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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016
Brown says feds must end refuge occupation
Priorities include
money for
Harney County
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Besides occu-
pying the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in Harney
County, armed protesters
now occupy a place on Gov.
Kate Brown’s list of policy
priorities.
During Brown’s unveil-
ing of her agenda Wednes-
day, the governor said that
one of her priorities this
year is to pass a funding
package to offset expenses
associated with responding
to the occupation. The gov-
ernor said her administration
would “scour the budget to
make sure that we have the
resources at the state level to
subsidize the cost for Harney
County.”
The cost of responding
to the occupation is running
about $100,000 per week,
Brown said.
The state would later ask
Molly J. Smith/Statesman-Journal
Gov. Kate Brown outlines her 2016 policy agenda at a press
conference at the State Capitol in Salem Wednesday.
the federal government to
reimburse the state for those
costs, she said.
Ammon Bundy and his
armed followers seized the
remote refuge Jan. 2 in a
protest against federal public
lands policies.
“The situation is abso-
lutely intolerable,” Brown
said. “The very fabric of this
community is being ripped
apart. The residents of Harney
County have been overlooked
and underserved by federal
of¿cials’ response thus far.”
Brown said she has ex-
pressed her concerns to fed-
eral officials “at the highest
levels of our government,
the U.S. Department of Jus-
tice and the White House.”
“Federal
authorities
must act quickly to end the
occupation and hold all of
the wrongdoers account-
able,” she said. “The spec-
tacle of lawlessness must
end. Until Harney County
is free of it I will not stop
insisting federal officials
enforce the law.”
Minimum wage,
housing
Education innovation,
public records
Some of Brown’s other pri-
orities were no surprise. She
wants the Legislature to enact
her plan to boost minimum
wage to $15.52 in the Portland
area and $13.50 in the rest of
the state by 2022. The plan is
intended to thwart two ballot
measures that would raise the
minimum wage in three years
instead of six.
She is championing state
House Speaker Tina Kotek’s
omnibus housing bill to in-
crease affordable housing op-
tions around the state.
Brown said she plans to
use her executive power to
create a Council on Educator
Advancement. The council
will be responsible for coordi-
nating and promoting leader-
ship development, mentorship
and best practices.
The governor gave no
timeline for establishing the
council and did not address
what relationship that council
would have to the Department
of Education and the Teach-
er Standards and Practices
Commission, which licenses
teachers.
The governor also repeated
her plan to hire an education
innovation of¿cer to improve
the state’s high school gradu-
ation rate and a public records
ombudsman to help agencies
respond more ef¿ciently and
consistently to requests.
Brown’s other priorities
include:
Expanding the 2f¿ce of
Small Business Advocate to
help small businesses through
the labyrinth of government
red tape.
• Creating a small business
advisory group to develop
recommendations to support
small businesses in accessing
capital and streamlining agen-
cy processes.
• Issuing an executive or-
der to force agencies to adopt
a public records policy.
• Supporting legislation to
tighten deadlines for lobbyists
to disclose their clients to the
Oregon Government Ethics
Commission and to require
that information be posted on-
line within two days.
• Launching a college cam-
pus safety working group.
• Approving a request from
Umpqua Community College
for funding to enhance safety
on campus in the wake of the
deadly shooting there Oct. 1.
• Securing funding to re-
spond to drought and the 2015
wild¿re season.
House Republican Lead-
er Mike McLane, R-Powell
Butte, said Brown’s plan ig-
nores Oregon’s most pressing
troubles, including the state’s
pension shortfall, transporta-
tion infrastructure, struggling
rural communities and an
education system that “ranks
as one of the worst in the na-
tion.”
“New bureaucratic ap-
pointments and executive
orders won’t solve these
problems,” McLane said in
a statement. “One-party rule
has left our state with yester-
day’s ideas and status quo pol-
icies. House Republicans look
forward to presenting mean-
ingful alternatives to Demo-
crats’ stale agenda in the 2016
session.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Tribe, state investigating dig at Chinook burial site
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
CHINOOK, Wash. — State
and tribal of¿cials are investigat-
ing after the Paci¿c County Pub-
lic Utilities District No. 2 dug in
an area that is known to contain
Chinook Indian remains.
Scott Tucker, superintendent
of the Lewis and Clark National
Historical Park, learned in late
December that the utilities dis-
trict replaced two failing power
poles at the Middle Village/Sta-
tion Camp unit of the park.
Located on U.S. Highway
101 near the old McGowan
church, the site was once a thriv-
ing Chinook trade village, and
also brieÀy served as a base-
camp for the Lewis and Clark
expedition. Archaeologists have
found thousands of Native and
European artifacts there, and
con¿rmed the ground likely
holds the remains of many Chi-
nook Indians.
No shovels in the ground
The Washington State His-
torical Society owns Middle
Village, but the National Park
Service manages it and will take
ownership in March.
Out of respect for the re-
mains, the park service enforces
a strict “no-dig policy” at the
site. Park service workers don’t
even pull out invasive weeds
at the site — they cut them to
avoid disturbing the ground.
“We don’t want to put anoth-
er shovel in the ground ever be-
cause of the known archaeolog-
ical resources on the property,”
Tucker said Friday.
The Public Utilities District
did not contact the Chinook In-
dian Nation or the National Park
Service before doing the work,
which involved pulling out two
old poles that were buried to a
depth of roughly 6 feet, plac-
ing new poles in the holes, and
¿lling the earth back in. At least
one of the poles is located “in
the direct vicinity of the human
remains,” Tucker said.
The second pole is very near
the property line that divides
Middle Village and attorney Bill
Garvin’s neighboring proper-
ty. The village probably wasn’t
con¿ned to the boundaries of
the modern park, so even if the
second hole is on private proper-
ty, the work may have disturbed
ground where Chinook ances-
tors are resting.
“Somebody did it, and it
greatly concerns the tribe,” Chi-
nook Indian Nation Chairman
Tony Johnson said Monday. “...
There is grave concern with any
compacting out there, given that
remains (discovered in 2005)
were so close to the surface.”
Emergency work
“One (pole) was leaning
over, ready to fall down,” Public
Utilities District General Man-
ager Doug Miller said Tuesday.
Miller said the average pole
is about 17 years old when it’s
replaced, but the two replaced
poles were roughly 40 to 50
years old. Though the district
had known for at least 20 years
that the two poles were ap-
proaching the end of their life
spans, Miller described the
recent replacements as “emer-
gency” work — a pole failure
would have caused a power out-
age, and might have damaged
equipment or created potentially
serious safety issues.
“We didn’t have time to call
anybody. The electricity was
going out. We had to replace it,”
Miller said.
Miller said the district has an
easement that allows workers to
maintain the poles, and an obli-
gation to prevent power outag-
es. Miller said he is not aware
of any legal agreement that re-
quires the district to give notice
or seek approval from the tribe,
state or National Park Service
before working on the poles.
“There’s no noti¿cation. We
have no agreement with anyone
regarding that area. I have never
received anything in writing,”
Miller said. “They have not sent
anything to us regarding sensi-
tivity.”
:ellpublici]ed ¿nds
The site’s signi¿cance has
been well-documented in state,
local and tribal records, and
Miller acknowledged that dis-
trict workers previously encoun-
tered remains while working
there.
In early 2005, preparatory
work for the planned “Station
Camp” park came to a halt when
workers discovered the remains
of a collapsed plank house. Ar-
chaeologists later con¿rmed the
presence of Chinook remains
and other signi¿cant ¿nds.
According to the National
Park Service website, “More
than 10,000 artifacts were un-
covered, including trade beads,
plates, cups, musket balls,
arrowheads, Indian ¿sh net
weights and ceremonial items.”
Eventually, the park was re-
named “Middle Village/Station
Camp,” the remains were re-in-
terred under tribal supervision,
and members of the tribe helped
design displays that highlighted
Chinook culture. In 2011, Public
Utilities District workers began
an effort to move Middle Village
power lines underground.
“But that project has been
held up because as we were
digging that, it unearthed some
bones,” Miller said, adding that
the project stalled because of un-
resolved design and engineering
questions. In Miller’s opinion,
the recent conÀict could have
been prevented if the authorities
that manage the park had been
more responsive to district ef-
forts to complete the project.
According to Tucker and
Johnson, an archaeologist and
Chinook representatives came
to observe the district’s work af-
ter the 2011 discovery.
“We do know that the PUD
was aware of the sensitive ar-
chaeological location,” Tucker
said.
Miller, who has been gener-
al manager since 1994, said he
had occasionally spoken with
former Chinook Chairman Ray
Gardner, who passed away in
February, but had no recollec-
tion of ever working directly
with the tribe.
“I am not aware that we’ve
communicated with the tribe in
the past,” Miller said. “If there
was a tribe member there, I have
not heard that.”
A tragic past, a living
culture
Last week, tarps and stones
covered the mounds of earth at
With Salad & Bread
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$8 .00
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1132 Exchange Street 325-5771
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
In late December, the Public Utilities District replaced this
power pole at Middle Village, the site of a former Chinook
village where experts believe the remains of many Chi-
nook Indians are buried close to the surface.
the base of the two new poles,
and sets of tire tracks cut through
the surrounding grass.
For the Chinook, this place
is part of a long and sometimes
tragic history, but it is also a vi-
tal part of a very real and living
culture.
“It’s very important for peo-
ple to know that this is not some
ancient history, or some myste-
rious place or mysterious indi-
viduals,” Johnson said. “At least
two of my dad’s relatives are
known to be buried there.”
Johnson explained that the
recent digging — and compact-
ing of the earth caused by utility
truck traf¿c — is particularly
upsetting because the people
who died at Middle Village were
buried close to the surface, out
of necessity.
“We do not bury near our
towns,” Johnson said. “This was
a town for many hundreds of
years before it would have ever
been considered to be a place to
bury or leave people.”
After Europeans arrived
on the peninsula, “Our lack of
immunity to foreign disease
absolutely decimated our peo-
ple. People lived in that town
through many epidemics,”
Johnson said. The once-vibrant
society collapsed, and the re-
maining survivors were unable
to give their loved ones proper
burial rites.
“My belief is that people
treat a place differently when
they realize it’s the ¿nal resting
place of human beings,” John-
son said.
No communication
between PUD, tribe
Between Dec. 29 and Jan.
7, Tucker alerted Johnson, the
Public Utilities District, the His-
torical Society and the Washing-
ton State Department of Archae-
ology and Historic Preservation.
Johnson, two archaeologists
and other of¿cials visited the
site within days. The Histori-
cal Society appointed Tucker to
lead the government’s response
and the state quickly opened an
investigation. The Public Util-
ities District was the last agen-
cy to respond. Miller said after
Tucker called him on Jan. 7, he
called back “about a half a dozen
times,” but hung up without leav-
ing a message. The two ¿nally
spoke by phone on Tuesday.
A collaborative response
Tucker said of¿cials are
still investigating, so it’s too
soon to say whether the Public
Utilities District work violated
any agreements or policies, or
violated state laws that protect
historical and archaeological
sites. The state investigation will
help determine whether remains
were disturbed, and what must
be done to address the recent in-
cident, Tucker said.
Johnson said the tribe has
very good relationships with
Tucker, the historical society
and the state, and he has “total
con¿dence” in Tucker’s ability
to handle the situation.
However, he noted that Chi-
nook members should lead the
response, because only the tribe
fully understands the relevant
history and cultural practices.
“I am absolutely certain that
everybody would defer to the
Chinook, and I have full expec-
tation that everyone would defer
to the Chinook,” Johnson said.
Right now, he added, the
“pressing need is communica-
tion that assures that tomorrow
or the next day when nobody
is looking, it doesn’t happen
again.”
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Miller acknowledged that
he has not called the tribe, and
doesn’t see any need to do so
right now. Instead, he said, he
would wait for state and park
service of¿cials to tell him what
the district needs to do to ad-
dress the situation.
“I don’t have any plans (to
speak directly with the tribe)
right now. No. My understand-
ing is somebody will be getting
back to me, since I don’t have
any contact with these people,”
Miller said. “I’m not aware who
is in charge of the tribe now.”
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and we can scan in the photo for you.
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CALLING ALL
COASTER THEATRE VOLUNTEERS!
To all those that have volunteered as an actor, usher, technician or strike
assistance, the Coaster Theatre Board of Directors wants to say
THANK YOU
JOIN US AT OUR
VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION PARTY
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 ST FROM 3-5PM
For details (including location) and to R.S.V.P. email us at
info@coastertheatre.com or call 503-436-0609