Image provided by: Oregon Historical Society; Portland, OR
About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2008)
P.O. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 Spilyay Tymc Coyote News, est. 1976 June 5, 2 0 0 8 97205 Voi. 33, No. 12 CRWSS tai Patron >. Postage RSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Grant awarded for media center Madras High School Class of 2008 B y L e s l ie M i tt s Spilyay Tymoo Dave McMechan/Spilyay Over 50 seniors from Warm Springs (many pictured above at school) will graduate from Madras High School on Saturday, June 7. The graduation ceremony begins at 3 p.m., and will be held at the high school football field. The tribes’ and the Education Department will host the Graduation Banquet at the Agency Longhouse on the evening of Wednesday, June 18. The banquet is for all tribal members who are graduating from high school, boarding school, technical school, college and graduate school, or receiving their GED. (See pages 8 and 9 fo r MHS graduate pictures.) Inspiring message at youth conference B y L e s l ie M i tt s Spilyay Tymoo Shouts o f “Native pride!” rang out in the community center gymnasium last week, as Clayton Small spoke to the crow d at the N o rth w est Indian Y outh Conference. “You have to— in your h eart o f hearts— always be proud to be an In dian,” Small told the youth attending the conference. H e encouraged them to voice their pride by standing in the bleachers and yelling it out. Small was one o f various speakers at the N orthw est Indian Youth Con ference, held in Warm Springs last week. As the keynote speaker during the final day o f the conference, Small gave a presentation to the youth called “Step Up— We N eed Your Voices.” “T hat’s the responsibility o f every young leader in this house— you have to step up; you have to find your voice,” Small said. H e spoke o f the challenges Native youth are faced with throughout their lives, and o f his ow n challenges grow ing up surrounded by violence and al coholism. A representative from the N orthern Cheyenne reservation, Small told the youth, “Y oung people, you have to make that decision, if you haven’t al ready, that ‘my life is going to be dif ferent.’” As the first child in his family to graduate college, Small said, he learned the im portance o f education. “Education is a m ajor goal that you should have in your future— the high est degree possible,” Small said. Small also hosted a workshop on N a tive Hope along with Char Herkshan— one o f the many workshops available to groups o f youth who traveled to the re gional conference this year. From learning Native crafts to learn ing about health and social issues, youth attended w orkshops throughout the L four-day concert aimed to enlighten them and give them a chance to inter act with youth from other tribes. T he conference also featured a hip- hop dance, basketball tournam ent, 5K ru n o r walk, round dance, art show, fashion show and ended w ith a pow wow on Friday night. Local youth, coordinated by Jaylyn Suppah, organized the event and held weekly planning meetings for several m onths prior to the concert. The event featured the them e “the ancestors will be our strength for the future.” This conference marks a return to W arm Springs after the event began here 33 years ago. According to the official youth con ference website, the them e will serve to help youth carry forward the values and traditions o f their elders. T h e m ission statem en t says, “As youth it is our responsibility to carry forward the torch and uphold those cultural values and walk in that strength that our ancestors portrayed in their walk o f life.” Various local youth attended the conference and said the experience was educational for them. Robinique Hatlestad, 14, said she learned about bridging the gap between youth and elders in order to learn from each other. In addition, she said, she was able to m eet new people from Washington, N evada and as far away as Florida. “I ’ve learned that its good to m eet new people,” Hatlestad said, and added, “You need to talk to your elders.” Victoria Spino, 14, agreed and said, “I m ade a lo t o f new friends and I learned a lo t o f different things.” N orene Sam pson, 15, decided to attend th e conference for the same reasons as m any o f th e y o u th — to make new friends and learn about new things. In Sampson’s opinion, “T he three- on-three basketball tournam ent was the The conference kicked off with a parade through the community. Elyse Bagley, Junior Miss Warm Springs (below), joined youth who carried signs or decorated vehicles to represent theirtribes. Solo Greene (left) spoke to youth as one of several keynote speakers during the event. (More photos of the 2008 Northwest Indian Youth Conference on page 5.) Tonya Thompson/Spilyay Leslie M itts/Spilyay best.” T hough she’s attended conferences before, Sampson said, they were dif ferent from the NWIYC. H er only regret, Sampson said, is that “I was expecting m ore people.” I t’s an opinion shared by Hadestad, w ho said, “M ore people should have come from different places.” Amanda Yazzie, 15, is a local stu dent w ho was drawn to the conference by her friends though she didn’t attend until the second day. “Everyone was telling me how fun it was and stuff,” she explained. Lawrence Shike, 16, also started attending the conference after the first few days, and said, “I just came to see other tribes and see how it is.” “I did learn a lot,” Shike added. W hen the first conference was hosted in W arm Springs 33 years ago, tribes traveled from Portland and Lapwai, Idaho. Plans for the new tribal media cen ter are moving forward. M ost recendy, the tribes received a grant from the Meyer Memorial T rust for $150,000. T he funding is designated for the use o f building the media center. In addition to the latest grant, the new building is being funded in part by the Confederated Tribes, and through a grant to KW SO from the C orpora tion for Public Broadcasting. The money from the tribes was ar ranged to come from the general fund as advocated by atwai W arren “Rudy” Clements, w hose dream for a media center will be realized w hen the build ing is completed, perhaps this year. Mr. Clements served as director o f tribal relations until his passing, and had a longtime goal o f consolidating the tribal media into one building. A ccording to m edia advisor Bill Rhoades, Clements envisioned a m e dia center capable o f housing KWSO, Spilyay Tymoo and even potentially a television station i f one is created in the future. Staff m em bers have sought ways to complete the project for several years, and are now able to complete the build ing with the help o f the additional grant money. “Rudy had a vision,” Rhoades ex plained. “Every time we would stumble and fall, he w ould always encourage us to get back up and try and find a new angle, try and find som e new way to make this happen.” The building will be located on High way 3 just above the intersection with Highway 26, before the industrial park. T he 3,000-square-foot building will be nam ed the “W arren R. Clem ents Media Center.” G ran t applications are still being considered that would make it possible to pow er the building with solar panels in order to save money for the tribes on utility bills; and the building will fea ture environmentally-friendly bam boo floors. T he media center was designed by Pordand architect D on Livingstone, and will include m odern studios and office space for KW SO and Spilyay Tymoo staff. In addition to benefiting media staff by allowing them to collaborate, the new media center will benefit KW SO by bringing the radio station closer to the W arm Springs community. KW SO has been housed in its cur ren t locations since the 1970s. T he Spilyay has been in the house on Wasco Street, on the campus, for about eight years. T he Meyer Memorial T rust was cre ated by the late Fred G. Meyer, w ho built the chain o f retail stores bearing his name throughout the Pacific N orth west. W hen Meyer died in 1978 at the age o f 92, his will established the trust, which began operating in 1982. T he Meyer M em orial T rust is a pri vate, independent foundation rep re senting Mr. M eyer’s personal philan thropy. The new media center could be com pleted by the end o f 2008, according to the current plan. J
