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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 2007)
SCA O rC o ll 75 . S68 v .^ 3 2 no. 23 November 8 , 2007 Spilygy Tymc 0. Box 870 OR 97761 ip î 0te9on t t 99 V JnW ^ 140S.A205 tu9ene W- November 8, 2007 Vol. 32, No. 23 Coyote News, est. 1976 ECRWSS Postal Patron U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Wind may become source of revenue B y Dave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo The high winds that blow across the M utton Mountains could become a commercial resource for the Confed erated Tribes. Through Warm Springs Power and Water Enterprises, the tribes are explor ing the possibility o f placing up to 60 w ind turbines on ridgelines of. the Mutton Mountains. Power and Water has been looking into the project for about five years. M ost recently, the enterprise re c eiv ed a g ran t in the am o un t o f $150,000 to develop a study o f the potential project. The grant will fund an engineering study of the road requirements neces sary to develop and m aintain the tur bines. i v Part of the grant will also go toward a study o f power transmission require ments from the turbines to the main power grid. A third study will look at the poten tial environmental issues associated with development of wind turbines, Power and W ater also received a gran t fo r ed ucatio n p urp o ses, to present information to the membership and tribal leaders on renewable energy development, how it works and what benefits the tribes m ay derive from pursuing the wind farm project, said J im Manion, general manager of Warm Springs Power and Water Enterprises. W ind farm s are an increasingly popular form of renewable energy, said Mknion. “Energy development in the U.S. is heavily favoring renewable^en ergy,” he said. For instance, the U.S. Department o f Energy provided the two recent grants to Power and Water Enterprises, Manion said. Also, the Oregon Legislature recently passed a law requiring utilities to pur chase renewable energy. “That accelerates the potential value to the tribes,” said Manion, “and would help make the project profitable.” The decision to continue pursuing the wind farm idea comes after the tribes received a report indicating such a project could be profitable. The report is based on a study of the wind patterns in the mountains. A basic finding o f the study is that Wind turbines placed there would generate energy 30 percent of the time during the year. The 30-percent figure indicates that the project would generate a profit, said Manion. “That is within the commercial viability range,” he said. Manibn also said that Warm Springs Power and Water Enterprises has authority to pursue the project only through approval o f the Tribal Council. To complete the reconstruction, Turo said, they would be using wood to build log jams in order to create meanders for the stream to follow. In these meander bends large en gineered logjams would use energy from the stream to create pools for migrating adult fish and juvenile fish to grow. Side channels w ill also be created to provide additional habi tat for juvenile fish, especially dur ing high flow's. R igh t now the stream flows quickly and is wide and shallow. That doesn’t allow for quality fish habitat, Turo said. The habitat is very uniform. It contains no large pools or side chan nels, he explained. The ¿reconfigured stream would flow slower and feature improved conditions for fish. Plus, Turo said, the new design allows the stream to cool off in cer tain areas. “It will positively impact water temperature,” Turo said. “We won’t notice, but the fish will.’’ . I See CREEK on 11 See CASINO DELAYS on 11 After her accomplishments were read to everyone the VFW presented her with an eagle feather. On Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 12, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Elliott Palmer Post 4217 will host the Warm Springs Veterans Day Parade. The Veterans Ceremony will be at 10:30 a.m. in front of the courthouse. The Veterans Parade begins at 11 a m., and will proceed from the courthouse to the Agency Longhouse. Following the parade, lunch will be served. Stream will benefit by being moved B y L eslie M itts Shitike Creek could be following a 'different path with a new project in tended to restore the stream. Biologists with Natural Resources “ are working on a project that will re route Shitike Creek from the bridge by 'the Community Center downstream to the wastewater ponds. Because o f concern about die creek being too dose to the wastewater ponds, the project aims to reroute the stream r onto a path that it once followed in the ; 1930s. Habitat Biologist Scott Turo said periodic flooding and development in ; the floodplain have resulted in the straightening o f the stream channel. With the new design, Turo said, the .stream w ould have m ore m eander bends and follow a path very similar to * where it was located in 1938. “These kinds o f projects involve • essentially reconstructing die stream channel,” Turo explained. The benefits would be increased floodplain access, Shitike Creek near the wastewater ponds. improved fish habitat, and o f course a very large reduction in the risk to the waste water lagoons. That reconstruction is vital for the creek, and Turo said, “This is one o f the re serv atio n ’s m o st im p o rtan t streams.” While work like this has been done Leslie Mitts/Spilyay throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, Tuto said, but to his knowl edge nothing to this scale has ever been co m p leted on the re serv a tio n . But that doesn’t mean it isn’t neces sary— and if the project is successful, Turo said, it could serve as a spring board for other projects., (By Spilyay staff and the AP.) i In a case that is of interest to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, a New York Indian tribe has filed a law suit against U.S. Secretary of the Inte rior Dirk Kempthome. In the lawsuit, the S t Regis Mohawk Tribe accuses Kempthorne o f undue delay and acting in bad faith on the tribe’s application to put into federal trust land for a proposed casino. Like the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, the C onfederated Tribes o f W arm Springs have been frustrated by a long delay encountered at the office o f the Secretary o f the Interior. , “He has made no decisions, that I’m aware of, on off-resrevation gaming,” said Ken Smith, chairman of the Warm Springs tribal gaming board. “Maybe this will get things moving,” Smith said o f the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s lawsuit. The lawsuit by the St. Regis Mbhawk Tribe asks the U;S. District Court in W ash in gto n , D .C ., to - o rd er Kempthome to make a decision on the tribe’s application within 30 days. The Mohawks accused Kempthome o f letting his personal opposition to off- reservâtion Indian gam ing interfere with his légal responsibilities. “It is unfortunate that we have to file a lawsuit to compel the secretary to do his job, and it is unacceptable that our completed application has been pending at the department for nearly nine m onths,” said C h ief Lorraine White. “The secretary cannot unilaterally ignore the law and sim ultaneously ig nore his fiduciary responsibility to the M ohawk people and his oath o f of fice.” The tribe needs the approval to move ahead with plans to build a $600 million casino in Monticello, 90 miles northw est o f N ew York City. The project has support from all o f New York’s federal and state leaders, as well as local officials. This situation is similar to that of Warm Springs in regard to the Cascade Locks site, which has support among state and federal officials, as well as the community o f Cascade Locks. The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is far ther along in the approval process that Warm Springs. The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has al ready com pleted its Environm ental Impact Statement (ElS) process, and is just waiting for a final decision on the application. The Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs are in the EIS process, having completed a draft EIS. But the tribes cannot proceed until EIS meeting no tices are posted in the Federal Register. ' Inaction at this step has caused the current delaÿ the tribes are experienc ing with the Bridge o f the Gods Ca sino project. There are 13 Indian tribes that are in thé process o f trying to gain ap proval for off-reservation gaming, said Smith. The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is the farthest along in the process. “We’re not the only ones in this situ ation,” said Smith. The lawsuit, he said, may put some pressure on the Secre tary o f the Interior to do something, rathër than doing nothing in regard to the tribal applications. Tashna Hicks-Wert (at center) received special honor by her parents, Marla and Leroy “Buddy” Hicks, and members of the VFW Elliott Palmer Post 4217 at the Agency Longhouse during her recent visit to Warm Springs. ^Spilyay Tymoo Tribes frustrated by casino delays