Tribe retains ceremonial hunting rights
Fish and Wildlife Commission rebuffs Siletz challenge

By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Oct. 2 unanimously readopted a rule granting ceremonial hunting rights to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde across the Trask Hunting Unit.

The unit, which is north of Grand Ronde roughly between the coast and a north-south line that runs from Forest Grove to McMinnville, encompasses traditional hunting grounds for the Grand Ronde Tribe from time immemorial.

The ceremonial hunting rule was first adopted by the state on April 18, 2008. At the time, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians opposed the rule on the grounds that the Trask Hunting Unit overlapped part of the Coast Reservation.

After the rule was adopted in 2008, representatives from state, Grand Ronde and Siletz Tribes met to discuss the issue.

Those differences were not resolved, and the Siletz filed a complaint with the Oregon Court of Appeals challenging the state’s adoption of the ceremonial hunting rule to address what Siletz Tribal attorney Craig Dorsay called “an historical anomaly” regarding reservation boundaries.

Specifically, the Siletz claim that the establishment in 1855 of the Coast Reservation was actually the Siletz Reservation. The Grand Ronde Tribe disagrees and has filed a “friend of the court” brief with the Court of Appeals.

 “The first federally approved reservation was the Coast Reservation created in 1855 to include all of the Tribes of western Oregon. There is a co-claim to the same land,” said Tribal member and Tribal Cultural Resources Manager David Lewis.

Move the clock forward to 1954 when both Tribes were terminated by federal decree. Then, in 1977, the Siletz were restored and in 1983 the Grand Ronde were restored.

The Tribes were compelled to sign similar consent decrees that specifically limited their treaty hunting and fishing rights or fail to have their reservations restored at all. Both signed the decrees.

As a result, the Siletz claim that their reservation takes precedence over the Grand Ronde reservation because in 1977, when the Siletz were restored, Grand Ronde were not federally recognized.

 “In fact,” Lewis said, “nothing in Grand Ronde’s ceremonial hunting pact disallows the Siletz people from hunting the same area within their regular hunting seasons.”

 In recapping the issue before the vote, Fish and Wildlife Commission Chair Marla Rae said, “This administrative rule is not the forum to resolve the underlying issues of the Siletz complaints. We have no authority to revisit the consent decrees. I continue to believe that the ceremonial permits are appropriate. We have offered the same opportunity to the Siletz Tribe.”

Grand Ronde Tribal Attorney Rob Greene said, “We have a partnership with the state and we’re working on a government-to-government basis to resolve a complex issue.

 “The consent decrees deal with treaty rights. Other hunting rights can be handled by state regulation. We’re not addressing treaty rights in the ceremonial hunting rule.”

More than a dozen Grand Ronde Tribal members attended the proceedings, including five Tribal Council members.

 “In 2008,” said Tribal Vice Chair Reyn Leno, “we took six elk and five deer and served 3,060 people. In 2009, we took four elk and five deer and served 3,000 more people. It’s really about the honor of going to powwow, and saying, ‘These were taken by our ceremonial hunters to be shared with you, the powwow crowd.’ This is not about sport. It is a way of life for us, and has been for thousands of years.”

“When we heard the first was taken, it was like reclaiming a part of our history,” Tribal Council member Chris Mercier said. “This has been a win-win. We haven’t taken anything away from anybody else.”

Tribal Council member Val Sheker said, “This is an example of how the injustices against our people can be righted.”

Tribal Council Secretary Kathleen Tom also came in support.

Tribal member Bryan Langley, who serves on the Ceremonial Hunting Board and is one of the Tribal ceremonial hunters, told the commission: “The process has worked well. We’ve had great success. It’s been an honor to harvest traditional foods and provide the meat in ceremonies.

 “It’s been a great learning experience for my son.”

Tribal member Shonn Leno, chairman of the Ceremonial Hunting Board, said that the process has been “a great honor to give back to the Tribe that has given so much to me and my family. When I got the first phone call at five in the morning in Oregon that one of our hunters had this animal down, I thought, ‘We’ve done it. We’ve completed what we set out to do.’

 “We’re becoming role models to our children. We hope what we’ve started will become standard practice at the Tribe.”

One change in the readopted rule removed the word “rifle” so that ceremonial hunting would not be limited to rifles, but also include bow and arrow, as appropriate to each hunting season.

 “Justice is served,” said Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy. “Tribal history is validated.”