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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2018)
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon December 5, 2018 Page 5 Healing the Orphan’s Heart at Ride Out the Storm P astor Titus Upham shared Healing the Or phan’s Heart—a message of hope, healing and res- toration—at the Ride Out the re- cent Storm conference. War m Springs Behavioral Health—through the Health And Promotion Prevention Initiative— hosted the conference last week at the Community Center. Pastor Upham is Certified Al- cohol and Drug Counselor, with a degree in Social Work and Human Services. He traveled to the Ride Out the Storm conference from his home in Browning, Montana. The Pastor shared these key passages from H e a l i n g t h e Or phan’s Heart: There is a spiritual or phanage amongst the People. We search to fill that void in our lives, through alcohol, drugs, relationships, money, gambling , shopping and eating. In our places of worship we teach our People how to be members, but not how to be children of a Loving Father. Native American hearts are hardened, because of the way the Gospel was presented to them. Titus has been assigned to re present the Gospel to Native Americans, because it was pre- sented wrong. He says: I see or phans in the eyes of our People, especially those locked up. We feel abandoned, rejected, dis- carded, no Indian Name, hurt, abused and divorced. We don’t belong anywhere. We have become disconnected. Titus shared the refrigerator story: If your electricity gets shut off and your food is not removed from the refrigerator, it will spoil and stink. You can clean the refrigera- tor out, and throw all the stink food out. ference. Doors opened, I met Pastor Upham, and he agreed to come to Warm Springs. I met with Living Hope Pas- tor Brigham Brown, who with his board’s support agreed to finan- cially support this event. Through the planning of the event, my father passed away, so the storm became real and be- came a part of the birth of this conference. Courtesy Sarah J. Frank At the conference Patsor Titus Upham shares the message Healing the Orphan’s Heart. But if you put more fresh food in the refrigerator and it’s not con- nected to a power source, the fresh food will go bad, no matter how much you cleaned it out, it will go bad. You have to connect the re- frigerator to a power source. This is the same for us: We can- not keep going to treatment, coun- seling , shopping , etc., and expect our lives to be good, if we are not connected to a power source. We don’t know the pain others are enduring until we have walked the same path. Connecting spiri- tually is important to someone who has a history of addiction. We need to help each other find this connec- tion to truly heal. We need to demonstrate the true love of our Father to the many or- phans, and this can be done through each of us. Many reser- vations, including Warm Springs, have suffered multiple deaths. In a close knit community, one death can affect the whole community. Sarah Frank, from Behavioral Health, shared this story on the beginning Ride Out the Storm conference: In 2004 I attended a funeral for an Elder. I heard a lady share her story, and then sang the song Ride Out the Storm. A vision came to me to have the Ride Out the Storm confer- ence. I didn’t know how to coor- dinate a conference, so I ignored the vision. Through the years I kept be- ing prompted to do this confer- ence. Then on October 17 I knew it was time to have the con- Tribes, university collaborating on tribal higher education The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the University of Idaho have signed an agreement to collaborate on improved edu- cation opportunities for Native American Students. Tribal Council met in Novem- ber with university representatives and, after discussion, the parties agreed to work together on the program. The agreement calls for the tribes to advise the university and President Chuck Staben on edu- cational and service issues aimed at bolstering university-tribal rela- tions. The university has similar agreements with other tribes in the region. “This latest agreement will build upon the university’s strong rela- tionship with the region’s tribal na- tions, and will help promote col- laborations among Native students, tribes and the university,” said Yolanda Bisbee, the school’s chief diversity officer and executive di- rector of tribal relations. “We look forward to working with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation to further promote these efforts.” The university first entered into a tribal agreement in 2007, start- ing with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Other tribes to agree are the Con- federated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Res- ervation, the Kalispel Tribe of In- dians, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Shoshone- Bannock Tribes, the Shoshone- Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation and the Spo- kane Tribe of Indians. The Con- federated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation became the tenth signatory in 2015, and the Confed- erated Tribes of Warm Springs are now the eleventh tribe. As outlined in the agreement, the university president’s Native American Advisory Council meets twice a year to discuss issues re- lated to Indian education, economic development, natural resources and other areas of interest to the tribes. Other presenters who shared were Kenny Scabby Robe—pre- vious leader of Blacklodge, a well-known Drum Group—and Pastor Leah Smartlowit of the Yakama Reser vation. Also: Eanestine Ennick of Tulalip, and local Elder Viola Governor. Titus Upham, Kenny and Louise Scabby Robe, and Pastor Leah also went into the tribal jail on December 1 to share with four separate groups. We thank the many partici- pants and supporters of this event: Warm Springs Police De- partment and Corrections, the Liv- ing Hope Christian Center, Warm Springs Meth and Opiate Work Group, the Hurtado Family, Edna Tufti family, the Warm Springs Baptist Church, Easton Aguilar, Ralph Aguilar, Warm Springs Rec- reation, and the Warm Springs Jail Ministry Group. In 1975, Billy Graham gave a speech to Native American Lead- ers: “You are the sleeping giant, the original Americans. You are now awakening. Just around the corner, you may become a spiri- tual super power in this country that could change not only America, but the world.” The Ride Out the Storm confer- ence was a first-time event, and definitely a learning process. We hope to have other events similar to this, and I would appre- ciate feedback from all participants with hopes of planning future suc- cessful events! Sarah J. Frank
