FOOTBALL: West wins 67th east-West shrine all-star game | SPORTS, B1
E O
AST
143rd year, No. 208
REGONIAN
Tuesday, augusT 6, 2019
WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Veto
threat to
become a
reality
$1.50
NW tribes
lament fire on
Rattlesnake
Mountain
U.S. SHOOTINGS
By ANNA KING
Oregon Public Broadcasting
said. “People are feeling unsure
about what, when where, and
why.”
and, he said, folks are fed
up with politicians or whoever
RICHLaNd, Wash. — The
fire that engulfed Notre Dame
cathedral shocked the world ear-
lier this year. And a wildfire in
July on Rattlesnake Mountain
in southeast Washington simi-
larly shocked Northwest tribes.
Treeless Rattlesnake Moun-
tain is over 3,600 wind-swept
feet above sea level. It’s part
of the Hanford Reach National
Monument, designated by Pres-
ident Bill Clinton, home to rare
plants and fauna.
“so, Laliik, is how you say
the place in our Indian lan-
guage,” said Jon shellenberger,
an enrolled member of the
yakama Nation. “But it is a cer-
emonial place for our people.
It’s a place we hunted.”
shellenberger is a yakama
Nation archeologist and eth-
nographer. He said Rattlesnake
has been important to North-
west tribes from their creation.
The mountain is a living history
book on the landscape.
“It is a representation of
our tie to the time before the
Ice ages,” shellenberger said.
“Because our oral history talks
about the time when the ice cov-
ered the land, and it talks about
the different animals and the
creation stories. To me, to have
something and see something
like that on a daily basis — it’s
very powerful to know that our
people have been going and
returning there for, forever.”
The Sistine Chapel
shellenberger said Rattle-
snake Mountain is comparable
to the sistine Chapel or other
sacred sites in europe.
“Maybe, others don’t think
of it that way,” he said. “They
just think, that’s just a mountain
that hasn’t been developed. But
to us, it is the equivalent to some
of these other sacred sites.”
The recent human-caused
Cold Creek Fire blackened
nearly 42,000 acres in the area.
Fire has been a traditional tool
of tribes here, and good for
native plants in small doses.
“However, the fires that we
deal with now burn a lot hotter,”
he said. “They are a lot more
violent.”
And wildfires can damage
archaeological sites.
“They are susceptible to
high-temperature fires, and
then the exposure,” shellen-
berger said. “When you remove
the vegetation you expose them
to the eyes of people, to the pub-
lic. and which opens the gate
for potential looting.”
shellenberger went up on
Rattlesnake about a decade ago
with a yakama tribal elder. He
See Shootings, Page A8
See Fire, Page A8
staff of gov. Kate
Brown says move is
not political revenge
By AUBREY WIEBER AND
CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
saLeM — gov. Kate
Brown announced sunday that
she is considering using her
veto power to kill proposals
championed by rural lawmak-
ers of both parties.
Her staff said the veto threat
was not political revenge but
over sincere concerns about
legislation passed in the 2019
Legislature.
Brown is considering axing
policies to make it easier to
remove and fill ground from
wetlands, move forward on the
retrofit of two dams in Newport
and provide money to help east-
ern Oregon counties plan larger
urban growth boundaries.
some of the proposed action
goes against democrats who
opposed her cornerstone envi-
ronmental policy that would
have created a carbon pric-
ing system. When asked if she
plans to use veto power for ret-
ribution, Brown told a Politico
reporter that “revenge is a dish
best served cold and slowly.”
However, Brown’s spokes-
woman said Monday the veto
consideration is a policy move,
not a political game.
Brown’s deadline to veto
comes Friday, and she has to
give five days notice before
making the decision. several
people who support propos-
als Brown is looking to kill
said they hope to meet with
the governor and overcome her
veto threat. Brown has not yet
vetoed anything from the 2019
session.
House Bill 2437 would
increase the amount of mate-
rial commercial developers can
remove from a wetland with-
out a permit by 60 times what
is now allowed, going from 50
cubic yards to 3,000. It also
would increase the amount of
dredged material that can be
dumped in a wetland without a
permit.
Brown’s
announcement
was cheered by environmental
group WaterWatch.
Mary anne Cooper, vice
president of the Oregon Farm
Bureau, said the state classi-
fies a lot of farm land as wet-
lands, so to clear an agricultural
ditch under current regulation,
a farmer needs a permit that
See Veto, Page A8
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Vickie Hendricks participates in a candlelight vigil Monday night at Brownfield Park in Pendleton remem-
bering those who died in shootings in Texas and Ohio.
Mass shootings
stun weary nation
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — Walmart
employees in Pendleton this
week set up memorials to honor
victims of recent gun violence.
a gunman murdered 22 peo-
ple and wounded more than two
dozen saturday at a Walmart in
el Paso, Texas. another shooter
less than a day later gunned
down nine people in dayton,
Ohio, and injured 27 others.
and Tuesday last week, a
disgruntled employee shot and
killed a manager and an associ-
ate at a Walmart in southaven,
Mississippi.
Pendleton Walmart manager
shawna Nuff said the violence
and tragedies hit home because
there is a feeling of family
between store employees, which
the company calls its associ-
ates. Nuff pointed out the table
where customers can sign cards
expressing their sympathy and
condolences. she said the store
will gather any cards and mail
them Friday.
Walmart employees train
each quarter to deal with mass
shooters, and Nuff said she
reached out to Pendleton police
Chief stuart Roberts, who
agreed to come in and talk to
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Colleen and Jeff Blackwood participate in a candlelight vigil Monday
night at Brownfield Park in Pendleton remembering those who died in
shootings in Texas and Ohio.
employees. she said that is likely
to occur Wednesday.
“We can’t say anymore this
won’t happen to us,” Nuff said.
Roberts said he is not going
to deliver some canned presen-
tation. Rather, he said he likely
to open it up to questions and do
his best to answer, even if there
are no easy answers.
“People are feeling apprehen-
sive, scared, what-have-you,” he
EL PASO REACTS TO
TRUMP VISIT, PAGE A5
Fare well through fair
By JESSICA POLLARD AND
ALEX CASTLE
East Oregonian
HeRMIsTON — Fair-goers be
warned: This week is predicted to be
a scorcher.
The hottest registered tempera-
ture in Hermiston this year, said
National Weather service forecaster
Rob Brooks, was 98 degrees on July
23. The number could very well be
eclipsed by Wednesday.
according to the service, tempera-
tures in umatilla County could rise near
the triple digits throughout the week
with the weekend potentially bringing
thunderstorms from the mountains.
Brooks said the warm and dry
weather poses the usual risks
of fire, dehydration and other
heat-related ailments.
For the workers with davis amuse-
ment Cascadia — which has been
providing the fair carnival for over
50 years — the hot weather is not
unfamiliar.
“When we’re working in heat like
this, one of the most important things
— worker or customer — is food,” said
manager and owner of davis amuse-
ment Michael davis.
The company schedules in break-
fast, lunch, and even a light dinner to
keep their workers full.
“We try to coach our employees
away from energy drinks and sug-
ary soda toward healthier drinks,”
davis said.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
See Fair, Page A8
Colter Meads, 12, attempts to get a pair of fans angled correctly to keep
his cattle cool in the hot weather Monday afternoon at the Umatilla Coun-
ty Fair.