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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
December 21, 2016
Great start to season
Courtesy MHS
The boys look to continue winning at the Sisters Tournament.
The Madras High School var-
sity basketball teams are off to
winning seasons.
The recent Oregon School Ac-
tivities Association ranking had the
White Buffalo girls at number four
overall in the 4A division.
The team was first in the Tri-
Valley Conference, ahead of
Gladstone. Corbett is ranked third
in the conference.
The Madras girls will be playing
in the upcoming Sisters Tournament
later this month and in early Janu-
ary. They have a home game on
January 6 against Sweet Home.
The White Buffalo boys varsity
team had a winning record in De-
cember, going 3-2 overall. The team
was leading in the Tri-Valley Con-
ference.
They have a home game coming
up on January 6 against Mountain
View. They will be at the Sisters
Tournament later this month and
early January.
2016 Year in Review
(Part 2)
shows the potential market for the
product is large, at $3 billion, she
said.
(The following is part 2 of a look
back at some of the memorable news
events of the past year on the reserva-
tion.)
A large and colorful new
sign arrived in June for the entrance
area of Indian Head Casino. A crew
then set up this great new addition
to the casino marketing. Elsewhere:
May
Warm Springs Fire Manage-
ment and the BIA in May began a
program to conduct controlled
burns with the use of a helicopter.
Firefighters were on hand from
California, Arizona, Washington
and other areas, plus from Warm
Springs. Fire Management has not
used aerial ignition of controlled
burns since 1989. In other news:
The new Tribal Council took
office this month, during a time of
great opportunity, as well as seri-
ous challenges for the Confeder-
ated Tribes.
The tribal budget will be a criti-
cal point of focus, not only look-
ing to 2017, but for the current
year as well. Elsewhere:
The ground breaking ceremony
for the tribes’ cannabis en-
terprise proved to be a popular
event.
The ground-breaking ceremony
for the project proved to be a popu-
lar event. On hand were many
community members, plus federal
and state officials.
Stan Speaks, BIA Northwest re-
gional director, mentioned how the
tribes and Ventures have handled
a unique and potentially compli-
cated business idea.
“They have been very careful
and very cautious,” Mr. Speaks said
of the tribes. “They are certainly
going to be a model.”
An economic study has pro-
jected significant revenue, possibly
more than $20 million a year when
in full operation, from the cannabis
enterprise. “But this is bigger than
dollars and cents,” said Pit-ta Pitt,
project coordinator.
“This is not a quick fix,” he said.
“This is about a group of people
trying to find a way to educate,
clothe and house themselves.”
The tribes’ carbon seques-
tration project is making steady
progress, with September being the
target for marketing and selling the
credits, according to a May report
at Tribal Council.
Spilyay photo.
Members of the Twenty-Seventh Tribal Council take the oath of office, May 2016.
Payment to the tribes could be
expected about 30 days after the
sale is finalized, said Don Sampson,
Warm Springs Ventures chief ex-
ecutive officer.
Warm Springs is the first tribe
to use reservation forest land for
the marketing of carbon seques-
tration credits. Other tribes have
used non-reservation land for this
purpose.
Revenue from the War m
Springs project could be in the
range of $9 million. After costs,
such as for forest management, the
net revenue to the tribes is estimated
at $5.5 million, Mr. Sampson said.
This is a one-time payment for
the acreage, which will be managed
to maximize carbon sequestration
through forest growth. This is con-
ditional use land, not involving tim-
ber for harvest. The duration of
the agreement is 100 years.
The Confederated Tribes will
conduct an adoption election in
June, Tribal Council decided this
month.
There are 160 adoptee candi-
dates who are eligible to become
members of the Confederated
Tribes.
Each candidate is being voted
on individually. There is a 50-per-
cent voter turnout requirement for
this to be a valid election.
If there is a valid election, each
individual receiving a majority of
‘yes’ votes will be adopted into the
Confederated Tribes. And this in
May:
Tribal Council and staff are
working on a plan to sell logs
from the reservation forest. These
are a valuable tribal trust asset.
The logs were initially intended
for sale to Warm Springs Forest
Products Industries. Since the en-
terprise is now in receivership, the
plan is to sell them on the open
market to the highest bidder.
Meanwhile, the process of set-
tling the WSFPI finances is a tribal
court receivership. The logs that
are currently in the woods are not
part of the receivership, as these
are tribal property.
This may be the first tribal en-
terprise in the U.S. to be subject to
a tribal court receivership process.
The receiver is Edward
Hostmann, and Edward Hostmann
Inc.
The receivership was filed in
tribal court on May 2. The re-
ceiver reports on a monthly basis
to the judge.
June
The last day of school this year
at the Warm Springs Academy was
a unique one. On that afternoon,
a team from a NASA youth edu-
cation and outreach program in
Washington launched a rocket
from a field by the Academy.
The rocket launch demonstra-
tion was at the conclusion of a se-
ries of science and math exercises
for middle school students. This
was a partnership project among
the school, NASA, Oregon Health
Sciences University, OMSI and the
University of Washington. Warm
Springs Ventures also helped with
some planning facilitation.
The goal of this program was
to encourage under-represented
youth to pursue careers in science,
technology, engineering and math
(STEM). A way to help achieve
this is with a show-case event such
as the rocket launch. In other June
news:
nativeFAX is a new and up-
coming project of Warm Springs
Ventures. Ventures is partnering
with Tigard-based FaxBack Fax
Solutions on the new business en-
terprise.
The technolog y uses the
Internet to send faxes, including
faxes to e-mail. This eliminates the
need for a dedicated fax line.
FaxBack is the manufacturer
of the adapter that connects to the
fax machine. The tribes are the
marketing body. The item is called
nativeFAX: A Warm Springs Ven-
ture. The target market includes
government agencies, including law
enforcement, and private busi-
nesses. Documents sent with
nativeFAX cannot be altered, which
is part of the appeal of the ser-
vice. The fax can go to multiple e-
mails.
These features can be impor-
tant to law enforcement, medical
groups, car dealerships, universi-
ties, the military, among other
groups, Ms. Stwyer said. A study
The adoption election in
June did not meet the 50-percent
voter turnout requirement, so the
results are void. Including this re-
cent vote, the last three adoption elec-
tions have failed for lack of voter par-
ticipation.
The cost of the election is about
$20,000, said Arlita Rhoan, Election
board member. For this and other
reasons, she said, the decision about
setting a re-vote is a serious one.
As three adoption elections have
failed, Tribal Councilman Raymond
Tsumpti said the tribes should con-
sider conducting a secretarial elec-
tion regarding the adoption candi-
dates. The secretarial process, con-
ducted by the BIA, has no minimum
voter turn-out requirement.
A review of the results shows that
all of the candidates received more
positive votes than negative—often
by a large margin of three- or four-
to-one in favor.
A total of 987 people cast bal-
lots in the adoption election. A fig-
ure in the range of 1,500 would
have been required for a valid vote.
Meanwhile, the tribes could de-
cide to change the membership
baseline census role from 1960 to
1980. This would result in the au-
tomatic enrollment of about 60 of
the candidates who were on the re-
cent election list. A proposal to up-
date the baseline role could be sent
to referendum, depending on the
decision of the Tribal Council. And
this:
The exhibit Kindred Spirits: The
Artistic Journey of Lillian Pitt
opened in June at the Museum at
Warm Springs. Ms. Pitt was born
on the Warm Springs Reservation.
She is Warm Springs, Wasco and
Yakama.
Lillian first showcased her art-
work here at the Museum at Warm
Springs in 1999 with her exhibit
Spirits Keep Whistling Me Home.
Since then, she has established her-
self as one of the most highly re-
garded Native American Artists in
the Pacific Northwest.
(Continues on page 7)