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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2008)
r Spilyay Tyrooc P.0. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1230 SW PARK AVE PORTLAND, OR 97205 Coyote News, est. 1976 Juin 17, 2 0 0 8 Vol. 33, No. 15 50 cents Update Fire season takes off on reservation Fire crews w orked to contain a fire that began on the W arm Springs reser vation on July 10. N am ed the Mill Fire, the blaze burned over 3,000 acres and destroyed one tribal guest hom e and an outbuilding. The fire also closed Highway 26 for several hours, and spread across tribal land to federal and private lands nearby. A dditionally, private farm crops were also threatened near Rattlesnake Canyon, betw een W arm Springs and Madras. D uring the fire, several structures were threatened at the W arm Springs mill, and several homes were also threat ened. T h e fire started n ear th e W arm Spring Forest Products Industry lum ber mill on the reservation. I t th en m oved quickly north, away froth the mill, east toward the D eschutes River and west towards tribal Highway 3 near W arm Springs. uave Mcn/iecnan/op Fire crews gather at the Rainbow Market by the reservation, preparing th response to the nearby fire. T he blaze th en crossed from the w e st side to th e e a st side o f th e D eschutes River near Mecca Flat onto Bureau o f Land M anagem ent (BLM) adm inistered lands and o th er lands ow ned by the C onfederated Tribes o f the W arm Springs. F rom there the fire spread north and south along the Deschutes River. It eventually spread throughout the D eschutes River canyon to the east and south onto private lands protected by Jefferson County Fire D istrict 1. The BLM initially evacuated and c lo s e d th e M ecca F la t C a m p ground, and officials were urging boaters to tem porarily avoid the W arm Springs boat launch as a put- in area fo r ra f tin g th e lo w e r Deschutes River. Those restrictions were later lifted. A pproxim ately 200 personnel w orked to contain the fire that was fought using 14 engines, three IH C crews (Prineville, R edm ond and W arm Springs), four other Type 2 crews and one helicopter. Investigators are still trying to de term ine the cause. Living Traditions T he M useum at W arm Springs hosted the first o f three live dem onstrations by tribal m em bers last weekend. E ile e n S p in o d e m o n s tra te d Return of the Condor B y D ave M cM echan Spilyay Tymoo A special recovery biologist from the OregonJZoo was in Central O regon last week. Biologist David M oen visited the region and the reservation, as p art o f the on-going program to re-instroduce California condors to O regon. T he C onfederated Tribes o f W arm S p rin g s, W asco C h ie f N e ls o n Wallulatum in particular, have been supporters o f the O regon Z oo condor program. M oen was in Central O regon examining potential condor habitat in the region. T he birds w ould build nests in cliff caves, such as ones found along the D eschutes, said M oen. T here is currently no conculsive evidence that condors nested in Oregon. Some biologists think the birds that once lived in the state were migrating from California and other areas, where they had their nests. M oen said, though, that he is con vinced condors did nest in Oregon. Part o f his w ork involves searching for evi dence, such as old egg shells in a cliff nest, showing that the birds nested here. M oen said in the future he hopes to visit the reservation and give a public presentation on the status o f reintro ducing condors to O regon. Louie Pitt, tribal G overnm ent Affairs director, said such a presentation would be welcome. T h e c o n d o r carries great cultural sig nificance fo r the tribes, W asco C h ie f c o rn h u sk w eaving in th e m u se u m lobby on Saturday, July 12. Those involved in the demonstra tions complete projects while m u seum guests have the opportunity to observe. Spino said she has done similar dem onstrations before. As for her weaving skills, Spino estim ates that she began weaving about 15 years ago. “ I c a n ’t re m e m b e r w h e n I started,” Spino said. “It’s n o t som e thing I keep track of.” O n Ju ly 19, A n to in e tte Queahpama-Pamperien will dem on strate cedar ro o t weaving. G inger Smith will dem onstrate bead tapestry on July 27. T he dem onstrations are from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Warm Springs, OR 97761 Leslie Mitts/Spllyay Eileen Spino demonstrated cornhusk weaving for museum guests recently. N elson Wallulatum has said. T he bird once flourished in O regon, especially at the Colum bia River. T he condor w ent extinct in the state about 100 years ago; and went almost completely extinct by the 1980s. A t that time, biologists captured the rem aining 22 wild Cali fornia condors andlbegan a breeding program , eventually releasing several birds back into the wild. T he O regon Z oo joined the condor breeking program about eight years ago. C hief N elson nam ed the first condor raised at the O regon Z oo that was re leased back into the wild. T he bird, K unw akshun or “thunder and lighten ing,” and was released in California, where wild fires last week were threat ening the condors at Big Sur, includ ing, apparently, Kunwakshun. Training program in London helps language preservation B y L e s l ie M i tt s Spilyay Tymoo For two w om en working w ith the language p ro g ram , p re se rv in g th e K iksht language involved traveling all the way to E urope recently. Pam Cardenas, a Language Program apprentice, and Nariyo Kono, a form er employee o f the Language Program still involved in the effo rts to preserve Kiksht, traveled to L ondon for 10 days to complete training in docum entation o f endangered languages. The H ans Rausing Endangered Lan guage Project w ith the University o f L ondon awarded a grant to the Lan guage Program to help w ith docum en tatio n o f native languages and also funded the trip to attend the training in London. K ono and Cardenas com pleted the training on docum entation as part o f the efforts to preserve the K iksht lan guage. A ccordingM yra Johnson, director o f Culture and Heritage, the efforts to docum ent the K iksht language are par ticularly im portant because o f the lim ited tim e available to reco rd fluent speakers. “We have a very small am ount o f fluent speakers left w ho can docum ent the language in its true aspect today— the sounds, the structure, the grammar,” Joh n so n said. “As m uch as we can get o f that inform ation is im portant to day.” F o r all o f th e native languages, Johnson said, it is im portant fo r people to make an effort to continue speak ing. “We just continue to encourage o th ers w ho have an interest, w ho have voiced interest at various times, to step forward,” Johnson said. For Cardenas the trip to London was her first time on an airplane— and the flight lasted over nine hours. D uring the training they had one day o f f a n d w e n t s ig h tse e in g to Buckingham Palace and on an under ground tour, Cardenas said. “ The language is here fo r me, and I ’m going to be here fo r the language. ” Pam Cardenas “I t was interesting to m eet every kind o f person there is in the w orld nationality wise,” Cardenas said. O th ers attending the training in cluded people from all over the world, Cardenas said, including a person from France w ho is w orking w ith a group in Brazil that comm unicates by whistling. T he organization that gave them the grant also funds oth er native groups in the U nited States, Cardenas added. K ono said she was prom pted to seek o u t the grant from the H ans Rausing E n d an g ered Language P ro ject after having a conversation w ith ano th er apprentice, D eenie Johnson. Jo h n so n asked if they should spend m ore time docum enting the language o r m ore tim e learning the language, K ono said, in order to make the m ost o f time spent'w ith fluent speakers. “T he tim e is so precious,” K ono said. “She didn’t w ant to w aste the time.” For that reason they began working on a project to be able to do b o th with help from the grant. Through the m as te r / apprentice program , K ono added, th e apprentices are able to learn as m uch as possible from fluent speakers an d will later be able to pass their knowledge on to the community. W ith th e d e a th o f M a d elin e M clnturff, at age 91, only two fluent speakers o f Kiksht (the Wasco language) remain: Gladys T hom pson, o f W arm Springs, and a m an on the Yakama res ervation. F or the K iksht language, Johnson, Cardenas and Valerie Switzler serve as apprentices. They spend time learning fro m T h o m p s o n , 93, w h o is also Johnson’s grandm other. Because they aim to learn as m uch as they can while they still have the opportunity, Johnson said, they are cur rently striving to document the language in any way possible. T hat involves stacks o f cds, dvds, videos and w ritten materials in addi tion to a well-worn w hite board and a stack o f markers. Preserving the Kiksht language is the co m m o n goal o f several dedicated employees’at the Language Program. In Johnson’s opinion, “I feel we’re really at a crucial m om ent w here that’s w hat we need to do.” Johnson is also working to transcribe and translate audio files o f T hom pson speaking. T h om pson is later able to correct her translations. “It’s a lo t o f work,” Johnson said. “I just w ork the heck out o f my grand mother.” Luckily, Jo h n so n said, h er grand m o th er is able to w ork closely w ith staff and knows there is a need to save the language while its still possible. See LANGUAGE PROGRAM on 10
