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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2007)
P dge 7 M^rch 29, 2007 Spily^y Tymoo, W^rm Springs, Oregon Vandals cause damage at Sherars Bridge B y L eslie M itts S p ilya y Tymoo Vandals struck the day-use area at Sherars Bridge, causing damage to signs and parking areas. Oliver Kirk, Natural Re sources law enforcement man ager, arrived at the area on March 23 and noticed deep tire tracks in the parking area. During his inspection, Kirk said, he realized that signs read ing “Day use permits required on tribal land” were missing. Two signposts had been bro ken off, and each sign was re moved. “It’s hard to say whether or not its alcohol influenced, or hate,” Kirk said. According to Kirk, “There are non-Indians that are op posed to the day-use fee.” The fee was established sev eral years ago, and all profits go to the tribal general fund, Kirk said. In return, the tribes ben efited the area by improving it drastically. According to Kirk, “The area was really rocky and really hard for any vehicles to get in and out.” The parking area at Sherars Bridge*was damaged. In addition, Kirk said, mis cellaneous car parts and other garbage littered the area. Now, he added, “The tribes went in there and then they filled in all that and made it nice and accessible for the tribes and the public.” Vandalism has a history at Sherars Falls during the past few years—in addition to graffiti damaging the pictographs, toi lets have been stolen and the fee box broken into. With that, Kirk said, “The only ones they’re really hurting is the tribes.” The repairs to the area will be extensive, Kirk said. In ad dition to replacing the signposts and signs, the parking area will have to be graded and the gravel compacted. In Kirk’s opinion, the vandal ism is only costing the tribes in the long run. “I don’t know whether its hate related or disgruntled fish- | ' l Oliver Kirk photo erman or our/jown people just driving dowfi| there,” he said. “It’s not good—it just makes the tribe spend more, money.” In the end, Kirk added, “I just wanted to bring this to the attention o£ the tribal people.” Kirk said he hopes that by publicizing the vandalism, it will curtail the activity. No suspects have been iden tified. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the police départaient. News from Indian Country Number of Indian basketball referees growing GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — In two decades as a high school basketball official, Spike Bighorn probably has worked at least 500 games in Montana, counting boys' and girls' con tests. He has blown the whistle for at least 50 district and divisional tournaments, adding a few hun dred more games to his distin guished resume. He recently officiated at his 18th state tourney when he worked the Class C boys' event at Four Seasons Arena here. He's called fouls and inter preted rules with hundreds of different officials from every nook and cranny of Montana. He's probably been yelled at (and cheered by) hundreds of thousands of fans in countless school gyms plus some of the state's biggest arenas. But the state's most promi nent American Indian basketball official still hasn't worked a ma jor event with another Indian referee. “It's going to happen. We're making gains in that direction,” Bighorn said before working the Class C boys' championship game between Hays-Lodgepole and Big Sandy. “When I started, there prob ably were less than 10 Native Americans working high school games in Montana. Now — and I'm talking off the top of my head — there are probably 40 or 50. And that's going to continue to grow,” he predicted. Bighorn, a member of the Assiniboine and Sioux tribe from the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana, notched a personal milestone earlier this season when he worked a district tournament in the Billings area with another Indian referee. And just a few weeks ago in Butte, an Indian from Ashland, Roger Knows His Gun, offici ated at the state Class B boys1' tourney in Butte for the first; time. Considering the keen level of interest in basketball on Montana's seven Indian reserva tions, increasing participation of American Indians in the key of ficiating role should be a goal, Bighorn said. “Basketball is a big part of life for Native American schools,” said Bighorn, who grew up in Brockton arid served a number of key positions on the Fort Peck Reservation — in cluding a two-year stmt as tribal chairman. He also caught high school and served as a school administrator before going to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Bighorn, 46, currently Nome's only substance abuse shelter shut down ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Nome has eight bars, five liquor stores, two private clubs that sell booze, and three restau rants with beer and wine on the menu, but there's not a single residential substance abuse treatment center in town. The closest one is a plane trip away in Kotzebue. For five years, Nome's Kusqi House stood out as the place for the region's drug-addicted and alcoholic women to live while they received outpatient treat ment. But Kusqi became trouble itself. Last fall, some of the resi dents began drinking at what was supposed to be a safe place for recovery, according to a re port to the state from the Norton Sound Health Corp., which ran Kusqi. A couple of “highly intoxicated” residents got into a fight. One had her infant taken away. Police were called out a couple of times. There were reports of drug dealing too, the report said. Now Norton Sound has es s'A-c^r - sentially shut down Kusqi while it revamps the program. The last resident left Feb. 16, and the corporation is not filling the slots. Yet the state still is send ing grant money to the Native health corporation for Kusqi. Officials say they want to lend a helping hand as the corporation regroups. “In a situation like this, where this is really the only show in town, it is definitely in our best interest to help them and sup port them,” said Chris Carson, grants manager with the state Department of Health and So cial Services. The health department pro vided more than $3 million in various grants to the corpora tion last budget year. This year, the corporation expects to re ceive a like amount and antici pates spending $302,000 of it on Kusqi. State officials said they didn't realize treatment grant money was being used to run Kusqi House until a news reporter raised questions. “It falls outside our normal practice,” said Stacy Toner, acting director of the state Division of Behavioral Health. “The housing costs slipped in without it being treat ment.” The turmoil at Kusqi stands out, but it is just one area of struggle for the financially pinched Norton Sound Health Corp. Flat funding from the U.S. Indian Health Service and ris ing costs for salaries, fuel and other expanses pushed the cor poration, with an annual budget this year of $56 million, into the red, said Trevor Colby, Norton Sound Health Corp. president and chief executive officer. The board has cut about $3 million from what managers wanted to spend, said Colby, who started in the top job at the end of October. Reserves are down to about $1.8 million. Turnover is high. The tribal or ganization runs the only hospi tal in Nome and provides out patient services there and in 15 surrounding villages. /orks in Billings as Regional Education Director for the BIA. “The kids growing up need role models, whether they're teachers, coaches or officials,” said Bighorn. “I encourage people to get involved in offici ating as an avocadon. It's a good way to stay close to the game and stay in shape, and make a little money. But it's not for ev eryone.” Bighorn got a later start than most referees, waiting until he was 26 before he called his first game. Fie had played basketball at Miles Community College be fore finishing up his under graduate work at Dickinson (N.D.) State. After earning a master's degree in business ad ministration at Gonzaga, he re turned to Brockton where he taught school and worked as a volunteer assistant coach. Oregon farmers want to increase Columbia River irrigation (AP) — Economic devel opment officials from East ern Oregon packed a hearing room last week to drum up support for a contentious bill to siphon off 500,000 acre- feet of water annually from the Columbia River to help farmers grow higher value, water-intensive crops. Environmentalists said the proposal, dubbed the “Oasis Project” by support ers, would harm salmon that swim up the Columbia River each year into creeks to spawn throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho. “The fact that we have ev ery salmon stock in the Co lumbia either extinct or listed under the Endangered Spe cies Act says enough,” said Rick George, a biologist who works for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. “We have turned that habitat inside out.” The proposed measure, which received its first legis lative airing last Thursday, April 22, would allow up to 500 million gallons a day to be pumped from the Colum bia River, including during dry summer months when water is critical for both farmers and fish. Advocates of the pro posal said it could generate $220 million per year and as many as 7,300 new jobs by reinvigorating rural commu nities. However, critics said it runs counter to Oregon's current “bucket-in, bucket- out” policy that requires wa ter users to replace any water they withdraw from the river. A better plan, some envi ronmentalists say, would be to build water storage facili ties and divert water from the Columbia during high flow periods in the winter months. But water specialists said that would cost millions of dollars. In neighboring Washing ton, Gov. Christine Gregoire cleared the way for more withdrawals from the river to make additional irrigation water available to farmers on that side of the river. Of the water that's di verted from the Columbia for irrigation in the North west, Washington already pulls over 30 percent while Oregon takes just 7 percent, according to advocates of the bill. State Rep. Mike Schaufler, who supports the bill, said Oregon should use more water from the Columbia to generate greater economic growth. “We could take ad vantage and we're not. It's a shame, it's criminal,” said the Happy Valley Democrat. Gov. Ted Kulongoski's office said that the governor does not support the bill but is seeking funding for a study to determine if Oregon can withdraw more water from the Columbia without harm ing native fish species. For thousands of years salmon traveled over 1,000 miles from the Pacific up the Columbia River and into smaller creeks to spawn in alpine environments like the Wallowa and Blue mountains in Oregon, and the Rocky Mountains in Idaho. Their numbers have declined dras tically in recent decades and many biologists say it is the result of the extensive dam system on the Columbia that hinders their migration. In the early 1990s, after the first listing of a Colum bia fish under the federal Endangered Species Act, Oregon began limiting new water entitlements. 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