Vernon Jackson

Greetings, this is Nelson Olmsted. If you're inclined to think of the red man as a vanishing race, let's see what he's doing to reappear. Now here's Clint Hoover, our spokesman for Pacific Power. Welcome once again to Stories of Pacific Powerland, a presentation of Pacific Power and Light, the company that has been serving the electric needs of the region's homes,

farms, and industries through more than half a century of progress and growth. Let's listen now to Pacific Powerlands favorite storyteller, Nelson Olmsted. On the Warm Springs Reservation near Madras in Central Oregon, the Indians are restless these days.

But some 1,700 members of the Wasco, Warm Springs and Paiute tribes are surely not spoiling for trouble. Quite the contrary, these people are seeking a measure of independence through the use of the lands a lot of them by a government treaty more than 110 years ago.

A man from the reservation named Vernon Jackson took over the job as executive secretary of the Confederated Tribes a few years ago. Things began to stir right away. Jackson told the tribal council, now we have to prepare our younger generation today for the life they're going to live tomorrow.

I'm asking the council to set aside $25,000 in tribal funds for scholarships. Son, if this education you're always talking about is so good, why don't you get some of with yourself. Chief, you've got something. Yes, sir. You know, I might just do that."

So, Vernon Jackson left the reservation for four years to attend the University of Oregon. In 1958, he graduated to become the first Warm Springs Indian to earn a college degree. After his return to Warm Springs, things really began to happen on the reservation. He said, And just look around you. We have fishing and hunting areas that have hardly been touched.