Yesteryears -- June 15, 2018

2013 – Using Bonneville Power Administration funding, the Tribe acquired 338 acres on the North Santiam River southeast of Salem in Marion County. The Chahalpam property was valued at more than $3.5 million and means “place of the Santiam Kalapuya.” Chahalpam is within the traditional homelands of the Santiam Kalapuya, one of the ancestral bands that formed the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The property had been farmed for decades and was acquired through a Willamette Wildlife Habitat agreement.

2008 – Tribal member Stephanie Wood researched Native baskets at the University of Oregon’s Natural and Cultural History Museum. Wood, a senior, focused on baskets made when her grandmother, Tribal Elder Opal Davidson, was young. Wood was majoring in cultural anthropology. The 250 baskets she was studying came from Tribes living in the Willamette Valley in the 1800s and early 1900s and were part of the university’s collection housed on the campus.

2003 – The first Native Youth Co-ed Basketball Tournament was held in Grand Ronde. The community came out to support the youth during a weekend of “fun, togetherness and basketball.” The event was sponsored by the Tribal Youth Prevention Program and featured teams from Washington and Oregon. The Grand Ronde team was coached by Dustin Harmon.

1998 – Spirit Mountain Casino and the Grand Ronde Tribe came away with an award-winning float at Portland’s Grand Floral Parade. The more than 35-foot-long float “Adventures of the Spirit” featured a storyteller dressed for a powwow in northwest Native regalia telling the story of Coyote. Amidst the sound of traditional drumming, the mountainous figure rose to nearly 30 feet tall, stretching his arms outward over the waving Tribal Royalty members who accompanied him on his journey.

1993 – Tribal member Angela Leno was named a U.S. National Collegiate award winner in the justice and sociology division. The award recognized only 10 percent of college students nationwide and was described as “a prestigious honor.” Leno is the daughter of Reyn and Liz Leno of Willamina and attended Portland State University. The award came with recognition in the U.S. Achievement Academy Official Collegiate Yearbook.

1988 – Congress repealed the decades-old Termination resolution. The 1953 policy, which led to the government terminating federal recognition of some Indian Tribes, including Grand Ronde, was described as “both morally and legally indefensible.” Before the resolution was passed, Termination had become increasingly unpopular and was rejected by Congress through several statutes and by at least two presidents, but the policy itself had never been officially rejected. Most of the Tribes terminated under the policy in the early 1950s had been restored, including the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in 1983.

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