Spilyay tymoo., March 16, 2006, Page Page 7, Image 7

Spilyay Tymoo, W^rm Springs, Oregon
M ills:
Inspired
to victory
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(Continued from page 1)
Mills said that as the NAIG
is at a critical point. He called
for tribal leaders to “endorse the
virtues and values that we’re try­
ing to present through sport.”
The first phase of creating a
w orld games is getting many
young people to participate in
the NAIG, and the other is spon­
sorship, he said.
“We have an chance for the
N ative A m erican Indigenous
Games to go global, with the
w orld o f indigenous nations
sports, and we’re getting a tre­
m endous response,” he said.
“The Southern Ute tribe is one
o f our major sponsors. Other
tribes are looking at sponsorship.
Tribes that have very success­
ful entrepreneurial programs,
and the companies that do busi­
ness with them, are being edu­
cated about our mission, and
they’re showing an interest. It’s
a big puzzle and things are be­
ing put in place.”
The first Team Oregon try­
outs were in the shooting event,
w hich were held near W arm
Springs last Saturday.
Mills’ mother died when he
[ was 8 and his father died when
Mills was 12.
:
He took up running while at
i
Brian Mortensen/Spilyay
Billy Mills met with youth at the Warm Springs Community
Center.
Haskell Institute in Lawrence,
Kan., and became a standout
runner at the University of Kan­
sas in the late 1950s. He was a
three-time NCAA All-American
in cross country and won the Big
E ight Conference individual
cross country title in 1960.
Dramatic win at Olympics
A fter graduating from the
University o f Kansas, he joined
the U.S. Marine Corps as a com­
m issioned lieutenant, and re­
sumed his athletic training. He
was good enough to qualify for
the 1964 O lym pic Games in
Tokyo. He qualified to compete
in the 10,000 meters and the
marathon.
No Am erican had won an
Page 7
March 16, 2 0 0 6
O lym pic 10,000 m eters, and
Mills’ qualifying time was a full
minute slower than that of the
favorite, Ron Clarke of Austra­
lia.
The race was anticipated as
a head-to-head duel between
C larke
and
M oham m ed
Gammoudi o f Tunisia. As it
turned out, it was shootout be­
tween those two runners, along
with the unheralded Mills, who
hung with the leaders.
Mills was leading with Clarke
when Gammoudi pushed his
way between the two and into
the lead. “I’m coming off the
curb, I ’m pushed, and close
back on Gammoudi,” he said.
“I’m on Clarke, Gammoudi
goes between me and him, and
more try. Eighty-five thousand
people screaming. A tingling sen­
sation going down my fore­
arm s.. . I can w in ... I could feel
it in my heart, I can win, I can
win. Thirty yards to go. I can
w in ... then I felt the tape break
across my chest. I won. I came
to stop and a Japanese official
ran up to me. He pulls me right
in his face, and he’s shouting^
‘Tell me, who are you?”’
Mills was an Olympic cham­
pion, finishing in 28 minutes,
24.4 seconds, almost 50 seconds
faster than his previous best,
I’m pushed again, and I start to
fall about 15 yards behind. Com­
ing off the final curve, I had
no more energy left.”
The year before the 1964
Games, Mills was diagnosed as
hypoglycemic and pre-diabetes.
Mills was sitting in third place
when a German runner who was
about to be lapped moved into
the fifth lane, creating an open
lane for Mills to run, and giving
him a strengthening focal point.
“One more try for me. I’m not
boxed in. One more try,” he said.
“And I still have no more en­
ergy.
“I glance at the German run­
ner. On his singlet, there was an
eagle.”
The image reminded him of
a time he was with his father
shortly after his mother died.
The father had young Billy stand
inside a circle drawn into the dirt
and encouraged him to let go
of the anger he felt for losing
his mother and the jealousy for
possessions he could not have.
His father told him that if would
let these things go, he would have
“wings of an eagle.”
“He said to look deeper, way
down deep where the dreams
lie,” he said. “Pursue the dream.
It’s the pursuit of the dream that
will heal you.”
When Mills saw the eagle on
the fro n t o f the G erm an
runner’s singlet, he felt the wings
of an eagle.
“I was back w ith my dad
when I was 9 years old. Wings
o f an eagle,” he said. “One
winning in a field that included
seven won gold medals, three
silver and four bronze and 36
world records.
M ils, now 67, was inducted
into the U.S. Track and Field Hall
of Fame in 1984, and his finish
is regarded as one of the most
dramatic in Olympic history. He
w as nam ed South D ak o ta’s
g rea te st ath lete o f the 2 0 th
Century.Mlls now lives in Sac­
ramento and is a public speaker.
He is national spokesman for
Running Strong for American
Indian Youth.
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Casino: support
from governor
(Continued from page 1)
The area of the Columbia is a part of the
tribes’ Ceded Lands.
“When Warm Springs decided to work with
Cascade Locks in pursuing a casino, we fully
recognized the off-reservation site posed new
and very significant challenges,” said Suppah.
“Unlike the Hood River trust lands site, which
is already gaming eligible, we understood that
we would have pursue the IGRA ‘two-part’
determination and the fee-to-trust process to
take the Industrial Park site into trust for gam­
ing. We recognized we would have to be ex­
ceptionally diligent and careful in addressing
these challenges, that we would have to, in fact,
conduct a model process that would be very
expensive.”
The tribes have the support o f the gover­
nor, and the local governments at and around
the Cascade Locks site, said Suppah.
For these reasons the Confederated Tribes,
the state and the local communities believe
the Cascade Locks casino plan should not be
curtailed by changes to IGRA. Suppah also
said that it is understandable why the two-part
test has become a point of controversy. Some
tribes has pursued off-reservation casino sites
without any realistic chance o f surviving the
process. These proposals have upset local com­
munities, and unnecessarily contributed to the
overall difficulties for tribal gam ing, said
Suppah.
At the hearing before the Senate commit­
tee, Hood River County Commissioner Carol
York also testified on behalf o f the tribes.
Gov. Kulongoski was also on hand for sup­
port.
In opposition to the Confederated Tribes
o f W arm Springs were Cheryle Kennedy,
chairwoman o f the Confederated Tribes of
Grand Ronde; Michael Lang, conservation di­
rector for the Friends o f the Gorge; and Con­
gressman David Wu, whose district include the
Grande Ronde’s Spirit Mountain Casino.
Kennedy testified that her tribe had always
opposed off-reservation gaming. Sen. McCain
then asked her to explain the inconsistency
betw een that statem ent and the G rande
Ronde’s several proposals in recent years to
build a casino in Portland.
Sen. McCain was clearly unsatisfied with
Kennedy’s answers, said Howard Arnett, at­
torney for the Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs, who attended the Senate hearing.
Sen. McCain also asked the Friends of the
Gorge witness how the organization could
claim in its testimony that it had been “shut
out” o f the BIA’s environmental review pro­
cess, when the organization admitted that it
had participated in each of the five public hear­
ings and provided detailed comments on the
BIA’s Environmental Impact Statement pro­
cess. “... You weren’t excluded from the pro­
cess,” Sen. McCain said.
The appearance of Rep. Wu was unusual
at the Senate committee hearing, said Arnett.
Wu’s appearance led to an exchange between
the Wu and Suppah about Wu’s assertion that
the Warm Springs tribes should build a new
casino on the reservation instead of in the
Columbia Gorge.
Suppah said Wu was wrong in thinking a
casino at Warm Springs would solve the prob­
lems created by the reservation’s declining natu­
ral resources-based economy. “The economic
studies we have done show that only a casino
in our ancestral and treaty ceded territory in
the Columbia Gorge will meet the tribes’ needs
and secure our financial future,” said Suppah.
Gov. Kulongoski was invited by McCain to
join the Senators on the dais and address the
committee. This gave the Governor an op­
portunity to explain why he negotiated the gam­
ing compact with Warm Springs for a casino
at Cascade Locks.
Kulongoski spoke with passion about the
tribes’ unmet needs in areas such as educa­
tion. The tribes, or instance, are in need of a
new school for children on the reservation.
“I (agreed to the gaming compact) because
the tribe needs this to achieve true self-suffi­
ciency and address the unmet needs of the
tribes’ members. I am convinced that the Cas­
cade Locks casino will be good for the tribe,
good for the local community and good for
the State of Oregon,” said Kulongoski.
The Senate committee is expected to take
action on McCain’s bill in the next few weeks,
said Arnett.
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