LET TERS
LACK OF ENVIRO
ENFORCMENT
Gratifying to see a thorough piece of
investigative reporting leave the ivory
tower and enter the public arena (“DEQ
Has Oregon In Dirty Hot Water,” EW, Feb.
23). What the three journalism students
learned about Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality’s dereliction of
its duty to prosecute polluters is sadly
representative of other “enforcement”
agencies state and nationwide.
While it’s true that most agencies and
programs have been starved to impotence
if not death by political malfeasance,
enforcement has long been more of a
paper tiger than an effective deterrent
to scofflaws. Lane County’s land use
enforcement program, for example, has
only one official and a distinct distaste for
taking any action that may lead to a costly
court proceeding, no matter how egregious
the violation and winnable the case. And
it exists in an uneasy relationship with a
libertarian, anti-regulation majority of
county commissioners.
For the most part, the Department of
Land Conservation and Development
exercises its responsibility as overseer of
the state’s land use system by ignoring or
refusing to take action against counties
and municipalities that routinely facilitate
development and growth at the expense of
conservation and protection.
At the national level the EPA has
consistently been hamstrung by lack of
funding and a political unwillingness to
regulate corporate polluters. It is therefore
ironic and certainly testimony to the dark
days ahead that the present occupant of
the White House — when he’s not in the
Trump Tower — is hell-bent on eliminating
already anemic regulation entirely.
Robert Emmons
Fall Creek
¡VIVA LA WEEKLY!
¡Que una maravillosa cover on the Feb.
23 issue! ¡Salud a Johanis!
A heroic image electrifies and instantly
cements the values of an isolated and,
arguably, a quaint shire sandwiched between
stoic farmland and fractious mountain
forestries, locales predictably conservative
and devoted to maintaining suppression of
change; but we are right now forced to be
change itself under zealous attacks against
freedom of press, equality and access to
the institutions of the nation.
Every single gesture, attitude, meme,
political assembly, song and poem of
ours counts in ways that take on lives of
their own, and it is especially the honest,
brave, unassuming, modest individual
expressions in their massive collectivity
that are the heart and backbone of
democracy — which in part explains
why the top-heavy Democratic Party
SHE WHO WATCHES
establishment, while genuinely our allies,
are fundamentally, structurally unable
to effectively contend with a threat to
democracy like the one on the ground
currently racing to us like a bullet train.
This mighty little town rises to the
challenge by, among other things, supporting
a lively news weekly with, for example,
the stellar, sharp lacerating wit of Tom
Tomorrow’s This Modern World. Eugene’s
reputation for grassroots sophistication
had come to my awareness four decades
ago, ages before I had ever set foot.
I’ve only lived in Oregon, in
Springfield, a little more than two years,
but I can compare the spunk, vigor and
relevance of EW to other mature, smart and
sassy similar weeklies in San Francisco,
New York and Vermont, where I have lived
most of my (now long) life.
EW is one of my barometers of
metropolitan Eugene’s quality of life. Your
covers are consistently creative, inspiring,
mordantly critical and-or refreshingly
engaging raising a curtain each week to the
stage of the city’s politics and culture!
¡Salud a EW!
Jesse Cox
Springfield
WELCOME TO THE
ACCIDENTAL ART HOTEL
We wish to thank Ben Ricker for an in-
credibly informative and sensitive article
about the artists who live in Benton Plaza,
here in Corvallis. Also our thanks to EW
photographer Trask Bedortha, his portraits
were the perfect complement.
To see this as a cover article was all the
more amazing. The community response
to our exhibit has been incredible, and in-
clude an artist who lives in a similar sup-
ported housing unit in Eugene, who made
it a point to visit.
Our thanks to all who made this pos-
sible.
Bruce Burris, CEI/ArtWorks
Corvallis
BUILD A WALL
Perhaps one possible solution to the
problem of people acting poorly in the
downtown area is to build a wall around
the district and make the transients pay for
it.
I have read that banning dogs will
not work because people could say it is a
service dog. Why not ban blankets? These
people sit on blankets or have blankets in
their luggage.
Blankets were used to kill native
peoples by infecting the blankets with
smallpox. Perhaps these rude people will
do the same. These are blanket terrorists!
As a separate item, I would like to say
Eugene Skinner was not here alone. His
wife Mary worked very hard, I am certain.
The city of “Eugene and Mary,” or “Mary
BY K AYL A GODOWA T UF TI
King’s Quarrelsome Quarry
TRIBAL COUNCIL APPROVES RESOLUTION TO PROTECT TV BUTTE
I
n January the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs of Oregon’s Tribal Council approved
a resolution to protect TV Butte in Oakridge.
Lane County has nevertheless tentatively ap-
proved a zoning change to allow the butte to
be mined, ignoring oral history evidence of previous
native occupation of the site.
TV Butte in Oakridge is part of a Native American
village site, and native burial sites are thought to be
near the butte. The Chakgeenkni-Tufti Band of Molal-
la Indians, whose descendants are enrolled members
of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs of Or-
egon, lived at the TV Butte site for thousands of years.
For almost a year the Old Hazeldell Quarry proj-
ect, an investment of Ed King of King Estate Winery,
has been advancing through the Lane County Govern-
ment. The Old Hazeldell Quarry project has applied
to rezone 46 acres, the area known as TV Butte, in
Oakridge from F1 F2 (forestland) to QM (quarry min-
ing). Nearly 17 million tons of andesite aggregate
rock will be extracted from TV Butte if the applica-
tion is approved.
Since May the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs of Oregon’s Tribal Historic Preservation Of-
fice has been submitting letters of concern to Deanna
Wright and Lydia McKinney, who are appointed to
oversee the application through the Lane County Land
Management Division.
The letters point out that “of specific concern are
4
March 9, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
Indian burials potentially located near the old Charlie
Tufti homestead,” and that the tribal historic preserva-
tion office “recognizes oral history equally as valu-
able as results of archaeological survey or archival
research in identifying historical land use.”
They add, “Indeed, oral history often sheds light
on historical use when survey and other methods can-
not.”
The recent Tribal Council resolution reaffirms
what was argued in the letters and calls for TV Butte’s
protection: “The Tribal Council delegates and autho-
rizes the chairman, vice-chairman and secretary-trea-
surer/CEO to take any necessary actions to fulfill the
intent of this resolution, with particular attention to
the protection of rights and interest of heirs and de-
scendants who are members of federally recognized
Indian Tribes.”
Historical documents and testimony from direct
tribal descendants have been submitted at each op-
portunity for public testimony in Lane County since
April 2016.
Yet the Lane County government and the Old Ha-
zeldell Quarry project staff claim there has been insuf-
ficient evidence provided.
In the applicant’s final rebuttal submitted to the
Lane County Commission on Nov. 29, Michael Reed-
er of the Eugene law firm Arnold Gallagher writes,
“Some people have vehemently opposed the applica-
tion. Many of those opponents raise issues that are ei-
ther not relevant to the approval criteria and/or wildly
outlandish and misleading.”
He calls the opposing arguments “unsubstantiated
and anecdotal claims that have little or no evidentiary
support.”
At the last public hearing on Oct. 12 in Oakridge,
Rick Minor of Heritage Research Associates present-
ed testimony to debunk and dismiss evidence of tribal
occupancy at TV Butte. Minor teaches in Historical
Preservation at University of Oregon and has been
hired by OHQ to conduct an archaeological survey
for the quarry.
HRA’s report was unsubstantial and dismissive of
tribal testimony and historical occupancy. The report
failed to include anthropological and ethnographic as-
pects that are extremely important to tribes.
Three meetings have been held before the Lane
County Commissioners. On Jan. 12, the commission
decided to have a fourth reading/deliberation for Feb.
14. On Feb 12, the commission decided to set a fifth
reading for March 12.
On Jan. 12, the Commission tentatively approved
the OHQ application on a four to one vote, with Com-
missioner Pete Sorensen opposed.
The final Lane County Commissioners meeting on
the Old Hazeldell Quarry project will be at 1:30 pm
Tuesday, March 14, in Harris Hall in Eugene.
Kayla Godowa-Tufti is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs and descendant of the Klamath Tribes. Writer, lyricist and Indig-
enous rights advocate. Resident of Eugene for 20-plus years.