Tribal Council approves self-governance funding agreement amendment

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

During its Wednesday, May 20, meeting, Tribal Council approved an amendment to a Department of Interior self-governance funding agreement that will add more than $2 million in unrestricted funds to the government coffers.

The amendment will cover what is known as Section 105(1) leases, which require the Bureau of Indian Affairs or Indian Health Service to compensate Tribes for the operational costs of Tribal facilities used to deliver federal programs. Unlike a traditional lease, it acts as a cost-based reimbursement method, where Tribes can be compensated for expenses including rent, depreciation, principal and interest on loans, operations, maintenance and repairs, according to the BIA website.

The Tribe and the BIA first entered into the agreement in 2020, which covered 2020-24. The three leases in the amendment are for 2022-23 and include the Natural Resourced Department, the Tribe’s Portland office and the Tribal Governance Center.

“This is a very technical, multi-layered, complicated process,” Tribal Economic and Lands Director Jan Looking Wolf Reibach said during a Tuesday, May 12, Legislative Action Committee meeting. “And that’s the reason why more Tribes do not take advantage of it. … We were one of the early Tribes to even file an LOI (letter of intent) and that was just the beginning. You literally have to analyze and document every square foot of the different buildings and match it to a program in their format. It requires Tribal Council approval. It requires a certified license appraisal of that space. Brandy (Humphreys) did an excellent job leading that project and it took years. There were some delays because of changes in administration and government shutdowns…but we kept moving forward.”

In the coming months, Reibach expects additional amendments to the agreement to add leases for Chachalu Tribal Museum & Cultural Center, as well as for lease renewals.

In other news, Tribal Council:

• Approved a professional services agreement between the Tribe and Glas Architects LLC of Eugene for up to $601,715 for design services for the expansion and renovation of the Grand Ronde Shawash-Ili?i Skul (Chinuk Wawa School), which will include a kindergarten through fifth grade Tribally operated school campus;
• Approved the annual O’Link funding agreement between Grand Ronde and 11 other Tribes that will net an estimated $283,000 in additional housing funds. The annual agreement is necessary because Grand Ronde’s Indian Housing Block Grant service areas overlaps with 11 other Tribes in Oregon and California;
• Approved an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration to authorize Tribal Public Works Coordinator John Mercier as the signing authority to access federal grant funding for various transit activities;
• Approved an amendment to the professional services agreement with David Evans & Associates of Portland for up to $1.5 million for design services related to phase one infrastructure improvements at the Tribe’s tumwata village project in Oregon City. The amendment covers additional work related to construction, inspection and contract administration:
• Approved the property acquisition of the 334.41-acre Jordan Valley Habitat Conservation Project through the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Willamette Wildlife Mitigation Program. The land is located near Stayton and the property includes upland prairie/oak savanna, oak woodland, wet prairie/wetlands and mixed forest habitats, including Jordan Creek. After closing is complete, this will bring the Tribe’s conservation properties to 14 and total acreage to nearly 3,000;
• And approved enrolling eight infants into the Tribe because they meet the enrollment requirements in the Tribal Constitution and Enrollment Ordinance. So far, there have been 44 infants, 16 emergency non-infants and 92 non-infants enrolled into the Tribe in 2026.

To watch the entire meeting, visit www.grandronde.org and click on the Videos tab.