Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
Community
update
As of the start of this week, the
Warm Springs Health and Wellness
Center had conducted or monitored
3,100 Covid-19 tests among the
membership.
Total negative cases was 2,786,
with zero tests pending as of Mon-
day. Total positive cases was at 339,
with 292 positive tests from IHS,
and 47 positive from other facili-
ties. Twenty-two tests were invalid.
There have been 38 hospitaliza-
tions with 37 discharged. There have
now been nine Covid-19 deaths
among the membership.
On the reservation as of Mon-
day, there were 17 people with ac-
tive Covid-19 receiving daily moni-
toring by tribal Community Health
and IHS staff.
Please see VIRUS on 3
September 23, 2020 - Vol. 45, No. 20
September – Wanaq’i – Fall - Tiyam
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Time for the census is now
The following article is for
tribal member households who
have not yet completed the 2020
Census. To those who have al-
ready done so, you are to be com-
mended. Otherwise, the following:
Like wearing a mask during
the pandemic, completing the
2020 United States Census is for
the common good.
The tribes do not want to be
under counted in the census for
the reason that the tribes do not
want to lose:
The tribes do not want to
lose representation; nor do the
tribes wish to lose tax payer
dollars that otherwise will go
elsewhere and for other pur-
poses.
The solution is simple: Ev-
ery tribal household should
complete the 2020 Census, or the
tribes will lose valuable resources.
And now the day is nearly upon
us—September 30—to answer the
census questions that take no more
than 10 minutes. And the census
takers by phone are very pleasant
and easy to work with.
Failure to participate is not ac-
ceptable, and the rewards are more
than justified. Otherwise, Who in
the future can complain? Who
could say, This or that project
should have been done? Who can
question anything—If we all do not
complete this very simple task?
And it takes ten minutes. We
should do this for ourselves and
for the tribes.
So far since the census began in
March, the number of Warm
Springs tribal households to com-
plete the census is more—both
number and percentage-wise—than
during the 2010 census.
However, there is still the need
for more households to complete
the survey before September 30.
You can begin by going to kwso.org
Or see the website:
my2020census.gov
If you don’t have the ability to
do the census online, you can do
the questionnaire by phone. Call
844-330-2020.
Full participation is important
for a number of reasons. The fed-
eral government has a trust respon-
sibility to the tribes, for infrastruc-
ture and other services. An accu-
rate count of the reservation, and
the overall membership, guides the
allocation of the infrastructure re-
sources per tribe. The numbers can
also help guide internal tribal poli-
cies, among many other benefits.
Warm Springs Community Health this week began the
seasonal flu shot clinics on the reservation. The clinics
will be happening from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. every Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday. Locations to be announced. This
will be the schedule at least through the end of October,
weather and air quality permitting.
Congress
approves
‘1865 treaty’
nullification
Some
lessons of
Lionshead
The massive Lionshead
fire—at nearly 200,000 acres
burned—is unlike anything seen
for decades at least on the res-
ervation.
For 40 years Robert Brunoe
has worked in the fire suppres-
sion and resource protection
fields for the tribes. “I’ve never
seen anything like it,” Mr.
Brunoe was saying. He explains:
A perfect storm of weather
events—prolonged drought, and
a sudden highly unusual wind
event—fueled the fire. Regard-
ing the drought conditions:
At a recent meeting before
Tribal Council, Mr. Brunoe,
Natural Resources general man-
ager, held up an ordinary piece
of writing paper. “This paper,”
he said, “contains more mois-
ture than the average fuel on the
forest floor.”
On the night of Sunday, Au-
gust 16 a lightning storm passed
over the region. That night—
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Courtesy InciWeb
Fire crew containing the Lionshead blaze on the reservation.
at approximately 10:45 p.m., ac-
cording to Incident Command—a
lightning strike happened in Lion’s
Head Canyon on the reservation.
Summer lightning fires are com-
mon on the reservation, and crews
often contain them quickly through
the high standard of wildland fire
response. What happened next at
Lion’s Head, though, was very un-
usual.
The wind in Central Oregon in
the summer should blow from
west to east, and at a reasonable
velocity. Yet on September 9—as
the crews were working to manage
Lionshead and some smaller fires—
the region experienced an east-west
wind event.
“That is rare,” Mr. Brunoe said.
And the wind gusts were at 50 miles
per hour—with some reports of
gusting at 70 miles per hour. Spot-
ting was happening two miles
away—also rare for the region.
The wind quickly pushed the fire
west off the reservation, beyond
Mt. Jefferson, where Lionshead
merged with the already massive
Beachie Creek fire.
The same August 16 light-
ning stor m ignited both
Lionshead and Beachie Creek,
with the Beachie Creek strike
happening about an hour after
Lionshead, according to Inci-
dent Command.
The reservation has been
fortunate in that no homes
have been lost; meanwhile in
Marion County, Beachie Creek
consumed close to 500 struc-
tures and killed at least eight
poeple.
Dave McMechan
Congress has passed a bill to
nullify the ‘treaty of 1865’ with the
matter now going to President
Trump for final signing into law.
Tribal Council and Governmen-
tal Affairs director Louie Pitt have
advocated for years that the 1865
‘supplemental treaty’—also called
‘the Huntington document’—be
formally repealed by the federal
government. Gov. Kate Brown is
in favor of the repeal. This year
Rep. Greg Walden and Sen. Jeff
Merkley sponsored legislation to
repeal the Huntington document.
‘The treaty of 1865’—a failed
attempt to replace the Treaty of
1855—has never been enforced by
a federal court or agency, and the
tribes have never recognized it as
binding.
The document, though, was rati-
fied in 1867; so it has existed in a
technical sense.
Please see TREATY on 7
With all safety measures, museum reopens to the public
In adherence to strict Covid-19
and fire, health and safety proce-
dures, the Museum At War m
Springs this week reopened to the
public.
During the current wildfire situ-
ation and until further notice, the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs Tribal Council requires all
museum visitors and staff to wear
KN95 or N95 masks while in the
museum or on the museum
grounds.
The museum’s new exhibition
titled, The Path of Resilience, is cur-
rently on view through this Satur-
day, September 26. Featured are
beautifully beaded objects, woven
Courtesy MAWS
Part of the permanent exhibit at the museum.
treasures, and various items se-
lected from the museum’s perma-
nent collection and archives depart-
ment.
Throughout the Covid-19 pan-
demic, the museum has been rou-
tinely and thoroughly cleaned and
sanitized. The museum has been
following the guidelines for public
facilities, as regularly updated and
closely monitored by the Warm
Springs Covid-19 Response Team.
A number of other health pro-
cedures have already been estab-
lished at the museum during the
Covid-19 pandemic, all designed to
keep the public and museum staff
safe and healthy.
Admittance to the museum
main exhibition area is limited to
10 people with no more than five
in the gallery at one time. Visita-
tion to the Museum Gift Shop will
be limited to two people unless the
visitors are in one car or unit.
“This has been an extremely
challenging time for our museum’s
staff, and we are very much look-
ing forward to once again opening
our doors to the public,” said Eliza-
beth A. Woody, museum executive
director. “Our visitors can be as-
sured that we are doing everything
possible to ensure everyone has a
safe and enjoyable time while they
are here.”