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Warm Springs, Oregon
January 25, 2001 9
A Day at the Opera
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Editor's note: Following is the
' text oj a speecn uj uiney run jr.,
chairman of the Warm Springs Tribal
, Council, given at the Government to
, Government Summit, Portland State
i" University, in December 2000.
My fellow Tribal Chairs, Gov
ernor Kitzhaber, tribal representa
tives, agency heads and liaisons, I
; have the honor to represent the Tribal
'' Council of the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs Reservation of
!! Oreeon at this Dotentiallv historic
; o r w
, gathering. This is the last such gath-
. enng ueiore a legislative session uui
ing the term of this Governor. This
legislature is less combative and more
interested in working together for
r solutions than any of the last decade.
' We have a brief moment to combine
solutions to the primary problem of
, our time and our region.
Of rnnrse I'm l:ilkincr ahont
' real salmon recovery: fish enough to
catch, not just to propagate. I'm talk
' ing about needed responses to over
use oi our natural iesuuii.es, luiai
' economic development and education
1 initiatives. And I"m talking about the
responsibility of all Oregonians to
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restore our birthright of salmon-rich
streams and not to be deterred and
distracted by Measure 7 and limited
ideas of property rights.
We approach sesquicentennial
of our Treaties with the U.S. The as
tounding decline of salmon can only
be understood by looking at the
wealth of our rivers at the time of
treaty-making. The Creator gave our
people a gift without price: abundant
salmon runs that made us as rich as
any people in what is now the United
States. We didn't need a livability
initiative; just follow the plan the Cre
ator set in place for us. When our lead
ers turned over most of land to the
newcomers, they had no idea that this
gift would be thrown away. Few than
five percent of the salmon return to
the rivers today.
Governor, you are well aware
of the problem. We applaud you for
putting salmon recovery at the top of
the agenda. We know you will keep
it there despite challenges of Measure
7. This measure is a warning sign that
some do not understand the damage
they are doing by their land abuses.
At this critical time, the Treaty
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Tribes and the States need to partners,
not opponents, in salmon recovery.
The Columbia River Fish Manage
ment Plan works for harvest. The
CRFMP just needs to be revised to
include production. When it was first
put in place it was a model agreement
for the entire nation. It can be again.
Let us devote ourselves to this im-,,
provement and end the need for fre
quent trips to the federal courthouse.
Even as we do this, we must ,
respond to our depleted natural re
sources with rural economic develop
ment and education initiatives. The
real wealth of Oregon is in healthy
forests and streams, not in money
banked from the destruction of these
priceless wonders. With lots of help
from our trustee, we made the mis
take of converting too many trees into
dollars. Today we pay the price with
sharply reduced revenues from our
forests. Our story is the story of all of
Oregon. The sad fact is our losses
translate into the need for more eco
nomic development. Livability with
poverty is still w hat one-third of our
people - and so many rural Orego
nians - have to look forward to un
less the state gets serious about incen
tives and education.
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The answer lies not in crowd
ing more Oregonians into cities, but
in innovative development in rural
Oregon. The Warm Springs Tribes
continually seek business opportuni
ties on or near our reservation: tour
ism in the Cnlnmhia Gorce. industrial
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development and energy acquisition
near Warm Springs, to name a few.
We can work together to see incen
tives for rural investments enacted in
the 2001 Session. We must work to
gether to improve funding for capital
improvements to rural schools so that
our people can benefit from the jobs
we create.
A final point: I urge you, Gov
ernor, not to let Measure 7 slow your
hand. We opposed Measure 7, and we
urge every Tribe to join in stopping
it. We agree with you that Measure 7
is not about preventing salmon recov
ery. Still it opens the door for the
greedy to profit from doing what they
should do anyw ay. It is a test of our
determination to achieve a return to
the way of life all Oregonians have
as our birthright. Streams should be
full of fish, as they were for so many
thousands of years. This is how the
Creator made this world. People of
Warm Springs Elementary
Treated to Portland Opera's
Cinderella
Students at Warm Springs Elementary spent an afternoon at the
opera last Friday - and never left school. Instead they were visited
by members of Portland Opera's artist-in-residence program who
staged a fabulous production of Cinderella. The performers,
recruited nationwide for the opera's educational outreach program,
were well-received by students, staff and guests.
With only a few movable sets, minimal costume changes and the
accompaniment of the school piano, the young troupe transported
the enraptured audience to Cinderella's home as well as the
Prince's palace.
One of the goal's of the outreach program is to introduce opera to
students as an entertaining as well as significant art form. Judging
from the laughter elicited by the antics of Cinderella's jealous step
sisters as well as the hushed attention to Cinderella's lovely solo,
the troupe succeeded in their goal.
In true fairy tale tradition, both the performance and the school
week ended on a happy note.
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ignorance have injured the streams.
No one gave them the right to
do this damage. Our people had no
concept of the destructive force of
some of the newcomers to our coun
try. Your people could not foresee
this in 1855, either. In both of our
ancient traditions, owning land has
meant taking stewardship for all the
people, fish and others who must live
there and pass through. Ownership is
not a license to bring devastation
upon our fellow beings. It is not an
entitlement to destroy the way of life,
the very livelihood of our neighbors.
Observing this principle is very
important to our whole range of prop
erty rights under our Treaty and the
federal laws that protect these rights.
Measure 7 cannot touch the Tribes'
Treaty property rights. This is not just
about the fish, but about the deer and
elk and other game animals that must
have a home. Our cultural plants that
the Treaty guarantees our gathering
are also immune from Measure 7.
Huckleberries, cam as, and cous are
important foods as they have always
been. We call upon you. Governor,
to help us preserve these resources
from greed, as you have been work
Cinderella (far left), sung by
mezzo-soprano Marie Bafus,
wins the heart of the handsome
Prince, tenor Ken Lavigne
(below), despite the efforts of the
wicked stepsisters and their
father played by Esther Moses,
Jade Edwards and Virginia
Peche (near left) to capture him
for themselves.
saDmrnoin)
ing to do in the riparian zones. Also,
we call upon you to protect our buri
als and other cultural resources that
this process promised two years ago.
At the beginning of this talk, I
called this a "potentially historic
meeting." The potential lies in our
work together in this Legislative ses
sion and for the last two years of the
Governor's term. 1
If we work together to restore
salmon to harvestable levels ...
If we labor to improve business
opportunities in and near Indian
Country, with public education fund
ing so that our children may have the
skills to benefit from the opportuni
ties... If we unite to stop extreme ver
sions of property rights from saving
salmon habitat and die homes of other
important animals and plants and sav
ing our ancestors and cultural re
sources on and in the land . . . then this
government-to-government process
and this meeting will prove historic
for our people.
Thank you.