Memorial Day celebration honors both fallen and living warriors

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff

Grand Ronde Tribal members honored the Tribe’s soldiers on Memorial Day with a ceremony at West Valley Veterans Memorial on the Tribal campus.

Tribal Elder and Marine Corps veteran Reyn Leno spoke to the crowd and said he hopes Tribal Council will consider partnering with Courtney Place Veterans Housing in Salem.

“Looking at the flags in the cemetery, you can see how many of our people went to war for this country, and fought and died,” Leno said.

He recalled being on Tribal Council when the memorial was first proposed. The Tribe held spaghetti dinners, bake sales and other events to raise money for the memorial, designed by the late Tribal Elder and Marine Corps veteran Steve Bobb Sr., who walked in 2022. It features a man and a woman in traditional Native attire, standing side by side and reaching toward the sky.

Speaking under a partly sunny sky with a light breeze billowing the flags overhead, Leno told the modest crowd that in addition to the fallen, it’s important to recall, and care for, living veterans. He recalled that his father, also a veteran, rarely left Grand Ronde, noting that getting him to travel to Portland for care “wasn’t going to happen.” Instead, Leno said, the Tribe was able to obtain authorization to care for its veterans locally. Now, he said, it’s important to turn attention to ensuring that veterans have housing and other services available.

Six names were added to the six pillars at the West Valley Veterans Memorial, which commemorates the names of Tribal and community warriors from Grand Ronde, Willamina and Sheridan who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

Veterans Special Event Board Chair and Tribal member Molly Leno, who served as master of ceremonies for the event, told the crowd there are now 2,391 names listed.

She read aloud the names that were added to the memorial this year: Tribal member Justin Foster (Army), Rick Sardegna (Air Force), and Bruce Cohen, Arthur Lamarche, John Pitt and Leo Seidel (Navy) joined the names of those listed.

“Today, we gather with solemn hearts and grateful spirits to remember those who fell,” she said.

Memorial Day holds great significance in the hearts of Tribal people, she said, because “Native people have served at a higher rate than any other group. … While history has not always honored Natives, we stand as a beacon of resilience.”

Tribal member Anthony Quenelle sings and drums a memorial song during the Memorial Day Ceremony at the West Valley Veterans Memorial on the Tribal campus Monday, May 26. (Photos by Michelle Alaimo)

Tribal Council Chair Cheryle A. Kennedy, Vice Chair Chris Mercier and members Brenda Tuomi, Lisa Leno and Kathleen George attended.

Tribal member Anthony Quenelle drummed and sang a memorial song. For invocation, Quenelle sang “Soldier Boy.” The Royalty Court performed the Lord’s Prayer and the honor guard posted the eagle staff and colors.

Before sitting down for the ceremony in front of the memorial, attendees enjoyed a lunch of lasagna, salad, bread and dessert in the Tribal Community Center at noon.

Alvin Klausen, Board President of Courtney Place Veterans Housing, said the celebrants gathered “not just as Americans but as members of a broader warrior tradition.”

Memorial Day is “a day to honor the fallen,” Klausen said. “The ones who never came home. The ones who died wearing the uniform of our country, whether in the islands of the Pacific, the jungles of Vietnam, the deserts of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan.”

He continued, “But there are others we must remember, too. Those who came home bearing wounds we couldn’t see. We remember the ones who took their own lives, burdened by the trauma too heavy to bear. Their names might not be etched on stone in Arlington, but their sacrifice is no less real. They died from war, even though the battlefield was within.”

Klausen and Courtney Place Executive Director Andrew Holbert shared honors as the keynote speakers for the event.

Courtney Place, which opened in Salem in April 2024, is a 34-unit low-income housing community for veterans in Salem. It provides both housing and wrap-around care for veterans, in partnership with the Family YMCA of Marion and Polk counties. It provides one-and two-bedroom apartments, along with mental and behavioral health support, training in financial literacy and life skills, and outings to the coast, the zoo and other locations.

“We’ve partnered with groups like the Tanner Project, which is a veterans’ homeless shelter in Salem and we’ve been working closely with the Grand Ronde, because one-third of our residents are Native, and we understand the importance of cultural representation and the honor that Grand Ronde gives to veterans in our community.” Klausen said.

He called out Tribal member Trevor Aaron, who also serves on the board of Courtney Place, saying that, “His cultural leadership and passion for our mission have helped guide us and have uplifted those who needed it most.”

Holbert said he had met Bobb while working with veterans advocacy groups in Yamhill and Polk counties, and Bobb insisted he attend a powwow. He said he was struck by the care with which Grand Ronde surrounded its veterans.

Holbert said the work Courtney Place does in providing services to veterans beyond just housing, and the social outings, are a crucial part of the care.

“It is pretty isolating and lonely to move into an apartment complex,” he said. 

Reyn Leno noted that the agency hopes to build more housing, prompting his hope that the Tribe will join the partnership.