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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2007)
eoe pß P.O.Box 870 Spi lyay Tyrnegy- = • I ép* Warm Springs, OR 97761 , April 12, 2007 C oyote News est. 1976 Voi. 32, No. 8 ostage ¿RT STD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents warn ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ Agency, Simnasho elect Council members Elected by the Agency District: Stanley “Buck” Smith, 228 votes. . Eugene Austin Greene Jr., 225 votes. Bernice Mitchell, 160 votes. Stanley “Buck” Smith Eugene Austin Greene, Jr. Bernice Mitchell Elected by the Simnasho District: Ron Suppah Sr., 178 votes. Aurolyn Stwyer, 108 votes. Rafael Queahpama, 105 votes. Ron Suppah Aurolyn Stwyer Rafael Queahpama Native languages focus of conference B y L eslie M itts S pilyay Tymoo They may not be striving to teach the same language, but teachers from across the state came together recently to focus on a common goal: bringing back native languages. T eachers u n ited at the Pshwayii Native American Lan guage Teachers Conference on March 29. The two-day conference took place at K ah-N ee-T a H igh D esert R esort and featured Jerry Minninick as the keynote speaker. Teachers attended sessions regarding topics ranging from classroom management and ef- fective strategies to licensing and native ways of learning. Model programs offered pre sentations showcasing their ef fo rts— in clu d in g the W arm Springs Language Program. Myra Johnson chronicled the program’s 12 years of progress for the crowd. “We are teaching all three of our languages and we treat them all equally,” she said. In Johnson’s opinion, reviv ing the N ative languages is strongly connected to the culture. According to Johnson, “Our culture and our spirituality is in our language.” Johnson said the program w orks in a variety o f ways: sometimes they aim for total immersion, other times for bi lingual classes, and in several cases with the master and ap pren tice m ethod— m eaning those with the program study under a fluent speaker in order to teach the language. Ultimately, they hope to be able to expand their language classes to include teaching stu dents in the language entirely. “We’ve always said our chil- dren would become our teach ers, and sure enough, that is what’s happening,” Johnson said. Johnson emphasized the im portance of technology, speak ing of the program’s ability to record the language. She played clips of students singing in each language for those in atten- Students from Early Childhood Education enjoyed the spring sunshine at an Easter egg hunt on April 5. Classes from ECE gathered at the Community Center to find . the eggs hidden in a field. V { V , % dance. In addition, Johnson said, support from local governments in key. “We have full support of our tribal government,” she said. Mildred Quaempts, from the Umatilla Reservation, spoke of their program’s cultural basis. They use events such as their root feast and moccasin mak ing to teach the language, she said. Their program also focuses heavily on classroom involve ment. “The students have to be in volved in their class tim e,” Quaempts said. See LANGUAGES on page 8 Seekseequa votes April 30 B y Dave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo Eugene Austin Greene Jr., A urolyn Stw yer and R afael Queahpama are newly elected members of the Tribal Council of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. B ernice M itchell, Stanley Buck Smith and Ronald Suppah were re-elected to their positions on the Tribal Council. The Seekseequa District is scheduled to elect their two Council representatives on Mon day, April 30. Seekseequa is voting sepa rately due to a misprint on the earlier ballot. Initially following the April 2 election, there was some specu latio n that the A gency and Simnasho results would also be rejected, and a full re-vote sched uled. This turned out not to be the case, though, as Tribal Coun cil on Friday, April 6 accepted the results of the Agency and Simnasho ballots. Of the newly elected mem bers, Greene works as director of the tribal Recreation Depart ment; Stwyer works as a con sultant; and Queahpama works in the tribal Forestry Depart ment. Greene said he is currently working out how his election to Council will impact his position at the Recreation Department. Greene received 225 votes — second most after Smith — in the Agency District. Aurolyn Stwyer said her busi ness schedule cati accommodate her tim e w orking on Tribal Council. Stwyer said, though, that her election to Council means she would have to resign her seat on the tribal gaming commission, when she takes office on Coun cil w ith in the n ext several weeks. Stwyer received 108 votes - second most after Suppah — in the Simnasho District. Rafael Queahpama received 105 votes in the Simnasho Dis trict. The vote tallies in the Agency and Simnasho districts are as follows: See ELECTION RESULTS on 8 Pelton Round Butte achieves rare ‘green power’ designaton The Pelton Round Butte hydroelectric project is now officially generating green po w er— a d esig n atio n achieved by only 26 hydro plants in the U.S. Last week the Low Impact Hydropower Institute Board certified the Pelton Round Butte project as low impact, based on an array of planned environm ental protection measures. The measures include a new fish passage system that will be under construction this fall. The Low Impact Hydro- power Institute Board certi fies hydro projects after they have passed a rigorous series o f tests that dem onstrate minimum impact on fish and wildlife. Pelton Round Butte is unusual in that most certi fied projects are small dams, sometimes built in streams that have few migrating fish to begin with. Pelton Round Butte, co owned by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and Portland General Electric, is the larg e st h yd ro electric project totally inside Oregon’s borders. Pelton Round Butte is now the second largest hydro project in the U.S. to receive the green power designation. “The Confederated Tribes are finally beginning to see the benefit of efforts that have been undertaken during a long licensing process,” said Jim Manion, general manager of Warm Springs Power En terprises. The tribes and PGE will restore passage with an innovative system expected to be operating by the end of 2009 . “The commitment to re store the environment above the project has been a high priority for the tribes.” “T he C o n fed erated Tribes,” he said, “is the first tribe to take an ownership in terest in a large hydroelectric complex. The tribes have commit ted revenue that is not recov erable in a rate base to re store the fisheries that are vital to our culture.” Because of the impact on fish and other environmen tal factors, electricity from a U.S. hydro plant may not be considered eligible to be sold as “renewable” power until the related generating project has received green power certification. Wind, biomass and geo therm al energy have been historically accepted as re newable. Pelton Round Butte im pounds the Deschutes River, a federal W ild and Scenic River and tributary o f the Columbia, about six miles west of Madras. Its three dam s have blocked fish passage, includ ing that of wild salmon and steelhead, since 1968. See DAMS on page 8
