Bill would add Grand Ronde to list of Tribes that must be consulted about management of scenic area
By Dean Rhodes
Smoke Signals editor
The Tribe’s long-standing effort to be recognized by the federal government as a Columbia River Tribe received a significant boost on July 31 when U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore., 5th District) introduced House Resolution 3514, which would amend the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act to include the Grand Ronde.
Currently, the act lists the Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Schrader’s legislation would amend the Scenic Area Act to include the Grand Ronde Tribe as the fifth Indian Tribe that must be consulted regarding planning and management of the scenic area.
Earlier this year, Grand Ronde Tribal Council members traveled to Washington, D.C., where they met with first-term Rep. Schrader and enlisted his commitment to pursue the Scenic Area Act amendment.
“I was approached by Tribal Chair Cheryle Kennedy and other members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, who asked for my support of their effort to be recognized as a Tribe with historic ties to the Columbia River,” Schrader said in an e-mail to Smoke Signals.
“I listened to Tribal members and felt it was important to open a dialogue, so I drafted the bill. … I look forward to working with all Tribes as we move forward.”
“Grand Ronde is seeking to be consulted and involved in the protection and management of the Gorge in the same manner as the other Columbia River Tribes,” Tribal Attorney Rob Greene said.
“Grand Ronde is a Columbia River Tribe and there is no reason to deny the Tribe an equal voice with the other Tribes under the Scenic Area Act. This is an issue of fundamental justice. How can it be right for the other Columbia River Tribes to have a voice on matters affecting the historic lands of Grand Ronde and Grand Ronde not have a voice?”
“Kurt is a new representative and to see him step up to the plate this quickly means that we have a representative who is not afraid to get involved,” Tribal Council member Wink Soderberg said. “To the Tribe, this is a very serious matter.”
Congress designated the Columbia River Gorge the nation’s first national scenic area in 1986. President Ronald Reagan signed the Scenic Area Act, which created an 83-mile-long scenic area, encompassing about 295,000 acres, stretching from Washougal to east of Wishram in Washington and from the Sandy River to the Deschutes River in Oregon.
The U.S. Forest Service manages the scenic area, with the help of the Columbia River Gorge Commission, a 13-member group representing federal, state, Tribal and county interests.
The act states that the Secretary of the Interior and the Gorge Commission “shall exercise their responsibilities … in consultation with federal, state and local governments having jurisdiction within the scenic area … and with Indian Tribes.”
Grand Ronde representatives cite that the Tribe should be considered a Columbia River Tribe based on the inclusion of the Columbia River Indians in the Grand Ronde confederation.
The Walala and Clackamas Indians, Chinookan-speaking Native Americans, lived on the river since time immemorial and signed the 1855 Willamette Valley Treaty, one of Grand Ronde’s treaties. They ceded their lands, which include parts of the current-day scenic area of the Columbia River from Cascade Locks to the Sandy River, to the federal government and Tribal members moved to the Grand Ronde Reservation.
An eight-minute video, “Grand Ronde: Our People in the Gorge,” posted on the Grand Ronde Tribal Web site features Tribal members Greg Archuleta, Marilyn Portwood, Chuck Williams, Val Alexander and Eirik Thorsgard discussing their ancestral ties to the Columbia River.
Archuleta talks about how the Walala and Clackamas Indians did not consider the river a boundary between states, but a roadway on which they could trade, as well as visit relatives.
Thorsgard recalls his grandfather fishing for smelt in the Sandy River delta and for salmon at Cascade Locks and Celilo Falls.
Portwood outlines her direct lineage from Chief Tumulth, who signed the 1855 treaty.
Today, the descendants of those Indians are enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and continue to live in the Gorge and use the area. Many of their ancestors are buried in the scenic area.
Because the Tribe was terminated between 1954 to 1983, the Grand Ronde Tribe was not invited to “sit at the table” when many federal decisions were made regarding Northwest Indian Tribes, including which Tribes would be consulted regarding management of the scenic area.
The Grand Ronde Tribe was restored only three years before the act was adopted and, at the time, was still struggling with the political disenfranchisement of Termination.
“Unlike the other Columbia River Tribes, Grand Ronde’s federal status was terminated by the United States, and while the Scenic Act was being developed Grand Ronde was working to regain federal recognition and a part of its former reservation,” Greene said.
“Termination is why Grand Ronde was left out of the act. This amendment helps restore Grand Ronde to where it would have been had it not been terminated.”
Tribal member and Cultural Resources Department Manager David Lewis said he thinks the Grand Ronde Tribe would have retained its fishing rights on the Columbia River had it not been terminated in the 1950s.
Schrader’s proposal has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources, which includes Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio.
According to the committee’s Web site, no hearings on the proposal are scheduled yet.