Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2006)
r , no. 2S e^v'^e' December • c x 870 .¿7761 £ 0®6 ECRWSS ostai Patron Coyote News, est. 1976 December 21, 2 0 0 6 U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 V o i. 31, N o . 26 50 cents Language Soldier enjoys visit home from war in Iraq law signed (AP)— President Bush has signed into law legislation that would establish grants for governments, colleges and other Indian educational organizations working to preserve native cultures and language. The bill authorizes com petitive grants through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to estab lish native language programs for stu dents under the age of seven and their families. The bill aims to help preserve indigenous languages that are still be ing spoken, increase support for lan guage immersion programs to create fluent speakers and allow tribes to de velop their own immersion programs. The Esther Martinez Native Lan guages Preservation Act, sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., is named after a storyteller and linguist who died earlier this year after returning to New Mexico from an awards ceremony at the National Endowment for the Arts. Through the new legislation, “The languages will be preserved with atten tion and effort. Once lost, they will never be recovered,” Rep. Wilson said. Martinez, 94, taught her native lan guage at schools in her hometown of Ohkay Owingeh, formerly known as San Juan Pueblo. She also helped trans late the New Testament of the Bible into Tewa and compiled Tewa dictio naries for various pueblos. B y L e s lie M itts Spilyay Tymoo The Portland airport contrasted sharply with what George Boise has become accustomed to. The soldier with the U.S. Army remembers traveling to the Middle East last summer, where he was met with scorching weather and a dose of culture shock. “It was real dry, hot. I landed with my body armor on, my helmet, my weapon, all my gear,” Boise said. But he’s grown used to carrying the fifty extra pounds in the desert, Boise said, so he had to re-adapt to the chilly Oregon weather. He spent three weeks in Kuwait before traveling to Iraq, where he has served for five months. Prior to that Boise was stationed in Ha waii. Boise recently arrived in Warm Springs on a two-week leave. He returned to Iraq on Dec. 14— the same day as his 21st birth day. Before he arrived at the airport in Portland, Boise flew into Dallas where he and other soldiers received a hero’s welcome. “Our plane flew in and we had two fire trucks on each side and they sprayed water over us,” Boise said. “They had an SUV with a flag at tached to it and it drove around us George Boise returned to Iraq last week. a couple times.” The large crowd at the gate included veterans from World War II and the Vietnam War who were moved to tears at the sight of such young soldiers. Most of the soldiers are between 17 and 20 years old, Boise said, and it’s uncommon for there to be many sol diers over the age of 30. He added, “All you could see is these young guys coming off of the plane.” On his way to Iraq, Boise said, it took two and a half days to reach his destination. When he arrived it was 130 degrees. B y L e s lie M itts S pilyay Tymoo Leslie Mitts/Spilyay Students check out meteorites at the presentation at the elementary school. lage and later exploded near Mt. Vernon. According to Pugh, “W e’re sure there’s meteorites produced from this.” Not all asteroids miss the earth, Pugh said— a 60-mile-wide crater was created in Canada when an asteroid collided with land. A meteorite roughly the same size as Warm Springs Elementary created the Barringer Crater in Arizona. All meteorites have specific charac teristics that make them differ from rocks. Stony meteorites are particularly heavy, Pugh said, and are the most com mon variety. Of all meteorites found on Earth, 93 percent are stony meteorites, while 6 percent are iron meteorites and 1 percent are stony-irons. Stony meteorites are attracted to magnets and are irregular in shape. They are sometimes slightly cone- They shut down all the phones and computers.” The gag order assures that infor mation isn’t leaked until the fami lies of those who died can be noti fied. Boise and his fellow soldiers have become capable o f dealing with such situations, he said. “We just talk about it,” Boise ex plained. At times, he said, other soldiers will be regretting their decision to join the service. “It’s one of the many stages of what we see over there,” he said. During those times, he added, it’s important to talk to fellow soldiers. “We all hang out, laugh, joke around together, help each other out,” he said. According to Boise, “It’s like my home way from home; it’s like my family over there.” As for his fam ily in W arm Springs, Boise said he gets the op portunity to speak to them about twice a week. Boise’s time in Iraq hasn’t been all about violence. He also had a chance to give school supplies to Iraqi children af ter an officer ordered backpacks from the U.S. See SOLDIER on 11 Youth group brings ‘Silent Message’ to Warm Springs Space rocks fascinate students Students had a chance last week to get lost in space with an educa tional program. Dick Pugh, a field scientist from the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory of Portland State University, taught students at Warm Springs Elemen tary about meteorites. Later in the evening Pugh gave a presentation to community mem bers at the Family Resource Center. T he p resen tatio n in fo rm ed people of how to find meteorites— something that is difficult to accom plish. “What we are trying to do is find new meteorites in Oregon,” Pugh said. “To do that we need your help.” Only four meteorites have been found in Oregon, Pugh said, and none on this side of the Cascades. Scientists believe there is one me teorite lying on every half square mile in the state. Pugh gave a 45-minute slide show and brought $15,000 worth of me teorites that students were encour aged to pick up and handle. One o f the m eteorites Pugh brought is approximately 4.6 billion years old, Pugh said. “You can say you’ve held the old est rock on earth,” he told the stu dents. M eteorites are more common than people might think, Pugh told the crowd. ‘Y ou see them every night as a shooting star,” Pugh said. In addition, space dust created by meteoroids is very common. “We pick up 100 tons of space dust every day,” Pugh said. “We eat it, we breathe it, we’re made of it.” “Usually when you find one me teoroid there’s more in the area,” Pugh said. In 1987 a fireball crossed over the Columbia River near Celilo Vil- Now, he said, it’s about 90. “And it’s cold,” Boise explained. “We got used to that heat, and 90 degrees is like freezing for us.” So, is he scared? “Oh yeah,” Boise said. As a 240-bravo gunner, Boise’s du ties vary, but he often patrols or does maintenance on equipment. One of the scariest moments came during what Boise described as “the longest fire-fight I’ve ever seen.” The eight-hour event led to the deaths of three U.S. servicemen, and the injury of several of Boise’s friends. “I’ve seen a couple of my buddies lose their legs,” Boise said. Another soldier lost an eye during the same battle. “A bullet ricocheted off some rocks and it actually hit him in the eye,” Boise described. At first, Boise said, he was unsure of how to react during the fighting. After a few moments, however, he jumped into action. “I hesitated the first five minutes cause I didn’t know what to do,” Boise said. “I had machine guns hit my humvee, hit around me. I didn’t pay much attention to them till it was all over— the next day it hit me.” “At first we stayed quiet,” Boise said. “I wanted to call home a couple times to let them know what happened, but then I had what they call a gag order. shaped. “Very often they’ll be covered by a fusion coating,” Pugh said, and will have indentations that re semble thumbprints. They also become rusty. According to Pugh, “That’s the problem in Oregon— all of our rocks rust.” Though many believe that me teorites cause fires or can burn you, Pugh‘said that is one of the greatest myths. Meteorites are actually very cold. “There’s a greater danger of getting frostbite from one of these than there is of a burn,” Pugh said. Often stony meteorites are not recognized—which means there is a possibility that one is sitting on a shelf somewhere without being noticed, Pugh said. See METEORITES on 11 Local students continue to affect people with their “Silent Message”— this time, the film’s message reached community members in an event filled with tears and emotional reactions. Members of the Youth Develop ment Team from Madras High School screened the film in Warm Springs at the Community Center on Dec. 6. The film, “Silent Message,” focuses on the topic of child sex abuse. Nick Katchia and Alyssia Meanus- Thompson are co-leaders of the Youth Development Team at Madras High School. The group is an anti-drug and anti violence team made up of students who volunteer their time during lunch one day per week. According to Katchia, tire commu nity was anticipating the screening of the film. “A lot of people were excited to see it,” he said. “There were a lot of people that opened up that night,” Katchia added. In addition, team members Victoria Katchia, LaRonn Katchia, Richard Harrington and Clinton Tainewasher all participated in the screening at the Community Center. According to Viola Govenor, an advocate at Victims of Crime Services, “It was som ething that was really needed for the community.” “I can’t really put it in words,” she said. “You had to be there to feel the sorrow, the grief that they were feeling because of what happened to them.” During the event, she said, “There were kids and people from the audi ence that also disclosed how they were victims of abuse.” The tears flowing in the room also presented and unforeseen problem, Govenor said— they hadn’t supplied any tissues and had to rely on napkins instead. In the end, she said, it was some thing that will continue to affect all com munity members. Duke White and his son founded Hudson Productions, the company that U I know people were saying things there that they had never said to anyone...» Duke White, film m aker created the movie with Youth Devel opment Team members. As for the screening of the film at the center, White said, “It was the most incredible experience that I’ve ever had.” “There was a lot of emotion, more emotion than I’ve ever seen with any thing,” White said. White said over 90 people attended the event, and the crowd’s reaction w asn’t som ething they had an tici pated. “It was a big healing, I think, too. It was a chance for people to talk about something that is very difficult to talk about,” he said. White continued, “I know people were saying things there that they had never said to anyone.” “It seemed to me a bond was forged there that was like iron,” he said. As for White, he said, “That will be etched in my memory forever.” White also acted in the film and said working with the students opened his eyes to the lives of high school stu dents today. He said, “For me it was just an awak ening as far as realizing that my per ception of young people was different than the reality.” White praised the students and said, “I was definitely awakened to the fact that there are a lot of kids there that are responsible individuals and who want to make a difference.” “Their motivation was to help other people. That was the foundation of the whole thing,” he said. See SILENT MESSAGE on 11 University of Oregon Library Received on: 01-02-07 Spilyay tymoo
