OR. COLL.
73
.sea
v. 27 ;
no. IS
July 5,
2002 n
P.O. Box 870
AO Q77R1
SERIALS DEPT.
KNIGIIT LIBRARY
1299 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
EUGENE, OR 97403
U.S. Postage
Bulk Rate Permit No. 2
Warm Springs, OR 97761
50 cents
July 25, 2002 Vol. 27, No. 15
Coyote News, est. 1976
M Spflygy Tymoo
Budget
woes
deepen
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
The Confederated Tribes' budget
for the current year is expected to see
a significant reduction in revenues. To
compensate for the revenue shortfall,
a number of "belt tightening" mea
sures are under consideration, prima
rily expenditure cuts that could reach
as high as $6 million.
The tribes' annual budget is an au
thorization from the Tribal Council
to spend funds for various govern
mental programs based on revenue es
timates for the year.
' The current year budget is seeing
a shortfall mainly because revenue
from Warm Springs Power Enter
prises is well below the amount that
had earlier been projected.
The current revenue projection for
Power Enterprises is about $6.8 mil
lion less than projected in November
of last year.
. "This has nothing to do with the
effort that Power Enterprises is mak
ing," said Willy Fuentes, the tribes'
Chief Operations Officer.
I The problem, he said, is that the
power market is not performing the
way people had expected.
Please see BUDGET on page 10'
Snakebite
incident
hamming
At first Dondi Foster did not real
ize he had been bitten by a rattle
snake. The snake had been a young one,
and did not yet have a ratde to warn
people to stay away.
It was Pi-Ume-Sha weekend, and
Foster had been out in his yard.
When he went inside, he began
feeling a pain shooting through his
left hand and up his arm.
Soon the muscles in his arm con
tracted. His arm became stiff and immov
able against his chest. From the house
Pearl Wyman called 9-1-1 and the am
bulance arrived.
"At first we thought it was a spi
der bite," said Wyman.
Warm Springs Emergency Medical
Services arrived and examined Foster.
Still not aware that he had been bit
ten by a rattlesnake, the EMS team
rushed Foster to Mountain View
Hospital.
"I was in unbelievable pain. My
whole body hurt," said Foster.
At the hospital, the Emergency
Room workers determined that Fos
ter had been bitten by a rattlesnake.
They found two small puncture
wounds on his left middle finger.
The doctor tested Foster to see if
he could take the anti-venom. He
tested okay, so they gave him the anti
venom. He finally stabilized at 3:30 in the
morning.
He was unconscious for the next
three days. "When I woke up I didn't
know where I was," said Foster. He
continued to rest up at home, but last
week he was finally able to daily ac
tivity. The snakebite damaged the
nerves in his finger and hand. The
venom also killed the skin and some
tissue on his hand.
Please see SNAKEBITE on 10
its iremmemmbeir Celilo
12th annual elders picnic a chance to revisit site of falls
Ed
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. . : , . . -1 . ':, i -
Dave McMechanSpilyay
Freda Wallulatum enjoys lunch with friends and.family at the Tnblal Elders Celilo Picnic.
: ;' - "1 !
Suspects arrested; in burglary spree
U.S. Attorney
may file charges
Warm Springs police made sev
eral arrests in connection with a
string of burglaries that have hap
pened on the reservation over the
past several months.
Six juveniles and three adults
were arrested, and more arrests are
expected, according to a report by
Warm Springs police.
In addition to the arrests, po
lice recovered approximately
37,0O0 worth of items believed to
have been stolen from local resi
dences, the police report says.
One of the more recent burglar-
T
ietttlbtired'tO'tric.'iMspectS 'was par
ticularly disturbing.
In this case, a tribal elder had been
hospitalized for a time.
Taking advantage of the situation,
the juveniles broke into the elder
person's home, and stole several items.
Total value of property taken during
this one burglary was $30,000.
The youth suspected of this crime
show a complete lack of respect even
for elders, said Don Courtney, Chief
of Warm Springs Police.
The case is so serious that the US.
Attorney's Office is considering fil
ing federal charges against the sus
pects, according to the police report
Courtney also reminded people
that the purchase of stolen items can
lead to the arrest of the person in
possession.
In other recent Warm Springs po
lice news:
Over the course of the Pi-Ume-Sha
Treaty Days celebration, 144
people were arrested and processed
through the Warm Springs Jail.
The good news is that no one was
killed or seriously injured during
event, said Police Chief Courtney.
During Pi-Ume-Sha, police estab
lished three sobriety check-points,
resulting in eight drivers being
charged with being under the influ
ence, according to the police report
Also, ten people were charged
with drug-related violations during
the event.
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
Indians of the Columbia River
tribes gathered recently at Celilo
Park.
Some of the elder people who were
present remembered Celilo before the
construction of The Dalles Dam.
The dam flooded Celilo Falls and
many other nearby fishing sites that
Indians had used from time immemo
rial. This was the 50th anniversary of
the flooding of the mighty Celilo
Falls. Celilo Park is located near the
small Celilo community, and just
above the area where the falls used to
be.
"You hear the trains and the cars
going by, but there is one sound you
don't hear," said William Burke, a
chief of the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla.
"You don't hear the sound of the
falls. But for some of us, that sound
will always remain."
Wasco Chief Nelson Wallulatum
told of the history of the Celilo area,
and the importance the site has for
his people. Warm Springs Chief
Delvis Heath also addressed the gath
ering of several hundred peoplp.
On hand for the event were people
of the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs, Umatilla, Yakama and Nez
Perce - the four treaty tribes 6f the
Columbia River.
The event was coordinated by the
seniors programs of the tribes. There
was a strong feeling of unity and of
being together.
The reservation system did not
separate the Columbia River tribes,
which have always had close ties, said
Rudy Clements, master of ceremonies
for the picnic.
The day's activities were initiated
by the introduction of the colors by
the veterans of foreign wars.
The food was plentiful, served by
many volunteers, including youths
from the different tribes.
The meal was prepared at the
Celilo Longhouse.
Fire season off to very busy start
One hundred people from
Warm Springs Fire Management
have been at work over the past
two weeks in helping contain the
Eyerly Fire. In all, over 1,000
firefighters from around the coun
try have helped in battling the
blaze, which destroyed 18 homes
in rural Jefferson County.
The fire, which broke out July
9 on the south end of the reserva
tion, has been one of the larger
fires in recent years in Central
Oregon.
The Eyerly Fire also came to
ward the start of the fire season,
meaning that local crews will
likely be busy for quite a while.
"I think we're looking at hot
ter and dryer conditions as we get
more into summer," said Gary
Cooke, Warm Springs Fire Man
agement Officer.
The region will see increasingly
higher fire danger probably until
early October, said Cooke.
The Eyerly Fire burned ap
proximately 23,000 acres.
The fire, named for the Eyerly
property on the Mctolius, burned
about 2,000 acres on the reserva
tion, and another 21,000 off.
The fire began on the reserva
tion in a timbcrtand area, but then
In la 1 1 hi ii ; ii i ii ii in i ii j l l , i il l i . L.Jil'W lii l .11 1 i u illL,.MLI HI I I""" " ' ' 1 "
Air tanker makes a retardant drop on the Eyerly Fire
Photo by Doug Calvin tor Spilyay
burned mainly into rangeland.
The fire broke out at about 2 p.m.
on July 9, a Tuesday. At that time,
Warm Springs Fire Management re
sponded with a helicopter and two
engines. Twenty-six personnel were
on the scene. After the initial re
sponse, Fire Management, a branch
of BIA, sent an additional engine and
six additional personnel.
Meanwhile, a seven-person crew
arrived from the Forestry Depart
ment. Prinevillc BLM also sent a he
licopter, and a five-person crew ar
rived by boat from the Sister's Dis
trict of the U.S. Forest Service.
A 20-person crew was on the scene
during the night of July 9, while two
additional 20-person crews and an
other helicopter were ordered for the
following day.
See FIRE on page 10
Eyerly Fire
first big test
for GeoVisions
In a trailer at the Culver base
camp of the Eyerly Fire, you find
some of the most sophisticated
and high-tech mapping equip
ment in the nation.
The personnel operating the
equipment specialize in digital
mapping systems. They use a sat
ellite hook-up, and state-of-the-art
mapping software. The trailer is
the key clement of GeoVisions, a
new enterprise of the Confeder
ated Tribes.
GeoVisions was formed early
this year. The technology and per
sonnel of the enterprise are a part
of the tribes' Geographic Infor
mation System, or GIS office, a
department of the Natural Re
sources Branch.
The Eyerly Fire has been the
first real test of the new
GeoVisions mobile trailer, made
operational just 10 days before the
fire broke. By all standards,
GeoVisions has passed the test.
See GEOVISIONS on page 10
' SP'W two. 2