Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
May 24, 2017 - Vol. 42, No. 11
May – Xawit’an – Spring - Wawaxam
Graduation, Honor Walk, Banquet in June
The Madras High School Class
of 2017 will graduate on Satur-
day, June 3. The ceremony begins
at 9 a.m. at the high school foot-
ball field. This year about 32
tribal member youth will gradu-
ate from the high school.
The high school seniors are
graduating on June 3, while the
last regular day of school for
other students in the district is
June 15.
Some days were added to the
school calendar this year because
of several snow days this past
winter.
At the Warm Springs Academy
school will also see an early start
of the 2017-18 school year. The
first seven days of classes will be
August 14-17, and then August
23-25. There are a couple of
days off between these first two
weeks because of the total solar
eclipse, August 21.
The seven extra days of learn-
ing are made possible through an
Office of Indian Education grant,
said Warm Springs Academy
Principal Ken Parshall.
After the August 23-25 school
days, there will be a week off for
the students because of in-service
days. Then the school year re-
sumes after Labor Day.
Honor Walk, Banquet
The Warm Springs Academy
will host the Honor Walk for
Madras High School and other
tribal member graduates on Fri-
day, June 2.
Graduates are invited to visit
the Academy, walk the hallways
in their caps and gowns, as the
Academy students, teachers and
staff give tribute for their success-
ful accomplishment.
“Part of this is to help the
younger students understand,
‘This is where you are going,’” Mr.
Parshall said.
“We want every student to
graduate. We want the younger
students to see this is the goal,
this is why we are celebrating.
It’s a learning opportunity.”
An Honor Graduates Ban-
quet this year will follow the
Honor Walk on June 2 at the
Academy. The Academy and
the Education Committee are
cooperating on this new ap-
proach to the Graduates Ban-
quet.
June 14 at the Warm Springs
Academy will be Promotion
Night for the eighth-grade stu-
dents, who next year will be
going to high school.
(See SCHOOL on 6)
Honoring
the Elders
Honor Seniors Day in Warm
Springs saw another great
turnout of guests and local
residents, health, safety and
other service workers,
enjoying the entertainment
and salmon bake at the
Agency Longhouse.
During this year’s Honor
Seniors Day, Liza Jim in
appreciation presented tribal
elder Neda Wesley with a
shawl, special for the
occasion.
Honor Seniors Day is hosted
each year by the Warm
Springs Seniors Program.
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Grand entry at Honor Seniors Day, with Miss Warm Springs Katrina Blackwolf and students,
parents and teachers from the Early Childhood Center.
Council considers CP options
Tribal Council in June is
planning to meet with Warm
Springs Ventures on the fund-
ing options for CP Enterprise,
the tribes’ cannabis production
project.
Options have included
bringing in an outside source of
funding, or finding a way for the
tribes and Ventures to self-fund
the project.
The outside funding source
was brought up last month at
Tribal Council, with some ben-
efits of the arrangement such
as not investing limited tribal
funding in the development
phase. A drawback, though, is
revenue sharing, with the tribes
in the long-term seeing signifi-
cant revenue going to the out-
side party.
Council and Ventures met at
Kah-Nee-Ta this month to re-
view the two choices. Council
wants to review options for self-
funding. This is currently sched-
uled for the June 12 session.
Meanwhile, a lease for the
production site has been worked
out, involving the tribes, Ven-
tures, and then CP Enterprise.
Memorial Park dedication
Courtesy Hamilton Greeley
Drummers at the May 13 dedication ceremony of the Veterans
Memorial Park at the Museum at Warm Springs, hosted by the
Veterans Memorial Park Committee.
School board member
beginning third term
T he Warm Springs Academy is a
great project the tribes and school
district accomplished in recent years.
“It truly is becoming a community
school—you see that in the many
community activities and events that
happen there,” Laurie Danzuka says.
Ms. Danzuka is beginning her
third 4-year term on the Jefferson
County school district board, hav-
ing won her bid last week for re-
election.
Looking to the next four years,
Laurie sees opportunity with the
American Indian/Alaska Native
curriculum project. This a program
of the state Department of Educa-
tion, as set out in federal legislation.
The Oregon Department of Edu-
cation, in consultation with the nine
tribes, is in the process of submit-
ting its plan.
The program recognizes the im-
portance of tribal language, culture
and history as part of the school
curriculum. This could go a long
way toward addressing a disagree-
ment the district and some tribal
education advocates have had in the
past.
Laurie has three children in the
509-J district, two at the Academy
and one at the high school: fourth-
grader Kathleen, eighth-grader
Kathryce, and high school junior
RETURN SERVICE
REQUESTED
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Tribes see
no sign yet
of malware
The Confederated Tribes’ Office
of Information Systems takes ev-
ery precaution to protect the orga-
nization from malicious software.
“We’re as protected as anyone could
be,” said Todd Stum, office direc-
tor.
Computer security came to fore-
front earlier this month when a new
strain of ransomware spread
through hundreds of computer net-
works across the globe.
On computers that are infected
with ransomware, the virus blocks
access to data until a ransom is paid
in bitcoin. And even then there is
no assurance that paying the ran-
som will unlock the data.
As of Tuesday morning of this
week, no computers in the tribal
organization had been infected.
However, Mr. Stum said, the
ransomware has an incubation pe-
riod of ten days.
So Thursday evening of this
week will be the time when we’ll
know for sure, he said.
A computer viral infection like
ransomware would have a devastat-
ing impact on the tribal organiza-
tion, perhaps lasting a period of
months.
Precautions include careful back-
ing-up of essential data, and the ef-
fort led by OIS to avoid infection
in the first place. OIS advice to any-
one using a tribal computer:
Be very careful when you get an
email with an attachment you did
not ask for: If there is an attach-
ment, do not click on it. Instead,
delete the whole email.
If you or a co-worker are not
paying attention and accidentally
open one of these email attach-
ments, you might infect not only
your own workstation, but immedi-
ately everyone else’s computer as
well. Warm Springs Office of In-
formation Systems is a local re-
source if you have questions, 541-
553-3275.
Council report
on storm damage
Laurie Danzuka
Rich. Laurie works as the CP En-
terprise coordinator at Warm
Springs Ventures.
In school board business she
looks forward to working with the
new superintendent, Academy
Principal Ken Parshall.
He already has relationships in
Warm Springs and at the k-8
Academy, Laurie says. And he has
experience and connections with
funding sources for innovative
education programs.
Another promising project, she
says, is Futures, a career and tech-
nical program at the high school,
very popular with students.
The 2016-17 winter stor m
caused significant damage to tribal
buildings. The tribes then started an
insurance claim to cover some of
the costs.
The Tribal Council heard a re-
cent report on the situation from
tribal property manager Brett
Whipple. The damage was fairly
costly, he said, especially at Kah-
Nee-Ta.
All told, the claim for the tribes
could be around $700,000, Mr.
Whipple said.
While most of the cost is associ-
ated with damage at Kah-Nee-Ta,
there were other tribal buildings
damaged by the snow and freezing
temperatures.
As an example, a structure at
Peter’s Pasture was destroyed by the
high accumulation of snow.