Oregon Public Broadcasting

Economists say there are some reasons for optimism about the Oregon economy, but it may be a jobless recovery when it comes.

And even then, there are parts of the state that will continue to hurt more than others.

That brings us to the newest story in OPB’s series Hard Times.

We’ve been profiling individuals around the state and how they are coping with the recession.

Today, we’ll travel to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs reservation to see how 49-year-old Jeanie Brisbois is handling the downturn.

Ethan Lindsey has her story.

Jeanie Brisbois sits in her cramped office, next to a loud air conditioner and a noisy walkie-talkie.

Her job, as an office manager for the local vehicle pool, isn’t glamorous.

But she is content -- and in many ways, her contentedness is clear evidence of her unusual experience in today’s recession.

Jeanie Brisbois: “This job pays really well, so I’d miss the money if I left here.”

Last year, like many workers, she lost her job.

For a few months, she lived off some money she had socked away for retirement.

She says she’s lucky, Brisbois knows others don’t have the luxury of a 401(k) to take money out of.

Jeanie Brisbois: “At first I was wondering if that was the right thing to do, but then when I heard everyone was losing money on their 401k's, I was kinda glad I did. I used that to live on for a year.”

But a few months later, Brisbois applied for – and got – this job, at the vehicle pool for the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.

She says, again, she counted her blessings.

Jeanie Brisbois: “Because you look at the job listings that they have posted up in different places in our community, that list is getting shorter – and the qualifications that you have to have are being lifted.”

Brisbois lives on the Warm Springs reservation, where even when the economy is humming, the unemployment rate can reach 50-percent.

Right now, the unemployment rate is above 60 percent.

And tribal reservations continue to grapple with high rates of alcoholism and suicide.

Even though Brisbois has a job, her four adult children are unemployed.

Her sons, Steven and Jeremy, are in their early-20s. They live in Seattle, where she helps support them. And her two daughters live at home. Jeanie and Shannon are 26, and 25, respectively.

Jeanie Brisbois: “I don’t even think my kids are trying to find jobs. I mean, I get after them, and tell them they need to. But I just don’t see it. I don’t see job applications sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be finished. It’s crazy, they are just -- I don’t know how to say it -- they’re just, comfortable.”

American University law professor Ezra Rosser studies Native American economics and development.

Rosser says recently he heard the president of the Navajo nation relate how tribes have been impacted by this recession.

Ezra Rosser: “He said something like, ‘we’ve had this crisis forever and no one seems to care’ and then he compared the unemployment numbers. The unemployment rate on the Navajo nation hovers near 50 percent, and now that the U.S. was approaching 10 percent it was suddenly a crisis. And obviously for many tribes in those situations, this is not necessarily new and it is not necessarily impacting them in the same way. It’s impacting them, but not in the same way because they’ve already been impacted for so long.”

As Brisbois walks around the gas station in front of her office, she says its not an exaggeration to say she’s been impacted by poverty her whole life.

Jeanie Brisbois: “I go out and buy my groceries for a month. And then I get all my staples, meats, and put them in a freezer and I can feed my family that way. I don’t live out of cans, or off of the frozen foods that need to be microwaved all the time. And that makes your grocery money last a long time.”

Rosser, the professor, says there are lots of facts that contribute to chronic poverty on reservations, including, the fact that reservations are often located far away from population and employment centers.

Ezra Rosser: “The overwhelming problem is a structural lack of jobs, and a structural distance from jobs. Just a sort of multi-generational poverty and multi-generational low unemployment.”

Birsbois says since she and other older tribal members have dealt with it for years – they just know how to get by on less.

Jeanie Brisbois: “I’m cutting back here and there. Using just cold water for laundry, and putting a time limit on the showers. It sounds funny and kind of odd, but it works. Little things like that I cut back on and I am saving my money and it’s stretching out.”

And she worries that wisdom hasn’t rubbed off on the next generation of Indians, including her own kids.