Proposed enrollment procedure explained at informational meeting

An informational meeting on the proposed Enrollment Ordinance changes was held in the Tribal Council Chambers and via Zoom Thursday, April 24.

Senior Staff Attorney Holly Partridge gave a presentation with the latest proposed changes to the ordinance before fielding 90 minutes of questions from the Tribal community.

The discussed proposed changes included: Clarifying the process for applicants six months and older; involving the Enrollment Committee if an increase to the annual enrollment limit is being requested; adding middle initials to the official Tribal membership roll; issuing certificates of descendancy to completed Tribal member applications with DNA; removing all sections referencing blood quantum and adding an “enrolled in error” section to reflect the Tribal Constitution.

The main topic of discussion during the meeting was the proposed procedure for membership applications.

 Applications will be made available Friday, May 30, before the open enrollment period for accepting non-infant/ non-emergency applications that begins Tuesday, June 3 and ends Friday, July 18.

A public drawing will be held Tuesday, July 29, to assign numbers to applicants (minor siblings will be bundled together under one number in the drawing to be placed on the list/waitlist together). A final list with the 150 applicants who will be processed for the year 2025 will be published and remaining applicants will be assigned to the waitlist.

After the open enrollment period has been finalized, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis from the waitlist. Completed applications will be date stamped and added to the waitlist to be processed until the annual limit is reached.

The comment period for these ordinance changes will remain open until Thursday, May 1. Tribal Council will then consider the comments and make any changes to the ordinance. Any significant changes to the ordinance will go back out for comments but Partridge said the open enrollment dates are expected to remain unchanged.

One of the first questions asked was where applications would be made available.

“We are working on being able to do all types of applications,” Partridge said. “Walk-in, mail and online.”

Partridge directed application seekers to visit the Grand Ronde enrollment webpage to find the application when it is posted or for any other information/FAQs regarding the constitutional amendment and enrollment ordinance. 

Several other questions involved DNA testing. According to Partridge, DNA testing is not required at the time of application submissions. Instead, enrollment staff will coordinate with applicants to get DNA tested at a contracted lab or at the Tribe’s lab once their application is to be processed.

Due to open enrollment beginning in the middle of the year, there was some hesitation from the Tribal community that the Tribe would be able to process all 150 applications before the end of the year. Tribal Elder and Enrollment Committee member Debi Anderson concluded the meeting by giving her vote of confidence that the Tribe will be able to process 150 enrollment applications this year.

For a copy of the proposed ordinance, contact the Tribal Attorney’s Office at 503-879-4664 or send comments to the Tribal Attorney’s Office, 9615 Grand Ronde Road, Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347 or by email to legal@grandronde.org.