Community Counseling Solutions brings on former Lifeways employees | PAGE A3
E O
AST
145th Year, No. 131
REGONIAN
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2021
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
MIXED EMOTIONS OVER MASK,
VACCINE MANDATES FOR SCHOOLS
By NICK ROSENBERGER
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COU NTY
— After Gov. Kate Brown’s
announcement that all school
staff , educators and volunteers
must be vaccinated no later than
Oct. 18, emotions have been
mixed through the Umatilla
County school systems — some
have welcomed the announce-
ment while others have pushed
back.
At times calm and respectful,
at other times highly charged
and emotional, many of these
concerns and feelings were
expressed at a community forum
Thursday, Aug. 19, at Armand
Larive Middle School, Hermis-
ton.
Super i ntendent Tr icia
Mooney, along with Dr. Jon
Hitzman, the county’s public
health offi cer, and Alisha Lund-
gren, Umatilla County’s deputy
health director, fi elded questions
from community members,
parents and district employ-
ees. For more than an hour, the
trio patiently answered ques-
tions ranging from athletics to
substitute teachers to sick leave.
The vast majority of concerns,
however, focused on misinfor-
mation surrounding vaccine
effi cacy and safety, rather than
the outright refusal of the recent
mandates.
“My role here is mostly to
provide you with scientific
facts and evidence that you
may have questions about,”
Dr. Hitzman said, “I know
that social media has done
an incredibly ‘good’ job of
$1.50
Walking
in two
worlds
Tribal community,
family, church mourn
loss of Michael Gavin
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Dr. Jon Hitzman, the public health offi cer for Umatilla County, speaks Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, to a
group of educators, parents and community members at a meeting with Hermiston School District
offi cials at Armand Larive Middle School.
disseminating sometimes
untrue information.”
Some such concerns include
whether it’s possible to get
COVID-19 from the vaccine
itself or whether there is any
danger in getting the vaccine.
According to Hitzman, the
CDC and an exceptional body
of research, this is not possible
as there is no live virus within
the vaccine. Instead, the mRNA
vaccine is composed of basic
lipids, salts and sugars that
“teach” the body how to fi ght
the virus.
“As a doctor and someone in
the scientifi c fi eld, it’s actually
some of the coolest technology
we’ve ever come up with,” he
said.
As for the risks of getting the
vaccine, Hitzman emphasized
that there’s a greater chance of
someone dying in a car acci-
dent or plane crash than dying
from the vaccine. In the roughly
360 million doses of the vaccine
administered in the United
States, Hitzman said there have
only been three documented
and confirmed deaths stem-
ming from blood clots after
getting the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine. That is a percentage
of 0.00000001%. According to
one study from Tulane Univer-
sity, there’s a greater percentage
of being killed by an asteroid
impact while you go about your
day.
T he re have been no
confirmed deaths from the
Pfi zer or Moderna shots.
With that said, VAERS, the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention’s adverse eff ects
reporting database, had just
shy of 6,500 people who have
reported a death within a certain
time frame of receiving the
COVID-19 vaccine.
See Mandates, Page A10
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Community members attend a question-and-answer session Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, with members of the Hermiston School District
and Umatilla County Public Health Department at Armand Larive Middle School in Hermiston. The meeting served as an opportunity
for community members to ask questions about the return to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
MISSION — In the heart of the
Longhouse is the wash, a patch
of earth at its center and the place
where the casket containing Michael
Gavin would lay for the duration of
the ceremony.
When Michael’s family arrived
the afternoon of Aug. 7, they were
followed by
a procession
of cars that
EDITOR’S
stretched
NOTE
f r om t he
p a r k -
This is the
ing lot to
second of a
well down
two-part story.
Mission
The fi rst part was
R o a d .
published in the
Fam ily
Thursday, Aug.
members
19, edition of the
were led in
East Oregonian.
single file,
f irst men
a nd t he n
women. Mourners were given a
single pass by the casket, draped
in the red fl ag of the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation, before sitting on opposite
sides of the Longhouse segregated
by gender.
Clothing ranged from regalia to
matching jackets with skulls on them
to Sunday-best formal wear, but all
were quiet as CTUIR faith leader
Armand Minthorn spoke.
Minthorn was joined at the
center of the room by a row of
men, and after Minthorn fi nished
speaking, they raised their voice in
song, the traditional songs of the
Umatilla, Cayuse and Walla Walla
tribes.
Michael was “a proud Cayuse
man” in the words of his family,
a crucial part of his identity that
also shared space with his life in
the church, and the pastor who
would rise to speak at the Long-
house next.
The 27-time prodigal son
Pastor Tim Van Cleave’s voice
wavered and broke as he welcomed
his congregation to the Aug. 11
service at Bethel Church, Michael’s
face projected on the screens behind
him.
Bethel is housed in a solitary
building on Pendleton’s airport prop-
erty and affi liated with the Assem-
blies of God, a Pentecostal Christian
denomination. It was the fi rst Sunday
service Bethel held since its youth
pastor died from COVID-19, and
Van Cleave was searching for words
of solace for his tight-knit congre-
gation.
See Gavin, Page A10
Transgender Native American teen speaks out
Ryelynn Melton
fi rst transgender girl
to become prom
princess at Nixyaawii
Community School
By SHEILA HAGAR
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
MISSION — Ryelynn Melton
is like a lot of girls her age.
She adores makeup, spending
hours creating art on her face. She
loves jewelry, clothing and her
dog, Riley.
She teases her parents and
occasionally talks back. She likes
to bake but not to clean up after-
ward, according to her mom.
Unlike most teens, though,
Ryelynn rose to media attention
when on June 3 she was crowned
freshman prom princess for Nixy-
aawii Community School on the
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
The 15-year-old is the first
transgender girl to become a prom
princess at the charter school.
Because of that moment, doors
have opened for Ryelynn’s voice
to catch the public’s ear.
And she’s got a lot to say.
Ryelynn is strongly inter-
ested in developing an advocacy
platform for causes she believes
in, such as LGBTQ issues and
MMIW — Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women.
Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
See Ryelynn, Page A10
Kaitlynn Melton, left, Ryelynn Melton, Tristalynn Melton and their dad, Randall
Melton, at Tamastslikt Cultural Institute near Pendleton on Aug. 4, 2021.