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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2006)
™ ™ • 'f 'P SCA OrCall : 75 .568 ; V. 31 no. 14 July €, 2006 Spilyay Tymo C oyote News, est. 1976 Traditional weavingjoins tribes, Maori B y L eslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo Ranui N garim u has a soft voice, quick hands and a knack for weaving. Her fingers fly as she speaks, barely pausing as she explains the process of traditional Maori weaving. The feathers are the tricky part. They have to be woven in from bottom to top, to avoid having the pre viously-placed feathers get in the way o f the process. Ngarimu shows no sign of a struggle as she nimbly demonstrates. She is part a group o f Toi Maori people who visited Warm Springs for a showcase o f traditional Maori weav ing at the Museum at Warm Springs. But she can’t remember when she first started weaving. “I’ve learned from the knees o f many iconic Maori weavers,” she said. N garim u and other m em bers o f the M aori tribe o f N ew Zealand trav eled to Warm Springs as part o f the new exhib it entitled “The E ternal T hread.” Though the live demonstrations took place from June 18 to June 23, the exhibit will be featured in the museum until September 9. This is the fourth and final venue for the Maori, featuring a selection of cloaks (called kakahu), woven baskets (kete) and contemporary pieces. Besides w eaving, the group also dem onstrated traditional song and dance and met with local weavers, art ists and tribal elders. They chose the Museum at Warm Springs as one o f the venues for a spe cific reason, Ngarimu mentioned. “It’s really important that we make that connection with the indigenous people o f Oregon,” Ngarimu said. A c c o r d in g to th e ir w e b s ite (w w w .m ao riart.o rg.n z), “T he M u seum A t W arm Springs was chosen to be the destination for this inspir ing, highly desired exhibition because M aori artists feel a special kinship with Native American artists o f the North w est.” The group stayed at the Kah-Nee- Ta Resort High Desert Resort and be came quick fans o f the surrounding area, Ngarimu said, adding, “The land scape is stunning.” For the most part, the exhibit sur prised people— especially because a lot o f them didn’t know that such woven g a rm e n ts w ere s till b ein g m ade, Ngarimu said. “They sort o f gasp when they see it,” she said. “They were just taken aback.” Six w eav ers trav eled to W arm Springs for the exh ib it, alo ng w ith the ch airp erso n o f th eir o rg an iza tion. The weavers are members of a na tional M aori weaving group in New Z ealand called Te Roopu R aranga W hatu O Aotaroa. The title of the exhibit is especially im portant, Ngarimu said, because it represents the thread of knowledge and tradition passed on from generation to generation. “It’s not only about weaving, it’s about connecting with other people,” she said. Toi M aori is a charitable trust that represents 10 national Maori art com mittees. The organization features everything from carvers to tattooists and musi cians. T h ey strive to develop the artist and art form w h ile still p reserv in g a cu ltu ral id e n tity and unique h eri tage. (See photos on p age 12.) July 6, 2006 P.0. BOX 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 Acquisition Dept./Serials ECRWSS Postal Patron Knight Library 1299 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1205 Voi. 31, No. 14 U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Gaming chairman discusses casino controversy B y D avid M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo In the past the tribes worked to gether, which is why the current con troversy is such a disappointment. “I guess they don’t look at history,” said Ken Smith, chairman o f the Kah-Nee-Ta board of directors. In an interview for the KWSO Warm Springs show, Smith shared his views on the casino controversy that exists between the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Con federated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The first thing that comes to mind, Smith said, is how in the past the tribes worked together. This was true espe cially during the 1980s, when the Grand Ronde tribes, which had been termi nated in the 1950s, were restored as a federally recognized tribe. In the 1980s Smith, a former gen eral m anager o f the W arm Springs tribes, served as assistant Secretary of the Interior in the Reagan administra tion. Pres. Reagan signed the Grand Ronde Restoration Act. Later, when Smith returned to Or egon from Washington D.C., he worked as a consultant to tribes in the region. He was a consultant, for instance, with the Grand Ronde, who were work ing at getting their tim ber property back. At the time, “There were great people in their leadership,” he said. Smith made good friends in Grand Ronde, though in recent years he has not had contact with the Grand Ronde leadership. “It’s hard for me to see where they’re coming from in opposing us,” he said. “I am personally very disappointed in their leadership,” he added. W arm Springs supported the Grand Ronde in their struggle to regain federal recogni tion and their tribal land, and in devel oping their government, he said. See CASINO on 12 Tribes confer on ways to battle meth B y L eslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo Wes and Meg Tucker are greeted by Chesley Yahtin and other veterans following the Saturday Pi-Ume- Sha Parade. Wes and Meg Tucker are the parents of U.S. Army Pfc. Tom Tucker, who was killed in June in Iraq. The Tuckers were the guests of honor this year at Pi-Ume-Sha. Tribal drummers and singers performed an honor song in memory of Tom Tucker, and the fences around the powwow grounds and Warm Springs were tied with hundreds of yellow ribbons. Graduates enjoy celebration dinner B y L eslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo Direlle Calica remembers one in fluential m om ent from her high school graduation. Thirteen years ago she received a poster as a gift — a poster that said “Success is not a destination, but it is a journey.” Those were words that Calica passed on to the class of 2006 on June 22, when she delivered the key note address at the celebration spon sored by the Tribal Education Commit tee and the Tribal Court. Whatever the graduates choose to do next, Calica said, “Getting there is going to be part of the fun.” Calica left Warm Springs to go to college, and she graduated law school a year ago. kJ,ow she works for the Northwest Division of the Army Corps o f Engineering. “You are all the stewards o f the future,” she told the graduating class. Families and community mem bers g a th e re d in the A g e n c y Longhouse to enjoy a dinner pre pared by the Simnasho Vols. High school graduates were presented with a book, while higher education graduates were presented with bags. See GRADUATES on 13 Tribal m em bers from across the state came together for a regional meth- amphetamine conference last week at Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort and Casino. The conference, held from June 26 through Ju ne 28, featured speakers from reservations across the country as well as medical experts and govern ment figures with one topic of concern in common: methamphetamine use on reservations. Methamphetamine prevention is an issue of highest priority for the tribes. Recent reports say that methamphet amine use is increasing on reservations, causing an increase in crime and mor tality rates and the destruction of hous ing and natural resources. Statistics on Native American meth am phetam ine use are scarce, but a Drug Enforcement Administration sur vey has found that close to 2 percent o f the American Indian population is using meth. An Indian Health Service report to Congress earlier this month states that the rate o f methamphetamine use by Native Americans appears to have dra m atically increased in the past five years. With that in mind, community mem bers and tribal leaders attended vari ous sessions, many of them targeted at brainstorming ways to combat the methamphetamine problem. Other ses sions focused on drug education and working with youth. Sissy Falcon, a substance abuse pre vention coordinator with the Confed erated Tribes o f Umatilla, shared her own story, as part o f a session dedi cated to developing the “Rez Watch” program. Falcon gave up methamphetamines 23 years ago after an overdose. Now a grandmother, she draws on her per sonal experiences to educate the public about the drug. “I’ve never seen anything so power ful or evil,” Falcon said of metham phetamines. See CONFERENCE on 12 The 4-H Social Dancers ride in the Pi-Ume-Sha Traditional Parade on Saturday afternoon (far left photo). Joann Scott was named Miss Pi-Ume-Sha 2006 (photo at left). More Pi-Ume-Sha pictures on pages 8 and 9.