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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
December 6, 2017
Land buy-back fair market
value matter at Council
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
The 22 residents at High Lookee Lodge received Christmas trees and fleece blankets from the Indian
Head Casino Employee Relations Committee. Delivering the trees for the Employee Relations
Committee were Janell Smith, Heather Cody, casino general manager Jeffrey Carstensen, Travel Plaza
general manager Eric Angel, Tim Kerr, Kaitlyn Minnic, Roy Evans, Nicole Smith and Jami Deming (on
right and at back). On hand at the lodge were Susan Surgeon, Jolene Greene, Lucille Jones (sitting)
Helen Putman, Amy Payenna, Reginald Winishut, William Frank and William Rodgers (on left, from
right).
Year in Review ~ 2017
April
Tribal Council approved phase
1 of the final mill site cleanup.
This involves the removal of the
sawmill building, the biggest prob-
lem area at the site.
Another building, called the tur-
bine building or pumphouse, would
have the doors and windows sealed
to prevent trespass. Tribal Council
toured the site last week with the
WSFPI liquidation receiver,
Hamstreet & Associates.
Total cost of the final cleanup
is estimated at over $300,000. In
better economic news:
Indian Head Casino and the
Confederated Tribes celebrated the
construction start of the Plateau
Travel Plaza. The gaming board
and staff, Tribal Council and mem-
bers gathered at the site for the
ground-breaking.
The Travel Plaza will be located
on Cherry Lane, just off Highway
26 at the Madras Industrial Park,
featuring the 13,500-square-foot
main building. There will be a con-
venience store, restaurant with seat-
ing for 70 people, a few class II
gaming machines, shower and laun-
dry facilities, the gas pumps and
diesel for the larger vehicles.
The 10-acre site will include
parking space for up 70 semi
trucks.
The Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs Cannabis Commis-
sion has hired its executive direc-
tor. The commission hired Joe
Jensen, Environmental Scientist, as
executive director.
Jensen has 15 years experience
as an Environmental Scientist, and
also is experienced with cannabis
growing operations.
May
The Veterans Memorial Park
Committee hosted a ground break-
ing ceremony at the Museum at
Warm Springs, site of the future
Veterans Memorial Park.
The memorial park will be in
honor of all veterans from the Con-
federated Tribes of Warm Springs,
representing all military branches
and all major conflicts, from the
early Scouts to the present.
The Veterans Memorial Park
Committee provides this description:
The memorial will display the
official seals of all the branches of
service, along with seven flags.
There will be 10 pillars on a
raised mound with the names of
the veterans inscribed on the pillars.
And there is a plan for walkways
of bricks inscribed with the names
of donors.
Call to Plateau Indian Artists,
With a major grant from the Oregon Community
Foundation’s Creative Heights program, the Josephy Center for
Arts and Culture will select a Plateau Indian artist to give his or
her work a place in the city.
The grant includes an artist’s award of $25,000 and funds
for art casting and construction. For details or questions
contact Rich Wandschneider, 541-432-0505. Or email:
rich.wandschneider@gmail.com
The Josephy Center for Arts and Culture – 403 N.
Main St., Joseph Oregon 97846
Fourteen teams of young lan-
guage students represented the Con-
federated Tribes of Warm Springs
at the Language Bowl 2017.
There were 44 students in all, with
teams representing each of the three
languages. There were three each
for Kiksht and Numu, and eight for
Ichichkiin.
The Language Bowl was held at
the Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton.
Chaperoning the students were 26
adults plus seven elders, for a total
of 77 Warm Springs community
members at the Language Bowl
2017.
The Warm Springs Land
Buy-Back program was at
Tribal Council this week. The
issue was in regard to arriving
at the fair market value of a
property.
Council approved a proposal
from the buy-back team that
improvements to a property
should be included in the cal-
culation of the fair market
value of the property in ques-
tion.
The sale of the property to
the tribes would still include just
the underlying property, and not
the improvement, though the
value of the improvement
would be considered in the fair
market value assessment.
Randy Scott is the contact
person for the Warm Springs
Land Buy-Back program. You
can reach him at the adminis-
tration building. As back-
ground:
No agreement was reached with
the prospective partner, but the
meeting was positive and the per-
son was impressed with the prop-
erty, the board reported at Tribal
Council this week.
The Secretary of the Inte-
rior established the buy-back
program for tribal nations to
give individual landowners an
opportunity to help address
the problem of fractionation,
as part of the Cobell settle-
ment.
Divided ownership makes it
difficult, if not impossible, to
use the land for any beneficial
purposes.
In order to make decisions
regarding the use of a given
allotment a required percent-
age of the individual owners
must consent to the decision.
Some owners are whereabouts
unknown, which can preclude
any beneficial use of the prop-
erty.
Owners of fractionated in-
terests can sell to the tribes,
through the Cobell -funded
program, receiving fair market
value plus $75.
On another positive note, the
Memorial Day Weekend saw an
increase in resort revenue com-
pared to last year, said Marie Kay
Williams, Kah-Nee-Ta interim
manager.
(To be continued)
The Confederated Tribes in May
celebrated the completion of the
fish habitat restoration work on the
Oxbow Conservation Area, lo-
cated on the Middle Fork of the
John Day River.
Warm Springs Honor Seniors
Day marked its Twenty-Seventh
Anniversary in May.
Laurie Danzuka began her third
term on the school district 509-
J board of directors, having won
recent election.
June
The Kah-Nee-Ta board and man-
agement recently met with a poten-
tial business partner, as the re-
sort board is hoping to find an in-
vestment and possible operating
partner.
Spilyay photo
Katrina Blackwolf becomes Miss Warm Springs 2017.