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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1997)
2 January 2, 1997 Warm Springs. Oregon Spilyay Tymoo Flute music enhances life for Littleleaf Head lice: "Some things shouldn't be shared" 4 vB. v it Charles Littleleaf during a performance at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort by Bob Medina Tribal member Charles Littleleaf has been playing the flute for the past four years. On his newest tape, "Whispers of Earth Medicine", Charles expresses this statement, "One day I heard some beautiful music. It was the flute music of R. Carlos Nakai. Mr. Nakai guided me through the beginning of the flute world. I am greatly indebted to you," writes Charles. "R.C., you have been a great teacher." That was over 10 years ago, dur ing his drinking days, says Charles. "I was hitting rock bottom from drinking every day. That's when I first heard the flute music of R. Carlos Nakai. From that day on my life began to change. 1 bought one of R. Carlos Nakai 's flute music tapes, a small portable tape player and every day, everywhere I went, I would lis ten to his flute music. I would return to my hangouts, but things seemed different. I wouldn't go inside the bars, I would just go past them listen ing to the beautiful flute music. In 1986 1 wrote R. Carlos Nakai a letter explaining how he and his music had changed my life. After receiving my letter, Mr. Nakai invited me to a week- long flute workshop in the Southwest area. There, R. Carlos Nakai, who was so touched by my letter to him, presented me with one of his beautiful flutes," says Charles. "I have been sober for the past 10 years and loving every day of it. Thanks to friends like R. Carlos Nakai, Sky Walking Stick Man Alone for presenting mc (Charles) with his Kokopclli flute. You arc a true cider and teacher of the old ways. I am honored to be your friend," says Charles of Sky Walk ing Slick Man Alone. Charles also thanks Scott Loomis, for gifting him with a new flute and for having "confidence in my potential as a flute player." Wind Song Flutes have been a blessing in the creation of Charles first recorded tape. Not reading or writing music, Charles plays from the heart and soul. Charles has al ways been a lone warrior, spending most of his free lime in the wilder ness among the things closest to his heart: the mountains, trees, water, rocks and animals. Charles is a traditional dancer who "dances in prayer to the heartbeat of Mother Earth. ...He dances for all people just as his father did. Jack Littleleaf, father to Charles, was Pagcan Blackfoot and a champion traditional dancer. He lived his en tire life in Brocket, Alberta, Canada. "Fifty years ago my father came to Cclilo Falls, that's where he met my mother Lolita Greeley," says Charles. Lolita Greeley, a Warm Springs tribal member, came from a long line of medicine people. "I have two brothers, Oliver and Tony Kirk and two sisters, Olivia and Roberta Kirk, who live in Warm Springs," says Charles. I'm presently living in the Portland area with my fiancee, Vicki. I have 5 kids Elk, Ohi and Raina who live in Washington and LeaSally and Isis Rose who live in Portland. Some time in 1997, I have a new CD release coming out and a possible chance to appcaron the Rosic O'Donncll show. "That's still up in the air but it's a big maybe," says Charles. Anything is possible. "I would like to encourage the young people to pick up their tradi tionalways. It doesn't have to be by playing a flute. It could be a drum, traditional dancing, bcadwork or something that will keep them busy. "I drank 27 years of my life and never accomplished anything," says Charles. "I've been sober for the past ten years and have seen clearly what Infestations of head lice can happen to anyone. It is especially common among preschool and elementary school children. A single child with head lice can easily spread it among playmates and class mates. What are head lice? Head lice arc wingless insects about the size of a sesame seed. They lay eggs (called nits) in clumps that attach to hair shafts so strongly that ordinary hair washing will not dislodge them. Head lice arc found on the scalp, especially around the cars and back of the neck. If not treated, after 7-1 0 days the nits hatch and new lice mature and mate and start the cycle of infestation over. How docs head lice spread? Head lice arc not found on animals, such as dogs and cats. They only live on people. They cannot jump. Instead, they crawl or grasp a hair shaft and pull themselves onto it. They spread directly from person to person or indirectly by sharing combs, brushes, hats, head bands and other personal items. They can also spread from such things as car scats and head rests, upholstered furniture and pillows. What should I do? If one person has head lice everyone in the house should be checked. Successful treatment depends on carefully following instructions and having the time and patience to remove all the nits. Step by step process 1 . Before starting treatment, wash hair with a shampoo that contains no conditioner. This will strip the hair of oils and residues of hair spray and mousse. 2. Apply a special shampoo or rinse made to kill head lice, either prescription or non-prescription. Apply exactly according to package instructions. 3. After treatment, remove all nits with a specially made fine tooth comb, tweezers, or your fingernails. Use natural light. A magnifying glass may be helpful. 4. Check the scalp and hair daily for the next 7-1 0 days. Use a second application of the lice treatment if new nits or newly hatched lice are found. 5. Vacuum al! carpets, upholstered furniture, scats and head rests in the car, mattresses and stuffed animals. 6. Wash all recently worn clothing, towels, sheets and linens in hot, soapy water and dry in hot dryer for at least 20 minutes or hang in full sun all day. Rcinfcstations will recur as long as head lice remain untreated. It is important to notify everyone your child has had close contact with, and educate your children not to share combs, caps and other personal items, and take the time to treat your child promptly and exactly according to instructions. Head lice can happen to anyone. Happy New Year from Spilyay Tymoo Drive safely. '97 rings in Comprehensive Plan update You are probably aware that efforts have begun to dust off the 1983 Comprehensive Plan and update it to meet our changing world. Jolcne Estimo-Atencio, from the tribal Planning office, is charged with the responsibility of laying out the pieces and coordinating efforts from within the tribal organization and making sure that the community has a voice in the process. A Process Team functions as technical support to the Land Use Planning Committee, which in turn, is responsible for assuring community participation. The Joint-Committees are a part of the planning process, with the Land Use Planning Committee taking the lead. The Public Relations Team offers support through the Spilyay Tymoo, KWSO radio, and the Public Relations Office, assuring that community members are informed. Nineteen ninety six has been devoted to establishing the planning teams for this project which will be completed in March of 1998. Jolene says, "It has been a major step in getting the commitment from all the teams, Management, and Tribal Council." A Comprehensive Plan Fair has been tentatively scheduled for late January or early February. Community members can meet the Planning Teams, look at what they are working on and give them ideas on the process being developed. The Planning Teams are not ready to do their formal presentations, but look forward to talking to those interest in Tribal Government, Education, Economic Development, Human Services, Natural Resources, Public Utilities, Public Safety, and the Courts. Another important event in January will be the first of a series of meetings to discuss values, particularly cultural values of the community and tribal organization. That meeting will be held in Portland on January 7. Community groups or members interested in Comprehensive Plan orientations can contact Jolene in the Planning Department. I ve missed. ianuuserianningvommiueeiaKing uniiiepiucessueingueveiopeu. me "Families are not the enemies,. ..let us know your needs," says LoneWolf Wauneta Lone Wolf, an the Western states and into Florida. I go I have to start from the bottom, but educational, spiritual and motivational seminar speaker, came to Warm Springs to speak about Gang Awareness, December 16 to 18, at the Agency Longhouse. Lone Wolf, is a OglallaSioux from Pine Ridge South Dakota. Lone Wolf has been living in Phoenix for the past 1 4 years. Lone Wolf stated, "I started working with high risk youth in 1989, the problems we dealt with were pregnancy, juvenile delinquency and tutoring in schools. I held a full-time job until last May, when I started to work only on gang issues. I like to get people knowledge about gangs. I work with youth ages from 14 to 26, I feel that they have great influence on the younger kids and if I can reach those kids that are older it might help the smaller kids stay out of the gangs. I am working on a new program called, From Hoods to Warriors in the Woods, where gang members will get a chance to camp out in the woods for two weeks. We are looking for funding to help this program get started, I already have sights picked out." "My work has taken me all over just came from from Alaska and plan to go back to south Dakota. I am starting a program in a village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It will be a six month contract were I will set up a curriculum for youth kindergarten to the twelfth grade. I am really looking forward to this program." Lone Wolf advice to the parents is "regain control of their homes, install discipline that creates a routine and maintain the discipline. Develop a way to talk to their kids and don't be judgmental. Build trust and learn the kids outside the family friends. Get involved with the youth. Let them know you care." "For the youth I would like to tell them that families are not the enemies and the community is also there for them. That the youth have to put their differences aside. I would encourage them to tell us(adult community members) what their needs are so we can help them to reach their goals." "Warm Springs is a very nice place that has concerned tribal members and youth who show promising leadership qualities. Some places I go I have to start from the bottom, but here there seems to be so much community support. Warm Springs has set a good foundation for the youth gang awareness and I plan to keep coming back to see how the program is going." "I go back to every community 1 have spoken at. I don't just want to put a bandaid on the wound and leave so I go back about six months later to see how things are going." Lone Wolf has many threatening calls from gang leaders because I was taking away the youth and jeopardizing their money-making schemes. The larger gangs make money by invading a place and using the youth to sell their drugs. The gang tells the kids we are your family that we will take care you. I have no' fear because if it is my time then it is my time. The Creator will watch over me and guide me. "I would like to thank the community of Warm Springs for the opportunity to speak here. I am glad that I got to know the youth here they are special. I would also like to thank everyone who helped out and all the youth that participated." m, ; j- f ' "',,&'' ' 'ijr ' t ' i "'. - -TV- v v . vs & - LoneWolf poses with youth at Kah Nee Ta Lodge Books need to be returned Return to tradition may help substance abusers The Small Business Development Center has a concern to assist all community members with their li brary services, these books contain information for all individuals to uti lize to their full potential. The Small Business Center would greatly ap preciate the return of it's property books, so that other peopleparties could have an equal chance at view ing Entrepreneur criteria from the Small Business Development Cen ter library. If there's books being used on a daily basis by certain individuals, you are entitled to re-checkcontinue further use if preferable. The growing number of Native American Entrepreneurs are count ing on you. To reply on this subjectissue: Warm Springs Small Business Development Center 2107 Wasco Street PO Box 945 Warm Springs, OR 97761 (541) 553-3592 553-3593 (fax) Spilyay Tymoo Sid Miller Donna Behrend Selena T. Boise Bob Medina Dan Lawrence Publisher: Editor: ReporterPhotographer: ReporterPhotographer: ReporterPhotographer: Secretary: TinaAguilar Founded in March 1976 Spilyay Tymoo is published bi-wcekly by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Our offices are located in the basement of the Old Girl's Dorm at 1 1 15 Wasco Street. Any written materials to Spilyay Tymoo should be addressed to: Spilyay Tymoo, P.O. Box 870, Warm Springs, OR 97761 (54 1 ) 553-1 644 or 553-3274 - FAX NO. (54 1 ) 553-3539 Annual Subscription Rates: Within U.S. - $9.00 Outside U.S. - $15.00 Spilyay Tymoo 1996 GALLUP, N.M. (AP) Before Tony Shirley left for Vietnam in 1 968, his uncle blessed him with the Shield Prayer, one of many ceremonies of the Navajo performed to keep themselves, their people, theirculture in balance. It worked, Shirley says. He survived 14 months of war. "My relatives prayed for my safe return. That's why I came back in one piece," says the 47-year-old, raised near Window Rock, Ariz., 30 miles northwest of Gallup. "My fellow comrades didn ' t come back," he said, "or they didn't come back with arms and legs." Twenty-eight years later, Shirley is still alive just barely. Bottles line up every day and night to kill him, but he's dodged them as successfully as a soldier outwitting a minefield. Still, alcohol destroyed Shirley's two marriages, his career as a Navajo police officer and his relationship with his 23-year-old son. It has kept him a prisoner of despair and isolation. To get well, he says, he needs his people's prayers again. Nothing else has worked. Not 30 day treatment programs. Not returning to the reservation. Not shuttling in and out of Na'Nizhoozhi, Gallup's Alcohol Crisis Center, where he has landed hundreds of times since it opened in 1992. Gallup's Na'Nizhoozhi Center is offering something different yet familiar com pollen and prayers, drumming and songs, fire and sweats. In its new ceremonial outdoor yard, hogans, sweat lodges and a stark white teepee rise like a church steeple from the dirt, mud and stiff sagebrush. "Most everyone says this should have been done long ago, says Matthew Kelley, clinic director. "This is not a move backward to tradition. We're not saying go out and herd sheep. We're saying when you go back to your office, to your computer screen, keep some powerful ancient strength within you." What's happening at Na'Nizhoozhi Center may be the largest and most organized attempt in the country to attack alcoholism with a combination of ancient techniques, modern research, eagle feathers and isolation rooms. For two weeks, Shirley participated in the center's traditional healing program, called Hiina'a'h Bits'os Society, Eagle Plume Society. He sat on a mat in the hogan with five other men, two women and two counselors carefully cutting white leather to make tiny pouches for corn pollen. A fire burns in the center of the hogan, in the style of barrels that are makeshift stoves in Navajo homes. Coffee boils atop it in achaned kettle. The fire's heat rises up a black stovepipe that juts through the hogan's only opening to the sky. As clients help one another thread needles and stitch miniature seams in pieces of leather, Anderson Hoskie stands in front of them, drawing a picture of corn with a blue marker on a portable easel. "Let me tell you a story about the corn pollen," Hoskie says in Navajo that he instantly translates into English. "You guys probably know corn pollen comes from corn. When you keep corn pollen with you. it s sort of like a contract to keep you on track with your life. It's an offering, a commitment. "It's like telling it, 'I'll exchange the negative side of me for the positive side and I want you to help me.'" Hoskie gestures with his hand to his heart and head, imitating the sprinkling of corn pollen usually done in the reflective, quiet hours before dawn. "It's to keep you informed that there is a good life for you up ahead," he says, reaching into his pocket to reveal his corn pouch, beaded with a tiny yellow and green corn stalk. Shirley and the others occasionally nod, some quietly say "aoo," meaning "yes" in Navajo, as their patches of soft leather slowly turn into thumb-sized pouches. Drawstrings are measured and cut. "I tell the clients you need to remember your grandma's teachings," Hc-.kie says after the morning session. "If she taught you these things, how far have ynu strayed from them? To the edge vi ':,c canyon?" He pulls out a lined notebook where he's sketched out the sides of life as his sees them male and female, money and death, represented by a thick black line. "This black line turns into a huge barrier when people are drinking," Hoskie says. "They see it as, 'The whole world hates me, everybody's against me.' A lot of these people say, 'The reason I drink is because I have a pain.' Then, they ask, 'Would you pray for me at least this one time and I'll be cured?' "But that's not how it works. You have to learn w hat life is about before living it. I tell them the mind and heart work together. I tell my clients, life is a religion. You need to practice it." Despite eight years of sincere efforts by Gallup' s citizens to address a legendary street-drunk problem, Na'Nizhoozhi Center never wants forclients. On an average weeknight, 40 to 90 men and five to 20 women sleep there, more on weekends. The clients are there under protective custody laws that allow Gallup to pick up street inebriates and bring them to the center for one to three-day involuntary stays. Families can hold relatives under an emergency five-day commitment. If clients choose to cook and clean in the center, they can stay for weeks. The center does not provide long term treatment, only shelter, safety, food, encouragement and help to get into recovery programs that usually have months-long waiting lists. Every day, counselors watch as familiar charges move through the motions of sleeping it off, eating three times a day, showering, playing bingo, watching movie videos, attending AA meetings and mulling over staying sober. But there is some progress, and all that can be done is to keep trying, clinic workers say. "To do nothing is more dangerous than to take risks," says Kelley. "We used to lose 1 2 clients a month to the streets of Gallup to exposure and vehicle accidents and alcohol poisoning. "And we're still losing three or four clients a month. So if we continue to do nothing, w e know three or four will die every month. Continued on page 8