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
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I
University of Oregon Library
Received on: 12-13-07
Spilyay tymoo