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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 1983)
Spilyay Tymoo July 29,1983 Page 5 T o u r s c h e d u le d The Timber Committee has scheduled the annual timber tour for the 1985 Timber sales August 4 and 5, 1983. T ra n s p o rta tio n will be provided, with a bus to leave the Administration Building at 9:00 a.m. on both days. Lunch will also be provided for both days. The following sales will be toured at that time: Chuck Luck-Mcquinn Strip; Canal- W .S . B lo ck ; O ld M ill-' apuyuy a y moo pn o io oy !>newciyk In preparation fo r building a small hydroelectric plant on their reservation the Colorado Southern cou"cil and delegates visited Warm Springs fo r a sharing o f ideas. They arepictured here at the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery on tour. Testimony given in support of bill S e n a to r H a tfie ld an d members of the Public, my name is Eugene Greene. I am Director of the Warm Springs N atural Resources D epart ment, and am a former C h a irm a n of the T rib a l Council of th e , Confederated Tribes o f. the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. I am here today to speak in support of wilderness designation for certain national forest lairds in northeastern Oregon im por tant to the Warm Springs Tribe. The Warm Springs Tribe hopes that the United States Senate will enact wilderness legislation sim ilar to the House-passed bill, H.R. 1149. In particular, the tribe urges the Senate to accept for wilderness designation a ll areas on northeastern Oregon included in H.R. 1149, plus additional a re a s p ro p o s e d by th e Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. The Warm Springs Tribe supports wilderness designa tio n fo r th ese a re a s in northeastern Oregon for two reasons. First, preservation of these areas in their natural state is critical to the preservation of the tribe’s treaty-secured, off- reservation fishing rights. Although the Warm Springs Reservation is located on the Deschutes River in central Oregon, ninety miles south of the Columbia River, the Warm S p rin g s T re a ty of 1855 guarantees us the right to carry on subsistence, ceremonial and co m m ercial fish eries fo r salmon and steelhead in the mainstream of the Columbia R iv e r. T he J o h n D a y , Umatilla, and Grande Ronde River watersheds, all of which need wilderness protection at their headwaters to ensure future fish production, are major contributors to the spring chinook and steelhead runs which pass our usual and accustomed fishing places on the Columbia River. Without wilderness designation to protect the ; delicate natural environm ent necessary to maintain these important wild stocks, the chinook and steelhead runs from these river systems are sure to diminish in the years ahead. Our second reason for s u p p o r t i n g w ild e r n e s s designation for certain areas of northeastern Oregon is that m uch of th is land was originally ours. In the Treaty of 1855 the tribes of Middle Oregon ceded title to much of eastern Oregon between the crest of the Cascade Range and the Blue Mountains, while re s e rv in g o u r p re s e n t Toe Ness The boss was observing his secretary on her performance during office hours, finally he said, “Miss Jones, when the little bell on your typewriter rings, it doesn’t mean it’s time for a coffee break.” YIKES SS SS SS There was this office girl who was always twenty to thirty minutes late each day. One day she came into the office five minutes after eight and the boss said, “Why Miss Lando, this is the earliest you’ve ever been late.’’ YIKES SS SS SS There was a knock on the door and the husband gets up to answer it. He tells his wife, “It’s a g uyfrom the Goodwill collecting old clothes, do you have anything?” She answered, “Yes, give him that last suit you bought about ten years ago and that old dress 1 bought last week.” YIKES SS SS SS There was this atheist who was talking with a preacher and asked, “Do you really believe that Jonah spent three days and nights in the stomach of a whale? Preacher, “I don’t know, but I’ll ask him when I get to heaven.” Atheist, “What if he isn’t in heaven?” Preacher, “Then you ask him.” YIKES SS SS SS reservation for our exclusive use and, more importantly, reserving hunting, fishing and food gathering rights in our ceded area. To this day, many Warm Springs Indians exercise the treaty right to hunt for deer and elk in the areas proposed for wilderness designation. Our people also dig for roots and gather berries, tra d itio n a l foods for our people, in these same areas. We believe that wilderness designation is the only way to guarantee these tr e a ty rig h ts to f u tu r e generations of Warm Springs Indians. The Warm Springs Tribe does not believe that wilderness designation necessarily hurts the lumber industry.; We have? some experience in this area. Our tribal government is responsible for management of reservation timberlands, the tribe’s main source of income, and operation of tribal saw and plywood mill, our largest employer of tribal members. Through careful management, we are able to maintain our lumber based economy on the reservation while preserving large areas of tribal land in their natural wilderness state. We preserve these areas to ensure continued n atu ral s a lm o n a n d s te e l h e a d production in the reservation’s river systems and to protect our food gathering and wildlife habitat areas. If we can do it, so can the United States Forest Service. To be sure that this happens, we urge passage by the Senate of wilderness legislation including all of the areas in northeastern Oregon protected under H.R. 1149 and the additional areas proposed by the Columbia River treaty tribes. W.S. Block; East Camas-W.S. Block; Sheep Creek-W .S. Block; Shitike Canyon-W.S. Block; Beaver Canyon-W.S. Block and Powerline-W.S. Block. For further inform ation c o n ta c t M e r le , T im b e r Committee secretary. Also for a head count, you will need to let the Timber Committee know if you will be able to attend. Thanks, at 553-1161 extension 258. Notice To All Indian Landowners On The Warm Springs Indian Reservation Last January, a new law was passed by Congress which changed the ownership rules for some small interests in trust property when the owner dies. This law is called the Indian Land Consolidation Act (P.L. 97-459) and was signed by President Reagan on January 12, 1983. Section 207 says that when an Indian who owns a small fractional interest, or share, in trust land dies, the interest may go to the Tribe. This will happen when all of the following things apply: 1. The Indian owner dies after January 12,1983 and; 2. The land is on a reservation or ín some other area where a Tribe has authority and; 3. The interest or share of the owner is so small that it is two percent, or less, of the total and; 4. The owner got less than $100 from the land during the year before death. Under the old rules, these small interests went to the relatives of the owner or to the person named in the owner’s will when the owner died. Now the interest will escheat (go back) to the Tribe which owned the land before it was allotted. There are several ways you may be able to keep the law from applying to any small fractional interest that you own. A few of these ways are mentioned in this letter. One method is to buy an interest from another owner so that the interest you buy and the interest you now own would total more than two percent. If you own small interests in more than one piece of land, you may be able to trade your interest in one piece for someone else’s interest in another piece, so that you end up with an interest larger than two percent. Another way is to sell the interest you own to another owner, so that the interest you sell to the other owner and the interest the other owner already has are larger than two percent. You can do this and also keep the right ta collect the money from your interest as long as you live by reserving a life estate in the interest you sell to the other owner. Y ou can sell your interest to another owner for less than its appraised value or you can give it to a co-owner if you want to. If you own a small undivided interest in a fairly large piece of land, it may be possible for you and the other owners to divide up the land. This is called partitionment. If it is possible to work that out, you could end up with 100 percent ownership of a small piece of land instead of a small interest in a large piece of land. Partitionment is not always good, but it may help some owners of small undivided interests. If there are a number of owners who each have an equal interest, which often happens with brothers and sisters, all of these owners could sign a deed which puts their interests in joint tenancy. This means that if one of these owners dies, his or her interest will automatically go to the surviving owners and not the tribe. Congress passed the Indian Land Consolidation Act to keep interests from growing so small that they have no value to anyone. There are ways to increase your interest. There are also ways to make sure your interest goes to relatives or other owners. But if your interest is two percent or less at the time of your death, there is a very strong chance that it will go to the tribe. If you think you have one or more small undivided interests in trust land that may come under the new law, you can find out for sure by calling or seeing the Realty staff at the agency. They will also be able to talk to you about the ways you may be able to keep the law from applying to any small interests that you own. SUBSCRIPTION TO SPILYAY TYMOO SEND SUBCRIPTION TO SPILYAY TYMOO P.O. Box 735 WARM SPRINGS, OR 97761 NAME ___________ ___________________________ ___________ ADDRESS_______________________________________________ CITY------ ----- ------------ STATE_______ Z |P _________ SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ONE YEAR $6.00 All Warm Springs tribal members will receive the Spllyay Tymoo at no cost. Spllyay Tymoo is published bi-weekly by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
