Odds & Ends- Two Things

Intergovernmental Relations

One of the first lessons I learned after being elected in 2004 was that the Tribe has its hands, so to speak, in many affairs. A lot of these involve other governments, local, regional, State, Federal and intertribal. There is something to be gained from working with other governments, from the old “safety in numbers” philosophy to pooling resources. Every intergovernmental relationship has value.
That is why I was surprised how a few of these relationships had fallen into neglect. Even more surprising was that I wasn’t alone. My first year involved in the Council of Governments and helping coordinate the visiting Yamhill County Sister Province from Korea opened my eyes. People were happy to have the Tribe’s participation again. I know because they told me. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde was an enigma, large sovereign government that when motivated could be an enormous help to these intergovernmental alliances. It just seemed waking this sleeping giant was the hard part. But thankfully we’ve been able to change that.
I am incredibly happy that our relationship with Governor Kulongoski has improved so much. It could have definitely gone sour given the situation with Warm Springs and the election in which we ran those commercials and other advertisements. But it didn’t.
Friday we took a step towards another good relationship, one that I feel strongly about. After months of coordination, we were finally able to host the Chinook Tribal Council, a tribe with whom Grand Ronde has very close historical and familial ties. Of course, I must hesitate in calling them a “tribe”, for all though we know they are their official recognition was derailed under the present presidential administration, for reasons that it is probably best left them to explain. That was why we were hosting them, to ask what Grand Ronde could do to further their recognition/restoration efforts.
There were a number of things we could do, from financial support to letters of support to advice. In fact, one thing they’ve asked for is a series of meetings where we can share with them our own trials and tribulations as a growing Tribe. What mistakes not to make, that sort of thing. I am not sure what we’ll do. But I hope that we’ll do something. Our own restoration was aided by another existing tribe, and for reasons I can’t quite articulate, helping another tribe secure their future just seems like the right thing to do. They’ve got so much before them, I am almost envious.




The Unknown Debate

Saturday morning I got a surprise call. It was Wesley West, who rang me at about 11:00 a.m.
“You know anything about the Candidate’s Forum today at Buell Park,” he asked rather innocently.
“No,” I told him. “I haven’t heard anything.”
The truth was I really hadn’t. There wasn’t any notice posted anywhere, nor none in the mail. But he had it on good authority that there would be some sort of “Meet the Candidates” and a “Q & A” session for individuals running for Tribal Council. Whether this meant an actual forum for honest debates and open discussion or more I couldn’t say. My personal guess was that it was more of a pep rally for the “Honesty-Integrity-Family” political party that was running its slate of three candidates.
So Wesley and I discussed whether to show up. It was very short notice, and my personal feeling was that if we hadn’t actually been invited, then we probably weren’t invited. But he planned on driving by just in case. He would be only a couple of miles away anyway, since somebody had torn down one of his campaign signs off the highway near Butler Hill.
My suspicions were correct, as I called Wesley the next day out of curiosity.
Oh I drove by, he told me. But I wasn’t welcome, he continued. There was about thirty people, and they turned and stared at me as I drove up. I didn’t get out of the car, he added, I just drove around and left. Nobody even waved, they gave me dirty looks. I definitely wasn’t welcome.
Had I been invited, it would have been fun, and at the very least interesting.