Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs; Warm Springs, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2006)
M P SCfi OrCol1 E 75 . S68 v. 31 no» 5 Mav'ch 2 , £006 Spilyay Ty m o C oyote News, est. 1976 March 2, 2006 \ A / Ä _____ O - University of Oregon Library Received on: 03-16-06 Spilyay tymoo. P.O. Box 870 ^R 97761 :R WSS I Patron Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 Voi. 31, No. 5 50 cents Owners seek protection for cultural site (AP) — Looking across Tammera and Clay Walker’s property east of Bend, a shallow wash bracketed by basalt walls suggests nothing more than a typical desert draw. But closer inspection reveals a legacy of at least 13,000 years of human habi tation, a cultural treasure trove docu mented by more than 200 panels of ghosdy rock art, obsidian tool bits and potential burial sites. Northern Paiute tribal members, who still worship at the site, consider it sacred ground. Wilson Wewa, a member of the Northern Paiute, said his grandmother told him about the area when they rode by on a bus trip from Madras to Burns. Wewa, who’s now 49, said he visited the area with his grandmother shortly after he was given a car after graduat ing from high school. “We walked down there and that’s when she said, ‘when you come to this place you have to pray,”’ said Wewa. The images on the rocks tell the his tory of his ancestors, said Wewa. He said the art depicts images of “sohop” (ghosts), people, warnings, stars, ani mals and hunting parties. “Our people never used to think that those cultural things would be en dangered,” Wewa said. “They just let it be. To our people it was common knowledgef toMie white people it was an extraordinary find.” Registry of Historic Places As property owners of the site, Tammera and Clay Walker have launched an effort to place the area, labeled by experts as the most impor tant archaeological site in Deschutes County, on the National Register of Historic Places. “We’re trying to protect what’s al ready there and to prevent any further damage,” Tammera Walker said. The Walkers decided to attempt to list their land after nearby property owners proposed constructing a rock mine about one-half mile away from the cultural site, Tammera Walker said. But she said the mine, which has yet to receive a land-use permit from the Deschutes County commissioners, isn’t the only reason to register the site. Adding the area to the roughly 120 other archaeological sites in Oregon listed on the National Historic Register could help protect artifacts if the Walk ers decide to sell the property in the future, Tammera Walker said. The effort to list the site on the na tional register likely doesn’t have the power to stop the proposed rock mine, said Paul Claeyssens, an archaeologist for the Deschutes and Ochoco national forests who is familiar with the Walker property. But he said a national listing could have an effect on future land-use deci sions in the area. “This isn’t a deal breaker — it won’t trump the decision-making process,” Claeyssens said. “It just elevates the site’s consideration.” The National Historic Register, which is administered by the National Park Service, was created in 1966, ac cording to the Park Service’s Web site. The goal of the register is to “support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate and protect our historic and archaeological resources.” The Walkers’ effort, which has been aided by volunteers from the Archaeo logical Society of Central Oregon, got a recent boost from state archaeolo gist Dennis Griffin. See CULTURAL SITE on 8 I Community college center closes B y Dave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo As part of budget reductions this year, the tribal Education Branch has not renewed the contract that pro vided for operation of the Warm Springs office of Central Oregon Community College. In declining to renew the COCC contract, the positions that are elimi nated at Warm Springs Higher Edu cation are those of Cody Yeager, who was director of the Warm Springs COCC center, and her secre tary. COCC had a presence on the res ervation for 25 years prior. The tribal Education Branch is cur rently determining how to continue providing essential education services to the community, said Wendell Jim, branch general manager. COCC helped with the Summer Bridge and Student Success Strategies programs, remedial education and adult basic education courses. The Education Branch is now de termining how to maintain these pro grams, possibly through new contract ing with COCC, or professors of the college, or possibly some other com munity college, said Jim. The decision to eliminate the COCC Warm Springs was a difficult one, he said. The decision was part of the bud get reductions for 2006, which branch managers and tribal Finance developed late last year. The reduction total for the tribal organization was nearly $2 million. Meeting the reduction target re quired elimination of some positions, such as those of Business and Eco nomic Development, though tribal members whose positions were elimi nated were offered other positions within the organization. Closure o f the Warm Springs COCC center could mean that students may have to travel more often to COCC centers in Madras or Redmond, or to the Bend campus. GED classes are still offered at the Education Build ing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Senator seeking views on off-reservation casinos BgSspÄI ¡■krtói Dave McMechan/Spilyay The Warm Springs 4-H Social Dancers perform at Eagle Watch 2006. The event happened this past weekend at the overlook park near the Cove. B y R aelyn n R icarte Hood River County Commis sioner Carol York was invited by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to share her viewpoint about an off- reservation casino being sited in Cas cade Locks. McCain, chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, has expressed strong concern about the growing number of tribal requests for off-reservation gaming facilities. He wants the Indian Gaming Regu latory Act of 1988 amended to fur ther restrict that practice. However, York, who serves Dis trict 1 which encompasses Cascade Locks, will ask that the Confeder ated Tribes of Warm Springs’ plan be protected from any IGRA changes. Tribal Council Chairman Ron Suppah is also planning to present testimony on the proposed changes to IGRA. Federal review of the 25-acre in dustrial site is already underway. And, while the property might not have been owned by the tribes prior to the passage of IGRA, it does qualify for the allowable off-reser- vation exception, said York. She said the community of Cas cade Locks welcomes the project, as do tribal members. Meanwhile, the eligible alternative — 40 acres of tribal trust land just east of Hood River — has met with strong oppo sition. “I want this committee to know that we are a model for the excep tion process available under IGRA and it has served the citizens of Hood River County well,” said York. She joins a host of other gov ernment leaders in the belief that the Warm Springs cannot be legally stopped from building on its trust land, which lies in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. York said that location might be on a steep hillside but engineering studies have shown that it is build- able. And cities such as Seattle, Wash., and San Francisco, Calif., have developed on even more ver tical inclines. “We need to protect the NSA and place the casino in the blighted in dustrial park of community that wants and needs the jobs. That just makes good sense,” said York. Since 1998, she has been im mersed in the complex issues sur rounding the Warm Springs’ plan to overcome a high poverty rate by opening a casino in the Gorge. Once the Cascade Locks City Council voted to welcome a casino in 1999, York began lobbying state officials for support. Last year, she was gratified to see Gov. Ted Kulongoski endorse the project af ter weighing all of the options. Because of her extensive re search into casino issues, York was recommended to join the federal discussion by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. Her appearance in Washing ton, D.C., has been authorized by the county board. “It isn’t every day that you get a letter from a senator asking for your opinion on an issue. So, I’m very pleased to be able to represent our interests,” said York. (This article appears courtesy o f the H ood R iver N ews.) Ranch work brings unity to family B y B rian M ortensen Spilyay Tymoo Edison Yazzie and Priscilla Squiemphen-Yazzie and their chil dren, Teri Jo and Amanda, work 200 head of cattle on the 80 acres of prairie near Sidwalter, about 19 miles from Warm Springs. In the winter they battle the cold temperatures, the snow and the ever present mud to feed the cattle every day. Calf birthing is in early Febru ary, and they doctor the cattle when ever necessary. The cattle make the Yazzies a liv ing, but Edison Yazzie said the cattle are there mainly because of his daughters. “The reason I’m in the cattle busi ness is because of my kids,” he said, as he drove his pickup on the bumpy road to the covered area where the alfalfa hay is kept. “It keeps them busy, away from drugs and alcohol.” Another big part of his daugh ters’ lives is sports. Both have played basketball this winter. Amanda is 12, a seventh-grader at Jefferson County Middle School, and Teri Jo is 17, a jun ior at Chemawa School in Salem. They both also play volleyball during the fall. Volleyball will take the sisters to The Netherlands to play in a tournament through the People-to-People Sports Ambassadors Program. The sisters each need to raise $5,500 by July, when their tournament begins. Amanda and Teri Jo were both set ters for their respective teams, and both received invitations stating their nomi nation to participate in the People-to- People program last summer. Both sisters attended a meeting in Bend at the start of the school year. Since then, the sisters and their par ents have set about raising money for their trip. “We’ve had bake sales and taco sales,” Amanda said. And the family hosted a youth basketball tournament last April and plans one again this April as well. “Most of that money that we raised went to their trip,” Priscilla said. The People-to-People program works by a payment plan, so the fam ily must stay on track until Amanda and Teri Jo leave. They also have plans to use their steers for a jackpot rodeo this spring as a fund-raiser. Priscilla Squiemphen-Yazzie said the family has raised about one-third of the amount needed. “We’re slowly pecking away at it,” Priscilla said. Until then, they have chores to do. There are horses and cattle to feed. While Teri Jo is at school in Salem, Amanda gets up at 6 a.m. every day to catch the bus about a mile away. After school and basketball practice, she’ll come home at about 7 p.m. After din ner and homework come the chores, and by then it’s about 8 p.m. Or it could be later if her father’s pickup breaks down out in the expansive pasture, or if the tractor used to move the alfalfa bales from the covered stack to the pickup won’t start. Sometimes mend ing fences in the dwindling twilight’s a possibility, too. February was calving season. “You do the feeding, calving, fencing, or riding,” Edison said. “Moving cows, moving horses, moving hay, it’s just constant, everyday.” Performing a sort of “first aid” vet erinary work is sometimes called for, because the closest veterinarian is lo cated in Madras, more than a half-hour a way. “Our oldest daughter (Teri Jo) has delivered quite a few calves,” Priscilla said. “When she was younger, she wanted to be a veterinarian, but now she wants to be in sports medicine,” Amanda said. Amanda hasn’t birthed a calf yet, but she has helped pull cattle that were stuck in the mud. She has played volleyball five years and had played club volleyball and bas ketball in the winter until this past year, when she decided to just play basket ball. She’ll play soccer in the spring, as well. See FAMILY on 9
