r
i
Spi lygy Tym
February 9, 2011
'.oyote News, est. 1976
Acquisition Dept./Serials
Knight Library
1299 University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1205
U.S. Postage
PRSRTSTD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Voi. 36, N o. 0 3
February - A ’A’mi-Ushátch - Winter- Anm
5 0 cents
Temporary casino possible at Plaza Cobell
notices
delivered
Tribal Council
meeting this week
with KNT board
By Duran Bobb
Spilyay Tymoo
By Duran Bobb
Spilyay Tymoo
This week the Kah-Nee-Ta board of
directors is planning to recommend to
Tribal Council a two-pronged approach
to dealing with the Cascade Locks Ca
sino.
The recommendation is to build a
temporary casino on either side of the
Plaza on Highway 26, while continuing
to actively pursue federal approval of
the Cascade Locks project.
The temporary casino would help
generate additional revenue to assist in
the Cascade Locks effort and support
tribal government operations.
The facility would be located well
outside the known flood-plain, on trib-
ally-owned land.
K ah -N ee-T a bo ard m em bers
Deepak Sehgal, Carlos Smith, Elizabeth
Purse, Priscilla Frank, and Governor
Vic Atiyeh met last week when a mo
tion was made “to continue working
towards a permanent casino at Cascade
Locks.”
This would mean continue working
with the Department of Interior to ap
prove the Cascade Locks Casino.
Duran Bobb graphic using Google Earth.
This graphic shows the recommended possible locations (in red) of a temporary casino by the Plaza.
“This may require a period of time,”
the board agreed. “We need to gener
ate additional financing to continue to
work on the project and to fund much
needed renovation at Kah-Nee-Ta Re
sort...
“We could build this temporary ca
sino, and we could be generating rev
enue to somehow recover some of the
money spent so far on the Cascade
Locks casino.”
Meanwhile, the temporary casino,
Plaza, museum, and a possible restau
rant would all function together to at
tract customers from the highway.
Once the Cascade Locks land is
brought into trust, and the Bridge of
the Gods Casino opens, the temporary
casino could easily be converted
into a grocery store or other busi
ness, board members agreed.
The recom m endation follows
Tribal C ouncil’s action late last
month to explore the possibility of
establishing a tem porary casino
along H ighway 26.
The court-ordered process of noti
fying individual class members of their
right to participate in the Cobell Indian
Trust Settlement is underway.
Notices will be sent to an estimated
500,000 affected class members.
This is a necessary step in the pro
cess that precedes the court’s formal
review and approval of the settlement.
Notices began arriving in Warm
Springs mail boxes last week, leaving
some confused as to what steps should
be completed next.
You may be part of this settlement
if you are an IIM account holder, have
ownership interest in trust or restricted
status, or are the heir to a deceased
IIM account holder or landowner.
The court-ordered legal notice from
the Indian Trust Settlement contains the
actual claim forms for class members,
heirs, trust land holders and deceased
individuals. The notice also contains
an information packet which explains
the settlement in detail.
The historic class action settlement
concerns Individual Indian Money ac
counts and land held in trust by the
federal government.
See COBELL on page 11
Teleco fiber-optic cable going in
A work crew this month installed
some of the fiber optic cable that will
be used as part of the Warm Springs
Telecommunications Company system.
The cable will be underground in
some areas, but mostly will be carried
• on an above-ground line. The main
office of the company will be at the
industrial park, which will be the ter
minus of the fiber optic line.
The adm inistration building and
Kah-Nee-Ta will be the first to have
service communication service pro
vided by the Warm Springs Telecom
munications Company, which is tribally
owned and funded through a federal
grant and loan.
Marsha Spellman, company market
ing and regulatory director, provided
the following “Teleco Corner” update
regarding the Warm Springs Telecom
munications Company:
There are two simple answers to
this question.
First, we are building a state of
the art network that will combine
fiber optic cable and fixed wireless
technologies. This new network will
enable us to offer services that
Qwest cannot presently provide.
For instance, we will offer voice mail
and other new calling features that
can be controlled through your
laptop computer.
Second, we are comm itted to
providing service to everyone on
the reservation. Presently, many
people do not have access to basic
telephone service. Eventually, this
new network will be built out to
serve everyone. Building a phone
company takes a long time, but we
are committed to providing service
to all.
One new service that everyone
w ill be able to purchase is high
speed Internet, or “broadband.”
Teleco corner
We are often asked what are the
main benefits to the tribes of the new
Warm Springs Telephone Company?
diversity of schools.
W arm S p rin gs E lem en tary
School, for instance, is unique, serv
ing almost exclusively Native Ameri
can children of the reservation.
Warm Springs residents tend to
have a unique kind of speech pat
tern that the children grow up hear
ing. This can be a barrier when it
comes to a standardized test.
There may be words or ideas in
a standardized test question that are
unfamiliar to the student. As an ex
ample, a math test question asks:
See WSE on page 11
See MOU on page 11
See W.S. Teleco on 10
Unique circumstances at elementary school
By Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo
Anyone fam iliar with the Warm
Springs Elementary School knows it is
a great school.
The students are well behaved, and
motivated to study and learn. The staff
is excellent, starting with principal
Dawn Smith.
Which is why it was hard to under
stand the recent talk about the school
“failing” and Smith possibly stepping
down as principal.
li
ii
i
The confusing circumstances begin
with the federal No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001, which set performance
standards that apply to all schools.
Students at all the schools take a
standardized test, and schools that do
not meet certain standards after three
years are eligible for grant money.
However, before awarding the grant
money, the law requires the school dis
trict to choose one of four options:
Fire the principal; replace half of
the teachers; close the school; or hire a
private company to run the school.
The problem at Warm Springs El
t
A
»
ementary School is that none of the
options would improve the school. In
fact, any one of them would be very
detrimental, if not disastrous.
So the plan for now is to apply for
the School Improvement Grant (SIG)
money while not choosing any of the
four options: An explanation to the SIG
grant administrators of the circum
stances at Warm Springs Elementary
School could be enough for the district
to receive the SIG money.
As Smith explained, the No Child
Left Behind test standards apply to all
schools in the country, despite the great
I'
-4
By Terri Harber
Spilyay Tymoo
The Memorandum of Understand
ing among the Warm Springs Tribes,
the Jefferson County 509-J school dis
trict and the Bureau of Indian Affairs
is being updated. It was last revised in
1985 and was created more than 50
years ago. This rewrite is expected to
be much more extensive than the last
one, said Superintendent Rick Molitor.
“It was drafted when the BIA still
operated the boarding school,” he said.
A nd changes in the fed eral
government’s approach to education
before 1985 weren’t nearly as signifi
cant as they were after that, such as
creation o f No Child Left Behind,
Molitor also said.
T he idea has been to “start from
ground one,” he said of creating the
new MOU.
“The old MOU uses words, such as
‘assimilate,’ that don’t apply anymore,”
Molitor said. “That’s not what’s needed.
But there’s a value to understanding.”
Ensuring that students being cultur
ally educated on the reservation likely
will be highlighted within the new docu
ment because of its importance.
Working on updating the document
is a group o f educators in clu d in g
M olitor; Dawn Sm ith, principal o f
Warm Springs Elementary School; J.R
Patt, a member of the Tribal Council;
Brad Holliday, school board chair;
Laurie Danzuka, school board vice
chair (and a tribal member); Bureau of
Indian Affairs representatives, and le
gal counsel. They will take information
from others who specialize in various
areas of education as they work on the
new document.
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Workers install cable near the industrial park
Redefining
educational
relationships
(
¥/
¡é)
A