In 1994, Mitch Conley, who worked for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, had the vision of a Native American Chamber of Commerce. He talked about his ideas with another man, Clyde Stryker. Mitch ended up leaving the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde before his vision became a reality.
Clyde Stryker met with Shelly Hansen and organized the first meeting. This first meeting was held at the Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde paid the entire first bills the Oregon Native American Chamber of Commerce (ONACC) incurred.
In November of 1995, ONACC filed as a non-profit organization. John Levitt, from Pacific One, worked on the by-laws, and the bank paid for the lawyers, filing fees, etc. ONACC started to meet at the bank.
ONACC moved the Chamber meetings around to different times of the day to gain more participation with the attendees. It started in the mornings with breakfast meetings. Then moved to dinner meetings after work. Currently, the attendees of the Chamber meet for lunch.
The Oregon Native American Chamber of Commerce (ONACC) began very small, approximately 10 people who attended in the beginning. The President was Clyde Stryker, the Vice President was John Witty, and Elaine Moore was also on the Board as Treasurer. Janie Millican, joined the chamber in 1995, and was voted in as Secretary. In 1998, she was nominated President for ONACC. The members of the Chamber have voted her to hold this position since.
Over the last four years, the Board of Directors has grown from three to nine members: and now have 22 members with an additional 45 who request to be on our mailing list. There are between 35-55 perople who attend our monthly meetings.