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