Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
March 30, 2016
Vol. 41, No. 7
March – Wiyalppt – Spring - Wawaxam
Poet Laureate of Oregon
Elizabeth Woody is an award-win-
ning author of poetry, short fiction
and essays. She is an educator and
practicing artist.
She won the American Book
Award for her first book of poetry,
Hand Into Stone. She later won
the William Stafford Memorial
Award for Poetry, among other lit-
erary awards.
Elizabeth was a founding board
member of the national Native Arts
and Cultures Foundation, and was
a founding member of Soapstone,
a group dedicated to supporting
women writers.
A member of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, Elizabeth
will soon be the next Oregon Poet
Laureate. Gov. Kate Brown made
the announcement last week, on the
recommendation of the Oregon
Humanities.
“It was a real pleasure to watch
the selection committee coalesce
around the recommendation of
Elizabeth Woody as Oregon eighth
Poet Laureate,” said Adam Davis,
Oregon Humanities executive direc-
tor. “Committee members from all
parts of the state pointed to the
power of Elizabeth’s poetry, the
energy and dignity she would bring
to the position, and the resonance
of her voice.”
Gov. Brown said, “The energy
courtesy photo
Elizabeth Woody, Oregon Poet Laureate
of Elizabeth’s words bring to life the
landscapes, creatures and people
who make Oregon special. As Poet
Laureate, she will be a great asset
to our state, using vivid storytelling
to help understand who we are as a
larger community.”
Elizabeth is Navajo, War m
Springs, Wasco and Yakama. She was
born in Arizona, on the Navajo
Reservation, but has lived most of
her life in Oregon.
“The power of language in
poetry, song, story and legacy
has kept Oregon’s communities
vibrant,” Ms. Woody said. “The
literature of this land is the
sound of multiple hearts and
the breath of many listened to
while forming as individuals in
this world. It is an honor to be
Oregon’s poet to serve our
state’s communities in the next
two years and reflect upon their
strength.”
Elizabeth studied in the early
1980s at the Institute of Ameri-
can Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She
then earned a bachelor’s degree
in Humanities with an empha-
sis in English from Evergreen
State College in Olympia. In
2012 she received a Master of
Public Administration Degree
through the Executive Leader-
ship Institute of the Mark O.
Hatfield School of Govern-
ment, Portland State University.
Ms. Woody will assume the
Poet Laureate role in late April,
at a public ceremony. The Poet
Laureate fosters the art of po-
etry, encourages literacy and
learning, addresses central is-
sues relating to humanities and
heritage, and reflects on public
life in Oregon.
Ballots coming in on Constitution election
The membership is set to give a
definitive answer to proposed
changes to the tribal Constitution
and By-laws. For the April 11 elec-
tion, 987 members registered to
vote.
The total number who were eli-
gible to register was about 3,550; so
nearly 1,000 registrations are a good
voting percentage of that total.
For those using the mail, ballots
must be received at the War m
Springs Reservation Post Office no
later than 4 p.m. on Monday, April
11.
Otherwise, ballots can be hand
delivered to the Warm Springs BIA
office, at tribal administration, until
4 p.m. on April 11. If you are reg-
istered and have not received your
ballot, you can reach the BIA of-
fice at 541-553-2411.
Each ballot packet includes an
absentee ballot envelope, and a pre-
addressed postage-paid mailing en-
velope. The ballot itself is 16 pages:
one page of instructions, and 15
separate ballot questions.
Each ballot question includes a
statement of the current Constitu-
tional provision; the result of a No
vote; the proposed change; and the
result of a Yes vote. As an example
of the one of the ballot questions,
regarding the organization of Tribal
Council:
Current Constitution: Appor-
tionment—Representation from the
districts shall be as follows:
Simnasho District, 3 elected mem-
bers and the recognized chief of
the district, or his successors; Agency
District, 3 elected, one of whom
shall represent the Sidwalter area,
together with the recognized chief
of the district, or his successors;
Seekseequa District, 2 elected mem-
bers and the recognized chief of
the district, or his successors.
Result of a No vote: Constitu-
tion remains the same.
Proposed change to the Con-
stitution: Apportionment—Tribal
Council members will be selected
from the tribal membership that are
21 years of age and who are eli-
gible, entitled and qualified voters.
Result of a Yes vote: The pro-
posed change would remove dis-
tricts; Council would be chosen
from members at large; Chiefs
would not be members of Council.
Tribal explanation
The Confederated Tribes sent a
letter to tribal members last week,
explaining the Secretarial election on
the tribal Constitution. The letter
explains each of the proposed Con-
stitutional changes.
You can view the entire docu-
ment on the KWSO website,
kwso.org
Copies are also available at mail
and reception, and the tribes will
have full copies at upcoming district
meetings. The cover letter is being
to the out-of-town tribal members.
The introduction reads as fol-
lows:
Dear Tribal Member:
D.McMechan
Ballot box at the BIA office.
The BIA recently mailed a no-
tice to tribal members 18 and older
regarding a Secretarial election
scheduled for April 11, 2016. The
purpose of the Secretarial election
is for eligible tribal members to vote
on 15 proposed amendments to the
Constitution and By-Laws. The pro-
posed amendments relate to Article
IV of the Constitution –”Organiza-
tion of Tribal Council,” and to ar-
ticles in the By-Laws pertaining to
“Qualifications,” “Salaries,” and
“Meeting and Procedure.”
The proposed amendments were
initiated and brought forward by
petitioners, or a group of tribal
members, through the process out-
lined in our current Constitution
under Article IX – “Amendments.”
The Secretarial election pro-
cess is a federal process that the
BIA is responsible for oversee-
ing. The federal regulations are
set out in 25 CFR Part 81.
The BIA-appointed Secre-
tarial Election Board (SEB) is re-
sponsible for implementing the
process and is made up of rep-
resentatives from the BIA, peti-
tioners and the Tribe. Tribal
members were required to reg-
ister to vote by the March 14,
2016 deadline in order to par-
ticipate in the election. A total of
973 individuals registered to vote
in the Secretarial election. For the
election to be valid, a minimum
of 30 percent of the registered
voters, or 292 voters, must cast
a ballot (25 CFR §81.39).
The Official Ballots were
mailed on Monday, March 21,
2016 only to those individuals
who have registered to vote. All
ballots must arrive by US
Mail on April 11, 2016 or can
be hand-delivered to the BIA
– Warm Springs Agency no
later than 4pm on April 11,
2016.
Following Election Day, the
SEB will post the “Certificate of
Results of the Election” with the
results of the election. Any quali-
fied voter who has registered to
vote can challenge the election
results within three days of the
posting (25 CFR §81.43).
See CONSTITUTION on 3
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Tribal
Council
election
The membership on Monday,
April 4 will elect the Twenty-Sev-
enth Tribal Council of the Confed-
erated Tribes of Warm Springs.
In this publication are statements
from many of the candidates of the
three districts. The candidate state-
ments are arranged in roughly the
order in which they were submit-
ted, rather than alphabetically. They
begin on page 6.
Healthy
savings
The Confederated Tribes’ Man-
aged Care program, and other tribal
health programs, have seen a sig-
nificant savings in tribal dollars over
the past few years. This is due
mainly to the increased billing op-
portunities.
“The Affordable Care Act is
working for the tribes,” said
Caroline Cruz, general manager of
Health and Human Services.
In recent years the tribes and
IHS have focused on having as
many people as possible sign up for
health insurance, such as through
the Oregon Health Plan, or Medic-
aid.
The Annual Health System re-
port for the reservation, published
by the Joint Health Commission,
explains the savings the tribes have
been seeing in recent years:
Managed Care saw a spending
reduction of more than $2.2 mil-
lion—or 43 percent— from the year
2011 to 2014 (the most recent year
for which the data is available). Com-
munity Counseling saw a decrease
of nearly $900,000, or about 37
percent. These savings correspond
to increases in collections from out-
side sources.
“Since 2011, tribal collections
(for health services) have doubled,”
the Health Report says.
Since the Affordable Care Act
took effect in 2012-13, Health and
Human Services has focused on an
improved billing department.
Sharon Jones is the billing director.
She works with Tina Bolton.
They are able to bill to outside
insurance sources for services, such
as at Community Counseling, that
in earlier years were paid by the
tribes.
The improvement has been sig-
nificant since 2011, but there is
room for greater savings, such as
for services at CPS, Caroline says.
The Health and Human Services
billing department is planning to
move soon to the clinic, and they
are planning to add one more per-
son to their staff.
Housed at the clinic, the Health
and Human Services billing team will
have better cooperation and train-
ing opportunities with IHS billing
experts.