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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 2007)
Spíly^y Tyraoa> VVarni Springs, Oregon Pi-Ume-Sha Senior Co H ello, W arm Springs com m unity. M y nam e is A lexys V erb en a Lupe Gonsalez.- ij;*'l am 1-6 years and the daughter o f Sarah (Greene) arid Jose Luis Gonsalez. I have three older brothers: Jefferson “Mr. Jay” Greene, B enjam in and Francis Gonsalez. M y grandparents are the late Verbena “Beans” (Tdhet) and Perry Greene and H arold G reen e, w ho were all from Warm Springs. la m a junior at North Sa lem High School in Salem, where my family and I reside. My interest and hobbies are dancing, playing volleyball, basketball, football, softball . and'Wrestling. I also enjoy listening to music, attending rodeos and cuMfiral ceremonies. I loVe running, walking and kicking it wjth friends. What is important to me is my family because they all are raising me and encourag ing tine to be athletic. They are the ones that helped me make it this far in'life, have taught me right from wrong, they are with m e through both the good and bad times. | They are my life. Second is my friends, who support me in my decisions and give a helping hand. Third is music that ex presses feelings and move ment that also keeps me ac- I cannot forgive my cul ture as I am both Native American and Mexican. I am Page 9 June 21,-2007 learning new ways to be helpful by understanding the Mexican and Native American cultures through songs, dances, language, fo od and music. I probably would not have confidence of be involved anything without the support o f my family and friends. I would like to thank you ahead o f time for the support by purchasing raffle tickets from me. Alexys Verbena Lupe Gonsalez. Myths and facts about the 1855 Treaty What the Treaty of 1855 means to me bands o f the Warm Springs gave up over 10 million acres o f land fo r the 600,000 acres o f re It was about a month ago served land. We retained the that I listened to Wasco Chief inalienable rights to hunt, fish, Nelson Wallulatuni address the and gather foods in our usual Tourism session at the Affiliated and accustomed sites in our Tribes o f Northwest Indians. ceded land areas to provide us He explained that the Wasco the opportunity to keep our self- band o f Chinook Indians have reliance and cultural dignity. My been involved w ith tourism puusha, atwai, LaHimosh, Herbert prior to the arrival o f the white Stwyer Sr., described the hours man. The Chinook people con and days o f ongoing dialogue ducted ‘trade’ with peoples who prior to agreeing to sign the traveled to the Columbia River Warm Springs treaty. Implicit from Alaska, across the terrain in the oral tradition described by to the Plains area, and as far Puusha as ichiishkinmt —-dia south as California and Mexico. logue in which culture is posses- Upon arrival o f the white man, sive^4-is the mutual respect and our population has dwindled h o n o r o f the relatio n sh ip from over 150,000 strong. To wherein our people considered day, there are approximately all aspects o f our new oppo 4,000 enrolled members o f our nent. This form o f communi Tribes, including the Wasco cation involves a wholistic dia logue that is beyond the tip o f bands. The arrival o f the non-Indian conscious knowledge because peoples marked the beginning our life ways involve the set o f o f fraudulent treaty agreements, natural laws that govern the re boundary disputes, disease, lationship between man and the genocide, federal policies that natural world around us. In attempted to put an end to In those days our people were dian tribes and cultures and as trusting during times o f mutual similate us into mainstream so agreements; though the Treaty ciety. We were satisfied with our agreement was a new concept. Puusha shared the funerary way o f life and preferred to be song that was sung as our an left alone. However, in 1853, the mili cestors Indians traveled to the tary commander issued a notice reservation. Millions o f acres to remind settlers that the land oF land were given up in ex at the Easr'of the Cascades have change for hundreds o f acres o f not been settled by Treaty and reservation land. The land base ‘the G overn m ent alone has did not contain the salmon and power to extinguishments for wildlife that our people were the Indian title.’ As time moved accustomed to. The harsh en forward, it became increasingly vironment and poor soils did clear that more white settlers not sustain growth o f foods and were going to arrive and our our people starved. The Treaty o f 1855 brought people were subjected to the ■ Plateau War, although it was ac about a unicjue status o f bur tually á conflict in Yakima terri- Sovereign nation and it has also . tory. Little did we know that the changed our way o f life in which intruders sought to punish all our people faced new challenges Indians. Aside from that, our fo r: Econom ic developm ent, people did not understand the intergeherational healing o f the concept o f land ownership. We impacts o f forced removal from respected the animals, the plant ou r original lands, boarding life, air, and water as gifts from schools, and new models fo r the Creator. As we tried to pro conducting business, and a di tect these resources, wars broke lution o f traditional culture and out between the government traditions that endured our and other Plateau tribes. We had people for over 600 generations. little choice but to settle with a Our ties to the Columbia River go back thousands o f years. We Treaty.; The Confederated Tribes and are still connected through our B y Aurolyn Stw yet Tribal Councilwoman songs, relationship to the land, plant and animal life. An interesting side note is the fact that the terms o f the Treaty were not completely understood by our people. There were terms such as ‘ratification’ by the Senate, for example. Because o f the imbalance with the treaty ne gotiations, today the U.S. gov ernm ent m ust in terp ret the Treaty weighed to the benefit o f our Tribes’. I hkve often wondered what life would be like if the trau matic events that were experi enced by my ancestors did not take place. Our people survived the holocaust o f the Treaty o f 1855 and the loss o f the Celilo Falls, due to their faith in the Creator. It was their tenacity that maintained our traditional values and a strong emphasis on the family. However, the multi tude o f change, loss and trauma has impacted our society as a whole. Psychologist Eduardo Duran discusses the wounded or the oppressed becoming the oppressor, “Manifestation o f the internalized soul wound is found in many facets o f life such as domestic violence, sui cide, family dysfunction, com munity dysfunction and v io lence, institutional violence and dysfunction, tribal/political in fighting and violence, and spiri tual abuse and violence, and epistemic violence.” Other fac tors are the shorter life span, homicide, suicide, diabetes, can cer,- school drop out, poverty, alcohol and drug addiction, and low self-esteem. These horrific statistics are an on go ing struggle, yet I have faith that we have the ability to combat them. 152 years following the sign ing o f the Treaty, we now have . a global economy and techno logical change. It wiljrakç con structive leadership to protect and exercise ou r sovereign Treaty rights; maintain our spiri tual wisdom; preserve and revi talize our native tradition, lan guages, and the arts; promote healthy body and healthy envi ronment; as well as business and leadership development. Nyyy! documents like the Constitution tribal court, police powers, to o f the United States, or the exclude non-Indians (so behave Declaration o f Independence as during Pi-ume-sha), regulate Are Indians still in America? just an old document. Keeping domestic affairs and so on... we A definite yes, 500 plus tribal the word o f nations: “G reat have had some rights removed nations.... nations that were here Nations like great men should in criminal arenas but in no way occupying and owning the lands keep their word*” is what the should a reservation be thought given by The Creator since time U.S. Suprem e C o u rt Justice o f as a lawless area. These tights immemorial. Black said. are rights that connect back to ■■■ Today, the Confederated The only rights the tribes the Creator given responsibili Tribes o f the Warm Springs have are on-reservation. Noij'esf ties and were not given to us by Reservation has tribes! o f Warm pecially in the Middle Oregon the U.S. o f State o f Oregon. Springs, Wasco and Paiute. The Treaty o f 1855, it is clear that W hat is this sovereignty? Middle Oregon Treaty o f 1855. thè tribes kept for themselves in Unlike the United States, created recognized the sovereign au wiriting the right to hunt, fish, by revolution, we were given the thorities o f the Warm Springs gather roots, pick berries and lands, way o f life, languages and Hello, my name is Rose and W asco trib es w ith the pasture our stocks on unclaimed beleifs by The Creator. We be bud Kaysee Whipple. I am a Piautes joining the treaty tribes lands O ff Reservation. long to the land. Sovereignty has candidate for the Pi-Ume-Sha in late 1 880’s. The Paiute tribes . We’ve continued to fish the four basic elements: Land base, • Junior Court. participate today with equal ac big river, W im ulth, or N ’chi a people, governing body struc I am an enrolled member cess to tribal services under the Wana, today Columbia River ture and air economy. o f the Confederated Tribes Tribal Constitution and By- because the fishing way o f life o f Warm Springs. My Indian " Salmon, deer, roots and ber Laws. - name is Ix-chapa (wild rose). was reserved in the treaty. We ries are central to our way o f life Did American give sovef- .gave up „ title , o r C eded, and are celebrated, throughout : My tribes are Wasco, Warm eignty to the Tribal' Nations?- fO,00^,000 acres to the United the year by our peqple. The Springs, Paiute, and Rosebud N o, the transaction o f the States, in return for the Trust places which we occupy today Sioux. Middle Oregon Treaty o f 1855 relationship with the U.S. and are but a small part o f the re I am 9 years old, and live was betw een the. sovereign our Indian way o f life. Some el sponsibilities we have wherever in Seekseequa. r Warm Springs and' Wasco tribes ders still state if you don’t honor our past relatives resided.1 My interests are math, v We maintain our relationship ^ and the United States. What au the treaty then we want the land reading, travel, beadworking, blue. powwows, swimming and thorities and rights that were not back. ^ to the living and our dead .(Re M y parents are B rett and skating. My favorite color is Brigette Whipple. My paternal talked about in the treaty trans W hat rights do the tribes patriation efforts) under the action were reserved... the re have? We have the rights t»f all unwritten laws our our peoples. served rights doctrine is we re other sovereigns except for the Please see the Declaration o f served or kept the other authors ones we gave up in treaty like S o vereig n ty at the w ebsite ties not mentioned in the treaty. the right to make war, we re warm springs.com . Click on Treaty is an old document served the right to enroll our “Tribal Community,” and then that should be ignored...? Then people, make laws, carry out “History and Culture” to find The Resource Manage pected to yield approximately 13 so should be ignore other old those laws, have always had a this document. ment Interdisciplinary Team million board feet o f timber. The document is divided into has released a draft project assessm ent covering the sections explaining the purpose Springs Reservation, are all guaranteed by the 2008 Sugar Pine Timber Sale and need for action, resource- 1855 Treaty. Our forefathers secured these for public review. The docu based indicators used to help the things in exchange for peace and for the ced ment was prepared by the technical staff analyze and miti ing o f ten million acres o f land to the United (Continued from page P ro je c t In terd iscip lin ary gate environmental impacts, and Those; same Treaty fishing rights have given States Government. Team to provide options for details o f the three alternatives. As your Tribal Council Chairman, there is us a very strong voice in how the Federal G ov timber harvest in the Shitike. The goal o f Alternative A is ernment operates the huge dams on the Co not a day that goes by that I do not think about and Seekseequa watersheds. to continue Current manage lumbia River, which affect the number o f the 1855 Treaty and thank the Creator for die Three alternatives were m ent Activities such as hunting, salmon and steelhead that return to our fish wisdom and foresight o f our ancestors. It was form ulated and numerous recreation and cultural food their determination to secure an agreement ing grounds. logging methods were con gathering would continue as in The 1855 Treaty is also the protector o f our with the United States that Would ensure that sidered fo r this project, tak the past. The only harvest pro inherent sovereignty. Our traditional way o f future generations would be able to live as sov ereign Indian people on our ancestral lands that, ing into account present re posed un der A lte rn a tive A life as Columbia River Indian people, our fish source conditions, fo rest would be through conventional ing, hunting andfood gathering rights, and our made our Tribe what it is today. We have much health and public input. The salvage operations. Alternatives sovereign right to govern ourselves and our to be thankful for; Sugar Pine Timber Sale is ex- B and C are designed to harvest exclusive Indian homeland that is the Warm B y Louie P itt Government Affairs Director Pi-Ume-Sha Junior Court Candidate / x '— jt W w fin® grandparents .are Doyle and Sandra Whipple. My mater nal grandparents are the late Gordon Scott Sr. and Brenda Kalama Scott. My great grandparents are E lm er S co tt.S r.' and Lela P u yette S co tt; and Chief:, N ick K alam a and V io la Wallulatum Kalama. I have one brother, A u g u st, and o n e s iste r, . Annalise. Thank.you for your sup port during Pi-Ume-Sha. ’ Rosebud Whipple. Kaysee Timber sale assessment released Treaty —----- - approxim ately 13 m illion board feet o f timber from approximately 2,100 acres. The three; altern atives would have varying impacts on water, fish, wildlife, cul tural, timber, range, soil and econ om ic reso u rces and there would also be some changes to the transportation system. v For more information or copies o f the docum ents5 contact Vernon W olf in the Forestry Branch, or call 553- 2416. Tribal members have 30 days to comment on the proposed sale. I
