STUDENT ART
ADORNS AG
CALENDAR
SENATOR MCCAIN
HONORED IN
ARIZONA
TOO FEW
FOOTBALL
OFFICIALS
REGION/3A
NATION/WORLD/6A
SPORTS/1B
THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2018
142nd Year, No. 214
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Area high schools get
glimpse of tribal ways
Educating
one
another
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
ozens of area high school students
got a peek at life from the view of
local American Indian tribes in an
effort to bridge cultural divides.
They came Wednesday morning from
high schools in Pendleton, Echo, Pine
Eagle, Joseph and Imbler and joined their
fellow students from Nixyaawii Com-
munity School at Tamástslikt Cultural
Institute on the Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion near Pendleton. Aaron Noisey, for-
D
‘Kicker’ fund
estimated at
$686 million
Rebate for median taxpayers
expected at $164
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Chuck Sams, communications director for the Con-
federated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
speaks to local high school athletes Wednesday about
tribal history and beliefs.
merly with Nixyaawii but now a teacher
for Echo, said planning for the program
began in April in the wake of some racial
incidents at school sporting events.
Rather than issue condemnations for
bad behavior, he said, Nixyaawii and
the Confederated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation sought a differ-
ent route.
“One of my things is,” he said, “if I
don’t know, don’t belittle me, educate
me.”
Noisey delivered that message to the
students as well:
“Really, what we’re trying to do here
is educate one another,” he told them.
Tamástslikt interpretor John Bevis
led students on a tour of the museum. He
presented the history of the Natitayt, the
people, from their earliest days on the
Columbia Plateau through the coming
of the European settlers and the subse-
quent disruption of tribal life and deaths
of tribal peoples. He called the Oregon
Trail “the longest cemetery in America.”
That history affects every tribal mem-
See EDUCATING/8A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Chuck Sams, communications director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, speaks at the
tribal longhouse on the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton.
SALEM — State economists say if their
revenue estimates hold, Oregon taxpayers
will get a $686 million “kicker” in 2020.
On Wednesday, state economists released
their latest revenue forecast, which showed
Oregon General and Lottery Fund resources
in the current two-year budget to be about
$20.44 billion, $166.8 million higher than
projected several months ago.
“Oregon’s economic expansion has largely
played out as expected in recent months, yet
state revenue collections continue to outpace
the forecast,” state economists wrote in their
quarterly revenue forecast Wednesday. “Much
of the strong revenue growth can be traced to
temporary factors, including the response of
Oregonians to federal tax law changes and a
spike in estate tax collections.”
While state economists now expect the
state to collect more revenues in the current
biennium, which concludes in mid-2019, they
now expect to see less revenue in the 2019-21
budget period.
Oregon taxpayers receive the “kicker”
when actual revenues in the two-year budget
cycle are 2 percent above the original budget.
The median taxpayer, earning between
$35,000 to $36,000, can expect to get about
$164 “kicked” back. Higher income earners
can generally expect larger kicker returns.
State economists also predict a corporate
tax kicker of about $207.8 million, which will
be dedicated to K-12 education in the next
biennium.
Generally, Oregon’s economy continues to
do well. While wage growth and household
income is still growing, the rate of growth
has slowed over the past few years. Much of
Oregon’s General Fund revenue comes from
income taxes.
However, state economists identified some
downside risks that could pose a threat to the
state’s economy in the medium- and long-
term, including, but not limited to, “wor-
risome trends at the U.S. level,” housing
affordability, climate and natural disasters and
federal fiscal policy.
Morrow County looks at housing options as jobs increase
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Morrow County is providing a growing
number of jobs in the region, but at the end
of the workday, the majority of those people
go back to their homes somewhere else.
That may be slowly starting to change.
Morrow County Planning Director Carla
McLane said the county is looking seriously
at how to house the many people who work
in the county but don’t live there.
“The commute pattern is out of sync with
the housing pattern,” she said. “As the port
has grown, we haven’t seen the residential
part of Morrow County keep pace with that.”
In the last two months, the Morrow
County Planning Commission has approved
permits for new housing and rental units
in the area, and will launch a committee to
study the developable land in the county
next month.
At a meeting on Monday, the commission
approved a request for the Ruggs Ranch,
near Heppner, to use the facility as a guest
lodge all year, and approved a land parti-
tion for a non-farm dwelling unit, also near
Heppner.
In July, the commission approved a per-
mit for the Gala Springs Subdivision, com-
prised of 14 two-acre lots west of Boardman
that will be used for residential development.
McLane said when that parcel was up for
approval at last month’s planning commis-
sion meeting, some people were concerned
about the impact it would have on other res-
idents in the area.
“There were a number of people testi-
fying with concerns about the water table,
14 new septic systems,” she said, add-
ing that the area is already designated for
high nitrates. “They don’t want to say no to
See HOUSING/8A
Annual Bigfoot conference draws local’s interest
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Bigfoot believer Corissa Howland of Milton-Freewater poses
with souvenirs she brought back from last year’s International
Bigfoot Conference and Film Festival.
Bigfoot remains big business.
The International Bigfoot Confer-
ence and Film Festival is in its third
year and runs Friday through Sunday
at the Three Rivers Convention Center
in Kennewick. The event attracts hun-
dreds, from die-hard Bigfoot believ-
ers and enthusiasts to the curious to
skeptics.
Corissa Howland of Milton-Free-
water is among the believers and will
trek back and forth from Oregon all
three days of the conference with her
aunt from Pendleton.
Science didn’t verify the existence
of the mountain gorilla until 1902,
Howland said, and stories about Big-
foot stretch back into the long history
of American Indians. She also finds
modern reports of the hairy hominid
compelling.
“With the variety of sightings for
the most part being consistent,” How-
land said, “it stands to reason there
very well may be something out there.”
Howland has not had an encoun-
ter with the legendary creature, but
she recalled her father told of spot-
ting “something” from a distance that
looked large and upright. She said
when he checked the tree the figure
had been standing near, the height of
the branch indicated it was about 8 feet
tall.
She said if she saw a Bigfoot from
some distance away, she would try
to snap a clear photo. But she might
have a different reaction in a closer
encounter.
See BIGFOOT/8A