The Start of Something Good

June 18, 2007

Her tears were so unexpected, and so surprising, that deep from within my chest and head, that telltale lump in the throat began, and my own eyes were slightly moistened. I had just made a decision that, while merely a small step in an enormous and soon-to-be harrowing process, temporarily cleansed her of years of pent-up frustration and impatience.
I hesitate to use her name. For those of you who don’t know her, she has driven up from near Roseburg, a nearly three-hour drive one way, for nearly two years at least once per month averaged out. Some months that number was like three or four. The reasons she drove up to today aren’t vastly different from before, they all involved trying to come up with language to solve some of the “unintended consequences” resulting from our Tribe’s last Constitutional amendment. In 1999. Needless to say, she has waited a long time.
Like many Tribal members, her family was deeply affected by the amendment. Hers is a classic split family. Though born of the same biological parents, some of her grandkids can enroll, some can’t. The language that Tribal Council passed on Monday, June 18 by resolution will solve a vast percentage of this problem. But like I wrote before, this is just the beginning. Most of the rest now is in the hands of Tribal voters.
She, along with a number of other individuals, spent a whole year of her life meeting twice per month as a member of the Tribe’s enrollment requirements ad hoc committee. We created the committee in the spring of 2005 following the public backlash from 35 letters of dis-enrollment sent to unsuspecting parents and/or guardians. A number of us wanted it before that, sadly, in fact Wesley West proposed the idea before our verbal whipping at the Eugene 2005 General Council Meeting, but better late than never I suppose.
The committee unveiled its recommendations on October 17, 2006 and I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that only now have we really acted on them. Better late than never…again.
My point in all this is that even getting to where we are today was the organizational and procedural equivalent of pulling teeth. Every attempt to move this monolith of a decision to a conclusion was a verbal struggle. That is why to even get this decision through is such an immediate relief, even though I am well-aware that this is just a minor but necessary step in the process of a Constitutional amendment.
That the resolution’s vote to even move this language forward to the Bureau of Indian Affairs ended up in a 5-4 split where I was given the rare opportunity to cast a tie-breaker is hardly surprising. This possible amendment never had the full support of the Tribal Council, and I remain convinced of this because in hindsight every meeting seemed like an attempt to introduce the filibuster into our work sessions. Council members would propose one thing and at the next meeting propose something different. At our Community Meeting in Tacoma, one Tribal member even got up and shared his observation that it seems certain Council members were saying the exact opposite of what they said the previous week in Portland. There was demand from members of our Council that we seek member input, and the constructive input we did get was rarely brought up after being submitted. From the first work session until the last, which by the way was Thursday, this whole process smacked of the partisan politics that have defined this issue more than others. At our last work session we had Council members voting “yes” on more than one committee sheet, even though a number of them conflicted!
The Constitutional election is still months away, and while I think the amendment can pass there is always the chance voters will think otherwise. But at least now there’s a chance, where since between 1999 and June 18, 2007 there was none. Maybe that is why this morning, as she walked up and hugged me, Angie Blackwell, and Jack Giffen, Jr. I felt a slight lump in my throat. Some of these split Tribal families could be healed, finally.
Better late…well, you know what I mean.