E Coosh EEWA: The way it is
Page 4 Spilyay Tymoo Novemeber 3, 2021
Letters to the editor
Huge thanks
We would like to extend
a huge Thank You to all the
departments and community
members who participated
in the Early Childhood Edu-
cation Halloween events last
Friday. You made these
events a great success.
We appreciated all of the
donations of candy, cos-
tumes, and most importantly
the time each parent and fam-
ily and community members
had taken to be involved in
our events.
A great big Thank You to
all the departments who took
the time and participated,
such as McGruff the Crime
Dawg, the Warm Springs Po-
lice Department, Ron Gre-
gory for assigning our police
officers to assist in our Lil’
Pumpkin Parade, Fire and
Safety, Fire Management,
the Prevention team, Hous-
ing, Tribal Council, Behav-
ioral Health, Credit, Preven-
tion, KWSO, the Community
Action Team, Emily
Courtney/Pictures, OSU
Extension, Elders Judy
Charley, Jeffery Saunders,
Shirley Saunders, Sylvia
McCabe, Lucy Smith,
Melinda Frank, Lori
Fuentes.
All of our own ECE staff,
Head Start teachers, Day
Care teachers, ECE admin-
istrative staff, and the Food
Program staff—Thank you
so much! Everyone did a
great job.
Note: ECE will be cel-
ebrating Indigenous Week
November 16-19.
From all of the ECE
staff.
Healing Hearts
Health Hearts with Good
Medicine has been resched-
uled to this Friday and Satur-
day, November 5 and 6. The
event includes Introduction
to Equine, starting at 3 p.m.
Friday in the grassy field by
Behavioral Health and the
Old Elementary School.
Come and enjoy the
horses, the speakers and a
snack. Sponsors of Health
Hearts with Good Medicine
are White Clay, and volun-
teers and the Community
Health Education Team. You
can find out more by calling
the Behavioral Health at 541-
553-3205 ext. 1020.
Welcome supplies
donation to tribes
The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints
in October donated 24 pal-
lets of food and supplies to
the Confederated Tribes.
Missionaries from the
church and tribal members
unloaded the supplies that the
church sent from its Bishop’s
Storehouse in Salt Lake City.
The church maintains 15
farms, five canneries and
110 food distribution centers
called Bishops’ Storehouses,
all staffed primarily by local
volunteers.
The church also has five
additional processing plants
that specialize in meat, milk,
bread, grain and pasta, and
soap. These facilities help
provide assistance to church
members in need and to lo-
cal community partners.
The church in 2020 also
provided the Confederated
Tribes a smaller supply of
food at the beginning of the
Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier last month,
Mitch Wilcox, president of
the Redmond Stake for the
church, contacted Danny
Martinez, the emergency
response officer for the
tribes.
Mr. Martinez said he was
grateful for the help, as the
tribes have been providing
meals to quarantined fami-
lies on the reservation since
the beginning of the pan-
demic.
Dan relies on Dorothea
‘Dot’ Thurby as the man-
ager of the social needs or-
ganization for the tribes.
Dorothea wishes to thank
the church and volunteers
for the generous help.
The donated food, along
with cleaning supplies, will be
distributed by Ms. Thurby’s
team as needed for quaran-
tined families and those who
find comfort in the warm-
ing shelter provided.
Looking back, in 2020
the church overall sent more
than 800 truckloads of food
to 380 food banks, home-
less shelters and charitable
agencies throughout the U.S.
Amazingly, in total these
trucks supplied over 26 mil-
lion meals to those in need.
These truckloads came from
several of the church’s 110
bishops’ storehouses in the
U.S. and Canada.
The main warehouse dis-
tribution center is located in
Salt Lake City, with five ad-
ditional regional hubs lo-
cated in Oregon, California,
Indiana, Georgia and
Canada. The food was de-
livered by 46 dedicated long-
haul truck drivers for
Deseret Transportation, who
drove more than 1.6 million
miles during the Covid-19
pandemic.
Champion
for Children
A week after being named
the School Board Member
of the Year, Laurie Danzuka
was honored by the Madras-
Jefferson County Chamber
Spilyay Tymoo
(Coyote News, Est. 1976)
Publisher Emeritus in Memorium: Sid Miller
Editor: Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo is published bi-weekly by the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Our of-
fices are located at 4174 Highway 3 in Warm
Springs.
Any written materials submitted to Spilyay Tymoo
should be addressed to:
Spilyay Tymoo, P.O. Box 489, Warm Springs, OR
97761.
Phone: 541-553-2210 or 541-771-7521
E-Mail: david.mcmechan@wstribes.org.
Annual Subscription rates: Within U.S.: $20.00
To Veterans, families of the tribes
At State meet
Attention all Warm Springs Veterans and Familes:
It appears that a local memory care facility in
Hillsboro was referring veterans and surviving spouses
to a private legal group out of Tennessee that charges
families a ‘pre-consultation filing fee’ for both Pen-
sion and Compensation: $1,000 for compensation, and
$800 for pension.
Then the memory care facility would absorb the
fee if they got into the home with the benefit.
There is no charge when filing for either pension
or compensation through the VA. Please be aware that
this may happen in our area as well, and please let me
know if you encounter a situation like this. Thanks,
Frankie Williams, Tribal Veterans Service Of-
ficer, 541-460-0605. frankie.williams@wstribes.org
Note: This year Veterans Day is on Thursday,
November 11. The tribal organization is closed on
that day in honor of the veterans and their fami-
lies.
Inspiring Alumni
Jayson Smith photo
Dr. Janice White Clemmer and Alyssa Macy were
honored recently at the Madras High School Home-
coming. With fellow graduates Judge Dan Ahern and
Stephen Hillis, Dr. Clemmer and Ms. Macy were
honored as Inspiring Alumni.
They were introduced during a break at the high
school Homecoming game, and presentations were
shown on video in the high school classrooms.
Alyssa was the tribes’ chief operations officer for
a number of years. She now the chief executive of-
ficer of the Washington Environmental Council and
Washington Conservation Voters.
of Commerce with the
Champion for Children
Award.
This is a new chamber
award created by the
Jefferson County School
District 509-J.
Ms. Danzuka is the chair-
woman of the school dis-
trict board. She works in
Warm Springs at Ventures.
At the awards ceremony
last week, Louise Muir pre-
sented the Business of the
Year award to Black Bear
Diner owners Joe and
Nancy Davis, in apprecia-
tion for their support of
local events, youth pro-
grams, senior citizens and
veterans in Jefferson
County.
Isaiah Wapsheli and fellow Madras High
School junior Hannah MacDuffee qualified for
the 4A State Championships. They both had
top-five finishes at the Tri-Valley District meet
in late October. The state meet is this
Saturday, November 6 at Lane Community
College in Eugene.
You can call to schedule a Covid-19 vaccination, get on
the list for a booster shot, and get your child ages 5-11 on
the list for a vaccination. Call the clinic at 541-553-2131.
Other award winners are
Senior Citizen of the Year
Shawn Stanfill, Volunteer of
the Year Jenniffer Grant,
Community Champion of
the Year Angela Rhodes, and
Public Servant of the Year
Sheriff Marc Heckathorn.
Housing seeks
wood cutters
Warm Springs Housing
is starting the process of
recruiting wood cutters to
cut and deliver wood to eli-
gible clients.
To learn more you can
stop by Housing. KWSO
has more information posts
at kwso.org
Community update: Covid-19 vaccine, cases update
As of early this week,
there were 20 people on the
reservation with active covid,
and 24 close contacts receiv-
ing daily monitoring.
There were three people
hospitalized with Covid-19;
and zero on ventilators.
The Warm Springs Health
and Wellness Center has con-
ducted 15,348 total tests. Of
the total, 14,293 have come
back negative since the pan-
demic and testing began.
There have been a total
of 1,019 positive cases
among the tribal community.
The overall positivity rate
has been 6.64 percent.
St. Charles Medical has
been at more than 78 per-
cent capacity.
The Warm Springs Indian
Health Service and Commu-
nity Health have given
2,993 primary covid
vaccinatins.
Total number of Pri-
mary Covid Vaccinations
given: 2993, including
Moderna, Pfizer and
Johnson & Johnson.
Total number of second
vaccinations was at 2,525.
This includes both the
Moderna and Pfizer vac-
cines.
The booster shot count
was at 159, including the
Pfizer, Moderna and J&J.
The clinic is now sched-
uling booster vaccines. If
you are 65 or older, call the
clinic vaccine line at 541-
553-2131 to schedule an ap-
pointment.
The goal at IHS through
early November is to get the
booster to all of the
community’s 65 and older
population, for those who
coose to have the dose.
If you are 18-64 years
old and meet the criteria for
a booster dose, please call
and let the clinic know you
are interested in receiving
your boost dose.
A person between 18 and
64 would qualify for the
booster if he or she is at
high risk of severe Covid-
19—such as those with un-
derlying medical conditions.
A person would qualify if
he or she is in frequent in-
stitutional or occupational
place of exposure to Covid-
19. This would include a
long-term healthcare facility
resident, healthcare workers,
first responders, education
staff, corrections, etc.
Please get vaccinated,
along with masking, social
distancing, avoid gatherings,
wash hands.... Be safe.
In the state of Oregon,
health officials this week an-
nounced
1,420
new
coronavirus cases.
A new state forecast indi-
cates that while hospitaliza-
tions will continue to decline,
that decline will be slower
than it has been in the weeks
since hospitalizations peaked
last month.
By around Thanksgiving,
total beds filled with Covid-
19 patients is projected to
fall to about 400 from the
current 513. The projection
was developed by the Or-
egon Health Sciences Uni-
versity.