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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2008)
Spi lyay Tym Coyote News, est. 1976 May 8, 2008 o ^ riF T Y HISTORICAL SOCIETY OREGON 123 oswpa RKA v & PORTLAND, OR « ECRWSS Postai Patron Voi. 33, No. 10 Landmark agreement ends years of contention B y D ave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo Dave McMechan/Spilyay Ron Suppah, chairman of the Tribal Council of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, signs the Accords parchment during the ceremony last week at Horsethief Park. ’ T heC N tinibia RivefTfasihTTiTrTcT' cords are a 10-year agreem ent, focus ing tribal and federal resources on im proving fish habitat instead o f on costly and prolonged litigation. T h e ag reem en t com m its federal agencies to pro v id e tribes w ith §900 million over ten years to spend tow ard salmon recovery. In exchange, the tribes are dropping out o f a lawsuit challeng ing dam operations. Idaho also signed an agreement with federal regulators w orth $65 mil lion, and M ontana agreed to terms for $15.5 million. Washington state also supports the accords. See ACCORDS on 10 New program aims to improve student attendance B y L e s l i e M i tt s Spilyay Tymoo Middle school and high scliool stu dents w ith a history o f repeated ab sences m ight have seen a surprise in their driveway recently: a school bus. I t’s part o f a new attendance p ro gram that aims to stop the problem o f repeated absences by sending liaisons to the houses o f students w ho show up on the absent list too often. A ccording to school liaison Lana L eo n ard , th e p ro g ra m b eg an after Jefferson C ounty Middle School Prin cipal K en Clark decided to take action against the declining attendance rate. T he State o f O regon’s attendance goal is 92 percent. Currendy the N a tive American attendance is 87 percent, according to Leonard. A ccording to Clark, he decided to begin the p ro g a m in p art because the middle school has lower num bers than W arm Springs Elem entary in term s o f attendance. “I believe our N ative students can attend better than they are,” Clark said. “There seems to be a drop at the middle school and I w anted to address that.” A t the start o f the school day, b oth M adras H igh School and Jefferso n County Middle School send attendance reports to the liaisons w ho then evalu ate the list and go door to door in at tem pt to take students into school. The liaisons visit with the parents and students to find out w hy they w eren’t in school that morning; then bring the student to school. Typically they knock on anywhere from 15-25 doors each time they com plete a late bus run, L eonard said. While the students do n ’t arrive to HMM Casino study comment deadline approaching Tribal M em bers have until T h u rs day, May 15 to com m ent on the tribes’ gorge casino draft E nvironm ental Im p act Statement. All tribal m em bers are encouraged to provide their com m ents about thé specifics p f the draft EIS, said Margie Tuckta o f the casino ambassadors and outreach team. E-m ail statem ents are m ost easily processed and recorded, said Tuckta. C o m m en t by e-m ail by going to gorgecasinoeis.com, and select “C om m ent O pportunities.” Type your com m ent on the form and send it. Each com m ent will need your nam e and ad- dress, and will becom e part o f the pub lic com m ent on the project. A final casino in fo rm atio n open house will be held at th e W arm Springs M arket on Tuesday, M^y 13. T he ca sino outreach team will be collecting w ritten com m ents and hand delivering them- to Stanley Speakes at the P o rt land Bureau o f Indian Affairs office in before the deadline. Written letters and comm ents can be subm itted to the gaming expansion of fice at K ah-N ee-Ta or to any gam ing e x p a n s io n te a m m em b e r. T h e te a m “W o rk in g w ith tribes as sovereigns ’a l t d ^ t l ’' Ó~put ou r hearts and minds to looking for opportunity and so lu tio n s fo r th e rivers an d th e salmon,” said Suppah. “We have a lot o f w ork to do to restore salmon, lam prey and steelhead.?’ U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Columbia fish accords D ecad es o f divisiveness o v er salm on recovery in the C olum bia R iver basin en d ed last w eek for tribes and federal agencies. T h e C o n fe d e ra te d T rib es o f Warm Springs, along with three other tribes\ federal agencies and the Co lumbia» River Inter-Tribal Fish Com mission,\ signed the historic agreement on Friday, May 2, at Columbia Hills State Park. “T hese fish accords respect the sovereignty o f the tribes,” said R on Suppah, Tribal Council Chairm an o f the C onfederated Tribes o f W arm Springs. “T hey break from the his tory o f federal agencies developing a plan them selves, then telling the tribes w hat they w ould o r could p ro vide for salmon.” T h e earlier a p p ro a c h did n o t w ork, said Suppah: “M isunderstand ings, hard feelings and litigation are w hat we produced.” T he foundation o f the new agree m ent, he said, is respect am ong sov ereigns, and respect for the exper tise and authority o f the tribes. P.O. Box 870 rings, OR 97761 School liaisons Butch David (at left) and Lana Leonard travel to students’ homes along with bus driver Jerry Huff in what they call the “yellow limo.” school for the first p a rt o f the day, L eonard said, it helps th at they are there for m ost o f the day. “They’re late, b u t they’re still there,” she explained. So far they have steadily taken in several students each time, she added. T he m ost they have taken in at one time is five students, L eonard added, b u t in her opinion it isn’t so m uch the n u m b er th a t m atters b u t the effect they’re having on students. “To me being successful is taking one student back in,” she said. In fact, som e parents are g a te fu l to the late bus p ro g a m for the assis tance it provides. “We had a couple parents w ho ap preciated it because they couldn’t take their kids in,” L eonard said. They plan to continue the late bus p ro g a m through the end o f the year at least, and will do late bus runs two to three times per week— b u t even the liaisons don’t know w hen they’re going to do the surprise bus visits. “I t’s random ,” L eonard explained. “We don’t know w hen we’re going to d o it.” Clark a g e e d , and said, “This is a very random bus. I t’s n o t the same days an d it’s n o t even th e sam e names.” T he reason for that, Clark said, is that they can’t go to every absent student’s hom e every tim e they are on the list. Instead, he explained, the liaisons are responsible for deciding which students and parents to visit. Frequendy a representative from Tribal C ourt also goes to the stu dents’ homes with the school liaisons to discuss the legal issues that par ents could face if their child’s atten dance continues to be a p ro g a m . A ccording to A nson Begay, the tribal code features a section regard ing com pulsory school attendance. S ection 360.500 o f th e trib al code reads, “All juveniles between the ages o f seven (7) and eighteen (18) years w ho have n o t com pleted the tw elfth g a d e are required to atten d school full-time. Full-tim e attendance means attendance each school day unless excused from at tendance for that day by the school authorities or by mutual a g e e m e n t o f th e school authorities and the W arm Springs Tribe.” Because o f that, Begay said, the judges have a g e e d that they will take w hatever steps possible to get stu dents to attend school and to make parents m ore accountable. T hat could potentially involve cit ing parents— in som e cases the par ents could even receive as m any as 10 days in jail while the child w ould be sen t to a correctional facility, Begay said. See ATTENDANCE on 11 m em bers are T uckta, L ena Ike and Floyd Calica. A final E n v iro n m e n ta l Im p a c t Statem ent will be published in the early w inter. I f you have any q uestions, please contact Tuckta at 553-4883. Honor Seniors Day is Friday i T he E ighteenth A nnual H o n o r Sei niors D ay will kick o f f this F riday m orning, May 9. All seniors are invited to attend the event at the Agency Longhouse. E ach year the Senior Services proi g a m hosts the event for local elders as well as elders w ho travel to W arm Springs for H o n o r Seniors Day. H o n o r Seniors D ay is one o f the m ost popular events o f the year. T he event features a pow w ow w ith children from Early C hildhood E duca tion, w ho also give away crafts they have made for the elders attending the event. A Seniors D ay king and queen are crow ned, and receive the ho n o r o f sit ting in special th ro n es reserved for them. Seniors will have games to play, and each year the event features a specific theme. Awards are given to the seniors w ho have travelled the farthest to attend the event. Seniors from throughout the region and a variety o f states travel each year to W arm Springs H o n o r Seniors Day to join local elders participating in the event. L odging fo r seniors from o u t o f tow n is available at K ah-N ee-Ta H igh D esert R esort and Casino. For m ore inform ation, contact the Senior Services P rogram at 553-3313, 553-3520 or 553-3390. T he p ro g a m can also be reached by e-mail at lschuster@ w stribes.org, ls q u ie m p h e n @ w s tr ib e s .o r g , or paiutewewa@ yahoo.com.
