gR. COLL.
73
.S6B
v. 6
no. B
April 19, f
P.O. Box 870
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KMC lirriJHKAKY
U'Wl'NIVIiKSITYOFOKFGON
Fl'CliN!-, OK 9740 J
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U.S. Postage
Bulk Rate Permit No. 2
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Coyote News, est 1976
News from the mm SpHnqs Indian Reservation April 19, 2001 Vol. 26, No. 8
35 cents
Yymoo
Agreement
signed tor
new school
The Tribal Council and Jefferson
County School District 509-J have
signed a Memorandum of Under
standing to build an $8 million el
ementary school on the Warm
Springs Reservation.
The agreement calls for the
school, designed to hold up to 600
students, to be built on lands desig
nated by the Tribe and to be owned
by the Tribe. The school district
then would make lease payments on
the school for 20 yearsj after which
time the agreement could be re
viewed. In addition to having up to
24 classrooms and other space suit
able for a school, the building also
would be compatible for use during
non-school hours for community
events,
The school district also would
pay all costs of upkeep and mainte
nance. The agreements were signed last
week by the 509-J School Board and
the Tribal Council; a luncheon and
ceremony were held at Kah-Nee-Ta.
Woman
pleads to
child death
Tamera A. Coffee of Warm
Springs pleaded guilty to a federal
murder charge in U.S. District Court .
in Portland on Tuesday, April 17. A
trial had been scheduled for the same
morning, but Coffee's guilty plea,
which reversed an earlier not-guilty
plea, altered the day's proceeding.
The scheduled trial was stricken -and
Judge Malcolm F. Marsh set sen
tencing for 9:30 a.m. July 31. A pre
sentence investigation will be con
ducted by the U.S. Probation Office
and a report will be filed with Marsh
(who allowed Coffee's conditional
release to continue until the sentenc
ing date) but Coffee's reported agree
ment with prosecutors includes a
multi-year prison sentence.
The murder charge was filed in
connection with the death of
Coffee's 4-year-old foster son,
Andres Estaban Saragos. Andres died
July 13, 2000, of heat stroke, after
being left in a car for several hours
with outside temperatures exceeding
90 degrees. According to federal pros
ecutors, the boy had lived with Cof
fee and her husband as a foster child
for about two and a half years.
The federal statute for second
degree murder says the 34-year-old
Coffee showed an extreme disregard
for human life. Reports state that
Coffee was angry with Andres and
left him in the car while she was
working.
Shortly after the death was re
ported she said she was keeping track
of the boy and the car windows were
cracked. However, Coffee's story
changed several times during the
weeks following Andres' death, and
prosecutors from the US. Attorney's
office said they had a witness who
would testify the windows were
rolled up while Andres was in the
car. Reports also indicate Andres was
left in the car from approximately 8
a.m. until 5 p.m. and Coffee never
checked to see how he wjas doing.
' E:ederal law enforcement and
prosecutors say they and Coffee
agreed to a sentencing recommenda
tion of 78 months. The final sentenc-'
ing decision remains up to the judge.
The guilty plea wanes Coffee's right
to an appeal.
iHbal
Single challenger
lands a position
Voters went to the polls to elect a
new Tribal Council in Warm Springs
on Monday, April 9. Voter turnout
was down slightly as 1,034 ballots
were cast, which is slightly less than
50 percent of the registered voters.
Madeline Qucahpama-Spino, Vit.d
Statistics Supervisor, said in the last
couple of Tribal Council elections
the turnout has been around 60 per
cent. There were 239 absentee bal
lots cast and 17 were spoiled. There
are 2,092 registered Tribal voters.
The Warm Springs Tribal Coun
cil is the central governing author
ity of the Confederated -Tribes. This
eleven-member body includes eight
elected members, who serve three
year terms, and three traditional
chiefs who serve for life. There are
three districts on the reservation,
with a Chief from each district. The
Simnasho and Agency Districts each
have three elected representatives,
and the Seekseekqua District has two
elected representatives.
Tribal Council is responsible for
setting policy, and hires a Secretary
Treasurer and Chief Operations
Officer to carry out the day-to-day
operations of the tribal organization.
In the only change brought. by
the election, Ron Suppah Sr., the
manager of The Three Warriors
Market in Simnasho, unseated in- -cumbent
Earl Squierhphen'in the '
Simnasho District. The top vote get
ters in the Agency District were
Garland Brunoe, 196 votes, Bernice
Mitchell, 192 votes, and Zane Jack
son, 190.
In the Simnasho District,
Raymond Tsumpti garnered 142
votes, followed by Ronald Suppah Sr.
with 125 and Olney Patt, Jr. with
109. In the Seekseekqua District Joe
Moses had 53 votes and Brenda
Scott, 29 votes. There were 35 de
clared candidates reservation-wide.
Holding tanks are part of the enterprise's large operation..
Council
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Members of the 22nd Tribal Council include (clockwise, beginning at top left) Garland Brunoe, Zane
Jackson, Bernice Mitchell, Olney Patt Jr., Ronald Suppah Sr. and Brenda Scott. Election day was a
busy one for voters and those who worked at the polls at the Community Wellness Center.
election
4
Tectonics International continues
to develop innovative products
By Nat Shaw
Tribal Relations
The Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs has long been consid
ered a leader in economic develop
ment among Indian tribes in the
United States.
In the early 1940s the Tribe paid
out its first per-capita payment from
revenue generated by timber sales.
In the 50s, Tribal leadership negoti
ated with Portland General Electric
on two dams PGE wanted to build
"on the Deschutes River. In the 60s
the Tribe repurchased the hot
springs from the Smith, Maxine, and
Taylor Corporation for $165,000
and built Kah-Nee-Ta Village. It was
during this decade, with the pur
chase of the Jefferson Plywood
Company and Warm Springs Lum
ber Company, that the Tribe started
processing its own timber. In the
1970s the Tribe completed phase II
of the Kah-Nee-Ta project. In the
negotiations with PGE back in the
1950s, the Tribe reserved the right
to install a turbine in the
rcrcgulation dam at sometime in the
future. The future arrived in 1981
when Warm Springs Power Enter
prise installed that turbine and
started generating and selling elec
tricity. In the 1990s at a time when the
Tribe was downsizing Warm Springs
Forest Products, John Henning, the
Tribe's Chief Financial Officer, was
talking to representatives from Struc
sees one
,
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tural Technology Incorporated
(STT). STI was developing a fireproof
panel, and was in the early stages of
creating Tectonke TM. The Tribe
had a facility (the old plywood mill),
manpower and finances. STI had the
technology and market savvy. An
agreement was reached and Tecton
ics International (TI) was founded.
The evolution of Tectonics Interna
tiona since then is well documented.
The company is a joint venture in
which the Tribes have a 51 inter
est and Structural Technology Incor
porated (STI) a 49 interest.
Tectonics International primarily
performs two tasks. They do re
search and development on new
products, and they license compa
nies to use their technology. TI then
collects royalties for the use of that
technology. Warm Springs Compos
ite Products, Sci-Tech Building Sys
tems of Cortland, 111, and Cascade
Fence and Barrier, Inc. (CFB, Inc)
of Warm Springs arc all licensees of
TI. TI relies solely on money that is
generated through royalties and is
not included in the annual Tribal
Budget.
Tectonite TM is the technology
that Phil Rodda and Terry Turner
have developed that is at the core of
a number of projects. Warm Springs
Composite Products uses it for
manufacturing stiles and rails for
fireproof doors. Ted Brunoe, of
CFB, Inc., markets a form of
Tectonite TM rapid strength poly
Univfrsity of
Received 6m C
Spilyay tyioo.
change
rtv... i- i"m$F
meric cement to repair a wide array
of cement structures, including high
ways and bridge decks. Sci-Tech
Building Systems uses a variation of
Tectonite TM cement to produce a
decorative face for concrete tilt-up
panels.
Now, Tectonics International
may have developed a revolutionary
technology with Tectonite TM ce
ment that could rock the nuclear
industry. Turner and Rodda have
been working with scientists at the
Hanford Reservation in Richland,
Washington for the last four years.
Hanford is reputed to be one of the
most contaminated sites in the
world. The manufacture of Pluto-
nium for use in nuclear weapons in
the early 1940s, and subsequently
three nuclear power plants in the
early 1970s resulted in the genera
tion of tremendous quantities of
hazardous by-products.
The neutralization and storage of
these hazardous effluents at this site,
and others around the world, have
proven to be incredibly expensive
and in a large part, ineffective. Over
the years, increasing amounts of liq
uid waste have permeated some of
the site's 28 concrete waste reposi
tory tanks and have found its way
into subterranean groundwater net
works. Tectonite TM is versatile, fast-setting,
high early strength magnesium
phosphate cement.
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