Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2004)
E Coosh EEWA: The vvy it is Page 4 Spilyay Tymoo February 5, 2004 ' Powwowshave changed over the years Great home Letters to the Editor Voplc By Si J Miller Spilyay Publisher limtrilus will be on the road again for another powwow season. There are a lot of bucks that can be made follow ing the powwow trail. One has to be consistent in winning dance contests. Some people almost make there way from I want to publicly thank the Warm Springs Credit Depart ment and Palm Harbor Homes of Redmond for helping to make my dream of owning a home become a reality. From the moment that I ( . Spilyay Speaks powwow to powwow by winning a contest wherever they stepped onto the lot at Palm I larbor Village, I was treated as a member of their family. Sunny Allen, Teashya Padbury, Steve Bray, Beverly Abbot and the entire gang were great fun to work with. They understood that I was making an important decision in my life, and they did everything they could to make me feel comfort able with my decisions. I first stopped at Palm Har bor just to dream, honestly. I wanted to look at homes to give me something to shoot for in the future. Sunny pulled me aside and she explained to me that it wasn't impossible to own my own home right now. She helped me from beginning to end, filing for my credit report, applying for a home loan with the tribes, etc. It wasn't easy to get into my new home, but Palm Harbor was there for me through it all -even if all I needed was a little reassurance. Now I feel truly blessed. Sometimes I need to pinch myself to make sure that I'm awake and sitting in my own living room. I have trouble sleeping at night because I feel like I'm sleeping in somebody else's home - and that's a good thing. I know that this is the miracle of being a Native American; these are the blessings that come when we listen to our elders and work hard; this dream never would have come true for me if had never given up my old ways. Thanks to the Warm Springs Credit Department; you've been wonderful, Joann; thank you to Chilkat; thanks to Kevin and the gang; and to General Electric for the superior security system. Thanks to my family - Myrna, Travis, Amy, Michael, Kendall - for the security cameras. And again it can be a pretty tough way and costly if one doesn't win at all. People even become stranded in different places and have to make loans to get home. It is up to the individual if he wants to make the powwows or not. Chances are they will go to the powwow anyway even if they know they don't stand a chance of winning. The contests range from all age groups right down to the tiny tots on up the senior citizen group. The various categories for the ladies go from fancy danc ing, the jingle dress dance, the round dance, shawl dance and the traditional groups, team dancing. The men's con tests range for all age groups for fancy dancing, the grass dance, the traditional, team dancing, owl dance and the rabbit dance. Can't forget the big crowd pleaser, "The Wanna Be" dance contest at Pi-Umc-Sha. There is the fluffy dance contest and just a few enter the event and most of them shouldn't be in the fluffy category. There should be a weight limit to enter. During the fluffy contest you see all the fluffy guys sitting in the bleachers. Maybe they are so fluffy they think thev can't last one dance. Just too much "man." Well anyway it's just an added event for entertainment for the powwow fans. I can remember back to when I was just a cute little tyke, all the powwows were completely different. There were no cash contests of any kind. The powwows were mainly social affairs, where all the tribes men got together and had a grand oF time. This is where a lot of people did some "Chash-Wi-Cha," and it was a great honor to be able to sing and drum for the dances. All partner dances were set for ladies choice, to choose a man for a partner to dance with. These dances were the owl dance and the rabbit dance. They even had a skip dance where two ladies would go skipping around the arena and a man would get between them and skip along. Of course, these were all for fun and for everyone to enjoy themselves. Today "money talks." Before anyone docs anything they want pay. Another thing that kills the interest in the pow-' wow is everyone has to stand to honor, this .or, that and that's all a "bunch of bunk." We go to the powwows to watch and enjoy the dancing and that's the way it should be. The only time people should stand is during the sev enth inning stretch. And that's all I got to say about that. Ahh-na-chi-toon! Toe Ness There was this guy limping down the road, and one guy said to the other, "hey! Look at that guy, "not even," yikes! If you're looking to buy your own home, I would highly rec ommend Palm Harbor. If you want to stop by and see what my home looks like, give me a call. Sincerely, Frederick Duran Bobb Skw'Iapt Thrift Shop The Warm Springs Thrift ing letters of encouragement and letters to just say hi, here is his address; Nathan Berry T.57502,E1-128, P.O. Box 3300, Wasco, CA.93280. Thanks to all who have shown your support for my son. God bless you all. Bobbi Jo Berry Fix lights We have burnt out Shop is asking for donations of streetlights within the Simnasho winter clothes; coats, snowsuits, Community. Something should gloves, scarves, hankies, legwarmers, thermals, hooded sweaters, boots, etc. Bring the items to 2107 Wasco St., Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. -5 p.m. It would also be helpful if they were washed. In February we will be hav ing a raffle drawing for a Valen tines basket. When you come into the store you will win a free ticket for each $10 you spend in the Thrift Shop. The drawing will be held Feb. 14. Need to be present to win. Thank you, Warm Springs, Simnasho, High Lookee Lodge, Simnasho Community Church, for all your donations. It is greatly appreciated. For more information on the donadons, please call Rena at 553-2287. Sincerely, Rena Suppah-Gomez. Truancy board We need more interested community members for the Community Truancy Board Meetings. It is very important to make sure our children get their education and this is one way to help them out. We meet every third Wednesday at 6-8 p.m. at the Family Resource Center. We have had one fam ily come through the Truancy Board with positive results for the student. Butch David in forms me that we have one fam ily maybe two families to go through the community truancy board. So Please get involved. Flossie Wolfe Doing well Hello to all, I would like to let friends and family know that Nate is doing well and says hi to all. If you are interested in writ- be done to correct this, and the problem has been brought to the attention of local law en forcement. What are all of you waiting for, someone to get hit by a moving vehicle and possi bly killed before the lights are repaired? Don't wait for a loss of life before we get our streetlights fixed. Thank you, Phillip G. David Appreciated .Thank you Lyle Katchia for plowing my driveway along with everyone else at Sunnyside. It was greatly appreciated. Marcella Hall Thank you Soon it will be four months since my daughter passed away, and I still find it hard to sit down and write a letter about her. I want to thank everyone that came to be support to my fam ily and me during the funeral of my youngest daughter. Heart felt thanks to Wilson Wewa and Wilford Jim for officiating, the drummers, Rosie Johnson for assisting me with the dressing. Geri Jim for making the dresses, the cooks, Candace Smith, Bar bara Jim, Susie Moody, Minnie Johnson, all the kitchen helpers. Cy Jim for his fish, Geri for the people that called and wanted to be here but couldn't make it. Thanks to everyone that came to pay their respects, they were like medicine to me. Thanks to my big brothers Samual and Larry being near by to help me out. Thanks to my daughter Kim for giving her furniture to Alvin since he gave his up. Thanks to Solo and Martha for the beautiful couch and Kim for giving me her din ing room set. I don't have the names of everyone who brought me things like dish sets, pots and pans, lin ens, coffee makers. A table and chairs from Morningstar. Every thing that was given to me was like gifts from the heart. If I failed to mention your name please excuse me. I also extend my deepest sympathy to all the families who lost their loved ones recently, each person was a big loss to our people. Sincerely, Ramona Starr Schuster. PS. Who gave the newspaper the right to come in and put us in the newspaper? I thought it was insensitive to those who lost their loved one.No one approached me and asked if they could put that pic ture on the front page as we were on our way to the burial grounds with my daughter. That was part of a tradidonal funeral and that wasn't right. More LETTERS on page 11 Apologies, I am sorry for my poor judg ment. I was wrong thinking I was not that intoxicated that night. I thought I was able to drive but I was wrong. I could haye, .hurt, myself fpr,som.epne,, , , c , . ci j This won't happen again. EAD dried fash, Auntie Evelyn and . :uj:' 1,1 - b .: . .. . Rose for the roots, berries, eels. Joann Smith for the apples, Everett and Phyllis Griffith for Kool-aid, flour, potatoes and things. Thanks to the Moses Family for bringing my daughter's boyfriend Adrian over for the funeral. Thanks to the friends who traveled from Wellpinit and Yakama to pay their respects. Thanks to all the I, Stephanie Belgard, apolo gize to the Housing Department for my actions that happened on the night of Oct. 8. S. Belgard. My behavior on the night of Dec. 14 at 11:30 p.m. was not respectable to my family, friends and the Confederated Tribes. My apologies to everybody Floyd C. Frank Sr. Community Action Team looks forward to new year By Shawneil Surplus Community Advocate As part of our New Years resolution, the Warm Springs Community Action Team (WSCAT) is working to keep the community updated on our work as w ell as the povertv in our region. The WSCAT has existed since March 2002. WSCAT is a mem ber of the Central Oregon Part nership, and is a local, grass roots organization that exists to help reduce poverty and its ef fects in Warm Springs and in the greater Central Oregon region. The year 2003 was an excit ing one for the CAT. We started out in January by holding a com munity meeting to focus our 4 year Action Plan that took ef fect August 1. Our Action Plan is available via e-mail (e-mail marenacopartnership.org), regular mail (give us a call at 553-3148) or you can stop by our office in the Plaza and pick one up. In February, as a follow up to our Housing Summit, the CAT invited Gregg Bourland, former chairman of the Chev enne River Sioux, for three days of presentations to various au diences on a Uniform Commer cial Code, and how adopting one impacted his tribe. The CAT continues to work with various tribal departments, the tribal at torneys and community mem bers at larce to determine how- best we could use commercial law to benefit economic devel opment, home ownership, and asset-building in Warm Springs. This group is currently prepar ing to present a workshop to Tribal Council on what we're learning from other tribes and our own work. Over the spring the CAT brought in John Ritter from the Department of Education to speak to the community about keeping children engaged in school. I le gave practical advice on how to keep kids in school -even those that are struggling. We have copies of his handouts at the CAT office, including pamphlets on the rights of spe cial needs children and how to handle expulsion hearings. This summer the CAT took off with a number of projects. We have joined with the Madras area Community Action Team, Central Oregon Intergovern mental Council, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the Governor's office to work on a Rural Transit project. This project hopes to coordinate current transportation efforts from individual entities so that all transportation providers and those in need of transportation can benefit from reduced costs and streamlined services. Another exciting project for the CAT has been a joint effort with The Ford Family Founda tion fn I F) and Rural Devel opment Initiatives (RDI). TFFF has commissioned RDI to present leadership training in rural areas, and Warm Springs has been selected to receive this training. However, upon further discussion, both organizations realized that this is a wonderful opportunity to revamp their cur riculum and make it more rel evant to Indian and Hispanic communities. To that end, com munity members from Warm Springs and Madras will not only be participating in the actual leadership training later this year or in the early part of 2005, but we will be instrumental in help ing to revise the curriculum. If you are interested in participat ing, please contact our office. The Warm Springs Library was one of the first projects of the CAT, but w:e struggled from the beginning to keep the library staffed and opened. Fortunately, that has begun to change and we have had some exciting de velopments. Presently the li brary is open from 3:30 to 6:30 Monday through Thursday. We are delighted to have some af ter school hours, but are very much looking forward to ex panding those hours and incor porating some programs. This year, the Library joined with the Corvallis campus Oregon State University library and the Jefferson County IJbrary Dis trict to form the Central Oregon Rural Library Consortium. The consortium received a grant from the state in late 2003 and will be using that grant to auto mate the Warm Springs Library and link the three libraries to gether so that patrons of any of the libraries can access the material from the others. Addi tionally, the CAT is looking to find funding for a volunteer coordinator who will help relieve the staffing (and budget) prob lem at the library by utilizing vol unteers from our own commu nity to staff the library and con duct programs. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Siobhan at our office. The CAT also continues to support the Individual Develop ment Accounts (IDA) Program. This program is part of the Housing and Credit Depart ments of the tribes and is housed in out office at the Plaza. If you are interested in starting a business or purchasing your first home, call Jack Quinn to find out about getting the infor mation you need, and matching funds for your start up dollars, at 553-2542. Finally, to end the year on a grand note, the CAT assisted the Boys & Girls Club in finding a new location and to secure fund ing from the Housing Depart ment, but we were also fortu nate enough to invest another $5,000 in the endeavor. We are very excited about the reopen ing of the Warm Springs Bovs & Girls Club. Those are some of the projects the CAT has been working on in the past year, and many will continue to be projects in the coming year. But based on what we have heard from the community, we have even more projects in the works -thanks in part to increasing our staff. In late November, Marena Florez joined us to as sist in managing the office and helping to ensure the smooth running of things at the CAT. And we were fortunate to add Siobhan Cooper who will be tak ing over some projects, and start ing new ones. Among the projects we're working on for the coming year is a Work and Life Skills series of classes to begin in March. These classes are open to any one (but class size is limited) and will focus on a variety of skills to enhance personal and work lives. If you are interested in partnering with the CAT to brainstorm the list of topics (and, perhaps, share your exper tise in one or more of the classes), contact us at the office. The list of classes will be avail able at the beginning of Febru ary, Finally, the CAT is commit ted to providing more informa tion to the community about poverty in our region and what we can all do about it. To that end, we will be providing up dates on our work, and other opportunities to get involved, in the Spilyay Tymoo and on KWSO. ' Spilyay Tymoo CCoyote News, Est. 1976) Publisher Emeritus: Sid Miller Editor: Dave McMechan Management Successor: Selena T. Boise Advertising Manager: Sam Howard Receptionist: Angie Blackwolf Media Advisor: Bill Rhoades Spilyay Tymoo is published bi-weekly by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Our offices are located in the white house at 1100 Wasco Street. Any written materials submitted to Spilyay Tymoo should be addressed to: Spilyay Tymoo, P.O. Box 870, Warm Springs, OR 97761. Phone: (541) 553-1644 or 553-3274. FAX No. (541) 553-3539. E-Mail: spityaytymooOwstribes.org. Annual Subscription rates: Within U.S.: $15.00.