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P.O.Box 870
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Warm Springs, OR 97761
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April 12, 2007
C oyote News est. 1976
Voi. 32, No. 8
ostage
¿RT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
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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