Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
Covid-19
update
There were 15 new cases of
Covid-19 reported for War m
Springs in the Tuesday, December
1 community update. The results
were from 109 tests conducted on
Monday, November 30.
As of Tuesday, there were 46
known active cases of Covid-19
on the reservation, with 62 close
contacts being monitored by Com-
munity Health and IHS.
There have been 515 confirmed
cases of Covid-19 on the reserva-
tion since testing began in the
spring.
The Health and Wellness Cen-
ter has conducted a total of 5,222
Covid-19 tests.
There have 54 hospitalizations
among the reservation community
since March of this year, with 50
discharged; and there have been
ten deaths.
December 2, 2020 - Vol. 45, No. 25
December – Nch’i-An - Winter - Yiyam
By the end of this month
shipments of Covid-19 vac-
cines are expected to be ready
for distribution in the U.S. This
would be the turning point in
the fight against the pan-
demic.
Like other providers across
the country, the Warm Springs
Indian Health Services Clinic
is coordinating with national
organizers—in this case the
IHS headquarters—regarding
how to implement the distri-
bution, and then the adminis-
tration of the Covid-19 vac-
cine. The IHS has a compre-
hensive plan that guides the
overall process.
There are many more de-
tails to be worked out during
this unprecedented and mas-
sive health initiative. An ex-
ample: How will the vaccines be
transported from a central location
to the regional distribution centers,
and then in turn to the local care
provider facilities? Would Warm
Springs IHS travel to the regional
site to retrieve the vaccines? Stor-
age during transport, and then on-
site at the local levels are related
challenges.
Some aspects are more certain.
Example: By all accounts vaccina-
tions are expected to begin by the
middle or end of this month. An-
other certainty: There will not be
enough vaccines until into next year
to provide for the general popula-
tion.
This week at the national level,
the Advisory Committee on Immu-
nizations is meeting to determine
who will receive the first vaccines.
The committee is an independent
panel of advisors to the U.S. Cen-
ters for Disease Control.
On Tuesday of this week the
Advisory Committee was meeting
to determine whether the first
groups to be vaccinated will be the
health care workers, and residents
of nursing homes. These two
groups would the Phase 1 recipi-
ents of the Covid-19 vaccine dis-
tribution.
The Advisory Committee and
CDC have not faced a question like
this before, because of the scope
of the Covid-19 pandemic; and be-
cause there are many other people
in the U.S. with underlying medical
conditions who are also vulnerable
to the virus.
The pharmaceutical companies
Pfizer and Moderna have applied
to the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration for authorization of their
Courtesy NAICCO
Ty and Masami Smith (at center) with members of the NAICCO community and NAICCO Cuisine,
representing a diversity of tribal backgrounds.
dian Country.
It’s a place where Native people
living in and around Ohio can feel
at home—not always easy for an
urban Indian who may be far away
from family back home.
Masami and Ty grew up in
Warm Springs, deciding to leave in
1995 when they were in their mid
20s. They first went to South Da-
kota, and then visited Ohio.
Twenty-five years later they still live
there, helping to make a going en-
terprise of NAICCO, and its latest
addition, the NAICCO Cuisine
food trailer.
How all this began was by luck
or a kind of coincidence.
After they arrived in Ohio in
the 1990s, Ty was thumbing
through the Columbus phone
book. At the time he was looking
for work. By chance he came
across the listing for the Native
American Indian Center of Cen-
tral Ohio.
They called the center, and
started visiting. Masami became a
regular member around 2001. She
was volunteering with any
NAICCO projects that were going
on or coming up.
Since growing up in Warm
Springs she was a powwow dancer,
and knew traditional sewing and
other crafts. And she would share
these with other NAICCO mem-
bers.
Ty enrolled at the Ohio State
University, majoring in the field
of Social Work. Then in 2011—
ten years after first joining
NAICCO—Masami was named
the center’s executive director.
She became successful at writ-
ing grants for the center, to the
point where she soon needed
full-time help in managing the
center and its programs. “A grant
writer helped land the early grants
in 2011,” Masami says. “After
that we wrote for all other grants
to follow on our own.”
Covid-19 vaccines. The matter is
on a fast-track as part of Opera-
tion Warp Speed. An estimated 6.5
million doses could be available
within two weeks, with more fol-
lowing through December and into
2021. By the end of December it
is possible that 40 million doses
could be available in the U.S, enough
for roughly 20 million people.
According to surveys, many
people in the U.S. are willing to take
the vaccine as soon as possible,
while many others say they will not
receive the vaccine. In one survey,
60 percent of people between the
ages of 65 and 80 said they would
likely receive the shot.
Either way, as we approach this
turning point in the battle against
the virus, the need for safety is
greater than ever, because there
may be greater hope nearly at hand.
The Warm Springs Housing Au-
thority and the Health and Human
Services (H&HS) general manager
were successful in applying for the
Permanent Supportive Housing
(PSH) grant addressing the home-
less population; specifically, those
experiencing chronic homelessness.
This happened in September 2019.
The land site known as the Dips
was applied for by the War m
Springs Housing Authority, and it
was approved per resolution to
bring housing to the homeless.
There are two phases to this
project. The first phase will pro-
vide 10 cottage size one-bedroom
homes for individuals needing a
home and matching the criteria,
and remodeling a duplex for two
families. The plan for building the
cottages and remodeling is sched-
uled to begin in the spring of 2021.
The second phase was to add
seven to eight homes, services tar-
geting the same population. The
Housing Authority invited the
Health and Human Services Quar-
antine Project to begin with the sec-
ond phase project before the first
As the year 2020 is coming to a
close, Tribal Council will meet on a
variety of matters, with Cares Act
spending being one of the final
items of the month.
Next week begins with the up-
dates from the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, and the Office of the Spe-
cial Trustee. The Indian Health Ser-
vices update with Hyllis Dauphinais,
chief executive officer of the Warm
Springs clinic, is next; followed by
the Covid-19 update with the Re-
sponse Team.
Some items on Tuesday, Decem-
ber 8 include a Family First Act
update with the state of Oregon;
and a Warm Springs Children’s Pro-
tective Services update with Cecelia
Collins, CPS director. The Timber
Committee then meets with Coun-
cil to discuss the wood cutting ordi-
nance.
Finance is scheduled to meet with
Council regarding a supplemental
budget for a Warm Springs ball
fields grant. And Tribal Council
scheduled a government-to-govern-
ment with the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Reservation for Fri-
day of next week, December 11.
Please see NAICCO on 2
Explanation of developements at ‘the Dips’
Question: What is occurring at
the Dips at Park Place Street?
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Council
items in
December
M asami and Tyrone ‘Ty’
The following are answers to ques-
tions some community members may
have regarding developments at the
Trailer Court area, or the Dips. If
you have not been near this site lately,
you would not have noticed the work
that has been going on over the last
month. The site is being prepared to
bring modular trailers to be used as a
quarantine site for Covid-19. The fol-
lowing questions and answers will ex-
plain the circumstances:
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
Safety even more important as vaccine nears
Making a
home away
from home
Smith have two homes, really.
One is Warm Springs, where
they grew up and often visit.
And the other is in Ohio, where
they help manage and grow the
Native American Indian Center
of Central Ohio, or NAICCO,
located in Columbus.
Masami is the NAICCO ex-
ecutive director, and Ty is the
project director.
NAICCO is the only viable
Native American center in
Ohio—a state with no Indian
reservations, so no real presence
of Indian services like IHS, the
BIA and BIE.
The experience of Native
Americans in urban areas is dif-
ferent from that on a reserva-
tion, where a tribal member can
most always feel at home. So
NAICCO is especially important
to Native people of Ohio, and
even of neighboring states like
Indiana and Kentucky. Ty esti-
mates that Native people who
are members of the NAICCO
community come from more
than 100 tribes across all of In-
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
phase. The H&HS Quarantine
Project needs to be completed by
the end of this year, due to the re-
quirement that Cares Act funds be
spent by December 31, 2020.
Question: How were the trail-
ers targeting quarantine added if
this grant was for the chronically
homeless?
The Warm Springs Housing Au-
thority proposed to the Health and
Human Services general manager
to combine efforts as the Phase 2
part of the grant. Phase 2 would
bring the FEMA trailers targeting
those needing to be quarantined,
then when the crisis passes the trail-
ers would be used for the homeless
population and a 90-day transitional
home for those returning back from
treatment.
The seven available FEMA trail-
ers would be set up to quarantine
locally instead of sending commu-
nity members who need to be quar-
antined to other areas such as Ma-
dras.
Providing this service locally
would be for the comfort of our
community members so they can
be near their families and friends.
EXPLANATION continues on page 5