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