Spi'lyy Tymoo, Wqrm Springs, Oregon
April 28, 2005
Hoops, hip-hop and more at Spechtrum
By Brian Mortenscn
Spilyay Tymoo
The youth of Warm Springs
now have a whole "Spechtrum"
of activities just for them. The
Spechtrum Youth Center, lo
cated at the Veterans of Foreign
Wars-Ladies Auxiliary I (all on
I (ollywood Street, opened April
1, and has become a hot spot
for kids from elementary school
age on up to high school stu
dents. The center is open Tuesdays
through Thursdays, 4 to 8 p.m.,
and on Fridays and Saturdays
from 4- 10 p.m.
The Spechtrum, a ministry
project of Portland-based Ex
traordinary Young People, al
ready seems to have found a
niche among local youth. On
the day of center's grand open
ing, 262 young people showed
up to see new the new facility,
play games and watch a Chris
tian hip hop concert.
The Spechtrum is the result
of a year and a half of work,
between meetings to secure its
location, to gaining the trust of
tribal officials, to gaining spon
sorships with no less than Nike,
which contributes prizes in the
form of shoes and sportswear
to high earners in its Champ
Stamps points system.
But perhaps the biggest fac
tor in getting the Spechtrum es
tablished was the work Extraor
dinary Young People did even
before doing anything in Warm
Springs. Extraordinary Young
People chief executive officer
Christian rap artist Evan
Lcc Cummins, from Crow
Agency, Mont., performs in
a concert at the Spechtrum
Youth Center, from 8 to 9:30
p.m. this Friday, April 29.
Cummins is a student at Trin
ity Bible College in Ellcndale,
North Dakota, and was nomi
nated for a Native American
Music Association
(NAMMY) award in 2003.
The concert is free to
youths who would normally
visit the Spechtrum Youth
Center.
Matt Burton, a former college
and professional basketball
player and former DJ, had been
working with inner-city youth in
Portland when he decided to
start working with the Crow
Tribe in eastern Montana.
"We got the opening to come
to the reservation in Montana,
and there was hardly anybody
helping these people. I thought,
'Wow,'" Burton said. What he
found was an area with a re
ported 85-90 percent unemploy
ment, a high crime rate, and little
hope.
"I got invited to go to Crow
and moved there for a year. I
got to know people, and hung
out on the rez," Burton said.
"They said they wanted a
youth center, a safe place for
kids. We remodeled an old movie
theater and did our thing. And
we had a 50 percent reduction
in crime and no suicides for now,
and it's been almost a year and
a half."
Burton looked to start a simi
lar effort closer to his Portland
home base. "So we looked in
Yakima and Colville and Walla
Walla, but the one that was clos
est, and the one we had the most
relationships with was this one,"
Salmon fishing
halted on Columbia
(AP) - An agency that
regulates the West Coast's
biggest river has halted sport
and commercial fishing for
three kinds of fish after sci
entists became alarmed
about a mysterious collapse
in the population of salmon.
The Columbia River Com
pact voted last wee to shut
down sport fishing for
salmon, steelhead trout and
shad to avoid losing too many
salmon that are preparing to
spawn. Officials also sus
pended commercial fishing
on selective stocks of hatch
ery fish.
The Columbia River and
its tributaries in Oregon,
Washington, Idaho and Mon
tana have historically been
the world's largest producer
of chinook, the biggest of
the Pacific salmon species.
Scientists had predicted
that more than 200,000
chinook salmon would return
to the Bonneville Dam east
of Pordand. But as of early
last week only 2,030 had
shown up. "There were a lot
of people who declared the
salmon crisis over," said Buzz
Ramsey, a salmon fishing ex
pert who works for a fishing
tackle manufacturer. "But
that's not the case at all."
Over the years govern
ments have spent billions of
dollars to rebuild the popu
lation after overfishing, log
ging, agriculture and develop
ment decimated salmon.
he said of Warm Springs.
I (e began meeting with tribal
officials and attended a youth
conference in Warm Springs.
"I met widi I larvey Jim and
Kirby 1 Icath, the quartermaster
and head of the Veterans of
Foreign Wars," Burton said. "I
was just standing in front of the
building talking to one of my
employees, saying, 'Man, this is
a nice building. I wish we could
have this one. Because I looked
around and watched the way the
kids came down and cross I (ol
lywood Boulevard, and they
hadn't even put the skatcpark
in yet."
In fact, he said his initial talks
with people in Warm Springs
began a week before The Or
egonian began running a series
of stories asserting that Warm
Springs as "the deadliest place
for a child to grow up."
"I started meeting with all the
tribal officials," he said. "I
started sharing what I was do
ing. And people were just as ex
cited as they are everywhere we
go." After getting the okay from
tribal officials and gaining use
of the VFW building, he got
sponsorship help from Nike.
"When we got the corporate
sponsorship with Nike, then it
just became that much more sig
nificant," he said.
Burton said gaining the atten
tion of one of Oregon's largest
corporations was not as daunt
ing as it may seem, particularly
since Nike has structure to do
nate to youth programs.
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