NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Methodists turn Wallowa church back to tribe
Nez Perce Tribe
receives title to
former Wallowa
Methodist Church
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA — The Nez
Perce Tribe took another step
toward reestablishing itself
in its traditional Wallowa
County homeland on Thurs-
day, April 29, when the
tribe received the title to the
now-former Wallowa Meth-
odist Church.
The ceremony on the lawn
behind the church included
about 60 people, most of
whom were Nez Perce tribal
members from the Lapwai,
Idaho-based reservation.
Also in attendance were
members of the United Meth-
odist Church’s Oregon-Idaho
Conference, which has held
title to the land and building
since it closed on June 30,
2020.
“It’s the transfer of deeds
so this church is going back
to the Nez Perce Tribe. We’re
very honored to be able to
be here today for this,” said
Casey Mitchell, vice chair-
man of the Nez Perce Tribal
Executive Committee. “Any
land that comes back to the
tribe is a blessing for us,
considering this is originally
our homeland that we were
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
The Wallowa United Methodist Church, built in 1910, was handed over to the Nez Perce Tribe,
the original inhabitants of the land, on Thursday, April 29, 2021, during a ceremony between
church officials and the tribe.
pushed out of.”
Mar y Jane Miles, a
NPTEC member who was
tabbed at the last moment
to host the event, spoke of
the gratitude the Nimii-
puu — Nez Perce in their
own language meaning “the
people” — for receiving the
land.
“The bishop of the
Oregon-Idaho annual confer-
ence of the United Method-
ist Church has indicated this
is an opportunity to join in a
partnership with the tribe,”
she said.
At this, Miles looked to
the sunny sky and seemed to
acknowledge the fulfillment
of prophecy.
“The Nimiipuu — the
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
Partly sunny
Partly sunny and
warmer
71° 41°
82° 55°
76° 41°
86° 54°
| Go to AccuWeather.com
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Not as warm;
breezy in the p.m.
SATURDAY
Cooler; a morning
shower
64° 39°
61° 41°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
78° 46°
70° 40°
66° 45°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
59/43
63/39
74/39
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
69/44
Lewiston
68/41
79/42
Astoria
59/42
Pullman
Yakima 76/42
66/37
70/43
Portland
Hermiston
71/46
The Dalles 76/41
Salem
Corvallis
67/43
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
65/35
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
72/41
67/39
64/37
Ontario
73/40
Caldwell
Burns
73°
44°
70°
43°
92° (2016) 28° (1928)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
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Albany
68/42
0.00"
0.18"
0.12"
1.46"
0.56"
4.11"
WINDS (in mph)
69/39
66/28
0.00"
0.25"
0.10"
3.81"
5.30"
5.21"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 61/34
72/44
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
71/41
75/41
69°
40°
67°
43°
94° (1900) 25° (1897)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
64/39
Aberdeen
66/40
70/44
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
65/45
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
78/47
Wed.
WSW 4-8
W 7-14
NE 6-12
ESE 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
69/34
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
5:38 a.m.
8:06 p.m.
3:11 a.m.
12:52 p.m.
First
Full
By MATTHEW
WEAVER
Capital Press
SALEM — Wheat hovered
near $8 per bushel on the Port-
land market last week, and
experts say they aren’t sure
how high prices will go, or for
how long.
The increase is partly a
reaction to higher corn prices
and a tighter wheat supply, said
Dan Steiner, grain merchan-
diser at Morrow County Grain
Growers in Boardman.
Soft white wheat prices on
Friday, April 30, ranged from
$6.65 to $7.90 per bushel on
the Portland market.
Farmers generally consider
prices above $6 per bushel to
be profitable, according to the
Washington Grain Commis-
sion.
“This market freewheels
and so you see tons of vola-
tility,” Steiner said. “Fifteen
minutes in this market might
mean you get an extra nickel
or you lose an extra nickel. It
moves that fast.”
At one point, wheat was
Last
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May 11
May 19
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June 2
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
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low
Baker City police say
fentanyl-laced pills connected
to fatal overdoses
BAKER CITY — Three fatal drug over-
doses in Baker City in the past six months
were tied to counterfeit opioid pills laced with
fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, law enforcement
officials said in a press release.
The joint release was from the Baker County
Narcotics Enforcement Team and New Direc-
tions Northwest Mental Health and Crisis
Response Partners.
The pills are sometimes called “blues” or
M30s,” according to the press release.
Similar to other communities across the
nation, Baker City emergency responders have
confirmed three recent fatal overdoses tied to
counterfeit opioid pills.
“While we recognize there are a variety of
reasons for drug use we want to remind the
public that we will actively pursue and prosecute
individuals and/or organizations that continue
to distribute dangerous narcotics to community
members,” said Lt. Ty Duby of the Baker City
Police Department. “We also want to remind
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cheaper as a feed grain than
corn. “When you see China
buying U.S. wheat to feed to
pigs, you know there’s some-
thing going on,” he said.
Steiner suspects prices still
don’t reflect the full value of
the soft white wheat crop.
“I think soft white stocks
are tighter than USDA (U.S.
Department of Agriculture)
thinks that they are, but we’ll
see what happens with this
coming harvest,” he said.
The corn market rally is
the main reason for the higher
wheat prices, but old crop
wheat stocks are as tight as
they’ve ever been, said Byron
Behne, senior marketing
manager at Northwest Grain
Growers in Walla Walla,
Washington.
Farmers might still be hold-
ing onto old crop because they
either don’t need the money or
are waiting to hit a “home run”
and see if prices go “absolutely
crazy,” above $10 per bushel,
Behne said.
He thinks the price range
will be $6 to $10 per bushel.
“I think the only thing that
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could undo this bullish market
would be a wide outbreak of
African swine flu in China
that cuts their livestock herds
down, so they don’t need to
buy all this grain to feed the
animals,” he said.
The market is inverted,
with nearby contracts higher
than deferred contracts.
That indicates the market is
concerned about new crop
supply and demand, said
Darin Newsom, an Omaha,
Nebraska, market analyst.
“This comes down to acres,
production, weather — it takes
everything into account, plus
there is an expectation we
could still see better demand,”
Newsom said.
The higher prices will
continue as long as supply and
demand is bullish, he said. The
market hasn’t hit the tipping
point yet, where prices get so
high that demand shuts down,
Newsom said.
“I don’t think we’re there
yet, but it’s a real risk when
we start talking about prices
we haven’t seen in a decade,”
he said.
IN BRIEF
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
them to see if they would like
to have the building and the
property because they were
the original inhabitants of
this land,” Day said. “Today
is the ceremony where we are
returning the property to the
Nez Perce.”
She said the cash value
of the property didn’t even
come into play.
“It was not part of our
conversation in returning
the property,” she said. “It
was out of friendship and it
was the right thing to do. It
was not about the financial. It
wasn’t part of our decision, so
it didn’t factor into it.”
NPTEC Chairman Shan-
non Wheeler, who headed the
tribal delegation in accept-
ing the property, and Mitch-
ell agreed that there are no
certain plans as to how the
property will be used. They
said the NPTEC is expected
to meet to make such plans.
“The building’s old, so
we’re not sure if we’re going
to keep it,” Mitchell said of
the 1910 structure. “The idea
is everything’s sky-high
right now, as far as property
goes. We do have a powwow
in July here so we may use
this as a camping ground and
let the folks use the showers
and the bathrooms when the
powwow’s going on. We
usually have it at the Tamka-
liks (the Homeland Project in
Wallowa).”
Surging corn prices, high demand
push wheat close to $8 a bushel
Intervals of clouds
and sunshine
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
74° 43°
people — are tied to this
land,” she said. “I heard one
of the ladies say this morn-
ing, ‘We are here forever.’
It just seemed to warm my
heart with what is happening
today, how favored we are
to be getting this land back
to our homeland. And the
Nimiipuu are here to stay and
I thank you for your drums
that just bring in the spirit of
the Nimiipuu as to how this
all played out. The Creator is
certainly going before us and
doing things for our favor.
Most indigenous groups are
‘the people’ and we are the
people.”
The final pastor of the
church, Kaye Garver, also
was on hand. She said that
when the church closed, the
congregation consisted of
but five people, down from
its peak of about 200 in the
1960s and 1970s.
“We didn’t have the
money to do the needed
repairs and pay the insur-
ance,” she said. “It was a
sad but necessary thing. The
younger people wanted to
move out of the county. They
wanted to go to the city and
everybody else aged.”
But she thinks it’s fitting
the property goes to the tribe.
“It’s a joy that, although
we had to leave that building
when it closed, that it’s now
going to the Nez Perce,” she
said.
Laurie Day, director of
connectional ministries for
the Oregon-Idaho Confer-
ence UMC, confirmed the
desire of the church to cement
its relationship with the Nez
Perce in turning over owner-
ship of the property.
“The church has a rela-
tionship with the Nez Perce
Tribe and we checked with
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folks that one can be held criminally liable for a
death if they were the supplier of that substance.
“Our team currently sees methamphetamine
and heroin, laced with fentanyl, as the number
one drug problem in the Baker City area,”
Duby said. ”We do see pill use in the form of
Oxycodone pills. We also have seen locally the
blue pills that are most likely manufactured in
Mexico made to look like oxy 30s and they also
have some fentanyl mixed in.”
Although Baker City police officers and
Baker City Fire Department paramedics carry
Narcan, which can prevent overdoses, during
the past year one person who was saved by
Narcan was found dead two days later from
another overdose, according to the press release.
“We want individuals who use heroin or
oxy 30 pills to know what’s truly in it,” Duby
said. “Information on the street and lab tests are
showing that more often than not the heroin also
contains a certain amount of fentanyl. In the last
six months Baker City Police have responded
to three known overdose deaths involving
suspected heroin containing fentanyl. We are
seeing certain individuals repeatedly overdos-
ing.”
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