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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
State Champion in 110 Meter High Hurdles
May 22, 2019
Warm Springs Nation Little League play
Thursday, May 23:
Warm Springs Nation
Little League games to-
day:
The Warriors and
major baseball are at
Crook County.
Major softball is in
Redmond. Minor soft-
ball will host Jefferson
County.
In tee-ball play to-
day: the Dodgers play
the A’s on campus; the
Braves and Cardinals
play behind the Community
Center.
Friday, 24: War m
Springs Nation Little League
games today: The Braves are
at Culver and junior baseball
play in Prineville.
Saturday, May 25:
Warm Springs Nation Little
League games: Minor soft-
ball is at Finley Butte with
games at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Tuesday, May 28:
Warm Springs Nation Little
League: Junior baseball is at
Madras. Major baseball,
major softball and the
Braves all have home
games. Tee ball teams
have practice today.
Wednesday, May
29: Warm Springs Na-
tion Little League: Minor
softball
plays
at
Jefferson County today.
Junior baseball hosts
Crook County. Tee ball
teams have practice to-
day.
Salmon Camp applications due soon
Trevin Del Nero (far left) runs the 110 hurdles, and celebrates (below) at State.
T revin Del Nero on Sat-
urday won the 110 Meter
High Hurdles—by two-
hundreths of a second—at
the Class 4A State Track
Meet last weekend at Mt.
Hood Community College.
Trevin, a tribal member,
is the son of Zach Del Nero
and Jessie Esquiro.
He is a junior at
Philomath High School.
His track performances
improved greatly this year
as the season progressed;
and he posted a fast time in
2019 in the 110-High
Hurdles that is a full 1.5
seconds faster than his best
time last year.
The race on Saturday was
so close that Trevin at first
was not sure he had won.
He now is the Class 4A
State Champion in the 110
Meter High Hurdles.
Courtesy photos
Pike another threat to Columbia salmon
Northern pike are some
of the most troubling
aquatic invasive species in
the Northwest. So far, they
haven’t made it past
Washington’s
Lake
Roosevelt. Two dams stand
in their way. And lots of
people trying to stop them.
If the fish make it past
Chief Joseph Dam on the
Columbia River, they could
g reatly har m imperiled
salmon downstream.
“In a lot of ways, the
fight to save the Columbia
River as we know it is go-
ing to be won and lost on
Lake Roosevelt,” said Jus-
tin Bush, executive coordi-
nator of the Washington
Invasive Species Council.
American Indian tribes
are joining with the state
and public utility districts in
what’s being billed as the
largest coordinated event
of its kind in the state. The
groups are working for a
week to catch northern
pike on the lake.
“We are at a critical mo-
ment in time where north-
ern pike have not spread
into salmon habitat,” said
Kelly Susewind, director of
the Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife, in a
statement. “If northern pike
move downstream, the State
of Washington will consider
this an environmental emer-
gency.”
Northern pike are non-
native to the Northwest.
They were illegally intro-
duced here in the 1990s and
have made their way down
the Pend Oreille River into
Lake Roosevelt.
They are extremely ag-
gressive and can wipe out
fish populations in waters
where they aren’t native. In
Alaska and California,
northern pike have reduced
some fish runs so much it’s
effectively crashed fisheries,
Bush said.
“Northern pike prey on
fish that we value, such as
trout, salmon and steel-
head,” Bush said.
One problem is that Lake
Roosevelt is so big (151
miles long) that it makes it
hard for biologists to find
and kill the invasive fish.
Right now, the fish have been
spotted about 12 miles from
Grand Coulee Dam. That’s
90 miles from where anadro-
mous fish are in the Colum-
bia River, Bush said.
“There have been some
new areas found to be colo-
nized within Lake Roosevelt.
I think we’re near seeing some
really devastating effects
within Lake Roosevelt,” Bush
said. In other areas that have
faced northern pike problems,
fishery communities have “to-
tally flipped in terms of what
was present,” Bush said.
Before the fish made it to
Lake Roosevelt, they’d in-
vaded the Pend Oreille River.
Using gill nets placed in north-
ern pike spawning grounds,
the Kalispel Tribe of Indians
was able to suppress the north-
ern pike population in that
river’s Box Canyon Reservoir.
Officials are asking anglers
to report any northern pike
they catch and turn them in
for a bounty of $10 a head.
Reports help biologists know
where the fish are in Lake
Roosevelt.
Childbirth Education classes at center
Childbirth Education Classes are
Wednesdays from noon to 1 p.m. at the
Family Resource Center.
This is a 3 week series that focuses
on Pregnancy, Labor and Delivery, and
Mom and Baby Care.
To learn more or find out when the
series starts, contact Allie Anderson,
MCH Nurse at 541-553-2460.
A treaty question during changing times
Can tribal nations suc-
cessfully sue the federal gov-
ernment over climate
change-related violations of
treaties? And if so, what
would that look like?
To tie climate change to
treaty rights, a case must
point to the actual treaty lan-
guage. While possible, “it
would probably be quite dif-
ficult to find something in a
treaty that places a duty on
the United States to do
something, or refrain from
doing something, connected
to climate change,” said Rob-
ert Coulter, executive direc-
tor at the Indian Law Re-
source Center and citizen of
the Citizen Potawotami Na-
tion.
And, whenever a tribe
uses treaty rights in a court-
room, there is some risk that
the treaty could be dimin-
ished. Because of that, tribal
governments are cautious
about when to pursue a case
with treaty rights.
One plausible example,
though, is the right to fish
“at usual and accustomed
grounds.”
That phrase appears in at
least seven treaties with doz-
ens of Pacific Northwest
tribes—including the Con-
federated Tribes of Warm
Springs.
What if, due to species
shifting from climate change
or erosion from rising wa-
ters, that right could no
longer be fulfilled?
Species shift is a major
side effect from climate
change: One study shows
how salmon shifting north to
colder waters means First
Nations fisheries could de-
cline by almost 50 percent
by 2050.
Such a case has not been
tried, and may not play to the
strengths of the U.S. judicial
system.
The Nez Perze Tribe will
host the Salmon Camp
2019, August 11-17. Appli-
cations are due on May 31.
Go to critfc.org to apply.
Salmon Camp fosters
youth interest in natural re-
sources careers, and closing
the academic achievement
gap for Native American
youth.
Salmon Camp is a com-
ponent of the Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission’s
Tribal
Workforce Development
program.
The annual camp focuses
on providing culturally rel-
evant science, technology,
engineering, and mathemat-
ics (STEM) experiences to
foster an interest in natural
resources careers and close
the academic achievement
gap for Native American
youth.
Twenty incoming sixth-
eighth grade students from
the four Columbia River
tribes are selected to attend
the free camp.
Meals and lodging are
provided and, after the pro-
gram is successfully com-
pleted, a stipend is offered.
The week-long camp is
held during the summer in
tribal homelands. The four
tribes take turns hosting
Salmon Camp. The seven-
day, overnight camp exposes
the students to a blend of
Western science and tradi-
tional ecological and cultural
knowledge.
Salmon Camp Partici-
pants:
· Learn about the science
and lifecycle of salmon.
· Work on salmon resto-
ration projects.
· Explore Traditional
Ecological Knowledge.
· Meet tribal profession-
als working in the sciences.
· Learn from tribal elders
and cultural experts.
· Gain unique and valu-
able hands-on experience.
Salmon Camp Staff Posi-
tions: The success of Salmon
Camp depends on great
people who are committed to
and enjoy working with kids.
CRITFC is currently seek-
ing applicants to participate
in the Junior Counselor pro-
gram. The Junior Counselors
are Warm Springs, Yakama,
Umatilla, or Nez Perce youth
who are incoming 9-12 grad-
ers or who graduated high
school this spring (ages 16-
18).
The junior counselors
help the camp counselors
with Salmon Camp and get
an opportunity to gain lead-
ership and mentoring expe-
rience.
Mariah Stacona’s family, and Spilyay photographer
Jayson Smith, visited Kirkland in May for Mariah
Stacona’s graduation ceremony. She received her
Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration.
Bonneville Power Struggles as salmon runs decline
As some Northwest
salmon seasons are closing
before they even begin,
Bonneville Power faces a fi-
nancial crisis.
BPA has thirty-one
power-generating projects in
the Columbia Basin. The
dams on the Columbia and
Lower Snake Rivers are
major suppliers of carbon-
free energy to the northwest,
especially Oregon and Wash-
ington.
But all of that energy is
expensive in today’s market,
and Bonneville Power is los-
ing market share to newer
alternative energy sources.
Congressman
Mike
Simpson says he’s deter-
mined to find a way to save
a struggling BPA, while also
bringing Idaho salmon back
to sustainable numbers.
Economist Tony Jones
suggests Bonneville Power
rid itself of assets that are
losing money, in particular,
the four dams on the Lower
Snake River in Washington.
“It probably costs roughly
forty to forty five dollars per
megawatt to produce power
at the four Lower Snake
Dams, all of which sells for
twenty dollars or below,” said
Jones. “So the Lower Snake
Dams are losing on the order
of one hundred million dol-
lars per year. If they were
owned by a private agency,
rather than a federal agency,
the private agency would have
a backhoe up there this af-
ternoon starting to take them
down.”