Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
June 19, 2019 - Vol. 43, No. 13
for hope:
“We have the staff in place who
are dedicated, who want to make
this a better place to live,” said
Alyssa Macy, Chief Operations
Officer.
None of the improvements
can happen overnight: The pre-
dicament has been decades in the
making; solutions likewise will take
time.
Earlier this year tribal manage-
ment began organizing a ‘funding
summit.’ Invitations went to all ma-
jor players in the region who may
have some resources—financial,
advisory, or otherwise—to assist
the tribes.
The summit happened last week
at the Fire Management confer-
ence room. By coincidence—un-
derlining the seriousness of the situ-
ation—the Agency area was expe-
riencing its water crisis.
Joining the tribes for the
funding summit were the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency,
Housing and Urban Develop-
ment, Indian Health Service, the
BIA, the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, repre-
sentatives from Sens. Wyden and
Merkley’s offices and Gov.
Brown’s office, and Business
Oregon.
See INFRASTRUCTURE on 3
The tribes hired Gelco
Construction, based in
Salem, for the emergency
repairs to the domestic
water line under Shitike
Creek.
The Gelco crew showed up
Monday morning,
mobilizing the equipment
and piping.
This required a water shut-
off on Tuesday into
Wednesday of this week.
A minimum of 36 hours
was the estimate for the
duration of the water shut-
off.
Earlier, the Warm Springs
Utilities staff completed
work to minimize water
outages to the community.
This lead to the
expectation that the shut-
off would be limited to the
campus area only, not to
every hook-up south of
Highway 26, as had been
previously projected.
Alyssa Macy/CTWS
Pi-Ume-Sha Treaty Days marks a half-century
Next week will be the 50-year
milestone of the Pi-Ume-Sha
Treaty Days, as the very first Pi-
Ume-Sha happened in 1969.
Honoring veterans was one of
the reasons for the first Pi-Ume-
Sha: In ‘69 many young tribal
members were serving in the Viet-
nam War.
The Treaty was signed in 1855
on June 25. The actual anniver-
sary this year will be next Tues-
day—celebrating 164 years since
the signing.
Then on Wednesday before the
powwow is the Pi-Ume-Sha Health
Fair, hosted by Community
Health. The theme this year is Just
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
June – Atixan – Summer - Shatm
A focus on reservation infrastructure
Planning for the future of the
reservation infrastructure can be
overwhelming: Tens of millions of
dollars are needed in the very near
future. And the needs are basic:
Drinking water, sanitary waste dis-
posal, housing.
Understandably, the tribes do not
have the financial resources to ad-
dress these needs; so planning for
the infrastructure of the tribes can
be overwhelming. Yet there is cause
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Move It!
Then on Thursday the Museum
at Warm Springs will open the new
exhibit Resilience, examining the
boarding school experience. of
Native American students. Phil
Cash Cash will also give a talk at
the museum next Thursday morn-
ing, also talking about the legacy
of the boarding schools.
The powwow then starts next
Friday evening, June 28. There
will be the dance competitions,
parade, rodeo boxing and more
(see page 6 for more).
The Warm Springs Outdoor
Market will be open during Pi-
Ume-Sha.
Two parades
coming with
powwow, July 4
The tribes will host two parades
in the coming weeks. The Pi-Ume-
Sha Treaty Days Horse and Tradi-
tional Parade is at 11 a.m. on Sat-
urday, June 29.
The line-up for the parades is
at the former elementary school.
For the Pi-Ume-Sha Parade, the
Traditional line-up begins at 9:30;
and horse line-up at 11. Dancers
get extra points for participating.
There are cash prizes for first-, sec-
ond- and third; and ribbon prizes.
The following Thursday, Rec-
reation Department will host the
Fourth of July Parade, this year
with the theme, Oohrah—Honor-
ing Marines.
Parade line-up will be at 9 a.m.,
judging at 10, and the parade start
at 11.
Water
response
Tribal Council has approved
the expenditure of $300,000 for
the emergency repair of the 14-
inch water main break under
Shitike Creek.
The tribes sought requests for
proposals, and chose Gelco of
Salem as the contractor. The
construction company this week
is repairing the break.
A cause of the problem with
the leaking pipes—a smaller but
still problematic break happened
last week in the Miller Heights
area—is the failing pressure reduc-
ing valves.
There are many of these valves
and some of them are not func-
tioning properly. This causes too
much pressure in the lines, result-
ing in breaks.
As Gelco this week was work-
ing on the main break at Shitike
Creek, there was a loss of water
Tuesday into Wednesday in the
campus area.
Since the main line break was
identified, tribal staff has been
working to restore the system—
even with a temporary fix—as
quickly as possible.
Residents were on the boil wa-
ter notice for many days
The team working to address
the problem determined a near-
term solution was to replace fail-
ing pressure relief valves within
the current valve boxes.
This proposed fix will give op-
erators the ability to control pres-
sure into the system. This is not a
permanent fix. A long-term solu-
tion will have to wait until the
emergency condition is passed.
Indian Health Service engi-
neers have looked into the poten-
tial long-term valve fix involving
completely replacing the vaults
and valves with new valves.
IHS is taking the lead on doing
the environmental paperwork for
the total replacement of the valves.
IHS has also been taking a key
player on the permanent fix to the
Shitike Creek crossing.
Work was already underway to
assess the geotechnical character-
istics of the creek to support de-
sign for a replacement water main.
The work included soil borings
and test pits within the creek bed
to assess subsurface conditions.
The geotechnical report is ex-
pected this month.
In discussions between the
tribe and IHS, the idea was raised
of possibly having the main line
crossing be at the Shitike Creek
bridge to avoid having to work in
the river, and to deal with the ever
changing patterns of the Shitike
Creek and potential environmen-
tal impacts.
There have been many gener-
ous donations, including bottled
water, towels and baby shampoo.
Indian Head Casino donated ice.
The Emergency Response De-
partment, located at the former
elementary school, has distribut-
ing thousands of gallons of safe
drinking water.