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THE BACK PAGE, A12
March 13-14, 2021
145th Year, No. 63
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
$1.50
Family not guilty
of violating ‘stay
home’ resolution
Tribal civil hearing
sparked by First
Foods celebration
in 2020
By WIL PHINNEY
For the East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Chuck Sams poses for a portrait on Friday, March 12, 2021. Recently appointed to the Northwest Power and Conserva-
tion Council, Gov. Kate Brown has also recommended him to serve as National Parks Service director.
OUT OF THE BLUE
chuck Sams takes job
on regional council
while up for job in
Biden administration
MISSION — Seventeen
people cited for violating
cOVID-19 social gathering
restrictions during a 2020
Easter day feast were found
not guilty on Tuesday, March
9, by associate Tribal Judge
Dave Gallaher.
The ruling followed a
90-minute civil hearing in
Tribal court last week on the
confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian reservation.
The “stay home” resolu-
tion had been issued in March
2020 by the Board of Trustees
(BOT) for the confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
reservation (cTUIr). Viola-
tion of the resolution carried
a potential sentence of a year
in jail or a maximum fine of
$5,000. however, the 17 were
cited as a civil matter rather
than arrested on criminal
charges, so jail would not have
been ordered, and a fine would
be substantially less than
$5,000, Tribal Prosecutor Kyle
Daley told the court before any
testimony was taken.
Toby Patrick, a cTUIr
member, hosted a First Foods
celebration on april 26, 2020,
with more than two dozen
family members at his home
on the reservation.
First Foods include water,
salmon, deer and elk, roots
and berries.
Patrick, who was repre-
sented by robert Klahn, and
his longtime partner, Julia
Johnson, a Warm Springs
tribal member, appeared in
Tribal court while the others
appeared telephonically.
Gallaher’s ruling hinged
on the question of whether
Patrick’s family feast was an
See Family, Page A11
County speeds up
bridge building
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Officials said Thorn
hollow Bridge
could be demolished
as early as this year
M
ISSION — a longtime
administrator with the
confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian reserva-
tion has been tapped for a
job with broad influence over regional
energy and environmental conserva-
tion. But an even bigger job could be in
store for him.
The cTUIr announced on Monday,
March 8, that chuck Sams was leaving
his role as the interim executive director
of the Tribes to fill a seat on the North-
west Power and conservation coun-
cil. Gov. Kate Brown appointed him to
the council, but she’s also backing him
for another appointment: a job in the
Biden administration as the director of
the National Parks Service.
A surprising nomination
according to Sams, 50, the offer for
his latest job came out of the blue.
a few weeks ago, Sams was playing
soccer with his young daughter when
his phone rang. he didn’t recognize
the number so he let it go to voicemail.
When he played the message, his daugh-
ter recognized the governor’s voice.
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Chuck Sams, then the communications director for the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reservation, gives local high school athletes some insight
on tribal history and beliefs in 2018.
“You might want to give her a call
back, Dad,” she told her father.
When he connected with Brown and
she offered him a seat on the council,
he was surprised. The pair had talked
about appointments to other bodies in
the past, but the Northwest Power and
conservation council wasn’t one of
them.
But for Sams, the offer had appeal.
Between stints in tribal govern-
ment, Sams was the director for several
energy and environmentally focused
nonprofits, including the columbia
Slough Watershed council, the Earth
conservation corps and the commu-
nity Energy Project.
Sams, an enrolled member of the
cTUIr, climbed the ladder in tribal
government after returning home in
2012, culminating in a second stint as
interim executive director when Ted
Wright resigned in late 2020. Despite
the opportunity, Sams quickly told
the cTUIr Board of Trustees that he
would not consider the job on a perma-
nent basis.
Sams said he was already starting to
think about other opportunities outside
tribal government, including a return to
See Sams, Page A11
PEN DLETON
—
Umatilla county residents
could see the Thorn hollow
Bridge on the confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
reservation replaced much
sooner than previously antic-
ipated, as county and state
officials have made new
plans to immediately begin
demolishing and rebuilding
the flood-damaged roadway.
Officials in a press confer-
ence on Wednesday, March
10, said that, if all goes well,
what’s left of the bridge
could be demolished as early
as this year, with hopes that
construction will follow soon
thereafter.
The bridge, which was
damaged and rendered
impassable in the after-
math of the Umatilla river
flooding in February 2020,
sits nearest to the town of
adams. The bridge is part of
local school bus routes and is
a main access point to high-
way 11. The closest alternate
river crossing sits about 5
miles west, officials said in
the press conference.
P r ev iou s s che d u le s
suggested that the bridge
would take up to seven years
to fix. Costs are estimated at
around $5 million. But with
the new plans, officials say
that demolition could begin
as soon as possible, and
construction could begin in
2023, four years earlier than
once thought.
“Don’t tell me these guys
didn’t work hard,” Umatilla
county commissioner Dan
Dorran said of officials who
worked on the new plans.
“These guys did not push
See Bridge, Page A11
Restaurant a dream come true
New pho eatery,
haven Pho, 10
years in the making
for owner
By BEN LONERGAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — When
the Pendleton Quiznos went
out of business last year,
Lam ha saw the space as
the perfect location for a
restaurant dream more than
a decade in the making.
ha’s dream came true
earlier this month when he
opened haven Pho, a Viet-
namese restaurant in place
of the former sandwich shop
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Lam Ha adds broth to a pho dish while preparing orders at
his restaurant, Haven Pho, on Thursday, March 4, 2021.
location at 204 S.W. 20th St.
in Pendleton.
“I planned this like 10
years ago,” he said.
ha, who came to the
United States from Vietnam
roughly 20 years ago, devel-
oped a love for restaurants
while working at his sister’s
Vietnamese restaurant in
arlington, Texas, and set
out on a journey to own one
of his own.
Despite his interest in
restaurants, ha has owned
and operated nail salons
since he moved to the region
more than a decade ago,
and ran a nail shop in Walla
Walla, Washington, before
opening Pendleton Nails
across the parking lot from
his new restaurant about a
decade ago.
When a location opened
up near his nail salon, ha
said he moved quickly to
secure the spot and began
renovating the space in
September 2020. ha chose
to name the new restaurant
after his 5-year-old son,
haven.
“I looked for a spot, but
some were too big or too
small,” he said. “Because
this place is close to the
nail shop, I can go back and
forth.”
ha said he has wanted to
open a Vietnamese restau-
rant in Pendleton for the
better part of the last 10 years
because he wanted to bring
Vietnamese food and culture
to the people of Pendleton.
“I want to open up Viet-
namese food so the local
people can try different
things,” he said.
See Restaurant, Page A11