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.