In 2017, Portland created a Tribal Relations Program to bridge the relationship between Tribal governments and the city. It was a trailblazing program at the time, but in the years since it’s had three different managers and has been without a leader for seven months. OPB’s Alex Zielinski and Underscore’s Nika Bartoo-Smith join us to talk about the city’s troubled relationship with Tribal governments and its hopes for the future of the program.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Portland created a Tribal Relations Program in 2017 to foster better relationships with sovereign Tribal nations and to improve the lives of Native residents. It was a trailblazing program at the time, but in the years that have followed, it had three different managers and has now been leaderless for seven months.
Underscore’s Nika Bartoo-Smith and OPB’s Alex Zielinski join me now to talk about the city’s troubled relationship with Tribal governments and how this program could evolve going forward. It’s great to have both of you back on the show.
Alex Zielinski: Great to be here.
Nika Bartoo-Smith: Thank you.
Miller: Alex, why did you decide that now is the time to do a deep dive into this program?
Zielinski: A few reasons. The collaboration between Nika and I, this really came after the city fired its latest Tribal Relations Manager, Adam Becenti, in October of last year. It was one of those things where enough people had cycled in and out of the office in such a short period of time, and big gaps of it without leadership in there, that it just kind of begged for some inquiry. So we saw a moment to reset the conversation. The city is entering a new form of government. It’s now looking to hire a new leader in that office. So it was a chance to kind of look back about how we got here and what people want to see in the future.
Miller: OK, so let’s do that back part first. What was the promise of Portland’s Tribal Relations Program when it was created in 2017?
Zielinski: Yeah, it was meant to solve a problem that an increasingly large number of people in Portland’s Native community and neighboring Tribal governments really had identified, which was clunky, informal, and at times an offensive partnership or lack thereof with Native people and nations in the city. The idea was that after years of kind of making it up on the fly, the city could have an office focused on how to partner with tribes and how to support Indigenous Portlanders, could be kind of a guidebook to follow and to share with other jurisdictions.
Miller: Well, how common were programs like that at the time?
Zielinski: Not very common. Tribal relations programs are more of a staple in state and federal programs. They’re pretty rare at the city level. You asked kind of earlier what the promise of this program was, and I think a big piece of that was that Portland’s program was going to be a leader and a trailblazer for other cities to follow suit in other jurisdictions, which kind of happened. It’s very Portland though. In Portland, we’re all very familiar with how city leaders like to try to be first to try something new and original, and sometimes with not enough planning, support and foresight needed. And I say that was probably the case here.
Miller: I want to go back to the city’s early years, because the historical context here is important and something that you both dug into. Can you tell us about a letter that you found in the city archives from 1866, 15 years after the city was established?
Zielinski: Yeah, I love sifting through city archives. So this was a fun treasure. I dug … I basically searched for anything mentioning tribes in the city’s archives and this was the earliest mentioned, what you mentioned, this letter from the city’s marshal, which is essentially the name of the chief of police at the time. [It] informed then-mayor Henry Failing that there was a suspected smallpox outbreak in a group of quote, unquote “Indians” who had set up camp on the outskirts of town.
At first, I thought it might be a letter asking them to send medical care or help, but it was basically saying we need to surveil and monitor this group of people to make sure they don’t come into the city and spread potential smallpox. And there’s no other documentation to kind of explain what became of this group, but it was the earliest record I could find of the city’s Tribal relations work, it kind of set the tone.
Miller: Nika, that was in 1866. A century later, the 1950s, 1960s has become known as the Termination Era. Just first, what did that mean nationwide?
Bartoo-Smith: Yeah, it was a violent, brutal period in our history. Really the aim of the federal government was to terminate and end their relationships and their trust responsibilities to Native nations across the country. And that meant not recognizing them as sovereign nations who were here before settlers and colonizers first came here. And really across the board, it was an era of assimilation and attempted cultural genocide – and one that we’re seeing now, still. There are different Native nations across the country that are still fighting for recognition to be restored. I think about Chinook up in Washington and there’s others here in Oregon that have seen that as well.
Miller: What did termination mean for Portland in particular, people in Portland as well?
Bartoo-Smith: So the Western Oregon Termination Act targeted 60-plus tribes and bands all across the state, in our Portland region as well. And that eliminated that sovereign status for so many and a fight for recognition. Also, at the same time, was the Relocation Act that happened. And part of that meant bringing folks and encouraging Native folks to leave their homelands and the reservations, and come to Portland and to come to urban centers for jobs, and also, at the same time, for assimilation.
I think that really is important to not forget that that was one of the main goals. It means now Portland has the ninth largest urban Indigenous population in the country. And it also means that there’s a lot of unique needs for urban Indigenous residents in a place like Portland, any urban Indigenous person living in the city, because so often so many of us are living away from our historic homelands, from our nations. So there’s other organizations that have stepped up in Oregon. In Portland, I think about NAYA and NARA who have stepped up to provide some of those trust responsibilities in areas in which the federal government might be lacking, and it means the city has a responsibility to help care for those folks.
Miller: Alex, in response to this, city officials drafted a plan to create what they called an Urban Indian Program in the 1970s. What came from that?
Zielinski: Yeah, like what Nika mentioned, there’s a huge influx of Indigenous people coming to Portland, being forced kind of to assimilate and realizing that it wasn’t a very welcoming atmosphere. It was hard to find work, it was hard to find education and housing, and at the same time being victims of being marginalized and racism. So the city saw that and thought that maybe we can create a program that will really focus on connecting folks to jobs, healthcare and education.
That was the Urban Indian Program, which was kind of a partnership with the county. It didn’t last very long and it drew some critique. There’s not much in the record, clear documentation as to when it ended. But it seemed to kind of just go for about five years or so and fizzle out, and not have committed political investment to keep going.
Miller: And then you both report that not much happened at the city level for a number of decades. What did you hear zooming forward from former commissioner Amanda Fritz?
Zielinski: Fritz joined City Council in the early 2010s. What she recalled was counselors and staff feeling pretty clueless about how they were supposed to engage and interact with Tribal or Native nations, and even Native communities in Portland. It was the start of a major superfund cleanup project in Portland, the Harbor Superfund Cleanup, where the city was working with the federal government. And in that process, tribes were legally required to be part of that conversation and have input. She was telling me how she and some of our staff were pretty unaware that that was a requirement. So just one example of a kind of a lot of missteps along the way.
She wanted to see more formal guidance around how the city should engage and work with Native nations, which is why she ended up passing a resolution essentially to direct the city to do that in 2012. That laid the groundwork to this work.
Miller: Right. Eventually, Laura John became the first leader of the city’s Tribal Relations Program – that was in 2017. Who is she?
Zielinski: Yeah, Laura John is a descendant of Blackfeet and Seneca Nations, and she was raised in Portland. She was raised in a pretty tight-knit Native community. She talked to me a lot about the importance of going to a Native-led preschool, all these experiences that led to her wanting to really elevate the needs of Indigenous Portlanders in City Hall. And she felt that leading and shaping the city’s Tribal Relations Program was really her dream job to do that.
Miller: How did she describe her role? I mean, what were her goals?
Zielinski: She really took upon herself to shape this new program and she was given leeway to do that. She researched how other states and jurisdictions handled Tribal relations, led to kind of creating Tribal liaisons in every city bureau. Basically, someone who could regularly check in with her about things that might be coming up in a bureau, water bureau, police, whatever that might impact Native government. And she created training for city staff on requirements for engaging with Native nations and also on just the region’s tribal history, which we kind of ran through. And she had big plans for how this office could move the city forward.
Miller: How much of that was she able to accomplish?
Zielinski: A good amount. A few things that stand out: John created the first Tribal Nations Summit in 2018, where officials from, I think, seven Tribal governments across the Northwest met with city officials in City Hall to discuss their priorities and how to collaborate going forward. She said it was really the first time that a lot of these leaders had ever gotten an invite or been reached out to by the city, so it was a big deal. And it kind of started the ball rolling and more, having more regular conversations and check-ins between these different officials.
She also advised the city on how to consult with tribes on major public land projects and established city code that required that the police recognize Tribal government court orders that protect victims of abuse. Portland police didn’t do that before, which surprised me. So kind of started the ball rolling in the right direction.
Miller: How did the pandemic affect those efforts?
Zielinski: Well, like a lot of things, the pandemic derailed this work. A lot of the work was visiting Tribal governments in person, making these new personal connections, and that was off the table. And then the city had really focused on its response to the pandemic. A lot of programs in the city, not just this one, were really put on the back burner for a minute. Also at the time, the head of Government Relations office left, was replaced by someone who lived out of state, and it just was a little bit of a clunky period.
Miller: Laura John told you that she felt like she was eventually forced out of this job. What did she mean?
Zielinski: Yeah, as these things always are, it’s a bit of a “he said, she said” situation. But for her, it was when the Office of Government Relations hired its latest director, Sam Chase. John was out on medical leave when he was hired for stress related to the job and also for knee surgery. And in her first meeting with Chase when she returned, Chase said that he needed to put her on a “performance improvement plan” to improve her work.
So that was their first meeting, which came as a bit of a surprise to her and an affront for being off for a while, and for having this history of doing good work in the city. And for this new person to come in and say, you need to shape up … Chase told me that she hadn’t been meeting goals as fast as he wanted. Anyway, John felt like she was just not welcome or supported in this position and chose to step down for her own mental health in a way.
Miller: Nika, two people were hired after John, neither lasted more than five months. The first left voluntarily, the second was fired. What happened?
Bartoo-Smith: So after Laura left, Miranda Mishan, who at the time was the Tribal Relations community liaison, was kind of put in her role. And at its peak, in this department, there were three people in this office, then it was downsized to an office of one and has periodically sat empty for months at a time. So Miranda lasted for a couple of months, but then eventually left on her own. Then the office sat empty for five whole months.
Nobody was there until eventually, Adam Becenti, who we talked about earlier, was hired on. And from what I hear, the community really felt like they trusted his leadership. He was really working to rebuild so much trust within the Native communities across the city. I saw him at so many different events. And then he was fired after only five months on the job, which I know we’ll get into later. I mean, that was really abrupt, his firing.
Miller: Well, I mean, at a certain point when there’s that level of turnover, that much of a pattern, it’s hard to see the issue as solely being about the people in that particular position. It starts to seem more systemic. What have you heard from people you talk to about this?
Bartoo-Smith: Yeah, I mean, absolutely people feel like it is a systemic issue. Really, the pattern I think for so many falls back on this lack of investment into the office, right? So whether it’s financial and just prioritization of creating this office and creating an environment in which people want to work within. I’ve also heard issues with leadership of the office and who they report to.
It also led, in my reporting, to further conversations with community members about a city-wide problem of retention of Native employees across the city. And I had some people express to me that it really feels like Portland does a really good job of talking about wanting to center BIPOC communities, and yet doesn’t actually in practice.
Miller: Your reporting makes it clear that right now there is an internal debate about what the Tribal Relations Program manager should be doing. And it gets to different parts of the job that might be split up. So, what is this debate?
Bartoo-Smith: So there’s an option to split it into two different departments. What that would look like is one role would really focus on government-to-government relations with other sovereign Native nations across the state. And the other position would focus on connecting with the urban Indigenous community and engagement with them, but it would be broken into two different offices to do those roles.
Miller: What are the arguments on either side about why these should be under one umbrella, one person, or they should be just split up … nation-to-nation relationships and helping Native Portlanders?
Bartoo-Smith: Yeah, I mean, it’s a super mixed bag in terms of how people feel about that, even within the Native community, of course. I talked to some people that feel like splintering the work could diminish it, right? So separating it into two might mean that less actually is able to get done and a lack of prioritization . Of course, the work is connected.
Others feel like it might strengthen it actually to have more of these dedicated positions. Everybody I’ve talked to, though, agrees that the decision has to be made with community input and that has to be a priority. And then I’ve also heard that it depends on really who is leading the office and who they are reporting to. So a lot of people have said that they ultimately would like, in whatever capacity, it should be a standalone director position to be leading these.
Miller: Can you tell us about a meeting in November between top city officials, including the outgoing and incoming mayors, and an Indigenous leadership organization called the Portland Indian Leaders Roundtable?
Bartoo-Smith: I wasn’t there, but I heard it was really tense. Community members from PILR were gathered, and called on city officials really to prioritize the office and really expressed a frustration with what feels like a lack of listening to community voices, Native voices that have been asking for decades for this position. This is not new, then the position was there and they felt like it wasn’t prioritized. So really calling out that. And they also talked a lot about frustration with Becenti’s termination because, like we talked about, I think a lot of people I talked to were really happy with his leadership.
At the end of the meeting, it sounds like the community really felt like they weren’t ultimately listened to, even though people did show up. I think it’s really important to just ground that in like, rightfully so, there’s this historic distrust of government. And we’re continuing to see, how is trust rebuilt to a community that has absolutely no reason to trust that the government has their best interests at heart?
Miller: What did that group, PILR, put forward as recommendations going forward?
Bartoo-Smith: So they sent out a letter with a number of different recommendations outlined. Some of the ones that stick out to me – one of them is that the office should be a stand alone office of Tribal government relations with a director level position. So not reporting to somebody else within the city.
They talked a lot about the need to address hiring practices and retention of Native employees just across the city. And I heard a lot about the lack of support of Native people within the city in general, so that was a piece that they really called on. And then another piece that really stuck out is the need for formal Tribal consultation policy, as well as a formal policy for urban Indigenous community engagement.
Miller: How has the city responded?
Bartoo-Smith: Mayor Keith Wilson sent a letter a few months later in January and really talked about wanting to rebuild trust. He said that they were hiring a consultant to look at recommendations specifically for retention practices of Native employees. And from what I’ve heard, it still really feels like there’s been a lack of transparency and actually space for community feedback. They put out this new position and are hiring for the new position. We’ll see somebody in it at some point and from what I’ve heard, [the] community feels like, well, they said they wanted to rebuild trust and yet we didn’t have as much of a say in this position as we were asking for.
Miller: Alex, how have folks at the city leadership level said that they would decide whether to have intergovernmental work be split off from community engagement?
Zielinski: Yeah, well, as Nika mentioned, there is a specific standalone position that is open now that they’re hiring for and this is specifically someone to be a government affairs Tribal Relations leader. So basically just communicating with different governments. The city wants to, hopes to create a position that’s more focused on supporting folks in the Indigenous community in Portland. It’s kind of a separate community liaison, community support role and that would be completely separate from the Tribal Relations office, kind of more in line with maybe a neighborhood office.
They said this would kind of ideally alleviate some of the pressure placed on the one person leading the Tribal Relations office. According to the city, this is maybe one of the reasons why it’s failed in recent years, there’s been a lot of pressure kind of glommed on someone.
Miller: Has the change in the form of Portland’s government, with the stronger mayor, the larger city council with districts, affected everything we’re talking about?
Zielinski: Structurally, I think it’s a good thing for this program. The Tribal Relations Program used to live under the mayor’s office and now it’s overseen by a far more independent city administrator, which means its support is not the whim of a political office as much. Which isn’t always bad – if you have a politician or mayor who cares deeply about the program and is focused on its success, that could be a good thing. But it’s a bit more secure where it lives now. And if counselors want to lobby for it, they have the chance to introduce legislation under this new form pretty easily.
Miller: Finally, you noted at the end of your article that if the city does not get this right, it could lead to legal trouble. What do you mean?
Zielinski: Sure. I mentioned earlier the superfund cleanup project. That’s a federal project and the feds have a legal requirement to consult with tribes on projects that could impact Tribal lands, water or other interests. So that’s an example of a city project with a lot of folks at the table. And the city, if they did not consult with tribes during that project, it could really put them in trouble.
More generally, it’s kind of like any city project that crosses jurisdictions. For instance, the city’s Bull Run water filtration plant, it’s not in Portland, it’s in Multnomah County land east of Gresham, so the city has to work with Multnomah County on this project. It’s also working with eight different tribes to consult on it. It’s not on tribal land necessarily, but as the original stewards of this land, they feel obligated to work with them. So it’s kind of just the threat of not informing jurisdictions of projects that touch all these different areas. There’s always going to be a legal threat there.
Miller: Alex and Nika, thanks very much.
Bartoo-Smith: Thanks for having us.
Zielinski: Thank you.
Miller: Alex Zielinski reports on Portland city government for OPB. Nika Bartoo-Smith is a reporter for Underscore News.
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