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and everyone looked after each other.” George serves on the Restoration Committee, which is charged with arranging the celebration. The group has been meeting regularly for months to plan the event at Spirit Mountain Casino down to the smallest detail. “The main thing I am looking forward to is seeing all of the Tribal families coming together and connecting to those who haven’t been here yet,” George says. “We are all one Tribe and should celebrate that.” The 35 th anniversary will begin at 10 a.m. …

Jan Reibach and Assistant Controller Jody Jerger both were hired in the first quarter of 1996. Tribal Council Secretary Jon A. George blessed the breakfast and Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno welcomed a large turnout of employees to the awards ceremony. “I want to acknowledge all of our staff who work very hard for us,” Leno said before pointing out the Tribe’s Maintenance staff for the work they did to get the new Grand Ronde Police Station ready to open. “I want to thank all of you for all …

, is helping the Tribe’s youngest members as the Young Child Wellness Community coordinator. It is a position that is new to the Tribe and grant funded. “When I heard about this job, it sounded perfect,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to work with families, the community and wellness.” Kimsey began working for the Tribe nine years ago in the Head Start preschool program. “I soon realized working with children was really meaningful for me,” she said. After the Tribe enacted its Tribal Employment Rights …

an emphatic “no,” but the fresh salmon a definite “yes.” “I’d like the yummy part, please,” he said. Being exposed to new foods, even if there was some hesitancy to try all of them, is a big part of Grand Ronde’s annual celebration of Native foods. Held in the cooking area outside Tribal plankhouse achaf-hammi on Saturday, June 29, conversation, cooking and laughter were in abundance. “I loved it,” Culture Committee Chair Francene Ambrose said. “We had so many new dishes and new attendees.” Ambrose …

is pleased with the change, especially since the stream was previously called Squaw Creek, a racial slur. “I feel like we’re getting some of our history back,” Raya said. “Levi Bobb was an important member of the community. He was my great-great-grandfather.” Lewis, who was then Raya’s manager at the Cultural Resources Department, has worked on renaming projects before. Due to that, the Oregon Geographical Names Board asked him to submit a proposal to change the creek’s name. “I looked at the history …

to create more efficiency in how we run the department,” she said. “There are lots of individual silos within it. One of the main things I ask is are we providing the best services we can?” She said that holding regular virtual community input meetings has been helpful in answering that question. Fasana also provided an overview of the early childhood, youth and higher education programs, as well as an update on library services during the pandemic. Some of the highlights include: There are 59 …

Tribal Government & News Letters to the Editor -- July 15, 2021 07.14.2021 Dean Rhodes Letters Cecil Rose Russell Porter Dear Smoke Signals : I read with much interest the articles on boarding schools for Native American children in the latest edition of Smoke Signals . My grandmother, Cecil Rose Russell Porter, was taken from her home in Tiller, Ore., in 1908 by the state of Oregon and incarcerated in Chemawa Indian School in Salem. There she was kept until 1918 when she was 19. Over …

to donate proceeds to an Indigenous organization. The website also states the objective of the “Native Land” project is to “further visibility of Native people and to generate resources to support Native organizations whose work focuses on ecological stewardship and strengthening Native communities.” Tribal Council Vice Chair Chris Mercier calls himself as a beer enthusiast and hopes the beer label recognizing Grand Ronde will help make the Tribe’s name more familiar. “What I want to see is more …

that he had been having mental health issues for some time. Medina told the court that Mejia claimed to have had a chip implanted in his head and wanted to know what would happen when the chip was discovered. He also asserted that he was followed around by a cult that was trying to frame him for a crime. According to a Dec. 29 court filing reported by The Clackamas Review , Mejia said that because of his brain implant “a group of people can see what I’m thinking; they can see what I see …

election, which marked the smallest slate of candidates ever nominated since Restoration. Denise Harvey Harvey, who was first elected to Tribal Council in 2013 after five unsuccessful campaigns, captured her fourth consecutive three-year term. Harvey, 60, previously finished first in 2013 and 2019, and third in 2016. She finished third with 741 votes. “My life’s greatest work is serving our people,” Harvey said. “I’m overjoyed, honored and thankful to be serving my fourth consecutive term. Thank …