The natives at the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation underwent extreme hardships. Most of the early years they starved from lack of good effective administration by the federal employees and lack of funding from the federal government. They had only one doctor and rare access to effective medicines. Many people died at an early age because … [Read more…]
Oregon Tribal Languages have been endangered for over 100 years. From an original base of some 100 languages and dialects, the number of surviving languages with speakers has dwindled to about eight. Most tribes do not have many elder speakers and the language programs are constantly searching for funding to help the languages survive … [Read more…]
In recent years, in the State of Oregon, there have been some positive signs that the state has finally accepted that there are Native people, with history, in this state. The state legislature passed a law that helps to make Tribal history an essential and vital part of the state’s public education system (SB13). The … [Read more…]
The ratified treaties series, just completed today (1/17/2018), was inspired by a request from Dean Rhodes, Media Director at Grand Ronde, for me to tape a podcast about the Willamette Valley Treaty, as its anniversary is coming up soon. I figured, I should write a post about each treaty, and include the treaties so people … [Read more…]
Over the last week I have taped at least two shows for the radio about my thoughts about Thanksgiving. Suddenly everyone wants to know what “Natives” think about this holiday. I think its a reaction to recent activities around Native American month and Indigenous People’s days. Indigenous people’s days have now become a big social … [Read more…]