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Warm Springs, OR 97761
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Warm Springs, OR 97761
' Coyote News, est. 1976
September- 4, 2003 Vol. 28, No. 18
50 cents
y
Language lessons
to see changes
At the elementary school language
classes will be cancelled for a time
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
For the upcoming school
term teachers of the tribal Lan
guage Program will not be in
structing students during regu
lar school hours at Warm Spring
Elementary.
Classrooms may be available
after school for language lessons.
Also, the language lessons could
return to the regular elementary
school curriculum in January of
2004.
The hope is that the tempo
rary absence of the language
lessons from the regular school
curriculum will in time improve
the Language Program.
Both Myra Johnson, director
of Culture and Heritage, and
Dawn Smith, principal of Warm
Springs Elementary School,
agree on this point.
Initial concern
The language program teach
ers have been in the elementary
school for the past six years.
They teach the languages of the
three tribes: Sahaptin, Wasco and
Paiute.
All parties involved in this
issue know the significance and
importance of the languages to
the Confederated Tribes.
They also realize that the lan
guages are in danger of being
lost, as most fluent speakers are
elders.
For these reasons, some in the
community were concerned, if
not quite upset when they first
heard that the language lessons
would be discontinued for a
time at the elementary school.
Several people expressed their
concern during the school dis
trict 509-J board meeting last
week.
They requested that the
school board return the language
lessons to the elementary school.
KWSO has
This week marks the start
of the "new look" at KWSO,
the Station on the Reserva-
don, 91.9 F'M.
By D. "Bing" Bingham, Spiyay Tymoo
Jim Keene loves a good thunderstorm. 1 Ie likes them even
better when lie's in his fire tower on Sidwalter Butte, where
he's spent the last 4 1 summers.
"I've always wanted to nave that (tower) Hit by a lightning
bolt while I'm up there," grins Jim.
He's heard the stories from other lookouts. All the hair on
your body stands on end, while blue flashes of light run over
the tower.
"If you get on the stool with the insulators, it's the safest
place in the world," Jim adds, "but don't touch any iron, it's not
a good idea."
For now, though, Jim and his wife, Gloria, will settle for
what they have: spectacular thunderstorms during their sum
mer job, and lightning striking within a couple hundred yards
of their living quarters.
Gloria acknowledges that sometimes the thunder gets loud
on their hilltop retreat.
"It's like sticking your head in a can and beating on it," she
adings. Thunderstorms arc serious business in a fire tower.
"You get to do what you're paid to do," says Jim.
People in fire towers have a huge responsibility. They pro-
The board took no action, be
cause the language lesson item ,
was not a part of the meeting
agenda.
A short time after the school
district board meeting, Myra
Johnson and Dawn Smith dis
cussed the situation.
Their meeting went well, and
some of the initial sense of con
cern was replaced by a more
optimistic view.
"I think this will lead to more
of a partnership with the
school," said Johnson. "We want
to accomplish the agenda that
Dawn set out. We believe this is
going to be a good thing. We see
this as an opportunity to im
prove what we're doing."
Smith agrees. "We have a
chance to help save the lan
guages, and a strong program
will help accomplish that," she
said.
Reading First
In a memorandum Smith
listed some of the ways the Lan
guage Program could change
and improve. Some of the sug
gestions are:
Provide a clear scope and
sequence or curriculum map of
topics to be covered at each
grade level. Identify target lan
guage goals and objectives at
each grade level.
Provide on-going and regu
lar assessments for students to
measure growth toward lan
guage goals and objectives.
Smith also emphasized that
daily school instructional time is
limited. A Reading First grant
that provided the school with
substantial funding, for instance,
requires a certain amount of
time dedicated only to reading.
Also, federal legislation sets high
academic standards that must be
met, requiring the school to maxi
mize instructional time.
new sound
Sue Matters, station direc-
tor, encourages listeners to
tune and check out the new
lineup.
41 summers on Sidwalter Butte
itch has become a family tradition for the Kei
i ... . . .
It M. ' IS
" V
SJf0t
I
its f'.: ftV
Up 'X J
my v .f - j
' 'IU ,i itumwk - v. f' y ft i
Davo McMechanSpilyay
The Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery Twenty-Fifth Anniversary celebration featured
dancing by the Wasco Dancers. Above, Deanie Johnson helps young Sharina Warner
prepare for the first dance.
Fire burns
By Bill Rhoades
Spilyay Tymoo
Weekday traffic on 1 lighway
26 was approaching holiday vol
umes and one visitor from Los
Angeles said the air quality in
Warm Springs was reminiscent
of home.
Those were the most notice
able impacts of the B and B
Fire Complex that continued to
burn over the Labor Day week
end. The complex, made up of
the Booth and Bear Butte fires,
had consumed just over 51,000
acres as of Tuesday morning.
Officials are reporting the
fires, burning primarily on re
mote national forest lands, were
45 percent contained at press
time.
The Bear Butte Fire has
burned approximately 2,800
. i. mi. n iiiii
S- ... ....... S'' ''
" I': I Tj
Jim Keene uses an azimuth to track potential fires.
tect a major economic product, timber, which means big money
for the tribes. If tower personnel aren't on the ball when a fire is
still small, the potential loss is immense.
'm " . .
LV .'MI -.TO ,
edge of reservation
acres on the southwest corner
of the reservation, but fire lines
in that area held throughout the
weekend and fire crews are now
saying they have secured the
northeast and east flanks of the
blaze.
Approximately 2,300
firefighters are working on the
B and B Complex. Officials say
there are three camp crews and
a hotshot crew from Warm
Springs on the fire.
Evacuated residents of
Black Butte Ranch and Camp
Sherman have returned to their
homes, but are still on alert in
case conditions take a turn for
the worse. Highway 20 over
Santiam Pass reopened to traf
fic on Sunday morning, reliev
ing some of the congestion on
Highway 26 through Warm
Springs.
Bing BingfttrtvSpilyay
' -' k,- V k- p. 4
Tribal representatives
have curtailed logging opera
tions near the fire area. The
area south of Whitewater
River has also been closed to
hunting.
The Bear Butte Fire,
about 25 percent of which
is on the reservation, had
spread over 11,312 acres by
Tuesday morning.
Resources advisors are
evaluating the area to deter
mine appropriate rehabilita
tion measures, which may in
clude grass seeding to reduce
soil erosion and tree plant
ing to reforest burned stands.
Containment costs con
tinued to rise early this week,
topping $ 1 1 million on Tues
day. The cause of the fire is
still unknown.
When a thunderstorm happens during the afternoon or
evening, first thing the next morning Jim heads up the tower
looking for "sleepers" left over from earlier lightning strikes.
I Ic checks the places of the most frequent activity. Sometimes
as the day warms, smoke pops up.
Other times, though, it's hard to tell the difference between
the smoke of a small fire and a fog pocket after a thunder
storm. "You have to take an azimuth on that particular spot," Jim
says. "If that spot moves, it's not a fire."
Decades of experience help: smoke has a slight blue tint,
fog doesn't. According to Jim, if the person in the tower looks
at the suspected smoke and isn't sure it's a fire, then chances
are it's not.
Watching for forest fires in a tower isn't all lightning bolts,
crashing thunder and reporting smoke. There's the rest of the
time. It's filled with sounds of singing birds, wind in the trees
and quiet - lots of quiet.
It takes a different kind of person to stand a fire watch,
especially f r many years. There's no television, phone or neigh
bors. It's hard to justify driving into town for a quart of milk.
This isn't a job for everybody.
Vlt,if set FIRE WATCH oh p.iff 10
W.S. Power
Enterprises
stabilizing
finances
Good financial news is rare
these days, which is why recent
word from Warm Springs Power
Enterprises is very welcome.
Through the Confederated
Tribes, Power Enterprises is set
to issue bonds that will pay for
the purchase of the tribes' share
of the Pelton hydroelectric
project.
The bond issuance should
help stabilize Power Enterprises
revenue to the Confederated
Tribes general fund.
There have been some delays
of many months in issuing the
bonds. But the transaction ap
pears likely to happen by the
end of September, said Jim
Manion, general manager of
Power Enterprises.
Having a stable revenue
stream from Power Enterprises
is important because, of the
tribal enterprises, Power Enter
prises is by far the largest con
tributor to the tribes' general
fund. The general fund is re
sponsible for the day to opera
tion of the tribal government.
The bond issuance will repay
the money the tribes borrowed
in early 2001 from Pelton co
owner Portland General Electric
(PGE).
The tribes initially borrowed
$24 million from PGE, and owe
approximately $17 million, be
cause the tribes have paid down
on the principal.
The tribes' upcoming bond
issuance will be in the amount
of $50 million, and will be re
paid over a 30-year term.
The bond revenue will repay
the rest owed PGE, and will also
cover the initial costs for miti
gation measures during the next
dam re-license period.
Mitigation measures eventu
ally may include migrating fish
passage past the dams.
The interest rate on the
bonds is expected to be about 5
percent lower than the amount
on the loan from PGE. This will
be the first tribal bond issuance
on the Pelton project. Tribal
Council has reviewed and ap
proved the documents necessary
to go forward, said Manion.