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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
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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
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