Economic development summit held in Grand Ronde

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Officials from various state agencies, Tribal nations and community development professionals participated in an economic development summit at the Tribe’s Adult Education building Thursday, May 21.

The summit was hosted by the Tribe’s Economic Development (EcDev) program and included the Tribal-State Economic Development and Community Services Cluster team, a government-to-government group designed to encourage cooperation between federally recognized Tribes and state agencies.

The summit began with a welcome song, performed by students from the Tribe’s Shawash-iliʔi Skul, followed by introductions of those in attendance.

The Tribal Housing Grant Fund, a first-in-the-nation program that consolidates a single funding source to address the housing needs of Oregon Tribes; as well as the Building Energy Reduction Incentive program, which provides up to $100,000 to help commercial and Tribal building owners offset the costs of complying early with the state’s building performance standard, were discussed, followed by a Tribal spotlight on economic development.

Tribal Economic & Lands Director Jan Looking Wolf Reibach gave an update on various economic development opportunities and work the Tribe is engaged in.

“All the Tribes, regardless of what stage they’re in for their economy, have to fight for their sovereignty,” he said. “It’s a struggle and we have to continue to advocate for our self-governance and to get what we deserve because we are not just a private business in the state of Oregon, we are the original people in the state of Oregon. So…it’s still an effort.”

Reibach then shared a slide that included different revenue sources for the Grand Ronde Tribe. These include gaming, various investments, self-governance leases with the federal government, grants, Tribal Employment Rights Office project fees, medication assisted treatment clinic revenues, wildland firefighting, timber permits, commercial real estate and emergency medical services.

“In 2024, less than 20% of our net revenue was from the casino,” he said. “So that tells you the diversity of the Tribe. We have revenue that comes from several different areas. … We have a very well developed grant program and in 2024, we had over $64 million in grants that came into this Tribe. There might be some private organizations or even some folks that could look at that and say, ‘Wow, you’re really rich. You have all of this.’ But today, as I share this with you, in this country Native Americans still have the highest rate of homelessness. We still have the lowest life expectancy of anyone in this country as a group. We’re still fighting all of these things that were left over.”

He continued, “Our mission with our EcDev program is while we’re still monitoring for opportunities and assessing what comes our way…we’re managing existing projects and supporting the Tribe’s economy. We’re going to mold a strategy development with our leaders…Our EcDev program supports not only economic development that is unrestricted for profit-centered projects, we also support projects that bring in restricted revenue to our economy because if the Tribe brings in restricted revenue, that frees up unrestricted revenue that would otherwise be used to support the community.”  

Next, Tribal Economic Development Analyst Dane Herrin shared the Tribe’s comprehensive economic development strategy, which is  is designed to be “seven generations strong.”

“This is going to build our way to the well-developed, robust and  anti-fragile economy that we all want to build,” he said. “So, we need to figure out not only how to get there but the mission, the values and the way you get there that supports our team and our way of doing things. This is going to be the economic constitution for our sovereign nation, providing for those benefits, those jobs…It isn’t going to be a short project or something that we just cobble together then hide it somewhere.”

The strategy is designed to “act as a long-range strategic planning document that articulates our economic vision, identifies priority mission and goals, assesses current economic conditions and lays out a roadmap for achieving sustainable economic self-sufficiency.”

Herrin noted that Tribal members can expect the multi-year process to be an inclusive approach with regular opportunities for input and updates.

“This is going to be a living strategic document that addresses our internal core competencies and the external environment that we are trying to interact with,” he said. “This isn’t just going to bring up Grand Ronde, it will bring up other Tribes in our area and it’s going to bring up Oregon. We’re going to find ways to further develop and nurture relationships, business and otherwise.”

Reibach said the goal was to have the plan ready to present at the Tribe’s 45^th Restoration celebration in 2028.

“Out of the (economic development strategy) is going to be about a five-year window of economic, up-centered initiatives for the Tribe,” he said. “It’s going to steer us into which industries to invest in.”

After Reibach concluded his presentation, attendees heard about economic development efforts from the Umatilla, Cow Creek and Klamath Tribes.

Mariah Watchman, business development coordinator for the Umatilla Tribe, noted that a lot of other Tribes in the area also had their own economic development strategies and that future collaboration would be useful.

“We appreciate that you are paving the way and we’ve been doing a lot of research in the area and trying to see everyone else’s (plans),” she said. “We’re excited to get this process moving forward and under our belt. … So, thank you for the work you’ve done.”

Other agenda items for the morning included a governor’s office update and a report from the Oregon Department of Forestry regarding the 2026 wildfire season outlook.

Afternoon sessions on the agenda included reports about Business Oregon’s new small business enterprise certification and loan fund, data sovereignty and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.