LET TERS
A PAINFUL DEATH
Sweet Pea has died. Many of you might
know him as the kid who sold his artwork
out in front of Circle K and the Pita Pit.
He was homeless. A few weeks ago,
he was violently attacked simply for
being homeless. They beat him so badly
that they caused severe nerve damage.
So badly in fact that he literally could
not move without horrible pain shooting
through his body. He was homeless and
had nowhere to go after they kicked him
out of the hospital.
He was not getting better. On Wednes-
day, he checked into the hospital. He had a
brain hemorrhage and died Friday.
You may think you beat up some
random nobody, but you did more than
that. You killed someone. He died and to
add insult to it all, you sentenced him to
suffer with traumatic pain during these
freezing nights before he died.
To the parents in Eugene: One of your
children caused someone to die a slow
painful death. Was it your neighbors kid
who killed him? Was it your kid who
killed Sweet Pea? Someone in town is the
parent of a violent murderer. Sweet Pea
said they were well dressed.
Mayo Finch
Eugene
POSTAL MUSEUM
Mayor Kitty Piercy’s State of the City
Address envisioned the development of
a Lane County and Eugene Museum of
History. She located this museum in the
beautiful downtown U.S. Post Offi ce
SHE WHO WATCHES
building listed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
For those of us at the Lane County His-
torical Museum this is, indeed, great news.
We have been investigating the possibili-
ties presented by the post offi ce building
as a new museum facility for two years.
Preliminary architectural plans have been
drawn up and demonstrate the building’s
functionality as a historical museum. Why
our interest in relocation? The Historical
Museum building at the fairgrounds has
long been recognized as inadequate.
Acquisition of the U.S. Post Offi ce
building for continued use as a community
asset offers a tantalizing opportunity for
city and county cooperation. A jointly
operated fi rst-class city and county
history museum in the post offi ce could
kick-start the long-discussed downtown
cultural district. And if that conversion
then facilitates acquisition of the privately
owned remainder of the post offi ce
facility (down 5th and wrapping around
Olive), most of the city block next to the
Hult Center could become a culture and
heritage center (perhaps housing resident
nonprofi ts much as the Hult Center houses
resident companies). Such a cultural
complex would generate the workday
and after-hours use for the restaurants
and entertainment venues necessary for a
vibrant downtown cultural district.
Is this the right time for such
visioning? County and city budgets are
stressed. The library took 10-plus years
to arrive. With such lead times apparently
necessary to garner public support, if not
BY K AYL A GODOWATUF TI
Waldo Lake, Floatplane Ban
and the Threat of Invasive Species
HONOR THE TREATIES, PROTECT SACRED SITES FOR ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS
The Oregon State Aviation Board will be holding a
public hearing regarding Waldo Lake on Thursday,
Jan. 31, from 6 to 8 pm. This hearing will be held in the
Ken Long Conference Room at the Willamalane Center
in Springfi eld.
M
y family, the Tuftis (descendants
of Charlie Tufti, credited for
discovering “Waldo Lake”), of
the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs of Oregon, are the original
inhabitants of this area for at least 8,000 years,
according to archeological data. We are the descendants
of the Southern Molalla, Chakgeenkni-Tufti Band that
migrated seasonally from the highlands of Waldo Lake
to the low lands near Fall Creek.
To view what is now known as Waldo Lake as
merely a place of “recreation” is robbing our future
generations of this country’s pristine beauty and pure,
fresh drinking water. With the outrageous amount of
privatization of water resources, we need to be very
aware of what is at stake in these urgent times. If we
as treaty rights holders do not stand up for our rights,
protect the commons and create alliances with non-
natives, then we will sit idly by while our earth is put
into private ownership and irreversibly destroyed.
The Waldo Lake lawsuit was fi led by a group of
motorboat and seaplane owners, including Eugene
timber heir Steven Stewart; Portland resident Aron
Faegre, president of the Columbia Seaplane Pilots
Association; and Albany resident Keith Kendrick,
president of Waldo Lake for Everyone!
The 1850 Donation Land Claims Act made
it possible for white families to fi le for free land
upon settlement, in compensation for “settling in a
dangerous frontier area.” Meanwhile, our Indigenous
families were being forced to reservation lands, lands
deemed as “useless, desolate and uninhabitable.” This
and later inequities created a class division, sense of
entitlement to our homelands by non-natives and given
4
January 24, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
the Stewart family and many others, the opportunity to
build intergenerational wealth due to white privilege.
To this day our Indigenous families continue to live
in poverty on reservation lands. The Stewart family
claims to have “traditional” ties to our homelands. But
the disproportionate disbursement of wealth has made
it possible for Stewart, Faegre and Kendrick to fi le a
personal lawsuit against the state of Oregon to keep
motorboats on a pristine lake, while our family cannot
afford that type of legal representation to protect our
ancestral lands.
As far as who controls the lake, none of any of the
suit fi lers do for that matter. There is much to consider
in historical relevance of this area and treaty law,
which is far too often overlooked. As much as these
men would like to use their money, social clout and
power to gain control, this area remains ceded lands of
the Molalla people, which falls under a treaty signed
by our Molalla ancestors from Grand Ronde, Warm
Springs and several other areas within the state. These
rights we hold as descendants are protected under
constitutional law. These treaties that were signed
in the mid 1800s are a government-to-government
agreement, granting non-natives permission to take
residency, which they have taken full advantage of.
We have been marginalized as Indigenous people
for far too long. Our families hold the history of this
country prior to colonization, and hold knowledge of
the land incomparable to our fellow non-native citizens.
As treaty rights holders, our rights are protected under
constitutional law, law that could protect our resources,
the commons, for all, Natives and non-natives alike.
Under OAR 738-040-037: Waldo Lake access and
the use of seaplanes with “certain restrictions.” Rule 4
states: “Seaplane pilots shall screen their aircraft for
invasive species prior to landing at Waldo Lake. Any
invasive species discovered shall be removed prior to
arrival at Waldo Lake.”
How do you screen a craft for invasive species if
the species are in the form of microscopic or nearly
microscopic seeds, eggs, bacteria or other organisms that
could damage an environment that is so unique? Does
the pilot do the screening? Are the pilots also biologists?
Are they using scientifi c equipment to screen or are they
just looking at the plane to see if there’s a zebra mussel
hanging off it? Do we take their word for it that they
screened their planes? If someone didn’t screen their
planes, would anyone know? Many may fi nd it ironic
to go to a place because of its unique beauty using a
conveyance that threatens to destroy its unique beauty.
Rule 6 states: “Pilots are required to notify the
Department of Aviation, using an FAA fl ight plan
form within 48 hours of departure from Waldo Lake
to empirically document usage. The department shall
keep track of seaplane operations to quantify the scope
of usage.” The rule says the fl ight plan report shall
include a point of contact including phone number,
time of arrival and the time of departure.
Rule 7 states: “Landings as a result of an aircraft
emergency are at the discretion of the pilot in command
of the aircraft and are not subject to this rule.”
In other words, in the event of an emergency, the
pilot in command does not have to abide by these
documentation rules and all environmental protection
rules are out the window, so to speak, in the event of an
“aircraft emergency.” Another point to consider is how
often fl oat planes crash. And in this particular situation,
what type of irreversible environmental damage would
be done then?
All motorized crafts need to be banned in order to
protect this fragile, unique ecosystem. And if anyone so
chooses to kayak, canoe, swim, etc., it will be at their
own risk, for no emergency backup will be provided.
It is the only way to protect this area, for even the
environmental impact from scientists conducting
studies could alter this sacred site forever.
To view OAR 738-040-037: Waldo Lake access and the use of seaplanes
with certain restrictions, please visit wkly.ws/1f1or call the Oregon De-
partment of Aviation: 503-378-4880
Kayla Godowa-Tufti is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs of Oregon.