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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2000)
WARM SPRINGS, OREGON May 18, 2000 5 ( 5PILYAY TYMOO Bam, Picard to Wed May 26, 2000 '""" I t t r M u if f f r l . . . j: ! , ft i i ; ! . - o f . .A ; - A ) :t , ' ) . f : dlCl I Woodrow Picard, Sadie Sam The engagement of Sadie M.Sam 7,and Woodrow R. Picard of Warm i Springs is being announced and their v wedding is being planned forMay 26 I at the Warm Springs Agency Longhouse. The future bride is the daughter of Robert & Marclla Sam, Sr. of Wolfepoint. She is the granddaugh ter of Eliza Brown and the Late . Chester VanPelt, Sr., the late Bill t and Evelyn W. Sam. Thank you to , To the editor, To the people of Warm Springs. ,.S-Ho'. This is a letter to thank all the special people in my life who have always been there for me no matter what, my mother Alma, my sister Lori, who has her hands more than My Guardian Angel poem offered I; To the editor, .'. Please print the following poem v for me. .. , My Guardian Angel v,'. Last night I had a dream that left a ,, tale to tell I dreamt I saw an angel Sji . Poor thing wasn't looking well. u'y, tis body was bruised & battered, , his wings npped & torn ,, : I walked up to him an said "Angel 3, how can this be" He turned around an paused a bit, then tese words he spoke to me, "I am your Guardian Angel, a , great task as you can see, . , You've worn a mask all your life, j look what it done to me. You said my wings are ripped and torn ; , . But yes a noble body I've worn. How often have I flown you from evil unaware? , All these bruises are from shield ing you in times of dispaire. , All the dangerous drugs you've . used, I've often paid the bill Tribal member offers insight on issues surrounding upcoming referendum To the editor, "In the business world, the rear view mirror is always clearer than the windshield." Warren Buffett. : With that being said, perhaps it would explain the apparent lack of understand ing of just what the people desire to see done with their capital industry. 'The Indian Head Casino" to where our leaders would take us with this most powerful economic business of the tribes. The tribes being the people voice, heard-actually heard through the voices of our tribal representatives. Madras Pioneer (5300 issue) ran an . article stating the city council rejected ! having Hwy. 97 & 26 made as an ex i pressway through their city; these high . way designations could go around their fine city. Inquiry of this article context, Angie of the Madras City Council ; Planning Dept. refers to Ed Moore. ; ODOT Regional Planning Mgr. for more " information. Mr. Moore stated that the expressway designations of these major hiehwavs are alreadv in affect. That the expressway terms gives these different counties more access to the public funding for highway maintenanceim provements. Furthermore, Hwy. 26 will see a facelift. The repaving of this major highway will start in 2001. Highway 26 will be widen, first they will increase the passing lanes (i.e. 3 lane highway), in crease access control (i.e. making Cen tral Oregon a desired destination point), realignment of the major traffic flow, currently 1-5, to redistribute the wear and tear traffic, giving travelers more travel options, shorter travel times. Mr. Moore also stated that the location of the people's new casino would definitely play a deciding factor role in any of ODOT's plans for these major roads. ODOT has a comprehensive planning book, available to the public, which outlines plans for all major highways, through the year 2010. Just call Mr. Ed Moore at (541) 388-6388 to have your copy mailed to you. Mr. Moore was clear in the future growth of this high way. He stated highway 26 would be a 5-lane roadway by the year 2007. And again, he states growth could happen sooner, with the decisions made around the casino location. Why, "because ob viously the casino will definitely have impactedincreased the usage of this She is employed at Kah-Nee-Ta Wanapine Gift Shop. The groom-to-be is the son of George and Wilma Picard, Sr. and the Grandson of Iris Smith and the late Woodrow Smith, Sr., the late Ray and Lcminnie Picard. He is employed at the Utilities department. They plan to make home here on the Warm Springs Reservation. those who were full watching after not only her own son but my son and her nephews son while helping my mom as well. And also I'd like to thank LaRae for tak ing such good care of my beautiful daughter Shayla and waitjng all these years for me to find Grandfather and I just can't understand why you'd do them on your own free will. Each mask has a story of a time you'd have been destroyed On more than on ocassion I've wished I was unemployed If only you could stand on your own , , Don't worry though you'll never be left alone , ...... I'm here toatch over you till my powers start to fail So please try to remember I'm getting old and frail. I couldn't believe what I've just heard Let alone how much he seemed to care The next morning when I woke I say "I'm really going to try" Then in the distance I thought I heard a frail old Angel start to cry. By Robert Glen Boise 64210-065 FDC PO Box 6000 Sheriden, OR 97378 already major highway." With this growth in mind, the potential for job opportunities grows for our local people, within the road construction industry. Does it really make sense to build our facility off the reservation? Why not capitalize on this very fact. Build our moneymaking facility here on the reser vation. Avoid any taxation on our own tribal dollars. Take a portion of the casi nos revenues to educate our own people to run this, our own facility. Can the select few Tribal Council representatives, who voted for this Madras site honestly claim they are looking out for the good of all the people. For years, Tribal Council has been told of the poor treatment of our people (as employees & as guests) at Kah-Nee-Ta. This same resort has been operating in the red for how many de cades. This same resort is run by the select few (non-Indian, of course) who are waiting out their years, in cushy pay ing jobs, for their time to be up. The time it takes to create a pension claim against our tribal dollars. These same few are already leaving the community with their retirement monies to live out their years elsewhere. Thus, the economy of this community suffers. Fine, water under the bridge, which cannot be brought back, but.. ..we can turn that around. Iniate the affirmative action already in affect within the tribal organization. We can insure desirable future employment forourtribal organization. We can insure desirable future employment for our tribal youth, by offering competitive employment op portunities. Affirmative actions needs to be implemented in all our tribal enterprises, to insure fair hiring & promotions prac tices within our own facilities. This is not a privilege; this is a right we as owner of these operations have. We have, because it is our money invest in these business, monies invested in the generations to come. To insure an equitable future with our investments. Neither the tribal coun cil nor the board of directors, or any of these enterprises, have a right to take our monies to do as "they see fit". The pro posed S250 annual dividend is a slap in the face of every tribal member. How dare casino management, casino board of directors, and most of all, the select few Tribal Council members feci the people should take this insult Where is Fellowship deadline is Sept 1, 2000 The Oregon Arts Commission serves to honor und support profes sional Oregon artists. All Warm Springs artists involved in any form ol art including literature and the performing arts are eligible to apply for fellowships of $3,000 from the Commission. Applications must be postmarked by September 1. You may pick up details on how to obtain an application at The Museum At Warm Springs office from Mary at 553-3331 or check out the Oregon Arts Commission web site at http: art.econ.state.or.us. Thank you sponsors To the editor, We would like to acknowledge the following people for their spon sorship: 1. Lester & Mclinda Poitra 2. Warm Springs Market 3. Country Peddler (Madras) 4. R.V. Store 5. Satanus Family 6. Joe Tornbom 7. Danny Martinez 8. Melinda Polk 9. Deschutes Crossing We greatly appreciate your sponsors for Melvin Tewee's 1 1 & Under Basketball team. Thank you. Kurtis L. Satanus & Jessie M. Polk there for me open my eyes. My Father for being such a great man in giving me not only his name . but for having the patience to wait to see me grow into it. Also my brother Jason who is also a great man. To all my friends and relatives in Warm Springs. I'm proud to know so many great people from Warm Springs who are respectable and good. And I'm ?roud to be a member of the Wasco ribe. When I get out I hope to become a productive member of the com munity who can be counted on to be there for my people. Also I'd like to say hi to Darrell and Antonette Pamperien and to my cousin Vernon at Snake River." "V ' ' 1 Sincerely, Stanley Butch Smith Happy Belated Birthday i L'Raye i . To a very earring, loving special & wonderful, person we all know that you had a goot one, sorry this is late but you now good things come to those who wait. From one of your bestest friend Nutley and my manyou Brother George We both love you lots the tribal memberships annual report on this casino of ours? They dare to insult us by not reporting to the people the TRUE economic status of this most lu crative business. By not reporting the true status to the people is insulting in at that they indicate we cannot make an informed decision, based on all the facts, concerning our own livelihood. There should be a guaranteed annual dividend of $2000 to $2500 per tribal member, with the possibility of more, , depending upon net profits. The excess could be determined after the external audit is completed for that year. Is there really something wrong with expecting a windfall of this nature? Other corpora tions pay out such dividends. How can they justify their findings for a new casino in Madras? Whose expenditures will exceed revenues by the year 2007? Could it be upper man agement salaries, commission bonuses (contract agreement), and annual year end bonuses, which are dipping into tribal coffers. Casino employee bonuses: is it true that the casino bonuses are calculated by the individuals hourly rate times the length of employment divided by a set amount, for that particular year? These bonuses should come after the owners cut. They should also be distributed more evenly. A flat rate for all casino employ ees, no matter what position, would serve to recognize the line employee's impor tance to the success of this already thriving business. The managers should be calculating by tribal member employ mentpromotions, if they are employing x number of tribal members and pro moting them, put these manager on pro bation, if at the end of the probation period, the desired results are not met, get rid of them. Let's pay off these lifers, like the government does. Offer them early retirement options. All they want is money any way. Let's quit supporting other communities. Tribal Council con tinually forgets the tribe's main resource, ' the people. Lets start looking out for them. Establishing an ExternalInternal Audit office for the Tribal Enterprises is a step forward. This office would be the watchdog of our enterprises manage ment teams. A review board for the per sonnel of this business could also help. New information To the editor, A revisit to the casino: I came across some NEW information about the casino proposed to be built at Madras. Also, the voting date is May 23, so write that on your calendar! When the tribal council met in April to decide the question to be put on (he ballot, there was o TIE VOTE of 4 to 4, which was broken by the chairman in favor of building in Madras. It WAS NOT a unanimous vole by any means on what the question on the ballot should be. Again, this IS NOT what the people were told by council and the gaming commission. The purpose of this referendum was to ask us WHERE we wanted to build. My opinion and preference for a question is 'do we want to build on the reservation,' then give us achoice of location. I've seen a document that was presented at the Simnasho meeting on May 1 1 . About 20 people turned out for the meeting. By the information in that document, many more questions have risen as a result of the handout material. The small number of people who attended is an indicator of poor communication between the council, negotiations team and the people. The first inquiry I have is where the loading dock would be relocated to and at what cost to us. Why isn't there any dollar amount talked about? Is it too ex pensive (lease or purchase) to print in (he document? It goes to say "it will be necessary to acquire additional land." The 3uestions is, at what price? The ad itional 1 7 adjacent acres are owned by the city of Madras and Jefferson County. You will recall that the tribe already pays the county $2 million per year from the dams and impact aid (school) funds. I've heard throughout the Indian grapevine that a lease has already been drawn up between Warm Springs and Madras. Isn't that counting your eggs before they hatch? The document says a board of trustees is comprised of ABOUThalf and half (WS and Madras) people to decide how the 6 "community fund" (profits) gets distributed. Who chairs this board and how will that person vote in case of a tie? Read between the lines on that one. If the casino were built on the reservation, we wouldn't have to worry about who votes how because the tribe would without doubt be the recipient of the fund. It would go the WS programs. Who knows better than us that the . needs are in the areas of education, -health, public safety, employment, economic development, cultural ac tivities and other needed services. The document sounds pretty sure of itself with such statements as, " with the opening of a new casino facility at Madras." If it were build here at Thank you Keith To the editor. We would like to say thank you to Keith Moody of CHR for the trans portation to Portland. Again, the surgery went well. We greatly appreciate your time and kindness. Keep up the good work and God bless!. From Kurtis & Jessie Polk The Human Resource Dept. is the most important of any organization. Yet, our profit-making casino & floundering resort lack qualified personnel to estab lish & initiate the affirmative action policy, so badly needed. Both establish ments have a track record of keeping the tribal employee in lower level jobs. Re quest an internal audit of their employee appraisal performance reviews of to compare the records. See how the tribal member will get a twenty-five cent an hour (if their lucky) to the non-member and the non-Indians increases. These non-members and non-Indians get at least one dollar an hour raise compared to the tribal member. These very same manag ers will promote a native who is either married into or just a native of another . tribe. Why? Because, the need to keep the tribal member from running a busi ness, in which, they have every right to run. A non-member native has no politi cal attachment with their employment, so they are easy to deal with. Let us stop letting these people exploit our people, , using our enterprises for their own per sonal gain. For over twenty-five years Kah-Nee-Tah has been operated as if it were not a tribal enterprise and ignoring tribal employment policies. The casino is worse. They flat out did not even offer chances of employment for the owners of this new proposed site of our current enterprise. No, we are suppose to be happy with a 250-dollar annual pay ment. Tribal Council, gets up, look around, take care our your resources-the people. Quit stalling; let the people know why you feel even with the highway being up for widening that you don't want the casino in the reservation. Did you know, the even though both establishmebts had some very qualified tribal member employees within the fi nance departments, none are left? What happened? Did these very same employ ees start to learn too much, so were driven from their positions? You ask who these employees are. Do the audit, review the records, talk to the individu als yourself and there is your proof. Are you afraid to have the people learn of these practices? To learn the truth? Our biggest profit-maker enterprise the casino, is i very big offender of tribal member rights. Does the controller of this enterprise take the word controller literally? Ask this manager how many regarding upcoming referendum home, there would be no question about sovereignty. Tribal members are concerned about taxable income. If it were built in Madras, it goes on to say, "The Tribe's legal counsel DOES NOT BELIEVE (emphasis added) tribal members would have to pay State income tax..." It looks like there is an element of uncertainty on whether or not our members would have to pay state tax. There would be no question if the casino, which would pay Indian employees of their being tax exempt. There are still a number of unknowns about the Madras site. Where is the tribe going to find an architect, a designer, and lundscapcr who will do their professional work for us free? In our general and district meetings we have talked about the type of customers who would pa tronize the facility and (he location. The tribal member response has been overwhelmingly to build on the res ervation. The document talks about the ADT(average daily traffic) which basically means how many vehicles travel through a given road or high way. It says, "just north of the casino site on Hwy 26, ADT is 7500. Just south of Madras city limits, where Hwy 26 merges into Hwy 97, ADT is 17,400." Let's take a closer look at these figures and what (hey mean. North of (he casino site means be tween WS and Madras. South of Madras city limits means where Highway 97 (from Biggs Junction to Madras) goes through Madras. How many tribal members are aware (hat Highway 26 from Deschutes River to the north boundary will be ex panded into a 4-lane highway within the next 5 to 10 years? This means to us WS residents that the traffic through the reservation will probably at least DOUBLE since it will be a wider , nicer highway. It is also the only direct route from Portland to Central Oregon, instead of traveling around 1-5 or Highway 97. I've also been told that the $ 1 8 million revenue figure given at the meetings for a casino on Highway 96 through WS was conservative. If we can make SIX times the amount as Indian Head Casino makes, whats wrong with that? The $ 1 8 million does not take into account the expansion of Highway 26. I'm a grass roots person. If I had a choice of driving a nice scenic route with a stopover between Gov ernment Camp and Warm Springs, I would choose Highway 26 to travel on. THE ADT COUNT IN THE DOCUMENT INCLUDES TRAF FIC FROM BOTH HIGHWAY 26 AND HIGHWAY 97 is my conclu sion since the count takes place on the SOUTH end of Madras. Common sense tells you that this would natu rally inflate the count, doesn't it? I don't believe that Mt. Hood and the Cascade Mountains are a detriment nor does it discourage central Or- Happy Birthday my sweet Sonny Boy Rolando Love Grandma 15 de Mayo IJeliz Cumple anosl , Roman Silva no Rem tribal members were employed there in finance when this person first got there. How many tribal member employees have this person gone through since then and lastly how many are employed there now. Does this manager try to employ these qualified tribal member employ ees with good promotions within the practices? Did you know tribal money pays for this controllers continued education to keep this position and establish points for their annual job increases? Shouldn't we be paying tribal members within the organization for furthering their educa tion within line for their jobcareer choices, so they may get those promo tions andor good reviews? Did you know the casino general manage lives in Bend, shouldn't he be closer to the job on hand? Hiring a table game supervisor (non-Indian) to be the night manager is not a solution. This is another ployperson who makes sure tribal members are at the lower rung of the ladder. Card dealer classes are of fered to tribal members, but this night manager never utilizes graduates of these classes. Did you know, the casino controller brags about the casino not being tribal? Where does this person think the money comes from? Did you now that this is this individual firs! time as a controller? Should such an important position be left with such a person who shows little or no regard to the owners of this enter prise? Is that why this person is taking these accounting exams to become qualified? This particular controller brags about her plan to move to Mexico when retirement comes up. Bye-bye tribal money. Have them train a tribal member for this important position now. Let the tribal casino pay a tribal mem bers education for the better of the busi ness and that person. Take a look at the last Kah-Nee-Ta controller. This person retired and is planning on leaving the area. This per son should have been made account about from day one. Instead Kah-Nee-Ta was bled, then bye-bye. Where does the general manager for Kah-Nee-Ti stay? Why was he brought back? We see no improvement from when he left the last time. Oh, there is one, his secretary (non-Indian) from his egon travelers or skiers at any lime during the year. In the summer and winter, people travel to Central Or egon since it is a good recreational area. When I voted for (lie dams (in favor ol). I was convinced to vote that way because of the fact the tribe would become part OWNER instead of leasing its land to PGE "Somewhat secured" terminology just doesn't cut it. It attempts to downplay the im- ;ortance of becoming part owner, his is a major step forward for us. It's crucial to start owning parts of it, especially for future generations. The document states, 'The Tribe has been contacted by several financial insti tutions that have come forward in terested in participating in the bid process." OK, why don't we utilize these financial institutions to build a casino ON THE RESERVATION. There is a lot open space on the reservation. There's room forexpan sion, whereas, we would be limited for space in Madras and have to buy or lease more land, plus pay for the "unknown" expenses. Our members would stand more of a chance to start businesses to compliment the casino if built here. The economy of WS would improve. I think a good starting point is right here at home. If the members so choose at a later date, when the time is right, they could consider another place, maybe even the Columbia River, which is our ancestral home. I understand Indian Head staff has been holding meetings with employees at various places around WS. Seems like a last ditch effort to get people to vote in favor of Madras. One of the tactics has been to fund a tribal department's trip which that department has been fund-raising for themselves. Our tribal members are wiser than that and can't be bought off. The casino staff has gone so far as to talk to mill employees and at tempt to tell them how to vote. Again, our people have minds of their own. In our hearts, we know Warm Springs is the best place to build. It has been home to us since 1 835. Our ancestors have been born here, lived their lives here, raised their families here and gone to thicr final resting place here. If you vote "No", this means tribal members will be given a CHOICE of where THEY want to build a casino. If you vote "Yes", this means you agree to build in Madras, which will more than likely cost us more money than we can afford to spend. It will take a vote of at least 670 tribal members to make this a valid election. Don't think your vote doesn't count. IT DOES count, and could be the deciding vote on whether to build at WS or Madras. Please take a few minutes out of your day and go vote. Let's make the right choice for the future. Thank you. Ginger Smith Tribal Member Hapy Birthday Grandma-Mom love you lots Lil Woody Jr. last stint here was made his Administra tive Manager, huh-is this a glorified title for a secretary or what. Maybe tribal members should start voting on all our tribal enterprises' bud gets on an annual basis. Monitor these title changes, make sure there is a real budget for such a position and fill it with a tribal member employee. A budget analysis report to compare against present casino profitlosses is a must for the tribal members. All of this data should be made available, so that an informed decision can be made on the upcoming referendum. We have a right to know what our establishment is really making. What percentage of the tribal establishment monies are LLppI Management's salaries and bonuses. Did you know, we pay both these General Managers annual commission (per con tract agreement) derived from our net profits. These commissions are calcu lated at a certain percentage for the capi tal gains the that year. These are paid out before the outside auditors have com pleted their findings. Is this really good business practice? These contract agree ments revolve around the manager's commitment to employ tribal members. Is this happening? Should not payment be withheld for non-completion & non-compliance? Don't you thing these very same managers would change their practices to achieve tribal member em ployment, and a good return on our eq uity if we held them accountable to their contract agreements? What has our board of directors done to insure these thing? Lastly, how can you ask us to build our new facility in a town which has little regard to the people of this nation? We have little control of this very prof itable organization on our own land, what hope do we have once it is off the reservation, catering to the very commu nity that does little for the tribes. People, honestly, can you really say, that of the 3000 plus enrollment num bers, we don't have any one who quali fies or can become qualified for these most vital position within our casino facility. Let's move forward with the vision our ancestors had for us. Let's take back our resources, use them for the better of the tribes, turn our economy around-look at the real solution-an in vestment in our people. Sandra Bninoe Tribal Member
