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