Yesteryears - June 15, 2016

2011 – Tribal Council voted 5-4 to send a bundle of four proposed enrollment changes to the membership for a vote. The four proposals would reduce the relinquishment period from five years to two years, eliminate the parent on the Tribal roll at time of birth requirement, redefine Grand Ronde blood and establish an annual quota of no more than 5 percent of currently enrolled members may be accepted as new members in a year.

2006 – About 100 people attended the annual Memorial Day event at the West Valley Veterans Memorial and Tribal Council Chair Cheryle A. Kennedy gave the welcoming speech, acknowledging all veterans who have sacrificed their lives, as well as the veterans serving on the Grand Ronde Tribal Council.

2001 – Gene LaBonte joined Tribal Elder Russ Leno at the Tribal Cemetery. LaBonte worked through the Tribe’s Cultural Resources program and with Leno to map the cemetery and find lost loved ones.

1996 – Spirit Mountain Casino’s first float in the Grand Floral Parade won the top prize. “Nature’s Spirit” won the Sweepstakes Award for best float. It featured a watchful mother coyote and two pups in a setting of plants and flowers native to the Grand Ronde area.

1991 – Brent Merrill resigned as editor of Smoke Signals to take a job with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission in Washington state. “I feel that I am a better person for the experience and the things that I have learned,” he wrote.

1986 – Tribal Council authorized the start of a Social Services program under a Bureau of Indian Affairs contract to provide counseling and family assistance to Tribal members. The program will not provide financial payments, but will coordinate with state and federal programs, as well as have responsibility for the Indian Child Welfare Act.

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