Ice causes massive
pile-up on I-84
BLAZERS BREAK
LOSING STREAK
44/27
BASKETBALL/1B
REGION/3A
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015
139th Year, No. 68
WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
Walden
criticizes
Obama’s
order
Republican tells BMCC
crowd it’s not fair to
immigrants or citizens
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Ebony, Karen and Tre Wilson hold signs with pictures of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday while participating in the
Martin Luther King Day remembrance in Hermiston.
LIVING ‘THE DREAM’
Speakers at Hermiston event urge
audience to keep MLK’s vision alive
See WALDEN/6A
Clay, a Portland pastor and
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
If Martin Luther King Jr. had seen
the pews of Hermiston United Meth-
day, there’s no doubt he would have
black, white and Hispanic residents
sitting side by side.
“I truly believe this is what Dr.
King saw,” keynote speaker Brandon
Clay told the audience, describing
the scene as “beautiful.”
Black Employee Network, said even
though he isn’t old enough to have
marched on Washington, D.C. with
King, “I can truly say I’m a product
of that dream.”
Clay said the school he attended
had no signs telling students of dif-
ferent races where they could sit or
what drinking fountains they could
See WALK/6A
PENDLETON
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston City Manager Byron Smith speaks on
the steps of city hall to a group of marchers Mon-
day during a Martin Luther King Day remembrance
in Hermiston.
Pendleton event shares
American Indian plight
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Wayne Ballou, of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church Choir, sings a
solo during Monday’s Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration at
First Christian Church in Pendleton.
According to Oregon’s sole Re-
publican representative in Congress,
a recent executive order from Pres-
ident Barack Obama has transport-
ed millions of
undocumented
immigrants to
“never-never
land.”
Immigration
was on the mind
of U.S. Rep.
Greg Walden’s
constituents as
the Hood Riv- Walden
er Republican
held a town hall
meeting Saturday at Blue Mountain
Community College.
Repeatedly asked about his posi-
tion on immigration, Walden praised
the recent passage of a Homeland Se-
curity bill in the U.S. House of Rep-
resentatives, which he said would
Civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. often con-
demned mistreatment of black
Americans, who marched by
the thousands in Selma, Mont-
gomery and Washington D.C.
in the 1960s.
But King didn’t limit his
humanitarianism to those with
dark skin. He became known
including American Indians.
“Our nation was born in
genocide when it embraced the
doctrine that the original Amer-
ican, the Indian, was an inferior
race,” wrote King in his book,
“Why We Can’t Wait.” “We are
perhaps the only nation which
tried as a matter of national pol-
icy to wipe out its indigenous
population. Moreover, we ele-
vated that tragic experience into
a noble crusade.”
Native people embraced
See PENDLETON/6A
Tum-A-Lum
cancels move to
PGG storefront
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Tum-A-Lum Lumber Compa-
ny won’t be changing locations in
Pendleton after all.
The long-standing local business
had negotiated for several months
with Pendleton Grain Growers to
lease the co-op’s former retail store
on Southwest Dorion Avenue. Tum-
A-Lum even purchased thousands
inventory at two recent auctions in
anticipation of the move.
But sides ultimately could not
agree to terms, meaning Tum-A-
Lum will stay put in its current build-
the Umatilla County Courthouse.
General Manager Mike Darby said
the deal was hung up primarily on
how the property would be used and
See LUMBER/6A
First DNA tests say Kennewick Man was American Indian
scientists who sought to study the
9,500-year-old skeleton and North-
west tribes that sought to rebury it as
an honored ancestor.
In response to The Seattle Times’
records request, geochemist Thom-
as Stafford Jr., who is involved in
the DNA analysis, cautioned that
the early conclusions could “change
to some degree” with more detailed
analysis. The results of those studies
are expected to be published soon in
By SANDI DOUGHTON
The Seattle Times
Nearly two decades after the an-
cient skeleton called Kennewick
Man was discovered on the banks of
the Columbia River, the mystery of
his origins appears to be nearing res-
olution.
Genetic analysis is still under way
in Denmark, but documents obtained
through the federal Freedom of In-
formation Act say preliminary results
point to a Native-American heritage.
The researchers performing the
DNA analysis “feel that Kennewick
has normal, standard Native-Amer-
ican genetics,” according to a 2013
email to the U.S. Army Corps of En-
gineers, which is responsible for the
care and management of the bones.
“At present there is no indication
he has a different origin than North
Stafford and Danish geneticist Eske
AP fi le photo
A plastic casting of a 9,500-year-
old skull, known as “Kennewick
Man.”
American Native American.”
If that conclusion holds up, it
would be a dramatic end to a debate
gy and set off a legal battle between
at the University of Copenhagen, de-
clined to discuss the work until then.
But other experts said deeper ge-
netic sequencing is unlikely to over-
turn the basic determination that
Kennewick Man’s closest relatives
are Native Americans.
The result comes as no surprise
to scientists who study the genetics
of ancient people, said Brian Kemp,
a molecular anthropologist at Wash-
ington State University. DNA has
been recovered from only a handful
of so-called Paleoamericans — those
whose remains are older than 9,000
years — but almost all of them have
shown strong genetic ties with mod-
ern Native Americans, he pointed out.
“This should settle the debate
about Kennewick,” Kemp said.
Establishing a Native-American
pedigree for Kennewick Man would
also add to growing evidence that
ancestors of the New World’s indig-
enous people originated in Siberia
and migrated across a land mass that
spanned the Bering Strait during the
last ice age. And it would undermine
alternative theories that some early
migrants arrived from Southeast Asia
or even Europe.