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OrColl
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75 n
.S68
v. 3B O
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
University of Oregon Library
Received oni 10-11-05
Spilyay tyioo.
September- 29, 2005 Vol. 30, No. 20
Warm Springs, OR 97761
50 cents
Coyote News, est. 1976
Tymoo
Casino plan presented at hearings
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
The open house hearings on the
tribes' casino proposal at Cascade
Ixcks went well, said Ed Manion,
of the casino project development
team.
The purpose of the hearings was
to gather comments and questions
on the proposal, not to debate the
issue, and the hearings were con
ducted with this goal in mind,
Manion said.
The open houses at Cascade
Locks drew attendance of between
200 and 250 people, and another
1 50 people showed up at the hear
ing in Hood River, Manion said.
About half the people who showed
up were in favor the proposal, and
the other half against, he said. The
tribal members who attended were
in favor, he said.
Festival of Nations
The hearing that drew the largest
tribal member attendance was the
one held Saturday morning, Sept. 17,
at Cascade Locks. This was the day
that Cascade Locks and the tribes
hosted the Festival of Nations
event.
More than 100 tribal members
attended the Festival of Nations
Celebration, die theme of which was
"Two Communities, One Vision."
H
rx ij3 j
Rachel Talmadge photo lor the Spilyay
Tribal Council Chairman Ron Suppah thanks community members at
Cascade Locks for welcoming the tribes with the Festival of Nations, as
Rodger Schock, chairman of the Hood River County Commission, listens.
During the event, the mayor of Cascade Locks presented Suppah with a
key to the city.
The open house gatherings were the
scoping hearings in the process of de
veloping an environmental impact state
ment (EIS) on the plan to bring the
Cascade Locks site into trust, leading
to development of a casino. The tribes
have hired the architectural, engineer
ing and consulting firm of 1 1DR to
produce the EIS.
Terry Buchholz, project manager
for the consulting firm, said the plan
is to fill 25 acres at the Cascade
lxcks industrial park with a 90,000
squarc foot casino, a 250-room ho
tel, a meeting facility, and parking
for 3,700 cars. Buchholz said the
EIS could be ready by 2006 and In
terior Secretary Gale Norton could
make a decision by that summer.
Manion said that issues of traf
fic, air quality and noise associated
with the proposed casino were raised
by some at the open houses. The
issues, he said, will be addressed
during the EIS process.
For economic reasons, he said,
the dry and port of Cascade Locks,
and I lood River County, are in fa
vor of the tribal proposal.
Bob Willoughby, Cascade Ixrcks
city manager, said there are striking
similarities between his city and the
tribe, with both suffering from pov
erty and high unemployment.
"We're both in the same boat,"
he said.
Information on the casinos is
available on the Internet at the fol
lowing website:
www.turninglivesaround.com.
A site dedicated to the casino EIS
is: www.gorgecasinoeis.com.
(I'he Associated Press contributed
to this article.)
Code could help in lending and borrowing
By Brian Mortensen
Spilyay Tymoo
The key to economic development
in Indian country, an official from the
Federal Reserve Bank recently said at
Kah-Nee-Ta, is leveling the commer
cial playing field both on and off the
reservation.
Sue Woodrow, managing project di
rector for the Federal Reserve Bank
of Minneapolis, said the means to a
level playing field is law applied to trans
actions involving personal property that
are secured by collateral.
Such law would correspond to Ar
ticle IX of the Uniform Commercial
Code (UCC), the generally accepted
code created to harmonize commer
cial law through each of the United
States.
Woodrow said that above all, eco
nomic development is based on afford
able credit extended to anyone at the
same interest rates both on and off the
reservation.
"It means that you can walk into
your local bank, credit union or other
lending institution and get the loan or
extension of credit at the same interest
rate or loan terms as any individual or
business off the reservation," Woodrow
said. "That is a very important prin
ciple." Because of differences in tribal and
state law, she said, loans to tribal mem
bers living on a reservation may be seen
as a higher risk, and may bear higher
interest rates. Banks are forced to im
pose higher interest rates because
"banks are subject to examination by
their regulators by the regulators' stan
dards," Woodrow said.
"Banks need to counter-balance
higher risk with things such as higher
interest rates," she said. "This is just a
fact of life. Banks are not non-profit
organizations; they are for-profit. They
are highly regulated, and so these are
things they have to do."
The banking practices apply not only
to tribal members and enterprises, but
also to privately owned businesses un
der tribal jurisdictions, she said.
Standardized financial law creates
less risk for creditors. "That is what
secured transaction law is," Woodrow
said. "It is a set of rules that govern
lender-borrower relationships."
Secured lending is making a pur
chase with collateral attached to the
purchase, which is different, for ex
ample, from buying with a credit
card.
To create law compatible with Re
vised Article IX of the UCC in In
dian Country, several tribes have ap
proached the National Conference
of Commissioners on Uniform State
Laws (NCCUSL), which developed
the UCC along with the American
Law Institute (ALI). The tribes and
asked the NCCUSL to consider
drafting a model tribal secured trans
action code.
Woodrow was in charge of the
committee that developed the model
law, called the Tribal Secured Trans
action Code. The process that took
four years and was complete in June.
JwCODE on page 11
Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Warm
Springs Chief Delvis Heath visit
during a break from the bowling
action last Wednesday, Sept.
21,atTigardBowl.
The gathering was a political
fundraiser, and the tribes were
invited to participate.
Kulongoski and other state
officials were on hand.
These kinds of events are
helpful for the tribes, said Louie
Pitt, director of tribal
government affairs.
"It's very helpful because the
state executives, such as the
governor, and the people who
make the laws, the
representatives and senators,
need to know who we are," said
Pitt.
These kinds of events give us a
chance to get to know one
another outside of a formal
setting, then we can work
better on issues of substance."
t : j , i
O ... A
Out McMetfwvSpayay
New
building
for Credit
The Tribal Credit Department is
planning the construction of a new
building, to be located on the vacant
field west of the Administration Build
ing The plan is to construct a 10,000
square-foot building at a projected cost
of about $2 million, Lori Fucntcs,
Credit Department manager, said.
The building would house Tribal
Credit, and, in time, could include a
branch office of a bank, Fucntcs said.
The bank branch would lease space in
the building from the tribes, she said.
A new building would allow Tribal
Credit, with a staff of 11, to move
from limited office space in the Ad
ministration building to a facility more
suited to the services the department
provides.
With more space, she said, "there is
a lot more we could do, such as offer
ing consumer credit counseling, courses
in financial literary, and new home
owner programs."
A question fliat is not yet answered
is whether the BIA would lease space
in the new building from the tribes. The
BIA is looking into the possibility but
has not yet made a decision, Fucntcs
said.
She said the new building would
bring the opportunity of a bank branch
opening in Warm Springs.
"We want to bring banking services
to the reservation," she said, "but I
don't see that happening until a com
mercial code is adopted."
Even an ATM machine at the build
ing would be helpful, allowing people
to deposit and withdraw money, said
Fuentes. Then at the right time, she said,
"I know we could get a bank interested
in opening a branch here, and we'll
have space for them to move in to."
Tribes
hire new
police chief
Enes Smith is returning as chief of
the Warm Springs Police Department.
Smith served as chief of Warm
Springs Police in the mid-1990s.
Jim Soles, who has served as Warm
Springs police chief for the past 14
months, is retiring this Friday, Sept. 30.
Smith is a former chief of the Ma-
t
dras Police Department. He is a teacher
of criminology and sociology at Cen
tral Oregon Community College.
Training will be a main focus at the
police department, Smith said. "I'm a
teacher and I like to train people. We're
going to work at identifying and train
ing tribal members."
At Madras he was asked by the city
council to train an officer of the de
partment to become chief, and he ac
complished that goal. Training a tribal
member to become chief, he said, will
be a primary goal during his tenure
here.
Smith said he feels good about re
turning to Warm Springs. "I like die
people and I like the job. I look for
ward to working with everyone here."
Smith worked for the Eugene and
Springfield police departments for 16
years, and then for the Prineville Po
lice Department as a lieutenant and cap
tain. Jim Soles plans to return to law-enforcement
consulting. I le had been re
tired briefly from police work before
coming to Warm Springs 14 months
ago.
J