WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2021 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Feds may investigate
Chemawa school’s burial site
Natalie Pate Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Chemawa Indian School in Salem –
the oldest continuously operated resi-
dential boarding school for Native
American students in the United States
– may come under federal review follow-
ing U.S. Department of the Interior Sec-
retary Deb Haaland’s call for the govern-
ment to investigate its past oversight of
such schools.
Located just east of Keizer Station,
Chemawa had about 335 students en-
rolled as of October 2019. The off-reser-
vation institution is more than 125 years
old and one of only four Native Ameri-
can residential boarding schools still in
existence in the United States and run
by federal agencies.
That said, there are 183 federally-
funded elementary and secondary
schools total. Of those, 53 are operated
by the Bureau of Indian Education, in-
cluding Chemawa, and 130 are tribally
controlled under BIE contracts or grants.
Haaland’s new Federal Indian Board-
ing School Initiative follows the recent
discovery of 215 unmarked graves by
Canada’s Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First
Nation at the Kamloops Indian Residen-
tial School.
The U.S. initiative instructs investiga-
tors to prepare a report detailing avail-
able historical records, with an emphasis
on cemeteries or potential burial sites,
relating to the federal boarding school
program in preparation for future site
work.
Haaland – a member of the New Mex-
ico’s Laguna Pueblo and the first Native
American to serve as a Cabinet secretary
– outlined the national initiative last
month when addressing members of the
National Congress of American Indians
during its midyear conference.
“The Interior Department will address
the inter-generational impact of Indian
boarding schools to shed light on the un-
spoken traumas of the past, no matter
how hard it will be,” Haaland said in her
announcement.
“I know that this process will be long
and difficult. I know that this process will
be painful. It won’t undo the heartbreak
and loss we feel,” she said. “ But only by
acknowledging the past can we work to-
ward a future that we’re all proud to em-
brace.”
Haaland wrote in a memorandum
that the findings in Canada are prompt-
ing the United States to reflect on its past
See SCHOOL, Page 4A
Clatsop Community College instructor Fernando
Rojas-Galvan arrives to fanfare at Chemeketa
Community College in Salem. Between now and
July 25, he will bike to all 17 Oregon community
colleges. PHOTOS BY BRIAN HAYES/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Biking for books
A new home built by Mid-Valley Habitat for Humanity in a new 18-unit subdivision in Silverton. BRIAN HAYES /
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Oregon educator begins
1,600-mile bicycle trek to raise
money for student textbooks
Natalie Pate Salem Statesman Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK
A rare opportunity
Nonprofit solves challenge
of affordable,developable
land in one swoop
sharply from there. h For a non-profit trying to
build affordable housing, acquiring land is nev-
er easy. h The Mt. Angel-based North Willam-
ette Valley Habitat for Humanity has purchased
some overlooked, oddly shaped and less-than-
ideal spots over the years so they could have
in June, the organization has satiated its land needs
for the next five years or so as they build 18 units for
families.
“It has been one of the major challenges, partic-
ularly with the increase in value in land in this area,
and that just keeps growing, as we’ve encountered,”
said Rich Truitt, board chair of the affiliate.
“That’s a rare opportunity that we came upon. We
can’t always count on that happening.”
Some Oregon Habitat for Humanity affiliates in
areas like Portland have used the model of a planned
development and found success with it.
Truitt said the planned development is designed
as a village with different sizes and types of homes for
a mixture of families who are chosen by the affiliate.
The affiliate is partnering with Portland State Uni-
versity architecture students to design the houses.
“They’ve been helping us implement these plans to
do this mixed type of housing, and they will all have
special design elements that the students are work-
ing into their projects, and they’re going to be out on
site so they can actually see how their work and what
they’re doing comes to fruition,” said Kari Johnsen,
executive director for the affiliate.
somewhere to build.
A development in Silverton
Bill Poehler Salem Statesman Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK
F
inding land on which to build houses
is becoming increasingly difficult in
communities like Salem, Silverton
and Woodburn. h Plots of land in the
area are listed starting at $75,000 and go up
But after purchasing a 1.9-acre lot on Schemmel
Lane in Silverton and receiving approval from the city
See HOUSING, Page 3A
OSHA adopts emergency heat rules
Dora Totoian Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon’s workplace safety agency has adopted
temporary emergency rules for employees who work
outdoors in extreme heat, following the death of a
nursery worker in St. Paul during the record-breaking
heatwave.
The rules, which center on access to shade, drink-
ing water, and employee and supervisor training, will
be activated any time temperatures reach 80 degrees
or higher, with an additional set of rules for temper-
atures above 90 degrees.
OSHA has submitted the rules to the Secretary of
State’s Office for confirmation, according to an email
the agency sent to stakeholders. Most will take effect
immediately after that point.
Gov. Kate Brown had directed OSHA to enact emer-
gency heat rules about a week after the heatwave in
which temperatures in some areas of the Mid-Willam-
ette Valley topped 117 degrees.
Sebastian Francisco Perez, 38, of Guatemala, col-
lapsed and later died while moving irrigation lines at
Ernst Nursery and Farms, where temperatures ex-
ceeded 100 degrees June 26.
Community members at a vigil last weekend for Pe-
rez also made a push for emergency rules part of the
memorial.
Jamie Pang South, the environmental health pro-
gram director at the Oregon Environmental Council,
said her organization is pleased with the emergency
rules, which worker and environmental advocates
have requested for months in anticipation of an ex-
ceptionally hot and dangerous season, she said.
See HEAT, Page 2A
Vol. 140, No. 30
Online at SilvertonAppeal.com
News updates: h Breaking news h Get updates from
the Silverton area
Photos: h Photo galleries
Serving the Silverton
Area Since 1880
A Unique Edition of
the Statesman Journal
QEAJAB-07403y
To his students, Fernando Rojas-Galván is a Span-
ish and world languages instructor at Clatsop Com-
munity College in Astoria. He’s also a former instruc-
tor at both Chemeketa Community College and Wil-
lamette University in Salem. h But this summer, he’s
going by another name – the bike riding bandit.
Rojas-Galván knows textbooks cost his students
hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year. He wanted
to do something to help while also combining his pas-
sion for adventuring outdoors.
He decided to take on the Clatsop “Bandit the Rac-
coon” mascot identity and create the “Bandit Biking for
Books” challenge.
Between now and July 25, Rojas-Galván will bike
across Oregon to all 17 community colleges – a com-
bined total of nearly 1,600 miles – to spread awareness
and raise money.
“A year ago, with the pandemic taking place, I was on
a bike ride and I thought, ‘What the heck can I do?’ ” he
said.
Though Rojas-Galván could think of several ways to
help students, textbooks were something tangible that
he knew people would understand and want to help
with.
Rojas-Galván pulled up to Chemeketa’s Salem cam-
pus last week, just after 5 p.m., greeted by a little over a
dozen employees and community members gathered
for his arrival.
They cheered as he rode up. Some held signs with
messages such as “Keep on Booking” and others stood
by decorative silver balloons swishing in the 94-degree
heat.
Tuesday was Rojas-Galván’s first leg of the trip. He
began in Eugene, then traveled to Linn-Benton Com-
munity College, and ended in Salem, tracking about 97
miles for the day.
As of Wednesday, he’d already helped raise about
$30,000 for the cause – 20% of his overall goal of
$150,000. The money will be distributed as student sti-
pends for each term of the 2021-22 school year to help
cover textbook costs.
Chemeketa leads in textbook affordability
Rojas-Galván’s cause is especially meaningful for
Chemeketa.
Chemeketa is the only community college in the na-
tion publishing peer-reviewed textbooks with original
content authored by the college’s faculty, school leaders
said. They do this through their program known as
Chemeketa Press, which launched in 2015.
Instead of textbooks costing $200 each, for exam-
ple, students can get the material needed for the same
course and only pay $26. In fact, all Chemeketa Press
books are $40 or less.
Between 2015 and 2020, Chemeketa’s faculty pub-
lished more than 30 books, saving students an estimat-
ed $2.5 million, Jessica Howard, president of Cheme-
keta, wrote last year in an op-ed for the Statesman
Journal.
“This fundraiser, in particular, will help students buy
lab manuals and workbooks for the fall term,” Abbey
Gaterud, director of Chemeketa Press, said about the
See CYCLING, Page 2A