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V. 32
no. 13
P.O.Box 870
University of Oregon Library
Received on: 06-29-07
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Coyote News, est.
June 21, 2007
PRSRTSTD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Voi. 32, No. 13
50 cents
Have a great Pi- Ume-Sha
This weekend the Confederated
Tribes are celebrating the/SS* Annual
Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty Days Powwow, Fri­
day through Sunday, June 22-24. The
powwow commemorates the Treaty of
1855 between the tribes of the Middle
Columbia arid the federal government,
signed on June 25 of that year.
f Pi-Ume-Sha also honors all veterans
and tribal members currently serving
in the military.
The tribes first hosted Pi-Ume-Shà
in 1969.
The theme for Pi-Umè-Sha this year
is “Continuing Our Traditional Cultural
Values.” The Traditional Dress Pi-Ume-
Sha Parade at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The
parade begins in front of the Old Boys
D orm and makes its way to the Pi-
Ume-Sha grounds by the Warm Springs
*
Community Wellness Center.
, The first . G rand Entry is Friday
evening at 7 o’c lock, followed by the
little Girls Open Dance, Litde Boys
War Dance, and the crowning of the
Miss Pi-Ume-Sha Queen
Indian Stick Games start on Friday.
The Stick Game Tournament is on
Saturday. I
Grand Entries on Saturday are at 1
and 7 p.m. Grand Entry on Sunday is
at 2 p.m.
Dance categories include Teen Girls
Fancy Dance, Teen Boys Fancy Dance
Sporting activities during Pi-Ume-
Sha include the men and women’s soft-
ball tournaments, boxirig matches be­
ginning at 3 p.m. in thé Community-
Wellness Center, the Third Annual
Skatepark Competition, the Fry Break
Open Golf Tournament at Kah-N^e-
Ta, the Fun Run, the endurance horse
race, and die All-Indian Rodeo.
Pi-U m e-Sha Rodeo
The rodeo starts at noon Saturday
and Sunday, June 23-24 at the Warm
Springs Rodeo Arena. The Pi-Ume-Sha
Roded is -sponsored by the Warm
Springs Rodeo Association. Events in­
clude, hardback, saddle bronc, bull
riding, team roping,, calf roping, steer
wrestling, barrel racing, breakaway rop­
ing, century team roping, and junior
barrel racing.
The Wild Horse Race, sponsored by
Rodney Smith Trucking and Ray Roba,
is sanctioned by with the Team Bronc
Riding Association. $2,000 added
purse.
Three young tribal member
girls this year make up the
2007 Pi-Ume-ShaCourt. They
are:
1855 Treaty is a
living document
By Ron Suppah
Tribal Council Chairman
Although many outsiders think of
the Treaty with the Tribes of Middle
Oregon of June 25,1.855 as an his­
toric document, something that was
written 152 years by people who
long ago left this earth, our people
know that the Treaty is a living docu­
ment that continues to shape our
lives as Columbia River Indian
people.
In fact, I strongly believe that the
1855 Treaty has more importance
today than it ever has. Let me ex­
plain why.
The 1855 Treaty is many things,
but first and foremost it is a legal
document of tremendous power and
significance. Under American law,
the 1855 Treaty is considered to be
the “highest law of the land.”
The Treaty takes precedent over
the laws and resolutions passed by
the United States Congress and by
the Oregon State Legislature. The
only way Congress can enact a law
in violation of the 1855 Treaty is to
formally abrogate the Treaty, which
Congress has riever done.
The legal pow ef o f the 1855
Treaty has led our Tribe to be in­
volved in court cases and govem-
ment-to-government relations far
from our Reservation homeland.
For example, our off-reservation
fishing rights along the Columbia
River and at other “usual and ac­
customed places” have taken us as
far as Alaska and Canada to negoti­
ate with those governments concern­
ing the harvest of Columbia River
salmon.
See TREATY on 9
Museum features
Alexys Verbena Lupe
Gonsalez, age 16, who is the
Senior Court candidate (see
, page 9); SRandin Cora
Hosteen, 9, candidate for the
Junior Court (page 3); and
Rosebud Kaysee Whipple,
age 9.*(pictured at right,
statement on page 9).
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Warm Springs remembers the tribes?
traditional fishing area, Celilo Falls.
The exhibit, “Remembering Celilo
Falls,” opens this evening, Thursday,
June 21. Opening reception at the mu­
seum is from 5:30-7:30.
This year is the 50-year anniversary
of the flooding of Celilo Falls by The
Dalles Dam. The inundation happened
in March of 1957.
Celilo Falls was the site from time
immemorial that “drove tribal econo­
mies and created one of the Western
Hemisphere’s great market places,”
according to the Columbia River In­
ter-Tribal Fish Commission.
The Pi-Ume-Sha Court
candidates are selling raffle
tickets for $1 each, Money
raised through the raffle goes
to Pi-Ume-Sha activities such
as the contest prizes.
Leslie M itts/Spilyay
w
~
Q8£mil-,
lirin cubic feet of water per second —
five times the flow of Niagara Falls —
would pass over the basalt rocks, cre­
ating a roar that could be heard many
miles away.
As part of the exhibit opening re­
ception, the museum will host a salmon
bake. Wasq’u traditional dancers will be
on hand for the event. Also, there will
be a Stick Game demonstration.
For more information on the exhibit
“Remembering Celilo Falls,” contact
Natalie Moody, curator, or Evaline
Patt, archivist, at the museum, (541)
553-3331.
A story of recovery from addiction
Nearly destroyed by alcohol, Williams makes hard journey to sobriety
By Leslie Mitts
Spilyay Tymoo
• • *
* •
Surrounded by trees at a fire look­
out, Jack Williams has made one o f his
dreams come true.
But it’s not something that came
easily.
Besides having a career he’s always
desired, Williams now serves as a model
citizen: the relatively shy Williams works
hard at. his job and holds his new wife
and family close to his heart
A tall, lanky man, Williams is a
changed man from several years ago.
Less than a decade ago, Williams
lived as an alcoholic with disregard for
his own existence.
Alcoholism prompted Williams to
adopt a nomadic lifestyle faded only
by his desire to find the next drink.
Now, however, Williams has changed
his life around with the help, of Annie
“MiMi” Hairy Bull, the woman who
he recently married.
After years o f trying to quit, love is
what helped him finally give up alco-
hoL
Though he spent time with many
different women, Williams said, “They
didn’t want to quit at the* time, they
wanted to slack down. Instead of slack­
ing down we just kept drinking more
and more.”
Now many of his former friends
have died because o f their habit—but
Williams’ wife helped him create a dif- .
ferent future.
“I always knew I would be with my
wife now,” he said. “The best part of
that is I didn’t ask heir to quit with me.
She asked me to quit with her.” ;
Now they’ve been together eight
years and sober nearly as long._
They would have married much
sooner, Williams said, except they
wanted to wait until as many family
members as possible could attend their
wedding
Grew up ranching
While once his life was filled only
with aspirations of finding his next
drink, Williams, sajd, now he’s looking
toward the future and striving to’raise
his five-year-old granddaughter in a
positive environment.
Since she’s learning to dance, he
added, “We just try to get her to all the
powwows we can.”
Williams can recall a similar time in
his life, when he lived the simple life
of a cowboy and scrawny child learn­
ing to hoop dance with hands so small
he could only hold three hoops at a time.
“I was just a cowboy from a young
age,” Williams said of his childhood. “I
just stayed home because my responsi­
bility was the horses and cattle.”
Williams was bom in Redmond on
November 16,1953. Throughout his
childhood, Williams was raised on a
ranch in Dry Creek.
“That was the highlight of my life,
was being a cowboy,” he said.
He became so accustomed to the
ranching lifestyle that by the time he
began riding in cars, Williams suffered
from motion sickness. More used to
the minimalism of unpaved roads and
the horse and buggy method of trans­
portation, Williams had a difficult time
adjusting to other ways o f life.
According to Williams, “I didn’t get
out too much in the community be­
cause o f that. I really didn’t talk very
much because the only thing I talked
to was the horses and cows.”
With the closest neighbors being two
miles to the north or two miles to the
West, Williams said, “We could ride and
leave our houses unlocked” ; •
“At four and five years old I was on
my'own,” Williams said, and can re­
member having to stand on a chair to
reach the stove and cook his own food
while his family was. at church or trav­
eling
J “I just enjoyed that life,” he said.
His size contributed to his lifestyle
as a child, Williams added— as did his
ability to interact better with animals
rather than people;
“I was really small,” Williams said.
“I didn’t get to start school right away
at the regular age because o f my size.”
Though even Williams’ saddle stood
taller than he did, he always remained
determined to pull his own weight;
“I never did get to ride with my feet
in the stirrups,” he said with a chuckle.
But Williams wasn’t the type to ac­
cept help. When he caught the older
men trying to saddle his horse for him,
he said. r
“That would get me mad— they
were doing my responsibility. That
made me go into a more introverted
shell. I didn’t trust nobody.”
At around five or six years old, Wil­
liams became even more introverted
after the death of his sister.
“She was my hero/’ Williams said.
“That was my worship. She would
come to my rescue.”
“That was about the time I actually
quit going to the church,” Williams ex­
plained. “It made me kind of lose my
faith in God .because he wouldn’t take
me and send her back.”
While he now remains dedicated to
the Shaker Church— “I will not átop
believing,” Williams explained—Will­
iams found himsélf spiraling through
a tumultuous time o f doubting his reli­
gion.
See WILLIAMS on 10