OPINION
Wallowa County Chieftain
A4
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN
Ta ’c ki iye pi ihekin. It’s good to see each other. Welcome home!
T
he unveiling and consecra-
tion of Doug Hyde’s emo-
tive sculpture ‘etweyé·wise,
“I return from a diffi cult journey” at
the Josephy Center this week marks
a turning point in the presence of the
walama NiiMiipoo, better known as
the Chief Joseph Band Nez Perce, in
Wallowa County. After more than a
century of abuse, war, and genocide,
the people who had lived here, “for
10,000 years, maybe 20,000 years,
from time beyond memory,” as Fer-
ris Paisano III, Nez Perce Tribal Exec-
utive Committee member said as Bar-
bara Rounsavell returned a Nez Perce
mortar that her family found in Hells
Canyon long ago, “we are coming
back, fi nally, to our home.”
This return has been sparked by
Wallowa County citizens, especially
residents of the City of Wallowa. In
1989, the City of Wallowa invited Taz
Connor, a Nez Perce and descendent
of Chief Joseph, to help plan a Native
American Festival. That led to Tamka-
liks, which led to the Homeland Proj-
ect, which grew to 320 acres of pub-
licly accessible land, a longhouse built
with love and respect by Wallowa
County locals, a sweat lodge, and this
year, a salmon habitat restoration proj-
Ellen Morris Bishop
Doug Hyde’s sculpture depicts a Nez Perce woman returning to the Wallowas.
ect, and grand opening of a fi rst-class
educational exhibit at the Homeland
Project in Wallowa.
For the good of the county,
wolves must be contained
A
s usual, Amaroq Weiss has blown
out of proportion a part of the
Revised Wolf Plan that allows for
specifi c lethal removal of a wolf or wolves
who have been deemed chronic depreda-
tors. The rewording of this section of the
Plan has very little change from the previ-
ous one. There is a long and rigorous pro-
cess of determining if a wolf pack has not
only become chronic depredators of live-
stock, but if there is value in removing
those wolves depending on the frequency,
location, structure of the pack, poten-
tial for continuing depredations, etc. Then
the request will now go through a regula-
tory process to yet be determined by the
Wolf Commission, before a person will be
assigned to lethally remove those wolves.
The fear that this process will lead
to the legalized trapping or hunting of
wolves in a way similar to the state of
Idaho is so farfetched it’s to the point of
ridiculous. The Plan also emphasizes the
use of non-lethal deterrents and requires
them before consideration of remov-
ing wolves. The Plan still has in place in
Phase 3 (which we are in) the ability to
shoot wolves ONLY when they are found
in the act of chasing or biting livestock
or guard dogs. Since most attacks occur
at night, it’s a rare opportunity to actu-
ally catch the wolves ripping apart an ani-
mal before it’s even dead. Plus the criteria
placed on ODFW employees to determine
if a kill is wolf caused, is quite complex
and requires the presence of enough left-
over tissue from a scavenged animal to
fi nd tooth impressions, scrapes, pre-mor-
tem hemorrhaging and evidence from the
site before a kill is confi rmed, resulting
in many being called probable or other/
unknown with no recourse by the rancher
for compensation.
What is striking is the absence from
Ms. Weiss and Ms. Adkin’s articles in the
Chieftain is their concern for anything
except the survival and spread of the wolf
itself. No concern for the safety and wel-
fare of our rural citizens who are the ones
most affected by the wolf being allowed
to propagate within our state. No con-
GUEST COLUMN
Connie Dunham
cern for people visiting our county who
travel into our forests and campgrounds in
remote areas who could be contacted by
a wolf pack intent on satisfying their hun-
ger. No concern for children on ranches
who could be caught outside and easily
become prey for a pack. There is ample
evidence that in our pioneer past, full
grown men, even those carrying weapons,
have been taken down by wolves, i.e.,
Wikipedia: “Wolf attacks on humans in
North America.”
The myths about how benefi cial
wolves are can be blown apart by the very
science that these promotors of wolves
claim as fact. Yet they deny the exper-
tise of those like Valarias Geist, Profes-
sor Emeritus with the University of Cal-
gary, who have hammered the point
that wolf genetics will be lost forever if
wolves are allowed to live in close prox-
imity to humans, due to interbreeding with
dogs and coyotes. We are already seeing
this happening in our county with wolves
coming into barns, animal enclosures, pas-
tures close to Joseph, and near confi ned
dogs, even the killing of some dogs near
rural homes. Wolves habituate to people
and will become braver about approaching
people. Don’t mistake this for an outreach
of friendship. If you do, you may be their
next meal. The fact that wolves carry up
to 35 diseases — some of which they can
spread to domestic dogs — is something
they and ODFW have not found important
enough to warn people about. Research
echinococcis granulosis and the cysts that
can develop in deer, elk and people.
The overreach of people like Weiss and
Adkins in pushing for wolf populations
without considering the impacts on rural
communities, human safety, economics,
game and prey animals and the future is
appalling. The future of this county is on
the line, and wolves must be contained for
the higher good.
Along with their presence at Chief
Joseph Days parade and Friendship
Feast, exhibits and a library at the
Josephy Center, and Nez Perce Fisher-
ies offi ces in Joseph, the statue at the
Josephy Center heralds that the Wal-
lowa Band, Nez Perce now are assum-
ing their rightful place as part of a
more diverse Wallowa County pop-
ulation. In the future, the Wallowa
County Chieftain plans to honor its
name and masthead with a column
by, and occasional news from, Chief
Joseph Band members at Nespelem
and elsewhere, as well as other Native
American voices from within our
community.
We, the sooyáapoo (non-Indi-
ans) welcome the return of the Wal-
lowa Band, Chief Joseph’s people,
from a very diffi cult journey, which
is not complete yet. There is room in
the county and in our hearts for your
more permanent presence, and so very
much we can learn from you.
Ta ’c ki iye pi ihekin. It’s good to
see each other. Welcome home! We
will honor Chief Joseph’s words:
“Whenever the white man treats an
Indian as they treat each other, then
we will have no more wars. We shall
all be alike — brothers of one father
and one mother, with one sky above
us and one country around us... that all
people may be one people”
— Hinmatóowyalahtq’it
(Chief Joseph), 1879
Tiger, Koepka, and Woodland: The
greens are looking good this year
L
ast August, I wrote a column that
focused on two of golf’s best players,
Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka,
who fi nished second and fi rst in the 2018
PGA Championship. The main point of my
article was to say that Tiger’s comeback
was genuine this time, but that the less sen-
sational Koepka was really the man to beat
in major tournaments these days. And I fi n-
ished off by suggesting that golf fans should
keep their eyes on Tiger as he went hunting
for his fi fteenth major at the 2019 Masters
Tournament.
Well, at the risk of dislocating my shoul-
der by patting myself on the back too much,
I have to say that I might be better as a golf
prognosticator than I am
at predicting presiden-
tial elections. A month
after my column came
out, Tiger won for the fi rst
time in fi ve years on the
John McColgan
PGA tour by snagging the
prestigious Tour Champi-
onship, and if Justin Rose hadn’t birdied the
fi nal hole, Tiger would have stolen away the
even more lucrative Fed Ex Cup as well.
Then in April of this year, Tiger thrilled
fans and critics alike by fi nally capturing
that elusive fi fteenth major at the Masters
Tournament. And even though I had sug-
gested the possibility, I’m not sure I really
believed Tiger would ever win another
major after a nearly ten-year drought until
he actually did it.
But who do you suppose was right there
at Augusta, nipping at Tiger’s heels in a
tie for second place? Yup, that tenacious
majors contender, Brooks Koepka. And then
in this year’s PGA Championship, which
was moved from August to May to generate
more interest in the spring, Koepka became
a back-to-back winner in that event, dom-
inating the fi eld, while Tiger, who hadn’t
played since his win at the Masters, looked
rusty and failed to make the cut.
Koepka’s PGA Championship gave
him four wins in the last nine majors, a
hot streak that has not been matched by
any golfer besides Tiger in the last twenty
years. So coming into this year’s US Open,
Koepka, the two-time defending champion
in that event as well, was on a mission to try
for the three-peat – which hadn’t been done
in the US Open for more than a hundred
years, and never by an American.
But standing in Koepka’s path this
Father’s Day weekend was another gentle
giant named Gary Woodland. Like Koepka,
Woodland was a multi-sport athlete in high
school and college, and he looks more like
a linebacker than a golfer. But his golf-
ing skills were on full display at this year’s
US Open, as he took the lead on Friday and
fended off challengers throughout the week-
end, especially from the grinding Koepka,
who had a chance to catch him right down
to the 72nd hole of both their rounds.
Prior to Woodland’s
fi rst major tournament
win at this year’s US
Open, his biggest previ-
ous tour victory had come
in 2018 at the Waste Man-
agement Phoenix Open.
As the defending champ
at that event this February, Woodland took
the opportunity to play a hole alongside
a twenty-year-old golfer with Down syn-
drome named Amy Bockerstette. If you
haven’t seen the clip of Amy playing on the
par three 16th hole as Gary encouraged her,
you owe it to yourself to google that video.
Amy hits her drive into the greenside bun-
ker, and then as she reminds herself, “I
got this,” she hits a neat sand shot onto the
green. Woodland suggests to her that the
putt might go a little left, and then says,
“Why don’t you just sink it?” Amy replies
quietly, “I got this,” and calmly sinks her
ten-foot putt for par in front of a gallery of
cheering fans.
Many viewers will rightly commend
Gary for the way that he encouraged Amy
that day, but they might underestimate the
effect that Amy’s positive spirit had on Gary
as he faced his own mental challenges on
the weekend at the US Open. After his vic-
tory, he credited Amy’s energy as his inspi-
ration for his fi rst major tournament victory.
Her mantra is now his — “I got this!” —
and any golfer, and every caring person, can
benefi t from the lesson that Amy has taught
US Open Champion Gary Woodland.
POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY
Walden to hold Town Hall Meeting Sunday, June 30 at Wallowa Senior Center
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden
will hold a town hall meet-
ing in Wallowa on Sun-
day, June 30, 3:45 p.m. The
meeting will be at the Wal-
lowa Senior Center dining
room, 204 E. 2nd Street,
Wallowa.
Continuing a series of
town hall meetings across
Oregon’s Second District,
Representative Greg Walden
(R-Hood River) announced
today he will hold town
halls in Josephine, Jackson,
Umatilla, Wallowa, Union,
Baker, Malheur, Grant,
Wheeler, Crook, Deschutes,
Jefferson, and Hood River
counties beginning next
week. Details on the meet-
ings are included below.
“I’m looking forward
to hearing from people
throughout the Second Dis-
trict at these 13 town halls.
These meetings provide just
another opportunity to hear
from Oregonians and pro-
vide an update on the issues
I’m working on back in Con-
gress. In addition to the over
70,000 letters, emails, and
phone calls I have responded
to over the past year, these
town halls help me stay
Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884
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VOLUME 134
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P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
Offi ce: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore.
Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921
Contents copyright © 2019. All rights reserved.
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updated on the issues people
are facing in our communi-
ties. This is a top priority for
me,” said Walden.
These 13 meetings will
bring Walden’s town hall
total to 35 in 2019, the most
of any other lawmaker in the
U.S. House of Representa-
tives so far this year accord-
ing to Town Hall Project.
Walden’s upcoming town
halls will bring his overall
total to 183 since 2012. For
a complete list of Walden’s
previously held and upcom-
ing town hall meetings for
2019, please click here.
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