Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
July 20, 2016
Vol. 41, No. 15
July – Pat’ak-Pt’akni – Summer - Shatm
Working toward education agreement
The Education Committee,
Tribal Council and the school dis-
trict continue working toward a
new long-term education agree-
ment.
The current agreement expired
this summer, but will be the con-
trolling document until the sides
reach a new agreement.
There are currently three ver-
sions of the tribal-509-J education
agreement: one by the Education
Committee and Tribal Council, one
by the school board, and the cur-
rent expired agreement.
The challenge will be to come
to a mutual agreement, as the
tribes’ and school district’s versions
are very different.
The tribal version includes spe-
cific goals and proposed accomplish-
ments, whereas the school district
version is not specific.
There are some good aspects of
the tribal version that could be imple-
mented, said school board member
Laurie Danzuka. Some aspects,
though, would need to be reviewed
by the district legal counsel, as the
district is held to standards regard-
ing, for instance, the use of class
time.
The Education Committee and
Tribal Council have placed an em-
phasis on language and culture as
part of the school experience for
Native students.
At the school district board
meeting this week, the board ap-
pointed Laurie Danzuka and Tom
Norton to the team that will work
toward a new agreement.
The tribal parties are the Edu-
cation
Committee—Jaylyn
Suppah, Pah-Tu Pitt, Deanie
Smith and alternate Ervanna Little
Eagle—and Tribal Councilwomen
Carina Miller and Val Switzler.
The BIA is also a part of the
education agreement process. The
Warm Springs Agency has an act-
ing superintendent, Body Shaw,
BIA deputy regional director. A
permanent superintendent is
expected to be on board in Au-
gust.
Tribal Council and the Edu-
cation Committee met last week
with school district superinten-
dent Rick Molitor. All parties to
the conversation agree that
some change is needed to im-
prove the graduation rate
among tribal.
Finding agreement on how
best to achieve that goal will be
a focus of the talks toward a
new multi-year agreement.
On the
Job with
YouthBuild
E ight young people from
Warm Springs are working with
Heart of Oregon YouthBuild.
They are building houses in
Madras. Heart of Oregon has
developed a great working re-
lationship with the tribes. In
time they are hoping to build
new homes on the reservation.
Meanwhile they are planning a
clean-up project in War m
Springs in early September.
The homes they build in
Madras are for Habitat for
Humanity families. YouthBuild
has completed 16 houses so far,
with the goal of finishing 25 by
the end of the year. Each house
takes about nine months to
complete.
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
See Heart of Oregon on 6
Rodger Jack, Leionah Scott and Alyssa Culps at the Habitat house they are working on.
Unexpected result
Cannabis project
Commission on board of WSFPI closure
The Tribal Council last week
appointed the Cannabis Com-
mission of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs. The
commissioners will take office
August 1, and will serve three
years.
Tribal Council appointed
Ronald Roome as the commis-
sion chairman; Shana Radford
as vice chair; and Starla Green
as commission secretary.
Mr. Roome is an attorney
from Bend. He has served as
a judge pro tem in the Warm
Springs Court. He is a former
member of the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission, the body
that regulates the cannabis in-
dustry in Oregon.
Shana Radford is the health
liaison of the Warm Springs
Health and Human Services
Branch. She has a Master’s
Degree in International Law
and International Relations. Ms.
Radford is a member of the
Umatilla tribes.
Starla Green is in law en-
forcement with the War m
Springs Police Department.
She also has experience in food
handling regulation, experience
helpful in cannabis regulatory
compliance. Ms. Green is a
member of the Confederated
Tribes.
A selection committee—in-
cluding Tribal Council mem-
bers, the secretary-treasurer,
and the Public Safety general
manager—made the recom-
mendation to appoint these
three individuals to the newly-
formed commission.
They will be the policy-mak-
ing and oversight body for the
tribes’ cannabis production pro-
gram.
See Cannabis on 5
The closure of the Warm Springs
Forest Products Industries mill had
consequences beyond just putting
people out of work.
One consequence involves the
successful enterprise Warm Springs
Composite Products.
Composite Products is located
adjacent to the mill structures. Un-
fortunately, the two enterprises
shared the same power and water
utilities systems.
The mill is now in receivership,
and not in operation. If the mill
does not re-open, then Composite
Products eventually would need to
have its own separate power sys-
tem, said Jake Coochise, Compos-
ite chief executive officer.
There have been power outages
recently with the overall system, he
said, causing some problems for
Composite Products.
The solution—establishing a new
power system at Composite—will
have a financial impact on the en-
terprise. The water system—the
same pump that serves the mill
also serves Composite—is an-
other issue that would have to
be dealt with.
Jake and Composite Chief Fi-
nancial Officer Chuck Currier
gave the update last week to
Tribal Council. Tribal Council-
man Austin Greene said he ap-
preciates the patience at Com-
posite Products, as the Tribal
Council works through the
WSFPI receivership process.
An enterprise shut-down,
such as happened with WSFPI,
is new to the tribes, and there
are unknown aspects, Chairman
Greene said. Meanwhile, he
said, an update on the receiver-
ship process is coming up later
this month. The update could
provide some insight in how to
deal with the power matter at
Composite Products.
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Program
removes
thousands
of horses
The tribal horse removal pro-
gram is in its fifth year. During that
time, the program has removed
thousands of excess and unwanted
horses from the reservation.
“If the horse removal program
was not implemented in 2011, there
would be an estimated 11,628 horses
on the reservation today,” said Ja-
son Smith, director of tribal Range
and Ag. Instead, there are now
3,886, a difference of 7,742 horses.
Smith and Bobby Brunoe,
Branch of Natural Resources gen-
eral manager, gave an update on the
horse removal project last week to
Tribal Council.
Without the horse removal pro-
gram, the number of excess horses
on the reservation would be 23,388
by 2020, according to the Range and
Ag estimate.
The near-term goal for the pro-
gram is to remove another 1,000
horses from the reservation, dur-
ing 2016-17, then level off horse
removal to about 350 per year. This
would reduce the reservation horse
population to about 1,500, a man-
ageable number, Smith said.
For comparison, the Yakama
Nation has no removal program,
and there are 20,000 horses on the
Yakama Reservation, causing seri-
ous environmental damage.
The Tribal Council stated their
continued support for the removal
program, as a way to greatly improve
fish, deer, elk, other wildlife and
native plant habitat on the reserva-
tion.
Another benefit has been the cre-
ation of dozens of jobs, said Tribal
Councilman Ron Suppah.
An aspect of the reservation
horse problem began in 2006, when
the federal government stopped
funding for horsemeat inspection.
“Since then the horse market has
been flooded, and the prices for all
horses have dropped dramatically,”
Jason said. “The consequences of
this policy change have been devas-
tating, both economically and envi-
ronmentally, to tribal nations
throughout the country.”
Another unintended conse-
quence of the federal policy is in-
creased neglect and abandonment
of horses, he said.
According to a report by the
Government Accountability Office:
“Clearly, the cessation of domestic
slaughter has had unintended con-
sequences, most importantly per-
haps, the decline in horse welfare
in the U.S.”
So instead of protecting horses,
the federal policy has had the op-
posite effect.
Bobby Brunoe said an issue to
keep an eye on is the idea to ban
the exporting of horses from the
U.S. for slaughter purposes.
See Horses on 6