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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2006)
SCft OrColl E 75 . S68 m P.0. Box 870 Warm Son ngs, OR 97761 Sp ilyay Tyroc University of Oregon Lit arar y Received on: 03-E0-06 Spilyay tymoo. E C R W SS P ostal Patron U.S. Postage PRSRT STD C oyote News, est. 1976 « • March 16, 2006 Voi. 31, No. 6 Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents ■ Tribes, hospital reach agreement Senate committee hears casino testimony B y Dave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo T he C o n fed erated T ribes o f Warm Springs and Mountain View Hospital have reached an agreement o f cooperation. The agreement ben efits tribal members because they will be able to obtain quality services at a reasonable cost close to home. The agreement benefits the tribal organization because the tribes are provided a discount for medical ser vices at Mountain View. This is im portant as health care costs have risen substantially in recent years and the Oregon Health Plan has reduced its coverage, shifting significant costs to the tribes and putting a severe strain on the tribes’ managed care program budget. T he agreem en t also ben efits Mountain V iew Hospital, because hospital officials know that the tribes are a supporting m em ber o f the hospital district community. B y Dave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo The Confederated Tribes’ proposed Cascade Locks casino was a central point o f discussion during a recent hearing before the U.S. Senate Com mittee on Indian Affairs. The com m ittee chairm an is Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sponsor of a bill that would amend the Indian Gaming R e g u lato ry A ct (IG R A ) o f 1988. McCain is proposing the elimination of the “two-part determination test,” a section of IGRA that has become con troversial. The two-part test allows the Secre tary o f the Interior to approve trust status to off-reservation land acquired by Indian tribes in recent years for gam ing purposes. The two-part test deter mines w hether granting trust status would benefit the tribe without detri ment to the surrounding community. In pursuing the Cascade Locks ca sino plan, the Confederated Tribes have been following the two-part test. For this reason the proposal to am end IGRA, and eliminate the test is of great interest to the tribes. T rib a l C o u n cil C h airm an Ron Suppah testified at the recent hearing before the Senate Committee on In dian Affairs, and explained the tribes’ situation. It has been almost four years now that the tribes first began negotiations regarding the Cascade Locks site, said Suppah. Since that time, the tribes, the state o f Oregon, Hood River County, and the city and Port of Cascade Locks have expended a great amount o f time and money on the project. In pursuing the Cascade Locks site the tribes were responding the over whelming sentiment o f the people in the community surrounding both the Cascade Locks and Hood River sites. In the late 1990s, when the tribes were first considering developing the Hood River site, it was the comm unity of Cascade Locks that approached the tribes about developing the casino at the Cascade Locks Industrial Park, said Suppah. The industrial park is made o f fill m aterial from construction o f the nearby Bonneville Dam. “It is important to the tribes that M ountain V iew H ospital rem ains a strong and stable institution. It is the closest hospital to Warm Springs,” said M ike M arcotte, director the tribes’ managed care program. Marcotte worked on the agreement with Jay Henry, chief executive officer of Mountain View Hospital. Mountain View chief financial of ficer Rick Nader, and the tribes’ chief financial officer Ray Potter were also key to reaching the agreement. “This is an excellent example of what we can accomplish when we work together,” said Jody Calica, tribal sec retary-treasurer. “I’m impressed and inspired by the vision that Mountain View is taking to better meet the health care needs of the reservation.” The agreement will allow the Con federated Tribes to provide about $200,000 per year in additional medi cal services to the membership, said Ray Potter. He said that Marcotte and Henry worked diligently on reaching the agreement, “and they did a great job.” Jay Henry summarized the agree ment as follows: “The idea is to re-es tablish a healthy working relationship between the hospital and the tribes. The goal is to have the best health care pos sible at the best rate possible.” Another goal o f the hospital is to develop “a culturally welcoming environment,” said Henry. He said the hospital intends to pro vide more services to tribal members, perhaps through the provision of spe cialty services on the reservation. This would eliminate the need to drive off the reservation for some specialty ser vices. The $200,000 in annual health care savings to the tribes is realized through discounts the hospital will pro vide to the tribes’ managed care pro gram, said Henry. The discounts are similar to those offered to large health care payers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, he said. “The most important thing is that we have this agreement and desire to work together,” he said. The current relationship between the Confederated Tribes and M ountain View Hospital is dramatically different from the relationship that existed in the mid and late 1990s. At that time Garland Brunoe, now manager o f Kah-Nee-Ta, was director o f the managed care program, and also a member of the hospital district board. Brunoe was frustrated with the way the hospital was billing the tribes. The rela tionship deteriorated to the point where the tribes adopted a policy of encour aging tribal m em bers not to go to M ountain V iew H ospital w henever possible. Mountain View switched manage ment in the late 1990s, choosing St. Charles as to m anage the hospital. “W hen the hospital board chose St. Charles, that was a huge step in healing the relationship,” said Marcotte. See HOSPITAL on 8 Officials weigh meth prevention strategies B y B rian M ortensen Spilyay Tymoo Dave McMechan/Spilyay Joseph Sheppherd, project coordinator at the Museum at Warm Springs, shows a model of the canoe that he is working on with tribal youth and others. Sheppherd and his team are planning to build three canoes, one for each of the Confederated Tribes. The project is called the River Eagle Canoe Project. Sheppherd has experience building traditional canoes. Anyone wishing to help build the canoe should show up on the weekends at the museum, when the weather permits. Sheppherd and the team of workers are also constructing a Wasco plank house behind the museum. See CASINO on 7 A Warm Springs Police Detective called the ever-present methamphet- amine problem on the reservation “an evil, evil trap,” and a tribal councilman termed it a “spiritual problem.” The comments came during a meet ing of tribal leadership, law enforcement and health professionals at Kah-Nee- Ta High Desert Casino and Resort last Friday. The meeting was to be the second involving officials from several Oregon tribes. The first m eeting was at the Simnasho Longhouse, where about 120 people attended despite blizzard con ditions March 8. Nearly 50 people attended the meet ing at Kah-Nee-Ta in spite o f inclem ent road conditions that prevented speakers and attendees from west of the Cascade Mountains. In calling the meth epidemic on the reservation a “spiritual problem,” Warm Springs T ribal C ouncilm an Stanley “Buck” Smith said that even parents need to be taught in the fight. See METH on 8 Native track star shares dream of world indigenous games it is based around the values of the participants. “It’s a celebration of culture, tradi tion, spirituality, and the virtues and the values that empowered our culture, our tradition and our spirituality,” he said. Mills said he took two things from his life as an athlete: the sacredness of sport through value, and the idea of global unity through its diversity. “You take a mother who teaches a son life values, promoting sacredness, or you take a tribe or government,” he said. “Each has a vision or a mission statement, and the mission is value- based. Everybody attempts to live those values, legally, ethically and morally, promoting sacredness. Why? Because values are and always will be sacred.” He said global unity through diver sity is not only an enduring theme of Olympic competition, but also “the future of humankind.” Mills was an orphan at age 12. When he became a successful athlete on the world stage, he gained a place as a citi zen of the world. B y B rian M ortensen • Spilyay Tymoo Sports, B illy M ills said, serve to teach sacred life values and foster glo bal unity through the diversity of its participants. M ills is the 1964 O lym pic Gold m edallist in the 10,000 meters. He spoke on March 4 at the Warm Springs Community Center, during a meeting to recruit Warm Springs athletes for Team Oregon in the 2006 North Ameri can Indigenous Games. The games will be held July 2-9 in locations in and around Denver, Colo., and will include 16 Olympic sports. Mills is an Oglala Dakota Sioux. He was raised in Pine Ridge, S.D., and re mains the only athlete from North, South or Central America to win the Olympic 10,000. In his track and field career, he continued to set U.S. and world records. Mills said that what makes the North American Indigenous Games different from any other sporting occasion is that 4h T •*’ • ? ‘ ■ ■ \ ■ > ■ * %t, “T here are ap p ro xim ately 212 countries throughout the world,” he said. “Because of sport, I can go today to 167 countries around the world, and I have a friend there.” He said there are 5,000 indigenous nations throughout the world. “I can go to 2,000 qations world wide, and because o f sport, I have a friend there. That’s global unity through the dignity, character, and beauty of global diversity, the future of human kind.” The first North Am erican Indig enous Games (NAIG) were held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in 1990, the product of notable Native athletes like Mills and prominent indigenous Canadian legislator Willie Littlechild. The most recent Games were held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2002. The Denver NAIG is the second on U.S. soil, after Blaine, Minn., in 1995. The North Am erican Indigenous Games, Mills said, are the forerunner in the effort to one day begin world competition among indigenous peoples. u We have an chance fo r the Native A.merican indigenous Games to go global, with the world o f indigenous nations sports, and we’re getting a tremendous response. ” Billy Mills “There are four powers o f sport,” he said. “The United States, the Pacific Rim, African nations, and the European nations, including the former Soviet Union. We hope to develop the fifth power o f sport. In the fifth power of sport, there are 300 million indigenous people worldwide. We’re going to de velop the fifth power of sport.” He said the International Olympic Committee has expressed great inter est in what the NAIG organizers are trying to do. The U.S. Olympic Com mittee has endorsed Willie Littlechild’s World Indigenous Nations sports pro gram, “because we are one o f the few, if not the only sports program in the world that is value-based,” he said. Mills said he cried at the first North Am erican Indigenous Games. “Two thousand, five hundred young people and adults marched into the opening ceremonies, clustering in with their own nation, carrying a banner or a flag rep resenting their nation,” he said. In these world indigenous games the athletes themselves are taught “the most powerful virtues of indigenous people,” he said. These virtues are bravery, for titude, generosity and wisdom. “It takes bravery and fortitude to go on a journey to the center o f your soul, and that’s where we find the vir tue o f wisdom,” he said. “You use the virtue of wisdom to empower yourself, and then you go and empower others. Em powering others is the virtue o f generosity. T hat’s the basis o f every Native American culture in this coun try.” See MILLS on 7
