Yesteryears - Aug. 1, 2012

2007 - Tribal members participated in the Paddle to Lummi Canoe Journey. The journey consisted of paddling more than 200 miles beginning at the Squaxin Island Tribe and finishing at the Lummi Nation on July 30.

2002 - Tribal member Allison Empey was featured as one of 16 valedictorians at McMinnville High School. Empey and fellow valedictorian Justin Tillery were chosen by their peers to speak for the senior class. Empey was not only a straight-A student, but an athlete in soccer, basketball and tennis and leader in National Honor Society, Key Club and Mac Club. She was planning to attend Stanford University in the fall.

1997 - Members of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of the President's Council on Sustainable Development visited Spirit Mountain Casino. They choose to visit a Tribally owned casino to learn about casino operations, economic development of the Grand Ronde Tribe and contributions to the community.

1992 - Deana Gardner was preparing to step down as Senior Miss Grand Ronde while Junior Miss Grand Ronde Courtney Galligher was at the end of her reign.

1987 - In early August, U.S. Rep. Les AuCoin and Sen. Mark Hatfield submitted to Congress two proposed Grand Ronde Reservation bills. One bill called for the establishment of a 15,665-acre reservation while the other called for a 5,116-acre reservation. "The reason that Sen. Hatfield and I put two bills in the hopper, instead of just one, was to show that alternatives are possible," AuCoin said.

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