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V OLUME XXXVI, N O . 38
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The Skanner News presents
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Head
Start
Uproar
25
CONFLUENCE
Albina program
questions state
funding decisions
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS
T
he Albina Head Start community has
been deeply shaken by the partial loss
of grant funding through the new
state agency in charge of early childhood
education programs.
Started in 2012 as part of Gov. John
Kitzhaber’s education reform crusade – and
the over-arching effort initially headed by
now-departed “education czar” Rudy Crew
– the new Early Learning System headed by
Washington resident Jada Rupley has
launched a reorganization of how
preschools and kindergartens are funded
and evaluated using regional “hubs” to
coordinate services.
Rupley, brought out of retirement by Gov.
Kitzhaber to start up the new preschool and
kindergarten department and its Early
Learning Council, leaves the post in mid-
August to go back into retirement. Her
successor has not been named.
Last week Albina Head Start officials
learned they had been graded next to last by
the Council’s evaluation panel among
statewide Head Start programs applying for
the “expansion” component of a state
money pot designed to expand the number
of seats in Head Start classrooms.
It is the first time since the state started
funding Head Start programs in the 1980s
that they have failed to win an expansion
grant, Head Start Director Ron Herndon
says.
Rupley told The Skanner News this week
that Albina’s grant application was “not
competitive enough.”
The move has turned heads as the state’s
biggest and most successful early learning
program serving Black children is left won-
dering how to navigate the unstable waters
of Oregon education reform.
According to Herndon, it’s not just that
Albina Head Start was passed over for funds
that would have allowed more children in
Antone Minthorn, an elder from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, stands on the banks of
the Columbia River at Celilo Park. The Confluence Project plans to site a curved walkway designed by artist Maya
Lin at the spot, to commemorate its history as a traditional fishing, trading and gathering place. Celilo is one of
the oldest continually inhabited places in North America.
Celilo Arc to Honor Lost Way of Life
Can art be a part of justice? Organizers say yes it can.
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
A
ntone Minthorn stands
at the water’s edge in
Celilo Park looking
out across the broad expanse
of the Columbia River. On the
opposite bank you can see the
village of Wishram, sheltering
beneath sheer basalt buttes and
the vast expanse of sunburned
hills that stretch north into
Yakama territory.
The view is stunning. But
what’s most remarkable about
this place is not what you see,
but what you can’t see. Hidden
beneath these windswept
waters lies an older landscape,
with a massive waterfall, an
ancient settlement and a trad-
ing center that for thousands of
years was one of the most vis-
ited places on the continent.
“The Celilo Falls fishery
was an important gathering
place for the tribes,” says
Minthorn, an elder from the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
“All the salmon would come
through here from the ocean
and continue all the way
through the interior up to
Canada. This was the center of
the tribal economy.”
Salmon were at the heart of
that Northwest tribal economy
for more than 11,000 years.
Between 15 - 20 million of
them would pass through the
falls every years, some weigh-
ing more than 50 lbs. Treaties
signed in 1855 with the Yaka-
ma Nation, the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, and
the Walla Walla, Cayuse and
See HEAD START on page 3
INDEX
News ..............1,3,8-10
Opinion .....................2
Calendars ..............4,5
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ........11
Umatilla people guaranteed
tribal fishing rights.
At Celilo, fishermen worked
from wooden platforms built
over 12 miles of falls and
rapids. It was one of the largest
waterfalls on the continent,
carrying a larger volume of
water at its peak than Niagara
Falls.
And thousands of people
would come together at Celilo
every year to trade and social-
See CONFLUENCE on
page 9
As Retail Pot Rolls Out, Worry About Kids
As Inslee tamps down teen access, prison system faces overhaul
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
S
tate leaders this week made an effort
to address the growing paranoia about
teen pot use in the wake of retail
legalization that goes into effect after the
first sales licenses are handed out July 7.
The issue is key because teen drug use
remains one of the most potent arrows in the
federal government’s war on legalized
cannabis, and officials worry that voter
approval of Initiative 502 two years ago
potentially opened up young peoples’ access
to it.
State elected leaders remain stumped by
what seems at times to be their unwilling
opposition to President Barack Obama’s
anti-pot stand – despite his campaign prom-
ises to the contrary.
According to Obama’s official position on
the issue, posted on WhiteHouse.gov, “The
Administration steadfastly opposes legal-
ization of marijuana and other drugs
because legalization would increase the
availability and use of illicit drugs, and pose
significant health and safety risks to all
Americans, particularly young people.”
See TEENS on page 3