OR. COLL.
75
.sea
v. 8
no. 11
May 23,
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
SERIALS DOT".
KNIGHT LIBKAUY
1299 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
EUGENE, OR 97403
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Bulk Rate Permit No. 2
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Coyote Aews est. 1976
May 29, 2003 Vol. 28, No. 11
50 cents
Spiiysty
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Councilman Patt takes fisheries job
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
Tribal Councilman Olney
Patt Jr. has decided to take the
job of executive director of the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission (CRITFC).
His new job begins fulltime
on June 16, and he will continue
serving on the Council until
June 13.
Until earlier this week Patt
served as Tribal Council chair
man. He served in that position
for five years.
Patt has been a leader dur
ing a time when the Confeder
ated Tribes took important steps
toward gaming expansion and
economic development, and
construction of a new school in
Warm Springs.
"This is one of the hardest
decisions I've had to make in
accepting a job," Patt said of the
CRITFC executive director po
sition. "It requires that I forego
the final year of my term on
Council, and I see some things
as unfinished business."
The Gorge casino and the
new Warm Springs elementary
school, for instance, are still
pending. "But these projects are
well under way, and will be com
pleted," said Patt.
As executive director of the
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission,
Patt will supervise 80 employ
ees. In 1979 Patt worked for the
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Newly chosen CRITFC executive director Olney Patt Jr.
commission as the public infor
mation officer, when CRITFC
had just 12 employees.
From May 2000 to May of
2001 he served as CRITFC
chairman, and was a commis
sioner since 1995.
CRITFC provides technical
and legal support to the Colum
bia River tribes in protecting
salmon, steelhead and other
fisheries. The four treaty tribes
of the Columbia - Warm
Springs, Umatilla, Yakama and
Nez Perce - established the
commission in 1977.
The fish and wildlife commit
tees of these tribes make up the
governing body of CRITFC. In
the case of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, the
Off-Reservation Fish and Wild
life Committee serves on the
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
Representatives of the four
CRITFC tribes were unanimous
in selecting Patt for the position
of executive director. Patt will
be the commission's eighth ex
ecutive director in its 26-year
history. Patt, 51, will be the first
member of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs to
serve in the executive director
position. In the past members
of the Yakama and Umatilla
tribes have served in the posi
tion. In accepting the executive
directorship, Patt will replace
Donald Sampson of the Con
federated Tribes of Umatilla,
who served six years before
announcing his resignation in
March. Patt was a natural choice
as the next executive director,
said Allen Slickpoo Jr., CRITFC
chairman and member of the
Nez Perce Tribe. "He creates
consensus and common ground
among the various salmon inter
ests in the region, including fish
eries managers and politicians,"
said Slickpoo.
"He's worked in the'
Deschutes River Basin with the
irrigation and ranching commu
nities, as well as on land acquisi
tions throughout the John Day.
He has fisheries in his heart,"
said Slickpoo. In choosing Patt
for the job, the CRITFC repre
sentatives cited his experience in
fisheries management, and his
background with the Pacific
Salmon Commission, the body
formed by the U.S. and Canada
to implement the Pacific
Salmon Treaty.
See PATT on page 6
Vacancy to be filled
Councilman Olney Patt Jr.
resigned earlier this week as
chairman of the Tribal Coun
cil. The Council then named
Garland Brunue as the new
chairman. Brunoe formerly
was serving as Council vice
chairman.
While naming Brunoe the
new chairman, the Council
also named Ron Suppah as
the new vice chairman. Coun
cil Chairman Brunoe and Vice
Chairman Suppah were sworn
in to the positions on Tues
day afternoon, May 27.
On June 13, a vacancy will
come open on the Council, as
Patt will be resigning his seat
to take his new job with the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission. As the
June 13 date approaches, the
Tribal Council will determine
who will fill the vacancy.
The Tribal Constitution
says the following in regard
to filling a vacancy that
comes open on the Council:
If a councilman shall re
sign, the Council shall declare
the position vacant and ap
point a successor to fill the
unexpired term; provided that
the person chosen to fill such
vacancy shall be from the dis
trict in which the vacancy oc-
In the past the Tribal
Council has looked to the
most recent election for
guidance in filling the
vacancy. The vacancy that
mil come open is of the
Simnasho District.
Spring chinook run
keeping hatchery busy
Workers at the Warm Springs
National Fish Hatchery are busy,
as spring chinook salmon are
migrating upstream.
The fish began running in the
Deschutes in April, and will con
tinue through August. The busy
time, though, is May and June,
said Mike Paiya, hatchery man
ager. The hatchery will keep about
800 fish for brood stock, said
Paiya. The brood stock ponds
at the hatchery are now about
half full of fish, so the collec
' tion is on schedule, he said.
This stock includes
Deschutes River fish and some
that will be used for stocking of
Shinke Creek.
In all, about 5,000 to 6,000
Warm Springs hatchery chinook
salmon will come up the river,
said Paiya. About 1,000 wild fish
will also migrate up stream. The
hatchery will use about 35 of
the wild fish for brood stock.
The rest pass by the hatchery
to spawn upstream.
Fish that are used for brood
are later stored for ceremonial
and other use by the tribes. Also,
some fish are distributed to tribal
members.
The Warm Springs National
Fish Hatchery is one of two on
6the Deschutes River. The other
hatchery, the Round Butte
hatchery operated by the Or
egon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, is also busy with the
spring chinook run.
Because of the good run of
spring chinook in the Columbia
Basin, tribal fishermen were able
to open their second commer
cial gillnet fishing season in as
many months.
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4 ZlXCXCTi IS Twenty-tive tribal members are graduating this year from
Madras High School. Some of the graduating seniors are
tO Sr&ClllcltC P'duredabove-Graduat'onceremoriiesareat3p.m.,Sunday1
June 1 , in the school gym. Seepage 5 for more senior photos.
curs.
In the past when a position
became vacant, the Tribal Coun
cil has looked to the most re
cent election for guidance in fill
ing the vacancy. The vacancy
that will come open is of the
Simnasho District. The district
will decide on the nominee to
fill the position, said Patt. In the
2001 election, former council
man Earl Squicmphen received
the fourth most votes for the
Simnasho District, after coun-
cilmen Raymond Tsumpti, Vice
Chairman Ron Suppah and Patt.
An example of a council po
sition coming vacant happened
in 2001, when Paiute Chief
Vernon Henry passed away.
Joe Moses became Paiute
Chief, and Carol Wewa was
appointed to fill the council
vacancy. Wewa had received
the next most Seekseekqua Dis
trict votes in the 2001 election,
held a few months earlier.
Museum
celebration
is Saturday
This Saturday, May 31, is the
Museum at Warm Springs
Tenth Anniversary celebration.
For the occassion the mu
seum and the tribes will host a
memorial horse parade, mu
seum blessing and rededication,
and a powwow on the museum
grounds.
The horse parade will begin
at 10 a.m. The museum bless
ing and rededication will be at 1
p.m., and the powwow begins at
2 p.m.
A Korean War veterans me
morial tree-planting event will
also be part of the day's events.
(See page 2 for more information
on the veterans ceremony,)
For information on the mu
seum anniversary celebration,
contact Rosalind Sampson at
the museum, 553-3331.
Tribes, BPA conduct three-year eel study
A unique project
determines the
abundance levels of
lamprey in the
Deschutes River
sub-basin.
By Shannon Keaveny
Spilyay Tymoo
This summer fish technician
Joel Santos and biologist Jenni
fer Graham will be busy collect
ing information about eels in
over 47 locations in the
Deschutes River sub-basin.
The effort is part of a three
year collaboration between the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs and the Bonneville
Power Administration to assess
what types of eels exist in the
Deschutes River sub-basin, their
distribution and abundance lev
els. The project is being funded
by the BPA.
The study is the first of its
kind on the reservation.
"We've discovered Pacific
lamprey in the Shitike Creek
and Warm Springs River this
year. We're potentially looking
for three types of lamprey. But
because nothing has ever been
done in this area, we're basing
that potential on information we
found in books," said Graham.
The Pacific lamprey is the eel
commonly found in this area. It
is an anadromous parasitic fish
that sometimes catches a ride
back up river by attaching itself
to a salmon.
Western brook lamprey, a
yellowish-brown freshwater eel,
has also been known to be in
this area, but is less common.
The third possibility, although
unlikely, is the river lamprey.
A river lamprey hasn't been
spotted in the Columbia River
Basin since the early 1980s.
Like salmon, in the last cen
tury Columbia River basin lam
prey populations have dropped
significantly.
Water quality and dams are
held largely accountable for the
decrease.
An important part of the
Columbia River tribes' tradi
tional diet, lamprey has been
forced to have a decreasing role
in ceremonial feasts due to lack val lamprey, based solely on their
of abundance. tail pigmentation. For example,
"There's no place for eel at a Pacific lamprey has a distinct
feasts anymore. They used to be yellow outline on the ridge of
at every meal," said Harold its tail.
Blackwolf of the Warm Springs This year they are conccntrat-
F'ish and Wildlife Committee. ing on another part of the study.
"Lamprey is just as important Rach day Santos and Graham
to the tribes as salmon," said visit a different tributary of the
Santos, who is also a tribal mem- Deschutes River, primarily on
the reservation, and collect eel
samples.
An electrical current is gen
erated in the water that tempo
rarily stuns the eels. The current
ber.
Creeling the status of eels
and assessing the abundance lev
els of eels in the Deschutes River
sub-basin for the three-year
project could pave the pathway encourages the eels to come out
for future eel restoration plans, of their burrows in the mud and
said Blackwolf of the current to the surface of the water,
study. Then they arc caught with nets
There are four part of the and weighed, measured, and as-
study. Last year Santos and Gra- sesscd for any unique charac-
ham learned to identify the lar- teristics, such as parasites.
Immediately they are released
back into the water at the same
site unharmed.
Another aspect of the study
is to use rotary screw traps to
collect emigrant eels. Emigrant
eels include both larval and
transformed eels.
The large rotary screw trap
allows water to flow in through
a large rotating cone where fish
are temporarily caught in a hold
ing tank.
Eels caught are marked with
an elastamcre dye by injecting
multiple colors into the eel.
"We use a different combination
of colors to indicate actual days
and other information from
when they were caught," ex
plained Graham.
See EEL STUDY on page 10
University of Oregon Library
Received oni 86-132-03
Spilyay tyioo.