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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (June 18, 2009)
P.O. Box 870 Warm Springs, OR 97761 Spilyay Tym a 23 June 18, 2009 g 0 S W P ^ - 9 7205 p O R T ^ 0 ' OR C oyote News, est. 1976 ECRWSS Postal Patron Voi. ò^, ¡ no . 13 U.S. Postage PRSRTSTD Warm Springs, OR 97761 50 cents Tribes considering pipeline project Coalition looks for ways to reduce Discussion weighs benefits, impacts horse population B y D ave M cM e ch a n Spilyay Tymoo Tribal Council has form ed a team to study the possibility o f allowing a gas pipeline to cross the reservation. T he team will conduct public m eet ings to gather tribal m em ber input on the idea. A benefit o f the project would be revenue to the tribes for allowing the company, Palomar, to build part o f the pipeline on the reservation. A nother possible benefit, in the fu ture, would be access to the pipeline to pow er a commercial enterprise on the reservation. Economic development and job cre ation on the reservation are Council priorities, said W arm Springs C hief Delvis Heath, Council representative on the study team. Benefits o f the proposal m ust be w eighed against environm ental and o th er im pacts, said R obert B runoe, general manager o f the tribal Branch The red line represents the Warm Springs Reservation alternative pipeline route. The preliminary route is represented by the blue line. o f N atural Resources. Tribal members can comm ent on the proposal during the scoping meetings, said Brunoe. The, stu d y team in clu d es C h ie f H eath, Brunoe, Power and W ater E n terprises general m anager Jim Manion, a n d a legal r e p re s e n ta tiv e fro m K arnopp Petersen, LLP. Palom ar is a project o f the gas util ity N W Natural, a P ordand based util ity, and TransCanada, a utility located in Alberta, Canada. Palom ar is proposing the devel o p m e n t o f a 220-m ile line th a t would run from an im port terminal proposed near Bradwood Landing on the Columbia River west o f Port land to an existing trunk line east o f Shaniko. This 220 mile route is sited north o f the reservation. This proposed route is overhead and would cross the D eschutes River at an area des ignated as W ild and Scenic by fed eral, state and tribal plans. “T he biggest concern (with the current proposed route} is the Wild and Scenic designation, and the over head crossing,” said Brunoe. It would be one o f the only high-pressure gas pipelines to cross above a river that is highly used, he said, and the area is considered a significant resource to the Tribes. T he discussion w ith Palom ar be gan after the tribes determ ined that an on-reservation crossing could potentially be beneficial to both par ties, which includes reducing impacts to the environment. Please see PIPELINE on 7 T he N orthw est Tribal H orse Coali tion is scheduled to m eet this m onth at Kah-Nee-Ta to discuss the difficult is sue o f the growing wild horse popula tion o n reservations. T he coalition represents five tribal nations o f the Northw est: T he W arm Springs, Yakama, Umatilla, Colville and Shoshone. T he tribes form ed the coalition last year, as concerns have grown about the num ber o f wild and unbranded horses roam ing the W arm Springs and other reservations. “T he problem we’re dealing with is the lack o f a m arket for horses,” said Jason Smith, the tribes’ Range and Ag riculture manager. In the past, Smith said, people would ride the rangé and manage the horses, because a good m arket existed. T he horse m arket is now depressed, he said, in part because people know that horses are increasingly m ore diffi cult to get rid of. T he last horse slaughterhouse in the U.S. shut down two years ago. A nd there are restrictions on exporting horses to foreign slaughterhouses. W ith no m arket for horses, there is no incentive for people to go out and manage the animals, and the popula tion has grown. So the effort to p ro tect wild horses has created a serious dilemma fo t reservation tribes, as well as for other land managem ent agencies such as the BLM, said Smith. T he dilemma has existed for some time now. Seven years ago, tribal Range and A g organized the first public horse sale on the reservation. “We saw this coming,” Smith said, “and we w anted to create at least one way to reduce the horse population on the reservation.” This Saturday, June 20, the tribes will h o st the Seventh Annual H orse Sale. While Range and Ag managers have know n o f the wild horse problem for the past several years, they see the p o tential for m ore serious consequences. Please see HORSES on 7 Powwow marks 154th anniversary o f Treaty T he Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs will host the Fortieth Annual Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty Days Powwow next Friday through Sunday, June 26-28. T he three-day powwow com m em o rates the signing o f the Treaty o f 1855, signed 154 years ago this m onth. T he signing date o f the Treaty was June 25,1855. O ne-hundred and fifty- one tribal leaders signed the document, following a three-day Council o f the Wasco and Walla Walla tribes at T he Dalles. By the term s o f the treaty, the tribes gave up ownership claim to 10 million acres o f land, known since as the Ceded Lands. In exchange the tribes received the reservation land located betw een Dave McMechan/Spilyay Natalie Moody, curator and exhibits coordinator of the Museum at Warm Springs prepares the Warm Springs regalia display. The exhibit, The Art o f Ceremony: Regalia o f Native Oregon, opens next Thursday, June 25. (See page 12 for more information.) $5 million stimulus for bio-mass T he Warm Springs Biomass project will receive $5 million in federal Re covery A ct funding. T he funds will provide for the con struction o f a second bio-mass boiler at W arm Springs Forest Products In dustries. D evelopm ent o f the second boiler will allow the tribes to sell electricity from the bio-mass facility. T he existing bio-mass boiler at the mill produces electricity that powers the mill opera tions. A m a in benefit and goal o f the b io mass project is forest health. A nother benefit is job creation. T he bio-mass power generation fa cility burns waste wood products from various sources to generate electricity. T he w ood comes mainly from forest thinning projects, plus saw mills and yard debris collections, am ong other sources. “I t’s healthy-forest driven,” Ralph M innick, ch ie f executive officer o f W arm Springs Forest Products Indus tries, said o f bio-mass. “T he goal is to reduce fuels in the forest so we don’t have the catastrophic fires that we’ve been having.” T h e R ecovery A ct funding “is a needed infusion,” said Minnick. T he hope now, he said, is that the $5 mil lion will attract other funding to m ove the project forward. T he existing bio-m ass boiler has been in operation since 2006. The long term plan has called for developm ent o f the second boiler, b u t funding has been an issue. U.S. Senators Je ff Merkley and Ron W yden announced last week that the Recovery A ct would provide $5 mil lion for developm ent o f the second boiler. “I ’ve seen firsthand how biomass projects are creating jobs in our for ests,” Sen. Merkley said. “This fund ing from the Recovery Act will move us towards a clean energy econom y and help accomplish the im portant goal o f reducing threats from wild fires.” Sen. W yden com m ented, “T he prom otion o f biomass is a key ele m ent in two issues vital to O rego nians— jobs and forest health.” W yden said, “This funding will help breathe new life into our tim ber-dependent Communities and put hardw orking O regonians back to w ork thinning overstocked forests and pioneering a prom ising energy source.” Biomass projects receiving fund ing from the A m erican Recovery and Reinvestm ent A ct were nom i nated by F orest Service regional o ffice s a n d se lec te d n atio n a lly through a competitive basis on o b jective criteria. • • • Mt. Jefferson and the D eschutes River. By the Treaty, the tribes also retained rights to the traditional use o f the Ceded Lands. Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty Days began in the late 1960s. W hile com m em orating the signing o f the Treaty o f 1855, Pi- Ume-Sha also traditionally has honored th e ve te ran s and service m en and w om en o f the A rm ed Forces. T he powwow begins with the Grand E n try at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 26. G rand E ntries are also scheduled on Saturday at 1 and 7 p.m., and on Sun day at 2 p.m. T he Traditional D ress Parade is at 11 a.m. on Saturday. D ance contests are throughout the weekend. Howlak Tichum Veteran received medals 50 years after discharge Tribal elder Chesley Yahtin Sr., a highly decorated K orean War vet eran, passed away June 8. H e was 78. Mr. Yahtin was 19 w hen the K o rean Conflict began in 1950. A t the time, he was stationed w ith the U.S. Arm y in Japan. W hen the war be gan in June o f that year, he and his unit m oved to the southern tip o f Japan for intensive com bat training. Mr. Yahtin and his Army unit were then sent to In-chon, South Korea, in the middle o f the U.S. military campaign. Mr. Yahtin was an am bu lance driver during the war. H e was w ounded during com bat on Dec. 7,1950, only a m onth after he arrived in Korea. H e was hit in the right thigh, a w ound that would hurt for the rest o f his life. H e was w ounded a second time by shrapnel on June 2, 1951, w hen his unit was hit by a m ortar attack. Mr. Yahtin was in K orea until 1954, w hen he was sent back to the U.S., to F ort Lewis, Wash. H e was suffering from post-trau matic stress disorder, w hich was an undiagnosed ailment at that time. As he explained in a 2005 interview: “It was n o t regarded as a medical p rob lem . B ut I had been thro u g h so m uch com bat, and seen so m any people dying, some o f them on me, leaning on m e and talking to me, telling m e n o t to let them die. “All those things bothered me. W hen I came back, they stationed m e at Fort Lewis, and I couldn’t deal with being in a barracks with a bunch o f other people. T he only way out for m e was to just go somewhere. And, o f course, even I didn’t know w hat was w rong w ith me. I thought I was crazy. I was seeing all these things. I was seeing people talking to me. I didn’t w ant to be involved with anybody. I didn’t w ant to know anybody. T hat’s the way I was w hen I came back to the U.S.” Please see VETERAN on 8 4 J
