In this episode of the Smoke Signals podcast, host Kamiah Koch interviews me, Michael Cherry, a candidate for the Tribal Council for The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. I discuss my extensive background, including my work in Indian Child Welfare, the casino industry, and as the Executive Director of the Spirit Mountain Community Fund. I highlight my commitment to elder care, education, and economic diversification. I also addresses support for free press, social media ethics, enrollment issues, and the movement to address Murdered and Missing Indigenous People. The episode was transcribed for your convenience.
Kamiah (00:00:00) - Hello and welcome back to another Smoke Signals podcast. It's once again election season, and in this episode we are talking with Tribal Council candidate Michael Cherry. Thank you for joining us today. As we do every year, we are asking all seven candidates the same ten questions. However, we do reserve the right to follow up with questions and go where the conversation takes us. So, Michael, are you ready?
Michael (00:00:23) - I am ready. Hello. Thank you for having me.
Kamiah (00:00:25) - Thank you. So our first question is why don't you tell our listeners about yourself? What is your background and how does it qualify you for Tribal Council?
Michael (00:00:34) - Sure. Thank you. I was born and raised in Grand Ronde. My mom, Candy Robertson, was on the first post restoration Tribal Council for over a decade. I have seen every council that has served our tribe since restoration. I started employment with the tribe starting in Indian child welfare over 30 years ago. I served in that capacity for a decade until my daughter was born.
Michael (00:01:01) - I then accepted a position at the casino, starting in human resources and tribal career development for five years before moving on to marketing, overseeing four programs and marketing, where I learned a lot about the day to day operations of our casino. I also served a term as a Grand Ronde Gaming Commissioner and learned a lot about our gaming compact MICS and Regs. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which established the statutory framework that governs Indian gaming on reservations which did not exist before. And lastly, for my background and also qualifications prior to being elected to council in 2021, I had the wonderful privilege to serve as the Spirit Mountain Community Fund Executive Director for just shy of five years, which was the best job in the world. Besides this one, of course. Truly, it was an incredible opportunity to showcase the importance of our casino revenue, that gives back 6% of total revenue to local nonprofits in our ceded land territories. And then lastly, I'm a wife Grammie mom, auntie, friend, sister. So that is who I am.
Kamiah (00:02:15) - Awesome. What personal qualities about yourself do you think make you stand out as a candidate?
Michael (00:02:21) - I believe the personal qualities that make me stand out as a Tribal Council member: number one, I think it's very important, I show up. I tracked my attendance and the meetings that I attended for the last two and a half years, which was not an easy task, but I did it for accountability and transparency purposes. I've averaged 88 to 90% attendance at work. People know that I show up and people know that I'm present and engaged. When I thought about this question, because you asked me this in 2021, this time I actually did an outreach to a few people that I did not know as well in 2021, and when I called them and spoke to them and they did say they were supporting me, I know it sounded strange, but I asked them why. And the thing that struck me the most is how often I heard people say that it was kindness that I have shown them, or to one of their family members, and that really stuck with me because sometimes I think it's just that simple.
Michael (00:03:24) - I think leading with kindness, especially as a woman, that can be scrutinized. I've been in leadership roles for over 30 years, so that's my lived experience. And now to be almost a baby elder and to be told that people were supporting me because of my kindness, it was very encouraging.
Kamiah (00:03:44) - As an incumbent, what have you accomplished while on Tribal Council? And also, if you'd like to, what would you like to accomplish if you were reelected?
Michael (00:03:53) - Thank you. So when I ran in 2021, my priorities really centered around elder care, quality of life, and programs that support aging in place. I immediately became a liaison to the elder committee when I was elected in 2021, and we meet twice a month. They are doing incredible work and I really want to continue to be a part of that now more than ever. With our elder population expected to double in approximately ten years, we have to be more focused and diligent on providing hospice and memory care services. Dementia cases are on the rise as well as Alzheimer's, and we need to be prepared for that no matter where our elders live.
Michael (00:04:33) - One quick story. I have a tribal member friend. She is from California and she was taking care of her mom last year and her mom needed to go into memory care. She had no idea where to start, what services or resources the tribe offered, if any, and she called me really for emotional support. But I serve on a hospice board for five years now, and it's taken a lot of time to educate them around the fact that it's a core value of Native Americans to take care of our family members until the last possible minute, when they just physically and emotionally can no longer do it. And that was happening with my friend in California. And I think we need an elder department that is just dedicated to providing wraparound services, coordinated care for continuity of care and services no matter where you live and no matter what service is needed. We have a lot of programs for providing this type of care. But now we have a new elder task force that's been created, which is helping.
Michael (00:05:34) - But I think an actual department is something that I would like to help advocate for. One initiative in particular for elders that I have been advocating for diligently is the first Elder Protection Ordinance. Hopefully that is in its final draft with the elder task team, and I would love to help see that through to the finish line. Another area of focus for me has always been on education. Our kids still only graduate at half the rate of other students. This is why our Shawash school and funding needs to be sustainable for all grades in the near future. We are starting out with kindergarten next year, but we really need to make sure that we are prioritizing that for all grades. We know best what our students need that is culturally relevant, specific and place based with hands on learning. Also, exploring more apprenticeship opportunities for high school students that are not college bound, and increasing funding for trade schools and partnering with programs such as career technical programs. Two of my sons attended Career Tech, and it's it's an incredible program that will help increase graduation rates.
Michael (00:06:39) - And that's a priority for me.
Kamiah (00:06:42) - That's a lot to accomplish.
Michael (00:06:45) - That's why I need reelected.
Kamiah (00:06:50) Exactly. All right. So, switching gears a little bit, what is your vision for appropriate economic development for the tribe?
Michael (00:06:57) - As one of nine tribal council members, we are responsible for a very large financial portfolio. I have a background as a marketing manager at the casino for five years, the Spirit Mountain Community Fund Director five years, and I also owned my own small business. So I have the experience managing financial portfolios, reviewing profit and loss sheets, which is very important. And I mentioned this already, I think we really need to think about how we're going to diversify our portfolio and not just think about the casino as sustaining us long term. And one of those things that I mentioned already was small business. Small business opportunities for tribal members is very critical, I think, for not only sustaining our financial future, but thinking about our community in terms of what we want Grand Ronde to look like in 20 or 30 years.
Michael (00:07:55) - So our 2033 Community Development plan walks through a lot of that. But we really need to think about how we are supporting tribal members and that entrepreneurial spirit. And a lot of that centers around, for me, small business development, small business opportunities, and a small business resource center. I graduated from on ONABEN in the early 90's and started my own photography business for over a decade. I would really love to see us provide more resources provided for start up businesses for tribal members, including a small business loan program and eventually a business resource center.
Kamiah (00:08:43) - All right, jumping to another completely different question, do you support smoke signals as a free press, free from government and personal influence? If not, why not?
Michael (00:08:54) - Yes I do. 100%. I'm very proud to see the work of our independent journalism free from any political bias. And congratulations also on your most recent awards and your national success. But yes, I do support that 100%, I always will.
Kamiah (00:09:09) - We have seen an uptick in social media platforms used as a campaign tool.
Kamiah (00:09:15) - This means we've also seen an uptick in online bullying and, or online bullying of tribal members and candidates. How have you ethically used social media in your campaign? It's a very different question that we've asked before.
Michael (00:09:30) - Really, really good question. I'm so glad that you asked that. I've spoken about this a couple of times, and at the candidate forum, Oregon ranks last in the nation for mental health supports, and I'm a fierce advocate for anti-bullying efforts. And a place like our new rec center that we're currently developing will definitely help in our community to have a place for people to come and gather in community, not just our youth, but everyone. And I have used social media for my platform, and if you did not see, I did do a video a couple months ago that had almost 2000 views around bullying on social media. And it does make me really sad to see that our children are watching the way that we are treating each other. My mom did a wonderful job raising us with the core values of treating people with kindness.
Michael (00:10:28) - We spoke about that already. I do not speak ill of other people. If you don't have something kind to say, then don't say anything at all. And if you are going to say something, then have something that you're going to bring to the table. Have a solution, if you have a concern. I don't mind conflict at all. You don't need nine Tribal Council members if we all thought the same. But you have to be respectful and bring solutions to the table. And when you see that, that's not happening, and there are these targets that are happening on social media now that is really just to create division. I do not like that at all. I do not tolerate it. And I do not think that Tribal Council as leaders should tolerate that either. And if I'm re-elected, I actually want to take a look more deeply at our elder. sorry, not elder. Elder protection ordinance is top of mind for me, but our safety ordinance, because there is language in there, around harassment.
Michael (00:11:28) - But there is no language around bullying and especially when it comes to social media, because that is something that is so new and it just hit us like a tidal wave, that I don't think that we're really prepared for that. And we need to have those bigger conversations so that we are protecting future generations.
Kamiah (00:11:50) - Great. Thank you. What would be your favorite solution for these enrollment issues? Do you support lineal descent and what framework would you use to achieve that if you do?
Michael (00:11:58) - Good question. Thank you. We've had some very difficult actions in our not so distant past that have caused a lot of mistrust and harm to our families, such as dis enrollment, the aftermath of the 99 amendment causing split families. It's time for healing and my heart breaks for those families. And I am committed to moving forward with lineal descent, to heal families and move forward in a good way. We do need to do more education around the impact of that, and I get that and that final language that we have after doing the community meetings, I believe that needs to get out to the members sooner than later.
Michael (00:12:38) - And I have already said that I am good with moving forward with that language and distributing that to the members right now.
Kamiah (00:12:45) - Murdered and missing indigenous people has become a nationwide movement the last few years. If elected, how would you localize that movement in Grand Ronde and, address it in the capacity as a tribal council member?
Michael (00:13:02) - That's a very good question. And it is something that I feel like it's such a it's such a personal and emotional issue for communities, and it is something that we need to be more proactive about. We have a lot of good work happening. We have some grant funding in our Warriors of Hope program. There's also a little bit of funding that we have with our police department. It's really, I think, a matter of the right hand not always knowing what the left hand is doing. We have the programmatic piece, we have the legislative piece, and that's all at the local level, the federal level, the tribal level. It's really getting all of the right people and the right players at the table.
Michael (00:13:49) - And I did actually just see Tawna Sanchez at our Oregon Tribal State summit at Cow Creek last week. And we did get to have a conversation about this, Washington and California are doing some really good work around, like text alerts, database, collaboration with their states. And we really need to do a better job of that. It really comes down a lot of time to logistics. And we had a really good conversation about that. And she did some really good work on a task force a few years ago, Unfortunately, it didn't involve a lot of tribes. They were not at the table and I don't know why I was not here. I could not speak to that. But she is interested in starting up those conversations. She had a conversation with Justin, our lobbyist. So those conversations are happening and I really feel like we're in a good place, but we just really need to we need to take action, is what it is. We need to. We need to actually, like, stop talking about it and just move forward and take action.
Kamiah (00:14:54) - All right. one of our major last questions, being a tribal council member sounds like a challenging job involving balancing differing opinions of the membership you serve, working with the bureaucracy of state and federal agencies, and managing the tribe's large economic portfolio. Why do you want to be on tribal Council?
Michael (00:15:15) - This has been the best job for me that I have ever had in my 30 plus years working for the tribe and being in service to the tribe. But nothing gets done in a vacuum. You have nine tribal Council members for a reason. So being at the table, being impactful, honoring the relationships and the partnerships that we have locally, federally, it takes it takes time. And I'm just finishing up my my first term. And as you've heard me explain, I have a lot of priorities and a lot of passion for this work. And I really just want to be reelected so I can continue that work for future generations of our tribe.
Kamiah (00:15:53) - Amazing. And my final and last question how can the tribal membership reach you if they wish to ask you more questions?
Michael (00:16:01) - That is a good question.
Michael (00:16:03) - I want to say I'm hugely grateful for this opportunity to serve the members this past three years. I want to really encourage tribal members to just get out and vote. First and foremost, just get out and vote. Participation from our members is hugely important and their voice matters. So if you want to reach me, you can email me at [email protected] and you can call [or text] me at 971-599-8808.
Thank you for listening to or reading the transcript of the podcast. Please take a moment to learn more about my Education and Experience, review my Vision and Priority Focus Areas, consider my Endorsements, or read some of the other blog posts like the 10 Things I've Learned in My First Term. Hayu Masi, Michael.