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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 2007)
FSCA OrColl E 75 L S68 v. 32 no. 16 A ugust c 2007 Spilygy Tyroq Coyote News, est. August 2, 2007 P.O.Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 Acquisition Dept./Serials Knight Library 1299 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1205 Voi. 32, No. 16 U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Homeless W hat you need to know about the adoption election camp by river vacated The Bureau of Indian Affairs is preparing this week to mail out the voter registration forms for the O ct 11 tribal adoption election. The process o f mailing out the registration forms was delayed for a few days, as the local BIAvstaff was committed to working on adminis trative aspects o f the agency re sponse to the wild fires that have been burning on the reservation. ./Lori Anderson, BIA administra tive officer, said she would be meet ing with Madeline Queahpama- Spino, director of tribal Vital Statis- tics, this week to arrange for the mail ing o f the registration forms. A bqut 4,000 envelopes will be mailed out, said Anderson. The enve lopes will contain the régistration form and a stamped return envelope. Tribal members who are interested in voting in the election will have about a month to. return the completed registration form, said Anderson. Changes in election It is important for tribal members to be aware of the changes to the adop tion election process, said Louie Pitt, director o f tribal government affairs. The registration process is one im portant change, Pitt said. Other tribal elections have required members to be qualified to vote, but have not required registration. The second change is that all o f the adoption candidates on the ballot will be either voted into the tribe or not. Previous adoption elections have considered each candidate individually. The candidates on the ballot oil. October 11 also Were not required to live on the reservation for the previ ous three years, as has been a qualifi- cation in the previous two, unsuc cessful adoption votes. The standards to qualify for the ballot are that the person have one- eighth Indian blood and be a descen dant o f a tribal member. There are over 230 candidates whq, will be on the Oct. 11 ballot. A main reason why there is a rela tively large number of adoption cam didates — 230-plus compared to 76 duririg the 2001-02 elections - is the lack of the residency requirement, said Madeline Queahpama. 3 fires burn across 4,900 acres on rez / Fire crews are doing mop-up this week on three fires that haye burned since July 12 on the reservation. /' The largest of the three fires was the Biddle Pass fife, which burned across more than 3,000 acres. The Warm Springs H ot Shot crew has been working on the Biddle Pass fire, constructing a line along the fire’s edge. . This week a crew from the John Day JRapell B&se.jy.ete, scheduled to. a m rn a t the, Biddle Pass, fire tp asr> sist the H ot Shots'. 1 Tne Biddle Pass blaze is located in the area, of the most difficult ter rain in the fire complex, requiring support from the rapell crew, a heli copter and engine resources. Close tcr'TuO personnel have been on the reservation fighting the fires, which were caused by lightning. This week many o f the person nel were returning to their home units, as their 14-day assignment periods were concluding. The two smaller fires were the Trail 3, which burned over 1,400 The homeless camp at the Rainbow boat launch area on the Deschutes River had become an increasing problem in recent months and needed to be dealt with, community members decided re cently. The boat launch area is partly trib- ally-owned, and partly state Parks prop erty. The area is subject to tribal .and Jefferson County law enforcement ju- risdiction. About 20 people attended a recent meeting on the issue. In attendance were community counselors? tribal land- use, housing and law enforcement of ficials, and officials from non-tribal agencies such as the county, state Parks, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A main concern has been the un pleasant encounters at the Rainbow area among the homeless population, and members of the general public. The encounters included aggressive panhan dling, public in to x icatio n and harrassment. Other problems include thefts and vandalism to vehicles, littering and damage to the public property, said Urbana Ross, tribal lands services ad ministrator. See HOMELESS CAMP on 11 rnotooytticn McConnell Fire fighter Vernon Suppah on lookout for the Warm Springs Inter-Agency Hotshot Crew. acres, and the lio n ’s Head fire, which burned across fewer than 300 acres. Most of the personnel still on the scene are working on mop-up o f the Biddle Pass fire. Helicopter crews were using an in fra-red device to detect hot spots, which are then extinguished by the crews pn the ground^ : As o f Tuesday, there were no fire-related closures this week on the reservation. By Maren Cohn Better Communication W arm Springs Ventures The second day moved from look ing at the past to addressing present challenges and goals. As a prelude to asking Council to set the priorities for its term, facilitator Roy Sampsel, Ex ecutive Director o f Portland State’s' In stitu te for Tribal G overnm ent, pointed first to Council’s way o f doing business. '/ “Everyone in this room is interested in making this Council cohesive and re sponsive to the people,” he said. “Flow to accomplish this? Establish basic ground rules, rules Council impdSes on itself, as to how it does business. What does this Council need to do to meet its goals?” Discussion of that question |6ok up the rest of the morning. The need for better communications within Council and between Council and the tribal or ganization and membership dominated the session. Some early tensions were dispelled when Paiute Chief Joseph Moses took the bull by the horns. ‘I t always happens that we start these things out by poking each other in the eye,” he said. “That should be one of our ground rules—to stop doing that.” Another participant emphasized the same point, urging Council to put aside divisive topics and focus instead on Council members were very sensitive o f the need to hear from the people before com mitting significant funds to Bear Springs. what it can do together. , “If there are certain issues that}get in your way, agree not to talk about them for a while. Learn to work to gether and trust each other by accom plishing goals jn other areas that;you all care about and can agree on.” Another important theme was the need for Council to lead by example, to police itself, and to comply with rules that already exist. “People are looking to. us,” said Wasco C hief N elson Wallulatum. “We have to show by ex ample.” “We have a chance to be a good link in the chain,” said Warm Springs Chief Delvis Heath, “if we do what we say. I hope people will have more respect for this Council.” T he round-table discussion on Council’s own practices led to tbe cre ation o f a chart of Council priorities for conducting its own business. At the Council appoints committee members T he S ecretary-T reasurer then pointed to the priorities set by previ ous Councils arid stressed the need for the Twenty-Fourth Council to spell out goals toward which the tribal organiza tion should strive. Council members agreed that giving clear directions to subordinates, ensuring they have the resources needed to carry out those directions, and then letting them do their jobs would be essential to becoming an effective governing body. As the first step in establishing the Twenty-Fourth Tribal Council’s official priorities, the group reviewed and dis cussed the 20Q6 membership survey, paying particuSi attention to how mem bers said they would like to see tribal resources allocated. The Tribal Council has filled the positions on the tribal com mittees. ' The committees serve the nec essary function o f helping the Council conduct the business of the tribal government. There are eight c ommittees: Culture and Heritage, Education, Fish and Wildlife On-Reserva tion/Fish and Wildlife Off-Res ervation, Health and Welfare, Land Use Planning, Range, Irri gation and Agriculture, and Tim ber. The committee appointments last for about three years, until the next Tribal Council takes of- ■ fice. A sw earing-iu .date o f Wednesday, Aug. 8. The appoint ments are as follows: Culture and Heritage Com mittee: Paiute, Lonnie Rose Tom and Eileen Spino; Warm Springs, E dna Gonzales and Margaret Suppah; Wasco, Emily Waheneka and Radine Johnson.; Education Comriiittee:' Mavis Shaw, Louise* Katchia, Laurie Danzuka and Margie Tuckta. The Fish andWildlife On-Res ervation C om m ittee: A nson Begay, T erry C outnrey Jr., Jonathan Smith and Emerson Squiemphen. Fish and | W ildlife O ff- Rerservation Committee: Leslie Bill, B ruce Jim Sr., H aro ld Blackwolf Sr. and Ryan Smith Sir. Health and Welfare Commit tee: Janice Clements, Urbana M anion, Moses Kalatiia and Earlyniie Squiemphen. jSee TRIBAL COUNCIL on 11 See COMMITTEES on 11 Tribal Council defines, commits to priorities \; Tribal Council members attended a three-day orientation and ptiority-set- ’ting retreat last month at the Oregon Coast. All 11 Council members partici pated in the session. > O n tbe final day, they unanimously passed a resolution and proclamation g etting fo rth th e T w enty-Fourth Council’s priorities for the next three years. “The proclamation, is an important early step for this Council,” said secre tary-treasurer Jody Calica, who orga nized the retreat. “It represents their consensus on where to commit tribal resources and ■gives direction to the tribal organiza tion so we can carry out Council policy.” ,/,. The retreat opened with tribal attor ney Howie Arnett presenting an histori cal overview of the tribes%asic docu ments and federal Indian policy and law from Colonial times to the present. As p art o f the overview, Tribal Council members discussed the 1855 Treaty, die tribal Declaration o f Sov ereignty, the C onstitution and By- Laws, Charter, and the Management Plati. By Dave McMechan Spilyaj Tjmoo top came treating each other with re spect and honoring differences of back ground and opinion. Council also agreed to develop internal rules o f pro cedure covering speakers, motions, minutes, follow-up on decisions, and agenda management. Finally, several members o f the group called for more accountability in the area o f travel. Proclamation of Priorities
