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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2025)
sNok signflz DECEMBER 1, 2025 11 s the fight for sovereignty, land Tribal member Nacoma Liebelt, 16, dances in the noon grand entry of the Tribe’s 42nd Restoration Celebration Powwow at Spirit Mountain Casino’s Event Center Saturday, Nov. 22. Brendyn Smallwood, 8, dances during a Youth Education Program’s dance special during the Tribe’s 42nd Restoration Celebration Powwow at Spirit Mountain Casino’s Event Center Saturday, Nov. 22. Photos by Michelle Alamio TO SEE MORE PHOTOS AND VIDEO @SmokeSignalsCTGR what sustained us. All of our food, you can see the abundance of food that we had here today, and it was wonderful. Wonderful food. And we used to take all of the foods that were growing on the lands, we also cultivated them and encouraged them to return, year after year. And we want to return to all of those ways again. And the reason that we stopped doing that was because of the effects of colonization. We no longer had the land for us to take care of and so we could not practice our ways.” During the 1850s, the United States entered into treaties with Tribes. “The entering of treaties (with) Tribes was all about taking the land,” Kennedy said. That’s what it was all about. How can we acquire the land. And that’s what happened. We entered into seven treaties. All of us come from those peoples, those treaty signers, who at the time, knew that ‘unless we sign these treaties, we’re going to be extinct, speaks during the Tribe’s n Casino’s Event Center Friday, on A. George, who was emcee @ctgrsmokesignals @SmokeSignalsCTGR because we will be killed, we will be driven, we will be hunted down, so it’s best for my people to sign trea- ties,’ and in that treaty, there was the agreement to relocate, to move from your lands that we occupy down in southern Oregon, northern California, southwest Washington.” This culminated in Tribes being forcibly relocated to the Grand Ronde Reservation beginning in 1856, known as the Oregon Trail of Tears, which had a devasting effect on Tribal ancestors. “We moved, as we were driven,” Kennedy said. “It wasn’t a little walk, though, a ‘tiptoe through the tulips’ walk; it was a very dan- gerous walk. It was in the dead of winter. It was walking on your feet for hundreds of miles, with moccasins that were thin-soled and often wore out on the way here. It was a terrible time for our people. I know that my treaty-signer from the Umpqua was driven up here; he and his wife and their sons, and he was killed on the way here.” She noted that in the decades following the Tribes’ removal to the Grand Ronde Reservation, various government actions whittled down the Tribe’s land base until the federal government terminated its recogni- tion of the Tribe altogether in 1954. “So, the land that you’re walking on, that we’re living on today, was all taken away. We did not have anything left at all, except our cemetery that is in continuous use today, that buries our ancestors,” Kennedy said. She noted that the Tribe’s Cul- tural Resources Department is still working to record family stories and to collect artifacts to be dis- played at Chalchalu Tribal Muse- um & Cultural Center. Tribal Elder Josephine Ingraham said she was finding Restoration “really emotional,” and that she did not know growing up that she was a Tribal member. “My grandma married in 1942,” she said. “She moved away and she didn’t look back.” At a garage sale in 1987, she said, her neighbor told her he knew her family in Grand Ronde, baffling Ingraham, who was unaware of any family members in Grand Ronde. He provided her with the name and phone number of a friend of her grandmother, she said, but when she called, the woman told her “I can’t talk to you,” and hung up. That incident touched off In- graham’s curiosity and she began researching her genealogy. In 1999, she and her mother were enrolled as Tribal members. On Saturday, Nov. 22, the Tribe held its annual Restoration Cel- ebration Powwow, following a morning prayer at the cemetery. The doors opened at 9 a.m. Grand entry was at noon and 6 p.m. George was also emcee for the powwow. The arena director was Tribal member Levi Liebelt. Head man and head woman were Tribal members Chad and Molly Leno. The host drum was Northern Blackhorse. Dance specials included golden age by the Elders Activity Center, Marion Mercier Fancy Shawl by Adult Education, tiny tots by Trib- al Council, all-in-all by the Health & Wellness Center and Ampkwa Advocacy Red Regalia for all ages. There was also a fill-the-blanket dance, an owl dance, and a head man/woman special potato dance for all ages. Coming out/return- ing to the circle was performed at 10 a.m. Youth Empowerment & Prevention put on a “street style” dance special for ages 14 to 24, with one song and three winners who each received a $500 budget to either start or add to their re- galia. n Tribal member Sam Hedrick, 14, dances in the “street style” dance special during the Tribe’s 42nd Restoration Celebration Powwow at Spirit Mountain Casino’s Event Center Saturday, Nov. 22. The Tribe’s Youth Empowerment & Prevention Program sponsored the dance, in which all dancers needed to participate were the clothes on their back. Hedrick was chosen as a one of three winners and each winner received a $500 budget to either start or add to their regalia.
