New chairman ready to serve

PABLO — Coming out of semi-retirement was a big decision for the new Confederated Salish and Kootenai chairman, but he was talked into running for Tribal Council again.

Ron Trahan said he wanted to serve the people and to help the tribe.

He stressed that all of the issues the council deals with are important. They’re all hard issues to deal with, Trahan said. He said as a council member and now as the chair, he strives to address every issue, large and small alike. He said he and the council are gearing up for the acquisition of Kerr Dam in 2015.

Trahan is not new to leadership roles within the CSKT Council. He has also served as vice-chair and treasurer.

“It’s a commitment,” he said. “Council is a commitment.”

Trahan hopes to continue to pursue language and culture as chair. He said the language is slowly disappearing as the elders fluent become fewer and fewer and younger members aren’t learning the language to pass it on. Six language apprentices are currently going through language schooling. He and the council hope that the new program will create new teachers to rekindle the language that is facing extinction.

Trahan himself lives modestly on a 10-acre plot of land outside of St. Ignatius. He has two horses that he said are more pets now than anything. He and his wife travel the powwow circuit in the summers with the drum Yamncut. The couple travels to visit their grandchildren as often as they can. Trahan and his wife’s family grew up together. The pair has been married for 42 years and has five children and 12 grandchildren.

He used to be a partner in the Pistrol Creek Rodeo Company and was very involved in rodeo until he broke his neck bullriding as a young man.

He spent two years in the military during the Vietnam War, when he was stationed in South Korea during the U.S.S. Pueblo incident. When he returned he got his first position with the tribes. He has dabbled in many facets of the sovereign government.

Trahan worked for the Housing Authority, Tribal Health and Human Services, Kicking Horse Job Corps and worked in the logging industry from time to time. This experience has helped him to solve problems, he said, because having first-hand knowledge of an issue is invaluable.

His father, Len Trahan was chair of the Tribal Council in the late 1960s. Trahan said he learned much of his resolve from his father, who lost one of his arms in an accident hooking trains.

“He could do anything someone with two arms could do,” he said.

Trahan’s strength comes from his straightforward demeanor. He said he believes that this has gotten him into trouble from time to time but he is honest and his veracity has resonated with voters.

“You’ve got to take the bad with the good,” he said.

He said he is not as mean as people think he is, joking about what he refers to as his permanent frown.

As the go-to person for every issue, Trahan hopes that he can continue to bring change and good things for the tribes in his year as the leader of the governing body.

“[Members should] trust in who they voted into these positions for the tribe,” Trahan said.