Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
September 12, 2018 - Vol. 43, No. 19
September – Wanaq’i – Summer - Shatm
School year 2018-19 begins at Academy
T he beginning of fall is among the
best times of year, for the weather,
sports, school, etc. This fall 645
students are starting their new
school at the Warm Springs Acad-
emy.
Outside the Academy class-
rooms, there are football practice
and games, volleyball tournaments
and cross country.
Meanwhile for the 509-J school
district the board of directors at
their meeting this week accepted
more than $1 million in grants.
Some of the money will be used
for after-school education programs,
the hiring of one new teacher, and
teacher training.
Some of the grant money—
through the Oregon Workforce
Housing Initiative—will go to Warm
Springs Teachers’ Row.
There are currently eight houses
on the row, owned by the school
district and built in the 1950s.
The Housing Initiative grant will
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
allow the district to rehabilitate and
remodel five of the eight homes.
The remodel will include new
flooring, cupboards and other
changes.
The school district will also add
two modular homes to Teachers’
Row.
Students arrive for the new
school year at the Warm
Springs Academy.
Members will see three tribal ballots next year
The membership will vote
on three important tribal mat-
ters in 2019. There will be two
ballots regarding enrollment—
a baseline question, and an
adoption election—plus the
election of the Twenty-Eighth
Tribal Council.
If you need to update your
voter information, contact Vi-
tal Statistics in the administra-
tion building. Or you can call
Vital Stats at 541-553-3252.
The first tribal vote in 2019
will be on February 15, asking
the membership to decide on
a possible change to the how
blood quantum is determined
for the purposes of automatic en-
rollment. Absentee ballots for this
election will likely go out in De-
cember.
Specifically, the February ballot
will ask: “Should Resolution 12,157
determining the blood quantum
for the purpose of automatic en-
rollment be approved?”
The Twenty-Sixth Tribal Coun-
cil passed Resolution 12,157, with
the Simnasho District then invok-
ing Article VI of the Tribal Con-
stitution, requiring the matter be
put to referendum. The current
Tribal Council then set the refer-
endum date for February next year.
In the spring of 2019 the mem-
bership will vote on the next Tribal
Council, with the district nomina-
tion meetings coming this winter.
Then next late summer or fall
is the projected time for an adop-
tion election. The last successful
adoption election was in 1996.
Enrollment baseline
Tribal management developed
the following explanation regarding
the enrollment matters:
Warm Springs Enrollment Or-
dinance 94 outlines the require-
ments for automatic enrollment
and adoption. Currently, an indi-
vidual is eligible for automatic en-
rollment if they have at least one-
quarter of Confederated Tribes
blood: Warm Springs, Wasco or
Paiute.
Tribal Council in 2008
adopted Resolution 10,934 al-
lowing individuals to also con-
sider blood quantum from
neighboring tribes based upon
valid traditional kinship and an-
cestral ties that can be docu-
ment and confirmed as trace-
able to legitimate treaty and pre-
treaty family affiliation con-
nected to the Warm Springs
(Sahaptin or Ichiskin); Wasco,
(Chinookan or Kiksht); and/or
Paiute, (Shoshonean or Numu).
See ELECTIONS on page 2
Natural Resources monitoring wolf pups
Austin Smith Jr./BNR
One of the wolf pups (left); and the parents (above).
W ildlife officials at the Branch
of Natural Resources have known
for the past couple of years that
wolves are living on the reserva-
tion. Images of the animals were
caught on remote cameras.
What has not been clear is
whether the wolves were just pass-
ing through the reservation, or
were they living here permanently,
said Austin Smith Jr., BNR wild-
life biologist.
This summer has seen a fasci-
nating development in the Warm
Springs wolf story: An alfa male
and alfa female wolf pair are now
raising two wolf pups on the res-
ervation.
Austin has seen them many
times, and has pictures of the
adults and the pups. The young
ones are about five months old,
he said.
Wolves were re-introduced in
Idaho about 20 years ago, and ap-
parently some have migrated to
Oregon, including to the reserva-
tion.
Wolves are at the top of the
wildlife food chain, taking deer and
elk and other animals. They
evolved as an endurance species,
able to follow their prey for long
periods of time until the stragglers
can no longer get away.
In this way, by taking the
weaker prey, wolves help make a
healthier deer and elk population,
Austin said.
Wolves are smart, hunting
cooperatively in teams. The male
wolf can weigh up to 99 pounds,
and the females up to about 85
pounds.
The two wolf pups on the
reservation weigh about 45 to
55 pounds, Austin said. They
can live for up to 16 years.
Wolves are protected by the
federal Endangered Species Act.
Dave McMechan
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Budget
presentations
commence
at Council
Tribal Finance and Management
presented a proposed balanced bud-
get at Tribal Council on Monday,
followed by a half-day of depart-
ment and branch budget presenta-
tions.
Finance director Alfred Estimo
and treasury-controller presented the
2019 budget proposal work book,
followed by presentations from the
chief operations officer, Public
Safety, Utilities and the Branch of
Natural Resources.
Later in the week were the pre-
sentations from Health and Human
Services, and Education.
And further budget summaries
for Community Assistance, General
and Administrative, debt service, the
Place for Kids, capital projects,
Human Resources, Governmental
Affairs, Tribal Court.
High Lookee Lodge, the Mu-
seum at Warm Springs, Housing
Authority, Tribal Council, commit-
tees and Council support.
And enterprise groups: Cannabis
Commission, TERO Commission,
Gaming Commission and Surveil-
lance, Indian Head Casino and Pla-
teau Travel Plaza, Composite Prod-
ucts, Warm Springs Telecom, Ven-
tures, Kah-Nee-Ta, and Power and
Water, and the Timber LLC.
Tribal Council expects to post the
proposed 2019 budget by the end
of this month.
In early October the membership
will receive the 2019 budget pro-
posal mailing, and the district meet-
ings will follow.
Kah-Nee-Ta
in a kind of
waiting mode
A maintenance and security team
are working at Kah-Nee-Ta, and the
tribes are keeping the property in-
surance, while the resort is now
closed to the public.
This is the ‘mothball option,’
meaning the resort would still be in
reasonable shape one day maybe to
re-open. It is estimated that the clo-
sure costs will be up to $720,000
annually.
The Kah-Nee-Ta board of di-
rectors, who had been serving with
no compensation, has resigned,
leaving the Tribal Council as the
managing board.
In the letter of resignation, the
board indicated they will continue
to help in any way possible in the
search for a viable model of op-
eration for Kah-Nee-Ta.
Unlike the Forest Products In-
dustries mill, the resort will not go
into receivership because all of its
debt is to the tribes themselves,
rather than to any outside lender.
The Kah-Nee-Ta hamlets are still
occupied through the end of the
year, giving the tenants a chance to
find new housing.
See KNT on page 3