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News from Indian Country
P3ge 8 Spilygy Tymoo
November- 30, 2011
mÊÊÊÊm
Crazy Horse Memorial hits
$5 million Sanford match goal
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -
F u n d ra isin g for the C razy
Horse Memorial in South Da
kota has hit the $5 million goal
set by a ph ilan thro pist who
agreed to match donations to
speed progress on the mam
moth mountain carving, offi
cials said.
Work on the project has been
going on since 1948. W hile
Crazy H orse’s face had been
peering across the southern
Black Hills since 1998, retired
South Dakota banker T. Denny
Sanford said he wanted to see
w ork on the fam ed O glala
Lakota leader’s horse completed
in his lifetime.
Sanford pledged the $5 mil
lion match in 2007.
The m em orial h it the
fundraising mark in October, on
the an n iversary o f sculptor
K orczak Z io lko w sk i’s 1982
death, with a $170,000 donation
from San Diego investment con
sultant Richard Woltman, me
morial spokesman Pat Dobbs
said.
Dobbs said the memorial has
had its share of large donations
but there also have been numer
ous smaller gifts ranging from
kids' lemonade sales to in-kind
donations from equipment com
panies. One was a large bottle
of dimes, $200 worth, from a
former Black Hills resident.
“We often talk about the large
amounts, but what often get
overloo ked are the sm all
amounts,” Dobbs said.
In sp ired
by
G utzon
B o rglu m ’s nearby M ount
Rushm ore carvin g, Lakota
Chief Henry Standing Bear pro
posed a m em orial to Native
American heroes with a granite
carving near Custer. Ziolkowski
was the longtime leader of the
project and his survivors kicked
their fundraising efforts into
high gear after Sanford’s offer,
while following Ziolkowski's ad
monition to rely only on private
enterprise.
Crazy Horse played a key
role in the 1876 defeat of the
U.S. Seventh C avalry at the
Battle of the Little Bighorn in
Montana. He died a year later
after being stabbed in Nebraska.
When completed, the carv
ing o f his im age on a b lu ff
about 10 miles southwest of
Mount Rushmore will be 641
feet long and 563 feet high. The
h o rse’s head w ill be the
memorial's largest artistic detail
at 219 feet high.
Ruth Ziolkowski took over
the project after her husband’s
death and several of the couple’s
Alleged Navajo fraud case
on hold until new year
W IN D O W RO CK , A riz.
(AP) — A Navajo Nation case
that accuses dozens of tribal of
ficials of fraud is on hold until
the new year.
Judge Carol Perry granted a
request from prosecutors to
delay the case until Jan. 17. Pros
ecutors say they need more time
to review tens of thousands of
documents in the civil case.
Perry also stressed that any
conflicts of interest must be dis
closed. One defense attorney
represents two dozen people,
while another represents 14.
The Rothstein Law Firm re
cently took over prosecution of
the case that alleges that 85 cur
rent and former Navajo officials
defrauded the tribal government
in the use or management of
$36 m illion in discretionary
funds.
children and grandchildren work
at the memorial. A welcom e
center, museum and small uni
v ersity have opened on the
property, which drew 1.2 million
visitors to the southern Black
Hills in 2010. It brings in mil
lions o f dollars every year,
mainly through admission fees.
Sanford’s donation allowed
the memorial to hire a team of
rock mechanics engineers and
a laser scanning expert to look
at stability and composition of
the rock. The work should help
reveal possible conflicts between
planned carving designs and the
mountain’s rock seams, allowing
for planning and making neces
sary adjustments.
Dobbs said any slight design
changes will maintain the artis
tic intent, but the main goal is
to allow the mountain to stay
put.
Crews are beginning to block
out the tenth of 11 stair-stepped
tiers that will soon reach under
the horse’s nose, 360 feet from
the top. Work also is progress
ing to finishing work on the
pointing finger of Crazy Horse’s
outstretched arm, which sits
atop the horse’s mane.
“We’re in the last stages of
the blocking out,” Dobbs said.
“We’re that close.”
Suit alleges abuse at school
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -
E ight N ative A m ericans
have filed suit against the
Washington Department of
Social and Health Services,
claiming the agency placed
them in a m ission school
w here they w ere sexually
abused by a Jesuit priest de
cades ago.
Attorney Blaine Tamaki
said last week that the plaintiffs
were wards of the state when it
failed to ensure their safety.
The complaint centers on al
legations against the Rev. John
Morse at St. M ary’s M ission
School in Omak. M orse has
denied the allegations. Tamaki
says Morse was never charged
with a crime.
John Wiley, spokesman for
the health services depart
ment, says his agency hasn’t
seen the lawsuit yet.
In M arch, the O regon
Province o f the Society of
Jesus agreed to pay $166 mil
lion to hundreds of Native
Americans and Alaskan Na
tives who were abused at its
schools in the Pacific North
west.
Permanent exhibit at Alcatraz
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A
perm anent A m erican Indian
cultural center at Alcatraz is in
place some 40 years after Indian
occupation of the San Francisco
Bay landmark.
Creation of a exhibit was one
of the demands during the 19-
month American Indian occu
pation that ended in 1971.
The form er prison's band
practice room in the cellblock
basement has been transformed
into a multimedia exhibit. The
prison shut down in 1963.
The prison and the island is
now part of a national park that
draws 1.4 million visitors a year.
Activists had seized the island
with hopes of turning it into an
Indian university or cultural cen
ter. Up to 800 activists occupied
the island.
The p h o to s, video s and
sound recordings were compiled
by faculty and students at San
Francisco State University and
California State University East
Bay and will become part of
Alcatraz's permanent exhibit.
Geo Quiz
Water bottling
plant okayed
IN D IAN
TO W N SHIP,
Maine (AP) — The leader of the
Passamaquoddies says the tribe
has nearly completed lining up
investors for a $25 million wa
ter bottling plant.
Gov. Joseph Socobasin says
the proposed plant in Indian
Township would provide 96
well-paying, full-time jobs.
Duran Bobb/Spilyay
Recognize this spot? Horses as well as people regularly walk this area of the
reservation.
$60M fish passage going up at Soda Springs Dam
TOKETEE, Ore. (AP) (AP)
— Depending on the weather,
anywhere from 50 to 100 people
are ham m ering, w elding and
scrap in g aw ay at the Soda
Springs Dam every day.
The workers are building a
$60 million fish passage to open
up for the first time in 60 years
spawning beds on the upper
reaches of the North Umpqua
River.
The fish passage, expected to
be completed before the end of
2012, also will be the last word
in a 17-year debate on whether
to build a ladder or tear out the
dam.
But the debate will close with
a few lingering complaints from
conservationists who hope the
ladder w ill work but rem ain
skeptical.
“It’s an amazing amount of
engineering and when you look
at it, it’s kind of awesomely cool.
But if fish can truly make it up
the ladder, I will be stunned and
amazed and pleased,” said Diana
Wales, president of the Umpqua
Valley Audubon Society. “I think
it was a mistake not to remove
the dam.”
The dam was put into opera
tion in 1952 as part o f the
North Umpqua Hydroelectric
Project, a network of hydroelec
tric generators in the Umpqua
N ational Forest that creates
enough pow er for 40,000
homes.
The dam regulates the natu
ral flow of the river to generate
electricity during times of peak
dem and, m aking the pow er
“more valuable” to PacifiCorp,
said Monte Garrett, who over
sees the project.
But the dam also prevents
fish from swimming upstream
to historic spawning grounds.
In 2003, federal regulators
renewed PacifiCorp’s license to
operate the dam on a public
waterway, but the utility com
pany was required to build the
fish passage.
“This is a good facility. (Fish
passage is) in the best interest
for our customers and social
values,” Garrett said.
Construction began in June
2010, and the weather, confines
of the canyon and the geology
o f the North Umpqua River
have put the project a year be
hind schedule and increased
costs many tim es above the
original estimate.
“It’s an engineering challenge
that leaves everyone amazed
that it can be done,” Garrett
said.
C onservation groups had
pushed for the dam's removal,
arguing that the dam not only
blocks spawning grounds but
also keeps gravel and woody
debris from replenishing down
stream spawning beds.
“Spawning gravel is as impor
tant as fish passage. What’s be
hind the Soda Springs Dam is a
lot of good spawning ground
material that would benefit the
whole river,” said Stan Vejtasa
of the Umpqua Valley Audubon
Society. “We’re all hoping this
works. I’ve sort of made peace
with them now, but I’ve had
frustrations over this process in
the past.”
Conservation groups in the
1990s accused PacifiCorp o f
underestim ating the cost o f
building a fish passage and over
estimating the cost of remov
ing the dam.
The company estimated in
the mid-1990s that a fish lad
der would cost between $8 mil
lion and $10 million.
“Our people kept saying they
were low-balling the cost to sell
(fish passage) to FERC (Federal
E nergy Regulatory Com m is
sion), but they dism issed us.
Now that the cost estimates are
coming in way more than they
said, I get angry,” Wales said.
Garrett said the company’s
estimates in the late 1990s were
closer to $12 million but seemed
to double every few years for
various reasons.
“A project doubling or qua
drupling when it’s this size is not
uncommon. The original cost
estimates were based on ideal
situations, and we did everything
we could to keep costs down,”
he said.
G arrett said the company
b elieves rem o ving the dam
would have cost as much as the
fish passage and also would
have raised electric rates more
because of the lost hydropower.
Besides the $60 million fish lad-
Despite a 50-year
exile from those
upper spawning
grounds, the fish
should find their
way up the ladder...
der, PacifiCorp estimates that
over the 35-year license period
it will spend another $60 million
on maintenance and other capi
tal improvements on the North
Umpqua project.
Still, PacifiCorp estimates the
fish passage will increase rates
by less than 1 percent, spokes
man Monte Mendenhall said.
The increase h asn ’t con
cerned the C itiz e n s’ U tility
Board, a Portland-based rate
payer advocacy group.
“At this point Soda Springs is
not something that has hit our
radar. It’s a relatively nominal
cost. For something that's an
ongoing project like this, I doubt
this would make our list of con
cerns,” said the group’s organiz
ing director, Jeff Bissonnette.
The project has meant much-
needed work for construction
companies.
Todd Weekly, co-owner of
Weekly Bros. Inc. of Idleyld
Park, has 32 workers on-site
doing concrete, excavation and
mechanical work as a subcon
tractor.
Weekly, whose company spe
cializes in construction projects
in remote areas and is the larg
est subcontractor to the general
contractor, Todd Construction
o f T u alatin , said the Soda
Springs fish passage has been an
“anchor point” for the company
since June 2010.
The company, which had 80
workers on the job in the sum
mer, hired extra employees for
Soda Springs, Weekly said.
“We’ve been fortunate to
have work when work has been
hard to get right now, so that’s
been a blessing for us,” Weekly
said.
With the project well under
way, rancor over Soda Springs
has dulled, though Garrett said
he believes there are still “hard
feelings” among some conser
vation groups.
If the fish passage works, it
will open up habitat for steel-
head, spring chinook and coho
salmon and Pacific lamprey.
“I’m optimistic that they’ll
find the ladder,” said Dave Har
ris, the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife official moni
toring the project.
The new habitat includes
three miles of Fish Creek and
almost four miles of the North
U m pqua R iver up to Slide
Creek.
“From a habitat view, there’s
lots of room (for more fish),”
Harris said.
PacifiCorp aquatic scientist
Rich Grost said the new spawn
L
ing grounds are expected to pro
duce hundreds of steelhead and
spring chinook salmon. Grost
said a small number o f coho
salmon and an unknown num
ber of Pacific lamprey also will
come from the new beds.
Despite a 50-year exile from
those upper spawning grounds,
the fish should find their way
up the ladder, Grost said.
He said fish are used to
adapting to shifting spawning
beds caused by beaver dams,
rock slides and changing river
channels.
“So boundaries aren’t always
the same, and in any given spe
cies of anadromous fish, some
will hit those upper boundaries,”
he said.
Soda Springs is 180 miles in
land for the fish who swim in
from the P acific O cean to
spawn.
“The extra three miles up
Fish Creek is a tiny percentage
of how far they travel,” Grost
said.
Once the dam and fish pas
sage are functioning again, Pa
cific Power will conduct a year
long evaluation to make sure fish
are making it up and down the
passage, Garrett said.
Grost said it’s hard to antici
pate how many fish will use the
ladder.
“We’ll be at the mercy of the
fish,” Grost said. “So it's tough
to say for sure.”
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