WEEKEND EDITION
OCTOBER 23-24, 2021
146th Year, No. 4
$1.50
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
INSIDE
MAN SUES IRRIGATION DISTRICT FOR EVADING LAW ON HIRING VETERANS A12
TRIBAL MEMBERS ROCK SCHOOL
Kayla Fossek tells Washington Elementary
School in Pendleton about traditional clothing,
beadwork and regalia the indigenous people
of the area wear during Rock Your School, a
worldwide education event Thursday, Oct. 21,
2021. Assisting Fossek are her 12-year-old paint
horse Billy and her father, Robert Fossek. Kayla
Fossek is a 2019 Happy Canyon princess and a
2020 Pendleton Round-Up princess and a de-
scendent through the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
East Oregonian
have a defi nitive spending goal
for the campaign, but she and
her family committed to cover-
ing 50% of the campaign costs,
the rest covered by fundraising.
Early donors include Jill and
Mike Thorne of Pendleton and
Tom Winn of Helix.
Nearly 85% of the money
Bower has spent so far has been
with Lori Roach of Heppner and
her business Studio 6 Design-
works LLC. Roach also is a
contracted employee for Eastern
Oregon Business Source, where
she works as a community devel-
opment consultant.
In Indian Country, Chuck Sams’ nomi-
nation to the National Park Service director
position represents more than a symbolic
victory: it’s a chance to substantively
change the way the park service works with
American Indian tribes.
In a story by Brian Oaster for High
Country News, tribal lead-
ers from across the coun-
try shared how they hoped
a park service under Sams
would operate. Gwendena
Lee-Gatewood, the chair-
woman of the White Moun-
tain, said her tribe would
Sams
like to agree to a co-man-
agement policy with the service and promote
more traditional conservation methods.
“I would like to see consultation with
tribes on decisions impacting areas of Native
signifi cance,” she told Oaster. “We have a
voice.”
Eastern Shoshone Tribe’s Business
Council Chairman John St. Clair told High
Country News that the Wyoming tribe is
lobbying the park service to allow them to
“display and demonstrate those historic and
spiritual connections while the park is open
each year” at Yellowstone National Park. St.
Clair added that the agency should expand
its education eff orts about the relationship
between Native peoples and national parks
through interactive media and displays.
At a Senate confi rmation hearing on
Tuesday, Oct. 19, Sams, an enrolled member
of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, said he was open to
tribal input should he be confi rmed.
“I think it’s important to be able to work
with Native folks on traditional ecological
knowledge,” he said, “and helping manage
those spaces so that we’re conserving them
based on 10,000-plus years of management
of those spaces to ensure that they’ll be here
for future generations to enjoy.”
In an interview on Oregon Public
Broadcasting’s “Think Out Loud,” Oaster
explained how President Ulysses S. Grant
drove out the Shoshone from their homes
so the federal government could establish
Yellowstone in the 19th century.
“(It) was done through violence and
coercion,” he told OPB. “That was the
beginning of the national park system. It
set the pattern. These spaces, we know them
today as this kind of empty, pristine wilder-
ness. But that’s artifi cial. They’re artifi cially
emptied.”
Empty too, he contended, is the parks
service’s explanation of its symbology, start-
ing with the arrowhead. The parks service
on its website explains, “The arrowhead
shape represents historical and archaeolog-
ical treasures.” But Oaster contended the
parks service has never protected Indige-
nous people or their cultures.
See Race, Page A12
See Sams, Page A12
Photos by Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Students from Washington Elementary School in Pendleton learn about traditional tribal foods and basket making on Thursday, Oct. 21,
2021, during Rock Your School, a worldwide education movement. Sharing information from left is Brosnan Spencer, Bobby Fossek and
Meadow Fossek-Spencer.
Two candidates already spending thousands
to win an open seat on Umatilla County board
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY — It’s
more than four months until the
candidate fi ling deadline, seven
months until the primary and
more than a year until the general
election, but the race for a seat on
the Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners is well underway.
Susan Bower of Pendleton
submitted her fi ling forms for Posi-
tion 1 on the fi rst day of the fi ling
period and one of her opponents,
Cindy Timmons of Milton-Free-
water, entered her name a month
later. Despite the long runway
until Election Day, both candi-
Local tribal
leaders see
opportunity
in Sams
nomination
dates already
have spent thou-
sands of dollars
in their eff ort to
succeed George
Murdock on the
board.
Bower
Bower, the
owner of the
Pendleton-based
E a s t e r n
Oregon Busi-
ness Source, a
consulting busi-
Timmons
ness, announced
her candidacy
in June and formed a political
action committee to begin fund-
raising in August. In an inter-
view, Bower said getting her
campaign running early was a
part of her strategy.
“In order to (campaign) what
I consider strategically and prop-
erly, it would take not only time,
but it would take a variety of
methods to get out to people and
to get in front of people,” she said.
“Two major resources: time, lots
and lots of it, and money. With
that plan in mind, I knew that.
I better get on it, because both
of those resources are limited
resources for all of us.”
Since opening her campaign
account, Bower has raised nearly
$2,900 and spent more than
$10,900. Bower said she doesn’t
CDC recommends booster shots, mix-and-match vaccinations
Johnson & Johnson
vaccine benefi ted
dramatically from
the booster shot
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — The
Centers for Disease Control
met virtually on Thursday,
Oct. 21, and debated what
guidelines will be in place
regarding who gets priority
in receiving the booster shots,
and whether or not Americans
even need the vaccine.
With unanimous consent,
the organization voted to
recommend booster shots to
Americans in the fi ght against
COVID-19, even as data on
booster doses — and espe-
cially mix-and-match boost-
ers — was limited.
That recommendation
now goes up the CDC chain
of command for fi nal approval
before it becomes the agency’s
offi cial recommendation to the
public.
The CDC, under the FDA
Emergency Use Authoriza-
tion, recommended the use
of booster shots for those
who received the Moderna
vaccine more than six
months ago and belong to
risk categories such as those
65 years of age and older, or
those 18 through 64 years
of age at high risk of severe
COVID-19 or with frequent
institutional or occupational
exposure to the SARS-CoV-2
coronavirus.
Similarly the CDC recom-
mended those who received
the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine could receive a
booster after at least two
months after initial dose to
individuals 18 years of age
and older. The recommenda-
tion was broad, and applica-
ble to anyone who had initially
received a Johnson & Johnson
vaccine.
As well, the FDA approved
giving out vaccines from
different manufacturers —
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
a method known as mix and Sami Spriet, an Eastern Oregon University student, re-
matching.
ceives her fi rst dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on May 4, 2021.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted
See Booster, Page A12 Thursday, Oct. 21, to recommend booster shots.