Yesteryears -- June 1, 2024

2019 – The 17^th annual Memorial Day ceremony was held at the West Valley Veterans Memorial on the Grand Ronde Tribal campus. Fifteen names were added to the four black granite pillars that represent the major branches of the U.S. armed forces.

2014 – A meeting was held to discuss the new 3,300-square-foot food bank under construction in Grand Ronde. With $500,000 from a federal Housing and Urban Development Indian Community Development Block grant and a $167,000 Tribal Housing Authority match, the Tribe designed and was building a new, larger and more comprehensive food collection and distribution center for the community. The new facility replaced the location in the old house at the entrance of uyxat Powwow Grounds off Hebo Road.

2009 – Three Grand Ronde Tribal buildings hosted an exhibit of historical panels. “Oregon Is Indian Country,” a traveling exhibit of the Oregon Historical Society, included three panels, each describing part of the Native experience in Oregon. The Historical Society created the project in cooperation with Oregon’s nine federally recognized Tribes.

2004 – The second annual Agency Creek Round Dance took place in the Tribal gym. The two-night dance was hosted by the Grand Ronde Tribal Youth Social Services Program. Drum groups from as far away as Warm Springs, Umatilla, Yakama and Saskatchewan, Canada, attended the dance. There were singers from well-known drum groups Black Lodge, Blackstone and Grand Ronde’s own Eagle Beak Singers.

1999 – Oregon Native American Week was celebrated at the Oregon State Capitol building in Salem. For the third year in a row, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber proclaimed the third week in May to be Native American Week in Oregon. The signing of the proclamation coincided with Tribal Information Day at the capitol. Tribal Council Chairwoman Kathryn Harrison, Junior Miss Grand Ronde Ali Holsclaw and Miss Tiny Tot Halona Butler represented the Tribe at the event.

1994 – Tribal member Kathy Tom, who worked at the Nanitch Sahallie Youth Treatment Facility in Keizer, hosted a Mother’s Day brunch for the Tribe’s Elder women at the facility. Tom said the meal was a way of honoring Elders as well as the Tribe’s women who have done so much. The mothers were joined by many of the Nanitch staff and clients.

1989 – At the close of winter term 1989, the Tribal Education Program assisted a total of 23 students in the Higher Education Program; 16 in the Employment Assistance – Adult Vocational Training and 13 in Adult Education. The projected enrollment outlook for fall term 1989 indicated the Tribe would have approximately 30 students enrolled in Higher Education, with 20 participating in Adult Vocational Training Programs.

1984 – Tribal Council members Kathryn Harrison, Merle Leno and Candy Robertson attended the “Presidents Commission on Indian Reservations Economies” workshop held in Spokane, Wash.  

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