OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
East Oregonian
Scarves:
Issue:
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Continued from Page A1
grandmother in an old
framed photograph.
“Grandma Wyasus, my
mom’s grandma, was born at
Wayam, near the Columbia
River,” Conner said. “Around
1853. And she escaped a Fort
Dalles soldiers’ raid at the age
of 13 or 14 and canoed alone
up the Columbia River.”
Her great grandmother,
always wore scarves to cover
her hair.
“And this image of her
shows her wearing not only
a scarf on her head, but her
high top moccasins,” Conner
said, “she never wore shoes,
she never wore pants and she
never cut her hair.”
Conner lived for many
years with her grandmother,
Xhilmat.
“When she was work-
ing at home doing laundry,
gardening, making pies she
would tie her scarf with all
the points tied down and the
knot tied down in front,” she
said. “And so how she wore
her scarf let us know what
kind of day we were in for as
children.”
Conner is the director
of the Tamástslikt Cultural
Institute on the Umatilla
Reservation near Pendleton.
The museum’s gift shop
sells neatly folded Pendle-
ton blankets, huckleberry
for people experiencing
homelessness in her commu-
nity, Bunday said it’s tough
“when an individual wants
to shower, to get to a job,
to make their income, but
doesn’t have a home base or
regular meal, laundry. I’ve
seen many people quickly
give up.”
Uber:
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services ride-hailing driv-
ers couldn’t provide.
After council members
heard from both sides in
February, they asked repre-
sentatives from Elite and the
aspiring ride-hailing drivers
meet with staff to see if they
could reach a compromise.
According to the memo,
the plan all sides agree to
would allow taxis to oper-
ate from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Monday through Thursday
and 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays
and Saturdays. Ride-hails
would be required to operate
during the hours of 4 p.m. to
8 a.m. daily. During certain
events and days, including
Beef:
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Jerry and Inesse Parks
of Aiden, California, have
been traveling to the Harrell
auction for a dozen years to
buy horses and bulls.
After mingling with the
cattle and fellow ranch-
ers, exchanging stories and
laughing, everyone made
their way into the auction
barn. Food and beverages
were available as country
music fi lled the air.
Then the fun began with
Bob Harrell Jr.’s words
of thanks to those join-
ing and those who helped
Losing faith in
leadership
Aaron Quaempts/Contributed Photo
Aaron Quaempts is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation near
Pendleton. He’s bought several scarves for his family recently in solidarity with Ukraine.
candies and — for pow
wows, funerals and root
feasts — stacks and stacks
of scarves.
“From bright white, to
neon yellow to neon green
and neon orange,” Conner
said. “To the more traditional
colors of burgundy, red, dark
green, royal blue.”
Scarves were early trade
items when immigrants met
tribal people. What’s happen-
ing to Ukrainian people feels
grimly familiar to descen-
dants of Northwest tribes,
like Conner.
“It didn’t happen very
long ago and it wasn’t very
far away,” Conner said. “It
was right here in this coun-
try, not very long ago that our
people were being treated in
the same way.”
Aaron Quaempts is a
member of the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Reser-
vation. He’s bought several
scarves.
“I had seen the hashtag or
the social media going, if you
have one wear it for solidar-
ity,” Quaempts said.
When he watches the
news from Ukraine he thinks
of his own family.
“It’s just heartbreak-
ing to see people having to
go through that,” he said.
“Fathers having to say good-
bye to their kids while they
are evacuating so they can
take up arms and you know
defend Ukraine.”
From Indian Coun-
try to Ukraine — there’s a
little thread of brightly-col-
ored material tying people
together in pain and hope.
the Pendleton Round-Up,
Pendleton Whisky Music
Fest and New Years Eve,
both taxis and ride-hails
could add additional hours
on top of their required
hours of operation.
Making all these changes
would require the city adopt
a new ordinance that would
update its transportation and
taxi policies. Before an ordi-
nance is passed, the title of
an ordinance is usually read
aloud at a council meeting
and then considered at the
following meeting after a
public hearing.
In an interview, Pend-
leton City Manager Robb
Corbett said the city is trying
something diff erent. Corbett
said staff wants input from
all the aff ected parties and
the city council before a
draft of the ordinance goes
before the council. Corbett
said councilors decided
to deviate from the usual
procedure because they
thought people were eager
to comment on the issue. He
said he anticipates the coun-
cil will allow both the ride-
hail drivers and the owners
of Elite Taxi to comment at
the March 15 meeting.
“Everyone is anxious to
talk about this,” he said.
If the council is satisfi ed
with the concept, staff is
recommending the council
move quickly on the issue.
An ordinance would be
presented for the council’s
approval on April 5, and
staff is recommending the
council vote unanimously
to hold the fi rst reading and
public hearing on the same
day. Under the recommen-
dation, the ordinance would
include an emergency provi-
sion, meaning the new rules
would take eff ect immedi-
ately.
While Ubers could start
driving on Pendleton roads
as soon as early April, the
council still is giving itself
wiggle room to reconsider at
a later date. Staff is recom-
mending the ordinance
include a sunset date. At
that undetermined point, the
council could either make
the law permanent or make
further changes.
The council meeting
begins at 7 p.m. at the coun-
cil chambers in city hall, 500
S.W. Dorion Ave. The meet-
ing also will be available
online live via Zoom at bit.
ly/3iaPLbo.
with the auction.
The auctioneer went off ,
words flying and the first
bulls were bought by ranch-
ers from Nebraska, then
Virginia, and North Dakota.
gone up a bit, but it’s unpre-
dictable.
“It’s up and down all the
time,” he said. “It seems like
we never get hardly enough
out of our product compared
to what it gets after it leaves
us. We just keep plugging
along.”
Forsea said inf lation,
which has significantly
increased production costs
for ranchers who depend on
diesel and other petroleum
products, is making it tough
for producers.
And like many ranch-
ers, Forsea is bothered by
the dominance in the meat-
packing industry by four
large corporations. Building
more smaller, regional pack-
ing plants would give ranch-
ers more options for selling
their cattle and potentially
boost prices.
The Biden administra-
tion this winter announced
a campaign to encourage
the construction of regional
packing facilities.
“It’s aff ecting everybody,”
Forsea said of infl ation. “As
far as the prices in the super-
markets, the cattle/calf man
is seeing that diff erence and
it’s packers and retailers and
getting it from one place to
another, fuel, and everything.
But anyway, that’s why we’re
in it for the long haul because
eventually we might see a
good year. So it’s getting
better. It’s a good way of life.”
Grimly familiar
Assessing the beef
industry
The beef business has
had its ups and downs over
the years, and recently, prices
haven’t helped much, accord-
ing to some ranchers attend-
ing the Harrell sale.
“It’s pretty expensive
right now because of the hay.
It’s pretty tough to make
a buck,” said Cook, from
Idaho.
Jerry Parks, from Califor-
nia, said the cattle market has
Like many Oregonians,
Michelle McDaniel is frus-
trated that more hasn’t been
done.
“It seems like they keep
talking about (solving home-
lessness) and they aren’t actu-
ally doing it,” said McDaniel,
who lives in the small Central
Oregon Coast community of
Otis. “Then they talk about
studies about it.”
McDaniel said high rent
costs and destructive wild-
fi res were forcing people out
of their homes.
Close to 300 structures in
Otis were destroyed in the
Echo Mountain Complex
fi re in September 2020 —
accounting for a small frac-
tion of the Oregon homes lost
to 2020 wildfi res.
McDaniel said she’s “lost
faith in Oregon’s leadership”
in response to the housing
crisis.
McDaniel moved to Port-
land from California in 2015
with decades of experience
in property management.
Vacancies were snapped up
quickly at the rental proper-
ties she managed in Portland,
despite continually increas-
ing rents.
“People are getting hit
with huge increases. People
are upset and they say they’re
going to move, and then they
look around and they see that
everything is just as high and
they’re stuck,” McDaniel
said. “As far as trying to buy
a home, it’s almost impossi-
ble for the average person.”
She eventually left Port-
land, disheartened and
exhausted by how diffi cult
the rental market made it for
people to survive.
Otis is just outside Lincoln
City, where the local econ-
omy is largely driven by tour-
ism.
“The people that work
here in this town, primarily
housekeeping, hotel work-
ers, people who work in the
restaurant industry — they
cannot afford to live here,
so they drive in from other
towns,” McDaniel said.
The lawmakers who high-
lighted their $400 million
package to ease homeless-
ness and promote low-cost
housing were careful not to
claim victory.
“I want to make clear these
investments will not solve
every problem overnight,”
said Rep. Julie Fahey (D-Eu-
gene). “But Oregonians have
MORE
INFORMATION
The statewide survey on
attitudes about home-
lessness was conducted
by the Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center online be-
tween Nov. 8 and 15, 2021.
The survey reached 1,200
Oregonians who were at
least age 18. The margin
of error ranges from 1.7 to
2.8 percentage points for
the full sample. You can
see more details about
this survey, and others, at
oregonvbc.org/blog/.
The Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center is commit-
ted to the highest level of
public opinion research.
To help obtain that, the
nonprofi t is building a
large research panel of
Oregonians to ensure that
all voices are represented
in discussions of public
policy in a valid and statis-
tically reliable way.
Selected panelists earn
points for their partic-
ipation, which can be
redeemed for cash or do-
nated to a charity. To learn
more visit oregonvbc.org/
about-the-panel/.
immediate needs right now.”
Rural Oregonians
more pessimistic
Overall, 70% of Orego-
nians surveyed in November
said it was very important or
urgent for leaders to make
homelessness their top prior-
ity. Asked a similar question
in an October 2020 survey by
Oregon Values and Beliefs
Center, 50% of residents
answered very important or
urgent.
While seven out of 10
Oregonians believed ending
homelessness should be a top
priority for leaders, only six in
10 agreed with the right poli-
cies and resources, homeless-
ness could be solved in their
communities.
Rural Oregonians were
slightly more pessimistic than
urban and suburban residents.
Some respondents favored a
harsher approach, forcing
homeless people off the streets
and into shelters. Others said
that while a few people may
refuse help, the right policies
and resources could get most
people into homes.
“Homelessness and lack of
aff ordable housing are prob-
lems that we could fi x if we
had the compassion, under-
standing and political will,”
one Multnomah County
respondent said.
With local and state elec-
tions approaching in May,
homelessness is likely to
become a key issue through-
out the state. And, the survey
said, those seeking offi ce are
likely to face tough questions
as fewer than 12% of Orego-
nians are satisfi ed with the
homelessness services where
they live.
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