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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2011)
March 9, 2011 Spi [yay T ym oo, W arm Springs, O regon Page 8 Family escapes White Swan fire Sentencing in murder case delayed B y D u ra n B o b b Spilyay Tymoo O n the Saturday befo re St. Valentine’s Day, the wind began to blow and that’s where it all started. “It was mad,” tribal member Gladys Heath said. “There were things flying all over the place. But it got worse when the word o f m outh started that there was a bad fire going on somewhere and that things might get worse.” A chimney fire ignited late that m orning and spread to a nearby wood chip operation. Emergency calls began flood ing switchboards as early as 1:30 that afternoon. The wind that day blew as hard as' 70 mph. And the word o f mouth was about a house fire on H itchcock Lane in W hite Swan. “There was no warning at all. It seemed like one minute, we heard about the fire and that it might be heading our way... and then the next, we barely had enough tim e to get outside. Barely had time to dash down the main street.” W ith flam es all aro u n d , Gladys and her family m ade their escape. Houses were burn ing on both sides o f the post office. A nd the family had a m om ent to look back to see their 4-bedroom house engulfed in fire. “There was no time at all. We had to move. I didn’t stop to grab anything, that’s how fast it all happened. I think now, we’re lucky to get out o f the house at all.” As firefighters tried to douse the flames, the strong wind re directed the stream o f water from hoses. “The wind was so strong you couldn’t walk in it,” Yakama N ation Fire Manage ment D on Jones said. By Duran Bobb Spilyay Tymoo Courtesy photo. The family, Katie, Gladys Heath-Sam holding Cameron, her husband Thomas Sam, Samantha, and Mya (from left), lost their home In the White Swan fire. “Ju st im agine running for your life through that wind, plus the fire,” Kirby Heath, Gladys’ father, said. As the family escaped on foot, the roadblocks went up. “By then it was a voluntary ev acu atio n ,” G ladys said. “Once you got out, you couldn’t go back in. W a just had the shirts on our backs then.” Fam ilies w ere taken to ch u rch es, sch o o l gym s, longhouses. “Thank God people were able to stay there. They said to wait until they got the fire under control, then they’d let us start going home again.” Sunday, th e day after the exodus, the families were al lowed to return. There were still about 100 firefighters in W hite Swan. “They were still putting out the fire on the o ther loops,” Gladys said. “N one o f it felt real. There were downed power lines. Some areas w ere still blocked off, but they let some people in to see the damages. “It was all gone. There was n o th in g b u t a pile o f ashes where just a few days before I was serving dinner. We lost everything...clothes, toys, fam ily pictures. O ur home was all gone.” “ Fam ily is w h at m akes a hom e,” Kirby said. “I could never replace my daughter or one o f my grandkids, so I ’m thankful that they made it out. The other things will come back to them, eventually.” Board by board, it will cost an estimated $4 million to re build the 18 hom es in White Swan. Even more homes were perm anently damaged by the fire. 120 people are homeless. But after a time o f tragedy comes the reminder o f the hu man heart. T h e Ramsey Family, w ho owns the popular Cougar Den, made the single largest donation to the victims in the form o f $25,000. Locally, Sandra Danzuka and Danny Martinez g ath ered item s d o n ated by Warm Springs tribal members, an d tra n sp o rte d th e m uch- needed items to Yakama. Tribal council also approved a substan tial donation to the Yakama people on behalf o f the C on federated Tribes. “T hank you,” Gladys said. “There’s still so much work. I can’t believe it. What the people are doing means more than just a shirt o r a pair o f pants, it means being one step closer to being where we were before the fire. That means a lot.” For now, Gladys and her fam ily are living in a motel room. Huge jump in Calif, salmon predicted (AP) — California could see a return to a full-length coastal salmon fishing season this year with biologists forecasting a tri pling o f the fish's ocean popu lation, state fish and wildlife officials said last week. T he agency is p ro jectin g 729,000 salmon in coastal wa ters in 2011, up from a 2010 projection o f 245,000 fish, D e partm ent o f Fish and G ame spokesman Harry Morse said. I f actual salmon num bers come anywhere close to the lat est forecast, West Coast salmon fisherman could see their first good catch in years after can celled seasons in 2008 and 2009 and a shortened season in 2010 led to hundreds o f mil lions o f dollars in losses, ac cording to dep artm en t esti mates. “G ood news for a change,” said Fish and G am e D eputy D ire c to r Sonke M astru p . “Salmon numbers are projected to provide some real opportu nity for sport and commercial 2009. The departm ent o f fish anglers.” The department announced and game calls the Sacramento the preliminary figure Tuesday River fall run the “main driver” at a meeting in Santa Rosa. Fed o f coastal commercial and sport ♦ eral regulators next week will salmon fishing. The Pacific Fishery Manage evaluate the data and come up with a final num ber to make ment Council is set next week recommendations on the length to consider its recom m enda o f this year's season, M orse tions for the length o f this year's salmon season, with a final de said. The department cautions the cision set to còme later in the actu al n u m b er o f salm o n spring. California fish and game of counted by the 2010 season’s end was fewer than half what ficials are making preparations was predicted. Estim ates are based on expectations that the based on information about the season could start as early as number o f salmon that returned m id-A pril o ff the H u m boldt to spawn in California rivers, the County coast in N orthern Cali- number o f fish spawning in state •fornia, Morse said. Some fishermen worried that salmon hatcheries and a sam pling o f the current ocean popu despite the higher num ber o f salmon heading upriver, the fish lation. The prediction for this year’s m ust still traverse the Sacra ocean population is based mainly mento-San Joaquin River Delta on the num ber o f adult Chi before returning to the ocean. nook salmon in the Sacramento Environm entalists and fisher River fall run, which despite men blame pumps in the delta being smaller than expected saw that channel water to many o f a return to more normal levels th e sta te 's farm ers fo r th e after major drops in 2008 and salmon's sharp decline. The sentencing hearing for Jolena Jean Warner and Antonio Brito has been de layed until April 11. Just two days prior to the court date, prosecutors in formed the victim’s family about the delay. “I w ant the people to know,” N eda Wesley said, “the sentencing will be a very large part o f closure not just for our family,.but for all p eo p le w ho have been touched.” Late on the morning of September 24, 2008, Jolena Warner, 27, caught a ride to 1306 Eagle Way. There, she told a tribal member that she had m u rd ered L ucinda Stwyer, 24, mother o f three children. W arner had the victim’s cell phone, purse, and rings. L atèr that day, at 2:27 p.m., authorities responded to a call from K en Lydy, th e n th é S u p e rv iso r o f Fire Management, regard in g a p o ssib le fire n ear T rout Lake. Fire manage m ent personnel responded and discovered the crime scene. A t 9:20 th a t evening, W arm S prings detective Aaron W hittenburg inter viewed the tribal members w ho spoke w ith Jo le n a Warner. They outlined a ter rible scene, described by Warner. Six days later, W arner surrendered to federal au thorities in Portland. She was accompanied by her at torney. O n Oct. 1, 2008, Warner made her initial appearance on a crim inal com plaint, charging her with murder in the first degree for the pre meditated killing o f Lucinda Stwyer. O n the same day, family and friends gathered in memorial of Stwyer. “She wasn’t a bad person,” Kelli Langnese, a friend o f Stwyer’s said. “She did what she had to do to take care o f her family.” “They could have robbed her and beaten her up,” Eric Langnese said. “They didn’t have to murder her.” Prosecutors are recom m ending a m inim um sen tence o f 25 years to life for Warner. Her accomplice Antonio Brito is also charged in the murder. “W arn er’s accom plice wept in court,” N eda said. ‘“Please don’t send me out o f state, he said. I have fam ily and they wouldn’t be able to visit me if I went out o f state. I have children who need to see me,’ he said. “W ell... L ucinda had three children too, I thought. You took her away. They have to visit her now from the graveside,” ' Sentencing is scheduled for A pril 11, 2011, at the Mark O. Hatfield Courts in Portland. The case is being pros ecuted by Assistant US At torneys S co tt K erin and Pamala Holsinger. Casinos revenue falls for first time (AP) — An economist says that for the first time, rev enue has fallen at American Indian gambling casinos na- tionwide. ■ Alan Meister says in the Indian Gaming Industry Re port released last week that casinos g e n erated a b o u t $26.4 billion in 2009, down 1 percent from 2008. He says the decline was triggered by a recession that forced consum ers to cut spending. The report noted that more than 200 Indian tribes operated nearly 450 casinos in 28 states. Revenue from food and bever ages, lodging, entertainment and shopping declined 4 percent to $3.2 billion in 2009. Meister says public policies that restrict Indian gambling helped slow the rate o f rev enue growth before the re-' cession. Meister says the highest revenue growth in 2009 was in A labam a, A laska, N e braska and Wyoming. Rev enue declined at Indian casi nos in Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa and Mississippi. IRA’S SALES & SERVICE, inc . 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