INSIDE: umatilla County, Pendleton adopt 2021-22 budgets | REGION A3
E O
AST
145th year, no. 98
REGONIAN
Thursday, June 3, 2021
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Robert Sutton/Contributed Photo
Kermit Belles
Hermiston
man died
in classified
attack in
WW II
Kermit Belles perished
on hMs rohna, a
transport ship the
Germans sunk
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
herMIsTOn — Kermit Belles’
parents never knew how he died.
The hermiston man, serving his
country during World War II, died
in one of the worst naval calami-
ties in united states history. But
the sinking of the hMs rohna
was classified, and so details of
its demise didn’t become public
knowledge until the 1990s.
Instead, the hermiston herald
reported on Jan. 6, 1944, that
Mr. and Mrs. Claude Bellles had
received the following telegram:
“The secretary of War desires
me to express his deep regret that
your son, Pvt. Kermit a. Belles,
has been reported missing in action
since november 26 in the north
african area. If further details or
other information are received you
will be promptly notified.”
Further details were not forth-
coming.
robert sutton said over time, the
family decided he must have been
killed in the sinking of the uss
Liscome Bay, which a Japanese
submarine torpedoed in the Pacific
the same week. sutton’s mother,
Gloria Belles, was Kermit Belles’
younger sister. she died in april
2000 — just six months before
Congress officially acknowledged
the sinking of the Rohna for the first
time.
“It was pretty devastating to her
to lose her big brother,” sutton said,
noting she was just 12 when he died.
she didn’t talk about it much, he
said. It was too painful.
after his mother’s death, sutton
discovered Belles was not on the
Liscome Bay, but on the rohna, a
See Belles, Page A8
Walters Photographers/Contributed Photo
A pair of tribal members pose in traditional regalia in 2015 at Kanine Ridge above Buckaroo Creek near the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The Umatilla
tribes for more than 30 years have worked to regain its land after federal actions reduced the size of its reservation.
Leading the way
umatilla tribes have been ‘aggressive’ in reacquisition of lands split up by treaty
By WIL PHINNEY
Columbia Insight
PendLeTOn — Thirty-two
years ago, when the umatilla tribes
realized non-Indians owned more
property on the 172,000-acre reser-
vation than the combined total for
tribal government and tribal allot-
tees, it embarked on a 50-year plan
to buy back its land.
Thanks to an aggressive Land
acquisition Program, today the
tribes own 94,590 acres. since
1990, the tribes have purchased
77,346 acres — 43,393 acres in
fee status and 33,953 acres in trust
status.
“after the 1855 Treaty, the
tribes’ homeland was reduced
considerably,” said Bill Tovey,
director of the Confederated
Tribes’ department of economic
and Community development.
“The tribe figured the federal
government would not live up to or
solve the problems they created, so
we developed our plan to buy back
our homeland.”
about 24,000 acres of the
70,000 the tribes have purchased
are within the tribes’ ceded terri-
tory but lie outside the reserva-
tion. That includes rainwater, an
11,000-acre wildlife reserve near
dayton, Washington. It’s filled
with mountain timber and is home
to big game like deer and elk.
The Wanaket Wildlife area
preserve, about 2,700 acres some
60 miles north of the reservation
near the Columbia river, is open
for waterfowl hunting. The Wana-
Walters Photographers/Contributed Photo
A checkerboard of fields stretch toward the horizon as seen from Old Emigrant Hill Road in 2015. The Slater Act
of 1885 and the General Allotment Act of 1887 resulted in reducing the Umatilla Indian Reservation to 172,000
acres — about a third of what the tribes secured from the federal government in 1855.
ket property also includes 190 acres
near the Port of umatilla zoned for
industrial use.
Another seven off-reservation
parcels range in size from 45 acres
to 666 acres. On-reservation, the
5,000-acre Wheelhouse property
purchased last year, which the
tribes hope will become a popu-
lar area for hunting and gathering,
includes steep, rocky ravines with
some livestock grazing at the south
end of the reservation.
The tribes also purchased
several parcels on all four corners
of Exit 216 on Interstate 84 for
economic development.
“We figured out that if we
wanted sovereignty, we have to
have ownership,” said Tovey. “We
had some regulatory authority, but
better than regulatory is owner-
ship.”
It’s a great story, but it’s one that
started long before the 2020s or
even before 1989 when the tribes’
Land acquisition Program started.
Creating the
‘checkerboard’
In 1855, the umatilla, Cayuse,
and Walla Walla Indians —
the Confederated Tribes of the
umatilla Indian reservation —
See Tribes, Page A8
Wyden takes in local needs on mental health
COVId-19 pandemic
has exacerbated
‘dire shortage’ of
mental health services
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
PendLeTOn — a growing
consensus among local officials that
mental health services in the umatilla
County are in need of change sparked
a recent meeting with sen. ron
Wyden.
“as you listened to the speak-
ers, you heard in their voices this
tremendous compassion and desire
to mobilize a fresh strategy,” Wyden
said. “and the big challenge is there
haven’t been the dollars.”
The group that met with Wyden
at the umatilla County Courthouse
saturday, May 29, in Pendleton
included county, city, law enforce-
ment, education, mental health
and tribal officials. They discussed
student counseling, establishing a
team of professionals to support law
enforcement’s response to mental
health-related calls, helping amer-
ican Indian and hispanic residents,
finding housing for those experienc-
ing homelessness and the county’s
meager supply of mental health and
addiction treatment facilities.
County Commissioner John
shafer, the county’s liaison for mental
health, came away from the meeting
with a positive take.
“The passion that we saw in the
See Services, Page A8
Bryce Dole/East Oregonian
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, center, meets with local officials Saturday, May
29, 2021, from across Umatilla County at the Umatilla County Courthouse in
Pendleton to discuss mental health services.