UK. CULL
E
75
.S68
v. 27
no. 17
August
22. 2002
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
SERIALS DEPT
KNIGHT LIBRARY
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Bulk Rate Permit No. 2
Warm Springs, OR 97761
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August 22, 2002 Vol. 27, No. 17
Coyote News, est. 1976
Suspect
confesses
to 1987
murder
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
Margaret Lorraine Still died 15 years
ago, at the age of 23. She and a friend,
Gabriel Sanchez Ramos, were mur
dered while traveling in California as
farm workers.
During all these years, the murders
went unsolved. But last week a man
turned himself in to the police in Ari
zona. He confessed to the murders in
1987 of Margaret Still and Gabriel
Sanchez.
Margaret Still was a Warm Springs
tribal member, the youngest of 13 chil
dren. The news that a suspect was fi
nally in custody for her murder came
as a shock to her family members.
Danny Martinez, an older brother
of Margaret, received word of the ar
rest on the Friday afternoon of the
employee picnic.
It was an emotionally draining ex
perience, he said, because suddenly you
re-live the worst of times, such as
when he had to travel to California with
relatives to identify the body of his sister-
Since receiving news of the arrest,
the surviving family members of Mar
garet Still have gotten together and
talked about it. Martinez said he and
others have considered participating in
the sentencing against the suspect,
whose name is Daniel Hernandez
Castillo.
"But for now," he said, "I don't think
I could sit in the same room with him."
Over the years, family members of
Margaret Still have kept in touch with
the California detective who has been
in charge of the case. There were no
arrests until unexepectedly, on Monday,
Aug. 5, Castillo, 34, turned himself in
to the Nogales, Ariz, police.
According to police, he confessed
to killing Margaret Still and Gabriel
Sanchez Ramos in Sutter County, Ca
lif., in early December of 1987.
The victims had been bludgeoned
to death.
Tribes
exploring
wind power
generation
Warm Springs Power Enterprises
has received a grant in the amount of
$460,000 to study the possibility of
developing wind power generation fa
cilities. The grant, to last two to three years,
will fund the placement of wind-monitoring
towers at various sites around
the reservation.
The towers, between 60 and 150
feet high, may be up by the end of the
year, said Jim Manion, manager of
Warm Springs Power Enterprises.
The grant will also fund engineering
services, and an economic analysis, said
Manion.
You cannot get funding for devel
opment of wind generation facilities
without the necessary marketing infor
mation, he said.
The $460,000 grant comes from the
US. Department of Energy.
The wind-monitoring towers will
have computer systems that will record
the relevant data.
The Interesting Case of Thomas Jim
Old land transactions at Hood River spark interest among tribal officials
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
The story is an old one, and time
has obscured some of the details.
But the old facts have now be
come of interest, and of possible im
portance to tribal leaders.
The case involves large events,
such as the construction in the 1910s
and '20s of the Columbia River
Highway.
Much more obscure events are
Season for huckleberries
mm
fell
3
As new school year begins,
district faces uncertain budget
Jefferson County School District
509-J will see some budget cuts for
the 2002-2003 school year.
The good news this week is that
the cuts for the upcoming school
year will not be nearly as large as
they might have been.
"This is not the best case scenario,
but it is far from the worst case,"
said Jim Manion, school district
board member.
Of its $25 million annual budget,
school district 509-J was facing a po
tential cut of nearly $2 million.
However, the $2 million was re
duced earlier this week, when the Or
egon Legislature overrode a key bud
get veto by Gov. Kitzhaber.
The veto would have cut $267
million statewide from the 2002
2003 schools budget.
For district 509-J, the veto would
have reduced the 2002-2003 school
budget by over $1.3 million.
The Legislature did not override
the governor's veto of a bill that
would have allowed bonding of fu
ture tobacco settlement money.
This veto could result in a fairly
significant reduction in the upcom
ing school year budget, "but wc did
dodge the big bullet," said Phil Riley,
509-J district superintendent.
Riley said that the school year is
also under scrutiny. These include land
transactions that happened 80 or so
years ago.
The parties to these land sales are
the State of Oregon and an Indian by
the name of Thomas Jim, who was of
Wasco ancestry.
Thomas Jim used to own the 40
acre Hood River property where the
Confederated Tribes are planning to
build a casino.
Jim acquired the property as a gov
laiji mTtm w tffni
Shannon KeavenySpilyay
"There are many factors
that are not jet clear. "
Phil Riley
School district superintendent
beginning for 509-J with quite a bit of
uncertainty as to the district budget.
For instance, voters in the state on
Sept. 17 will consider a ballot measure
that would provide immediate funding
to schools from a reserve fund.
It is possible that the Legislature may
again meet in special session and de
cide to refer a new funding proposal
to voters in November.
So for now, Riley said, the district
board may want to wait and sec how
these future matters arc resolved, be
fore initiating serious budget cuts.
"There are many factors that are not
yet clear," said Riley.
I Ic also said that state schools bud
get will present a serious challenge for
the state legislators who are elected in
November.
While the present year budget is not
going to sec as serious a reduction as
might have been, the same cannot be
said for the following year. The next
Jefferson County School District 509
J Board of Directors meeting is sched
uled for 7:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 26.
ernment allotment in the early 1920s.
He lived there for several years, fish
ing on the Columbia, and working as a
woodcutter.
He had a house on the property. A
daughter was born there to Thomas Jim
and his wife.
The daughter was Adeline Symentire
Morrison, grandmother of Dora
Goudy, who works as the development
coordinator at The Museum at Warm
Springs.
The traditions of the huckleberry
have endured, having passed from
generation to generation since time
immemorial.
Today as always, the hope for the
future of these traditions is with the
young people of the tribes.
The Warm Springs Branch of the
Boys and Girls Club provides one
example of older people sharing
their knowledge of the huckleber
ries with younger tribal members,
helping ensure that the traditions live
on. Others are also helping.
See page 6 for more on the huckle
berries, and the people who gather and
care for the berries.
At left, Marena Flores, of the Boys
and Girls Club, picks huckleberries
during a recent field trip.
Government to appeal
McQuinn timber award
The federal government has in
dicated that it will appeal the $13.8
million judgment in the McQuinn
Strip blow-down case.
A federal trial court judge earlier
this summer handed down the judg
ment in favor of the Confederated
Tribes against the Bureau of Indian
Affairs.
The government's notice of in
tent to appeal the judgement was not
unexpected, said Dennis Karnopp,
tribal attorney.
lie said also that the parties to
the case - the Confederated Tribes
and the U.S. Justice Department,
representing the BIA - still possibly
could reach a settlement.
The government's notice of ap
peal was filed August 16. The Jus
tice Department has 60 days from
that date to file its legal brief with
the appellate court.
The $13.8 million judgment is in
tended to compensate the tribes for
BIA mismanagement of the sale of
timber harvested from the
McQuinn Strip in 1990.
The judge in the case.Judge Rob
ert Hodges, awarded the $13.8 mil
lion in June of this year after the
tribes appealed his 1999 judgment
of $225,000.
ufiivt-f biLy oi
deceived on:
Spilyay tymoo
Some time ago, Dora and her grand
mother used to travel on occasion be
tween The Dalles and Portland, as they
had relatives in each location.
On some of these trips, "My grand
mother would point to a hillside, and
she would say that is where she was
born," said Dora.
The hillside is near the town of
Hood River
Please THOMAS JIM on 10
i
Warm Springs
Library opens
The Warm Springs Library cel
ebrated its grand opening on Wednes
day of this week, Aug. 21.
The library is in the Family Resource
Center building
Along with the library, the Family
Resource Center also marked an offi
cial grand opening on Wednesday.
On hand for the event were over
60 interested and supportive members
of the community.
The Family Resource Center, which
used to be the old clinic, was remod
eled last year. The building now houses
the Community Health Education
Team (CHET), Adult and Family Ser
vices (AFS), and Early Headstart
Central Oregon Community College
also has an office in the remodeled
building
The newest addition to the Family
Resource, the Warm Springs Library
was several years in the planning and
preparation phase.
Julie Quaid, director of Essential
Education, worked on grant proposals
for the library.
She worked with the Jefferson
County Library District, and Oregon
State University on the grant applica
tions. Coordinating the work toward the
grand opening has been Shawnele
Shaw, who has served as the library
development assistant
The library has an initial inventory
of over 2,200 books.
In the 1999 decision, Hodges agreed
with the tribes that the BIA had
breached its trust responsibility in the
handling of the 1990 McQuinn Strip
blown-down sale.
However, he also concluded that the
tribes' request for compensation - $18
million - was speculative, and he
awarded the tribes the $225,000.
The tribes appealed I lodges' deci
sion to the Court of Appeals of the
federal circuit in Washington, D.C.
The appeals court agreed with the
Confederated Tribes that the request
for higher damages from the federal
government was justified, and not
overly speculative.
The case was sent back to Judge
I lodges for a determination of dam
ages. Hodges then handed down a new
judgment in favor of the tribes total
ing $13,805,607.
The federal government has now
indicated that it will appeal the new
judgment, which in part read as follows:
"The government failed to use
proper procedures in practically every
phase of this sale..."
And, "The BIA has not cooperated
with the court or with the Confeder
ated Tribes in resolving this case, de
spite many opportunities to do so."
3
Oregon Liorarv
08-27-02
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