Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
February 4, 2015
February – A’A’mi-Ushatch – Winter - Anm
Work starts on education agreement
The current Education Agree-
ment between the Confederated
Tribes and the Jefferson County
School District 509-J will end in a
year and a half.
The tribes and district finalized
the agreement in July of 2011. This
is a five-year agreement, so it will
expire in July of 2016.
The Tribal Council and the 509-
J school board met last month to
discuss a new agreement. This was
the first Council-school board work
session on the 2016 agreement.
The Council and board agreed
to meet at least quarterly from now
on regarding the new agreement.
At the January work session,
Councilman Orvie Danzuka said
the next agreement should include
tribal member education bench-
marks that can be measured on a
regular basis.
The next agreement can be for
five or more years, Councilman
Carlos Smith said, but the docu-
ment should include specific
benchmarks that can be evaluated
in a timely way.
“Our students seem to be strug-
gling, more than others,” Council-
man Kahseuss Jackson said. “We
need to come together and address
these issues, whatever it takes. We
shouldn’t be afraid to change the
system to get success.”
The current Education Agree-
ment has brought some significant
achievements, said school district
superintendent Rick Molitor. The
Warm Springs k-8 Academy was
a priority project of the 2011
agreement, he said, and this was
a major accomplishment.
“Did it solve all of the prob-
lems? No,” he said, “but it did
help with some of these issues.”
Councilman Smith said the
school district curriculum should
include education about the Con-
federated Tribes—the Treaty of
1855, tribal sovereignty, U.S. vs.
Oregon, ceded lands, Native lan-
guage, culture, history, etc. If the
curriculum were relevant and en-
gaging to tribal member students,
“I think that would help with the
dropout rate,” he said.
See AGREEMENT on page 7
Student
success
at Roots
At the start of the school year
the goal of Warm Springs Roots was
to enroll 30 students in the program.
Roots is the 509-J school district
alternative education program on
the reservation.
The goal of 30 students was
ambitious, as the previous year only
12 students had enrolled in the
Warm Springs alternative education
program.
There are now 41 students in the
Roots program. Twelve of these
students will likely have enough cred-
its at the end of this school year to
graduate, said Dawn Smith, pro-
gram director.
The students take math, English
and other courses online, working
toward the high school credits
needed to graduate.
“This has been a success so far,”
Smith was saying recently. “We’re
doing what we set out to do.”
A part of the reason for the suc-
cess is the cultural component of
the program, Smith said. This comes
through the work-experience aspect
of Roots. During the first semester
the subject was introduction to ag-
riculture, followed by carpentry.
The students are remodeling a
single-wide trailer located by the
Education building, learning carpen-
try as they go. They’ve partnered
with Utilities on this project. When
they’re finished with the remodel,
Roots will donate the trailer to the
VFW for a veteran’s housing.
This week Roots visited Warm
Springs Composite Products, and
for the rest of the semester will
work on forestry with the Branch
of Natural Resources.
These hands-on lessons come
from members of the War m
Springs community, providing the
cultural component with the aca-
demics.
See ROOTS on page 10
Vol. 40, No. 3
P.O. Box 870
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
50 cents
Mill decision a step closer
The Warm Springs Forest Prod-
ucts Industries board and manage-
ment last week presented Tribal
Council with three alternatives for
the future of the WSFPI mill.
One option is the closure of the
sawmill, and the sale of all future
tribal timber to mills off the reser-
vation.
The second option would be to
downsize the mill from 120 work-
ers to about 80, operating the saw-
mill at 60 percent of one shift.
The third option is to transform
the mill into an efficient operation.
This would require stopping the mill
operation for two years, while the
facilities are being remodeled.
Tribal Council could not make a
final decision last week, as there
needs to be a clearer financial analy-
sis of the options. The numbers as
presented by WSFPI to Council last
week seemed to be open to inter-
pretation.
Council asked that the figures be
clarified and presented again on Feb.
12. There may be some modifica-
tion of the three options as well.
“The mill is a trust asset of the
membership,” Tribal Council Chair-
man Austin Greene said. The Coun-
cil needs accurate information, and
all possible options, he said, in or-
der to make the best decision for
the tribes.
The WSFPI situation is compli-
cated and long-standing.
Employment is a large part of
the equation: Of the 120 employ-
ees at the mill, 67 percent are tribal
members.
On the other hand, the opera-
tion has been losing significant
money in recent years. To further
complicate the matter, WSFPI car-
ries significant debt, to tribal Credit
and the Business Investment Re-
volving Fund, among others.
The Warm Springs BIA superin-
tendent John Halliday says he can-
not sign-off on further timber sales
until the Tribal Council is satisfied
that the required payments from
WSFPI to the tribe will be made.
WSFPI sells high-quality lumber
to the buyers in Japan. When the
cost of operating the mill is more
than the revenue, the effect is a sub-
sidized sale of lumber to the Japa-
nese, Halliday said.
The effect is like sending tribal
revenue to the Japenese buyers,
Halliday said. “You cannot run a
business that way,” he said.
In the plan presented to Council
last week, the WSFPI board recom-
mended the down-sizing option,
while they develop a plan for the
transformation option. Council
asked to see a modified version of
the transformation option, with the
remodel happening sooner rather
than after a number of years.
Lincoln’s at Simnasho coming up
A performance by the tribal youth dance group was part of the
opening reception of the Twenty-Second Annual Youth Art Show
at the Museum at Warm Springs. The show is called Young at
Art and runs through April.
The Thirty-Eighth Annual
Lincoln’s Birthday Powwow is com-
ing up this month at Simnasho.
Lincoln’s this year is set for Fri-
day through Sunday, Feb. 13-15 at
the Simnasho Longhouse. This will
be the first smoke-free powwow (see
page 3).
A memorial and stone-setting for
Anna Clements is set for this Satur-
day, Feb. 7, starting at 9 a.m. at the
Agency Cemetery. Washut services
at 10 a.m. at the Simnasho
Longhouse. Meal to follow.
The Anna Clements Women’s
Team Round Dance, 30 and Over
Memorial Special, will be Friday
through Sunday, Feb. 13-15 at the
powwow.
Anna was a founding member of
the Lincoln’s Birthday Powwow, this
year celebrating its thirty-eighth an-
niversary.
First place team: $3,000 plus
Pendleton jacket. Two consolation
prizes: blankets and prize money.
Buckskin dresses, shell dresses,
and a short fringe preferred. Con-
tact Shayla Stwyer for more infor-
mation, 541-777-7658.
The Jarvis M. Stwyer Round
Bustle Special, with $1,000 first-
place prize plus jacket, is coming up
at Lincoln’s. There will also be two
consolation prizes.
Dancers must be wearing arm
bustles. Contact Jarvis Stwyer for
information, 541-777-7616.
Friday, Feb. 13 at the Simnasho
Longhouse is for new and re-join-
ers, starting at 5:30 p.m. sharp, grand
entry at 7 p.m.
See LINCOLN’S on page 3
Jayson Smith photos.
IHS removing older buildings from campus area
Indian Health Services is in
the process of demolishing four
former residences in the campus
area of the reservation.
One of the houses, across
from the basketball court on
Warm Springs Street, was torn
down last week.
The demolition crew began re-
moving two other houses this
week. These are located across
from the Family Resource Cen-
ter. The fourth one is located far-
ther down near the Community
Counseling building.
These are former residences that
were occupied by Indian Health
Service employees. They had not
been lived in for a number of years.
The buildings contained asbestos,
which is being removed to a sepa-
rate landfill.
Some parts of the buildings—
cabinets and doors, for instance—
were donated to the tribes. The
Roots program students used some
of these items for their carpentry
project.
Other federal buildings
The Bureau of Indian Affairs also
has several buildings on the cam-
pus. The BIA has plans to remove
these buildings as well.
T his is par t of the War m
Springs Downtown Plan. Another
aspect would be the replacement
of the infrastructure lines at the
campus.
The BIA has about 15 buildings
on the campus. The plan is to re-
move them this year. The process
involves sending a report on the his-
tory of the buildings to the Wash-
ington, D.C., office of the BIA.
Once reviewed there, the report is
sent to the regional office in Port-
land.
The BIA will then confer with
the tribes on whether to proceed
with the removal. The BIA offered
the buildings to the tribes, which
rejected them.
The buildings are old and would
require a substantial investment to
update.