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OrCo11
75
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no, 5
March 1,
£007
Spilyay Tyro
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Acquisition Dept./Serials
Knight Library
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1205
March 1, 2007 Voi. 32, No. 5
Coyote News, est. 1976
Mi
U.S. Postage
PRSRTSTD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
50 cents
Remembering
Celilo Falls
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* i-sity of Oreqon Library
Received on; 03-08-07
^piiyay tymoo
Leslie Mitts/Spilyay
Tribal Council Chairman Ron Suppah cuts the opening day ribbon at the new Eagle Tech Systems
technology center. The grand opening of the center, located at the Plaza across from the Museum at Warm
Springs, was this past Saturday, Feb. 24.
On hand for the event were Lorraine Suppah (left) of Eagle Tech Systems, Warm Springs Chief Delvis Heath,
and Lloyd Phillips, Eagle Tech general manager (right). The center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The
hours are expected to change when the cafe at the center opens. (Story on page u .)
It was a place of civilization from
time immemorial. The place is gone
now but the m em ories and the
people are are still alive.
The coming weeks and months
will be a time of remembering the
place that was Celilo Falls.
Saturday, March 10 marks the 50-
year anniversary of the flooding of
the falls by The Dalles dam. Celilo
Village will remember and honor
Celilo Falls w ith several public
events in the village and adjacent
Celilo Park.
The events will be on Saturday
and Sunday, March 10-11. The Ceilo
L egacy - Com m em orating 50 Years
Since the Losss o f Celilo Tails events
include:
A canoe and honoring ceremony,
traditional salmon dinner, traditional
powwow and stick games, and ad
dresses from regional and national
dignitaries.
Speakers will include tribal chiefs
Council considers advisory committees
B y M aren Cohn
Warm Springs Wentures
At its recent meeting on governance,
Tribal Council considered a proposal
to form three committees out of its
own members.
The proposal aims to improve gov
erning practices by encouraging Coun
cil to adopt rules and ensure that its
members and top tribal officials com
ply with them.
At the meeting, consultant Clyde
Hamstreet presented and explained the
proposal to Council using a chart (see
p age 11). It lays out the broad respon
sibilities of each committee, which help
divide up Council’s workload and in
fluence into three basic areas: rule-
making, rule auditing, and rule enforce
ment.
Hamstreet gave several examples to
help Council members understand and
assess the proposed structure. To take
just one: responsibility for “Standards
of Council-member conduct” in the
top left box of the table means that
the governance committee would de
velop policies to regulate the conduct
of Council members.
Items that could fall under that cat
egory include an attendance policy, a
travel policy, a code of ethics, a con
flict of interest policy, a policy on nepo
tism and favoritism, and procedures for
the orientation and ongoing education
of Council members.
The governance committee would
draft the policies and bring them to the
entire Council for discussion and ap
proval. Once the policies were in place,
the audit committee would have the
responsibility of tracking compliance
with them.
For instance, taking the attendance
policy as an example, the audit com
mittee would periodically examine each
member’s attendance record to see
whether he or she was in compliance.
If someone were not in compliance,
the audit committee would then refer
the matter to the rules committee.
The rules committee, meanwhile,
would have developed a set of guide
lines outlining what kinds of disciplin
ary actions would be appropriate in
what kinds of situations. The commit
tee would then look into the particular
case before it and make a recommen
dation to Council of the action it be
lieves appropriate under the circum
stances.
In presenting the proposal, the
Hamstreet team emphasized that the
committees would be advisory in na
ture and would not possess author
ity or power independent of the
Council as a whole. Their job would
be to make recommendations to the
full body.
Council members understood
that the committees should not be
delegated the full Council’s policy
making powers. “But in that case,”
asked one, voicing a question shared
by many, “if they don’t have any
power, how will these committees
make any difference?”
“They’ll make an immediate dif
ference by breaking up existing
camps on Council and getting people
to work together who otherwise
wouldn’t,” said Hamstreet.
See COUNCIL
on 11
Little Miss Warm Springs
Pageant girls learn valuable skills and lessons
B y L eslie M itts
S pilyay Tymoo
The Little/Junior Miss Warm
Springs Pageant kicked off last week
with the first night of judging.
The next queens and princesses
of the pageant were to begin their
reign after being crowned on Tues
day of this week (which was after
deadline for this paper. Final results
of the pageant will be in the next
edition of the Spilyay.).
D u rin g the first even in g o f
events, participants introduced
themselves and spoke to the audi
ence about their traditional clothing.
The young ladies also gave a pre
sentation about their family and
spoke about their individual displays
of their family history.
Wilson Wewa served as master of
cerem onies for the event, while
Leland George opened the evening
with flute music and Anita Davis pro
vided a prayer.
The 4-H Social Dancers also sang
and eld ers, and Gov. Ted
Kulongoski. Gen. Carl Strock, chief
o f engineers and Com m anding
General of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, is also scheduled to speak,
according to information from the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission (CRITFC).
Celilo Village and Celilo Park are
located at milepost 97 off US In
terstate 84. For more information
please call (888) 289-1855 or visit
www.celilowyam.org. (See page 14 fo r
a schedule o f events.)
On Thursday and Friday, March
8-9, CRITFC and the Tribal Lead
ership Forum will co-host Remember
ing Celilo: Indian Fishing and the Co
lumbia River in Portland. This event
will highlight many issues surround
ing tribal treaty7 fishing rights, salmon,
the Endangered Species Act, and the
Columbia River. For more informa
tion please call (503) 238-0667.
Gaming Update
Hearing planned
at Kah-Nee-Ta
on draft impact
statement
Tribal and BIA officials are expect
ing to hold a public hearing soon at Kah-
Nee-Ta regarding the Bridge of the
Gods Resort and Casino.
The hearing would be the first pub
lic hearing on the draft environmental
impact statement (EIS) for the planned
resort and casino at Cascade Locks on
the Columbia River.
A specific date for the hearing has
not yet been set, but early April has
been m en tio n ed as a ten tative
timeframe, gaming officials say.
The draft EIS is expected to be re
leased soon.
Release of the draft EIS will be a
significant step in the process of bring
ing the Cascade Locks casino site into
tru$t, and presenting the tribes’ fee-to-
trust application to the Secretary of the
Interior.
The BIA schedules and conducts the
hearings on the draft EIS, which will
likely be open to public comment for
60 to 90 days.
The public comments are used to
develop a final EIS, which forms the
basis of the BIA recommendation to
the Secretary of the Interior regarding
the Confederated Tribes’ fee-to-trust
application.
The tribes already have a gaming
compact approved by Gov. Kulongoski.
The compact, however, is awaiting fed
eral approval.
The federal approval of the tribal-
state compact comes after the EIS pro
cess and fee-to-trust application, the De
partment of the Interior decided last
May.
In other casino news:
Leslie Mitts/Spilyay
Pageant participants spoke to the crowd about their family history and traditional clothing.
a song in all three of the languages of
the Confederated Tribes.
Sallie Polk-Adams, the current reign
ing Miss Warm Springs, praised the
participants at the end of the evening.
According to Polk-Adams, “They
came a long way from being really ner-
vous to coming up here and speaking.”
Attending the pageant were several
form er Miss Warm Springs: from
1970, Debbie Jackson; from 1988,
Minnie Yahtin; from 1997, Arlissa
Rhoan; and from 2001, A drienne
Merrifield.
In addition, visitors included two
former Miss Yakama Nation: from
1988-89, Michelle Crowe-Trevino
and from 1 9 9 6 -9 7 , R eb ecca
Trujillo.
See PAGEANT on 11
The City of Cascade Locks has
formed a public facilities team to work
with the tribes on issues of infrastruc
ture needed for the Bridge of the Gods
development project.
The four-person committee includes
the mayor of Cascade Locks, the chair
of the city budget committee, a two
other city councilors.
The committee will work with the
tribes on issues such as of water ser
vice, sewer, and fire protection.