Cultural Resources seeking Termination, Restoration items

As the Grand Ronde Tribe prepares to celebrate its 29th anniversary of Restoration on Sunday, Nov. 18, employees in the Tribe's Cultural Resources Department are already looking ahead to 2013 and the landmark 30th anniversary.
They are hoping that an appeal to Tribal members, Tribal descendants and community members will fill a hole in the Tribal archives that spans from 1954's Termination era to the mid-1980s, when the Tribe was restored.
Tribal Interpretive Design Specialist Julie Brown also is hoping that the appeal will help the Tribe prepare an exhibit, curated by Tribal Museum Curator and Cultural Liaison David Lewis, which will open in April.
Titled "We Were Here First and We're Here to Stay," the exhibit at the Willamette Heritage Center in Salem will tell the story of the struggles and trials of Tribal members during the Termination and Restoration eras of the Tribe.
"It's a then-and-now kind of thing," Brown says. "It will have quite a bit of educational value. The public is, I think, going to be surprised and shocked."
Brown said she is hoping that Tribal members, their relatives and community members will search for old photos, boxes of letters and official documents that originated between 1954 through the mid-1980s relating to the Grand Ronde Tribe's Termination and 29-year effort to regain federal recognition.
The items could be stashed away in an attic, a storage unit or a loved one's closet, Brown says, and they could help fill in a sparsely archived period in Tribal history.
The need, Brown says, is becoming more pressing.
Since the Tribe's 25th anniversary celebration in 2008, it has lost several high-profile and key players who worked diligently during the 1970s and early 1980s to get the Tribe restored.
Elders Russell Leno, Dean Mercier and Nora Kimsey, among other Restoration figures, have walked on.
Brown says Cultural Resources would love to acquire photos of the bake sales, car washes, picnics and dances that were held to finance Tribal members' efforts during the drive toward Restoration.
"I know my aunt, Eula Petite, had photos," Brown says. "but I'm not sure where those photos went to."
Any personal letters mentioning the Restoration effort also would be historically valuable, as would original Tribal documents, Brown says.
"We're looking for original documents from Tribal Council in their efforts toward Restoration. … We would love old letters that even mention any of the events or activities that had to do with Restoration," Brown says. "I would love to hear from people who we have not heard from before. People who want us to have their oral histories archived in our collection. I am hoping that people will get interested in getting their family histories recorded."
Brown also would like Tribal Elders who up to now may have been reluctant to talk about the era to come forward and record oral histories about the Termination to Restoration era.
"If we could add three or four photos, a letter or two and an oral history or two that we haven't heard, it would just be awesome," Brown says.
Brown can be contacted at the Tribe at 503-879-2186 or julie.brown@grandronde.org.