VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, November 20, 2021
East Oregonian
A5
BETTE
HUSTED
FROM HERE TO ANY WHERE
Rethinking the
Whitman lie
B
laine Harden’s book “Murder at
the Mission: A Frontier Kill-
ing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the
Taking of the American West” is dedi-
cated to “The Tribes of the Columbia
Plateau,” but it tells a story important
for every American, especially those of
us who live in the Northwest.
A student in the first class I taught
at Blue Mountain Community College
wrote about the impact of the Whit-
man Mission story on his own life.
On the school bus ride home from the
traditional fourth grade field trip to
the monument, he got in a fight with a
non-Native classmate who taunted him
about his Cayuse heritage.
Now the story told to visitors at the
Whitman Monument has been modi-
fied, but when I hear people complain-
ing that if schools discuss racism
some nonminority children might
feel “discomfort,” I think of my own
student and the impact of that field trip
on his grade school years.
Harden’s book probes the mission-
ary story to its uncomfortable roots.
We locals know the story of Marcus
and Narcissa Whitman — or think
we do — and why some Cayuse men
attacked and killed the Whitmans after
197 people who had taken the doctor’s
medicine died (about half of their tribe
at that time) and after it was clear that
they were threatened with loss of their
own land. We know about the trial in
Oregon City, the five warriors who
were hung; sacrificed, one of them
explained, to save their people.
Some of us are aware of the terrible
price the Cayuse had been paying and
would continue to pay for the deci-
sion of a few, the suffering inf licted by
volunteers and soldiers as they hunted
down anyone they could find. I’ll never
forget the poem Althea Huesties Wolf
read at First Draft describing a grand-
mother’s memory of children’s frozen
bodies hanging in brush where they
had been tossed.
But Harden’s research taught me
much about this story that I hadn’t
known. Apparently there was so much
infighting among these Calvinist
missionaries — Whitman and Spalding
and their supporters — that the board
decided to end both missions. Whitman
made an arduous solo journey East to
persuade the board to reconsider, thus
saving his and Spalding’s jobs.
However, the story taught in history
books for decades was the one Spald-
ing spent his remaining years trying
to convince newspapers and eventu-
ally Congress to believe: that Whitman
had made that journey to save America
from the British.
Totally untrue, says Harden — and
inspired mostly by Spalding’s intense
hatred of Catholics, against whom
the anti-immigrant feeling of his era
was directed. But popular “histo-
ries” echoed this Manifest Destiny
version of what had happened: Oliver
W. Nixon’s book “How Whitman
Saved Oregon” was subtitled “A True
Romance of Patriotic Heroism, Chris-
tian Devotion, and Final Martyrdom.”
Clearly, it was a history told by the
victors, and a story with echoes of
today’s nativist views and fear of the
effects of truth. And definitely a story
of might makes right: In 1848 an offi-
cial statement declared the Cayuse land
“forfeited by them, and justly subject
to be occupied and held by American
citizens.”
Harden’s book, though, ends on
a happier note, stressing not only
survival but the resurgence of the
contemporary Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reservation —
stemming from rights their leaders
preserved in the 1855 treaty and from
an address to Congress by President
Richard Nixon in the summer of 1970
“to create the conditions for a new era
in which the Indian future is deter-
mined by Indian acts and Indian deci-
sions.”
Harden focuses on the work of tribal
leaders whose names we recognize —
William and Antone Minthorn, Les
Minthorn, Bobbie Conner, Judge Bill
Johnson — whose careful land use
planning and legal work prepared the
way for the recovery of water and fish,
for Wildhorse Resort & Casino and
a working economy for the Cayuse,
Umatilla and Walla Walla people.
What about Whitman College,
whose longest serving president saved
the school from early bankruptcy by
spreading Spalding’s patriotic lie?
Daring to trust students with the truth,
a 2017 exhibit asked them to “think
carefully about the appropriateness
of any monument to the Whitmans —
including the college itself.”
———
Bette Husted is a writer and a student
of tai chi and the natural world. She lives
in Pendleton.
Improvements to city infrastructure
DALE
PRIMMER
OTHER VIEWS
ince 2016, infrastructure, specifically
street repairs, have been a major focal
point for the mayor and city council
of Pendleton. To address these concerns,
we began with distributing a survey to
the residents of Pendleton. In addition,
there were conversations with individuals
and several meetings with civic groups to
establish and prioritize goals for the coun-
cil. The result of that effort clearly revealed
that streets were the top concern. That
lead the city budget committee to allocat-
ing significantly more money to the street
budget to tackle a problem that had grown
over multiple decades.
In 2016, the estimated backlog of
deferred street maintenance had built up
to a sum of more than $40 million. The
city had increased its annual funding for
streets to $1.2 million, but it was deter-
mined, even at that level of commitment,
that the problem would continue to grow.
The estimate to arrest deterioration and to
see improvements so streets could reach
“good” condition over a 10-year period
was $2.2 million annually. As a result, the
city council began a process of surveying
and meeting with community members
and civic groups, to identify funding
sources that the community might support
to raise the additional revenue to reach
the annual $2.2 million. The most popular
responses were to impose a ticket fee for
major events, to increase the hotel tax and
to propose a 5 cent gas tax.
In 2019 those efforts began. A politi-
cal action committee was established to
support placing a gas tax on the ballot.
Then came COVID-19. The closing of
S
public gatherings, obvious impacts to local
economies and shutdowns, made it clear
that these options were no longer on the
table. Over the next year our efforts related
to increase street funding mostly stalled,
waiting for that elusive “return to normal.”
In recent months, the Pendleton
Development Commission allocated $10
million in Urban Renewal District funds
to address street reconstruction in the
district. This infusion of URD dollars
released general street funds to be used
outside the district. This allowed the city
to accelerate street repairs during 2021.
The total amount of street repairs nearly
tripled any year in our history with nearly
$3.4 million being spent on street main-
tenance and repairs. Looking forward,
those amounts look to be $5.7 million
in 2022, $4.5 million in 2023 and $4.5
million in 2024. By the end of 2023, those
URD dollars will have been spent and will
require the council to return to the conver-
sation related to how much is needed to
maintain our street infrastructure, giving
the additional spending infused by the
URD.
In the past few weeks, the council has
been reviewing goals related to infra-
structure and has established the goals
related to street condition. The decision
was made to maintain our streets based
on an objective evaluation tool called the
“Pavement Condition Index” or PCI. The
city has adopted the goal of maintaining
its arterial, collector and residential streets
in the “good” category. What is not known
at this point, is what is the needed revenue
to reach and maintain that PCI condition
given the contribution of URD funds.
In early 2023 the city will receive an
updated Pavement Condition Index report
based upon an assessment done in 2022.
This report will demonstrate the effect
of the increased spending and how much
improvement has been realized by that
additional spending. That data will reveal
what is needed to continue to improve and
maintain our street system. At this time,
we do not know if any additional revenue
will be received from the passage of the
Federal Infrastructure bill.
In the near term, the city will move
forward without requesting additional
local revenues. We still believe there will
be need for additional revenues to main-
tain the street system once the currently
allocated dollars have been spent, but that
amount is not yet known.
Beyond streets, the city has also
updated its goals related to deferred build-
ing maintenance. Currently, the city has
deferred maintenance on buildings esti-
mated at $5.2 million. The council has
asked our facilities department and our
city manager to itemize and prioritize
those needs. The city of Pendleton has
available $3.4 million due to the American
Rescue Plan Act stimulus funds cover-
ing other city needs, this will be allocated
to this maintenance backlog. Once those
repairs are made, the city council has
asked that 2% of each building’s value be
set aside annually and budgeted for future
maintenance. Regarding utilities, we have
also asked city staff for a list of planned
infrastructure projects slated for comple-
tion out of the city’s master plan. These
projects are related to water, sewer, storm,
the airport and the UAS test range.
Major improvements are being made
in our local infrastructure. The amount of
work we will see in the next three years
will far surpass anything our community
is accustomed to seeing and this will come
with other challenges. What it takes to
maintain our infrastructure over the long
term is still an issue to tackle, but for the
next couple of years, the city will be work-
ing at capacity to make the improvements
based on current investments.
———
Dale Primmer is a Pendleton city coun-
cilor representing Ward 3.
Pharmacy closures causing troubling ripples
RON
WYDEN
OTHER VIEWS
R
ural Oregonians have long counted
on local pharmacies deeply rooted
in their communities for quality
service.
But those community mainstays now
face a growing threat from an unfair prac-
tice by big insurance companies and phar-
maceutical benefit managers — PBMs
— that’s threatening the pharmacies’ abil-
ity to stay open.
And that threat in turn undermines
rural Oregonians’ access to prescription
drugs, patient education, management
of chronic disease, preventative care and
life-saving vaccines.
In recent weeks, the fallout from the
announcement by Bi-Mart that it’s begun
closing 37 pharmacies in our state — in
part because of that unfair practice — has
cast troubling ripples throughout Eastern
and Central Oregon.
News reports have detailed how
Umatilla County Public Health has raised
concerns about diminished capacity to
offer COVID-19 vaccination clinics with
fewer local pharmacies; Baker County
health officials referring to a local “phar-
macy health crisis” with longer wait times
to get prescriptions filled at remaining
pharmacies and a lack of critical infra-
structure for people seeking flu shots
and COVID-19 boosters: and longer wait
times as well in Central Oregon with
Bi-Mart closing its pharmacy services
in Sisters. And I heard similar problems
firsthand last week from pharmacies in
Ashland and Corvallis.
This is not a minor inconvenience in
rural Oregon when families and seniors
must drive longer distances for prescrip-
tions and other pharmacy services, espe-
cially over snow- and ice-covered roads in
the upcoming winter months.
Here’s what’s going on, and what I’m
doing as chair of the Senate Finance
Committee to get relief for rural Orego-
nians who deserve reliable and accessible
pharmacies in their communities.
Goliaths such as Big Insurance and the
PBMs put the squeeze on small pharma-
cies by charging them something called
a DIR fee. That stands for direct and
indirect remuneration fees, and PBMs
demand that pharmacies pay up, or they’ll
take their business elsewhere
To be sure, DIR fees are not likely to
come up in conversation around too many
dinner tables this Thanksgiving. But
they’re a big deal because they skyrock-
eted 91,500% from 2010-19, and doubled
from 2018-20. They contributed to the
permanent closure of 2,200 pharmacies
nationwide between December 2017 and
December 2020.
Why do PBMs charge these fees? In
short, because they can. This disturbing
development should sound loud alarm
bells, because PBMs can use mechanisms
like DIR fees deliberately, to starve inde-
pendent pharmacies of revenue. When
these stores close, large chain pharmacies
owned by the same plans and PBMs that
forced them to pay up, reap the benefits.
These fees are unfair and they’re anti-free
enterprise.
I’ve asked the Center for Medicare and
Medicaid Services to use its existing legal
authority to propose and finalize rules
that make it impossible for PBMs to use
DIR fees to force community pharmacies
to close their doors.
In my recent letter to CMS Adminis-
trator Chiquita Brooks-Lasure, I noted
that Bi-Mart’s announcement of the 37
pharmacy closures in Oregon and 19
others in the Northwest cited “increasing
costs and ongoing reimbursement pres-
sure.”
I wrote, “These fees do nothing to
lower the amount Medicare beneficiaries
must pay for their drugs each time they
fill a prescription and seemingly serve
only to pad plan and PBM profits.”
Bottom line: The use of DIR fees is
unfair and unjustly enriches big insurers
and PBMs.
For the benefit of Oregonians in small
communities throughout our state, I’m
all in to preserve their lifelines to local
Oregon pharmacies and knock these
“Goliaths” down by a peg or two so that
local rural pharmacies can continue to
stay open.
———
Ron Wyden is a Democratic senator from
Oregon.