Yesteryears: Nov. 1, 2024

2019 – Educators Mercedes Jones and Judith Fernandes worked with Chinuk Language Specialist Crystal Starr Szczepanski to create children’s books about traditional Grand Ronde stories. The books were created to help Tribal children see themselves reflected in their school story books.

2014 – Following a new ordinance, the Grand Ronde Tribal Police Department began issuing concealed carry permits on Tribal lands. The permits were valid only on designated Grand Ronde lands, and weapons could not be carried inside buildings or locations where Tribal business was taking place.

2009 – Tribal Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy was scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama as a participant in the president’s Tribal Nations Conference in Washington D.C.

2004 – The Tribe’s Project Manager held a meeting to let local residents provide comments on a proposed road-widening project along Grand Ronde Road to add crosswalks, sidewalks and bicycle lanes, along with other safety improvements intended to accommodate children walking to and from school, as well as other pedestrians and cyclists.

1999 – The Cultural Resources Department succeeded in repatriating the remains of 180 men, women and children who had been stolen from their original burial places and incarcerated in museum vaults. A Smoke Signals article said, “These people represent only a small fraction of ancestors who still remain in various museums, institutions and private collections all over the United States and around the world,” and the department pledged to continue its work.

1994 – Tribal Member Jacqueline Grant, the Director of Eastern Oregon State College’s Native American program, was selected to receive a 1994 TRIO Achievers Award in Washington, D.C. The TRIO program offered educational opportunity programs to low-income and disadvantaged students interested in college.

1989 – The Tribal Accounting Department was finishing up work on the 1988 and 1989 audits, and planning to start work within the next six months on an accounting manual and procedures.

1984 – The Tribe held its first Restoration Powwow, with 1,000-plus people in attendance. U.S. Rep. Les AuCoin gave a keynote speech to celebrate the Tribe’s first year of being restored to official recognition by the federal government, and presented the Tribe with the framed Restoration Bill.

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