.” The two stayed in contact and then in October Sorensen asked if he was still interested in speak- ing at the college. Peters didn’t hesitate in an- swering “yes,” and was contacted soon after by a West Point repre- sentative, who comped him both airfare and hotel. “I’ll be talking to a large group of people and plan to bring my flutes and regalia,” he said. “This will be fun.” proceedings because of incomplete or faulty enrollment records pos- sessed by the Tribe. Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy called it a “moment in time.” “Today is a great day for the Tribe,” Kennedy said. “The Trib- al membership’s passage of the constitutional amendment to ban disenrollment except in the cases of fraud and dual enrollment signifies many different things for our com- munity and our Tribe. It is lifting a dark cloud that has followed us for some time. It represents our healing as a people, a desire to move forward and the security of our enrolled members.” Tribal Council member Kathleen George said the vote repudiates the spirit of disenrollment and the Tribe living under someone else’s rules for who is considered family. “Thank you, Grand Ronde people, for today,” George said. “Grand Ronde people came together in support and love. … This is a day of strength, beauty and thankfulness.” The number of registered voters was the smallest for any constitu- tional election held by the Tribe since 1999. In all of the other seven constitutional elections, more than a 1,000 Tribal members registered, ranging from 1,091 in March 2015 to more than 1,500 in July 2016. A “unified” Tribal Council ap- proved sending the proposal out to voters in August. The Tribe held four hybrid in-person/Zoom educa- tional meetings in October with two being held in Grand Ronde, one in Portland and one in Salem. The Nov. 2 election was the eighth time since 1999 that Tribal voters were asked to amend the Constitution. Only two proposals out of those previous seven votes that included 11 suggested amend- ments received the required two- thirds majority to alter the Tribe’s Constitution. The constitutional amendment amends Article V, Section 5 to limit involuntary loss of membership to fraud and dual enrollment, and removes language regarding loss of membership for failure to meet enrollment criteria. The proposal came in reaction to the divisive disenrollment proceed- ings that occurred in 2015 during which Tribal members were pro- visionally disenrolled. Eventually, the Tribal Court of Appeals ruled that the Tribal members who were identified for disenrollment be- cause they allegedly did not meet enrollment criteria were to remain in the Tribe because the govern- ment had waited too long to start proceedings against them. Unlike regular Tribal Council elections, a constitutional amend- ment election was supervised by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which required Tribal members to regis- ter separately to vote. In March 2015, Tribal members were asked to remove the Bureau of Indian Affairs from supervis- ing Grand Ronde constitutional amendment elections, but the pro- posal was overwhelmingly rejected with 62.4 percent wanting to retain federal oversight. SAFETY CHECK Get help installing a car seat or booster seat from a certified child passenger safety technician. GRAND RONDE HOUSING DEPARTMENT 28450 Tyee Road – Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347 – 503-879-2401 – Fax 503-879-5973 ATTENTION ALL HOUSING TENANTS AND GUEST PLEASE SLOW DOWN IN ELDER HOUSING Also, please make sure and maintain low levels of music in the Elder community. Find the right car seat or booster seat for your child’s weight, height, and age. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/carseatclinic1122