SCA
O rC o ll
75
. S68
v .^ 3 2
no. 23
November
8 , 2007
Spilygy Tymc
0. Box 870
OR 97761
ip î
0te9on
t t 99 V JnW ^ 140S.A205
tu9ene W-
November 8, 2007 Vol. 32, No. 23
Coyote News, est. 1976
ECRWSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRTSTD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
50 cents
Wind may become source of revenue
B y Dave M cM echan
Spilyay Tymoo
The high winds that blow across the
M utton Mountains could become a
commercial resource for the Confed
erated Tribes.
Through Warm Springs Power and
Water Enterprises, the tribes are explor
ing the possibility o f placing up to 60
w ind turbines on ridgelines of. the
Mutton Mountains.
Power and Water has been looking
into the project for about five years.
M ost recently, the enterprise re
c eiv ed a g ran t in the am o un t o f
$150,000 to develop a study o f the
potential project.
The grant will fund an engineering
study of the road requirements neces
sary to develop and m aintain the tur
bines. i
v Part of the grant will also go toward
a study o f power transmission require
ments from the turbines to the main
power grid.
A third study will look at the poten
tial environmental issues associated with
development of wind turbines,
Power and W ater also received a
gran t fo r ed ucatio n p urp o ses, to
present information to the membership
and tribal leaders on renewable energy
development, how it works and what
benefits the tribes m ay derive from
pursuing the wind farm project, said
J im Manion, general manager of Warm
Springs Power and Water Enterprises.
W ind farm s are an increasingly
popular form of renewable energy, said
Mknion. “Energy development in the
U.S. is heavily favoring renewable^en
ergy,” he said.
For instance, the U.S. Department
o f Energy provided the two recent
grants to Power and Water Enterprises,
Manion said.
Also, the Oregon Legislature recently
passed a law requiring utilities to pur
chase renewable energy.
“That accelerates the potential value
to the tribes,” said Manion, “and would
help make the project profitable.”
The decision to continue pursuing
the wind farm idea comes after the
tribes received a report indicating
such a project could be profitable.
The report is based on a study of
the wind patterns in the mountains.
A basic finding o f the study is that
Wind turbines placed there would
generate energy 30 percent of the
time during the year.
The 30-percent figure indicates
that the project would generate a
profit, said Manion. “That is within
the commercial viability range,” he
said. Manibn also said that Warm
Springs Power and Water Enterprises
has authority to pursue the project
only through approval o f the Tribal
Council.
To complete the reconstruction,
Turo said, they would be using wood
to build log jams in order to create
meanders for the stream to follow.
In these meander bends large en
gineered logjams would use energy
from the stream to create pools for
migrating adult fish and juvenile fish
to grow. Side channels w ill also be
created to provide additional habi
tat for juvenile fish, especially dur
ing high flow's.
R igh t now the stream flows
quickly and is wide and shallow.
That doesn’t allow for quality fish
habitat, Turo said.
The habitat is very uniform. It
contains no large pools or side chan
nels, he explained.
The ¿reconfigured stream would
flow slower and feature improved
conditions for fish.
Plus, Turo said, the new design
allows the stream to cool off in cer
tain areas. “It will positively impact
water temperature,” Turo said. “We
won’t notice, but the fish will.’’ . I
See CREEK on 11
See CASINO DELAYS on 11
After her accomplishments
were read to everyone the
VFW presented her with an
eagle feather.
On Veterans Day, Monday,
Nov. 12, the Veterans of
Foreign Wars Elliott
Palmer Post 4217 will host
the Warm Springs
Veterans Day Parade.
The Veterans Ceremony
will be at 10:30 a.m. in
front of the courthouse.
The Veterans Parade
begins at 11 a m., and will
proceed from the
courthouse to the Agency
Longhouse.
Following the parade, lunch
will be served.
Stream will benefit by being moved
B y L eslie M itts
Shitike Creek could be following a
'different path with a new project in
tended to restore the stream.
Biologists with Natural Resources
“ are working on a project that will re
route Shitike Creek from the bridge by
'the Community Center downstream to
the wastewater ponds.
Because o f concern about die creek
being too dose to the wastewater ponds,
the project aims to reroute the stream
r onto a path that it once followed in the
; 1930s.
Habitat Biologist Scott Turo said
periodic flooding and development in
; the floodplain have resulted in the
straightening o f the stream channel.
With the new design, Turo said, the
.stream w ould have m ore m eander
bends and follow a path very similar to
* where it was located in 1938.
“These kinds o f projects involve
• essentially reconstructing die stream
channel,” Turo explained. The benefits
would be increased floodplain access,
Shitike Creek near the wastewater ponds.
improved fish habitat, and o f course a
very large reduction in the risk to the
waste water lagoons.
That reconstruction is vital for the
creek, and Turo said, “This is one o f
the re serv atio n ’s m o st im p o rtan t
streams.”
While work like this has been done
Leslie Mitts/Spilyay
throughout Oregon and the Pacific
Northwest, Tuto said, but to his knowl
edge nothing to this scale has ever been
co m p leted on the re serv a tio n .
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t neces
sary— and if the project is successful,
Turo said, it could serve as a spring
board for other projects.,
(By Spilyay staff and the AP.) i
In a case that is of interest to the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs,
a New York Indian tribe has filed a law
suit against U.S. Secretary of the Inte
rior Dirk Kempthome.
In the lawsuit, the S t Regis Mohawk
Tribe accuses Kempthorne o f undue
delay and acting in bad faith on the
tribe’s application to put into federal
trust land for a proposed casino.
Like the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe,
the C onfederated Tribes o f W arm
Springs have been frustrated by a long
delay encountered at the office o f the
Secretary o f the Interior.
, “He has made no decisions, that I’m
aware of, on off-resrevation gaming,”
said Ken Smith, chairman of the Warm
Springs tribal gaming board.
“Maybe this will get things moving,”
Smith said o f the St. Regis Mohawk
Tribe’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit by the St. Regis Mbhawk
Tribe asks the U;S. District Court in
W ash in gto n , D .C ., to - o rd er
Kempthome to make a decision on the
tribe’s application within 30 days.
The Mohawks accused Kempthome
o f letting his personal opposition to off-
reservâtion Indian gam ing interfere
with his légal responsibilities.
“It is unfortunate that we have to
file a lawsuit to compel the secretary
to do his job, and it is unacceptable that
our completed application has been
pending at the department for nearly
nine m onths,” said C h ief Lorraine
White.
“The secretary cannot unilaterally
ignore the law and sim ultaneously ig
nore his fiduciary responsibility to the
M ohawk people and his oath o f of
fice.”
The tribe needs the approval to
move ahead with plans to build a $600
million casino in Monticello, 90 miles
northw est o f N ew York City. The
project has support from all o f New
York’s federal and state leaders, as well
as local officials.
This situation is similar to that of
Warm Springs in regard to the Cascade
Locks site, which has support among
state and federal officials, as well as the
community o f Cascade Locks.
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is far
ther along in the approval process that
Warm Springs.
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has al
ready com pleted its Environm ental
Impact Statement (ElS) process, and
is just waiting for a final decision on
the application.
The Confederated Tribes o f Warm
Springs are in the EIS process, having
completed a draft EIS. But the tribes
cannot proceed until EIS meeting no
tices are posted in the Federal Register. '
Inaction at this step has caused the
current delaÿ the tribes are experienc
ing with the Bridge o f the Gods Ca
sino project.
There are 13 Indian tribes that are
in thé process o f trying to gain ap
proval for off-reservation gaming, said
Smith.
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is the
farthest along in the process.
“We’re not the only ones in this situ
ation,” said Smith. The lawsuit, he said,
may put some pressure on the Secre
tary o f the Interior to do something,
rathër than doing nothing in regard to
the tribal applications.
Tashna Hicks-Wert (at
center) received special
honor by her parents,
Marla and Leroy “Buddy”
Hicks, and members of the
VFW Elliott Palmer Post
4217 at the Agency
Longhouse during her
recent visit to Warm
Springs.
^Spilyay Tymoo
Tribes
frustrated
by casino
delays