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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 2002)
P.O. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 Spilyay Tymo OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1230 SW PARK AVE. PORTLAND, OR 97205 RECEIVED DEC 0 A 2B8S- Postage Bulk Rate Permit No. 2 Coyote News, est. 1976 November 28, 2002 Vol. TJ, No. 24 Or©! 50 cents Changes in store at lodge B y D a v e McMechan Spilyay Tymoo Carol Funk has been hired as the new director of High Lookee Lodge. , Funk has a medical background, and also was a manager at Kah-N ee-Ta Resort. Funk, of Culver, will likely start as the new director o f High Lookee on Dec. 9. The current director Amy Carlson has taken another job with Concepts in Community Living, the company the tribes hired to manage High Lookee. Carlson has been with High Lookee since its opening in 2000. She has taken the job o f regional manager for Con cepts in Community Living. The change in directorship is one o f a number o f changes that are hap pening at High Lookee. Tribal Council, for instance, is considering a means of having the Indian Health Service (IHS) help in the funding o f the lodge. For the coming budget year, Coun cil m eanw hile has ap p ro p ria te d $250,000 for High Lookee. I f IHS comes through with funding, though, it may be possible for the tribes to save some o f the $250,000, said Charles Jackson, Secretary-Treasurer. W hen High Lookee opened two years ago, Tribal Council appropriated $500,000 for operation o f the lodge. ■This m oney fu n d ed the operation through most o f this year. The hope o f the tribes is one day for High Lookee to be self-funding, said Willy Fuentes, Chief Operations Officer. The challenge in meeting that goal, he said, is to increase the occupancy rate at High Lookee. There are ap proximately 20 residents at the lodge, but an occupancy rate o f about 30 would help make High Lookee finan cially independent, said Fuentes. Construction has new general manager Glenn Carpenter has been hired as the Warm Springs Construction Enter prise general manager. Carpenter was hired by Construc tion in 1999 as superintendent o f roads, and has been overseeing all road projects on the reservation. Carpenter has 30 years o f professional experience in roads and other construction work. Warm Springs Ventures, the tribes’ economic developm ent corporation, announced last week that Carpenter had been hired as general manager. . Ventures earlier this fall took over management o f the Construction E n terprise, and has implemented a num ber o f organizational changes. Ventures announced last week that the Construction Enterprise would be relocating from the Utilities D epart ment building to the Apparel Factory building, offering more space for Con struction. T he A pparel Factory has been mostly vacant for some time. Have a Happy ^Thanksgiving^ INSIDE Holiday events..................... page 2 Committee reports............ page 3 Letters.................................. page 4 Basketball.............. .........page 6 Languages.................. pages 8,9 Basket art.................................10 Council makes fire hall a priority Project for Seekseequa had been on hold The Tribal Council has made the construction and operation o f a fire hall in the Seekseequa District a pri ority for 2003. The tribal government budget for the coming year includes over half a million dollars for equipping the new fire hall, and for its operation and maintenance. The Council for the 2001 budget appropriated $250,000 for construc tion o f the Seekseequa Fire Hall. The 2003 budget includes $225,000 for its operation and maintenance, plus $330,000 for equipment. T he 2003 budget, ap p ro v ed by Council last week, also acknowledges that the Seekseequa Fire Hall has fund ing priority over a proposed new fire hall that will serve the Sidwalter area. The budget includes a provision to reallocate $200,000 that Council had earlier designated for construction o f a Sidwalter Fire Hall. The $200,000 instead would be used on the Seekseequa Fire Hall, according to the budget provision. T he $200,000 figure makes up a good part o f the $330,000 that will be used for equipment o f the Seekseequa hall. Last week, during discussion o f the 2003 budget, Joe Moses, Paiute Chief o f the Council, said the Seekseequa Fire Hall has been delayed far too long. The fire hall project was on track for construction over a year ago, he said, but then the project stalled. Please see F IR E H A L L on page 3 School district board hears tribal concerns Warm Springs parents share their ideas on use o f Impact A id funds By Shannon Keaveny Spilyay Tymoo Wyatt Frank drums during the Native American program at the Jefferson County Middle School. The event last week was part of Native American Appreciation Month. The Jefferson County School Dis trict 509-J Board o f Directors gath ered at the Warm Springs Elementary School on Monday night with tribal member parents. The district encouraged parents to make recommendations concerning the needs o f their children in the educa tional programs assisted by Impact Aid funds. Julie Q uaid, p a re n t and W arm Springs Early Childhood Education di rector, presented a letter to the 509-J board. In light o f economic strife on the reservation and in the state, Quaid re quested the district maintain and im prove the strength o f the core curricu lum at all grade levels, mentioning spe cifically the importance o f strong lan guage arts, math and reading for N a tive American children. Quaid recom m ended that educa tional services, programs and activities Budget forces difficult choices B y Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo Tribal Council has decided to use $1.5 million from the Credit Enter prise as a source o f funds for the 2003 tribal government budget. The Council also decided to use approximately $2 million from the tribes’ revenue reserve, or rainy day fund, but only if the tribal general fund working capital reserve drops below $6 million, which is the mini mum balance needed to pay current payroll and other essential expendi tures. Thes'e décisions by Council help to demonstrate the seriousness of the budget situation facing the Con- federated Tribes. To maintain an adequate level o f government service, and also to lessen the need for employee layoffs, the Council decided to withdraw $1.5 mil lion o f “Interest Earnings from Idle Cash” accumulated in Credit’s retained earnings, leaving approximately $6 mil lion o f such accumulated earnings on Credit’s books. In the same spirit the Council de cided for the first time to use accumu lated prior years’ earnings of the tribal rainy day fund. Over the past two years the tribes have utilized current year interest from the $33 million fund, established in 1988. The coming budget year will be the first in which part o f the prior year earnings o f the rainy day fund will be spent on tribal government operations, if the working capital drops below $6 million. In adopting the 2003 budget, the Council last week appropriated just over $22 million for the annual opera tion o f the tribal government. The revenue for the budget comes from a variety o f sources, with tribal enterprise dividends accounting for al most $12.4 million. Warm Springs Power Enterprises is expected to pay a dividend o f $8 mil lion, and gaming is expected to add another $2.5 million. Please see B U D G E T on page 3 rem ain affordable, ensuring Iridian families full access and participation. Finally, she hoped progress towards the com pletion o f the new Warm Springs Elementary School will con tinue to move forward. Several tribal members spoke o f the new Indian language program, and the importance o f language for their cul ture. Evaline Patt reiterated the impor tance o f supporting teachers in the lan guage program at the Jefferson County Middle School. She cited studies that have indicated bilingual students excel. O ne trib al m em ber said to the board, “Help us recognize our identity. The Indian community wants it.” Impact Aid money is designed to re im burse public school systems that have lost a part o f their tax base due to a federal or other sovereign pres ence in their district. Through its sovereignty, the reser vation is not subject to the school dis trict taxing authority. According to school district supt. Phil Riley, the 509-J district receives about $2.9 million in Impact Aid fund ing annually, amounting to about $2,000 per Indian student. Middle school now offering Native language The Culture and Heritage D e partm ent, Education Committee and School District 509-J have de veloped a schedule for teaching the Ichishkeen language to fifth-grad ers at Jefferso n County Middle School. The classes begin with the next trimester, Dec. 2. This will be the first time that a Native language course will be of fered at the middle school. This has been a long-term goal o f Culture and Heritage, said Myra Shawaway, department director. Teachers will be Arlita Rhoan and Dallas Winishut Jr. Board will consider river permit system By Bill Rhoades Spilyay Tymoo Tribal efforts to impose a boater perm it system on the D eschutes River drew a standing room only crowd, but little support during a m eeting o f the Lower Deschutes River M anagers held Nov. 14 at Warm Springs Power Enterprises. State and federal representatives opposed a tribal proposal to start lim iting boater numbers on busy sum mer weekends, favoring an approach that would continue to pursue non- permit measures as a means o f con trolling boater access. The impasse will leave a decision on whether or not to initiate a per mit system up to a five-member ex ecutive review board, made up o f tribal, state and federal representatives. They are expected to meet on the is sue sometime after the first o f the year. At an earlier meeting, Natural Re sources G eneral M anager R o b ert B runoe, w ho chairs the m anagers group, had proposed implementing a one-year, trial permit system on Seg m e n t 1 (W arm S prings to the Deschutes Club Locked Gate) o f the river beginning in 2004. The eight-mem ber managers group was supposed to consider the proposal and offer opin ions on Nov. 14. Most federal and state representa tives spoke against the permit system during the meeting at Power E nter prises. They cited a downward trend in boater use as evidence that non-per mit measures are working to achieve target levels established under the Lower Deschutes River Management Plan, which was adopted in 1993. B runoe and BIA representative Gerald Henrickson said targets have consistently been exceeded for the past 10 years and the time to implement a permit system is long overdue. “From Tribal Council’s perspective it (permit system) should have been implemented a long time ago,” said Brunoe. “We’ve been very patient. We’ve been trying the non-permit measures, but we haven’t reached the target num bers.” T he D eschutes plan establishes boater use targets for Segment 1 adja cent to»the reservation at 220 people per day (Warm Springs to Trout Creek) and 330 people per day (Trout Creek to the Deschutes Club Locked Gate) during the primary use season, May 15 through Sept. 15. One objective is to manage boater use at approximately 1990 seasonal lev els while redistributing daily peak week end use to weekdays or other weekend periods when daily boating use is less than targets levels. In 2002, target levels were exceeded on all river segments, but targets were surpassed on Segment IB more than any other stretch o f the river. See R IV E R on page 6
