TRIBAL PROGRAM NEWS
Walt’s Words of Wit and Wisdom
By Walt Klamath
By golly, it’s been some time since I have written anything about fires. First
off, I must congratulate you in the Siletz area. We have not had a major fire in a
long time.
Ima member of the Siletz Fire Department, Logsden Substation. The last
fire I was on in Logsden was a motor home fire. There have been several car fires
that were set by someone in cars that were along the road. Just because we have
not had any bad fires, though, is no reason to become complacent.
We did not have a big campaign about smoke detectors this year as we
should have. These are very important for saving lives. Sometimes the advance
warning of a few seconds may be the difference between life and death from
being severely burned.
Check your smoke detectors. Statistics say that half of them in this country
don’t work. Batteries are dead or sometimes the ones that are hooked into the
house current are disconnected because they go off at inopportune times.
This is normally because they are located in the wrong place. There are areas
in the home where they will go off all the time, like in the kitchen or bathrooms.
So if one does go off and you disengage it, be sure that it’s ready when you retire
for the night or whenever you rest. Have detectors at all levels of the home in all
of the bedrooms.
Once, before time, Coyote had
seen the Moon come up every day,
then glide over Mother Earth and
then go down. He studied this for a
long time.
Then Coyote decided that he
wanted to ride with the Moon. So trie
next day, when the Moon came up,
he asked the Moon if he could ride
with him. The Moon did not reply but
kept on moving along. This went on
for some time, maybe for years. Then
Coyote decided that he would jump
on the Moon and ride with him.
Coyote went to where the Moon
came up from the Earth, and jumped.
Coyote was on the Moon, but Moon
was not talking. Coyote couldn’t get
the Moon to say anything.
As the Moon went higher in the
sky, it began to get cold. Coyote was
not liking this too well and asked the
Moon to let him off. The Moon just
kept on going, higher and higher. It
was getting so very cold now; Coyote
was having a hard time hanging onto
the Moon.
O
Coyote kept talking to the Moon,
asking to be let off, but the Moon
never answered. Finally, Coyote lost
his hold and fell.
He fell a long way, gathering up
a lot of speed as he fell. When he hit
Mother Earth, his speed was so great
that he went deeper and deeper into
Mother Earth, coming to rest deep in
the heart of Mother Earth. Coyote
crawled out; he was angry with the
Moon for doing this to him.
Where Coyote landed, the deep
hole is today Crater Lake. Every
night out on the desert, you can
hear Coyotes singing. They are
scolding the Moon for what happened
to Coyote.
Ahhoh, true story.
Have fire drills in your home, too. Make sure everyone knows what they’re
supposed to do and where they should meet. When the fire department gets there,
the first thing we need to know is if anyone is still in the building. If everyone is
not accounted for, we have to look for them.
This is dangerous to our people too, especially if the person is actually out of
the building. So it’s very important to practice what you should do so that everyone
will know each other’s whereabouts.
When you practice your drill, blindfold all participants, then go to the rooms
that they know very well. Spin them around two or three times, then have them
get down on their hands and knees to find their way out.
In the case of a fire, you will be disoriented to a certain degree. There may be
smoke that will be choking you, so you must get down low and find your way
out. Do this often, until everyone in the family can do it with ease. Then keep
refreshing yourselves by making a game of it. It could save your life and the lives
of others. We hope that no one will ever have to do these things for real. But as
the Boy Scout motto says, “Be Prepared.”
I personally do not want to visit you on a professional call unless it’s to give
away 911 stickers or to tell you to put numbers on your house or driveway so that
we can find you. I have said a time or two that if it’s on fire, we can find it, but
that’s not necessarily true.
We have had to look for a few minutes for a place that was on fire that we
could not see from the road. This is a loss of crucial time, for in a fire we have no
time, time is our enemy. So if your home is well-marked, it’s a big help.
We are also human and our adrenaline gets to roaring and sometimes we
don’t know where we are going or who lives at this particular address. I have had
people tell me that they couldn’t get a number. Big deal - put a post out there
with some kind of identification on it. Do anything to help us help you.
Take care of yourselves and enjoy the many blessings that we have.
Child care, con’t from page 1
The center should be completed in
about six months. At that time, its nine
employees will be able to provide safe
and structured child care for up to six
infants, 15 toddlers, and 20 preschool
age children, and after-school care for
20 children up to age 12. The center
will serve tribal families and other
families in the community from its
location at the north end of the Oak
Flats housing development in Siletz.
Bev Youngman cited a survey
showing that 83 children in the
community need child care. Bev was
joined by DeAnn Brown, Tom
Chandler, Ramona Fisher, Robin
Limbert, and Nancy McCrary on a
committee charged with getting the
child care center project off the ground.
This is the first stage of the Education
Enhancement Center that eventually
will include classrooms and a library,
multi-use area, swimming pool,
amphitheater, and tennis courts.
The architect and contractor for
the child care center joined the Tribal
Council at the ground breaking.
Dietmar Goebel of Newport, Ore., is
the architect. He previously worked
with the tribe as the architect for
the Siletz Community Health Clinic.
TOMCO Construction Inc. of Spokane,
Wash., is the contractor and was
represented by owner Mel White and
Charlie Pimms, principal.
Funding for the center comes from
a Community Development Block
Grant and from NAHASDA (Native
American Housing Assistance and
Self-Determination Act) funds.
June 2002
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Siletz News
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