Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
Covid-19
community
update
Tribal Council on Monday
agreed to extend the current orga-
nization shutdown through May.
The Council action followed the
recommendation of the tribes’
Covid-19 Response Team.
The recommendation and
Council action were deemed nec-
essary in light of the positive
Covid-19 test results of residents
of the reservation. The positive
results happened in late April to
early May.
After the first positive tests
came in, Indian Health Services
and Community Health partners
responded with extensive contact
tracing of individuals, and further
testing. Everyone was coopera-
tive during the process, including
staying at home and following up
with nurses, said Katie Russell,
Community Health director.
As of earlier this week, the clinic
and partners had conducted about
200 tests of local residents. Eleven
of these had came back positive,
Hyllis Dauphinais, clinic chief ex-
ecutive officer, said Monday,
speaking by teleconference with
Tribal Council, Management and
the Response Team.
Four tests were still pending as
of Tuesday of this week.
After the Response Team up-
date, Tribal Council—for the
health and safety of the member-
ship—extended the shutdown for
non-essential service tribal employ-
ees. Current administrative leave
policies continue, Council agreed.
Council took other precautions
upon the recommendations of the
Response Team. These include the
following Council orders:
All citizens on the reservation
are to wear a face covering mask
while in public and in public places,
where social distancing of six feet
or greater cannot be maintained.
Following a test result of nega-
tive or positive, all citizens of the
reservation and employees work-
ing within the boundaries are to
self-isolate and quarantine as di-
rected by healthcare professionals.
Essential employees and first-re-
sponders who have tested with a
negative result will have additional
guidance about returning to work.
Businesses within the tribal ju-
risdiction, and tribal enterprises
should have public spaces clearly
marked with special distancing of
six feet on the floors, or other
means of a visual spacing.
May 6, 2020 - Vol. 45, No. 10
April – Hawit`an – Spring - Wawaxam
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Our reservation front line workers
M onitoring the Covid-19
situation on the reser va-
tion, the War m Springs
Health and Wellness Center
has by now tested about 200
residents.
Thankfully, many of the
test samples came back nega-
tive; while eleven have come
back positive, as of earlier
this week.
The state lab where the
samples are evaluated is taking
between 24 and 48 hours for
results, said Hyllis Dauphinais,
Health and Wellness Center
chief executive officer.
In a satement Mr.
Dauphinais would like to add:
T oday and every day since we
stood up our incident command
and our Tribal Partners Response
Team, I have worked together
with an amazing team of com-
mitted community members in
response to the Covid-19 pan-
demic.
This team has been tasked with
providing recommendations to
the Tribal Council.
I would like to recognize the
members of the current Tribal
Partners Response Team.
The tribal Health and Human
Services general manager Caroline
Cruz continues to work on grant
funds and other federal Cares Act
funding for the tribe to ensure we
Louie Pitt/CTWS Governmental Affairs
A gesture of thanks at the Warm Springs Health & Wellness Center.
Sue Matters/KWSO
A safety and parking logistics planning meeting at the clinic
among Yvonne Iverson, Amy Whistler and Dr. Locker (from left).
can pay for our Covid-19 response.
Ms. Cruz does this while also ad-
dressing the ongoing needs of the
community while we are in the
‘Stay at Home and Save Lives’
order.
Emergency Response director
and partner Incident Commander
Dan Martinez continues to actively
reach out to the state and local
partners for supplies to support
our operations. Amazingly, he does
this with such ease and fluidity.
Our Public Safety general
manager and partner Carmen
Smith provides daily briefs about
the status of our Police
Department’s response to our
community needs and the safety
of our community. His officers
have joined our morning Incident
Command briefing to review our
traffic flow plan.
Our tribal Governmental Af-
fairs director Louie Pitt continues
to interpret the information he re-
ceives to ensure a consistent and
clear message reaches the commu-
nity around the Covid-19 response.
See RESPONSE TEAM on 3
Meeting the Distance Learning challenge
I n a broad sense there are
three key components to stu-
dent learning: The educators,
the students themselves, and the
families. “All three roles are
important,” Ken Parshall, 509-
J school district superintendent,
was saying recently.
“And the role of the family
is greatly magnified during this
time,” Mr. Parshall was saying.
A student now more than ever
needs the family to help create
a learning routine.
The school experience—
class attendance and partici-
pation, testing, school sports
and clubs, etc.—in normal
times provides the learning
structure for students. The
hope is that this will return in
the fall.
In the meantime, for the
rest of this school year, edu-
cators and families must make
every effort to help students
keep up with assigned course
work. Otherwise this coming
Dave McMechan/Spilyay
Warm Springs Academy education assistants Urban Brunoe and Daydra St. John, and Academy
principal Bambi VanDyke at the distribution site with students and families Tuesday morning.
fall term could be especially dif-
ficult.
During the present ter m,
through June 4, “We need to en-
gage the students so they meet the
essential standards,” Mr. Parshall
said. All three components—the
students, educators and families—
work together on this. And it
can be especially challenging for
the family:
See DISTANCE LEARNING on 8
See COMMUNITY UPDATE on 5
Ballots arrive for the Oregon May Primary vote
From the Northwest Portland
Area Indian Health Board
Ballots are out for the May 19
Oregon Primary.
There are local, state and fed-
eral candidates on the ballot, par-
tisan and non-partisan. Examples
of more localized races:
Carina Miller is running in the
Democratic primary for Oregon
State Senate District 30. Incum-
bent Lynn Findley is running in
the Republican primary for Or-
egon State Senate District 30.
A position is open on the
Jefferson County Board of Com-
missioners. The candidates for
county commission position no. 3
are Kenneth Bicart, Wayne
Fording and Kim Schmith.
Mr. Bicart lists previous em-
ployment as farm owner, and
Kah-Nee-Ta equipment operator,
among other positions.
Mr. Fording is the owner of
Madras Paint & Glass, and is a
former county commissioner.
Ms. Schmith is the business
owner and Oregon Medical Board
licensed operator of Madras Acu-
puncture.
The Jefferson County District
Attorney position is on the ballot;
and there is a question about a
Jefferson County transient room
tax increase. Important voting no-
tices from the county cleark: Post-
age stamps are no longer required
to return you ballot by mail. Post-
age is pre-paid by the state of Or-
egon. Please mail on or before May
13; or use a drop-box.