Helen Redbird-Smith papers

Dr. Helen Redbird-Smith, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, grew up in Ashland after the family moved to the area following World War II. Redbird-Smith graduated from SOU in 1951. In addition, her two sisters are also graduates of SOU and a brother attended SOU for two years. Redbird-Smith, who holds a Doctorate in Education, is a Professor Emeritus at Western Oregon University where she taught in the School of Social Science from 1956 to 1988. Redbird-Smith lived for many years at her home in Monmouth, Oregon until 2001, after which she moved to McMinnville. Dr. Redbird-Smith’s thesis from the University of Colorado (1963) is entitled, “A Study of the Intelligence of Domestic Agricultural Migrant Workers in Colorado.” Since then she authored and published many other works, with a focus on Native American studies.

Helen Marie Redbird-Smith’s first husband, a Yakama ethnomusicologist named Leroy Bennie Selam, collected many of these. Selam’s collection of sound recording and related materials are also a part of the collection.

In 1985, after Selam’s death, Helen married her second husband, now deceased, Lloyd G. Smith, Senior, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Smith was born at the Phoenix Indian Health Service Hospital on September 16, 1923. His father, James Greely Smith, had been born in Simnasho, Oregon. Lloyd’s mother, Amy Lenora Carlos (Pima), had been born in Lehi, Arizona. Lloyd had three older siblings (Matilda, Harold and Edmund, and one younger brother (Theron).

Lloyd attended Albuquerque High School, graduating in 1942. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942-46 and 1951-52. He attended the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, intermittently from 1946, graduating in 1953 with a degree in Finance.

From 1953-55 Lloyd G. Smith worked for the BIA in both Gallup, NM, and Portland, OR. In 1955 he began a long and fruitful career as an employee of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Lloyd performed various accounting roles: Accounting Clerk, Property Clerk, Payroll Clerk, and Purchasing Clerk between 1955-67, and served as Education Coordinator for the Warm Springs Education Office from 1967 to 1974. He created a child care center for working mothers on the reservation in 1967. From 1975-89 he served as Personnel Manager of the Warm Springs Tribe. His career ended as a result of heart problems.

Lloyd was actively involved in many other capacities during his Warm Springs years. He was elected to the Jefferson County School Board in 1966, serving for 22 years, three years as its Chair. He was president of the Migrant and Indian Coalition Board. He was a member of the Policy Board of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Reading and Language Development Indian Program from 1973-89. He served for four years on the Oregon Governor’s Advisory Council on Career Education. He served for three years on the Oregon Governor’s Advisory Council on Manpower. He was Board Chair for the Advocates for Indian Education for Northwest Tribes.