Spilyay Tymoo
January 18, 2017 - Vol. 42, No. 2
Coyote News, est. 1976
January – Wiyak’ik’ila – Winter - Anm
Tribes plan for summer total eclipse
The morning on August 21 of
this year, a Monday, will bring a
solar eclipse across parts the U.S.
including Oregon. The Warm
Springs Reservation is in direct
line to see the total eclipse.
Expect many visitors, as more
populous areas—Portland and
Eugene, for instance—are not in
direct line to see the total eclipse.
This is an economic opportu-
nity for the tribes, but one that also
requires careful planning: August
is the height of fire season, and
vehicle traffic on the reservation
could become an issue.
Meanwhile, plans are coming
together for celebration and edu-
cation events on the day of the
eclipse, and during the weekend
leading up to it.
Kah-Nee-Ta is already booked
for that weekend, with a student
group traveling to the resort from
Japan.
Indian Head Casino is planning
to feature Native entertainers on
the days leading up to the eclipse.
“We’re looking at having national
level, and regional Native entertain-
ers,” said Belinda Chavez, market-
ing director at the casino.
Indian Head is also planning to
provide transportation for custom-
ers to exclusive viewing areas on
the reservation.
Working with the casino, the
Museum at Warm Springs has
plans for a gathering on the mu-
seum grounds featuring tribal ven-
dors and dance demonstrations.
NASA project
War m Springs Ventures is
partnering with NASA on a unique
science experience for students.
These will be local students,
joined by middle and high school
students from elsewhere in Oregon,
Washington, Montana and Idaho.
Ventures in the past has
partnered with the NASA Washing-
ton Space Grant Consortium. The
partners launched a rocket at the
Academy last summer as a science,
technology, engineering and math
(STEM) exercise.
The NASA-tribal eclipse event
could prove to be even more im-
pressive: The plan is to launch he-
River
Restored
A fter gold was discovered in
the Middle Fork John Day
River in the 1860s, the water-
way and the ecosystem it sup-
ports endured over a century
of damage, degradation, and
destruction.
The greatest damage came
from the dredge mining of a
two-mile stretch of the river
from 1939 to 1943.
“After dredging, what was
left on the floodplain was no
topsoil, no vegetation, no trees
for shade,” said Pat McDowell,
Geography and Environmen-
tal Studies professor at the Uni-
versity of Oregon.
In total, around two hun-
dred acres of floodplain were
impacted, with soil and vegeta-
tion loss, straightened stream
channels, and tailing piles that
affected water quality.
“It was a moonscape of
mine tailings,” remembers
Brian Cochran, the Oxbow Res-
toration project manager for
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs Fisheries.
Courtesy CRITFC
lium balloons that will travel as
far as the edge of outer space,
said Aurolyn Stwyer, Ventures
business and marketing direc-
tor.
The balloons will be
equipped with cameras that will
be aimed at the earth, captur-
ing images as the shadow of
the moon passes across the
state.
Visiting students can camp
overnight in teepees. The bal-
loon launch site will be at the
Ventures Wolfe Point un-
manned aerial vehicle launch
area. The NASA Consortium
explains:
(See ECLIPSE on 10)
(used in gold mining), other
heavy metals, and toxic chemi-
cals that leach into the water.
Today the Clean Water Act
forbids the discharge of any
dredged materials into the wa-
ters of the U.S. unless autho-
rized by a permit. This has ef-
fectively stopped bucket dredg-
ing for gold; however, the West
is now faced with the effects of
this mining legacy:
Billions of dollars of
remediation and restoration
work to repair the damage that
has already been done in places
like the Middle Fork John Day
River.
Sign at the Oxbow Restoration Site.
In need of help
Historical Damage
Up until the early 1900s, gold
mining efforts in remote locations
throughout the West were limited
to panning or sluice mining that
required sand and gravel to be dug
up by hand.
While still damaging, the effects
tended to be limited, and at a level
that the ecosystem could usually
recover from.
This changed with the inven-
tion of mechanized means of
gold mining that suddenly opened
up a whole new scale of environ-
mental impacts that overwhelmed
the resilience of the environment
to accommodate.
Bucket dredging was an early
steam-powered method that was
used on the Middle Fork John Day
River. A bucket dredger uses a ro-
tating belt or wheel equipped with
buckets to scoop up material from
the riverbed for processing.
The scouring of the riverbed
at this scale destroys aquatic eco-
systems that take thousands of
years to develop naturally. Addi-
tionally, the dredge spoils that are
carried to the riverbanks alters the
waterway and can contain mercury
The Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs Branch of Natu-
ral Resources recognized that the
river needed help.
“We knew there was a prob-
lem out here, and it wasn’t any-
thing that was going to recover
itself except over thousands of
years,” Brian Cochran says.
The thinking was that by
speeding up the river’s recovery,
the summer steelhead, spring
chinook salmon, Pacific lam-
prey, and bull trout that de-
pended on the river would reap
the benefits.
(See RESTORATION on 3)
General Council meeting on KNT loan
Kah-Nee-Ta Resort is getting
ready to resume full operation next
week. There has been a partial clo-
sure of the resort during non-week-
end days.
Full service can be expected to
resume on Monday, said resort gen-
eral manager Jim Bankson.
Meanwhile, Tribal Council has
set Monday, January 30, for a Gen-
eral Council meeting. This meeting
is required as part of the 2017
supplemental budget process.
Council gave preliminary ap-
proval of a loan to the resort in the
amount of $400,000. This is funded
through the tribes’ gas tax rebate,
Courtesy KNT
Village pool in the snow.
through the Business Investment
Revolving Fund.
As the 2017 budget was already
set, the supplemental budget process
is required.
The General Council meeting
had been scheduled for earlier
this month but was cancelled be-
cause of the weather.
The January 30 meeting will
be at the Agency Longhouse.
The gas tax refund is in-
tended by Council resolution for
economic development projects.
Helping Kah-Nee-Ta become a
viable enterprise would clearly
meet this goal.
The management and board
are considering the possibility of
bringing in a partner, one with
resources to help the resort
compete with others in the re-
gion.
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Response
to weather
events
This winter brought extraordi-
nary snowfall, followed this week by
warmer temperatures, raising the
possibility of flooding. The tribes
have responded to the conditions
with safety measures and caution.
In regard to the flooding pros-
pect, the tribes have received ship-
ments of hundreds of pre-filled
sandbags, plus additional empty bags
that were then filled, said tribal
Emergency manager Dan Martinez.
Emergency Operations also
keeps a list of potential flood sites,
based on past experience, Martinez
said.
Meanwhile, the tribal organiza-
tion was closed on Monday of this
week, so Utilities could inspect the
roofing conditions of tribal build-
ings. And the organization was ei-
ther closed, or on delayed opening
every day last week.
Students missed a total of eight
school days due to the snow. There
are options as to how to make up
these days (see the district statement page
3).
The regional snow level for Janu-
ary—already almost four feet, the
most in the past 20 years—created
the flooding concern this week as
temperatures were expected in the
40s. The forecast says the snow
could return later in the week or
over the weekend.
Twenty-one years ago, during the
flood of 1996, the Kah-Nee-Ta Vil-
lage was completely inundated when
the Warm Springs River overflowed
its banks. After the ‘96 flood, the
tribes rebuilt the Village, and added
a protective berm between the river
and the Village.
So the threat to the Village, at
least, has been mitigated.
Youth Art
show at
museum
The Museum at Warm Springs
in January will host the Twenty-
Fourth Annual Tribal Youth Art
Exhibit. A theme of the exhibit
this year is the solar system, re-
flecting the summer eclipse event.
Students are invited to submit
artwork through this Friday, Janu-
ary 20. The opening reception for
the Youth Art Exhibit is set for
Thursday, January 26. The exhibit
will then be on display in the Chang-
ing Exhibits room through April 8.
The Youth Art Exhibit features
original works by young people of
the community from toddlers
through high school. Talk to
Natalie Kirk at the museum if you
need more information, 541-553-
3331. This summer the museum
feature an exhibit Celestial Visions,
June 22 through September 9.