Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 2002)
OR. COLL. 75 .S68 v. 27 no. 5 December 12, 2082 - P.O. Box 870 Warm Somas. OR 97761 SERIALS DEPT. kNIGI IT LIBRARY I2W UNIVERSITY OF OREGON EUGENE, OR 97103 ss "on 61 U.S. Postage Bulk Rate Permit No. 2 Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Coyote News, est. 1976 December 12, 2002 Vol. 27, No. 25 Spflygy Tyroc Native mm chosen as casino architect By Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo , The Confederated Tribes have chosen an Alaska-based architectural firm for the design and development of the new casino at the Columbia River Gorge. The tribes' gaming expansion team has chosen the firm of ASGC, based in Anchorage, for the casino design and develop ment work. ASGC is the largest Native American-owned architecture and design firm in the U.S. The company, which also has an office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, employs 800 people. ASGC is a subsidiary busi ness of Arctic Slope Regional Corp. (ASRC), one of 13 cor porations established under the Alaskan Native Claims Settle ment Act of 1971. ASRC's board of directors is comprised entirely of Native Americans, specifically Inupiat Eskimos. Seven of the nine members of the corporation's executive staff are Native Americans. ASGC is known for design ing projects that reflect the cul ture and spirit of Native Ameri can clients, and the natural sur- Museum adopts shorter work week For the last 10 years, since its inception, the Museum at Warm Springs has been open 362 days a year. In the spirit of economic fru gality, and to catch up on some exhibit work, the museum board decided to close the museum on Mondays and Tuesdays, until March 1. Winter is a slow season for the museum, so this is a good time to switch to the shorter work week, said Carol Leone, nuseum executive director. ".We had a few zero-visitor lays and decided it doesn't make sense to stay open on these days," said Leone. "And we want to do our part (in reducing the tribal budget)," said Leone. Two open positions at the museum will be left unfilled until March 1, saving the tribe addi tional funds, she said. The two positions are in the gift shop and in maintenance. Meanwhile, said Leone, "The office is humming. It's a posi tive thing." She said that not having the facility open allows for more time to focus on administration and other planning. The staff is busy preparing for next year's Tenth Anniversary celebration of the Museum at Warm Springs. Natalie Kirk, museum cura tor, will focus her attention in January on care fof the artifacts in the permanent collection. Selected artifacts are changed for other artifacts about twice a year. Most artifacts are perma nent, due to permanent written text that matches the item. "We're plugging away and looking forward to a really ex citing next year," said Leone. COCC director resigns By Shannon Keaveny Spilyay Tymoo John Hicks, director of Cen tral Oregon Community College at Warm Springs for the last 10 years, has decided to retire. Cody Veager, a former teacher at COCC, will take his place as director in January. "It's just that time in my life," aid I licks of his retirement. I licks owns a farm in the Sis ters area, where he raises sheep and hay that, he says, will "keep him plenty busy." I lis wife is also planning to retire. They arc ex pecting two more grandchildren in the next year. Also retiring this December is Marilyn Hart, secretary of COCC for 12 years. In Hicks' and I lart's tenure, COCC saw many changes. About 10 years ago, I lart es timates, about 35 tribal mem bers attended COCC. The classes then were mostly self enrichment courses, such as baking and sewing. The program was in its be ginning stages of helping stu dents work towards a degree. With an increasing educa tional need among tribal mem bers, COCC at Warm Springs began offering more GED courses, developmental classes, and credit courses. Develop mental classes are designed to prepare attendees for college credit courses. Ten years later, enrollment almost tripled, with approxi mately 100 tribal members at tending COCC. "Our driving motive is to get as many people here as pos sible," said Hicks. "Completion and volume are significantly up, as well as grade performance." I licks and Hart are both sad to go. "No two days are the same here," said Hicks. "I went to school with a lot of employees here and will miss seeing them," said Hart. COCC is still looking for a person to fill I lart's job. "The tribes endorsed and embraced us and have had a genuine open exchange with us. That's been a privilege," said I licks. Hart added, "We hope the community is as supportive of Veager as they have been of us. We're excited she got the posi tion. Her students love her." Ycager has taught summer lit erature courses on the reserva tion. She has been employed by COCC for three years. roundings. The ASGC design and devel opment proposal for the Gorge casino involves a consortium of development companies. For instance, the firm of Walsh Bishop, based in Minneapolis, Minn., will be providing some of the architectural and engi neering services. Walsh Bishop has worked with 33 tribes on 58 development projects. In Or egon the firm designed the Con federated Tribes of Grand Ronde's Spirit Mountain Casino. For the Gorge casino, W&H Pacific, based in Beaverton, will also be part of the consortium. W&H Pacific will focus on land scaping aspects of the project. This firm is familiar with the Gorge casino plan, as W&H Pacific has provided some pre liminary engineering service at the Hood River site. World-class facility The company of Walker Parking is also part of the con sortium. This firm will be pro viding expertise on the impor tant issue of parking at the new casino. There may be up to 2,000 parking spaces at the Gorge fa cility, so making best use of available space is critical. The Confederated Tribes' gaming enterprise in the fall ad vertised the requests for quali fications from architectural firms that may be interested in the project. The advertisement generated responses from 22 well-qualified firms nation-wide. The 22 ap plicants were narrowed to the five most outstanding. The final five were all highly qualified, from cities like New York and Seattle. Following ex tensive review of these five firms, the gaming development team chose ASGC. The choice was a difficult one, as all of the applicants pro vided impressive resumes of their work, said Obey Part Jr., Tribal Council Chairman, who was among the team that re viewed the applicants. "They all had experience in casino design and construction, not only Indian casinos but Ne vada casinos," said Patt. In making the final choice, i'att said, Une thing that AbGL continually stressed was that they are interested in building a world-class facility, and that has been our aim all along. We want this to be one-of-a-kind." V 9 : r t v f 7 New housing I r 3 Dave McMechanSpilyay Crews with the Warm Springs Construction enterprise are working on the Bear Drive housing construction project, which will bring 25 new homes to Warm Springs. At top, Frank Reese buries a new water line that will serve the houses. The heavy machinery is being operated by Derrick Flowers. Court considers water agreement Nite Out is next week The Christmas Indian Nite Out will happen Wednesday, Dec. 18. The holiday, event spon sored by Primary Prevention Youth Development and the Recreation Department, will be at the Agency Longhousc. Master of Ceremonies will be Captain Moody. All commu nity members are welcome. Activities include a family dinner beginning at 6 p.m., fol lowed by powwow at 7. All drums are welcome. Fun and games along with Christmas door prizes are in cluded throughout the evening. For more information call Austin Greene at 553-3243, or Shcilah Clements at 553-4914. By Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo The amount of water is large, enough to serve a city the si2e of Portland, or to irrigate 100,000 acres of farmland. In more technical terms that amount is 450 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water, or about 3,400 gallons per second. The Confederated Tribes have the right to use this quan tity of water in the Deschutes Basin. ' " In addition to this "consump- -tive right" - water taken from a river and not returned - the tribes have much larger "in strcam" water rights. The in-stream rights - up to 3,500 cfs in the Deschutes, and 1,050 cfs in the Metolius - help ensure protection of the envi ronment, especially fish habitat The tribal water rights are the oldest in the basin, originating with the Treaty of 1855. A problem in modern times, though, has been that the tribal water rights were unspecified. The problem is being re solved through a water rights settlement agreement among the tribal, federal and state govern ments. The three parties first began working on the agreement nearly 20 years ago. After lengthy negotiations and many public hearings, the parties signed a binding document in the fall of 1997. A final step in concluding the agreement is to make it legally binding on all water rights hold ers in the Deschutes basin. This process involves consid eration of the agreement by a judge, in this case Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Tiktin. Last week, Tribal Council and other officials gathered in Deschutes County court for a hearing before the judge on the The agreement tends to reflect the fact that tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation are fishing tribes. water rights settlement agree ment. Prior to the hearing, the Or egon Water Resources Depart ment provided notice by mass mailing to the 27,000 water rights holders in the Deschutes Basin. One person, a landowner whose property is served by a well, objected to the settlement agreement, but the judge denied the assertion. A hearing was set for Jan. 7, at which time the judge may in corporate the settlement agree ment into a court decree. At that point the provisions of the agreement would be binding on all water-rights hold ers in the basin. The agreement is unique in the nation. Often a tribal water right is determined by calculat ing the acreage on the reserva tion that could be irrigated for farm use. This formula would have re sulted in water rights to the Con federated Tribes far lower than the ones established in the settle ment agreement The agreement, instead, tends to reflect the fact that tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation are fishing tribes. This standard provides a right to volumes of water many times greater than the irrigable acreage standard. Another important part of the agreement is that it acknowl edges the Confederated Tribes' exclusive right to manage all waters on the reservation, such as Shitike Creek, the Warm Springs River, etc. 3 sentenced for murder School news page 2 Sahaptin at JCMS....page 3 Letters page 4 Bowling page 6 Languages pages 8,9 Flute players 10 Christmas Bazaar on Saturday The 27th Annual Warm Springs Christmas Baaar is set for this Saturday, Dec. 14. The bazaar is an opportunity to shop for and find Christmas gifts for friends and relatives. Vcndords will be selling handcrafted Native American items, including bead- and woodwork. The food vendors will be in the social hall, and the craft vendors will be in the gym. Doors are open to the public from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. The three men accused of murder last year on the reser vation were sentenced recently to lengthy terms in federal prison. The three men arc Ronald L McKinlcy and Angelo Fuentcs, both 23, and Tony Gilbert Jr., age 19. Karlicr this year, McKinlcy and Fuentcs pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Michael Saludo. Before that, Gilbert entered a guilty plea to a count of second-degree murder. At the sentencing hearing at the end of November, the judge ordered McKinley to serve 40 years in prison. Fuentcs received a sentence of 30 years. Gilbert received a sentence of nearly 20 years. The difference in the sen tencing reflects their respective levels of involvement in the murder, according to the US. Attorney's Office. 3 Spilyay tymoo.