SCA
JrColl
E
75
. S68
v. 32—
no. 2
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
January
18, 2007
University of Oregon Library
Received on: 01-31-07
Spilyay tymoo
January 18, 2007 Voi. 31,
Coyote News, est. 1976
—
Construction begins on Credit building
B y Dave M cM echan
S pilyay Tymoo
Construction is set to begin on the
new building that will house the Warm
Springs Tribal Credit Enterprise.
The 9,200-square-foot building will
located on the vacant field west of the
Administration Building. The construc
tion completion date is late September
of this year.
The new building will allow Credit
to serve the community in more and
better ways, said Lori Fuentes, manager
of the credit enterprise.
“We want to provide banking ser
vices and financial education to the
W arm Springs com m unity,” said
Fuentes.
The new building will be a classroom
for financial literacy, business planning,
and new homeowner training. At Credit
there is also a need for private office
space for loan officers and others who
discuss and work with individuals’ per
sonal financial inform ation. Credit
needs a more secure place, such as a
vault for its files, said Fuentes.
Planning for a new building began
several years ago, said Evaline Patt,
chairwoman of the Credit Enterprise
board of directors.
“The primary need is more space,”
said Patt. “We need to hire more per
sonnel, and to increase our services to
the community.”
Credit became an enterprise about
10 years ago. The enterprise is self
funding and pays a dividend to the
tribes. After years of planning and sav
ing, Credit has about $2 million for
construction of the new building.
The plan is for Credit to offer basic
banking services at its new location.
There are plans for check-cashing ser
vices, an ATM machine, a drive-up
window, and a collection point for
payment of electricity, phone and
other bills.
“We’ll be able to provide services
that people usually drive to Madras
for,” said Fuentes.
The new building could also
house a branch office of a bank,
she said.
The groundbreaking ceremony
for the Credit building was sched
uled for Wednesday of this week,
January 17, after the deadline for
this paper.
Hatcheries work to replace fish loss
(By Spilyay staff and AP wire service.)
Close to 200,000 salmon fry ar
rived last week at the Warm Springs
National Fish Hatchery. The juve
nile fish replace some of those lost
during a recent accident at the hatch
ery that killed about 500,000 of the
fry.
In July the hatchery will receive'
more replacement juvenile fish, said
hatchery manager Alike Paiya. About
half the fish that were lost are ex
pected to be replaced, said Paiya.
The fish are being raised for re
lease in the spring of 2008. The loss
of part of the juvenile stock at the
hatchery could hurt tribal and rec
reatio nal fishing on the Low er
Deschutes River in a few years, when
the run returns.
The fish died when the water sup
ply to the incubator was inadvert-
entiy turned off Tuesday while new
equipment was being installed.
Many factors will determine the
extent of the potential decline in the
return: ocean and river conditions,
dam operations, harvest manage
ment and further actions taken to
make up the production shortfall at
the hatchery are factors, said Paiya.
“We experienced a shortfall in
smolt production in 1994,” said
Paiya. “Due to very low returns that
year we were able to release only
about 60,000 smolts, yet with a com-
S pilyay Tymoo
For a portion of tribal elders, bas
ketball is much more than just a sport.
Traveling to see games also involves
some of the most memorable times in
their lives— all of which involve spend
ing time on a bus with fellow elders.
Lawrence “K unya” Squiemphen
works with the Warm Springs Senior
Program and is responsible for driving
the group of elders to the games and
on other trips.
This year the Senior Program is tak
ing a group to four Blazer games in
Pordand— and it’s possible because of
sponsorship from tribal attorneys
Karnopp and Petersen, Kah-Nee-Ta
High Desert Resort and Casino, Power
Enterprises and Composite Products,
Squiemphen said.
This is the first year of sponsorship
for Karnopp and Petersen, while the
other three sponsors have sponsored
for three years.
The senior program receives spon
sorship from Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert
Resort and Casino, Power Enterprises
and Composite Products for more than
just Blazer tickets— they also sponsor
itron
tage
3TD
761
50 cents
Interior
official
touring
casino site
Associate Deputy Secretary of the
Interior James Cason was scheduled this
week to tour the Cascade Locks tribal
casino site with officials of the Con
federated Tribes. The group was also
planning to tour the tribal property at
Hood River.
Cason is originally from Hood River.
In his position in the Department
of the Interior, “My job is to work on
particularly difficult issues, where the
problem has not been solved lower
down in the organization,” said Cason.
In the department he is the third in
command.
Aluch of his current work relates
to challenges the federal government
faces as trustee for Native American
land.
“We have to manage these proper
ties, which includes extensive litigation,
on long-term stewardship,” he said. “I
spend a lot of time working on the
underlying causal factors for the liti
gation. I look at all of our programs,
trying to redesign how they work and
to stream line how we m anage the
land and natural resources that are
in our care.
New high
school focus
of discussion
Leslie Mitts/Spilyay
Warm Springs fish hatchery workers Kevin Blueback (left) and Joe Badoni place newly arrived juvenile fish,
from the Pelton-Round Butte hatchery, into a Warm Springs hatchery pool.
bination of Warm Springs and Round
Butte stocks we had a good return four
years later.”
At the hatchery, water norm ally
flows through incubators containing
trays full of salmon fry, which are about
half the size of a pinkie finger. “We
were installing a new piece of equip-
ment, and we inadvertendy turned off
the water supply to some of our fish,”
said Paiya. “Normally, the water is
continuously flowing through the in
cubator, so the water got stale for a
period of time,” Paiya said,
See HATCHERY on 10
Elders travel for love of the game
B y L eslie M itts
vss
concert tickets, honor senior days and
jackets that seniors have worn to con
ferences and to the opening o f the
National Museum o f the American
Indian in Washington D.C.
“They really appreciate doing this,”
Squiemphen said of the sponsors.
According to Squiemphen, the trips
to see the Blazers are only a small part
of what the senior program does— they
also take trips throughout the year to a
variety of events.
“It’s just one facet of what goes on,”
he said.
One thing is for sure, he added:
there is a misconception about the fund
ing of the trips.
“The seniors pay for it on their
own,” Squiemphen emphasized. “They
pay for their room; they pay for their
needs.”
“A lot of times it’s the same group,”
he said, because those are the seniors
that express interest in traveling.
However, Squiemphen added, any
one is welcome. “I try to get as many
people to go as possible,” he said.
Maxine Switzler and Faye Waheneka
are part of the group that tries to travel
to Portland regularly to see the Port
land Trail Blazers in action.
U
I do this because
I love my elders. 99
Lawrence Squiemphen
According to Switzler, “We’ve had
several avid Blazer fans, and win or lose
we’re still faithful to our Blazers.”
“I think us old people really enjoy
going to games,” Waheneka said.
“Once we board the bus, we talk
about fun days that we had,” she con
tinued. “We laugh together, we cry to
gether, we eat together—we take care
of each other.”
At times, she said, they pool together
m oney to help out someone who
doesn’t have enough money to travel
with them.
“It uplifts a lot of us,” she explained.
“A lot of us are lonely.”
Waheneka continued, “I don’t think
anyone’s ever had a cruel word for
anyone on the bus.”
However, she said, their good time
can often be misconstrued— once they
were even rumored to have been in
ebriated while at a game, something that
was not the case at all, they said.
“We just know how to have fun,”
Waheneka said.
O f course, they all have their
opinions about how the team is cur
rently functioning.
“I don’t know what to think of
the new group,” Waheneka said.
In her opinion, the solution to
many problems can be found in the
coaching. “I feel a coach has a lot
to do with what happens to a team,”
she explained.
“We really enjoyed that season
when they were all on the dream
team,” Switzler added.
“They had a really good system
and they were w inning a lot of
games, and then all of a sudden
something went wrong,” Switzler
said. “It seems like they couldn’t win
after that.”
In Switzler’s opinion, the staff at
the senior program has taken extra
steps to help make their lives enjoy
able.
She said, “I appreciate Kunya and
the rest of our staff for making it
possible for us to enjoy the few
things we have left to enjoy.”
See SENIORS on 10
Representatives from the new W il
low Creek Community High School will
be hosting two m eetings in Warm
Springs on Wednesday, Jan. 24.
Parents can attend an informational
meeting at the Family Resource Cen
ter at 6:30 p.m. During the day em
ployees from the Willow Creek Com
munity High School will meet with com
munity representatives.
Open student enrollment for the
school began on Jan. 17, and staff ap
plications will be available during mid-
February.
In addition, employees from the
high school hosted meetings at Aladras
High School on Jan. 9 and Jefferson
County Aliddle School on Jan. 17.
For more information, contact Julie
L afayette
at
475-8266
or
jlafayette@509j.net.
Students will receive personalized
educations in the new, small school that
will include community and family en
gagements, real-world learning and col
lege preparation.
In order to prepare them for the real
world, students will complete intern
ships with local businesses.
School officials said approximately
30 percent of the student population
will be Native American—matching the
percentages of the current school sys
tem. The school is set to open in Sep
tember.
Youth art show
opens next week
The Fourteenth Annual Tribal
Youth Art Exhibit begins next
Thursday, Jan. 25 at the Museum
at Warm Springs.
The opening reception honor
ing youth artists will be from 5:30
to 7 p.m. on Jan. 25 in the mu
seum lobby.
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