INSIDE
UPGRADES AT UNION GAS STATION NEARLY COMPLETE |
October 14, 2021
BUSINESS & AG LIFE, B1
$1.50
THURSDAY EDITION
Grant to
address
domestic
violence
La Grande Police,
Shelter From the
Storm receive funds
from 3-year grant
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Local
entities in La Grande
recently received a crucial
grant addressing domestic
violence in the area, fi lling
what would be a major
void had the grant not been
renewed.
The La Grande Police
Department and local non-
profi t Shelter From the
Storm are recipients of an
Offi ce on Violence Against
Women rural grant, which
allows both organiza-
tions to fi ll a staff position
directly related to domestic
violence response.
“If it was not for this
grant, we could not have
the resources
to have this
position,”
La Grande
Police Chief
Gary Bell
said. “We’ve
Bell
enjoyed that
funding to
have the posi-
tion and we
will be able to
continue pro-
viding those
Landa
services in the
community.”
The OVW grant directly
provides for the La Grande
Police Department’s ability
to employ a special vic-
tims detective, who works
specifi cally in domestic
violence, sexual assault,
stalking and other interper-
sonal crimes. The grant is
renewable on a three-year
cycle.
According to Bell, the
department will be able to
better provide important
services, due to the grant’s
renewal.
“The position has
greatly improved our
ability to respond to these
off enses,” he said.
Shelter From the Storm,
a nonprofi t organization
in La Grande with a mis-
sion of helping victims of
See, Grant/Page A5
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Katie Frenyea, of Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries, left foreground, describes the wetlands that are part of the restoration work of the Wallowa River on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021,
at the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland Project. The river’s excavated side channels will help restore native plants and give native fi sh a place to spawn.
Restoration and reconciliation
Hundreds gather for blessing ceremony at Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland Project
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — It wasn’t the
regular Tamkaliks celebration
but, in some ways, it was more. A
couple hundred people gathered
at the Nez Perce Wallowa Home-
land Project the second weekend
of October to commemorate and
bless a restoration project 10
years in the making and share
memories of past celebrations.
For decades, the former wet-
lands where the Homeland
Project is had been turned into
farm or pastureland. In the 1950s
and the 1970s, bulldozers were
brought in to change the land-
scape so it would not fl ood,
according to Montana Pagano
who, with Katie Frenyea, led a
tour of the restoration project Sat-
urday, Oct. 9. Pagano and Frenyea
have been two of the instrumental
workers in developing the project
to restore the river to its nat-
ural state on behalf of Nez Perce
Tribal Fisheries.
The meandering movement of
the Wallowa River in its natural
state made it diffi cult — if not
impossible — to farm or graze
the land between the river and
Tick Hill, which overlooks the
Homeland Project and where the
Tamkaliks dance arbor stands
today. The townsite also was sus-
ceptible to the seasonal whims of
the river.
“They couldn’t have built
Wallowa there because the river
moved around — I’m talking 150
years ago — so in order to put a
townsite there and be confi dent it
wasn’t going to fl ood, they had to
channelize the river,” said Angela
Bombaci, executive director of
the Homeland Project. “So they
tacked it against the hill like this
out of the way of the town. ... But
now we’re trying to undo some of
it for the sake of the salmon.”
But, she assured, the resto-
ration work only will aff ect the
north side of the river, not the
town side.
“Oh, gosh, no,” she said of any
future risk of fl ood. “We’re actu-
ally helping because we’re taking
away the fl ood pressure so it has
a place to go over here instead of
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Nez Perce and Umatilla tribal members participate in a blessing and song for the Wallowa River restoration work Saturday,
Oct. 9, 2021, at the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland Project.
area because it’s a release point
for fl oodwater.”
As Bombaci, Pagano and
Frenyea explained, there are three
side channels that branch off the
main river, fl ood the wetlands and
merge to rejoin the river a quar-
ter-mile downstream.
“The three branches of the
side channels are in place and
all that’s left is the overseeding
of the ground that was torn up
from construction,” Bombaci
said. “Now we sit back and watch
nature do her thing for the ben-
efi t of lamprey, salmon and other
anadromous fi sh.”
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Jeremy Wolf, vice chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation Board of Trustees, and a friend observe where the Wallowa River joins
an excavated side channel on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021. The work is part of a 10-year
restoration project near Wallowa.
wanting to go into the town if,
for some reason, there ever was a
fl ood risk.”
The channelizing of the river
inadvertently destroyed critical
fi sh and plant habitat, which the
project aims to restore.
“The point is you want
fl ooding in it,” Bombaci said.
“That’s natural and it’s good. All
the things that were done were
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not good for habitat. They were
good for farmers and ranchers,
but not good for fi sh or plants
that need a wetland, so basically,
we returned that area to wet-
land. Sometimes it will be really
wet; sometimes it will be less
wet depending on the level of the
river. When the river gets higher,
more water will come into it.
Actually, it’s helpful for the whole
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Friday
36 LOW
63/40
An evening
shower
Warmer
THE SUDDEN FLIGHT OF THE GROUSE
A celebration
Although the weekend’s events
were not the traditional Tamka-
liks, they were held at the site of
the annual celebration and fea-
tured many memories of the
30-year-old event.
“This isn’t Tamkaliks. This
place is sometimes referred to as
Tamkaliks, but the event today is
a blessing of our side channel,”
Bombaci said. “There will be
some drums and some dancing,
but it’s not nearly the production
See, Blessing/Page A5
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Issue 121
3 sections, 36 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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