OR. COLL.
75
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v. 27
no. 5
December
12, 2082 -
P.O. Box 870
Warm Somas. OR 97761
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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
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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.