Seven generations ago for the timeline of this map. Remember this when one says they support a life centered around the seventh-generation principle. Consider the generation of people moved to the larger reservation and to the area on this map and from the Tribes they came from. For this map, there are six tribes noted in the key. They knew both the free life and the reservation life. They in turn knew and listened to a generation of those that did not. Some of that generation, the one that did not know reservation life, knew both the time of European contact and the time before.
We are a resilient people. Our mere survival proves we have been successful and united in trusting each other in order to get here. This is especially true for this confederation of Tribes once terminated and since restored. Some of our ancestors did not get along in their Tribal affiliations yet were forced together. Our people overcame that. Our people faced unbelievable hardship from starvation, disease, and yes, genocide. They overcame that. Our people ceded the most valuable pieces of land and have overcome that. Not even termination could stop us.
We come from places up and down the Willamette Valley. Some of us have ancestors that inter-married with Tribes outside the Willamette Valley. Some of us have as well. Some have not. Many, if not most, have non-Native ancestry. As we often say when speaking of our ceded lands, inter-marriage has occurred “throughout time immemorial”. We will and have always continued to walk together with all our relations in a resilient manner. Our diversity is a strength. It can only be a weakness if we allow words of division to win the day.
Depending on where you start in a linear minded way (traditionally, it doesn’t matter because everything is actually circular), the seventh generation of those peoples sent to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation are alive and well. Make no mistake, we still have challenges and are still dealing with generational trauma issues. Yet is must be asked. Are our children learning the necessary life skills to survive in the current world?
We know through our statistics that too many struggle with academics. This will only be made more challenging with online education becoming the norm rather than the exception. We do not have the details ironed out, that is what staff does, however we know that aid will be coming soon to families. This aid will be in the form of assistance for computers, internet access to engage in the online learning, as well as aid for tutoring and private school.
I am quite certain that staff and my fellow Tribal Council will also identify other areas or complicating factors. For example, rent and mortgage, no matter where one lives, is also a burden and impediment. Even more so with the parents of our children if they lost their jobs, but also since the roof over our heads consumes way more of our budgets than in times past. It is difficult for a family to prioritize spending on equipment when the first thing one needs is a roof over their head and the second is food to eat. Adapting existing programs or creating new to get aid for these things is important and staff has been working on this and more. I look forward to their recommendations and actions. Since we only have until December 31, 2020 to utilize CARES Act dollars, urgency, while still keeping an eye on managing the budget, is necessary.
What about an upturned world that is geological and not pandemic related? If learning about culture is a turn off because of differing spiritual beliefs, that does not change the importance of cultural lessons as life survival skills. Are those ancestors from 1857 shaking their collective heads at how little chance we would have of survival in a great catastrophe? A huge earth Etch-a-Sketch reset moment that made us dependent upon our knowledge of gathering, cultivating, fishing and hunting is indeed a probability not merely a possibility. We should be preparing for that event with more than just disaster preparedness.
Can we and our descendants utilize the necessary tools as part of our skills set if this does occur? What are we doing, as our ancestors did, to ensure story encapsulates what we need to survive? What are we doing to increase the likelihood these natural resource gifts that were provided to us survive to aid us once again? Will the resources be there in our time of need? Maybe they do not really need or want us anymore. We all need to hear the stories which honor and continue the lessons passed down to us so we can continue our relationship with these gifts. It is story that helped get us here, and it will be story that keeps us moving forward in a good way.
Also, how we handle ourselves when any Tribal crisis comes, not merely a natural catastrophe, matters. It is illegal to shout “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater. We understand because it is dangerous in ripple effect. Yet we somehow do not realize the dangers social media have when used for the equivalent. It makes me wonder. Do the elders of 1857 wish more people take action to quiet the shouting, tamping down the wildfire like effects of panic and mistrust? Do they expect our people to calmly look through the imagined smoke and heat to work collectively and with sufficient trust in each other to come out of crisis together rather than with more deeply held division? Divisive words of misled fear and misled actions disguised as concern or harmless opinion increases the risk of failure. A failure through uninformed choices made because of fear instead of calm, rational, and moral reasoning. Whatever our more modern methods of delivery, our words are our collective song.
Some may like the theater that our Tribal discussions devolve to, but there are so, so many more who do not. Often, when someone shares with me a version they heard about a Tribal Council work session, I do not even recognize it since it is so far removed from fact. A perfect example of that lately is the notion that one or more on the current Tribal Council supports a casino in Salem. I have never heard support from any sitting Tribal Council Member. It is true that we want opposition to be done in a good way, unlike in the past. Personally, I am working on an alternative plan that serves all nine tribes much better. That plan does not include a casino in Salem, either. (That is another conversation, though, which is much more nuanced than can be covered here.)
That is why I believe our work sessions should be videotaped and shared. This would put an end to mischaracterizations or sometimes outright lying in order to push a narrative against individuals or groups. Words of division and fear only serve the divider. Ask yourself in these situations, “Are these statements putting down another person, or are they solution oriented?” If someone is speaking for another person, chances are they have their own motivation to do so.
So, how else do we improve on communication and a sense of tribal community? As part of that discussion, a missing piece is how are we going to take our lessons to the next level. I believe it is time to bring back the coming of age ceremonies to all our youth. We need to develop a plan that instructs our children of tribal history, plants, and resources; how to recognize them, how to use them, and how to cultivate. We should be putting them throughout housing and near housing, so our children interact naturally. This is how we prepared our children in the past – telling our stories and demonstrating their importance.
I believe there is a good argument that some of these expenditures qualify for CARES Act funding and/or the General Welfare Act which makes it nontaxable. That is why I have asked for budget dollars committed to this. We should also be making resources available to those living away from Grand Ronde for the same reasons. We should include a funding combination of long-distance learning and bringing our teenagers home to participate in this program. When they come home, we need to be prepared to teach and for them to be prepared to learn our stories. These are the things that unite us and help us move forward as one large group and not individuals or competing groups.
There is a very great amount of mature discussions that we will be having in this next year. From enrollment, economic development, to the continuing threat of COVID-19, which is damaging both economically and for our members’ physical and mental health. The tone of the words of our leaders, as well as ourselves, becomes our collective song and how we dance to it is perhaps the most important consideration for us all. One of my favorite quotes from modern times comes from Mr. Rodgers and is in reference to nervous and anxious children in troubled times and paraphrased here. When times are scary and uncertain, look for the helpers. They are always there.
It is time for us all to not only look for the helpers. We must be the helpers. I do not often give public prayers, because my prayers are much different than most people. I do not ask Creator to give anything. My prayer is always in thanks. Creator has already given us everything we need. We have ears to listen with. Choose to listen with the goal of expanding conversation. We have mouths to speak with. Choose to speak with the goal of expanding options and solutions. We are given intelligence to reason with. Choose to use your brain to find commonality and progress. We have hearts to feel with. Choose to use your heart to find empathy, compassion, understanding, humility, and patience. We have been given foods and tools and resources for all the things we need to survive. Choose to honor resources by knowing them and our interaction with them. It is our choice in how we act, not Creator’s role to act for us.
We honor Creator with these choices. It is our choices in what we do with these gifts that matters. Choose well, because, in so doing, we as tribal people are singing a seventh-generation song with the words and actions we choose. The future and the past are judging us. The choice confronting us all, is whether we learn that now or when our time to walk on brings us before our ancestors again. In the meantime, they are listening to the current song we are singing. I hope it is worthy of dance.
Michael A. Langley 