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. Scientists
say seasonal restrictions help
support spawning salmon
and steelhead but farmers say
they need more water from
the Columbia because
groundwater is drying up.
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