Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
December 9, 2015
Vol. 40, No. 25
December – Nch’i-An - Winter - Yiyam
Ballots coming in on cannabis initiative
December 17
referendum
needs 1,100 voters
A Warm Springs delegation met
earlier this month with BIA regional
director Stanley Speaks, and deputy
regional director Bodi Shaw.
From Warm Springs were Tribal
Council and Ventures board mem-
bers, and legal counsel.
The meeting focused on the le-
gal aspects of the tribal cannabis
proposal.
“The meeting gave the tribal del-
egation certainty that our process
has support of the regional direc-
tor and the deputy regional direc-
tor,” said Pita Pitt, Ventures board
member.
BIA Regional Director Speaks
said, “We feel comfortable that the
tribe is proceeding with an appro-
priate plan to develop this business.”
The tribes’ cooperation with the
state of Oregon and the U.S.
Attorney’s Office is a key reason
why the BIA is supportive, Mr.
Speaks said.
Tribal officials are planning to
meet again with the U.S. Attorney’s
Office again shortly after the refer-
endum, if the vote is in favor, said
Pita Pitt.
The referendum asks the mem-
bership whether Tribal Council
should be authorized to “allow, regu-
late and operate an on-reservation,
tribally owned cannabis cultivation
and extraction facility, with retail
sales allowed only off the reserva-
tion.”
Eighty-five new jobs, and annual
revenue of more than $27 million
revenue are the reasons why Tribal
Council and Ventures are making
the proposal.
If the referendum were the pass.
there are some important aspects
that would have to be worked out.
The tribes, for instance, would
work with the state toward an agree-
ment for the operation. Involve-
ment of federal law enforcement
would be another vital aspect. The
location of the grow facility is an-
other matter yet to be determined.
The Warm Springs Post Office
is in receipt of completed ab-
sentee ballots for the referen-
dum. These ballots are being
kept in a secured ballot box in
the Warm Springs Post Office.
Election officials will retrieve
the box at the end of the busi-
ness day on the date of the elec-
tion, next Thursday.
The post office had received
between 50 and 100 ballots as
of Tuesday morning of this
week, said Karla Hawes, Warm
Springs Post Master.
A voter response of at least
one-third is required for a valid
referendum. As there are about
3,300 eligible voters, the re-
sponse must reach 1,100 for a
valid election.
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Miss Warm
Springs
candidates
The Miss Warm Springs Com-
mittee is looking for young women
who are interested in being Miss
Warm Springs 2016. The pageant
is planned for December 28.
If you are interested, please call
the Tribal Council office at 541-553-
3257. Or you can email:
minnie.yahtin@wstribes.org
Chance to win
bighorn tag
The tribal Natural Resources
Branch is hosting a hunter report-
ing raffle, with one of the prizes
being a 2016 bighorn ram tag.
The raffle is open to hunters who
turn in all their tags and completed
reporting for the closed 2015 hunts.
Submit these to the Natural Re-
sources Branch by Feb. 2 in order
to be entered in the raffle.
Other prizes include 2016 Ceded
Land doe tags, plus various hunting
and fishing gear. Multiple names will
be drawn at a public hunters meet-
ing in February.
Almost
ready for
Christmas
Warm Springs Recreation
is hosting some holiday
events over the next couple
of weeks. They had a craft-
making session (right) last
week.
The Warm Springs
Christmas Bazaar is set for
Saturday, December 12,
from 10 to 4 at the center.
Call for a table, 541-553-
3243.
Indian Nite Out is coming
up on December 22.
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Council, Natural Resources
start work on fish agreement
The Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs are a party in the Co-
lumbia Basin Fish Accords, ap-
proved in 2008.
The accords are a detailed fish
management and habitat improve-
ment plan for the basin and tribu-
taries. The ten-year accords are set
to expire at the end of 2018, and
the tribes are now starting talks to-
ward a new agreement.
Natural Resources general man-
ager, and tribal legal counsel John
Ogan met with Tribal Council this
week for an update on the accords
process. Important issues will come
up as the parties begin the negotia-
tions. As an example, Councilman
Carlos Smith mentioned this issue:
During the start of a fishing sea-
sons, state and tribal scientists make
an estimate of the number of fish
that can be expected to return in
the particular run.
The state then opens the com-
mercial fishing season in the lower
part of the Columbia River. Some
time later, as the fish move up the
river, the tribes open the zone 6 fish-
ery.
It can happen that the initial run
estimate turns out to have been too
high. At which point the allowable
catch is reduced.
However, by this time the fish-
ermen in the lower part of the river
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
have already harvested based on
higher estimate. And the reduction
happens higher up in the river, such
as at the usual and accustomed tribal
fishing areas of zone 6.
The 2008 Fish Accords are an
agreement among four treaty tribes
of the Columbia, the Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission,
the Bonneville Power Administra-
tion, the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers, and the Bureau of Reclama-
tion.
The accords included specific
habitat restoration projects that have
been carried out in the basin. The
management of water at the Colum-
bia dams, and hatchery manage-
ment, are other aspects.
For the tribes and federal agen-
cies, the accords were a solution to
ongoing disagreement over fisher-
ies management in the basin. Before,
the federal agency would issue a
“biological opinion” regarding a cer-
tain operation, and the tribes would
successfully challenge the opinion in
court.
With direction from a federal
judge, the tribes and agencies
worked out the accords, which were
nevertheless challenged in court by
environmental groups. The challenge
to the accords is still pending, which
could complicate the negotiation
process.
Nestlé water plan
faces new challenge
Tribal Council and many com-
munity members are against a
proposal by the Nestlé company,
and the city of Cascade Locks,
to bottle and sell water from
Oxbow Springs.
The spring is a source of wa-
ter for the Oxbow Fish Hatch-
ery at the Columbia River, where
the tribes have treaty fishing
rights.
Earlier this year, it appeared
the Nestlé-Cascade Locks pro-
posal might go forward. It ap-
peared Cascade Locks had
traded water rights from the
Herman Creek aquifer with the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, in exchange for rights
to Oxbow Springs.
Cascade Locks would then be
able to work with Nestlé in de-
veloping the bottling plant, using
the pristine Oxbow Springs wa-
ter.
Meanwhile, though, the tribes,
community members, state leg-
islators and others voiced their
opposition.
Gov. Kate Brown recently in-
formed the state Fish and Wild-
life department to withdraw the
agency’s application to trade the
water right.
The application was before the
state Water Resources Depart-
ment.
The governor’s action will al-
low for greater tribal and other
public participation in the deci-
sion to use the Oxbow Springs
water as a commercial water
source.
Earlier this year, Tribal Coun-
cil Chairman Austin Greene Jr.
stated the tribes’ opposition in a
letter to Gov. Brown and other
officials:
“Water quantity and quality
and hatchery operations are of
paramount importance to ongo-
ing treaty-based rights of the
Tribe in the Columbia River area,
and to ongoing federal litigation,”
he said.
“These factors are not only
reasonable to evaluate but of
critical importance for the Or-
egon Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s proposed water trans-
fer, particularly in the context
of climate change... and more
frequent droughts and dry
years.”
See OXBOW SPRINGS on 3
Veterans housing
support session
Warm Springs will host a Veter-
ans Affairs Supportive Housing
meeting this Thursday, Dec. 10.
The Warm Springs Veterans Af-
fairs Supportive Housing (VASH)
meeting will be from 10 a.m. to 2
p.m. at the VFW Hall, 1191 Holly-
wood St., Warm Springs.
The Presenter will be a Carolyn
Bateson, VA community reintegra-
tion services director. Veterans and
their families are invited to learn
about the HUD-VA partnership, the
VASH program and its goals, eligi-
bility and benefits, and supportive
housing.
W.S. Housing Autority
Warm Springs Housing Author-
ity is partnering in the presentation,
with information on program devel-
opment, supplemental housing and
needs assessment.
The Warm Springs Housing
Authority is in the process of de-
veloping a local program that takes
aim at ending homelessness for vet-
erans, by utilizing the HUD-VASH
program.
HUD is in the process of invit-
ing 30 tribes to participate in the
program. Each tribe will be awarded
15 to 25 units, and HUD will pro-
vide rental assistance.
Determining eligibility for indi-
viduals can be difficult, and the VA
has a eligibility department that pro-
vides assistance. For more infor-
mation call 541-553-3250.