Yesteryears - Feb. 15, 2022

2017 – Tribal youth joined Grand Ronde Tribal Council members at the State Capitol in Salem for Tribal Government Day. The annual event was a chance for Oregon’s Tribes to make intergovernmental connections, and educate legislators and the public about who they are. Youth Council member Izaiah Fisher met Gov. Kate Brown and told her general counsel Ben Souede that he was going to be in the governor’s spot in a few years. It was the first opportunity the newly-formed Youth Council had to attend the annual event and mingle with Oregon’s eight other Tribes as well as state legislators.

2012 – Grand Ronde Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in support of Senate Bill 356, which would amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act to streamline how the Tribe took former Reservation land into trust. The amendment would end the two-step process that required the Tribe to take each piece of former Reservation land into trust with approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and then request that it be designated Reservation land by Congress.

2007 – Tribal member Olivia Kathryn Larkin, 7, was headed to the Reno Music Festival to join other young musicians. The young piano player planned to perform two pieces, “Shepherd’s Lullaby” by Denes Agay and “The Bear” by Vladimir Rebikov. She had been playing the piano for four years and was considered by her teacher to be a natural. The event would be the first festival Larkin performed in, and to overcome any nervousness, she said she would “play and walk away, and take a bow.”

2002 – Tribal employees assisted Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Department employees with placing 200 Coho salmon carcasses in three miles of Agency and West Fork Agency creeks to add nutrients that enhanced stream value to fish and wildlife. Similar stream enrichments had recently been conducted in the upper Clackamas and Sandy rivers, and Rogue Valley-area streams. “We primarily threw fish directly from the truck bed into the creek. We also carried a few to the creek when it was a little farther from the road,” Tribal Biologist Jeff Baker said.

1997 – The Nanitch Sahallie Youth Treatment Center was doing well in addressing drug- and alcohol-addiction issues with Native youth. The residential treatment center for teenagers in Keizer was opened by the Grand Ronde Tribe in 1989 and was one of only eight Native American youth treatment centers in the country. It took a holistic approach to recovery, meaning that staff tried to impress upon the clients the importance of physical, mental and spiritual health in living a well-balanced life. The eight-week program had a 75-percent completion rate.

1992 – A Tribal museum, cultural center, campground and full-service restaurant/lounge topped the list of tourism development projects mentioned at a Tribal economic development meeting. Ten Tribal members met with Tribal Economic/Business Program Specialist Shelley Hanson and discussed priority tourism projects. Other ideas were an art gallery, a historical play with Tribal member actors, a mini mall and sports complex. “The purpose of the meeting was to get feedback on projects being proposed by the Economic Development Department,” she said.

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