Tribal Council approves fourth year of hunting seasons and tags

Tribal Council approved the fourth year of Tribal hunting seasons and tags at its Wednesday, June 20, meeting.

The Grand Ronde Wildlife Management Plan, which was approved by the Oregon Fish & Wildlife Commission in September 2014, allows the Tribe to designate its own hunting seasons outside of state-sanctioned seasons on Reservation and trust lands, as well as issue Tribal hunting tags.

Fish & Wildlife Program Manager Kelly Dirksen said during the Tuesday, June 19, Legislative Action Committee meeting that this year’s Tribal hunting seasons will mostly fall ahead of state-sanctioned seasons and will feature 87 tags over seven seasons.

In 2015, the Tribe issued 46 tags for black-tailed deer and Roosevelt elk, 70 in 2016 and 76 last year.

According to an executive summary, Tribal hunters have been issued 192 hunting tags with 149 Tribal hunting days and have had a 10 percent hunter success rate over the first three years.

The Tribal hunting seasons will run from mid-August through mid-December.

In other action, Tribal Council:

• Approved an agreement with the Willamette National Forest that will allow Grand Ronde firefighters to participate in prescribed burns on national forest lands that will promote Native plants and provide professional development for Tribal employees. Natural Resources Department Manager Michael Wilson said the Tribe’s relationship with Willamette National Forest is “good” and “productive.” The Forest Service will reimburse the Tribe up to $24,300, according to the agreement.

• Approved acceptance of an $119,924 Natural Resources Conservation Service grant that will fund wildlife habitat enhancement projects on meadows on the Reservation.

• Approved sending amendments to the Enrollment Ordinance out to the general membership for a first reading after receiving many comments from the membership. Assistant Tribal Attorney Kim D’Aquila said at the Tuesday, June 19, Legislative Action Committee meeting that the amendments address a process for reinstatement of disenrolled Tribal members in a set of limited circumstances. The disenrollment must have occurred between July 2, 2014, and Jan. 28, 2018, which was the time period during which the Enrollment Board was invested with the final decision-making authority when it came to involuntary loss of membership. A first reading will advertise the proposed changes twice in Smoke Signals and allow Tribal members to comment on them.

• Approved Tribal staff submitting a plan to the Department of the Interior to consolidate funds from general assistance, Native employment works and job training programs into a single three-year plan to provide employment and training services;

• And approved applying for a five-year grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services that would fund suicide and drug prevention and mental health promotion.

Tribal Council also approved the agenda for the Sunday, June 24, General Council meeting, which only will include Tribal Council nominations and door prizes.

Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy also announced that one of the advisory votes that will be on the September Tribal Council ballot will address the split family situations and ask if unenrolled siblings who met the enrollment requirements before the 1999 enrollment amendment should be enrolled.

Cultural Resources Department Manager David Harrelson gave the cultural presentation to open the meeting regarding mainstream society still having the antiquated idea that Native American people will eventually cease to exist.

Also included in the June 20 Tribal Council packet were approved authorizations to proceed that raise the Tribal government minimum wage to $10.75 to match the state minimum wage that goes into effect on July 1 and authorizes staff to spend $5,000 to evaluate the functionality of the Depot building, including structural analysis, space usage capacity, and historical and cultural reports.

The entire meeting can be viewed on the Tribal website www.grandronde.org by clicking on the News tab and then Video.