Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
August 31, 2016
Vol. 41, No. 18
August – Shatm – Summer - Shatm
Team launches dictionary project
The Culture and Heritage De-
partment last week launched a
project to create a new dictionary
of the Ichishkeen language of the
Confederated Tribes.
The event was the result of four
years of planning and funding ef-
fort, said Tribal Councilwoman Val
Switzler, director of the Culture and
Heritage Department.
The grant for the work comes
from the National Science Founda-
tion, among the most prestigious of
funding organizations.
Culture and Heritage and the
tribes are partnering with the Uni-
versity of Oregon on the project,
as this was the course to secure the
funding, Councilwoman Switzler
said. The staff at Culture and Heri-
tage will have the help of experts
who have worked many years with
the Confederated Tribes. They in-
clude:
Hank Millstein, linguist who
worked some years with Culture
and Heritage on an earlier version
of an Ichishkeen dictionary;
Nariyo Kono, of Portland State
University, specialist in endangered
and indigenous languages; Joanna
Jansen, linguist and co-director of
the Northwest Indian Language In-
stitute; and Merle Kirk, language
documentation specialist.
They will be working with the
Culture and Heritage teachers and
tribal elders to document the lan-
guage. Last week the team re-
viewed some of the best cata-
loguing and recording practices
to preserve the language.
The project is expected to
take two and a half years. The
National Science Foundation
awarded a grant of nearly
$280,000 for the work.
The final work product will
include digital and paper ver-
sions of the dictionary, gram-
mar, and audio to help with
pronunciation.
Hatfield Fellow to work with Congressman
R obert Ahern won the 2016-
17 Hatfield Fellowship.
He will work for a year on
Native American issues in
Washington, D.C., with Con-
gressman Earl Blumenauer.
Robert is a 2012 graduate
of Madras High School, and a
2016 graduate of Pacific Uni-
versity, where he majored in
Sociology and made excellent
grades.
Robert was an outstanding
basketball player at Madras
High School, and played all
four years at Pacific Univer-
sity. His parents are Fran and
Judge Dan Ahern.
Robert has an interest in law
and political science, so the
Hatfield Fellowship will be a
Robert Ahern
great experience. A career in law
or politics is a possibility, he says,
and the Hatfield Fellowship should
give a good introduction to both
fields.
One of the important issues
pending before Congress is the
tribal housing conditions at the
Columbia River. Congressman
Blumenauer is among the lawmak-
ers who have taken an interest in
resolving the situation.
As the Hatfield Fellow this will
likely be one of the issues Ahern
will work on in 2016-17. He plans
on making monthly report to the
tribes once the fellowship begins.
He will be moving to Wash-
ington, D.C., in mid October. A
month-long orientation begins on
November 3. The Spirit Moun-
tain Fund provides the housing
and other costs of living.
Robert is the fifth member of
the Confederated Tribes to serve
as a Hatfield Fellow. Others from
Warm Springs who won the
Fellowship are attorney Direlle
Calica, tribal chief operations
manager Alyssa Macy, BIA
Deputy Regional Director
Bodie Shaw, and law professor
Mary Bodine.
Robert explains how he be-
came interested in the Fellow-
ship program:
“I believe that it is very im-
portant to have a tribal voice
when addressing issues that im-
pact Native Americans. As a
Native American I want to be
that voice and want to serve as
a role model for tribal youth
who often don’t see higher level
jobs as an attainable goal for
themselves.”
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
The mobile clinic is a good example of the cooperation between the
tribal and IHS health programs.
progress in serving the member-
ship since the establishment of
the commission, with some items
still being addressed, he said.
The mobile clinic is a good ex-
ample of the kind of service that
can result from the partnership,
said Caroline Cruz.
The tribal part of the health
services on the reservation in-
clude the Community Counsel-
ing programs, nutrition, public
health nursing, among other ser-
vices.
IHS services include medical
outpatient, off-site hospital ser-
vices, dental, optometry, Phar-
macy, among other services.
members.
On hand were Caroline Cruz,
tribal Health and Human Services
general manager, Carol Prevost,
director of the IHS at the Warm
Springs Clinic, and the Health and
Welfare Committee, among oth-
ers.
“The commission was created
because of the two health sys-
tems—federal and tribal—serving
one community,” Mr. Sizemore
said. “And the two need to coordi-
nate and respond to the needs of
the community.”
There has been consistent
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Plan to
improve
CPS
The Health and Human Services
Branch last week provided Tribal
Council with a plan on how to im-
prove Children’s Protective Ser-
vices.
The plan includes both near and
long-term changes at CPS. The
changes are needed to provide the
children, families and community
with the best service possible, said
Caroline Cruz, general manager of
Health and Human Services.
Foster care and the services at
CPS itself are included in the im-
provement plan. Here are some of
the goals and recommendations:
Hire a new CPS manager with
extensive experience in administra-
tion, budgets, and interpreting and
administering all regulations. For the
past few years, CPS has been oper-
ating under interim management.
Within a month after the hire, the
new manager will meet individually
with current staff and other depart-
ments with whom CPS intersects.
Another goal: All staff and fos-
ter care providers will be sufficiently
trained to enable them to perform
their duties. The training aspect of
the report was a point of emphasis
at Tribal Council. A third task:
New
service for
pet owners
A separate but related item
came up during the meeting. The
item was the difference between
contracting and compacting.
The tribes contract with the
federal government for the de-
livery of certain health services.
Another option would be
through a self-governance com-
pact with IHS.
A difference between the two
options is that, through a com-
pact, the tribes have more flex-
ibility in the use of funding.
Great news for pet owners: The
tribes this month are beginning a
partnership with the Bend Spay and
Neuter Project. The project will host
clinics in Warm Springs once a
month, offering free spay and neu-
ter services for dog owners.
This is also a chance for volun-
teers to learn, hands-on, about the
Veterinary profession.
The first clinic will be on Tues-
day, September 6, at the Warm
Springs Housing Community Build-
ing, 2776 Quail Trail, in the new
Greeley Heights subdivision.
The Spay and Neuter Project will
bring their mobile clinic, like a
MASH unit, with a Veterinarian to
the Housing community building.
On clinic day, people can show up
with their pets starting at 7:30 a.m.
The service is on a first-come
first-serve basis, with up to 30 ap-
pointments available. The owners
then pick up the pets at 4 p.m.
The procedure is performed in
the sterile environment of the mo-
bile clinic, with the dogs staying in
standard pet carrying crates during
pre- and post-surgery.
See HEALTH on 8
See PET OWNERS on 7
Contract or compact
sentatives, two IHS representa-
tives, and three volunteer health
care community representatives.
They meet regularly, at least
quarterly, addressing the variety of
health issues facing the tribes. And
together they produce the annual
health report. The commission
and the report are both unique to
the Warm Springs Reservation.
Jim Sizemore has been involved
with Warm Springs health service
for many years. He gave a report
recently to Tribal Council, the point
being to review the tribal-IHS re-
lationship with the new Council
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
See CPS on 7
Health commission report at Council
The Joint Health Commis-
sion—the partnership between the
Confederated Tribes and the In-
dian Health Service—began a little
more than seven years ago.
The commission is needed be-
cause there are two health service
providers on the reservation: The
tribes and IHS. Both entities need
to coordinate, plan and work to-
gether in order to meet the goal
of providing great health care to
the membership.
The tribes and IHS worked to-
gether for a few decades before
the creation of the commission in
2009. The tribes, for instance, built
the clinic in 1993, costing $5 mil-
lion at the time.
With the new clinic, IHS was
able to add staff—doctors, nurses,
dentists and other staff—to better
serve the reservation. Annual
funding for Warm Springs IHS
increased by $4 million.
In the early and mid 2000s,
some disagreements arose between
the tribes and IHS. The dispute
ended up in court, and was re-
solved in May of 2009 with the
creation of the Joint Health Com-
mission.
A goal was to give the tribes an
equal say in health delivery mat-
ters on the reservation. The com-
mission includes two tribal repre-
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761