Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
March 13, 2019 - Vol. 43, No. 6
Wiyak’ik’ila – Winter - Anm
A Homecoming of Ancestors
Since the 1880s the remains of
three ancestors—believed to be
Wasco—were part of a museum
collection half-way around the
world.
A team of Columbia River
tribal members—from War m
Springs, Yakama and Umatilla—
traveled this week to the museum,
the
Canterbury
in
the
Christchurch, New Zealand.
A native tribe of New
Zealand—long-time friends of the
tribes, the Mâori—conducted the
transfer ceremony, handing the
remains back to the Columbia
tribes.
The tribal group—including
three of the Mâori—will now
travel to the Columbia River for
this unique and historic return.
The repatriation is unique in that
it is an international effort, said
Roberta Kirk, Native American
Graves and Repatriation Act co-
ordinator. She explains:
The Graves and Repatriation
Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) applies
to museums within the jurisdiction
of the United States. The law re-
quires these museums to return any
Native remains and funerary ob-
jects to the most appropriate tribe
or tribes.
The Canterbury Museum is out-
side this jurisdiction, so the law does
not apply, Ms. Kirk said. Instead,
the museum has willingly cooper-
ated during the years-long process
that preceded this week’s return.
Reburial at Wishxam Cemetery
Tribal members are invited to
the ancestral reburial this Satur-
day, March 16. The services
begin at 10 a.m. at the Wishxam
Cemetery, Dallesport, Washing-
ton. Following will be a tribal
meal at the Celilo Longhouse.
The repatriation and reburial is
a combined and international ef-
fort by the following:
The Columbia River Tribes:
Confederated Tribes of Warm
The Mâori—the Southern
Mâori Tribe and the Mâori Advi-
sory Committee—have given in-
Springs Reservation, the Con-
federated Tribes and Bands of
the Yakama Nation, and the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Reservation.
From New Zealand: Te
Runanga o Ngai Tahu—the
Southern Mâori Tribe, Ohaki o
Nga Tipuna—the Mâori Advi-
sory Committee; and the Can-
terbury Museum Trust Board
of Christchurch, New Zealand.
valuable help as well, she said. The
Mâori themselves have a repatria-
tion program with the Canterbury
World Championship for Saddle Bronc Rider
F or Isaiah Florendo rodeo is a
year round sport. With grand-
father Evans Spino Jr. and his
traveling family, Isaiah makes
about 80 rodeos a year.
At age 12, Isaiah had already
seen many kinds of rodeo are-
nas. Yet none were like the re-
nowned Jim Norick Arena in
Oklahoma City.
Former home of the National
Finals Rodeo, the arena earlier
this year hosted the International
Miniature Rodeo Association Fi-
nals—where hundreds of young
people from around the world
were in competition.
In the saddle bronc competi-
tion—a rodeo specialty for
Isaiah—there were four go-
rounds. Isaiah won two of these
outright. And in the end—with
most points overall—he won the
International Miniature Rodeo
Saddle Bronc World Champion-
ship.
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Isaiah with the 2018 with this two Finals go-around winner
plaques, leading to his World Championship.
Isaiah won the Championship
buckle and money, and fine
wooden plaques for his two go-
around wins. “I was happy about
that,” Isaiah says. “I was proud.”
The win was not his first in
rodeo: Isaiah, a sixth-grader at
the Warm Springs Academy,
has a total of 14 champions
buckles.
At age 8 he won the All-
Around buckle at the 2015
Cowdeo. He’s won at the
Modoc Heritage Junior Rodeo,
and the Jefferson State Rodeo,
among the many.
The International Miniature
Rodeo finals is among his most
memorable: “It was my first
time at a big show like that,”
Isaiah says.
With his cousin Siddalee
Spino-Suppah, Isaiah is helping
to pioneer for Warm Springs the
field of big-time youth rodeo
competition. Last year Siddalee
was the only girl in the U.S. to
qualify for the Junior National
Finals Rodeo bareback compe-
tition.
See RODEO on page 5
Looking back at year as Miss Warm Springs
Museum, which in the past held
many Mâori ancestral remains.
In recent years the museum has
also returned remains to Easter Is-
land. The return to the Columbia is
a first in North America.
How the three Wasco remains
ended up in New Zealand is a dark
chapter in United States history, said
Louie Pitt, Warm Springs tribal
Governmental Affairs director. He
recounts:
In the late 1800s, with the mi-
gration of white settlers to the
Northwest, looting by some included
Native American graves. The fate
of Memaloose Island is an example,
where thousands of graves were
ransacked.
See REPATRIATION on 8
Vote this
Friday
The membership this Friday,
March 15, will decide the 1980
Baseline Census Referendum.
The primary polling place will be
the Warm Springs Community Cen-
ter. Residents at Simnasho may also
drop off their ballots at the
Simnasho Longhouse; and voters in
Seekseequa may drop off at the
Seekseequa Fire Hall.
The polling hours will be 8 a.m.
to 8 p.m.
For the referendum there is a
minimum voter turnout require-
ment of one-third of those eligible.
That would 1,155 votes to meet the
minimum requirement.
The March 15 referendum asks:
‘Should Resolution 12,157 deter-
mining the blood quantum for the
purpose of automatic enrollment
be approved?’
Resolution 12,157 is the April,
2016 Tribal Council resolution, sug-
gesting the baseline be adjusted
from the 1960 to the 1980 census.
Automatic enrollment
O ver the past year Thyreicia
Simtustus has made more than 50
appearances as Miss War m
Springs—in parades and powwows,
at fairs and rodeos—while always
showing the best side of the tribes.
Some of Reicie’s favorite times:
The Rose Parade in Portland, and
the Crow Fair in Montana, the
Crooked River Round-Up, and the
Jefferson County Fair and Rodeo,
where she rode in carrying the tribal
flag. “I liked being in parades and
on my horse, which was most of
the time,” she says.
On behalf of the tribes, Reicie
greeted Adam Beach, the actor of
Smoke Signals fame, when he visited
the high school and Warm Springs
Academy. And she was a great role
model at the Lil’ Miss War m
Springs Pageant.
Reicie is in her second year at
Central Oregon Community
College, studying Aviation.
See REICIE on page 5
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Miss Warm Springs Thyreicia ‘Reicie’ Simtustus will present the crown at the 2019 Pageant
The tribes in 1966 established
that a person could be automatically
enrolled if the person had one-quar-
ter blood of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs.
By resolution in 1975 the Tribal
Council established the baseline for
determining blood quantum, the
baseline being the 1940 tribal cen-
sus. This meant the quantum of
Indian blood, regardless of tribal
ancestry, of a person on the 1940
census is considered Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs blood.
By resolution in 2008 Tribal
Council updated the baseline to the
1960 census, with the same effect:
The quantum of Indian blood of a
person on the 1960 census is con-
sidered Confederated Tribes blood.
And descendants look to that to
determine their own quantum of
Confederated Tribes blood. The
resolution this Friday asks whether
this standard should now apply in-
stead to the 1980 census.