Yesteryears: Oct. 1, 2025

Yesteryears

2020 — With COVID-19 keeping students learning from home, the Willamina School District pivoted to delivering breakfasts and lunches to distribution sites to ensure students wouldn’t go hungry. More than 95% of the students in the district, where the majority of Grand Ronde Tribal students attended classes, were eligible for free and reduced-price lunches, so the school provided free lunches to all of its students.

2015 — On the occasion of Spirit Mountain Casino’s 20^th anniversary, Smoke Signals took a look back at the origins of the state’s first Tribal casino, which paved the way for the other eight Tribes in the state to negotiate contracts with the state regarding the size of their operations. Former Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts called it, “The blueprint, if you will, for what we did with the rest of the state.”

2010 — The Tribe celebrated the opening of its new traditional plankhouse with three days of ceremonies. Built of cedar, the plankhouse incorporated the traditions of many different Tribes with a roof influenced by northern Oregon, while the floor and sidewalls were built in the style of the southern Willamette Valley and Columbia River homes.

2005 —  Smoke Signals featured the story of Tribal interns Hope Lafferty, Ashley Bedortha and Alicia Selwyn, who spent 22 days in New York City working in the American Museum of Natural History to learn about museum work and visit with the meteorite Tomanowos.

2000 — Grand Ronde Housing Director Linda Layden was honored by her peers at a ceremony in Port Angeles, Washington, after being named the Indian Housing Authority’s Executive Director of the Year.

1995 — Tribal members were invited to a special open house to give them the first look inside the new Spirit Mountain Casino before its official opening.

1990 — Tribal representatives from around the state were set to gather at the new Oregon Convention Center in Portland, for a three-day conference about their history and cultural traditions. It was the result of a two-year project undertaken by Tribes in cooperation with the Oregon Council for the Humanities.

1985 — The Tribe thanked everyone who had helped out at its first annual powwow. “A special thank-you to Rudy Clements for his fine job as our emcee and for all of his advice before and after the powwow,” a Smoke Signals article stated.

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