Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
July 3, 2019
Page 7
Boarding schools: Exhibit details experiences and memories
(Continued from page 1)
The result is a thorough
and absorbing presentation,
warranting repeated visits.
The introductory section
outlines the history of board-
ing schools in the Warm
Springs and the U.S. Follow-
ing are personal accounts by
students who experienced
boarding school first-hand.
Many of the accounts are
similar to Libby’s: Many of
the memories are nostalgic,
recalled with fondness.
Buckie Teeman Holliday:
I attended the Warm Springs
Boarding School in 1943. I was
10 years old. I liked it—I never
had a problem or got into any
trouble. Monday, Wednesday
and Fridays we were able to take
showers. My favorite thing was
working in the kitchen. Josie
McCorkle was the main cook.
She knew what to do.
We all had chores. I used
to get up at 4:30 every
All photos courtesy the Museum at Warm Springs.
Warm Springs boarding school sports team.
laws.
morning. I would make my
bed and go help cook. I
used to help at the laundry
mat. Velma Holliday and
Harriette Miller worked
there. They were nice
people. I’d help fold all the
clothes and help deliver the
clothes back to the dorms.
Some of the people I
went to school with were
Annabelle Queahpama,
Verna Queahpama, Josie
Meanus, Millie Colwash,
Delphine Scott, Pauline
Johnson, Norval Tufti and
Maxine Switzler. I didn’t mid
the school—just obey the
Summer season
ceremonial fishing
finished in June.
Albert Kalama Sr. and
his crew fished out of
Wyeth; and William
Slockish fished out of
Lyle, Wash.
In the photo at right,
Albert Sr. and Albert Jr.
pull the boat out with the
fish and nets on board.
And below: Albert
Kalama Sr. handing fish
to Albert Jr. at the
tailgate, and Jasper
Smith is loading fish into
the totes. Stanley
Simtustus Sr. is
recording data, while
Bruce Jim Sr. and
Raymond Tsumpti are
monitors.
The crew is at the Wyeth
treaty fishing access site
upstream of Cascade
Locks.
The Chemawa Indian
School near Salem is the old-
est Indian boarding school in
the nation. Some of the facts
as detailed in Resilience:
Peak enrollment at
Chemawa took place in 1926,
with almost 1,000 students.
Eleventh and twelfth grades
were added to the curriculum,
and all grades below sixth
were dropped. In 1927,
Chemawa became a full ac-
credited high school.
The school was threatened
with closure in the early
1930s, as the government
sought economies during the
(This article continues in
the next Spilyay.)
Reintroduced Deschutes Chinook buck the trend
Mark Manion photos/W.S.BNR
W.S. Extension offers free pressure
canner dial gauge inspection
The Warm Springs OSU
Extension Service invites
you to test your pressure
canner dial gauge, for safely
canning foods.
For safe processing of
low acid foods such as meat,
poultry, fish, game and veg-
etables, home pressure can-
ner dial gauges must be
tested every year to ensure
accuracy, or if bumped or
dropped.
If the dial is inaccurate
by more than two pounds,
Oregon State University
Extension recommends re-
placement. Weighted gauges
do not need annual testing.
Have your dial gauge
tested free at the Warm
Springs OSU Extension of-
fice, located in the Educa-
tion building.
Bring your pressure can-
ner dial gauge to the officer
during the week. You will
be notified when it is ready
to pick up.
If you have questions or
Warm Springs girls boarding school class.
Great Depression. Inter-
ested journalists and
Oregon’s delegation to the
U.S. Congress lobbied with
the U.S. Bureau of Indian
Affairs to keep it open, and
it continued with 300 stu-
dents.
Lawney Reyes, who at-
tended the school in 1940-
42, devotes two chapters of
his memoir—White Grizzly
Bear’s Legacing: Learning to be
Indian— to his experiences
there. He wrote that his con-
sciousness of being ‘Indian’
was largely formed through
his conversations with other
students. He also wrote:
I did not experience any
harsh restraint against Indian
culture or tradition at
Chemawa. Generations of
Indians before me had al-
ready felt the full force of that
practice.
need a “same-day” appoint-
ment please contact your lo-
cal OSU Extension office or
Glenda Hyde at 541-548-
6088.
Home canners should
also inspect the gaskets on
the pressure canner for wear
and tear annually.
Gaskets that are worn,
stretched, cracked or hard-
ened should be replaced.
Depending on use, replace-
ment might be needed ev-
ery two to five years.
If worn gaskets are used,
the pressure canning process
may fail or in some cases,
the gasket could “glue” the
lid onto the canner.
Replacement gauges and
gaskets for pressure canners
are usually available at hard-
ware stores or where can-
ning equipment and supplies
are sold.
Replacement parts can be
ordered from the manufac-
turer or on-line.
Disappointing returns of
spring Chinook salmon
are the norm across the Co-
lumbia River basin this year,
including returns at the adult
fish trap just below the
Pelton Round Butte Hydro-
electric Project that are the
lowest in years.
But there’s a twist: Despite
the poor returns, biologists at
the Pelton trap report this is
shaping up as one of the best
years so far for returns of
reintroduced spring Chinook
that originated in the
Deschutes River basin above
the hydro project.
“This is exciting,” said
Megan Hill, Portland General
Electric biologist who leads the
fisheries and water quality
team at the hydro project.
“With the odds stacked
against the fish this year due
to ocean and river conditions
outside the basin, the fact
we’re seeing relatively strong
upper basin returns is likely
directly related to improve-
ments we made in juvenile
downstream fish passage two
years ago.”
The Confederated Tribes
and PGE are the co-owners
of the hydro project. The
tribes and PGE are working
with dozens of partner or-
ganizations and agencies in
the Deschutes Basin to rein-
troduce salmon and steelhead
runs that were cut off when
Pelton and Round Butte
dams were built in the 1950s
and ‘60s.
Given the long lifecycle
of these migratory fish, it
can take from two to four
years for changes made to
help the fish to show results.
It’s a long-term project,
and runs cannot be expected
to be self-sustaining for de-
cades to come.
While more than a mil-
lion juvenile fish have suc-
cessfully passed down-
stream since the tribes and
PGE completed a new fish
passage system at the dams
in 2010, adult returns have
been slower to recover than
initially hoped, with a com-
bined annual total ranging
from 72 to 620 Chinook,
sockeye and steelhead.
The strongest individual
run occurred in 2016, when
536 upper basin sockeye re-
turned to the project.
Two years ago, dam op-
erators made changes to im-
prove smolt survival by col-
lecting and releasing juvenile
fish at night, when the fish
are most active and less vul-
nerable to predators.
Last year, just five upper
basin spring Chinook made
it home, but this year a total
of 46 have completed the
trip so far and have been re-
leased to spawn in the
Deschutes tributaries above
the dams. This even though
the total return of
spring Chinook—including
fish that originated at the
Round Butte Fish Hatch-
ery—is less than a third the
size of last year’s total return.
Of the 46 upstream fish
that have returned, five
have made their way up
Whychus Creek, near Sis-
ters, where they have been
tracked to locations in re-
stored salmon habitat along
the creek that is protected
by the Deschutes Land
Trust at Willow Springs Pre-
serve and Rimrock Ranch
and, just above and below
the Land Trust’s Camp Polk
Meadow Preserve.
This is the largest num-
ber of adult fish that have
returned to Whychus Creek
in any year of the restora-
tion effort so far.
“It’s heartening to see that
our collaborative efforts with
PGE, the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, the
Deschutes River Conser-
vancy, and the Upper
Deschutes Watershed Coun-
cil are helping protect and
improve habitat and water
quality for native fish,” said
Brad Chalfant, executive di-
rector of the Deschutes Land
Trust.
New law helps protect fishing sites from railway oil spills
The Oregon Legisla-
ture approved a new law
to better prepare Oregon
to respond to oil spills
from high-hazard trains
that carry millions of gal-
lons of crude oil through
the state.
The bill had bi-partisan
support, passing 56-3 in
the House, and 26-1 in
the Senate.
The legislation has the
support of the Confeder-
ated Tribes. The tribal
concern in particular was
the potential for railway oil
spills at fishing sites along
the Columbia River.
An example: In June
2016 an oil train derailed
near the town of Mosier,
spilling 42,000 gallons of
oil and starting a fire that
took over 14 hours to put
out. Tribal Council mem-
bers at the time testified on
the need for better safety
measures.
The new law, passed last
week, will require railroad
companies transporting
large amounts of crude oil
through Oregon to develop-
ment spill response plans,
and submit them to the state
Department of Environ-
mental Quality for review
and approval.
The bill also requires a
schedule for trainings on
spill response; assesses fees
to the railroads to pay for
spill response and trainings;
and requires the rail com-
panies to provide to the
DEQ proof of financial
ability to pay for oil spill re-
sponse and cleanup costs.
“The oil train spill re-
sponse legislation is a big
step in the right direction,”
said Cathy Sampson-Kruse,
elder with the Confederated
Tribes of Umatilla.
In 2015, both Wash-
ington and California
passed laws to better
prepare for derailments
and spills. At the same
time, Oregon’s legisla-
ture struggled to pass
meaningful spill re-
sponse legislation due to
opposition from the
major railroads.
As a result, Oregon
had the weakest laws on
the west coast for oil
trains and terminals. The
new law helps address the
situation.
Fourth: Parade line-up on campus near Family Resource Center
(Continued from page 1)
Don’t be surprised if of-
ficers ask you to bring your
fireworks to one of the des-
ignated locations. Fire Man-
agement can’t cover the
whole reservation in case of
a fire.
· Properly dispose of fire-
works in water first.
· Clean up after your-
selves. Please don’t leave
trash behind.
· Do not allow children
to wander near the main
fireworks display, which will
be sectioned off.
· If you have a fire ex-
tinguisher, consider bringing
it with you.
· If you see a wild fire,
call 911.
Parade routes will be al-
tered and line up will start at
Warm Springs Street near
the Family Preservation Cen-
ter and the Presbyterian
Church.
The safety of our com-
munity is a priority for all.
In order to make this hap-
pen we need your coopera-
tion and support.
Thank you!
Tribal Management.