SCA
OrColl
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75
.S6B
v. 30
no. 13
Jun 23,
P.O. Box 870
Univ.r.ity of Oregon Library "" Springs, OR 97761
I 06-28-03
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j ECRWSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
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Warm Springs, OR 97761
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Coyote News, est 1976
June 23, 2005 Vol. 30, No. 13
Spflyiy
Work crew
shows
dedication
By Brian Mortensen
Spilyay Tymoo
You see them everywhere. Up on'
the hill overlooking the Warm Springs
campus. On a residential street picking
up refuse. On a roadside bcrm clear
ing weeds to quell a possible fire haz
ard. They're the same people, and you
see them all over because Marcia Soliz
wants you to see them out there work
ing. The group is the Community Work
Crew from the Warm Springs Commu
nity Employment office, an office Soliz
operates by herself.
The office is geared toward simply
putting people to work, wherever and
whenever there's work to be done. The
greater goal, she said, is to put the
crewmcmbers to work now and pre
pare them for finding a job in the fu
ture. "To get a job is very difficult," Soliz
said. "A lot of people who apply for
jobs aren't interviewed, some have been
turned down after an interview, and this
has gone on in their life.
I Ier program, she said, "Is like a little
stepping-stone program." The workers
gain experience while also showing po
tential employers that they can work
hard. "I put them on display," said Soliz,
who has been in tribal employment for
1 8 years.
The idea is to have them doing work
; out in places where everyone sees them, '
where the on-lookers can see the re
sults. And some of these onlookers
could be potential employers.
After a while, each crewmember is
more ready for the job market, because
in addition to being out in the field
working seven hours a day, they're also
learning things like how to create their
resumes and how to effectively prepare
for a job interview.
One of the group's recent projects
is one everyone around Warm Springs
has seen: the painted rocks that form
the words "Warm Springs" on the hill
overlooking the campus area. In March
and April, a group of five workers used
white paint to give the rocks that make
up the letters a new coat, the first new
coat the letters have had in years.
The group took three days to finish
the letters, but it wasn't done yet. Weeks
later, during a break in the rainy spring
weather, the group came back to paint
a turquoise and orange version of the
three tipis logo of the Confederated
Tribes just above the letters.
On a Wednesday morning a few
weeks later, members of the Commu
nity Work Crew were out on Looksh
Road, on the foothill above the Agency
campus, picking up trash along the side
of the road.
Two weeks before Pi-Ume-Shaw, the
group had the plastic bags out again,
cutting weeds on a berm on the side
of Hollywood Street. It sounds like
hard work and when the warm sum
mer weather begins, hot work. But
crewmembers don't mind.
"There are different projects all the
time," said Craig Smith, a crewmember
for 10 months. "It helps you stay physi
cally fit. You're moving almost every
day."
"It's different every day," said Joseph
Arthur. "It's never really the same."
"It helps financially," Tia Wheeler
said of the $9-an-hour wage. "And it
really helps physically. This is the first
rime I've worked outdoor labor, be
cause I usually do secretary work, of
fice jobs, but I enjoy this."
"Everybody sees them out there,"
Soliz said. "They're on time. They're
working hard."
See WORK CPEW e page 12
Treaty signed 150 years ago Saturday
By Dave McMcchan
Spilyay Tymoo
It was a defining day of the Con
federated Tribes of Warm
Springs, June 25, 1855. Five hun
dred Indians of the Wasco and Walla
Walla (Sahaptin) triljcs had gathered
at The Dalles.
Among die gathering were chiefs,
family leaders and other tribal mem
bers. The Council lasted three days,
as the tribes were there to consider
the treaty proposed by the U.S.
According to the terms of the
treaty, the trilx-s would give up own
ership claim to 10 million acres of
land. The tribes would receive res
ervation land between Mt. Jefferson
and the Deschutes River. This land
would be exclusively for the Indians and
could never be occupied by white set
tlers. The government promised to build
a flour and sawmill, a school, hospital
and other buildings on the reservation.
It was a momentous and difficult
decision: the tribes were being asked
to leave the Columbia for land that
many of the people were not familiar
with.
At first the various chiefs suggested
different places for the reservation,
places that were closer to their tradi
tional homelands. Chief Sim-tus-tus
said the Indians needed to keep access
to their usual fishing, hunting and gath
ering places, even if the tribes were to
cede the 10 million acres. "The falls
where we catch the fish, we would like
to reserve," he said.
Chief Mark objected to the pro
posed reservation because there was
not enough timber there, he said. And
there were a number of other concerns.
At the same time, though, the Indi
ans knew the white settlers were arriv
ing in increasing numbers. For the fed
eral govcrnmcnt.Joel Palmer, superin
tendent of Indian Affairs of the Or
egon Territory, made persuasive argu
ments. "The white man has come
among you, and others are coming," he
said. "I want you to make a bargain so
that we may always live in peace."
The tribes, he said, would have ac
cess off the reservation to their usual
fishing, hunting and gathering places.
I le said that if the tribes moved to
the reservation and didn't like it, then
the government would find them a dif
ferent one. "If the reservation is not
large and good enough, we will extend
it," he said.
By the end of the third day of the
Council the tribal leaders were ready
to sign. One-hundred fifty-one Indians
endorsed the document (see page 16).
It was a defining day for the Con
federated Tribes, June 25, 1855.
Miranda Blueback, 15, (below
right) was named Queen of he
2005 Pi-Ume-Sha Rodeo. Delvina
Heath, 8, (below left) is the Pi-Ume-Sha
princess. Outgoing
queen is Erica Wewa (right). The
new queen and pricess were
named following a ceremony last
week at the rodeo grounds.
The contestants were judged on
their individual sale of raffle
tickets, a riding routine in the
arena, the "completeness of outfit
of horse and rider," a written
statement, and by their
responses to a series of
questions. The riding routine
included performing a big circle, a
small circle, a figure-eight, and a
queen run.
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Tribes, PGE share hydro license
The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission last week made the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs and Pordand General Elec
tric die joint license holders for the
Pelton-Round Butte project.
This is the first hydroelectric li
cense held joindy by a tribe and a
utility. Pelton-Round is the largest
hydroelectric project within the
boundaries of Oregon.
The action last week by the Fed
eral Energy Regulatory Commis
sion (FERQ came after years of
negotiating and planning by the
tribes, PGE, and many interested
third parties and agencies.
The action, taken by FERC in
Washington, D.C, grants the Con
federated Tribes and PGE a new
multiyear federal permit to run
Pelton-Round Butte,
It was the final regulatory step
in a process that began in 1996,
when the tribes and PGE first began
conversations about joint ownership of
the dam facilities.
The two parties gave the proposal
preliminary approval in the Spring of
2000, then received Oregon Public
Utility Commission approval in August
of that year, and signed the ownership
agreement in December of 2001 . They
began shared ownership under an an
nual FERC license in 2002.
Last July, the two owners approved
a licensing agreement with 20 other
collaborating organizations, and submit
ted the application to FERC.
The centerpiece of the agreement
is a commitment to restore passage of
salmon and steelhead through the three
dam project for the first time since
1968, at a cost to the owners of more
than $100 million. The three dams are
Pclton, Round Butte and the Re-regulating
dam.
Under the 2001 ownership contract,
the tribes purchased a one-third in
terest in the project from PGE, ef
fective January 1 of 2002.
In 2022, the tribes will have the
option to increase its share to 49.99
percent. The tribes may increase
their ownership to 50.01 percent by
2037.
PGE is responsible for day-to-day
operations at the project, which is
managed by a joint operating com
mittee of tribal and PGE represen
tatives. Pelton-Round Butte was com
pleted by PGE in 1964, and occu
pies a 20-mile stretch of the
Deschutes.
One-third of the project land is
located on the Warm Springs Reser
vation. The hydro project generates
approximately 1.5 billion kilowatt
hours a year, enough power for a
city the size of Salem.
Council
critical of
casino ads
Tribal Council is responding to tele
vision and radio advertisements that are
critical of the tribes' plan to develop a
casino at Cascade Locks on the Colum
bia. The letter from Council Chairman
Ron Suppah is addressed to the chair
woman of the Confederated Grand
Ronde. Grand Ronde is part of a "coa
lition" that is sponsoring the advertise
ments, and Grand Ronde is partly fund
ing the ads, according to the letter from
"Councillnan-Suppah.'The-'teirrof the ;
letter is as follows:
The Warm Springs Tribal Council is
writing to express our deep concern
and anger regarding recent television
and newspaper advertisements placed
in the Pordand media market attacking
our Cascade Locks casino proposal.'
These ads are sponsored by a "coali
tion" organized by the Grand Ronde
Tribe and, we believe, were at least
partly paid for by the Grand Ronde
Tribe through your political consult
ants... The ads are misleading in claiming
that the Cascade Locks casino would
be the first casino established on land
not part of an existing Indian Reserva
tion of Oregon. In fact, your own Spirit
Mountain Casino property was added
to the Grand Ronde Reservation by an
Act of Congress in 1994 to make it
eligible for gaming, after the Bureau
of Indian Affairs declined to do so
administratively. Worse, the ads are in
sulting in their suggestion that the
Warm Springs Tribe and the people of
Cascade Locks and Hood River County
would "trash" the Columbia River
Gorge by developing a casino at the
mostly vacant Cascade Locks Industrial
Park.
Our people are from the Columbia
River and through the rights reserved
in our 1855 Treaty we have continu
ously used the Gorge to carry on our
traditional and spiritual way of life.
Many of the Indian fishing scaffolds
you see along the shoreline as you cross
the Bridge of the Gods, and the Cas
cade Locks "treaty fishing in lieu site"
established 5) years ago by die U.S.
Army Corpse of Engineers below the
bridge, are used by Warm Springs tribal
members exercising their 1855 Treaty
Rights.
See LETTER on page 12
General Council
meeting Tuesday
There will be a General Council
meeting on Tuesday, June 28 at the
Agency Longhouse. Dinner is at 6
p.m. and the meeting begins at 7.
There is an open agenda for this
meeting.