Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
Vol. 39, No. 8
April – Hawit`an – Spring - Wawaxam
50 cents
April 16, 2014
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Students and other community members visited the K-8 Academy last week during the open house.
The commons area is the tall structure in the center; the k-2 wing is the right, and the gymnasium is
tall structure to the left.
school district for operation.
The month of August will be an
especially busy time, when the teach-
ers and other staff move in to the
new school, said Glenna DeSouza,
Warm Springs Academy principal.
In other recent school news, the
Confederated Tribes last week
hosted the conference of the
Oregon Indian Education Asso-
ciation.
See LANGUAGE BOWL on 12
Tribal farm ready for new growing season
The tribal farm is entering its
second growing season. Both areas
of the farm—the middle Warm
Springs, and the Moody property—
will have crops this year. Last year
just the middle Warm Springs was
ready in time for growing.
Zane Wilson and Stuart Paul
this month have been preparing
the ground and planting the next
crops.
They planted Belford beardless
barley hay at the middle Warm
Springs and the Moody farms. The
harvest will be in late June or early
July, followed by a planting of al-
falfa.
Wilson is the farm manager. As
of last week he had Paul working
with him. Paul has about six years
of farming experience.
Wilson said more help will be
needed during the season, especially
from people with some experience
at farming and using the tractor.
The middle Warm Springs farm
is about 105 acres, located by the
Warm Springs River by the Culpus
Bridge. The Moody farm is 350
acres in size, though only part of
this will be farmed this year, Wil-
son said.
The middle Warm Springs farm
is irrigated by one large pivot; and
the Moody farm by a number of
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Stuart Paul and Zane Wilson prepare the field for planting.
smaller pivots, because of the con-
figuration of the irrigable land.
The pivots use water from the
nearby Warm Springs River. Wasco
Electric installed the power lines for
the Moody pivots earlier this month;
so that property is also ready for
the growing season.
The two areas were farmed some
years ago. The Natural Resources
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
K-8 finish date just 3 months away
J uly 18 is the substantial comple-
tion day for the Warm Springs K-8
Academy. Many of the rooms, plus
the gymnasium, are already painted.
Community members made a
tour of the buildings last week. “I
think it’s looking great,” said Urbana
Ross, advocate of the K-8 project.
“The materials they’re using are
top quality, and the rooms are large,”
she said.
During the tour, school board
member Laurie Danzuka explained
details such as where the buses will
enter, where parents can drop of
the kids, and the locations of the
classrooms for the different grade
levels.
The buses will arrive off Tenino.
They can proceed toward the back
area of the school, and drop kids
off by the commons area for break-
fast. The commons is the large area
toward the back of the building
complex.
The main building area is 80,000
square feet in size. The new school
will have a projected enrollment of
more 720 students: A little over 250
will be middle school students, and
over 470 will be in grades k-5.
After the construction work is
done in July, the contractor brings
in a cleaning company to go over
all the rooms, cleaning everything.
Landscaping and work on the sports
fields are other aspects for the com-
ing months.
Once everything is complete, the
building will be turned over to the
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Branch began reclaiming them as
farmland last year.
The initial funding came from the
restoration settlement. The goal is
establish the farm as self-sustaining
operations, said Jason Smith, Range
and Ag manager.
Some of the initial work included
removing rocks from the soil, and
setting up the irrigation systems.
Last year Wilson worked with
a farm crew of about six. Some
of the work, such as fencing, re-
quired larger crews. At one point
up to 30 people were working on
the project.
Meanwhile, Wilson and Natu-
ral Resources have acquired the
necessary farming equipment,
from the pivots to the tractors
and .
The crops that were planted
last year and this year are help-
ing to restore the soil, Wilson said.
Potential future crops include
vegetable seed, grass seed, flower
seed, and grain seed.
The middle Warm Springs and
Moody properties are some of
the only viable farming lands on
the reservation. In other recent
Natural Resources news:
The Fish and Wildlife Com-
mittee and Tribal Council con-
tinue to explore the idea of de-
veloping a food processing facil-
ity on the reservation. Funding
sources have shown interest in
this project, and the time is right
to move forward, said commit-
tee member Bruce Jim. Council
members agreed. Natural Re-
sources and Council members
this week are working on the pro-
posal.
Mobile
clinic
gearing up
Health workers recently visited
Fire Management in the tribes’
mobile clinic. They provided physi-
cals for some of the fire fighters,
and are planning another visit for
more fire-fighter physicals as the
season approaches.
These trips, and earlier flu-shot
clinics, also provide an opportunity
to work out all of the details in-
volved in operating the clinic.
The next step is for the clinic to
make a trip to the Simnasho com-
munity, scheduled for May, said
Tammy Wilson, Community Health
director.
The tribes acquired the mobile
clinic last year through a grant. This
is a project of the Community
Health Program, the Joint Health
Commission, tribal Health and Hu-
man Services and the Indian Health
Service.
When fully operational, the mo-
bile clinic will provide medical and
dental ser vices. The facility is
needed to serve tribal members,
especially elders, who live away
from the clinic, such as at Simnasho,
Seekseequa and Sidwalter.
Simnasho
water system
at end of June
The Simnasho Schoolie-Flat safe-
drinking water project is getting
closer to completion. The estimate
now is for completion in late June,
said Travis Wells, tribal engineer.
The Simnasho-Schoolie Flat wa-
ter project, costing about $2 million,
will bring safe drinking water from
a well near Highway 26 to the resi-
dents in the Simnasho-Schoolie Flat
communities.
The well is located about five and
half miles from Simnasho. Build-
ing the pipeline from the well to
Simnahso was a large piece of the
project, along with the pumphouse
at the well site.
Need for the new system first
came to light eight years ago, when
testing showed the arsenic level in
the Simnasho-Schoolie Flat domes-
tic water was above Environmental
Protect Agency regulation.
Finding the necessary funding
took some time. In the end the
tribes contributed several hundred
thousand dollars, matched by the
EPA, Housing and Urban Develop-
ment, and Indian Health Service
funding.
An added cost to the tribe has
been the regular delivery of Earth2o
bottled water to the Simnasho-
Schoolie Flat residents since the 2008
finding. This will end this summer,
when the new system comes on line.
Construction of the system has
taken about a year.