6
MAY 15, 2023
Smoke Signals
Lecture held in the Niemeyer Osterman Theatre
SPEAKER continued
from front page
<One of the things for me that has
been so important in addition to
being a traditional Indian woman
is to teach, so that those who look
up to you know the way,= Kenne-
dy said. <And the way is effective
leadership by example, to show
and demonstrate the lessons they
will have to confront and how to
navigate those lessons. As we live
this life here, we know not everyone
will be an attorney or a doctor. But
every person can help someone else.
Make sure that the life you lead
sets the best example you can.=
During her speech, Kennedy dis-
cussed the history of Indigenous
communities in Clackamas County
and how people can work to honor
their strengths and contributions,
and celebrate the diversity of con-
temporary Indigenous lives and
experiences.
She also sprinkled personal sto-
ries and humor throughout the
speech.
<You have to laugh,= Kennedy
said. <Laughter is so important.
There are enough stressors that we
need those light times where we can
look at each other and burst into
laughter. It is so important and we
need those times.=
The free lecture was held in the
Niemeyer Osterman Theatre on the
college9s Oregon City campus.
<We are honored to have Tribal
Council Chairwoman Kennedy
share with us the history of the Con-
federated Tribes of Grand Ronde,=
said Casey Layton, the college9s
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ofo-
cer. <It is important for CCC to offer
opportunities for our community to
learn about the Indigenous com-
munities of the Willamette Valley
and their history, including culture
and traditions, but also the harmful
government policies that affected
the peoples who lived on the lands
where CCC now resides. This event
is intended to amplify the voices of
Indigenous peoples, and move us
forward together.=
Kennedy, 75, is currently serv-
ing her eighth consecutive three-
year term on the Grand Ronde
Tribal Council and has been the
Tribal chairwoman for 16 of those
years. She also served on the orst
post-Restoration Tribal Council
and was a key ogure in advocating
for on-Reservation health and well-
ness services during those early
years.
The event opened with Grand
Photo by Michelle Alaimo
Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy speaks during the
<Do You Know Oregon’s First Peoples? A History of the Grand Ronde Tribe=
that was held at Clackamas Community College9s Niemeyer Osterman Theatre
in Oregon City on Tuesday, May 9.
SEE MORE OF THIS STORY
@SmokeSignalsCTGR
Ronde Tribal member Fabian
Quenelle drumming and singing.
Tribal member and Clackamas
County Policy Advisor/Tribal Li-
aison Tracy Moreland, who was
recently appointed to the Grand
Ronde Editorial Board, read aloud
a land acknowledgement.
Clackamas Community College
President Tim Cook welcomed
Kennedy and touched on how the
college was putting the land ac-
knowledgment into action.
<We really wanted to put our
words into action and wanted
opportunities for students and
community to learn about the In-
digenous people of this area,= he
said. <We had our orst Indigenous
Peoples Day last year, opened the
Wacheno Welcome Center, have In-
digenous classes and other educa-
tional opportunities like this one.=
Kennedy is a descendent of Dan
Wacheno, who the center is named
after. The 21,000-square-foot build-
ing houses most of the college9s stu-
dent services.
Kennedy told the crowd that Wa-
cheno signed the treaty that ceded
a sizable swath of the northern
Willamette Valley to the federal
government and was later removed
to the Grand Ronde Reservation, as
well as his family.
<I believe Chief Wacheno9s spirit
cultural
education
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is still here with us today, leading
and guiding us,= she said. <I get
awestruck sometimes thinking
our villages were down here, the
falls that creator gave us. I think
it is remarkable that I stand before
you today as the (descendent) of a
treaty signer in this place. & As we
reclaim this land, we are always
mindful of what is beneath all of
the many layers of different eras
because we know that our ances-
tors9 bones are all over. We are very
mindful to be respectful and make
sure they are taken care of.=
Kennedy shared the creation story
of how Coyote and Meadowlark cre-
ated Willamette Falls, called <tum-
wata= in Chinuk Wawa. The site
was once home to the village of the
Clowewalla 3 the Willamette band
of Tumwaters 3 and the Kosh-huk-
shix village of Clackamas people.
Even after the Willamette Valley
Treaty of 1855 forcibly removed
Tribal ancestors from the falls area
to the Grand Ronde Reservation,
Tribal connections to the area
remained with people leaving the
Reservation to harvest fish and
lamprey.
<As Clackamas Indians, we con-
tinued to osh here,= Kennedy said.
<The fishing is nothing like it is
now. When we got to the falls, you
could swear it was alive because
of all of the eels that just hung
from the falls. We would bring big
100-pound gunny sacks and fill
many of them full of eels.=
Before contact with European
settlers, the Clackamas people
served as keepers of the falls and
the entire area was known as the
largest place of commerce west of
the Mississippi River.
<The river and the environment
provided more than enough osh,=
Kennedy said. <It supported not
only our people and many other
Tribal people from Oregon and
much farther than that. We served
as welcomers to the falls and it
was a bustling place where Tribal
people were all together.=
Kennedy also touched on the fact
that treaties signed between Tribes
and the U.S. government were one
of the methods used to divest Na-
tive people of their land and give it
to the newcomers. Other methods
were through wars or assimilation
with dominant culture.
<They came to us with treaties
and tried to make the best case they
could that this was a good exchange
where you9ll be able to live like you
used to, you9ll be protected and in
the process, it included a reserved
piece of land that you would agree
to move to,= she said. <That9s the
process of how it happened here.=
Kennedy read an excerpt from
the oral history of a Tribal Elder,
Victoria Howard, shortly before she
died in 1930. Howard was one of the
primary tellers of the Clackamas
Chinook narratives and traditions.
She described in vivid detail the
removal of her people from the
Clackamas area and the confusion
and fear that followed.
The settlers intended to make
farmers of the people, but the land
in present-day Grand Ronde was
not suitable for such work nor were
they provided with tools. Many
Tribal members didn9t get their
promised homes, living for years in
tents without the land allotments
they also were guaranteed by trea-
ties signed with the government.
<These were remarks made by an
Elder woman and her experience
being moved from here,= Kennedy
said. <This is something to do some
soul searching about. As people, I
know in our hearts we can all do
better and look out for one another.
It was recorded almost 100 years
ago and little has changed.=
Kennedy also touched on the dev-
astation caused by the 1954 West-
ern Oregon Indian Termination
Act and the healing that has been
brought about by the subsequent
Restoration of the Tribe in 1983.
<The scarring and the wounds
still there are largely because of be-
ing nobody in this United States of
America,= Kennedy said. <We deal
with issues that continue today.=
Restoration provided an opportu-
nity for the Tribe to begin healing
spiritually, culturally and economi-
cally, and to have its rights restored
as a federally recognized Tribe.
Before contact with European
settlers, Kennedy said that 100,000
Native people lived in the area,
but by the time the Tribe was ter-
minated in 1954 there were only
900 remaining, mostly due to the
ravages of disease and relocation.
<Today, at Grand Ronde we9re
able to provide our people educa-
tion, health services and all the
things that were in our treaties,=
Kennedy said. <That9s what we
were promised.=
She explained how most of this is
funded by revenue from the Tribe9s
Spirit Mountain Casino.
<I9m so pleased that we9re able to
do that,= Kennedy said.
After her speech concluded, Ken-
nedy took four questions and com-
ments from the audience, and was
given a plaque of the Wacheno
Welcome Center, a smudging from
the Red Lodge Transition Center
and a plant from the college9s hor-
ticulture program.
<I can9t thank you enough for
sharing your story,= Cook said.
<How much history is here in this
place is just amazing.= þ