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The chairwoman of the Cow Creek Band of Indians was honored Saturday at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland with a Teddy Award, a Democratic Party of Oregon distinction named for Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
By Stacy D. StumboDemocrats love Sue Shaffer.
The chairwoman of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians was honored Saturday at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland with a Teddy Award, a Democratic Party of Oregon distinction named for Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
About 650 people attended the fundraiser for Bowl Pac, a democratic political action committee that takes its name from the governor's favorite hobby -bowling.
Mary Ellen Glynn, Kulongoski's communications officer, said five Teddies were given to honor Oregon's unsung heroes.
Shaffer was the only individual to receive the honor; the other winners were organizations and a municipality."
She's a person who, through sheer determination, has accomplished quite a bit," Glynn said.
Joe Keizur, executive director of Bowl Pac, said other recipients were the Oregon Gardens, the city of La Grande, pixelworks productions ltd., and the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch No. 8.
Keizur was a member of the selection committee that gave Kulongoski a list individuals, businesses and groups worthy of the Oregon Awards for Excellence, now called the Teddies. He said Shaffer stuck out.
"She's done a lot of great things for Oregon and gets very little credit for it," he said.
It's been nearly 20 years since Shaffer took the helm of the Canyonvillebased tribe. In that time, the Cow Creeks, with the Seven Feathers Hotel & Casino Resort as their flagship industry, have become one of Douglas County's largest employers.
Shaffer received the Oregon Democratic Party's first Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award last year. In 2001, she received the University of Oregon's Distinguished Service Award.
Keizur said the awards committee was impressed by Shaffer's altruism, a applauded the tribe's recent $10,000 contribution to the Oregon Food Bank, a statewide network of 832 hungerrelief agencies.
An outspoken advocate for American Indian rights, Shaffer helped her tribe achieve federal restoration in 1982.
Shaffer, born near Tiller, has had many jobs in her 81 years. She has been an office manager for the makers of Spam, a freeIance bookkeeper, restaurateur and owner of Levi's store in Canyonville.
The governor has known Shaffer for some time, and came to Canyonville last October to view the beginning phases of the tribe Creekside Development Project.
"He thinks a good deal of her," Glynn said.
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