Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
September 2, 2015
Page 7
W.S. women carry on family firefighting tradition
by Erin Rook
The Source Weekly
Yvette Leecy walks
through the fire camp like it’s
her home—and in many
ways, it is. She stops to greet
the crew serving meals to
firefighters, grabbing a sack
lunch and asking how long
they’ve been working fires.
Some are relatives, others are
coworkers, none are strang-
ers.
It’s this knack for work-
ing with people—combined
with a fierce determination
and indefatigable spirit—that
has helped the Warm Springs
native fight an addiction to
meth and alcohol, and to be-
come a sought-after wildland
firefighter and timber sales
officer. Where meth once
coursed through her veins,
fire now lives.
After coming home from
nearly two years of treatment
for drug and alcohol abuse,
Yvette felt hopeless. How
would she get back on her
feet without a driver’s license
courtesy The Source Weekly
Karlen Yallup (left) and her mother Yvette Leecy, both
firefighters, look out over a singed Warm Springs.
or a job? Her brothers—who
worked on the hot shot and
engine crews—suggested she
give firefighting a tr y. It
wasn’t long before she was
hooked.
“It’s a spiritual and emo-
tional state for me,” Yvette
says. “I actually want to be a
part of teaching the tribe with
my daughters that treating
the ground is important be-
cause then it brings back our
healthful berries; it brings
back our vegetation.”
Once she’d been out of
treatment for three years, she
tried to regain custody of her
children—two daughters and
a son—who’d been in the care
of family since she went into
treatment. But the judge told
her she would have to choose
between the new career that
gave her a sense of purpose
and accomplishment, and the
three children she loved and
missed.
“I was approached by
courts to step down from fire
management, take my kids
full time, or leave them in my
mom’s care,” Yvette recalls.
“When you fight fire, you
can’t be distracted, your fo-
cus needs to be 100 percent
on that, or 100 percent on
being a parent. The court
didn’t think I could do both.”
If she had been a single
father, Yvette notes, the out-
come would have likely been
different. Still, she trans-
ferred to a job in forestry,
where she could at least con-
tinue to work with the forest,
and focused on continuing
her education and raising her
children.
“It was very emotional,”
she says. “My passion for
firefighting grew inside me. I
felt like this was my pur-
pose—to fight for Mother
Earth.”
Now that her children are
grown, Yvette has been able
to fight the occasional fire
while continuing to work in
forestry and on completing
her degree. Most recently, she
was part of the initial attack
on the County Line 2 Fire,
and only took a break to
spend time with her daughter
Karlen, a 23-year-old student
at the University of Idaho
who is studying forestry and
fire ecology—and, not coin-
cidentally, spent the summer
fighting fires in Arizona, but
had a rare week of downtime
before returning to her senior
year.
Yes, that’s right: Yvette is
not the only female
firefighter in the family. Both
of her daughters, Karlen and
Yolanda Yallup, are following
in their mother’s footsteps.
Yolanda is currently fighting
the complex of fires in the
Spokane area that recently
claimed the lives of three
firefighters. The single mother
is also studying forestry at
Central Oregon Community
College between fires. (To
read this article in its entirety,
go to bendsource.com)
Rising to excellence in the W.S. community
It is hard to believe that it
has been a whole year since I
was called by Creator to serve
the amazing people and com-
munity of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs.
I am inspired by the ex-
ample of the Paiute, Wasco
and Warm Springs people
who are uniquely different
from one another but share
the common purpose of
cohabitating and flourishing
as a healthy vibrant commu-
nity for the greater good of
all.
I am impressed with the
compassion and tenacity of
the Warm Springs community
as well as the persistent in-
quiry and desire of her people
to become actively involved
in the future well-being of all.
As I prayerfully reflect
upon a twelve month journey
that has impacted my heart-
soul and spirit like no other
experience in my life, I am
grateful to those who wel-
comed me with open arms
and waited to get to know me
before making assumptions
about who I was or why I
came.
While it is true I did not
grow up in Warm Springs, I
have felt in many ways that
Creator intended a mutual
blessings by revealing the
beautiful landscape and amaz-
ing people who call this home.
I am deeply indebted to
the Pitts: Charlotte, Lillian and
Louie as well as Elizabeth
Woody and Joie Pitt who will
always be my sisters.
I care deeply about the de-
partment I have been en-
trusted and believe beyond
the shadow of any doubt in
the Human Resources staff,
Lois Lesarlley, K aitlyn
Minnick, Nancy Mendez
Lopez, Amelia Tewee, Denise
Clements, Frank Brunoe,
Greta White Elk, Carroll
Dick, Melinda Poitra, and
Reina Estimo and Amanda
Henderson, who worked with
us in the summer for Native
Aspirations. They are a very
special and unique blend of
community leaders devoted
to best practices and striving
towards excellence in cus-
tomer service.
It has been 365 days of
very hard work, long hours
sorting, organizing and some-
times completely changing
processes to improve the ser-
vices we offer to 800 of our
tribal employees and to the
nearly 700 enterprise employ-
ees.
Employees and commu-
nity members depend upon
us to direct them with their
retirement, medical, insurance
and benefits needs. It has
been an busy year engaging
with stakeholders like
EDCO, COCC, WorkSource,
State of Oregon and the
many programs in Jefferson
and Deschutes counties who
want to be more actively en-
gaged with the community of
Warm Springs.
This journey required
complete focus to an impor-
tant responsibility coupled
with some heartache when
my intent was questioned—
sometimes challenged as a
perceived outsider.
In hindsight, I now under-
stand the tests—afterall not
everyone knows me like the
many colleagues I have
worked with in my 40 year-
career serving the private,
nonprofit, public and tribal
sector.
The truth is—there have
been way too many broken
promises endured by indig-
enous communities, way too
many well-intentioned “visi-
tors” who have come and
gone without much helpful
impact.
There have also been
some folks who came to
Warm Springs merely make
a buck off of our communi-
ties, and that will not happen
on my watch.
My first role was to ensure
that no entity, no outside
stakeholder was here to take
advantage whether it was
healthcare brokers, insurance
peddlers, service providers
or collaborative government
agencies.
I was also charged with the
oversight of Workforce in-
vestment (critical to address-
ing employment barriers) and
Higher Education (educa-
tional opportunities for young
people—my heart).
I feel like we at HR have
done a good job working to-
gether on many initiatives: the
Career Fair, Job Fair, Open
Enrollment sessions, Provider
Fair, new Employment re-
source center, Native Aspira-
tions Summer Youth Pro-
gram, the WSVR/WIA Acad-
emy, training departments on
policies and procedures and
simple things like training for
safe motor vehicle operations
for those who drive tribal ve-
hicles—it’s all important
stuff—all critical to the over-
all well-being of our commu-
nity.
All these routine accom-
plishments and more were ex-
pected on top of impromptu
audits, political changes,
policy changes and improv-
ing from better to best prac-
tices. We have done a great
deal together and there is still
plenty to do.
The most satisfying and
rewarding aspect of my role
as Human Resources Direc-
tor has been my staff.
I am grateful to work to-
gether with each and every
one of them including
Raylene Thomas who has
gone on to exciting educa-
tional opportunities—we are
all delighted for her vision and
her success.
My HR staff has been like
family away from family and
colleagues like Susan Brunoe,
Arlissa White, Margie Tuckta,
Judy Johnson, Todd Stum,
Tammy Wilson, Alfred
Estimo and Dennis Johnson
who we engage with daily, and
so many others too numer-
ous to name have been a huge
support to our HR Team.
I am also grateful to the
many tribal leaders and our
tribal elders who have not
only challenged me to be the
best I could be but also
showed up at critical times to
support our young people,
our elders and our employ-
ees at important events and
important transitions—thank
you all.
I am honored to serve the
Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs government
departments and her tribal
enterprises and projects
where we interface on a daily
basis with equally enthusias-
tic HR/Comp and Benefits
staff.
We at HR have come a
long way in one year—and I
credit all of it to an amazing
staff who all stepped up and
given the CTWS their very
best.
Yes—we have much to ac-
complish as we move forward
toward developing useful
training programs, expanding
employment resources, col-
laborating with local commu-
nity stakeholders to ensure
that tribal members and tribal
community members have
access to viable employment,
setting up comprehensive
mentoring and succession
planning, ensuring the best
possible benefits are accessed
by our community, research-
ing and ensuring fair wage
scales and updated position
grading and most importantly
(to me) access to reasonable
healthcare for all of our com-
munity members, while being
treated in a respectful and
honoring manner.
A healthy community can
flourish and excel in so many
ways. My grandmother Ruby
Garnet Kent used to say,
“Sweetheart, tomorrow is
promised to no one.”
I have no idea what tomor-
row will bring but I know af-
ter reflecting upon the many
photos that exemplify a year
filled with meaningful
work—I will try with all of
my heart to give my very best
to the people of War m
Springs until Creator calls me
to my next life service.
Thank you to all who have
believed in me, prayed for
me, prayed for my staff, sup-
ported my staff, gave of your
time and energy. You are
deeply appreciated.
Rising to excellence—al-
ways,
Elizabeth Asahi Rising
Sun Sato, tribal Human Re-
sources director.
2016 budget
Tribal Members are
invited to learn more
about the 2016 budget
process at a pre-budget
public meeting this
Wednesday, Sept. 2, from
1:30–5 p.m. at the com-
munity center social hall.
The meeting is hosted
by tribal Finance and
management.
The
agenda includes:
Budget review and
questions with the tribal
department and enter-
prise general managers
and directors.
Board
vacancies
If you are inter-
ested in serving on the
Credit Enterprise
Board of Directors of
the Confederated
Tribes of Warm
Springs, or the tribal
Water Board, then
please contact Lynn
Davis at tribal man-
agement. Each of the
boards has one va-
cancy. For more infor-
mation call 541-553-
3212.
School
(Continued from page 1)
You can see the k-8
bus routes at the academy;
or look at the school dis-
trict
website,
jcsd.k12.or.us
The academy is offer-
ing athletics again this year
for students in grades six
through eight. The fall
sports are football, volley-
ball and cross country.
Basketball and wrestling
are in the winter, followed
in the spring by track.
The first athletics prac-
tices are after the first
school day, next Wednes-
day, Sept. 9. Students
need to have three items
prior to their first practice:
A physical form, insur-
ance card, and a hand-
book agreement, which
will be available at the
Back to School Barbecue,
this Thursday, Sept. 3.
Game schedules will
be available on Septem-
ber 9. The classroom lists
will be available at the
Back to School Barbecue.
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