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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 2019)
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon December 18, 2019 Page 7 Year in Review ~ 2019 ~ June (Continued from page 2) Libby Chase attended Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma, 1963- 67. Of the experience Libby says: Best years of my life, I counted and had a voice. I met kids from all over the U.S. and loved it. You get out of the experience what you put into it. Lots of great memories in four years. Some memories of boarding school: Becoming the Student Body President, Class President, and Football Queen Candidate. Part of the new exhibit at the Museum at Warm Springs— Re- silience: The Boarding School Experience of Warm Springs and beyond —exam- ines Chilocco, and part focuses on Chemawa. And the Warm Springs boarding schools are a central fea- ture. The exhibit displays rare old photos; student publications such as decades-old year books; and touching personal items: A sewing machine from the Warm Springs school, a student’s stool, a suitcase, typewriter, a formal boarding school cap, a flag that flew at one of the schools. As with her other changing exhibits, museum curator Natalie Kirk took special care with Resilience. July The month of July brought good news to the Confederated Tribes: Word came that the Or- egon legislature approved $7.8 million in funding to the Confederated Tribes for three key water projects on the reserva- tion. Gov. Brown then signed the bill into law. The $7.8 million is part of 2019 House Bill 5030, a so-called ‘Christ- mas tree’ bill, allocating more than $270 million for many projects across the state. The $7.8 million is apparently much more than the tribes have ever received in a state bill of this kind. The revenue comes from the Oregon Lottery. The state plans to issue the Lottery bonds for the HB5030 projects in 2021. For this reason the funding would be avail- able sometime after that bond is- suance. Still, the appropriation to the tribes could be used now as a match to leverage other funding— from federal agencies or other sources—for the reservation wa- ter system. And in occasional rare cases—based on immediacy of Courtesy MAWS Resilience at the museum exhibit: A boarding school sports team (above), and Warm Springs boarding school girls (below). need, for instance—some of the state funding could possibly be made available before the actual 2021 bond issuance. Oregon Sen. Cliff Bentz and Rep. Daniel Bonham were advo- cates for the tribes’ inclusion in HB5030. Meanwhile and relatedely: The boil-water notice remained in effect in the Agency and other areas of the reserva- tion. Elsewhere in July: Summer brought the clearing of property for the Community Action Team Business Incuba- tor, just off the highway on cam- pus. Some of the next steps in the process are the site survey and a geo-tech survey. August Their college experiences so far have been very different. Yet Lynden Harry and Kaliyah Iverson share this same wsidom: When an opportunity presents it- self, you take it. “In that way you can open many doors,” Lynden says. Kaliyah adds: “Even if you don’t want to go into the medical field, go and see as much as you can. That’s been our approach.” Lynden and Kaliyah will each begin their second years at col- lege—Kaliyah at Arizona State University, Lynden at the College of the Siskiyous. And both young women are pursuing careers in health care—Lynden in Physical Therapy, and Kaliyah in Pediatric Oncology. They both credit the same pro- gram—starting in high school and continuing this summer—with helping them refine their career choices. The program is OnTrack. During the summer of 2019, Lynden and Kaliyah worked through OnTrack with the St. Charles Medical Center, gaining first-hand experience in various heatlh care fields. Also in August: Continued ing a northeastern area of the res- ervation. The tribes say a farmer, two of the farmer’s employees and the farm equipment company bear a responsibility to compensate the tribes. The damages include the loss of reservation timber, and the use of the tribal fire fighting resources. The lawsuit seeks more than $12 million. The lawsuit claims the farm equipment was giving off sparks, caused by a rock lodged in the intake chute. Despite the fire hazard, a worker continued to op- erate the machinery. The tribes’ lawsuit says the fire caused significant damage includ- ing burnt forest and land, damaged fencing, deterioration of the soil and watershed, range and vegeta- tion damage, damage to cultural resources and damage to fish and wildlife and their habitat. In Au- gust this year: Tribal Council, Management and Finance are preparing the 2020 budget proposal for pre- sentation to the membership at the October district budget meet- ings. Management and Finance plan to have a proposed budget for Council in early September. The Tribal Council for the rest of the month will then meet with the departments and enter- prises to hear their individual budget updates. At the end of the month Coun- cil will then approve a proposed budget number that cannot be ex- ceeded for expenditures during the following year. The current year budget was approved at $18.4 million. For next year a preliminary estimate fore- sees a budget of $14.8 million—a decrease of approximately $3.5 million. September The 2019-2020 school year will see changes in the school dis- trict, like a new principal and as- sistant principal at the high school, and a new principal at Bridges. At the Warm Springs Academy the new principal is Bambi Van Dyke. Principal Van Dyke comes to Warm Springs from Montana, where she was principal at the St. Charles Mission School, located by the Crow Reservation near Billings. Ms. Van Dyke is originally from Walla Walla, later moved to Gresham, then Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Montana. Also in August: The Warm Springs Canoe Family is working on a plan to bring the Tribal Canoe Journeys to the homeland of the Confederated Tribes. The plan is ambitious, po- tentially historic, and long-term: The family sees the Paddle to Celilo happening in 2023. Jefferson Greene presented the idea at Tribal Council in August, with support from N’chi Wanapum Canoe Family members Colleen Johnson, Carina Miller and Becky Picard. For background: 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 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 Vil- lage. And this in August: Review continues on page 8 At direction of Tribal Council, the Confederated Tribes are pur- suing a lawsuit to recover damages from the 2017 Nena Springs fire. The fire burned for about two weeks across 68,000 acres, includ- Courtesy Ardis Smith/W.S. Academy John Brunoe of OSU Extension and Ellen Ames of the Warm Springs Academy accept the award presented to the Academy in recognition of Outstanding Implementation of the Farm-to-School program in Indian Country, December 2019. Courtesy CTWS In the summer of 2019 the tribes hired Gelco Construction, based in Salem, for the emergency repairs to the domestic water line under Shitike Creek. The company later helped with the replacement of the water pressure control valves, which were not functioning, causing breaks in the piping. Above are the the replacement pipes for the Shitike Creek area repair. Dave Mcmechan/Spilyay Flint and Gordon Scott, and Dan Martinez volunteer their time at the Christmas Presents giveaway, hosted this week by Health by Human Services.
