Yesteryears -- Oct. 15, 2018

2013 – Adam Leno was raised taking care of the Tribal cemetery with his grandfather, Russell Leno. So, he felt like he was meant to be in that position when he chose to accept the job as cemetery caretaker. “I worked with grandpa down here since I was 8 years old,” he said. His grandfather raised him since the fifth grade. “I’d come up here to help him; sometimes to work off the trouble I got in. It was a pretty big part of my life.”

2008 – Tribal member Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach won Flutist of the Year for 2007 at the Native American Music Awards held in Niagara Falls, N.Y. He also won the same honor at the Indian Summer Music Awards held earlier that year in Milwaukee, Wis. By doing this, Reibach became the only Native American flutist to win both prestigious awards in the same year.

2003 – Tribal members in Grand Meadows were able to cash in on a recent federal finance program, saving $100 or more per month on their homes. This was made possible by Section 184 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 that guaranteed home loans on Tribal property. Until February 2003, however, Tribal members had been unable to refinance their homes. In all, 25 of the 31 homeowners in Grand Meadows refinanced.

1998 – Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith announced the passage of H.R. 4068, which made long-needed corrections in laws relating to the Native American Tribes of Oregon. It provided authority for the Secretary of the Interior to grant up to 99-year leases to the Grand Ronde Tribe trust lands as well as designate 191 acres of Tribally held community trust land as Reservation. “Oregon’s Indian communities deserve bipartisan cooperation from their elected officials,” Wyden said.

1993 – Tribal member Guy McCarthy of Bend was named “Entrepreneur of the Month.”He owned a successful contracting company, Summer Wind Enterprises, which offered installation, repair and maintenance of garage doors. “For me, business is really booming,” he said. “I rarely have a day off.”

Summer Wind was also the name of McCarthy’s band. Before he owned his own business, he and his wife were entertainers and traveled all over the country. Eventually, he was hoping to have a business closer to Grand Ronde and offer apprenticeships to Tribal members wanting to learn the trade.

1988 – President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a 9,811-acre Reservation for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The president’s signature on the bill ended an almost five-year effort by the Tribe to establish a land base and opened the way for the Tribe to build for its future. The bill immediately put the land, located in Yamhill County, into trust for the Tribe with the Department of the Interior. Income from the Reservation, estimated at $800,000 to $1 million per year, would be used to supplement existing Tribal education, housing and health programs, and for economic development. “This caps an extraordinary effort for the Grand Ronde Tribe to regain lost land,” Oregon Sen. Mark O. Hatfield said.

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