Spilyay tymoo., May 01, 1981, Page 7, Image 7

SPILYAY TYMOO
PAGE 8 MAY 1,1981
Eye care clinic in operation
Good vision is an essential
part of feeling good no matter
what a person’s age may be.
Children as well as adults
should have a special interest in
caring for their own sight.
The Indian Health Service is
concerned th a t all trib al
members, young and old,
receive adequate eye care. 1HS
through the Portland Area
Office has contracted Pacific
University to provide such eye
care through the optimetry
clinic, now in operation at the
Warm Springs Health Clinic.
The eye care clinic is a
program designed to give
Pacific University optometry
students an intense learning
experience while serving the
eye care needs of the people in
W arm S p r in g s . P a c if ic
University has been involved in
this program since 1978,
serving the same needs for the
people on other reservations.
7/
Elbow Grease—Headstart parents and teachers joined forces to
Pacific University faculty
get playground equipment put up near the Headstart trailer. member Dr. William Berman
There will be more chances to join in the fun next Tuesday and works with interns on a
Wednesday evenings, M ay 5 and 6.
rotation basis in an effort to
Spilyay Tymoo photo by Shewczyk
provide practical experience in
the field of optometry. The
students are able to gain from
the experience along with the
tribal members.
T he services p rovided
according to Dr. Berman range
from vision screening to a full
optometric examination. The
vision screening — “is a test
designed to give us a overview
of the visual status of the
patient which will determine
whether a full eye examination
is necessary or not.” Dr.
Berman goes onto say,” Ifafull
examination is required the
patient can obtain that service
at the clinic as well.”
which are available through the
clinic.
The clinic has been in
operation since April 15,
having recently been moved
from the Colville reservation in
W ashington where it was
located for the last year-and-a-
half. It will be in Warm Springs
for up to six months, according
to Dr. Berman, or until the
needs of the community are
met.
Indian students particularly
interested in optometry or
other health professions “are
encouraged to ask questions
about what we do and what’s
entailed in the educations” for
health professions. Dr. Berman
The screening is available to remarked. He says Pacific
all tribal members. Indian University has a minority
children at all grade levels will recruitment program, not just
be seen along with children in in optometry, but in other
the Headstart and Daycare health fields such as dentistry
programs. “We can see 14 and medicine.
people for examinations and
To make an appointment for
screening daily,” Dr. Berman
says, “along with other walk-in vision screening for any time
patients who come in for during the week phone the
emergency care or who are in clinic at 553-1196 and ask for
for the dispensing of frames” the eye care clinic.
Chemawa’s future not threatened by fund shortage
by Pat Leno
T h e C h e m a w a In d ia n
School is faced with a short-fall
of funds amounting to over
$200,000, but this will not
create anv real threat to the
future of the Bureau of Indian
A f f a ir s - o p e r a te d s c h o o l,
according to Van Peters, Area
Education Administrator of
the BIA.
In a recent article which
ap peared in the O regon
Journal Peters is quoted as
saying that drastic measures
would have to be taken. This is
not really the case, but it does
mean there will be a change in
the schedule for the remainder
of this school year. The school
will not hold a summer session
as was originally planned. The
school will be putting some
employees on furloughs for the
summer months and keeping
key p e rs o n n e l th a t a re
necessary to m aintain the
school’s summer business.
Peters said in a recent phone
interview that the school
officials had made a tenative
student count on April of last
year and that count was based
with the allowance of the
dormitories being finished in
time for the start of the school
year in August of 1980. The
dorms were not finished and
this caused the student-count
to fall below the number
expected.
It is this count of students
that is a big factor in the
am ount of federal funds
received to operate the school.
The count is made at the
beginning of the fiscal year in
October, and for each student
there is an allocation given to
the school.
The school received $1.6
million in January to run the
program and it needed an
additional $500,000 for the
y e a r-ro u n d p ro g ra m , as
planned. In order to make it
through the fiscal year the
school officials have decided to
close for the summer. This will
leave funds with which to
operate for the next school
year, which will start two
months before the end of this
fiscal year.
Since the dorms have been
completed the school has room
for 400-plus students. This will
give the school the necessary
student-count for the next
fiscal year.
There still remains a problem
of having enough funds to staff
the dorm s to cover the
remaining two months of this
fiscal year, those months being
August and September of this
year.
Earlier, the BIA had been
asked for additional funds to
assist with the short-fall, but
this was denied. Van Peters, as
the time of this article, is in
Washington D.C. to appeal for
additional funds. Olney Patt,
Sr, Oregon Representative on
the Chemawa School Board, is
also in Washington D.C. this
week and will be assisting
Peters with his appeal.
Chemawa School will going
in full swing for the school year
of 1981 -82. This year’s program
will end at the finish of the
spring term.
Seniors pleased with their new houses
by Marsha Shewczyk
Matilda Mitchell reflects on
the days when she lived in a
house built by her father. That
house and all others at that
time were heated only with
wood and flour sacks hung
on the walls to keep the heat
in. Only the section of the
body facing the stove stayed'
warm.
With these memories in mind
Matilda, an elder, is very
pleased with the new two-
bedroom hom e sh e now
occupies in Simnasho. She
says, “I sure like this house.”
Matilda previously lived in one
of th e sm all h o uses in
Simnasho with her sister. These
houses have since been moved
and are having garages added
onto them. She says her other
house “was too small for my
things. I had to put things
outside.”
Even new houses have a few
problems. Small but important
things have been going wrong,
so her satisfaction with her
home is not complete. Matilda
says she has a short in her lights
and she’s having trouble with
the stove. She says, “I thought I
picked out the nicest stove.”
One other thing that bothers
her is the drying racks, She
says when drying fish the racks
should be in a shady place. But
the drying racks at her home
are in the sunshine and~“the
wind comes the wrong way,”
she says. “It’s my own fault, I
thought they would know”
when they built it.
Asked if she would be
pleased when a yard is put in
she gave an affirmative reply.
She she said she hopes they
“fence our houses. The entire-
group of houses would be
good” because there are a lot of
horses around Simnasho.
Sylvia Wallulatum, Matil­
da's next door neighbor and
sister looks forward to a yard.
“It would be easier to keep the
house clean, especially when
the grandchildren come” to see
her, she says. She, too, is happy
with her house but hasn't
experienced quite so many
small problems with her new
house as Matilda has. Her only
complaint is that her door will
sometimes come open when the
wind blows.
Sylvia enjoys the space her
new home affords and she says
she “likes this kind of heat.”
She likes having a fire going
and having it last throughout
the night. “The only thing I
don’t like is carrying that wood
in,” she says.
Three of the new houses have
not yet been occupied. Social
Services supervisor Gayle
Rodgers feels confident the
houses will be filled in the near
future. There has been some
talk of retaining one of the
houses in order to hire someone
to live in Simnasho who could
help the senior citizens with
maintenance problems and
attend to emergency needs.
Some inquiries have already
been made about such a
position but Rodgers says, “It
is still on the drawing board,”
the funds as yet are not
available.
Home Sweet Home—Home is where you can sit by the stove, listen to soap operas and peel roots as
Matilda Mitchell has been doing lately. I t’s particularly enjoyable when home is one o f the houses
recently built for senior citizens in Simnasho.
.
' ‘
■ Spilyay Tymoo photo by Shewczyk