Yesteryears -- Dec. 15, 2012

2007 - The Tribe celebrated the life of Jackie Whisler, who walked on Dec. 3. Born Jacqulyn Rae Mercier in McMinnville in 1951, she was remembered for her tireless work on the Tribe's Restoration effort in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After Restoration, Whisler was instrumental in teaching Chinuk Wawa to Tribal youth.

2002 - Tribal members joined Tribal Elder Don Day in splitting cedar logs for a planned longhouse. Participants included Jesse Peters, Deitrich Peters, Norman Peters, Chad Peters and David Lewis. "Cedar is considered a sacred tree; a tree of life," Day said. In just a few hours, the six Tribal members removed about 400 board feet of planks from a fallen tree in Willamette National Forest.

1997 - The Tribal Council Christmas Party was held Dec. 13 in Grand Ronde Elementary School. It featured free photos with Santa, a blessing and meal, preschool children singing Christmas carols and drawings for fruit baskets, plants and candy bags.                

1992 - Tribal Council members Mark Mercier, Kathryn Harrison and Merle Holmes met with representatives of Northwest Pipeline Corp. to work on an agreement to protect ancestral burial sites from pipeline construction. Tribal Council requested the meeting after learning of a burial disturbance at a natural gas pipeline worksite south of the Calapooia River near Brownsville. The company signed an agreement to prevent further disturbance or desecration of burial sites and sacred items.

1987 - Tribal member Monte Ring was hired as the Tribe's Outpatient Alcohol Counselor. He was a former counselor at Red Willow American Indian Treatment Center in Gervais, Ore., and had worked in juvenile detention as a special deputy with the Sheriff's Department with an emphasis in alcohol and drug abuse.

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