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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2006)
SCfì OrColl E 75 . S68 v. 31 no. 13 Jane £2, £006 PO. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 ? 2 Z V ibrary PUSerla,s Coyote News, est. 1976 June 22, 2006 Voi. 31, No. 13 UpRSRTSTD Warm Sprìngs, OR 97761 50 cents Tribes Expanding role for Power Enterprises welcome Maori to Pi-Ume-Sha By Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo Members of the Maori culture of Aotearoa, New Zealand will be among the special guests at this weekend’s Pi- Ume-Sha Treaty Days Celebration. Maori artists have been in Warm Springs this week, dem onstrating their weaving techniques. Their ex hibit Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread was on display at the Museum at Warm Springs. The museum was the final N orth west venue for the Maori exhibition. The Maori chose to bring their exhibi tion tour to Warm Springs because Maori artists feel a special kinship with Native American artists of the N orth west. The tim ing of the Maori visit to Warm Springs was perfect, as the Maori can now experience Pi-Ume- Sha. Tribal Council has given Warm Springs Power Enterprises author ity to explore water marketing op portunities. To reflect the expanded role of the enterprise, the name will change to Warm Springs Power and Water. Examples of potential water mar keting opportunities are water bot tling, or the leasing of water for municipal or commercial use, said Jim Manion, manager of the enter prise. Manion said that Warm Springs Power and Water has authority to research water marketing opportu- nities, but cannot finalize an agreement. Tribal Council would review and final ize any agreements, Manion said. Manion emphasized that no agree ment would involve the sale of any tribal water right. At most there may be a lease to a right, he said. The water marketing idea grew out of the comprehensive water rights settlement agreement among the Con federated Tribes, and the federal and state governments. The agreement quantifies and describes the tribal wa ter rights reserved by the Treaty of 1855. The tribal right is the oldest in the Deschutes basin. An older water right has priority over all newer ones, so the tribes’ right is significant. The issue became of increasing con cern to non-tribal interests, such as lo cal governments in the basin, as more people moved to the region, which prompted the water rights settlement agreement. Now, with the tribal right quantified and described in the agreement, the tribes may have a chance to market the water and generate revenue. Manion said the transition from Power Enterprises to Warm Springs Power and Water will happen over the next several months and should be fully phased in within a year. He said Power Enterprises is in the process of developing a study that will Casino team promotes ‘one vision’ 151 years The theme of Pi-Ume-Sha this year is “Traditional Healthy Lifestyle.” The powwow this year is marking is 37th Anniversary. Pi-Ume-Sha com m em orates the signing of the Treaty of 1855, which was signed 151 years this month. Grand Entries are at 7 p.m. on Fri day, on Saturday at 1 and 7 p.m., and on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Traditional Dress Parade is at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Dance contests are throughout the weekend. Specials this year are a Round Bustle contest; and Verbena “Beans” Greene, Geneva Charley, Tonya Mitchell and Nadine Wesley Shell Dress Dance Con test. For powwow information call Cassie Katchia at 553-1293 (h) or 553-2128 (w); or Louise Katchia 553-2416 (w) or 553-7015 (h). For sports fans, the ball fields will be busy with the Pi-Ume-Sha softball tournament. For information on the softball tourney, call Sandra Greene and Jerry Sampson at 553-6619. The Kah-Nee-Ta Golf Course will host the annual Fry Bread Golf Tour nament on Saturday and Sunday. For information on the golf tourney, call Janel Smith at 553-7827, or Butch David at 553-0112. For information on the Traditional Dress Parade, call Ramona Greene Baez, 553-2406. The Warm Springs Boxing Club will be taking on challengers during the Pi- Ume-Sha Treaty Days Boxing event, starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday at the Community Center. For more informa tion call Austin Smith at the gym at 553- 3243 or at 553-3250 (w). The rodeo is Saturday and Sunday, starting at 1 p.m., at the Warm Springs Rodeo Grounds. For information call Sammi Bruised Head or Ladonna Squiemphen at 553-1041. The second annual skate park com petition happens during Pi-Ume-Sha weekend. For information call Yvonne Iverson at 553-3225. The center of activity will be the Pi- Ume-Sha grounds, by the Community Center, where the drums and the danc ers are. The bleachers around the cen tral field will fill with spectators. The vendors will have all kinds of food - Indian tacos are the specialty - for sale. E arlier this week the prep ara t i o n w o rk b e g a n a t pow w ow g ro u n d s, follow ing the M onday m orning blessing. There are the bleachers and booths and teepees that need to be assembled, plus the lighting and sound systems that need to be set up. y describe the impacts that water mar keting could bring to the tribes. “Over the next year we’ll be devel oping a management plan that identi fies impacts, opportunities and poten tial revenue streams,” he said. The report will be presented for re view to Tribal Council. In the mean time, Manion said, “Power Enterprises has no authority to enter into agree ments. We’re merely identifying oppor tunities.” The tribes have water rights both on the reservation and in the Deschutes basin. “There are ways that we can im prove water flows through our water right if marketed in that direction,” said Manion. .chan/Spilyay The Jefferson County Middle School earlier this month hosted a Cultural Dance Assembly. As part of the program, young members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs performed traditional dances in the school gymnasium, accompanied by a tribal drum. Among the dancers were Arlene David, Ashlynne Danzuka, Julia Yahtin, Melinda Edwards (from left), and Sky Tillaquets (front). School liaison Butch David was the MC. Middle school student Charles Wolfe was among the drummers (photo on page 6). Salmon return in big numbers (AP) - For a while, it looked like the Columbia River’s spring chinook salmon run might give 2006 a miss. Fishing seasons were curtailed and tribal fisheries were reduced as fish biologists waited - and waited - for the fish to arrive at Bonneville Dam. But then the fish arrived - in big ger numbers than last year. When the counting season closed on W ednesday nearly 124,000 chinook had passed the dam, more than the 88,000 expected and more than last year’s return of 95,000. “This year’s spring run took its time but it crossed the finish line with a very respectable showing,” said Bob Lohn, head of the Northwest region of the National Oceanic and Atmo spheric Administrations fisheries ser vice. “The long-term average con tinues to rise.” While the run usually peaks in mid-April, the salmon did not even begin arriving at Bonneville Dam in significant numbers until the first week of May. By mid-April only 135 adult chinook had been counted at the dam. The 10-year average at that point, which includes a couple of bumper years, is about 19,000. It was the second year in a row the run was seriously tardy. Nobody is sure why or what finally sent them on their way upriver. Lohn credited improvements in fish passage facilities at the dams, hatch ery and harvest management and bet ter fish habitat for the eventual healthy return. Fish biologists considered a number of factors as possible causes for the delay, including ocean conditions and more recently, hordes of hungry sea lions who camp out in the river just below the dam seeking an easy snack when the fish gather to go up the fish ways over the dam on their way up the Columbia. Bonneville, about 45 miles upriver from Portland and some 150 river miles from the Pacific Ocean, is the first of many dams the fish must navi gate as they return to where they were hatched to spawn. Some of the sea lion exclusion de vices that keep the mammals from get ting into the fish ladders were removed temporarily to see if it improved fish passage, but biologists could detect no real difference. The devices are meant to keep the sea lions out of the stairstep-like fish ladders the fish use to pass Bonneville and other dams. By some accounts, the sea lions eat about 3.5 percent of the run as it heads upriver. Lohn said poor ocean conditions in 2004 and 2005 may mean a smaller return in 2007. He said early upriver returns from fish that migrated to the ocean in 200.4 and 2005 are about a third less than last year, which could mean fewer returning adults next year. “Our scientists are about to com plete important research on the huge influence that changing ocean con ditions have on salmon from the tim e they m igrate as juveniles through the estuary into the ocean to when they return as adults,” Lohn said. It may help identify the biologi cal trigger th a t sends the fish upriver, and what pulls it. The U.S. Army Corps of Engi neers is installing fish slides on some dams on the Snake River, a major Columbia tributary, to increase sur vival of young salmon headed to sea. Meanwhile, a NOAA Fisheries scientist told the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in Boise this week that adult salmon and steelhead at and between hydroelec tric dams on the two rivers is aver aging 98 percent or better in recent years. “That’s real high survival. Most people would agree those are good num bers to have,” said Ritchie Graves, acting branch chief of NOAA Fisheries regional Hydro- power Division in Portland. NOAA Fisheries is the federal agency that implements the Endan gered Species Act for salmon and steelhead in the Northwest > C om m unity members of Warm Springs and Cascade Locks have joined together to form a Gorge casino am bassadors program, aimed to promote the “Two Communities - One Vision” philosophy. Currently, Cascade Locks has ap proximately 20 people participating as ambassadors. Cascade Locks business owner Deborah Lorang said, “The true beauty of ‘Two Communities - One Vision’ is the freedom of self suffi ciency. I belief the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has the right to come full circle and take ownership of the land that was once theirs.” Gorge casino ambassadors are vol unteers and donate their time for the * ongoing effort of enhancing and spreading awareness of the tribes’ ca sino proposal in the Gorge area. Tribal members will soon be able to meet and visit the Cascade Locks am bassadors here in Warm Springs some time in mid summer. Gorge casino project director Margie Tuckta will soon be initiating a Warm Springs am bassador program. For more informa tion, call Margie at 553-4883. Upcoming events promoting “Two Communities - One Vision” include the following: Cascade Locks Stern Wheelers Days, July 14-16 at Cascade Locks; and the Second Annual Festival of Nations on Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Cascade Locks. Both events will feature outdoor festivities, food vendors and entertainm ent. Tribal members and community mem bers are invited to attend. During the Stem Wheelers Days, Kah- Nee-Ta High Desert Resort & Casino will have its float in the parade scheduled for Saturday, July 15 at 11 a.m. Gorge casino project coordinator Floyd Calica would like to inform tribal members about the current Internet websites that feature information re garding the tribes’ casino proposal. The w ebsites are as follow s: www.gorgecasino.eis; w w w .turninglivesaround.com ; and w w w . k a h n e e t a . c o m / cascadelockscasino/pressroom, htm. Calica also wants to encourage tribal members to remain vigilant and patient during the federal approval process. “We have to understand the rules and procedures were shifted and changed when our project came along,” he said. “The Gorge casino will have a significant positive impact on our live lihood and those of future generations.” For more information about the Gorge casino open houses or family home base meetings please contact Margie Tuckta at 553-4883, Floyd Calica at 553-1112 ext 3420 or Lena Ike at 553-1112 ext 3492. 't¡
