Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
December 16, 2020
~ 2020 Review ~
September
tember 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.
T he
massive Lionshead
fire—at nearly 200,000 acres
burned—is unlike anything seen
for many decades on the reserva-
tion.
For 40 years Robert Brunoe has
worked in the fire suppression and
resource protection fields for the
tribes. “I’ve not seen anything like
it,” Mr. Brunoe was saying. And
he explains:
A perfect storm of weather
events—prolonged drought, and a
sudden highly unusual wind
event—fueled the fire. Regarding
the drought conditions:
At a meeting before Tribal
Council, Mr. Brunoe, Natural Re-
sources general manager, held up
an ordinary piece of writing paper.
“This paper,” he said, “contains
more moisture than the average
fuel on the forest floor.”
The Lionshead fire began with
a summer lightning strike 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.
L ike 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 purposes.
The solution is simple: Every
tribal household should complete
the 2020 Census, or the tribes will
lose valuable resources. And now
the day is nearly upon us—Sep-
T he Museum at Warm Springs
received a $140,147 grant as com-
pensation for losses due to Covid-
19.
Another $53,736 went to other
cultural programs of the Confed-
erated Tribes, such as Education.
The pandemic forced the mu-
seum to close for many weeks, and
the essential fundraisers have not
possible during the pandemic.
Page 7
(Continued )
the alleged transaction; and the few
signatures on the document were
suspect.
The recent law disavowing this
document reinforces tribal sover-
eignty, and the government-to-gov-
ernment agreement of the Treaty
of 1855.
Courtesy photo
Crew on the Lionshead fire, September 2020.
C ontrol of the Lionshead fire
is divided among three local units:
The Warm Springs Agency, the
Willamette National Forest and the
Mt. Hood National Forest.
On the reservation the fire
burned roughly 97,000 acres, and
another 107,000 acres off reser-
vation. The fire broke out during
a lightning storm on August 16.
N early
one month into the
2020-21 school year, students are
using the online platforms in pur-
suing their education. While clearly
less than ideal, “Overall this is go-
ing well,” said Ken Parshall, 509-J
district superintendent.
Teachers and staff over the
summer went through intensive
training in the best use of Google
Classroom and other interactive
software. Meanwhile, students are
studying and working their regular
school schedules from home.
“Having that normality in the
day—students knowing what to ex-
pect from class—is helpful to ev-
eryone,” Mr. Parshall said.
October
T he ‘treaty of 1865’ docu-
ment is officially a thing of the
past—now just a relique of at-
tempted fraud upon the Confed-
erated Tribes.
Earlier this year Congress
passed “A law to nullify the
supplemental treaty between
the United States of America
and the Confederated Tribes
and Bands of Indians of Middle
Oregon, concluded on Novem-
ber 15, 1865.”
This legislation then became
on Tuesday, October 20.
Official nullification had
been a goal of Tribal Council
and leadership for decades. The
1865 document was never en-
forced or recognized by the
tribes or federal government.
Nor has the state relied on its
provisions, which appeared to
relinquish tribal Ceded Lands
off-reservation hunting, fishing
and gathering rights.
In 1865 there was no compen-
sation to the tribes in exchange for
Spilyay photo
November
This scene became familiar in 2020 at the Warm Springs
Academy: Chef Juanita Kalama (left) and lead chef Beverly
Gallimore serve the breakfast, lunches and Academy
assignments to students and families at the school drive-by area.
Treasures of the Tribal
Member Art Show went on dis-
play this month in the Changing
Exhibits Gallery of the Museum
at Warm Springs. This year the
Judges Choice Awards went to
Reina Estimo for her beaded me-
dallion, and Brutis Baez for his
mixed media creation.
Edward Heath won Honorable
Mention, as did Pat Courtney Gold
and Marjorie Kalama. All of these
items and many more will be on
display through early January.
W ith so much else going on it
may be easy to forget the critical
domestic water situation on the
reservation, in particular the en-
tire Agency area where most of
the tribal population lives. Some
good news is that many people,
within the tribes and from outside,
are working to resolve this pend-
ing matter.
The federal and state govern-
ments recognize the need and ob-
ligation. And the same is true in
the charitable private sector: The
Chúush Fund—project of the
MRG Foundation—is a great ex-
ample.
Through this fund the MRG
Foundation accepts donations on
behalf the tribes, then contributes
100 percent directly to the tribes
for immediate work on the water
system. This ongoing partnership
began last year following the 76-
day Agency water crisis.
At the time the people at the
MRG Foundation heard about
this, and worked with Tribal Coun-
cil and management in establish-
ing the Chúush Fund.
Spilyay photo
In early October the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, the
Peacekeeper Society of Yakima; Warm Springs Emergency
Response and partners distribute supplies to households of the
reservation. Quanah Spencer , tribal relations director with BNSF,
coordinated the event with the Dan Martinez, director of tribal
Emergency Response. As many as 600 tribal households showed
up for the drive-through distribution.
Old Skool Bear in the New School World, multi media art by Brutis
Baez –Judges Choice Award – Contemporary, Twenty-Seventh Tribal
Member Art Show, November 2020, the Museum at Warm Springs.
Fisheries updates around Northwest Indian Country
In Idaho
After two decades of litigation,
mitigation and field preparation,
the sockeye salmon showed a
promising return this year to
Idaho’s Pettit Lake near Stanley,
Idaho.
The thing is, a lot of people
have given up on the Snake River
sockeye. The challenges are enor-
mous. Sockeye travel the farthest
of all Idaho salmon, a journey of
more than 900 miles and climbing
more than 6,500 feet in elevation
before they reach the Sawtooth
Valley.
In 1999, the Shoshone-
Bannock Tribes filed a petition
with the National Marine Fisheries
Service to list the sockeye as an
endangered species in order to
launch a recovery plan. The tribes
have actively worked since then on
that restoration.
In Washington State
Months after dam removal,
Pilchuck River is showing signs of
recovery
As water rushes along the
Pilchuck River, it’s almost too loud
to hear Brett Shattuck, a restora-
tion ecologist with the Tulalip Tribes,
ask his team whether they’ve spot-
ted any fish.
They’re working their way
across the river to get a better
glimpse of the location where a dam
stood for more than 100 years. The
tribe, along with roughly a dozen
partner agencies, removed the dam
for good in mid-August.
A little more than three months
later, it’s hard to tell anything was
ever there aside from a few chunks
of concrete that remain near the
riverbank. Last August, Shattuck
said there was at best 50 salmon
spotted above the dam. This year
they’ve already spotted hundreds of
coho in recent spawning surveys
above the area where the dam once
stood. A handful of chinook have
been spotted too.
509-J teacher allegedly yelled at covid shutdown protestors
Last week the Jefferson County
School District 509-J took disciplin-
ary action against a teacher in the
for yelling at protestors in down-
town Bend. The incident allegedly
happened over the previous week-
end.
The teacher allegedly yelled at
peope who were rallying against the
governor’s covid lockdown. Video
of the teacher garnered a million
and a half views on Twitter soon
after it was posted. It showed her
screaming to the protestors from
her car, giving them the finger,
claiming the families of her students
are dying and telling the protestors
they should kill themselves.
The district would did not reveal
the teacher’s name.