Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
Community
update
As of earlier this week, the Warm
Springs Health and Wellness Cen-
ter had sent in or tested 3,809 total
Covid-19 tests. Of the total, 3,459
have come back negative. Since the
pandemic began there have been 328
total positives on the reservation.
Forty-one members were hospi-
talized for Covid-19 at some time
since March; and there have been
nine deaths. Good news this week
was that no one was currently hos-
pitalized for Covid, as of Tuesday.
And as of earlier this week, there
were six people on the reservation
with active Covid-19, receiving daily
monitoring by tribal and IHS staff.
Eighteen people were identified
through contact tracing, and were
being monitored daily (see page 3).
Flu vaccine
The Warm Springs Health and
Wellness Center noted the follow-
ing numbers regarding the seasonal
flu vaccine on the reservation.
Receiving the vaccine through
Community Health-IHS have
been 86 federal employees, al-
most 90 percent of the total; and
606 community members, or
roughly 11 percent of the user
population.
In the state of Oregon overall
there have been eight recent deaths
due to Covid-19, bringing the state-
wide covid death toll to 627. Or-
egon also reported 266 newly
confrimed cases, bringing the state-
wide total since March to 39,794.
October 21, 2020 - Vol. 45, No. 22
October – Anwicht’ash – Fall - Tiyam
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
The learning approach until schools reopen
In a way everyone is new at
school this year. All of the
teachers had to master a wholly
new approach to teaching, while
the students did the same with
learning and studying.
The high school teachers and
students are using an online
approach they call ‘the Big 3.’
The Big 3 platforms are
Google Classroom, Google
Meet and Google Sites. In this
way the classroom experience,
mentoring, tutoring, and study
hall are held virtually. Teach-
ers give the lessons from class-
rooms, or sometimes from
home, while the students mostly
stay home, or travel to a nearby
hotspot to connect to the
internet.
At Madras High School the
school sports were rearranged:
The current sports through this
week are spring games like base-
ball and softball. At practice
everyone adheres to Covid-19
safety guidelines, and there is
no competition with other
schools. Even the school food
service is completely different:
At the high school the buses that
once carried students are used
to deliver the school breakfasts
and lunches.
“Everyone is new this year,
and I think they’ve done a fan-
tastic job,” said Tammie
Schongalla, instructional coach
at the high school, where she
worked for 20 years.
The classes continue as rou-
tine as possible, under the circum-
stances, and other school programs
continue as well. An example: The
Oregon Health Sciences Univer-
sity On-Track program continues
with the district, using the online
format. On-Track has helped a
number of students from Warm
Springs enter medical and health
care higher education programs.
And the Future Center pro-
gram continues with new coordi-
nator Samantha Loza. Ms. Loza
is a Madras High School gradu-
ate. She also graduated from Or-
egon State University-Cascades,
then spent a decade with Central
Oregon Community College in the
advising office. Her passion is
helping students identify and navi-
gate their career and educational
goals.
Currently, Samantha is coordi-
nating a virtual financial aid event
for Madras High School seniors,
set for 6 to 7:30 p.m. next
Wednesday, October 28. Efforts
are also in the works for Class of
2021 mentorships. Ms. Loza en-
courages students to check out the
Class of 2021 Google Classroom,
which features various resources
and tools helpful for college and
post-secondary training prep after
high school.
Scholarship information is
housed in a program called
Naviance. If seniors haven’t done
so already, please see:
naviance.com
And complete your Next Steps
survey.
Students with specific questions
regarding college, post-secondary
training or financial aid, please call
Samantha at 51-475-7265 ext.
2321. Or email:
sloza@509j.net
Personnel changes
Ken Parshall, superintendent of
the Jefferson County School Dis-
trict 509-J, announced he will be
retiring at the end of this school
year. Mr. Parshall, 57, has been
superintendent since 2017. He
began his career with the district
two years earlier, when he joined
the Warm Springs Academy as
school principal.
Before coming to 509-J, Mr.
Parshall was assistant superinten-
dent of the Salem-Keizer school
district, and earlier served at the
Crook County High School princi-
pal.
The 509-J board is now work-
ing on the request for proposal to
advertise the superintendent posi-
tion. The board formed a com-
mittee to navigate the superinten-
dent hiring process, the goal being
to find the best candidate for the
job, said Laurie Danzuka, board
chairwoman. Mr. Parshall began
weighing his retirement option a
year ago. Then in the spring of last
school year the pandemic closed all
of the schools in the district.
Please see SCHOOLS on 2
D.McMechan/Spilyay
At the high school with Samantha Loza, Future Center coordinator;
Butch David, Liaison; and Tammie Schongalla, Instructional Coach.
A follow-up to the 2020 Warm Springs Census count
Caroline M. Cruz
Confederated Tribes
Health and Human Services
On behalf of the Warm Springs
Census committee I would like to
thank all those who submitted their
2020 Census.
Last February 2020 the Tribal
Council passed a resolution, parts
of the resolution state the follow-
ing:
Whereas the undercount of the
Native American population on or
near the Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs Reservation has di-
rectly resulted in the loss of fed-
eral funding for the operation of
Tribal programs and services on
behalf of the membership of the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs; and
Whereas the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs supports
the upcoming 2020 National Cen-
sus to make sure all Native Ameri-
cans are counted, more specifically
the members of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs; and
Whereas the Tribe is commit-
ted to a partnership with the Cen-
sus Bureau, and has appointed the
Human Resources Director and the
Secretary/CEO as the Tribal Cen-
sus Liaison’s for the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs.
Health and Human Services
General Manager, Caroline Cruz
was named the Chair of the Warm
Springs Census Committee, who
appointed Jaylyn Suppah to take the
lead with outreach with the com-
munity.
Staff assisting: Cheryl Tom,
Michele Stacona, Andy Leonard,
Jillessa Suppah, Jayceline Brisbois,
Antonio Gentry, Joni Wallulatum,
Scott Kalama, TJ Foltz, Rosanna
Jackson, Charlene Dimmick, Ron
Hager, Misty Kopplin, Sue Mat-
ters, Br utis, Mushy, Margie
Kalama, Shana Radford, Dot
Thurby, Johnson Bill, Geri Polk,
Rick Walker, Britany Archer,
Martha Winishut, Danny Martinez,
Hazen Bruisedhead, Flint Scott,
Wayman Harry, Lorien Stacona,
Gordon Scott, Mike Collins,
Cecelia Collins, Rachel Storkel,
Buffy, Danielle Woods and her
staff, Edmund Francis, Mike
Holyan and many others.
Too many barriers prevented us
from reaching community mem-
bers to complete their census. One
major barrier was the Census Bu-
reau at the federal level prohibit-
ing census forms to be mailed to
P.O. boxes.
Census Enumerators could not
begin mapping homes and dropping
off paper census forms until Me-
morial Day weekend due to our
high numbers of Covid-19 cases,
yet many households failed to turn
the paper forms in.
Other barriers were the water
crisis, the fires, unhealthy air qual-
ity and the need to social distance,
preventing the committee to pro-
vide community activities.
Several drive-ins were held to
promote the census such as distrib-
uting Easter Egg bags, handing out
t-shirts once your cen-
sus was completed,
prizes and incentives,
serving hot dogs and
hamburgers, use of
the media, flyers
handed out, etc.
We were con-
tacted on September
17 that our return rate was at 42
percent. Nationwide, rural areas
and those with P.O. boxes were not
submitting their census forms.
The deadline had been moved
from October 30 back to Septem-
ber 30. Though the deadline was
later moved to October 15, this left
us with the dilemma of more than
50 percent of Warm Springs not
being counted and insufficient time
to reach community members,
though there were multiple efforts
to encourage community mem-
bers to file.
It was at this time the Census
Bureau notified us of the follow-
ing: Tribal proxy enumeration had
been approved by their headquar-
ters for tribes without NRFU—
nonresponse follow up—and those
in areas impacted by the wildfire.
Basically, the tribe would determine
the designated proxies, a census
official would swear us in, and then
we would coordinate with the Area
Census Office (the ACO) to pro-
vide the required sur-
vey information on
each of the house-
holds in the NRFU
caseload.
The ACO had ap-
proximately 398 cases
for Warm Springs,
and had compiled the
list to provide to the proxies.
A proxy is anyone—a tribe,
housing authority, or enrollment
staff, etc.—who knows or has in-
formation on what is asked on the
census survey—regarding infor-
mation such as a housing unit or
population, racial demographic, etc.
It was to be very similar to how
the Census Bureau conducts their
group quarters enumeration, where
the tribe would utilize their own ad-
ministrative records in order to
complete the remaining cases.
They wanted tribal nations to
receive a complete and accurate
count, and this was an option for
us.
Keep in mind that the Census
Bureau has very strict and the high-
est standards when it comes to con-
fidentiality, and they will ensure per-
sonal information is protected.
In order for the committee to
fulfill the Warm Springs Census
resolution the decision was made
for a small group from the com-
mittee to be sworn in as proxies.
We were sworn in on Septem-
ber 28, by Census Bureau repre-
sentative Carla-Dean Calderas. The
Proxy Team worked with five Cen-
sus Bureau enumerators who input-
ted the data the team gathered on
each uncounted household. There
were several households who al-
ready submitted their census, but
we provided the information a sec-
ond time to make sure we were
counted. We worked on this for
two weeks and were able to pro-
vide information on the households
provided by the census headquar-
ters.
We completed the War m
Springs Census Count on October
9, 2020. If you have questions on
the process you can call me,
Caroline M. Cruz at 541-553-0497.