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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (May 22, 2008)
Spilygy Tymoc P.O. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1230 SW PARK AVE. PORTLAND, OR 97205 - Coyote News, est. 1976 May 22, 2008 Voi. 33, No. 11 frsrtstd Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Composite Products lands its biggest contract Collage performers Fire-rated doors to be used in world’s tallest building W arm Springs Composite Products has w on the contract to supply fire-re sistant com ponents that will be used in the tallest building in the world, the Burj D ubai in the Middle East. Composite Products will supply fire rated com ponents fo r architectural doors and frames to be used in the $4 billion Burj D ubai skyscraper, located in Burj, United Arab Emirates. The contract represents the biggest project ever for Composite Projects, surpassing its prev io u sw o rk for the World Trade Center in Bahrain. “These projects are helping to build our reputation as a reliable supplier am ong developers in the Middle E ast and elsewhere overseas,” said Duane Darnell, Composite Products chief ex ecutive officer. Darnell said about 30 percent o f the company’s revenue comes from over seas, and about 20 percent o f that is from the Middle East. Composite Prod ucts is planning to open a sales o ff in D ubai this m onth, he said. T he C om posite P roducts p lan t is lo c a te d alo n g H ighw ay 26 by th e W arm Springs F o rest P roducts mill. C om posite P roducts is an enterprise o f the C onfederated Tribes o f W arm Springs. Height not yet revealed C o n stru ctio n began on th e Burj D ubai in 2005, and the building cur rently has 164 floors and is 2,089 feet tall, already 350 feet taller than the Sears Tower in Chicago. The developers o f the Burj D ubai are not revealing how tall the building eventually will be, out o f concern that another developer will aim to supersede it w ith a new development. “W hat matters to us is that the build ing will have m ore than 3,000 open ings for which fire-rated com ponents are required,” said Darnell. S ee COMPOSITE PRODUCTS on 11 Youth Conference next week T he Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs are welcoming Native youth from throughout the N orthw est next Dave McMechan/Spilyay The Quartz Creek Drummers and Dancers performed onSaturday at the Collage of Culture at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds In Madras. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are long-time co-sponsors of the event (m ore C ollage p ictu re s on page 14). line-up will be at the W arm Springs Elem entary School, and will end at the Community Center. week, as the tribes h o st the T hirty-T hird T h ro u g h o u t th e w eek, th ere will b e Annual Indian Y outh Conference. The conference features a week o f cultural activities, the them e for the week being, “The ancestors will be our strength for the future.” H undreds o f youth are expected to attend. The conference this year is marking its return to W arm Springs, where the annual event began 33 years ago. Early registration begins on Monday, May 26, followed by the kick-off camp fire and chaperone orientation at the Community Center. T he Youth Conference parade will be on Tuesday morning. T he parade -workshops on crafts, such as making drums and drumsticks, necklaces, medi cine pouches, dream catchers, and bow and arrows, am ong many other tradi tional crafts. T here will be hoop dancing, a pow wow, sweats, lessons on language, story telling, traditional foods, cultural ex changes, a career and college fair, am ong the many activities. T he Youth Conference events hap pen at various places around the reser vation, from Kah-Nee-Ta, the museum, the longhouses, community center, edu cation building, and other places. Education, college degrees run in this family College student Ashley Aguilar was homesick. So, she lured her family from Warm Springs to Lawrence, Kansas, where they could attend Haskell Indian N a tions University with her. “H er friends w ere saying, ‘G eez Ashley, everybody goes to college to leave their family and here you bring your whole family,” her m other, Valerie Switzler, said, laughing. A shley d id n ’t just convince h er m other to attend Haskell. H er older siste r, M ayA nne M itc h e ll, a n d MayAnne’s husband, Allen, attend, too. She also has tw o y o u n g er sisters, G eorgianna Aguilar, 20, and Evelyn Aguilar, 19, w ho live in Lawrence with mom. Evelyn, like her sisters, plans to follow in m om ’s footsteps. Last Friday, Switzler, 47, was the first in the family to earn a bachelor’s degree. She attended H askell in the early 1980s but left after one year because she w asn’t ready to five away from home. | Coming back Wasn’t easy and she Iquestioned, at times, w hether she w ould finish. She recalled staying up until 2 a.m. and struggling w ith busi ness calculus. “I was crying, but the teacher un derstood that I hadn’t taken a math class Photo by Mike Yoder Lawrence Journal-World & News Valerie Switzler, left, and her daughter MayAnne Mitchell, right, will graduate together on Friday from Haskell Indian Nations University. Switzler will be getting a bachelor’s degree in American Indian studies, and Mitchell will earn her associate’s degree in business administration. At center is Mitchell’s daughter and Switzler’s granddaughter Alena Mitchell, 4. for 15 years,” she said. L ast sem ester, she earn ed a 4.0 grade point average while juggling 24 credit hours w ith family, campus clubs and working at Haskell’s Extension O f fice. H er job entails teaching Native youth classes, working on grants and helping w ith com puter programs. “ She’s a g reat m e n to r an d great leader,” said Sharon Hallum, Haskell Extension director. “She’s a good ex ample for w om en w ho are older and grandm others, that it’s never too late.” T h at includes Mitchell, 24, w ho has a 4-year-old daughter and earned an associate’s degree in the fall. She walked in Friday’s graduation cerem ony w ith her mother. “My m om has taught us that educa tion is the key to w hat our people need to survive, and that’s why I am here because I need to learn and be able to stand up for w hat we believe in, our culture and our tribe,” Mitchell said. N ex t fall, M itchell will continue working on a bachelor’s degree in busi ness administration, while her m other will be in a m aster’s degree program at Kansas University in indigenous nations studies, focusing on language documen tation and revitalization. H er goal is to build an im mersion school in W arm Springs where she grew up and teach children the languages and traditions o f their tribes. “We lost a lot o f our way, so we are trying to re-establish some o f the cul tures and traditions and dances from those w ho are remaining,” she said. D u rin g a re c e n t v is it to W arm Springs, she taught children songs and dances in their Native languages. Their perform ances brought tears o f joy to the elders. She also hopes to help reduce the school dropout rate. “We are looking toward a bigger and brighter future,” she said o f W arni Springs. “I just w ant to go back and help my people, espe cially the children.” Mitchell also plans to use her edu cation in W arm Springs, w here she w ants to provide legal services after eventually earning a law degree at KU. “Being able to help out my people back hom e is very im portant to me,” Mitchell said. (This article was written by by Karrey Tritt, and is reprinted with permission o f the Tawrence (Kan.) Journal-World & News.)
