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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2012)
r E Coosh EEWA: The W3y it is Page 4- Spilyay Tymoo March 21, 2012 Sovereignty Letters to the Editor explained --------------------------------------- By Duran Bobb Congressw om an E lizabeth Furse delivered a lecture last week on tribal sovereignty at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort. “The federal government has w hat is called a fiduciary respon f /fyd.-’.;.A sibility, to th e Spilyay tribes, more than Speaks J for any other sec \ _______ tion o f the popu lation,” she said. “This flows from the treaties.” She continued: “Treaties are the supreme law o f the land. AU judges are bound by treaty, state law notwithstanding. “The U.S. Constitution says clearly, the states may not sign treaties. Therefore, it is my view that tribes are m ore sovereign than states. A treaty is a com pact or a contract between two sovereigns. I ’ve heard people say that treaties are old, they don’t mean anything anymore. Well, the U.S. Constitution is not that m uch older. We hve by that. O ur treaties in the N orthw est are stronger than anywhere else [in the U.S.]. “Tribes agreed to give up cer tain portions o f land, b u t re served rights. The U.S. would protect those homelands from encroachm ent by non-Indians, and prevent non-Indians o f the state from interfering.” Ms. Furse spoke o f U.S. vs. Winans, where an individual put up a fence that prevented the Yakama Indians from reaching their fishing places. The court upheld the tribe’s right, even when the “usual and accustomed places” were outside re s e rv a tio n b o u n d a rie s and were owned by non-Indians. The court noted that the right to fish and to access traditional fishing grounds were n ot a special right g ra n te d th ro u g h th e treaty. R ather, the treaty simply ac knowledged a right the Indians already possessed. The 1950s brought on Pub lic Law 280, which said the U.S. would transfer its pow er o f res ervation to states. O regon is one o f the states where Pubhc Law 280 is m an datory. “It also says, specifically, th at W arm Springs is n o t af fected . T h e g o v e rn m e n t o f Warm Springs has been extraor dinarily sophisticated in making sure that it knew its Congres sional delegation... I have found it h earten in g th a t the tribes would come to see me, govern m ent to government.” “Sovereignty is as sovereignty does... It has to say they’re do ing the rig h t things fo r th e people, and make clear what the rights are. Warm Springs seems to be a great example o f that.” From Lincoln’s The Lincoln’s Birthday Pow wow Committee would like to thank the following: The Confederated Tribes o f Warm Springs, Tribal Council, K ah-Nee-Ta High D esert Re sort, Indian H ead Casino, and Warm Springs Composite Prod ucts Industries. T h an k you W arm Springs C redit B oard, W arm Springs Ventures, Three Warriors Mar ket, Natural Resources, Utilities, the Warm Springs Police Depart ment, and Fire and Safety. Thank you Nola Queahpama and family, Cassie Rhoan, Cap ta in M oody, C ena W olfe, P resto n T om , Carlos Calica, drummers, dancers and specta tors. W ithout your gracious sup po rt and help, the 2012 Lincoln’s Powwow would n o t have been successful. We look forward to next year. Lincoln’s Birthday Pow wow Committee. Our direction I would like to encourage our tribal m em bership to rem ain positive about the direction our tribe is going. I would like to encourage our people to let our leaders know we support them. Just hke any o th er tribal w orker, they are working towards building better tomorrows for ah members. Each Tribal Council member and our Chiefs sacrifice every day to be a pubhc servant to the people. They tolerate political attacks, regardless o f w hether they are true or not. They have to have thick skin to continue their work to make better tomor rows for ah o f the membership. Recently, a person w ent to my elderly m om and gave her inaccurate and negative attacks against our leadership and got her so upset about things that weren’t even true. This is very upsetting to me, especially w hen our elders are being used to spread negativity on false information. D o n ot take your politics to our senior building, My m om goes therfe to eat and relax and enjoy her Correction In the previous Spilyay, the caption o f the H onor Song Dance at Lincoln’s Birthday Powwow was in accurate. Jolene Switzler should have been identi fied in the photo. The Spilyay apologizes for the mistake. retirement. W hen I inform ed her the in formation she received was not accurate, she felt bad because she had said harsh words. To those w ho continue to abuse their membership status by creating and spreading nega tive hostility, and continuing to attack our leadership when our leadership is trying to remove politics from our organization, I w o u ld re c o m m e n d you disenroll and just see whether other tribes would tolerate your behavior. My Yakama relatives shared with me, “D o n ’t send them over here because we will throw them back,” because o f w hat appears on Facebook for ah the world to see. You who post ugly things on Facebook, you have shamed your people by your ugly tactics, then turn around and collect ah our tribal benefits or pay checks p ro v id ed by o u r tribe. You ought to be ashamed o f your selves. O ur leaders have feelings and o fte n tim es th eir spirits get heavy because o f people who spread hostility and hate. I would encourage our membership to look at the good our leadership has done. For instance, the won derful growth o f our casino and the hope it brings to our com munity and membership. Many families have incom e and our young people are growing be cause o f the employment at the casino. They have hope in their eyes and confidence because th ey feel good about themselves. These are the types o f things we need to spread and talk about. T hat is how we are going to heal as a community, • Recently, a group tried to re cruit me for one o f their nega tive Facebook websités and I re buffed them out o f respect for my people and our leaders. I shared with this group, to spread hate and hostility is allowing an evil force to dwell in our com munity and this can cause hard ships on our people. I cannot go against my traditional teach ing and against the teaching o f our Creator. I hope and encour age all o f you w h o are ap p ro a c h e d by th ese negative people to tell them the same as I did. Let’s move on to better tom orrow s, for o u r children’s sake. We, and our leaders, have m ore im p o rtan t w ork to do. Publisher Emeritus: Sid Miller Editor: Dave McMechan Reporter: Duran Bobb Advertising Director: Yvonne Iverson Media Advisor: Bill Rhoades Spilyay Tymoo is published bi-weekly by the Confeder ated Tribes of Warm Springs. Our offices are located at 4174 Highway 3 in Warm Springs. Any written materials submitted to Spilyay Tymoo should be addressed to: Spilyay Tymoo, P.O. Box 870, Warm Springs, OR 97761. Phone: 541-553-2210 Advertising: 541-553-2307 or 541-325-1089 E-Mail: dave.mcmechan@wstribes.org. Annual Subscription rates: Within U.S.: $15.00. sta n d a rd s as J u n io r W ater Rights? To date I have n ot seen anything being operated differ ently by the state agency, m u nicipalities, any Junior W ater Rights to even accept our Se nior Water Rights status. I f any thing, water levels only are get Leona A. Ike ting lower and lower since we ’ entered into the Water Quanti fication Agreement. In my life time I have seen the river level “A good heart is better than drop a m inim um o f five feet since I was 12 years old. T hat’s all the heads in the world.” The saying above is printed a god awful am ount o f water on my calendar for the m onth right that we enjoyed in the late o f March in 2012. I love hav fifties that we can longer enjoy ing my calendar hung up on the because o f the plausibility and wall in the kitchen area in my m alfeasant m anner in w hich apartment I hve in over here in O regon has adm inistered the D uck City, Eugene. w a te r re s o u rc e s • in th e I can always remember what D eschutes Basin, a watershed day and m onth it is. Time seems where we possess Senior Water to go by fast. I m ark o ff the Rights status. day that has just passed. How malfeasant and plausible H a p p y b irth d a y to my has the state administration and y o u n g er siste rs S arah P a tt, oversight been? Consider how Dawn Roland and my oldest son many times over the past ten Floyd C. Frank! They are ah years we have read articles in the papers o f water resources March babies. May you ah in my family who having been over allocated in the have spring birthdays have a Deschutes Basin as Junior Wa wonderful birthday this year! ter Rights. Evette Patt, 50 K ourt Dr., T was enlightened as a new water board m em ber by serv- apt. 3, Eugene, O R 97404 About time Water law Water, the m ost sacred ele m ent o f hfe for the Columbia Plateau tribes, has our Senior Water Right actually protected let alone secured after quantify ing our water rights? I beheve not, having served briefly on the Warm Springs Water Board o f Commissioners! There are a num ber o f un resolved legal issues that to date have n o t b een addressed by Oregon and the Oregon Depart m e n t o f W ater R eso u rces. T h ere has b een n o tim eline whatsoever o f establishing wa ter quality standards that upriver Junior W ater Rights ah enjoy, after ah Western Water Law spe cifically m andates the highest strictures o f protecting w ater resources consumed by humans. I haven’t seen any fine print that s ta te d ' “ E x c e p t fo r N a tiv e Americans” published as West ern Water Law. So I ask our Tribal Council, W arm Springs Water Board, O regon, O regon D epartm ent o f Water Resources when will Warm Springs Tribal M em bers enjoy th e identical ing m em bers th a t o u r w ater rights have not been disregarded by the state but only being held back behind the two dams. Are we so naive that we do not un derstand that this water has been so contaminated by human ac tivities carried on by Ju n io r W ater Rights holders that we have to accept such blatant dis regard o f federal Indian law, W estern W ater Law and laws against humanity. I f I were a state representative I would not w ant to have quoted some o f the statem ents that w ater re source departm ent employees cannot even verify the Junior Water Rights diversions that it currently issued as Junior Wa ter Rights nor that threats o f physical harm have actually been made towards state employees trying to verify comphance to the very rules and regulations they are supposed to uphold! I ’ve heard “ignorance o f the law” an indefensible argument in courts or is there another ex ception when it pertains to N a tive A m erican S enior W ater Rights that I am not aware of. Thank you. Randy Smith. Birthday wishes... To my p retty daughter, Happy 19th Birthday Kendra D eA nne W olfe. Love you very much, have a great day! F ro m M a & P a, K en d all Florez, the Weaselheads, the Wolfes. H appy birthday to our grandsons, to our Daeron Weaselhead. Hove you grandson, always, gramma & gramps Dlores^ the Weaselheads, from the Point, auntie Kendra Wolfe, uncle Kendall Flores^ To our beautiful daughter, Kendra D. Wolfe, Happy 19* birthday. We wish you a spe cial day today. L ove you m u ch . M a & P a F lo re z , K e n d a ll F lo re z , th e Weaselheads, the Wolfes. To our son Waylon M. Weaselhead, We love and miss you, always in our thoughts and prayers, son. From Ma & Pa Florez, the Wolfes, the Florezes, the Weaselheads. To our grandson, D evon W easelhead, aka D e v o n Greene-Boise, H appy Birth day. Love you, from gramma an d g ram p a F lo re z , th e Wolfes and the Weaselheads. To m y son D evon Weaselhead, from your d ad Waylon M. W easelhead. H appy birthday, love you, son. To our grandson Devon Weaselhead. Love you and H a p p y B irthday. H ave a g o o d day today! F ro m gram m a & gram ps Florez, the Weaselheads, the Wolfes, the Florezes. T hank you for w riting to the Spilyay Tymoo. T he next deadhne for subm issions is Friday, M arch 30. T hank you! W O ■ ■ 1 .' - *____ I__________/ Indian Business Talk Predatory lending offer would cost borrower thousands By Bruce Engle Spilyay Tym oo (Coyote News, Est. 1976) Like working on solutions to our alcohol and drug problem in our community, or job creations and preservation o f our cultural and traditional teaching. We have so much to do. This is w hat is im portant to our people. Ho an officer W.S. Credit Enterprise This example o f predatory lending com es from a lender called Western Sky Financial. According to its website, it is a m em b er-o w n ed “ ...N ativ e A m erican Business operating within the exterior boundaries o f the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation....” Apparently, payday lenders are partnering with tribal mem bers around the country so they can avoid state court jurisdic tions and state limitations on interest rates and fees. I called the Western Sky num ber and was transferred to an o u tfit called Cash— (‘Call’ or ‘Cow,’ I think, but the message was a bit garbled) from Anaheim. I f that’s a reservation, the tribes m ight be the Disney and the K nott’s. Maybe it’s one o f the outfits partnering up with tribes. W ho knows? I w o n d e r if th e W arm Springs tribal code limitation on interest rates might offer some rehef for Warm Springs mem bers who have borrowed from either Western Sky or Cash— ? C ash’s m an Chris said the W estern Sky loan program is really for short term loans and that nobody is expected to use the full num ber o f m onths in their example to pay o ff the loan. Yeh, sure! Would you beheve Christmas comes 12 times a year? D o n ’t go near this outfit or any like it. Here is what they are offering: • A $5,075 loan with a loan fee o f only $75. You get $5,000. You sign up to make 84 pay ments o f $486.58 for a total o f $40,872.72 plus the $75 loan fee they deducted from the original loan amount. Wow! • A $2,600 loan with a loan fee o f only $75. You get $2,525. You agree to make 47 payments o f $294.46 fo r a to ta l o f $13,839.62, also plus the $75 loan fee. Also wow! •A $1,500 loan with a loan fee o f $500! You get $1,000. You com m it to make 24 pay ments o f $198.19 for a total o f $4,756.56 plus the $500 loan fee A nd wow again! I asked w hat my payments would be if I took the $5,075.00 loan and paid it back in a year. The answer was, “A bout $340 prorated for the first m onth and $700 a m onth for the next 12 months.” So, I ’d pay back $8,740 to b o rro w $5,000 fo r one year. T hat’s $3,740 interest plus the $75 loan fee. Can we all say 76 percent! The interest and fees West ern Sky Financial expects to collect would pay for an apart m ent on Park Avenue in New York with enough left over for an 11-m o n th v a c a tio n in D isneyland— year by year by year by— . H ow do these loan products com pare w ith W arm Springs Tribal Credit Enterprise offer ings? • The payback to Credit E n terprise for the loan in the first example would save you over $34,400. • Y ou w o u ld save over $10,800 w ith a C redit E n te r prise loan in the second example. • Y ou w o u ld save over $4,100 w ith a Credit Enterprise loan in the third example. All that saving w ithout hav ing to burp a buffalo; w hat a deal! Maybe we could go to D isneyland or K n o tt’s B erry Farm .
