Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
September 11, 2019 - Vol. 43, No. 19
September – Wanaq’i ~ Fall - Tiyam
Canoe Family planning Paddle to Celilo
T he Warm Springs Canoe
Family is working on a plan to
bring the Tribal Canoe Journeys
to the homeland of the Confed-
erated Tribes.
The plan is ambitious, poten-
tially historic, and long-term: The
family sees the Paddle to Celilo
happening in 2023.
Jefferson Greene presented the
idea at Tribal Council last week,
with support from N’chi
Wanapum Canoe Family members
Colleen Johnson, Carina Miller
and Becky Picard. For back-
ground:
The Tribal Canoe Journeys be-
gan 30 years ago, and has grown
each year since the first Paddle to
Seattle in 1989. Every year since
then a different tribe has hosted
the destination landing for the ca-
noe family pullers, support crews
and guests.
Most of the host tribes so far
have been in Washington, with
some in British Columbia, Canada.
The War m Springs N’chi
Wanapum Canoe Family has been
on the last 11 journeys, forming
alliances with other families. And
among the other canoe families,
N’chi Wanapum is unique.
This in part is because the Con-
federated Tribes’ canoe tradition
is based on the mid Columbia
Courtesy photo.
Landing scene from the Paddle to Lummi, summer of 2019.
River rather than on the Coast or
inland bays of the Pacific Ocean.
“And we still have many stories,
songs and dances from our canoe
days,” Jefferson said.
This uniqueness was the inspi-
ration for the Paddle to Celilo
2023. The project is big, and will
require many partners along the
Columbia in the area of Celilo
Village. To give an idea of the
scope:
At the arrival sites of recent
Canoe
Journeys—Lummi,
Puyallup, Salish, to name a few of
the recent—thousands of people
showed up for the landings. At
the Paddle to Lummi 2019, more
than 18,000 people were on hand
for the landing. The Canoe Jour-
ney landing celebrations generate
hundreds of thousands of dollars
in commerce.
Jefferson estimated more than
100 tribal canoes, and 15,000 or
more people could take part in the
Paddle to Celilo celebration. These
numbers would overwhelm the
Celilo community itself—as would
have happened at the other land-
ing destinations—so partners will
be needed among the neighboring
communities.
First, the N’chi Wanapum
Paddle to Celilo 2023 vision is
for collaboration with the
Yakama and Umatilla Tribes
and Bands, Jefferson said.
Next would be the nearby
towns and cities. Schools and
universities also take part, he
said. Councilwoman Brigette
McConville suggested involv-
ing the Army Corps of Engi-
neers and Bonneville Power
Administration.
See CANOE JOURNEY on 8
Decisions pending on solid waste questions
The three Warm Springs
Sanitation drivers service all of
the residents on the reservation.
They also pick up at the
Warm Springs Academy, enter-
prises, the market and other
commercial customers.
They have three trucks, plus
a new one coming on line in
December, approved by Tribal
Council. The drivers are busy,
often starting at 4:30 a.m. in
order to cover the entire res-
ervation.
Maintaining the vehicles is
a challenge, and at times costly.
So the new truck, to service
commercial customers, will be
a welcome addition to the fleet,
said Russell Graham, tribal
Sanitarian.
The vehicles and drivers are
critical to solid waste manage-
ment on the reservation, while
the Dry Creek landfill presents a
more pressing matter.
The question is the future of
solid waste disposal for the Con-
federated Tribes, Mr. Graham said.
Should the tribes build a new
landfill on the reservation? Or
transfer the waste to an off-reser-
vation facility?
Madras Sanitary Service, for
instance, transfers their munici-
pal waste to a facility at The
Dalles. Another off-reservation
option would be Bend, though The
Dalles option appears to be the
more cost-effective, Graham said.
The on-reservation option pre-
sents this additional issue: For fund-
ing reasons a new on-reservation
landfill would possibly have to ac-
cept waste—for a fee, of course—
from off reservation, such as from
Madras.
This would clearly require com-
McMechan/Spilyay
Two of the the tribes’ three sanitation trucks.
munity discussion and decision.
Another question of impor-
tance: Should residents of the
reservation pay a monthly fee for
pick-up service?
The non-residential customers
pay, while the tribes have never
charged a fee—$15 a month, for
instance—to the many residen-
tial customers.
These are difficult questions
that will have be addressed in
the fairly near future, as the Dry
Creek facility is not a long-term
option, Graham said.
Dave McMechan
Reservation Census Count 2020
The Warm Springs 2020 Cen-
sus Complete Count Committee
is now meeting regularly, planning
for the count next year. Their
meeting last week included a pre-
sentation by Shana Radford, from
Umatilla, the Census Tribal Part-
nership Specialist for Oregon and
Idaho, a division of the Regional
U.S. Census Center based in Los
Angeles.
She gave some history of the
Census in regard to Native Ameri-
cans. The first U.S. Census was
held in 1790. American Indians
were not counted until the 1860
Census, and this involved only off-
reservation Native Americans.
The first time Native Americans
on reservations were included in
the U.S. was in 1900, Ms. Radford
said. As a side note: It was not
until 1924 that Native Americans
secured the right to vote in U.S.
elections, though the struggle for
equal representation went on much
longer: It was not until 1962 that
every state finally guaranteed Na-
tive Americans the right to vote.
The U.S. Census is important
for Native American communi-
ties because it helps guide the al-
location of federal resources and
services, based on population.
At stake is the proportional
allocation of $675 billion an-
nually in federal funds—in-
cluding funding to tribes.
The Census guides the dis-
tribution of funds for transpor-
tation, housing, emergency re-
sponse, social services and
more.
See CENSUS on page 9
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Council
working on
2020 budget
September is one of the busi-
est times of year for Tribal Coun-
cil, Management and Finance, as
they prepare the budget proposal
for the following year.
This is especially true this year,
as the 2020 budget proposal will
likely call for a significant reduc-
tion.
Council earlier directed all de-
partments to present budget pro-
posals with reduction options of
10-percent, 20-percent and 30-
percent.
In fairness, the approach at
Council is for the organization
overall to absord the reduction in
2020; rather than having some
entities take drastic cuts while oth-
ers take less so.
Earlier this monthTribal Coun-
cil began the budget reviews with
the various departments and
enterprsises.
Taking a thorough approach,
Council is dedicating many days
in September to the budget pre-
sentations, before posting a pro-
posal in early October. The dis-
trict meetings would follow, and
General Council.
Earlier this week the presenta-
tions included a budget overview
with Secretary-Treasurer Michele
Stacona, followed by a Chief
Operations Officer report by
Alyssa Macy.
Caroline Cruz at Health and
Human Services, Robert Brunoe
with the Natural Resources
Branch, and Valerie Switzler with
the Education Branch were also
scheduled for this week.
A Public Safety report was
planned with branch manager
Carmen Smith. Also on the
agenda: High Lookee Lodge, Pub-
lic Utilities, Human Resources,
Governmental Affairs, Finance,
Tribal Court and others. (Funeral
arrangements this week may have
caused a change to the agenda.
You can see the list of entities
coming before Council during the
rest of September on page 5 of
this publication.)
The current year budget was
approved at $18.4 million. For
next year a preliminary estimate
foresees a budget of $14.8 mil-
lion—a decrease of approxi-
mately $3.5 million. Some reasons
for the decrease:
The Timber LLC is seeing a
reduction in its timber revenue of
$1.5 million. And the Carbon Se-
questration (Warm Springs Geo
Visions) dividend payment for the
current year was close to $2.5
million, for 2020 the number is
greatly reduced.
Other enterprises—in particu-
lar Power and Water, Indian Head
Casino and Credit—are project-
ing greater dividends for the next
year, though their increases would
not be enough to offset the re-
duction.