Yesteryears -- Sept. 15

2006 - Spirit Mountain Casino opened The Peak, which was a $17 million redesign of the facility's former bingo hall. With the opening of The Peak, the room now holds 242 of the 500 new slot machines agreed to in a Tribal-State Compact renegotiation completed in March. In addition, Cheryle A. Kennedy, Jack Giffen Jr. and Valorie Sheker were elected to Tribal Council by large margins over the other six candidates who ran.

2001 - Spirit Mountain Development Corp. was gathering Sabre-Tool units to send to New York City to help in rescue efforts at the World Trade Center, which was brought to the ground in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The Sabre-Tool is a smaller, hand-held "jaws of life"-type device that can be used to lift collapsed debris or cut through twisted or compressed metal.

1996 - Reyn Leno, Leon "Chip" Tom and Mark Mercier were elected to Tribal Council during the Sept. 7 election, which saw 767 ballots cast.

1991 - Ray McKnight, Candy Robertson and Merle Holmes were elected to Tribal Council during the Sept. 7 election. Holmes was elected as a write-in candidate with 72 votes and McKnight was the top vote-getter with 118.

1986 - Tribal Chairman Mark Mercier reported that the Tribe had been awarded a contract extension on its Reservation Plan and that Merle Holmes, Kathryn Harrison and himself were scheduled to meet with the Yamhill County Sportsman's Association on Sept. 29 to update the group on the progress of the Reservation Plan and Hunting and Fishing Agreement.

Yesteryears is a look back at Tribal history in five-year increments through the pages of Smoke Signals.