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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2006)
C oyote News, est. 1976 A u g u st 17, 2 0 0 6 Warm Springs, OR 97761 V ol. 31, N o. 17 50 cents Adoption Fee to trust for casino is a lengthy process election planned for fall By Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo By Dave McMechan Spilyay Tymoo The Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs may conduct an adoption elec tion this fall. Tribal Council has not yet adopted a resolution setting a date, but the is sue is on the Council agenda. The adop tion election may be in October or November. The Confederated Tribes have con ducted two adoption elections in recent years, though neither election was suc cessful due to low voter turnout. The elections were held in the fall o f 2001 and then in early 2002. The last suc cessful adoption election was conducted in October 1996. To qualify for inclusion on the bal lot, a person much be at least 1/8 In dian, and a descendant o f a Confeder ated Tribes member or former mem ber. Local residency is also a require ment. According to the residency require ment, the candidate must have lived on the reservation for three years in or der to qualify for the ballot. The 1996 adoption election did not include the reservation residency re quirem ent, and 168 people qualified for the b allo t, o f w hich 135 w ere adopted. For the 2001 and 2002 elections, there were 75 adoption candidates on the ballot. The lower number, in comparison to the 1996 vote, was due mainly to th e re s id e n c y re q u ire m e n t, said Madeline Queahpama-Spino, director o f tribal Vital Statistics. If a person meets the requirements o f adoption, the person can stop by V ital Statistics in the administration building and pick up an application for inclusion on the ballot. People who were on the 2001-2002 ballots should stop by Vital Statistics and update their application informa tion. The Spilyay Tymoo will publish a special adoption section before the elec tion. Each candidate can submit a photo for publication, or the picture can be taken at the Spilyay. Each candidate can submit a state m ent o f no more than 300 words for publication along with the picture. Call if you have any questions, 553- 3274. Back in 2002 tribal members ap proved a referendum to build a ca sino at the Columbia River gorge. Since that time, Tribal Council and the gaming committee have done much work, and made significant progress toward fulfilling the refer endum. The tribes, for instance, won the governor’s approval to build the ca sino at Cascade Locks. Also, the tribes worked with federal legislators to ensure that any new Indian gaming law would not unfairly block the Cas cade Locks proposal. And the tribes are part way through the necessary environmental impact study of the development proposal. Clearly, the list of accomplishments is long. Still, there is a feeling among some members that the project is taking a long time. “We hear that sometimes at our com munity meetings and family meetings,” said M argie Tuckta, special projects director for the gorge casino. “But for the most part,” she added, “The people do understand that this is going to take time, that we’re just fol lowing the process and continuing to move forward.” One reason why the gorge casino is taking awhile is the federal process of bringing the off-reservation site into trust ownership. “It is an onerous and cumbersome process,” said Louie Pitt, director of tribal government affairs. “So w e’ve called in the experts to ex plain it to us.” At the request o f Tribal Council, representatives o f the Bureau o f In dian Affairs were planning to meet this week with the membership to discuss the fee-to-trust process. The meeting was set for Tuesday evening (past the deadline for this pa per) at the Agency Longhouse. “Council wanted to inform the tribal public about why this is taking so long,” said Gerald Hendrickson, regional wa ter rights specialist with the BIA. See CASINO on 14 Group shares traditional dance By L eslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo Students are learning to cut loose in a new way with a dance program that pairs language and movement. Merle Kirk, one of several instruc tors, said the dance program has been going for several years. They’re learning dancing, she said, along with language and some etiquette. The classes teach the Wasco lan guage and some Sahaptin. Originally, Kirk said, the classes be gan when Val Switzler wanted to help revive some of the social dances. Now they teach approximately 24 students and have over six instructors. Soon the group w ill be conducting a social exchange w ith a Siletz dance group on A ugust 25 through A ugust 27. “We’re going to share our dances with each other,” Kirk said. “They get to leam about our tribe and we can learn about theirs.” The social exchange will also involve fun activities, Kirk added. The group isn’t just fun for the stu dents. Kirk said the group often pro vides her with entertainment. “When the children are all dancing how they’re supposed to,” Kirk said with a laugh, “It just really makes me happy to see them out there having a good time.” She said the students have learned what dances to do with what music, and when to do them. “That’s a major ac complishment,” she added. T ribal m em bers can becom e in volved with the dance group by speak ing to Merle Kirk in the Culture and H e rita g e D e p a rtm e n t or D ean ie Johnson or Minnie Wallulatum with the 4-H program. Practices will begin in October or November, Kirk said. This year’s Huckleberry Feast at HeHe on August 6 paired traditions and culture to create a memorable occasion. Kate Jackson organized the event. Another feast was held at the Agency Longhouse in July. Suzie Slockish and Anthony Culps Sr. (above) ready salmon for baking. Colby Hall, Eli Culps and Junior Culps (photo at right) lend their helping hands with preparing the eels. For more photos o f the Huckleberry Feast, see page 14. Difficult task preserving the tribal languages By L eslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo Val Switzler heard “happy birthday” sung to her four times, and each time it was sung in a different language. T h at’s not uncom m on w ith the t r ib e s ’ lan g u ag e p ro g ra m , w h ere Switzler and many other employees are working to revive languages that are slipping away from tribes— some more quickly than others. W ith the d eath o f M ad elin e M clnturff, at age 91, only two fluent speakers of Kiksht (the Wasco language) remain: Gladys Thompson, o f Warm Springs, and a man on the Yakama res ervation. In comparison, there are 25 fluent speakers o f Ichishkin, or Sahaptin (the Warm Springs language). Numu, the language spoken by the Pauite tribe, is only spoken by five flu en t sp eak ers re m a in in g in W arm Springs, but there are other speakers in different parts of the country. Switzler, as program manager for the language program, is one of sev eral people working to educate young people about the languages before it is too late. Dallas Winishut is an instructor who has been teaching Ichishkin since June of 1995, though he admits he isn’t flu ent. “I don’t have that fluency, but I’m working on it,” he said. Another aspect of the languages that W inishut strives to conquer is writing the language— something he said he struggles with. According to Winishut, he wants to be as fluent as those in charge of teach ing the languages, but it’s difficult with out being exposed to the language all the time. For instance, he said, he teaches classes for children ages three through five years old, and believes that “If it were more of an immersion their flu ency would be better.” All of the classes for children are taught through Early Childhood Edu cation, but Winishut said there have been community classes in the past, but with far fewer students. Susie Slockish, for exam ple, has been teaching community classes in Simnasho. W inishut said there have been adult classes with as little as three or four students. According to Winishut, it doesn’t matter the age of the student as long as they want to learn. “I like working with anybody, whether they’re children, teenagers, adults,” he said. Last year the program began teach ing classes in the high school, and Winishut said he believes that will con tinue this year. As part o f a Native American his tory class, teachers were able to teach languages every Friday for an hour. Teachers of each of the three languages rotated, ensuring that students were exposed to as much o f the languages as possible. As for the question o f languages eventually dying off, W inishut said, “That’s a hard question to answer.” He, along with many others, would like to see an increase in the number o f speakers. In Winishut’s opinion, “I’d like to see more o f the speakers that are out there in the community. I’d like to see them gather sometime and just speak the lan guage.” “I still crave to be a fluent speaker,” he said. There’s one thing that no one dis agrees on: the importance o f bringing back the languages o f the past. “T h a t’s w ho we are,” W in ish u t said.
