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The Grand Ronde Story

AIR DATE: Thursday, November 20th 2008
Download the mp3 for this show.
What is life like 25 years after restoration?

On Highway 18 about half-way between Portland and Lincoln City you'll discover Spirit Mountain Casino. For some beach-goers it is a pit stop en route to the waves. For many it is the destination -- a place to gamble and have fun. For still others, it is home.

Spirit Mountain Casino is owned and operated by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The tribe decided to peruse gambling as a revenue source in 1994. But it's their history before that which, like the histories of many tribes, is so complex and compelling.

In 1954 Congress passed the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act which ceased recognition of the Grand Ronde tribe by the federal government or other tribes. They no longer had the right to their reservation lands. It wasn't until 1983, after over a decade of pressuring Congress, that the Grand Ronde was restored, and the tribe began to rebuild its home.

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the restoration of the Grand Ronde. We'll hear the stories of tribal members, young and old, and find out what life is like today on the reservation. Do you remember when the Grand Ronde was restored? Do you have experience with other tribes in Oregon? Do you go to Spirit Mountain and wonder about the lives of people who call Grand Ronde home?

GUESTS:

  • Greg Archuleta: member of the Grand Ronde tribe who works in the Chinuk Wawa language program
  • Chris Mercier: the youngest member of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council
  • Margaret Provost: Grand Ronde Tribal Elder who was one of two who began the restoration efforts
  • Nora Kimsey: Margaret Provost's mother, and the eldest member of the Grand Ronde
  • Kathryn Harrison: Grand Ronde Tribal Elder who worked on the first post-restoration Tribal Council

Tagged as: casino · grand ronde · tribe

Long ago I attended a Sun Dance near Warm Springs. Spent a few emotional and unforgettable days with my indigenous American brothers and sisters. Talk about throwing myself into a fire....

I had never known or talked to any first Americans. I pitched my tent with a friend and we connected to the flow. I won't attempt to put into words how unique this experience was. It was good for me to throw myself out of my comfort zone to meet people with a compellingly different piece of "American" culture.

Cooking alive in a sweat lodge was cathartic and eye-opening. We talked over the pit of darkly glowing lava rocks about how Indians and Negroes had been decimated and shunned, and what we could do about it. How could we heal the psychological damage caused by racism, slavery, disease and marginalisation?

The conversation created a strong bond of empathy within me. It cured me of the "my people have suffered more than your people" entitlement illusion. Suffering is suffering and suffering sucks!

I visualise the Medicine Wheel (Buddhist Bhavacakra) and muse on the interconnectedness of everything. We should not take each other or Earth for granted because we will go away if we're not more mindful.

I have not been to Spirit Mountain casino yet but I'm curious to learn more about the Grand Ronde.

Thank you for this show.
trurl9 —
What is wonderful about the Grand Ronde creating a cesspool of a casino on their land? What a romantic and precious story. The fine china of the Native Americans---we've got to preserve the culture, the language and everything else. Why exactly? Things change, times change, we all change. This cultural sentimentality is incredibly superficial and egoistic. Why should we strive to preserve a culture? Who does it serve? What does it serve? There is enough interesting diversity of thought in the modern world---we don't need to keep the past in a bell jar, when we have a perfectly acceptable future to muck up.
scottmil —
P.S. How sad supporting an allegedly precious "spiritual" culture with the money and desperation of another culture. It's offensive, especially when its packaged in such noble wrapping.
scottmil —
As a young Tribal member at the time of restoration, I remember the anticipation as the day grew near. Six years of working with Senator Mark O. Hatfield and Congressman Les AuCoin, along with Elizabeth Furse and many others, had finally come to fruition.

I attended many of the meetings with my mother, Candy Robertson, who served on the Tribe's first Council upon Restoration, and continuted to serve 10 years in all. She instilled in my sisters and I the importance of community, that Grand Ronde was home no matter where we lived. We may not have lived with a lot of Native traditions, but we had Native values. We were taught to hold our elders with the highest regard, to treat them with respect. We were taught to be proud of who we were, but to be humble. We inherited resilience and bravery from her and from all of our ancestors.

Termination was not good by any means, but, we survived the ill-intent of that miserable era and we are stronger for it.
ablackwell —
As a tribal member of the Navajo tribe in Arizona and as someone who grew up on a reservation that struggled with poor housing, unemployment and alcoholism, I have been incredibly impressed by the Grand Ronde tribe's resilience and return from obscurity. Though some of you criticize their casino, they have used the profits of that venture to improve the lives of their members and to preserve their culture. They have used those profits to further cultural preservation with language preservation programs, research on ancestral lands and archelogical sites, and have been at the forefront to change remaining offensive "Squaw" geographic location names in Oregon. They support their members with progressive health programs, and honor their elders with daily elder lunches, and provide elders a dignified senior's home. Their tribal administration buildings are impressive, and it seems like they?ve wisely used to put back their casino profits into the tribal community. Grand Ronde is a glowing example of what a tribe can accomplish given the proper resources and proper management of those resources. It saddens me when the question is asked, 'why preserve your culture' as the Grand Ronde have. Perhaps when you've had your cultural identity stripped away from an invading force, when you are forceably removed from your homelands, not allowed to speak your language, and have your identity stripped away by congressional deed, could you then speak with authority on the importance of preserving a culture.
caribou —
Much of my family was killed in the holocaust. I think I am quite aware of having my culture stripped away. The loss of life is sad, the bigotry that drove it is sad---but no I am not concerned about the loss of culture. I try to escape the claws and rigidity of culture whenever and however I can. There are no cultures that merit preservation. To endorse one, you would have to endorse them all, or are we saying some are better then others? Should they preserve white bigoted culture too? Or do we pick and choose what culture we think deserves salvation? Culture is a prison.
scottmil —
The loss of family members is something horrible to have gone through. I don?t think the story is saying their culture is better then anyone else?s, but it?s presses to Native American?s.
I think to lose your culture takes losing your home. Where generation of your family was raised and lived. I can tell you where my great grandmother?s village was, and how they lived and what they believed in. I know where the young men would go to prove themselves on a vision quest. Our people meet every year to relive the old ways, and celebrate our culture.
Native?s and just like white?s, some are very spiritual and not driven my money but some are. On the outside people have casinos and Indians as one. That?s because that what they know, they don?t know any Indian?s. Don?t judge if you all you know is what you read in paper. Go to a Pow Wow, dance and eat with us. Spend a couple of days around us then make up your own mind.

YourPilot —
Much of your argument is predicated on the premise that culture is a dead thing in a bell jar to be preserved with superficial sentimentality. What you fail to realize is that culture is a living breathing thing, culture is a people's way of living. Culture is the grandmother killing a sheep, butchering the sheep, and cooking the mutton in the same manner her mother taught her. Culture is weaving cloth out of the sheep's wool for clothing and blankets. You see, the simple everyday activity of living is culture. To say that culture is superficial and egoistic is to say that survival and life are superficial and egoistic, simply not the case. The Grand Ronde are a living community thriving in the context of the modern world, while at the same time validating who they are and where they came from. Too often the view of the Native American is of the stoic, noble, spiritual redman. We are so much more than that. We live in modern homes, have mortgages, drive cars, have computers, have degrees from modern universities and can speak other languages. The Grand Ronde community stands a great example of how a tribal people can operate successfully in this modern world and still keep the traditions and language of their ancestors alive and well. To deny them their pride of what they've accomplished in 25 years is selfish and egoistic. Kudos to the Grand Ronde, may you have many more years of success.
caribou —
What a great post. I would like to second this and add- the decimation of the Native Peoples of the US is often compared to the Holocaust. The difference is, it is still going on. I just painted a wall in my office yesterday with a paint color named, "Apache Red" how horrifying. Funny thing is, I could have chosen Navaho white too! I am also a native person who owns two businesses, drives a car, pays taxes, goes on vacation and is proud of the money and culture my tribe contributes to the community. Not to mention the educational opportunities, health care, housing and jobs provided not to just tribal members but the community as a whole. I am constantly learning more about the culture of my elders and applying that knowledge to continue creating a culture of my own generation.
PortlandDogRunner —
caribou,

You don't need a culture to survive as an individual they have nothing to do with one another. I could be placed in isolation on an island and live out my life without being part of a culture separate from myself.

People can live and thrive without attempting to preserve a culture. If a person should ever have pride, it should be pride in who they are as an individual---not pride for their culture that they had no choice in.
scottmil —

That is so right.

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helpgodme —

When I visit Portland next..I'll definitely like to check out the Spirit Mountain Casino.  The restoration job they have done looks great! Richmond Hill Esthetics Waxing Toronto

wyld187 —

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