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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2006)
/ News from Indian Country ■ i Page 9 Spilyay Tymoo January 19, 2006 M M B H V ii Report: Yakama court dysfunctional TOPPENISH (AP) - A 52- page report by the National In dian Justice Center describes the Yakama N ation’s tribal court system as dysfunction al and lacking leadership, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported. The Justice Center, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., is an Indian- owned, nonprofit agency that assists tribes with im proving their justice systems. The tribe commissioned the probe, which was completed last fall, but the newspaper didn’t obtain a copy until last week. The report revealed conflicts o f interest, daily breaches of confidentiality and security, a mounting backlog of cases and a lack of any appeals process. Tribal prosecutors and pub lic defenders refused to be in terviewed and public defenders were not representing clients in court during the inspection con ducted by the Justice Center, the report said. T ribal C ouncil C hairm an Louis Cloud told the newspaper for a story Saturday that the tribe would address the issues but that he could not comment on “the findings before consult ing with the tribe’s Law and Order Committee. Officials at the Justice Cen ter also would not comment, citing contractual obligations with the tribe. The Yakama tribal court has four judges, four clerks, and I hears up to 300 cases a month involving driving infractions to civil disputes, according to the report. T rib al m em ber L ouis Gunnier, embroiled in a child custody case in tribal court, said the Tribal Council sought the probe after he complained how his case was handled. All major decisions about the tribe are made at the General Council meeting, where tribal members elect the 14-member T rib al C o uncil. T he T rib al Council oversees daily opera tions for the tribe. Gunnier said he was awarded custody of his children in 2001 but discovered last May that the court had reversed its decision Geothermal energy project under consideration and awarded custody to his ex- wife. Court documents show that a judge in April 2004 authorized the custody change, but it wasn’t en fo rced u n til a year later. Gunnier said he was told that the order was found sitting in a file a year after the decision. Gunnier thinks the order was dishonestly backdated, and is calling for the ouster o f both the trib e ’s c h ie f ju d ge and children’s court judge. With the tribe’s appeals court not functioning, Gunnier says he has no recourse. “Appeals aren’t being pro cessed,” Gunnier said. “My ar gum ent to my people is this shouldn’t be happening.” KLAMATH FALLS (AP) — Controversy is brewing over a plan to develop a $200 million geothermal energy project at the Medicine Lake Highlands, a collapsed large shield volcano. Since the 1980s, a series of developers have proposed drilling geothermal wells at Medicine Lake and transmitting energy over power transmission lines. Proponents tout geothermal energy as a clean alternative to other sources of electricity, such as fossil fuels, coal and nuclear energy. The work includes pumping naturally heated water from underground sources, using the water to gener ate power and then pumping the water back into the ground to be reheated and reused. Some studies show that the Medicine Lake Highlands has the largest identified geothermal resource in the lower 48 states. But Indian tribes are opposed to the idea. They say the caldera has been used for spiritual, ceremonial and healing purposes for more than 10,000 years by the Pit River, Modoc and Shasta tribes. Some Puyallups question monthly payments to tribal members TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - The Puyallup Tribe of Indians takes the direct approach with profits from its Emerald Queen Casino. Every one of the tribe’s 3,450 members gets a monthly check for $2,000. Since the program began in 2002, the Puyallups have paid out $280 million. But as the tribal population increases, the payments have become a topic of heated de bate. Puyallup leaders say there’s no problem, citing the casino’s healthy profits. But a group o f concerned m em bers says the paym ents have put the Puyallups on an economic treadmill they can’t keep up with and can’t get off. Members of the group, who declined to be identified by name, told The News Tribune newspa per that the tribe recently restruc tured more than $130 million in loans so that only interest pay ments will be made over the next five years. The tribe then will face a balloon payment. “The tribe is essentially op erating on a paycheck-to-pay- check basis,” said a member of the group, which calls itself Full Circle of the Puyallup Nation. “There is no consideration given to long-term debt. They have no idea how they’re going to come up with the money to pay that balloon in five years.” David Peterson, hired by the tribe as its head accountant, would not discuss the details, but said restructuring is a normal part o f business. The payments to tribal members are part of a large and complex business plan - well-thought-out and entirely above board, he said. “Some people start scurrilous rumors and blow up situations beyond recognition,” said John Bell, the tribe’s top attorney. Air quality: “Once in a while, they get a temperature inversion, like in Los Angeles, where warm air is above the cold air and it holds on like a lid. You get all these wood stoves going and it’ll crank it up. “It was definitely in the mod erate range and unsafe for cer tain sensitive groups for a while, but that was unusual. Typically, it’s usually in the good range, with an index of 50 or below.” E ven so, air q u ality is n ’t so m eth in g to be- taken for granted. Factors like traffic, both coming through Warm Springs on U.S. 26 and in certain places in the Warm Springs commu nity, and wood stove smoke can compromise air quality. Along with the monitor at Fire management, which is away from major vehicular traffic, In the next few weeks, Shipp will place another monitor near the Hollywood Street-Tenino Road intersection, near several major traffic spots, including the Com munity Center, the tribal Admin istratio n building, the E arly Childhood Education Center and the Warm Springs Indian Health Services Clinic. “In south Warm Springs, you have more cars, so this new monitor we’re going to put over by the health clinic. That will give us readings on the south side,” he said. “I have a small portable monitor, and I’ve been getting very high readings al most every" day in the moderate range, much higher than what they have at Fire Management. How long it’s going to stay in the good range I’m not going to know until I get my continuous monitor.” It is interesting, he said, that the air by the clinic really isn’t the same as the air at Fire Man agement. “The air here (at the clinic) tends to stagnate more. Over there, you get the air car ried away toward the east. It carries away to the east here, and when it gets over here it stag nates.” The new monitor will be es pecially helpful, he said, because it will help him determine trends in air quality, help find where the particulate matter comes from — whether it’s from vehicular traffic in the mornings and af ternoons or woodstove smoke at night. “It’ll be interesting to see what happens. This new monitor will show day and night, what the peaks are at night and at certain times of the day,” Shipp has been an air quality specialist for the Confederated Tribes since 2002. He was pre viously the Warm Springs envi ronmental sanitarian. He said the moderate particulate level, at over 50, is not necessarily harmful by itself, but there may be other factors to consider, such as acute exposure one may- have at home, where there may be a wood stove or material like radon. “We haven’t done any radon studies, which is unfortunate,” he said. “We have a person who works at Natural Resources. His mother has lung cancer and she hasn’t been a smoker, and we don’t know what the problem is. A lot of times the air near the tribal garage is much higher (in particulates) than at the clinic. For some reason, it just kind of stays around there, and people living near there are at higher risk than people who live out by Tenino.” He said he would, in fact, favor an epidemiological study in Warm Springs. “We need to work with In dian Health Service to look at all the statistics, such as the num ber of people who are visiting the clinic for respiratory distress. We want to see the areas where most of these people are living — is it north Warm Springs, or is it south W arm Springs, and within those areas, where are you getting most of the reports o f respiratory problem s?” he said. “Then we can narrow it down — are they living close to the tribal garage or closer to Tenino? A lot needs to be done, as far as investigation of health statistics. We’re looking to do that in the next year.” O f course, Shipp said, “there are people who smoke, and they are at high risk anyway. And there are many other factors, a number o f risk factors people need to know about.” The m ill at Warm Springs Forest Products Industries con tributed to bettering the air qual- ity when it began operating its new boiler unit. The new boiler has a smoke scrubber to draw out impurities before the sm oke leaves the smokestack. Also, smoke from the m ill tends to blow away from the Warm Springs commu- nity, he said. A lot of work has been done to help monitor the air quality, he said, and having the new monitor in South Warm Springs will help as will the daily bulletins posted in various spots, including the Ad ministration Building, the Warm Springs Market, the Community Center and at the Natural Re- sources complex. varies widely on the rez (Continued from page 1) “I take the lowest reading in Oregon, the highest reading in the N o rthw est and also the whole western region,” Shipp said. “I get pretty good compari- son o f the air q u ality here, around the region and the whole west coast.” The town of Burns, for in stance, was the highest in par ticulates in Oregon for a week or so. “They have a lot of wood stoves, and they have stagnant air over there too,” said Shipp. Warm Springs, he said, has^ generally good air quality, with indices under 50, which is con sidered good. “I t’s probably among the best regions. It’s com parable to Bend, and Bend is hardly ever in the m oderate range,” he said. Stwyer: encouraged since childhood (Continued from page 1) “That was given to me by my ‘N ana’ Aurolyn Stwyer. She gave it to me during her son’s name-giving. And then my stepfather re-did every thing, hair-ties, the bag, ev erything that goes with it. It was all re-done and it was a shock to everybody. T hey thought it was the original outfit but it was all re-done.” W h ile she d o e sn ’t do much beadwork, she can sew, and is learning to sew with a sew ing m achine. She also made her own jingle dress, “which took me a very long time,” she said. “It took me nine months. It was a project in school in N ativ e A rts and C rafts Class,” she said. “My teacher helped me out. It was one my goals before the end of the school year that I would make a jingle dress with moccasins and leggings.” Stwyer said she was en couraged to try out for the Miss Warm Springs title when she was a child by her grand father and her uncle. “It was an in sp ira tio n from my grandpa Herbert Stwyer Sr., V and my uncle Jimmy, who are both deceased. I was really young, and they said they would like to see me be Miss Warm Springs.” Her aunt Pearl Stwyer and cousin Aurolyn Stwyer were Miss Warm Springs before her. Stwyer said she is excited at the opportunities that are before her, as she anticipates her year of representing the tribes all over the Northwest, at pow w ow s and o th er events. “I ’m excited,” she said, “because it’s a different kind o f experience from the first time I was a queen. The first time I was a queen it was kind of local. This one spreads out all over, and you travel a lot m ore.” Stw yer was senior queen of the Veterans Day Powwow at Yakama Reser vation. She plans to attend college to become a paralegal, and eventually attend law school and be an attorney. Stwyer is the daughter o f V eronica Wallulatum and step-father Custer Wallulatum, and fa ther Herbert Stwyer Jr. She graduated from Yakama Na tions Tribal Schcfol on the Y akam a R eserv atio n last June. — Brian Mortensen B HMD EJVbOKIt SPORT 3! CÄ, S SPB, AC, f*H, PL, (jXM&t M S » « S3 TORO EXPLORER 4X4 4Ä14I , ■ . , < / < ♦ a > -- 1 '< u st rwwu enruuncn «BW SHAPE. AUTO, AC, ASOR 1ÛADED mmA * r /o * s $ 3 f4 0 5 « ék > 94 FORD EXPLOSER 4X4 umobâ wes* asm $3495 97 FORD TAURUS m MmvûMmm mjm&êm $2395 91 MíTSUBíSHI MONTERO S3 PONTIAC SUWHS> CONV. MJTO, m , m , AC, H tx GA* « - a 9 9 FO RO TA U R U S S I mæ. m œ f cab m ens , m m PS. 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