Spilyay Tyrooo, VWrn Springs, Oregon
December 9, 2004
Pages
World AIDS Day encourages
By Brian Mortenten
Spilyoy Tymoo
Even with the lowest nation
wide number of patients hav
ing the AIDS virus, the Native
American community could be
at risk, said a guest speaker in
Warm Springs. The comments
came during World AIDS Day
activities, Dec. 1, at the Com
munity Wellness Center.
Irene Vernon, Director of
the Center for Applied Studies
of American Ethnicity and a co
project director of the Tri-Eth-nic
Center for Prevention Re
search at Colorado State Univer
sity in Fort Collins, said in a lec
ture at the Warm Springs Com
munity Center that AIDS, once
thought of as only a plague of
homosexual men has become a
disease that now affects mostly
women in impoverished com
munities of ethnic minorities.
"Right now, the majority of
those affected are members the
African-American and Latino
population, with Native Ameri
cans and Pacific Islanders car
rying a very small population,
less than one percent," she said.
"But the risk factors that we
have are very similar to other
communities of color."
A cautionary tale
The AIDS virus is the No. 1
killer of African-American
woman ages 25 to 44, she said.
"We have many of those risk
factors in our communities,"
said Vernon, who is of
Mescalino-Apache, Yaqui Indian
and Mexicana descent. "Differ
ent risk factors, different com
munities, but sometimes some
of the risk factors, we find all
of the Native community."
Hatchery to
By Nat Shaw
For Spilyoy Tymoo
Plans are moving forward for
a new visitor center at the Warm
Springs National Fish Hatchery.
A 13-member group working on
the project held its first meeting
last month.
The Visitor Center idea was
conceived as the fish hatchery
held its 25,h anniversary a little
more than a year ago. The idea
was first considered during
preparation for the Silver Anni
versary. Amy Gaskill, fisheries out
reach and public relations spe
cialist for the Pacific Region of
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser
vice, has provided the momen
tum for the project. Gaskill put
the team together with specific
emphasis on targeted areas.
The interpretive panels cur
rently in the lobby of the fish
hatchery contain information
available at the time the hatch
ery was constructed in 1978. A
new design proposal, which pro
vides for the use of existing
structures to represent informa
tion based on the latest research
and hatchery practices, is being
developed .
The proposal also offers a
partnership with local artists, al
lowing the opportunity to prove
an accurate depiction of the cul
tural significance of salmon.
Apolonia Santos, curator at
Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, is a mem
ber of the workgroup represent
ing traditional artists.
The first workgroup meeting
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Brian MortenssrVSpilyay
Tonl Made, left, listens to a question from Aaron Heath during
an Icebreaker exercise at the Warm Springs World AIDS Day
activities at the Warm Springs Community Center Dec. 1 .
Heath is a member of the Teens Risk Reduction Education for
Native School-age Youth group.
When she has spoken on the
AIDS epidemic before Native
audiences, Vernon has delivered
what she calls a "cautionary tale"
of the risk factors and what
could happen without education
about the epidemic and how to
prevent it.
"AIDS could wipe out a small
Native community," she said.
"For example, there are villages
in Alaska that have only 100
people in them, with cases of
full-blown AIDS within those
communities.", like
The risk factors, she said, are
biological, such as the high rate
of sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs) within the Native com
munity, economic, cultural and
social.
Women are in more danger
than men, she said, because the
HIV virus is more concentrated
in semen than in vaginal secre
tions, and thus, can be more
easily transferred from men to
women.
"I really believe poverty is
really driving the pandemic,"
Vernon said. "That's why it's
have new visitor center
opened with a presentation by
the One Plus Two design team
from Portland. The firm has
been hired to assist in transform
ing the fish hatchery lobby into
a visitor center.
The design team made a far
reaching presentation that in
cluded a site plan, floor plan,
entry signage, exhibit floor
plan, exhibit ideas, and rail
graphics.
Gaskill explained that Bend
is one of the fastest growing cit
ies in Oregon, such that, by
2000, the traffic on U.S. High
way 26 had increased to an av
erage of 4,100 vehicles per day.
The Oregon Department of
Transportation expects traffic to
increase significantly along the
corridor as growth continues in
Central Oregon. Gaskill said the
growth will help the fish hatch
ery, the Museum at Warm
Springs and Kah-Nee-Ta High
Desert Resort and Casino be
successful.
Carol Leone, the executive
director of the Museum at
Warm Springs, and Rudy
Clements, the Chairman of the
Board of Directors at Kah-Nee-Ta,
are both members of the
workgroup.
Rich Johnson, the line super
visor for the fish hatchery from
the Portland area office was in
attendance. Doug Olson, the
hatchery assessment team leader
from Vancouver, Wash., also
attended.
"The team has an abundance
of expertise in many areas rang
"I really think it's not
an insurmountable
disease. "
Irene Vernon
flourishing in Third World coun
tries and impoverished commu
nities. "If you don't have money,
you don't have access to health
care, you don't have access to
education, you're hindered from
certain medications. You're also
usually in poor health if you live
in an impoverished community."
Drugs, the biggest problem
Discrimination, as well as
mistrust of government care,
keeps members of the Native
community from information
and medical help, as well.
The biggest problem, how
ever, is substance abuse, she said.
"It doesn't give you HIV
AIDS, but it certainly takes away
your inhibitions," she said.
Vernon said she encourages
tribal members wherever she
ing from salmon to tribal, cul
ture and tradition," said fish
hatchery assistant manager Ma
vis Shaw.
Gaskill said the cost of the
project would be slightly more
than $500,000.
"I think we are in a unique
position as to where we can ex
pect to get funding though a
number of grants," she said.
Gaskill cited the fact that the
Warm Springs Fish Hatchery is
one of the first facilities to bal
ance a program of hatchery
production while maintaining
abundant, self-sustaining runs of
all naturally occurring fish spe
cies. Plans call for the workgroup
to ultimately meet with tribal
members to get their input on
what they would like to see in
the visitor center. In the mean
time, the group is working to se
cure funding and will continue
to meet to develop existing
ideas.
(K3M
O
awareness, prevention
speaks on the topic to assess the
risky elements within their own
communities.
"Each community will be dif
ferent," she said. "Some have
really high STD rates. Some
have large meth(amphetamine)
problems. You really need to see
where your community is and
then go from there.
"You really have to figure out
what's in your community, what
kind of level of understanding,
and what kind of issues and
problems you have. Do you
have a larger youth population
than you do an older population?
Do you have a community that
has a lot of meth, compared to
just a lot of pot smoking or a
lot of alcohol (abuse), so you
have to really assess where you
are to sort of address the prob
lem." Another facet to the specter
of AIDS is the problem of do
mestic violence.
"The way that domestic vio
lence works for women gener
ally is their men isolate them,"
slie said. "They live on the out
skirts. They don't like (the
women) to have phones. They
kind of prohibit them from get
ting jobs.
"They're too scared, particu
larly if they're not married, to
wear condoms."
And women in violent situa
tions may not leave an abusive
partner because they fear they,
and their children, are not able
to live without him.
"And there have been some
cases where rape was a trans
mission of HIV," she said.
Vernon said young girls that
date older men are also at risk
because of the man's prior
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Vernon said her aim was to
offer support as well as clear up
misconceptions about HIV and
AIDS.
"I think communities need to
gather around and really access
their communities and talk to
one another about what's avail
able, what we can do for each
other," she said. "I really think
it's not an insurmountable dis
ease. Education Is key
"We have so many problems
in Indian country, and HIV is
another one along with cancer
and diabetes and (tuberculosis)
and substance abuse, so we re
ally need to think holistically of
how do we treat the whole per
son and how can we come to
gether to address it together."
"It's just awareness," said
Donell Frank after having been
involved in an "icebreaker" ex
ercise conducted by the Teens
Risk Reduction Education for
Native School-age Youth group.
"I think it's good to know, to
educate yourself, not only your
self, but whoever's interested in
it, so they can protect themselves
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and others who have it or arc
carrying it in a healthier way in
stead of a negative way. I think
a lot of us know how to deal
with the negative, and I think
we need to learn how to deal
with it positively by supporting
those who have it or don't know
they have it or those that don't
have an understanding of it."
Angela Sampson has three
children, ages nine, 10, and 11,
and she said she wants to be able
to tell them about the disease.
She said that as old as each
of her children are, they are old
enough to have candid conver
sations about such things as
AIDS.
"I wanted to learn something
so I could tell my kids about it,"
she said. "They're just getting to
the age they ought to know
about it."
Vernon had delivered a simi
lar message to a campus of First
Nations University of Canada
(formerly Saskatoon Indian Fed
erated College) in Prince Albert,
Saskatchewan, last spring, and
in Oklahoma recently.
With the Tri-Ethnic Center,
Vernon has spoken all over the
US.
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