Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
March 15, 2017 - Vol. 42, No. 6
March – Wiyalppt – Winter - Anm
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Tribes may mediate schools agreement Oregon
The Confederated Tribes have
been trying to negotiate a new long-
term education agreement with the
Jefferson County School District
509-J.
This has been an on-going pro-
cess yet to be resolved. Meanwhile
the district is following an agreement
that is past due for renewal.
The tribes may request the mat-
ter be put to mediation. This would
be through the Oregon Department
of Education.
Tribal Council met last week with
school district board members and
the tribal Education Committee.
Part of the discussion was in re-
gard to the property at the previous
elementary school campus, includ-
ing teachers’ row.
Tribal Council appointed Chair-
man Austin Greene Jr. and Secre-
tary-Treasurer Michele Stacona as
representatives to negotiate on be-
half of the tribes.
The property was subject to a
long-term lease with the school dis-
trict. The arrangement is no longer
needed since the 2014 opening of
the Warm Springs k-8 Academy.
Councilman Ron Suppah suggested
a resolution be reached at least by
the end of this year, and the parties
agreed.
Discussion then turned to the
overall education agreement, or
memorandum of understanding,
between the tribes and the district.
The current five-year agreement
was supposed to expire last summer.
But because no new agreement has
been reached, the district continues
Veterans Memorial
plan for museum
The tribes’ Veterans Memorial
Committee presented the latest de-
sign for a memorial to be located
on the grounds of the Museum at
Warm Springs.
The project would include a me-
morial park and monument. Walk-
ways could be a bricks inscribed
with the names of donors.
Tribal Council gave its approval
to the committee to go ahead with
the project.
The Veterans Memorial Com-
mittee represents the Warm Springs
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW),
the Ladies Auxiliary and Eugene
Greene Sr. American Legion Post.
On the committee are Tamera
Calhoun, commander, Dan
Martinez and Alvis Smith III of the
VFW; and Charles Tailfeathers, com-
mander, AJ Atencio, Charles Calica,
Dennis Dowty and Keith Baker of
the American Legion; and Susan
Brunoe of the Auxiliary.
The committee now has the pre-
liminary drawings and plan for the
memorial park. The final design will
be by an architectural firm that may
donate the service, the committee
reported.
The idea for a veterans memo-
rial on the museum grounds goes
back a number of years. The cur-
rent Veterans Memorial Commit-
tee is dedicated seeing the project
through.
One of the ideas for the me-
morial park is to incorporate wa-
ter and fire features. There would
be a raised mound with the water
feature and flame of life at the
center.
A soldier statue, flags and
monument with the names of the
tribal veterans are other ideas.
Hundreds of tribal members have
served in the armed forces from
to 1850s to the present day.
The proposed site of the vet-
erans memorial park is by the
Treaty Tree at the museum.
The Veterans Memorial Com-
mittee has researched fund-rais-
ing ideas. An idea is for the path-
ways at the park to be of bricks
inscribed donors’ names.
Meanwhile, the Ladies Auxil-
iary and American Legion are
planning a Welcome Home Viet-
nam Veterans Parade and Expo
in the spring. This will be the sec-
ond year of the parade and expo.
The Legion and Auxiliary are
now hosting fund-raisers in the
community for the event.
to operate under this understand-
ing.
Last year the previous Tribal
Council appointed the Education
Committee to negotiate terms of
a new agreement. The committee
developed a detailed proposal, but
was not able to reach an agreement
with the district.
The current Tribal Council then
took office, and appointed two new
members to the Education Com-
mittee. There is still no agreement,
and mediation may be the best so-
lution, said Deanie Smith, Culture
and Heritage project supervisor,
and Education Committee mem-
ber.
The problem with the current
agreement is its general vagueness,
Ms. Smith said. There are state
and federal standards that apply
to Indian education, and these
should be addressed in the new
agreement, she said.
Tribal Council next week is
scheduled to meet with April
Campbell, Indian Education Ad-
visor with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education. The meet-
ing should help deter mine
whether mediation is necessary.
Some of the issues that need
to be resolved are fundamen-
tal. For instance at the meeting
last week there was discussion of
having a charter school or high
school in Warm Springs.
This is not a solution to the
issues now facing the district,
Councilwoman Carina Miller
said.
Miss Warm Springs
reports at Council
graduate of the University of
Idaho, where she majored in For-
est Resources and Fire Ecology.
She currently works at tribal Fi-
nance as the grants, budgets and
contracts analyst.
Karlen is planning to go to law
school in the fall, so the Congres-
sional Internship this summer will
be a great experience.
Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., is the
longest current serving member
of the Senate Committee on In-
dian Affairs.
Seeing first-hand the relationship
between the federal government
Oregon Public Broadcasting on
Monday, March 20, will premier the
one-hour Oregon Experience docu-
mentary Broken Treaties. The show
will air at 9 p.m. on OPB.
Louie Pitt Jr., director of gov-
ernmental affairs of the Confeder-
ated Tribes of Warm Springs, is
among the tribal representatives fea-
tured in Broken Treaties.
The timing of the show is sig-
nificant, as this month marks 60
years since the inundation of Celilo
Falls.
Broken Treaties examines the his-
tory of the Native people of Or-
egon, and how they have gone from
possessing 100 percent of the state’s
land to nearly none of it. OPB pro-
vides an overview of the docu-
mentary:
‘Broken Treaties’
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Miss Warm Springs 2017 Katrina Blackwolf and tribal
chief operations officer Alyssa Macy, a former Miss
Warm Springs, met last week with Tribal Council.
As Miss Warm Springs 2017
Katrina Blackwolf keeps a busy
schedule.
She is a full-time student at
Yakama Valley Community Col-
lege, majoring in Biology.
Meanwhile this year she trav-
eled to the Chemawa Indian
School in Salem, where she had
an inspiring visit with the stu-
dents.
At Lincoln’s Powwow she
demonstrated the Butterfly
Dance. And next month she will
be traveling to the Gathering of
Nations Powwow in Albuquer-
que for the Miss Indian World
contest.
Katrina met last week with
Tribal Council and chief opera-
tions officer Alyssa Macy. She
reviewed some of her tribal
ambassadorship projects so far
this year.
Her report was well received
and appreciated. The visit to
Chemawa was especially noted,
Council members said, because
students there can sometimes
feel far from home.
Congressional intern to work in Senate office
Karlen Yallup will be working
this summer in Washington, D.C.,
in the offices of United States
Senator John McCain. She will
be working as a Congressional
Intern.
Karlen was selected by the
Udall Foundation for the 2017
Native American Congressional
Internship program.
This is a rare opportunity and
achievement: She is one of only
12 students chosen for the 2017
program.
Karlen is a graduate of Ma-
dras High School, and a 2016
Experience
on ‘Broken
Treaties’
Karlen Yallup
and Indian tribes is a main rea-
son why she became interested
in the internship. The legislative
process in general is another
point of interest, she said.
Karlen learned of the oppor-
tunity from Carol Dick at the
tribes’ Higher Education De-
partment.
The Udall Foundation over
the past 20 years has provided
245 internships to students
from 116 different tribes. The
program is funded by the Na-
tive Nations Institute for Lead-
ership, Management and Policy.
Oregonians today generally know
little about the first inhabitants of
the region, the tribal people who
lived here for thousands of years
before European contact.
Indians still have a significant
presence, with nine federally recog-
nized tribes located around the
state, yet they continue to live ‘off
the radar’ of most non-Indians.
Before Euro-Americans came
West, this region was home to a di-
verse and remarkable mix of Indian
tribes and Native languages. What
is now Oregon was Indian coun-
try—hundreds of villages in an en-
vironment of natural abundance, in
which most people thrived.
In the early 1830s the Oregon
Trail established a direct route to the
Pacific Northwest. The government
encouraged Americans to make the
journey and settle here to strengthen
its claim to the territory.
Two Congressional laws—the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and
The Organic Act of 1848—each
declared the United States’ commit-
ment of good faith and fair treat-
ment toward the native people.
Early settlers often did not heed
these pronouncements. They settled
where they pleased, which began the
slow but relentless acquisition of the
Indians’ most valued asset: their
land. The transfer of land away
from the Indians took more than a
century and assumed many
forms—and it was effective.
In 1850, before any treaties had
been signed or any land legally ac-
quired from the Indians, Congress
passed the Donation Land Act, giv-
ing 320 acres of Indian land to ev-
ery settler who wanted it. Within
five years, they would claim 2.8
million acres of it.
Congress sent envoys to acquire
Indian land legally through treaties,
even as the government—before
any documents were ratified—con-
tinued to promote settlement there.
(See OPB on 7)