Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
September 30, 2015
Vol. 40, No. 20
September – Wanaq’i – Fall - Tiyam
Rare view of history at Archives
T he Smithsonian Archives
collection is extraordinary.
They have a Wasco wedding
veil from the 1850s, adorned
with Chinese coins dating from
sometime between 1664 and
1774.
There is a dark wooden
bowl with an ancient design of
faces with no mouths. And a
horse whip with elk and other
engravings that appear to tell a
story.
There are very old beaded
items, rare baskets, baby boards
and moccasins, tools, arrow
heads, regalia and photographs.
The collection includes hun-
dreds of pages of 19 th century
written documents of Kiksht
translations.
In September a team from
Warm Springs Culture and
Heritage
visited
the
Smithsonian Archives in Wash-
ington, D.C. They spent a
week making an inventory of
the Archives’ Native American
high plateau items.
Culture and Heritage direc-
tor Val Switzler, language
teacher Pam Cardenas, Lori
Courtesy W.S. Culture and Heritage.
Pam Cardenas examines a
saddle at the Smithsonian
Archive; at right, very old
Chinese coins adorn a Wasco
wedding veil.
Switzler and Shayleen Macy made
the trip, with linguist Nariyo Kono.
When they first arrived at the
Archives, the curator brought out
one box of items that were identi-
fied as Wasco.
Val then provided a list of other
names that the tribes were known
by in the past. A linguist at the Ar-
chives soon returned with two and
a half cartloads of boxes.
Val explains that part of the
Smithsonian collection is a legacy
from the mid- to late-19 th Cen-
tury, when people were thinking
the Indian culture might soon dis-
appear. Museum collectors, an-
thropologists, photographers and
linguists visited the tribes on the
reservation, at the river and other
areas, purchasing and trading for
items from the tribal members.
Now the Smithsonian Ar-
chives collection is an endless
source of interest. The Warm
Springs team spent eight hours a
day for a week going through the
boxes.
They helped the Smithsonian
archives staff identify some of
items. The kupn handles, for in-
stance, were a mystery, as was the
horse head regalia.
At one point Pam was going
through old photographs when
she recognized a picture of her
grandmother’s sister Emma. In
the picture Emma, born in 1865,
is 8 or 9 years old.
See ARCHIVE on 5
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Study
to look
at water
situation
The Confederated Tribes are
getting ready to conduct an assess-
ment of the domestic water system
on the reservation. The study will
be funded through a grant from the
USDA.
The hope is that the assessment
will be done by the end of this year,
said Lonny Macy, tribal planner.
The goal of this project is even-
tually to install water meters at all
residential and commercial buildings
on the reservation.
This would create a great savings
in water usage on the reservation.
The meters will allow tribal Utilities
to identify where the leaks are in
the system, and which households
may be over-using water.
And the amount of leakage and
over-use is significant. A study last
year looked at the amount of water
produced at the water treatment
plant, in comparison to the number
of water hook-ups on the reserva-
tion.
See WATER on 3
Justice grant helps police, VOCS
The Confederated Tribes will re-
ceive a grant of more than
$830,000, to be used for Public
Safety and the Victims of Crime
Services.
The Warm Springs Police Depart-
ment will use some of the funding
to buy new police cars, said Stan
Suenaga, general manager of tribal
Public Safety.
Some of the current police cars
have many miles on them, he said.
The budget limit at Public Safety
would make purchasing new ve-
hicles difficult; so news of the grant
award was especially welcome,
Suenaga said.
More than $300,000 of the to-
tal grant award will go to the Vic-
tims of Crime Services. This will
help fund positions at VOCS, and
services to crime victims.
The grant process was a coordi-
nated effort, Suenaga said. Public
Safety worked with Caroline Cruz
at Health and Human Services,
tribal prosecutor Nancy Seyler, and
Janelle Wallulatum at VOCS. The
team submitted the grant request
back in January.
The grant comes from the U.S.
Justice Department, which awarded
more than $97 million to Native
American tribes during the latest
grant cycle.
Five tribes in Oregon received
funding under this program. The
Confederated Tribes of Coos,
Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indi-
ans received more than $1.2 mil-
lion. Warm Springs received the
second largest grant among the
Oregon tribes.
The Coquilles received
$683,439; the Klamath Tribes
received $450,000; and the
Grand Ronde received
$101,969.
This grant program is to ad-
dress disproportionate rates of
violence and victimization in
Native Americans communities.
Chamber’s
Senior of
the Year
T he Madras-Jefferson County
Chamber of Commerce named
Warm Springs language teacher
Suzie Slockish the Senior Citi-
zen of the Year at their awards
banquet, held at the Erickson
Aircraft Collection museum.
Suzie has been a language
teacher at Culture and Heritage
for more than 20 years.
She learned the Ichishkeen
language growing up from her
parents, Ellen and Sam
Squiemphen, and from grand-
parents. She grew up and lives
in Simnasho.
Warm Springs business-
woman Aurolyn Stwyer nomi-
nated Suzie to the Chamber for
Bruce Irwin/KWSO
Wilbur Slockish, Councilman Raymond and Beulah Tsumpti, Councilwoman Evaline Patt and Wilson
Wewa (from left) with Suzie at the awards banquet.
the recognition.
“A long time preserver of the
culture of her people,” is the dedi-
cation statement on the Senior Citi-
zen of the Year award.
Suzie shares her time, and
knowledge of traditional lan-
guage and foods, beadwork and
sewing.
Funding for
geothermal
research
Warm Springs Power and Water
Enterprises is beginning the second
phase of a geothermal research
project.
Power and Water, and the Con-
federated Tribes learned last week
they have received a grant in the
amount of $580,000 to pursue the
research.
The grant comes from the Of-
fice of Indian Energy and Eco-
nomic Development.
Jim Manion, general manager of
Power and Water, explains that the
research area is near Kah-Nee-Ta
and the Mutton Mountains.
The first phase of the project
involved analysis of soil and other
features of the area, to determine
whether a geothermal resource may
exist.
This study proved positive, lead-
ing to the second phase, which will
involve drilling a deeper well and
more detailed analysis.
Eventually, Power and Water
could develop a small or moder-
ate sized generating facility. The
facility would be in the 3 to 15
watt range, compared to, for in-
stance, the tribes’ Re-Reg dam,
which is 20 megawatts.
A state energy policy requires
utilities to include a certain amount
of renewable energy sources in
their portfolios, which makes the
Warm Springs geothermal project
potentially lucrative for the tribes.