Univeriity of Orerjon Library
Received oni 06-29-04
Spilyay tytoo.
SCO
OrCoil
E
75
.568
v. 29
no. 13
June 24
004
Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
June 24, 2004 Vol. 29, No. 1.
tWb ..Mi5pnngs,0R97V
50 cent
Spilyay
!87ol
v
Housing
keys taken
during break-in
$1,000 reward offered
The Housing Authority building was
broken into last week, and between 150
and 200 keys to the Housing units were
stolen.
All of the locks on the tribal, low
rent and seniors units had to be
changed.
A $1,000 reward is being offered for
information leading to the arrest and
conviction of the person or people re
sponsible for the break-in.
The incident happened in the early
morning hours of Wednesday, June 16.
Two windows to the Housing Author
ity building were broken. Entry was
gained through the conference room
window at the south end of the build
ing. Four interior doors were also kicked
in, and two pop machines were van
dalized. The suspect or suspects were
apparently trying to get money from
the machines, but were not able to do
so.
The suspects used a Housing Au
thority computer to download pictures
from the Internet. The copy machine
was then used to make several copies.
Because of the content of the images
that were downloaded, it seems that
youth are involved in the case.
Items such as a VCR were not taken,
which may indicate the suspect or sus
pects were traveling on foot.
The most serious result of the crime
was the loss of the Housing keys. Cost
of changing all the locks will be in the
range of $12,000 to $14,000, said Satch
Miller, the acting Housing Authority
manager.
In addition to this cost, there are the
costs of fixing the windows and doors,
plus the personnel time it took to re
place all locks and get the office back
in proper order. Six workers from the
Maintenance Department went around
on the days following the break-in to
replace the locks and issue new keys to
the tenants.
The $1,000 reward should be a sub
stantial help in generating information
leading to an arrest, said Miller. If there
is a conviction in the case, then Hous
ing would also seek restitution for the
costs associated with this incident, he
said.
On the morning of the incident,
police and fire crews responded to the
scene when a smoke detector was acti
vated. This happened when the suspects
sprayed a fire extinguisher inside the
building.
MwA I'j D Yf ..;v ,
Kasheena Stevens is running for Lil' Miss Pi-Ume-Sha. See her statement on page 7.
Dave McMectiaiVSpilyay
Pi-Ume-Sha
The 35,h Annual Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty
Days celebration begins this Friday.June
25. The three-day powwow will mark
the 135th anniversary of the signing of
the Treaty of 1865.
Grand Entries are at 7 p.m. on Fri
day, on Sjturd.iy at 1 and 7 p.m., and
on Sunday at 2 p.m. The parade is at
11 a.m. on Saturday. Dance contests
are throughout the weekend.
For sports fans, the ball fields will
be busy with the Pi-Ume-Sha Softball
Tournament. The Kah-Nee-Ta Golf
Course will host the annual Fry Bread
Golf Tournament on Saturday and
Sunday. The Warm Springs Boxing
Club will be taking on challengers dur
ing the Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty Days Box
ing event, starting at 4 p.m. on Satur
day at the Community Center. Runners
can participate in the Pi-Ume-Sha Run.
The rodeo is Saturday and Sunday,
starting at 1 p.m., at the Warm Springs
Rodeo Grounds.
The center of activity will be the
Pi-Ume-Sha grounds, by the Commu
nity Center, where the drums and the
dancers are. The bleachers around the
central field will fill with spectators. The
vendors will have all kinds of food -Indian
tacos are the specialty - for sale.
Earlier this week the preparation
work began at powwow grounds, fol
lowing the Monday morning blessing.
There are the bleachers and booths and
teepees that need to be assembled, plus
the lighting and sound systems that
need to be set up. Former governor
Vic Atiyeh and his wife are expected to
attend, as has become their custom.
Gov. Kulongoski is expected Friday
evening at the banquet at Kah-Nee-Ta.
Members voice concerns at Council gathering
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
Members of the new Tribal
Council heard comments on a wide
variety of subjects at the General
Council meeting last week. Some of
the more heart-felt comments came
during discussion of the Summer
Youth Work program.
Summer Youth is a tribal pro
gram administered by Workforce
Development, which is under the
tribal Education Branch.
This year summer youth has a
standard for eligibility based on stu
dent grade point average. The idea
has been around for a while, and
this year was implemented. The stan
dard requires students to have at least
a 2.0 grade point average in school to
be eligible for summer youth work.
Marcia Minthorn said the standard
discriminates against children who may
be in the most need of some help from
the tribes.
It discriminates against kids who
may come from troubled homes, "kids
who had strikes against them when they
were born," said Minthorn.
Others who attended the General
Council meeting agreed with Minthorn,
saying the 2.0 GPA requirement was
not fair.
Wendell Jim, manager of the Edu
cation Branch, said the decision to
adopt the minimum GPA requirement
was a difficult one, "but we have to
make hard decisions," he said.
The budget for Summer Youth is
$146,000, said Jim. This is nowhere
near enough money to fund a work
program for all tribal youth of qualify
ing age, he said.
His branch was asked by Council to
calculate how much it would cost to
employ all tribal member youth be
tween ages 14 and 18, for three months
at $6 an hour. The cost for this would
be about $1.9 million. "We have
$146,000. We can only employ 60 tribal
member youth," said Jim. "We have to
make these hard decisions and set stan
dards for the work force."
He said that his branch places the
highest emphasis on education. "The
key that opens the door is education,"
he said.
Some in the audience responded
that a problem with the system never
theless exists.
"What about the kids who don't
have the 2.0? What happens to them?"
one person said.
Another added, "So you hire 60
kids, and the rest are on the streets in
trouble with alcohol and drugs. We need
to find something for them."
See COUNCIL on 14
Two sisters, two different worlds
By D. "Bing" Bingham
Spilyay Tymoo
Half sisters Cecelia "Cece" Herrera
and Marta Rubio, both tribal members,
grew up in two different worlds - one
on the reservation, the other in Ma
dras. Growing up separately wasn't their
choice. Court battles between parents
and guardians, and other family prob
lems got in the way. For these sisters
15 miles might as well have been five
thousand.
"When my Dad and Mom sepa
rated, I was 6 months old and my step
mother didn't like my biological mom,"
says Marta Rubio. "My Dad fought in
court for 12 years and I had this bad
image to not hang around the rest of
my family."
Cece and Marta knew each other
was out there, but they couldn't do
anything about it Communication be
tween the separated families was spo
radic at best. Occasional birthday vis
its were supervised and filled with ten
sion. Sometimes the girls could pass
1 :: "V I V J-
-- ' - ti n -n . ,- .
Marta Rubio and Cece Herrera
Bing BmghatrvSpityay
messages to each other through a mu
tual friend.
"I have a step sister who would com
municate between us. She would say
'Cece said this' or 'Cece said that,'" says
Marta. "I had to lie to my parents to
see my sister and my brother and Mom.
I was 12 and 13, so it's not like I could
just drive out there and say 'Hi.'"
Time passed, Marta got married.
Along with the marriage came additional
independence. Sometimes when her
mother was stranded in Madras, she'd
give her a place to stay or a ride home.
Other times a few dollars from her
waitress wages at Martina's Market
helped her mother through a rough
spot.
Eventually, the young women's
mother, atwai Helene Spunky" Authur,
passed on in January 2003.
It was a bad time for Cece Herrera.
She was working as a literacy tutor in
Boulder, Colorado. She lost her job,
developed kidney stones and lost her
mother in a short period of time.
"I threw in the towel," she said. "I
came home to the reservation to start
over."
She recovered from the kidney
stones and got work as a teacher's aide
at Warm Spring Elementary. But it
wasn't enough.
"I'd lost my mom and I needed my
sister," she says. "She's the only sister I
have. She's always going to be my only
sister. I needed to get to know her. I
don't want to wait until it's too late."
Marta Rubio, due to a busy sched
ule, had not been able to attend her
mother's funeral. Cece was still trying
to rebuild her life. Together they went
out to visit their mother's grave.
The estranged sisters won't say ex
actly what they talked about at the
gravesite that day, but it's probably a
safe bet they covered a lot of ground
- and a lot of intervening years - a
deeply private and personal time be
tween two sisters.
"I took her out to the grave and
we've been closer ever since," says
Cece.
Time passes after a death in the fam
ily and the healing begins. "Even though
I lost my Mom, I don't feel as lonely
as I did before," says Cece. "We both
comfort each other and are there for
each other, it's just like the way sisters
should be. I really like it."
So Cece Herrera started hanging out
at Martina's Market to learn more
about her new-found sister. At first she
was a little nervous.
"I was glad I'd found my sister and
I was nervous too," she says. "You know
you're related, but we're strangers too.
I was scared, but not anymore."
She says, "It seems like we do ev
erything together. I have more fun since
I know her. We get to hang out. We
bring out the best in each other. She
makes me feels good about myself."
See SISTERS on p,ige 7.