Yesteryears - Dec. 15, 2025

2020 — Less than 24 hours after a three-alarm fire started at the former Blue Heron Paper Mill site Saturday, Dec. 5, police arrested Enrique Omar Mejia, 29, booking him on three counts of felony second-degree arson, misdemeanor disorderly conduct and trespassing.

2015 — The general membership received a briefing on the Tribe’s attempt to diversify its revenue stream by investing in MicroGREEN Polymers Inc., which manufactured recycled plastic drinking cups. The company was unable to turn a profit and the Tribe foreclosed on it in early 2015. The Tribe lost more than $28 million.

2010 — A projected shortfall in expected revenue in the Willamina School District led to a proposal to close the middle school in Grand Ronde and to transport sixth through eighth graders to the Willamina High School campus.

2005 — Tribal Elder Beryle Contreras was reunited with her friend Wilma Mankiller. The pair, who had been friends and roommates, joined the occupation of Alcatraz in 1969, in which thousands of Native Americans made a stand for self-determination, sovereignty and respect for Native cultures. Contreras lived on the island for three months of the 19-month occupation.

2000 — The National Indian Gaming Commission announced that the Grand Ronde Tribe had become the second Tribe in the United States to be recognized for operating a self-regulating Indian casino. The Menominees in Wisconsin were the only other Tribe in the United States to have such a distinction.

1995 — The Tribe hired Francis Somday, a Colville Tribal member, as its Chief Executive Officer, replacing CEO Jim Willis, who had held the position for more than 10 years. Somday was a former president of the Colville Tribal Enterprise Corporation and had more than 20 years of experience in executive and managerial positions.

1990 — U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who had gained the reputation among many Tribal leaders as a champion for Indian causes, urged Tribal representatives at the National Congress of American Indians to give Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. a chance to reorganize the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He received three standing ovations from the audience.

1985 — The Tribe was planning its annual Christmas party, a potluck dinner at St. Michael’s Church cafeteria, at the Grand Ronde Agency, followed by a general meeting.

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