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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2007)
I SCA OrColl 'S 75 .S68 P.O.Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 ECRW SS ostai Patron Coyote News, e st 1976 December 6, 2 0 0 7 Vol. .S. Postage PRSRTSTD igs, OR 97761 »so. 25 50 cents Board, management reflect on eventful year at Kah-Nee-Ta The past year has been an eventful one at Kah-Nee-Ta, with good finan cial results, and change to the resort and casino operation. The Kah-Nee-Ta board of directors and management are now looking forward to continued im provements in 2008. Through September o f this year, Kah-Nee-Ta revenues have outpaced the: prior year by $900,000. This has led to a net income figure of slightly more than $3 million for the property. Significant improvements in the ca sino and the rooms divisions have bol T ribal member employment stered this year’s numbers. “New slot machines in the casino fo r Kah-N ee-Ta has steadily and good head-counts in the hotel from increased over the last sev the independent traveler have joined eral years from an average together, and so far are producing a o f 3 6 percent to 44 percent strong year” said Garland Brunoe, Kah- Nee-Ta general manager. “I am anx o f the to ta l employees. ious to see how the entire year is going to turn ottf.” ; ^ After -a year of transition, Brunoe Kah-Nee-Ta to the next level. has finally filled all of the primary di Brunoe admits it has taken more rector positions that will help in taking time than he wanted, but he believes Kah-Nee-Ta has found individuals with a great deal of experience and knowl edge in their particular fields who can lead the resort and casino in the right direction. The areas o f expertise include fi nance and accounting, hum an re sources, hotel and casino operations, marketing, and a new position that has been created to focus on the guest ex perience. Without a doubt, said Brunoe, Kah- Nee-Ta is focusing its efforts on the guest Toward that end, employee train ing and development plans are being constructed and implemented to ensure that employees have the proper tools to service and satisfy the guest. Brunoe said the cornerstone o f Kah-Nee-Ta’s future success is the guest,, and what the guest experiences during the visit to the resort. And the obvious link and key to being success ful are the employees. See KAH-NEE-TA on page 9 Williams teaches tradition of hide tanning at museum B y Leslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo Ceded Lands tour group pictured with wind power generator blade at Bigblow Wind Farm. Below, the group puts their signatures on the blade. Growing A growing interest in diverse en- ergy projects on the reservation was evident during the annual tour of the Ceded Lands. The tour takes several dayé to com plete, as the Ceded Lands, to which the trifies have treaty rights, is a large area. . While at the Columbia Gorge, the tour group wanted to visit a renew able energy facility. Instead of a hy dro-project, the group decided to visit a wind farm. ' They visited th&JBigblow Wind Farm, operated by Portland General Electric, just east of Biggs Junction. Community members had a chance to learn about hide tanning with a class offered by The M useum at W arm Springs. Roberta Williams taught the class and said she wanted to be sure to pass on the skill she learned from her mother. The class first began, Williams said, after she was riding the local transit bus and began speaking with a museum employee about the need for a hide tanning class. Soon they began offering the , class for 15 students. \ * TH£?el$ss started 0cfi 22 and 'Will- iams said she’s been busily teaching al most ftvery day since then. Now only one woman remains, and is still scraping her hide in order to get it finished, Williams added. O ut of the 15 participants, about six finished, Williams said— but she welcomes anyone who would like to finish or like to learn the skill to seek out her advice. “The people that didn’t finish, they could come back to me later on,” Wil liams said, adding that a few people hope to finish during spring. I Williams learned the skill of hide tanning from her m oth er, Rose Mitchell. interest in wind power The group had a chance to sBe the large windmill blades up close, and signed their names on one of the blades. Warm Springs Power and Water Enterprises is currently studying the details of developing a wind farm on the reservation. Through federal grant money, Power and Water Enterprises is funding an engineering study ofrfoad requirements necessary to develop and maintain the wind turbines in th^ Mut ton Mountains The $150,000 grant will alsp fund a study ¿ f power transmission require ments from *tiie turbines to,‘the main power grid. A third study will look at the potential environmental issues associated with developm ent of wind turbines. Recent state policy- regarding re newable energies have made wind power an attractive potential eco nomic development project for the tribes. According to the state law, within the next 20 years Oregon must get a quarter of its electricity from renew able resources. I**1*- By Dave McMechan Mitchell taught all her children, ac cording to Williams’ brother Leander Kalama. “This is just like family teach ing,” he said. According to Williams, the most important thing about the class to her Was the ability to pass on the skill. “The reason I wanted to teach people is so that my mom’s teaching won’t be lost—our culture, our heritage won’t be lost,” Williams said.. “I want it to keep going” “There’s a few that my mom taught, too, hopefully they still remember,” Williams added. In fact it’s a slqll that is slowly be coming less and less known. It’s not that people don’t want to learn about hide tanning, Williams added. “There’s a Ipt o f people that want to learn but the work is really hard,” she explained. At times? the work varies depending on the hide. “Sometimes you’ll get a good hide and it’ll get done for you, and another time you’ll get a hide that’s double layered,” Williams added, ex plaining that a double-layered hide re quires additional scraping. According to Kalama, very few people are still able to practice hide tan ning. Either ¿hat, he said, dr they just aren’t knowledgeable about the skill. See HIDE TANNING on page 7 Meth prevention program targets younger generation B y L eslie M itts Spilyay Tymoo " Tribal Council approves 2008 budget ! The Tribal Council has adopted the settlement accounts for $3.37 million. Gam ing is>'expected to provide i Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs $1.165 million in revenue td the tribes; budget for ^008. ; Total revenue for the year is pro- % Composite Products revenue to the Ijected at $24.8 million, with nearly half tribes is projected at $500,0Q0; and the o f the to tal com ing from W arm' Credit Enterprise, $500,000.. Contract Springs Power and Water Enterprise support-indirect income is projected at The enterprise is expected to provide $2 mjllihn. Other sources. — interest, $11.5 million in revenue next year, ac fees, leases, and other sources -^account for the rest of the revenue. »• cording to the budget document. Total expenditures for the year are Timber revenue is projëctëd at $2.5 million. The trust-fund claim lawsuit projected at a little over $19 million. Amount available for per capita is projected at $5.9 million. The tribal operating expenses are projected at nearly $17.4 million. Most departments received in the final budget the amount that was proposed for 2008. Council added a little over $100,000 to the Public Safety Department budget, over the amount proposed. N o department receives less than the amount pro posed. Methamphetamine use is increasing in the younger generations, and those with the Meth Task Force are trying to combat the problem with education. Wayne Miller, meth prevention co ordinator, recently spoke to health classes at Jefferson County Middle School as part o f a drug prevention week. He typically goes in to speak to the classes every semester, Miller said, be cause new groups are taking the health classes. The program he teaches is called Meth 101. However, it differs at each grade level, Miller said. “You have to take in a whole different perspective,” he ex plained. ~ While the sixth grade students are typically very open about methamphet amine use within the homes, Miller said, seventh graders are less willing to talk about it and eighth graders are typi cally very reluctant to speak o f the subject. According to Miller, “It’s really edu cating the students about how meth is really affecting the community—riot only the community, but families. In general, he said, the program helps make students aware of what to do if they encounter m etham phet amine use. “Drug dealers are starting to focus on the younger generation now by sim ply handing them the drug itself,” Miller explained, because the drug has a very high retention rate for first-time usersi The majority o f people who try methamphetamines become addicted. By giving the students statistics and teaching them about what meth rise does to a person’s body, Miller said, it helps convince more students to stay away from it. “W hen we go in there and educate the students about what methamphet amines can do to young minds which are still growing, and how many brain cells are still growing, that kind of gets them to re-think their values about try ing it,” Miller said. As a stipulation of a grant tfrat the program receives, Miller said, they need to conduct nieth education pro grams at three levels. Besides educating students at JCMS, Miller will soon be speaking with high school students as well as students from grades three, four and five. Before he presénts the information to elementary school students, however, Miller is working to fine-tune the cur riculum. See METH PREVENTION on 9 .mamssmmmsssmssmmmmssmmmmmKmmmmmmmmmtammmmmaKmmKmmmmmmmmtmmmm I University of Oregon Library Received on: 12-13-07 Spilyay tymoo
