Pe 12
Spilyqy Tymoo, Wrm Springs, Oregon
August 4, 2005
I
Tribes host law
By Brian Mortcnien
Spilyuy Tjmae
A group of five law students,
studying Indian law, visited
Warm Springs recently. They
heard talks from Anita Jackson,
chief judge of the Tribal Court,
and Cynthia Starke, an attorney
at Karnopp Petersen, the firm
that has represented the tribes
for 50 years.
Jackson gave the students an
overview of the tribal govern
ment and court system. She also
recounted work as surveillance
sujH-rvisor for the tribes' gam
ing commission. This work in
cluded 16-20-hour days moni
toring how money is counted,
overseeing who has authority to
open up the gaming machines,
and "protecting the fairness of
the games."
The law students gathered at
the Museum at Warm Springs
for discussion, and the tribes also
hosted a dinner for them at
Kah-Nee-Ta. The students are
part of eight-week summer pro
gram at Ixwis and Clark Law
School in Portland.
Starke has worked for
Karnopp Petersen for four and
a half years. She said represent
ing the tribes includes working
in several areas of the law, in
cluding family law, contract law,
drafting tribal code provisions,
environmental issues and treaty
protection issues.
"There's a pretty broad spec
trum," she said. "You get to do
a lot of different things."
Starke explained that because
her firm represents the tribes,
she does not appear in tribal
court at Warm Springs. "We rep
resent the tribal court, so it
would create a conflict situation
if we were to do that," she said.
"Whenever anybody sues the
tribe in tribal court, which oc
casionally happens, it's, usually
handled by an attorney chosen
by the insurance company, and
we work with them. A lot of
if
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times we have to educate them
on legal issues they may need to
le aware of, but we don't go into
tribal court."
Starke said she doesn't spend
much time working on gaming,
as two other attorneys at the
firm are working on the casino
project. She said gaming in
volves dealing with land use is
sues, political work, "getting
through the whole regulatory
process to get land placed in
trust," public relations work, and
financing through bonds.
"Those are huge complex
transactions," she said. 'They're
the same kinds of transactions
you would sec in any large busi
ness enterprise."
Starke said Oregon state
court does not impose upon the
Warm Springs Reservation,
through Public Law 280.
I listory plays a part in how
the current situation operates.
"The Warm Springs Reser
vation is an area of land that is
difficult to raise crops on for
agricultural purposes," Jackson
told the students. "When the
tribes were first put on reserva
tion, the goal was to civilize
them, which was to make them
into farmers, and this land just
wasn't very good for those pur
poses. "Umatilla and Yakama have
great farmland, so areas were
allotted." Because of the Dawes
Act, surplus land on those res
ervations became open to sale
to non-Indians, Jackson said.
That is why there is a checker
board of private land in their
reservations," she said. "For us,
(Warm Springs' land) is full of
rocks and the water is too far
down to pipe it up very easily,
so we were able to keep most
of it," she said.
In addition, the tribal govern
ment bought back, reservation
land non-tribal members once
had.
Starke said she worked on
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students
the rather unique case where a
fuel tanker truck wrecked and
spilled thousands of gallons of
gasoline into Beaver Creek in
1999.
Along with the Environmen
tal Protection Agency, the Na
tional Marine Fisheries, and the
Confederated Tribes sued the oil
company. The EPA sued on
Clean Water Act violations, and
the tribes sued for tribal water
quality violations.
"The F.PA sued in federal
court, and we were suing for
penalties under the tribes' wa
ter quality regulations under
tribal law," Starke said. "Nor
mally, that claim would go in
tribal court, but because the
EPA had already sued in federal
court, we worked with F.PA in
advance to try and work this out.
What we did was join their law
suit as claimants in order to
bring our bring our tribal law
claim into federal court."
Starke said she could not find
any other cases where this oc
curred. Starke happens to be a mem
ber of the Cherokee Nation but
did not grow up in a tribal com
munity. "I'm one degree sepa
rated from it," she said. "So I
really have to pay attention
(when working with the tribes
and tribal members.) I just try
to listen, and you learn as you
go
Jackson earned her legal de
gree from Arizona State Univer
sity in 1993. She worked for the
Karnopp Petersen firm for six
months, and has beeh a man
ager of public safety for the
Confederated Tribes, as well as
a juvenile judge. This week she
started work as the new chief
judge of the Tribal Court.
Some of the students in the
Lewis and Clark program who
visited Warm Springs attend
Lewis and Clark, but others go
to school in Ohio and Texas.
to
Mats
Casino: local
government
in favor
(Continued from page 1)
"Overall, based on informa
tion currently known and based
on the agreements contained in
the compact (including resolu
Judges: Council
used candidate
rating system
(Continued from page 1)
At that point there were vari
ous options: Council could allow
the situation to continue, they
Athletes:
fund-raising
was succesful
(Continued from page 6)
Moody said being cooped
up in a flying tube for more than
half of a day was a good bond
ing experience for her and her
new friends. It was also a great
chance to catch up on the latest
cinematic releases.
Moody and Bcgay each had
Sap-Si-Kwat:
means teaching,
learning
(Continued from page 5)
"And each one paired up with
a Japanese student, so that In
dian kids were teaching them
how to make a dream catcher."
It was interesting and a chal
Youth: media
work can be
fun, challenging
(Continued from page 1)
Caldera and Polk's contri
butions have made it an ex
citing experience for the
KWSO staff. "We try to give
the youth workers a hands
on experience," said KWSO's
Will "The Willman" Robbins.
KWSO is not the only
source of information for
the community. The Spilyay
Tymoo has been around for
29 years.
Since about the early
1990s, the Spilyay has been
hiring youth workers who are
interested in journalism and
helping get the paper out.
Deece Suppah was one of
the first youth workers at the
Spilyay. She worked as a
writer and photographer.
Romelle Speakthunder
worked in the darkroom, de
veloping film and taught
other youth workers how to
use the darkroom.
Bernie Jackson was an
other student who worked
for the Spilyay. Jackson used
to write for her high school
paper when she decided to
write articles for the Spilyay.
Jerry Bruno had an inter
est in the paper and worked
there one summer. After that
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tion of the I lood River issue), I
believe that the tribes' Cascade
Locks proposal is in the best in
terests of the entire Columbia
River Gorge, as well as the lo
cal community, and not detri
mental to the environment of
the Gorge," the governor said.
Me also said issues such as
local infrastructure, traffic,
could try again to convene the
committee, appoint new mem
bers to the committee, or Coun
cil could go ahead and appoint
new judges. Lack of action
would leave the Tribal Court
with only two judges indefinitely.
In the end the Council de
cided to exercise its authority as
to raise $3,900, along with an
additional $800 for spending
money, to participate in the
Down Under Games. "We sold
little tickets. We did powwows.
My dad helped me do that," she
said. 'We had a raffle for a golf
bag. We had a movie night."
At a blanket dance during the
Lincoln's Pow Wow in February,
participants offered money by
placing it on a blanket. There
was also a benefit golf scramble
organized by Butch David,
lenge, she said, because "they
didn't speak English, and we
didn't speak Japanese."
A group of tribal drummers
came to the camp and sang for
the Japanese students, and the
students, in turn, invited their
hosts to come to a Japanese din
ner at the Agency Longhouse,
where they were shown origami
- -mufL I I.
Ashley Aguilar photoi
KWSO summer youth workers Sally Polk-Adams and
Brandon Caldera are enjoying their work at the station.
-,if- X -4; jw c
he went forward with his edu
cation and decided to pursue a
career in journalism.
This summer I'm writing ar
ticles and doing some photog
raphy for the paper. I've worked
in the Summer Youth Program
for three summers. What
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housing and other social impacts
have been examined by the city
of Cascade Locks, which w sup
portive of the tribes' proposal.
"The support of the local
governments was critical to my
decision to negotiate and execute
a compact to allow gaming in
Cascade Locks," the governor
said.
the final decision-maker, and
made the appointments based
upon the Constitution and Tribal
Code, said Calica. The decision
was based on a candidate rating
system that was applied to each
of the tribal members candi
dates who applied for the posi
tions. school liaison at Jefferson
County Middle School and a
Simnasho resident.
Moody starts college in Eu
gene September 23. Among her
classes will be a weight training
class, as required of all track and
field athletes. Practice in her
throwing events begins winter
term, at least two days a week,
followed by the spring season.
Moody said she's excited to
start college, but plans to come
back home when she can. '
and watched Japanese dances.
The name of the camp is in
the Ichiskiin language. "Camp
Sap-Si-Kwat, it means to teach,
and also to learn," Herkshan said.
"I might be teaching you some
thing, but as I'm teaching you
something I'm also learning
something from you, so it goes
both ways."
sparked my interest in jour
nalism was working at Mai
dras High School paper, the
White Buffalo.
Working at the Spilyay is
the best job I've ever had. I
love the job and the people
are easy to get along with.
Throughout the years
Selena Boise, management
successor at the Spilyay, has
seen many kinds of youth
workers, from the ones who :
go out and get the stories fc
others who don't find it so
interesting.
"Sometimes it seems like
they're just passing time," she
said. "And then sometimes we
get our hopes up about some
one, but then they go in an
other direction with their
lives, which is fine."
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