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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2004)
5Cfi OrColl E 75 .568 v. 29 not 19 Cepteibsr 16, S0M Spilyay P.O. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 ""Jniveriity of Oreg I If Received oni 09-24 y 7 VSpilyay tyioo. gon Library 04 rrorw oil Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents September 16, 2004 Vol. 29, No. 19 Coyote News, est. 1976 Tvm J- Gathering marks opening of national Indian museum Tribal Council and other members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are traveling this week to Wash ington, D.C., to attend the opening of the National Museum of the Ameri can Indian. The opening ceremonies are Sun day through Friday, Sept. 19-24. Rep resentatives of tribes from across the U.S., from Canada and Central and South America are planning to attend the event. The National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian Institution's newest museum, will help heal the "long and often troubled past relationship" between American Indi ans and nonnative people, its director said. W. Richard West Jr. said the National Museum of the American Indian, which opens officially to the public on Tuesday, will deal frankly with what he called the "Indian Holocaust" at the hands of European settlers. But it also will be a powerful repre sentation of the continuing Indian cul ture that thrives through the Western Hemisphere, West said in a speech re cently at the National Press Club. "The original citizens of the Ameri cas have not dwelt always on the sunny hillsides of history, but instead often have lived in the shadow lands of its valleys," said West, a Southern Chey enne from Oklahoma. wThe museum,' he said, will bring , "bright illumination to those shadow lands" and provide information and awareness that could lead to a better understanding between people. The five-story, 250,000-square foot building will house three inaugural ex hibitions and 8,000 artifacts represent ing Indian people from across the county, Canada and South and Central America. West said the collection will reflect the Indian culture in the thousands of years before European contact, as well as the latest changes in Indian Coun try, including casino gaming. Realizing that many people in Indian Country may never get to the museum, West said the goal is to bring the col lection to them electronically. All 800,000 objects in the collection - much of which is housed in facilities in Maryland or the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City - will be scanned into a database for use by , schools, community centers and mu seums. The National Museum of the American Indian is located on a four acre site on the National Mall in Wash ingtoa The building is across from the Na tional Gallery of Art's East Wing and facing the U.S. Capitol. The building is 99 feet high, with a 120-foot-high dome. The designers of the building are Native Americans: Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot); Johnpaul Jones (Chero keeChoctaw); Ramon Sakiestewa (Hopi); and Donna House (Navajo Oneida). The 120-foot-high rotunda dome in cludes a skylight named after the Potomacs, who originally inhabited the area. The building also has a 322-seat cir cular theater; a smaller 120-seat circu lar theater. There are four large exhibition gal leries; a resource center; a 120-seat out door performance space; museum shops and cafe. More than 250,000 Americans, as well as tribes, the U.S. Congress and corporations and foundations, made contributions toward development of the museum. ( Story by the AP and Spilyay.) Tribal leaders more optimistic about budget By Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo The last couple of years have been challenging for the tribes, be cause revenue has been down, and for that reason the annual tribal budget was cut. Tribal Council is preparing a 2005 proposed budget that will be posted soon for review and discussion among the tribal membership. Discussion will be re lated to the needs and interests of the community. At this point in the 2005 bud geting process, there is some cause for optimism, at least in compari son to the past few years, said Jody Calica, secretary-treasurer. "We're feeling more optimistic be cause of market conditions affecting Warm Springs Forest Products Indus tries and Warm Springs Power Enter prises, and with the recent settlement of the HeHe and McQuinn lawsuits," said Calica. The lawsuits were filed by the tribes against the federal government, over lost timber revenue. Settlement of the cases gives the tribal budget some ad ditional revenue. The Tribal Council in recent weeks has been meeting with the tribal man- "...we 're looking at 2005 with more optimism in terms of revenue. " Jody Calica Tribal secretary-treasurer agers and chairs of the tribal commit tees. The discussion will lead to a pro posed budget that will be posted by Oct. 1. Tribal membership will then comment at the district and general Council meetings. "We're trying to create a situation where the Tribal Council can have a more constructive dialogue with the community about how to allocate the resources that we envision having in 2005," said Calica. "And we're looking at 2005 with more optimism in terms of revenue," he said. After discussing the posted budget with the tribal membership, the Coun cil by the end of November will then finalize a budget for 2005. Beginning a few years ago the Tribal Council was faced each fall with difficult decisions regarding the budget. Over successive years, as much as $2 million was cut from the budget of the previous year. :2!cU..::!v ... TSJk 1 4 M Dave McMechanSpilyay Julia Yahtin and Lorissa Quinn talk during their lunch at the Spirit Eagle Cafe, the lunchroom of the Warm Springs Elementary School. There are about 400 students at the school this year, including fifth graders. First day jitters at the middle school By D. "Bing" Bingham Spilyay Tymoo The first day at the Jefferson County Middle School was just about what you'd expect. Jitters were everywhere in the hallways - shrieks, extra loud laughter or nervous gig gling. Some students were asking questions too quietly to be heard, while others were so loud they reg istered on the Richter scale. In the classroom, silence reigned while the nervous children learned what to expect from their new teachers. All is normal at the Middle School. "One of the hardest things for the kids is getting up early and get ting on a routine schedule," says tribal school liaison Lana Leonard. "This year I'm meeting them in the commons. I help them with their schedules and let them know which teachers are returning and who is new. I try to make it more of a com fortable environment for them in the morning." Some initial nervousness It's been a long hot summer. An early fall has moved in with blus tery weather and it's time to return to school. "Usually the first day in the class room is the quietest day because the students don't feel the freedom to talk yet," says tribal member Luanne Foltz, math teacher at the middle school. "I try to explain to them, 'If you feel uneasy about anything, you can always ask me.' I try to make them feel comfortable in asking me any question." Each year the nervous questions are mostly the same "Where is the lunchroom?" and "Where is my locker?" or "How will I remember my locker combination?" Most teachers try to spell the antici pated answers out on paper so the stu dent can refer back to them. Still, some struggle because they don't know what to expect. For a youngster, the first week at middle school is usually tough. "I never want to make any of my students feel nervous. I try to joke and laugh and try to get them to realize that this shouldn't be as hard a day as they're picturing it," said Foltz. "I want them to be comfortable and open up and ask questions. That's what I feel like my major goal is for the first day - to get the students to feel com fortable." For tribal school liaison Butch David the beginning of school means being in the right place at the right time. "The first week of school is just be ing in the hallways and letting the stu dents know we're here," he says. "We're out in the hallways, Lana Leonard and I, Bobbi Jo Berry and J'Dean Kalama. We're all in the hallways reassuring them with our physical presence, letting them feel comfortable knowing that they know us. We point them in the right direction. They're going to be lost, they're going to be having a tough time going to the different classes." When the first week of school is over, then the routine will settle down. "After that, the kids will start coming in with more and more questions, one-on-one, knowing we're here," said David. "That's when they're feeling more comfortable coming in and talk ing to us." Easing the transition from summer to middle school for the kids isn't just the work of tribal liaisons, educational assistants and teachers. Parents can help. "Every teacher needs the support from home," says Foltz. Sometimes it's just the little things: like remind ing the student to make sure they have all their school supplies in or der, such as pencils, paper and note books. "I think it's vital for parents to look over each class expectation list and give support," says Foltz. If money is tight and supplies are a problem then parents can get a hold of the teacher. Arrangements will be made. Parents can call the school, or contact teachers by email from the JCMS website: www.whitebuffaloes.net. "We encourage parents to keep in contact with their children's teach ers," said Foltz. "We're not going to turn away any parent contacts." Clear communication between parents and teachers is an invaluable asset in a child's education - not only now as school is starting, but through out the entire year. It's one thing to read the teacher's class expectations. It's quite another to attend parentstudent confer ences. IIT.J It's huge when children can see their parents are involved with their lives by spending one night at an open house," says Foltz. "It demon strates to the children that the par ents are involved in their lives too." She goes on, "The opportunity has been made available to the par ents on the reservation, they need to go out and use it. It's not asking a lot for them to take a half hour out of their day and come sit with us at the longhouse or community center. We're doing our part, we'd like to get more parent involvement." See SCHOOL on p$f 9 Government proposal for salmon recovery draws criticism (AP) - By spending $6 billion on improvements over the next 10 years, the Columbia Basin's federal hydroelec tric dams can be operated without jeop ardizing the survival of threatened and endangered salmon, the government concluded last week. NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for restoring dwindling salmon runs in the Northwest, came to that conclusion in a biological opin ion filed with the U.S. District Court in Portland, where Judge James Redden had found a 2000 opinion inadequate . because there waj no assurance.tb.aL mandated measures to protect salmon would actually be carried out by fed eral agencies. The latest biological opinion would set a new course for salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin by jettisoning a movement toward restoring the Colum bia and Snake rivers to a more natural condition, and acknowledging the dams as part of the landscape that cannot be removed. The plan drew sharp criticism from environmentalists and some Indian tribes, who continue to believe remov ing four dams on the lower Snake River is the best course to salmon recovery. Ron Suppah, chairman of the Con federated Tribes of the Warm Springs, said the plan relied upon measures "ranging from absurd to speculative," and did not follow Judge Redden's in structions. "NOAA granted clemency to the biggest cause of mortality - the big gest killer - of all listed and nonlisted salmon stocks, the hydro system," Suppah said. The government plan has support from utilities, irrigators, grain shippers and others who depend on the dams for power, navigation and water. Under the Endangered Species Act, the operation of the dozens of federal hydroelectric dams, reservoirs and pow erhouses on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries cannot jeop ardize the survival of protected salmon. NOAA Fisheries has the responsi bility to review the proposal for oper ating the dams and issue what is called a biological opinion. In May 2003, U.S. District Judge Redden in Portland ruled that the bio logical opinion issued in 2000 was ille gal because the federal government could not guarantee that habitat en hancements and upgrades to hatchery and dam operations to prevent jeop ardizing salmon survival would be done. The new analysis takes a different approach, considering the harm dam operations cause to salmon, but not the harm caused by the dams simply being there, said Bob Lohn, Northwest re gional director of NOAA Fisheries. Set SALMON on pa$t 9