Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
November 17, 2021
Region posts highest covid
rate in the state of Oregon
The three counties of Central
Oregon, as of late October, had
the highest rate of new Covid-19
infections in the state.
The Oregon Health Authority
report lists the total number of
cases, the cases per 100,000 resi-
dents and positive test rates of all
counties with a population over
2,000.
A key indicator is the per capita
number—the rate of cases per
100,000 residents—allowing for a
comparison between counties of
different sizes.
At the end of October,
Jefferson County had the highest
per capita: 542 new cases per
100,000 people.
Crook County had 469 new
cases per 100,000 people; and
Deschutes County 401 new cases
per 100,000 people.
For comparison: The statewide
rate was 192 cases per 100,000
people.
Sherman County—the state’s
second least populous county—
had a rate of 791 cases per
100,000.
Since late June, the delta vari-
ant drove infections, hospitaliza-
tions and deaths to new records
for the pandemic that first reached
Oregon in February 2020.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity reported the variant attacked
the unvaccinated. While break-
through cases of Covid-19 have
risen somewhat during the spike,
those who have received immu-
nization account for less than 5
percent of cases requiring hos-
pitalization and under 1 percent
of deaths.
The spike peaked just after La-
bor Day and then began a steep
drop, but at a rate slower than pub-
lic health officials had initially fore-
casted.
The Deschutes County numbers
in the risk report issued Monday
are significant in that they are so
high for a county with a large popu-
lation. The 2020 U.S. Census put
the population at 198,253.
While the per-capita rates are
higher in Jefferson and Crook
counties, both are in decline.
Deschutes County cases were ris-
ing.
All three Central Oregon coun-
ties have test positivity rates above
10 percent over the past week—
twice the rate that state officials
have said can be controlled by pub-
lic health measures.
The state average was 7.3 per-
cent, but falling.
Community covid demographics
Since the covid pandemic
began in the spring of 2020, a
total of 27 members of the
tribal community have passed
away due to the illness, accord-
ing to the latest Community
Health demographics report.
Ninety-one people have
been hospitalized with covid.
At the time of the recent re-
port, November 10, there were
no hospitalization due to covid.
The most recent covid death
was on November 6.
Page 5
Richard ‘Dick’ Montee ~ Celebration of Life
Please join Dick’s family for
the Celebration of his Life on
Saturday, November 27 from
1-3 p.m.
Howlak Tichum
Diane Pittock Perkins ~ 1942-2021
Diane Pittock Perkins
passed peacefully at her home
in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Oc-
tober 27, 2021. She overcame
two tumor surgeries in her 70s
and was lively until recent
months, when her heart
started to fail. The family is
very grateful to Fairbanks Me-
morial Hospital and especially
the hospice care she received
in her last weeks.
Diane was born February 19,
1942, in Portland. She gradu-
ated from Portland’s Lincoln
High School in 1960, where she
starred in tennis and golf. Al-
ways active and adventurous,
she raced and rallied sports cars
as a member of the Cascade
Sports Car Club.
She worked for Joie Smith’s
Ski Shop and Alpine Towing
in Rhododendron, where
Diane participated in moun-
tain rescues and assistance by
road and horseback. While
working in the Cascades, Diane
was given the honorable posi-
tion of dog sitter for Timber-
line Lodge’s famous St. Ber-
nards. Additionally, her beloved
dog Kosi was a gift from the
Warm Springs Reservation.
The Warm Springs tribe also
let her participate in tribal fish-
ing near Celilo Falls, a great
honor for someone who was not
a member of the tribe. Diane
will be greatly missed by all who
knew and loved her.
Oregon coastal tribes hope
to bring back sea otters
More than a century ago, sea
otters were hunted to near extinc-
tion along the West Coast.
The animals have been reintro-
duced along the Washington, Brit-
ish Columbia and California
coasts, but an attempt to bring
them back to Oregon in the early
1970s failed. A local nonprofit is
advocating for another attempt.
The lives of sea otters were
once intertwined with those of the
coastal tribes in Oregon. But when
fur traders discovered the value
of the warm, waterproof pelts, a
global trade led to the near extinc-
tion of the animals. Now, local
Native Americans are hoping to
bring them back.
Peter Hatch, a member of the
Confederated Tribes of Siletz,
began learning about the relation-
ship between his people and the
otters when he and his father built
a boat and needed a name for it.
“My dad happened across
elakha, for sea otter, in a Chinook
jargon dictionary,” Mr. Hatch said.
Hatch and his father delved
into the history of otters and be-
came interested in bringing them
back.
“We survived and the sea ot-
ters didn’t,” Hatch says. “That
leaves us with a level of responsi-
bility to undo the wrongs that all
people, whatever their particular
background—we’ve had our own
small part in committing.”
are seeing high covid rates, mark-
ing yet another instance of surges
across every region of Indian
Country. The numbers by IHS area
are as follows:
Portland IHS Area sees lowest covid percent
The national office of the In-
dian Health Services updated its
coronavirus data through Novem-
ber 9: According to the data,
277,984 tests have returned posi-
tive for Covid-19 across U.S. In-
dian Country.
That represents an increase of
0.8 percent from the number of
IHS diagnosed cases from the two
days before.
Altogether, IHS has conducted
3,291,974 coronavirus tests across
all of Indian Country. That repre-
sents an increase of 0.7 percent
We will be meeting at the
Jefferson County Community
Center, 860 SW Madison,
Madras.
from two days prior.
Since mid-October of 2020, the
IHS has been providing additional
information about the spread of the
coronavirus within the system.
These numbers represent the
totals since the pandemic began last
year.
Based on the cumulative percent
positive, the highest rates have been
seen in five areas. Two of them in-
clude the state of Arizona, indicat-
ing a disproportionate toll of Covid-
19 in the state. The high numbers
are as follows:
Navajo Area, 13.7 positivity per-
centage rate. The Phoenix Area,
12.6 percent.
The Oklahoma City Area, 12.3
percent. The California Area, 10.3
percent. The Albuquerque Area, 9.7
percent.
The seven-day rolling average
positivity column offers a more con-
temporary look at the impact of the
coronavirus. The data shows where
covid cases have been increasing re-
cently.
Based on the seven-day rolling
average positivity, all 12 IHS areas
The Albuquerque Area, 14.7
percent. Navajo Area, 14.3 per-
cent. The Bemidji Area, 14.3 per-
cent.
Tucson Area, 13.9 percent.
Phoenix Area, 9.6 percent. The
Great Plains Area, 8.8 percent.
Billings Area, 8.3 percent. Alaska
Area, 7.8 percent.
California Area, 7.8 percent.
Oklahoma City Area, 6.3 percent.
Nashville Area, 6.1 percent. The
Portland Area, 5.5 percent.
Notably, the seven-day rolling
average positivity for the Alaska
Area has steadily grown in recent
weeks. The region recorded its
His father founded the Elakha
Alliance about 20 years ago to ad-
vocate for returning sea otters to
Oregon. The older Hatch has
passed away, but today the Alliance
has the blessing of three coastal
tribes. Hatch is the group’s secre-
tary.
“It is about restoring that rela-
tionship,” he says, “about bringing
back a relative.”
The Elakha Alliance has commis-
sioned a feasibility study looking at
the biology, ecology, economics and
cultural impacts of reintroducing
otters. An unanswered question is
why the 1970 effort to move some
Alaska otters to Oregon failed. But
during the long years otters have
been away, a shellfish industry has
grown lucrative in the very waters
where the otter restoration would
take place.
More than 800 people in Oregon
and California hold commercial
permits for Dungeness crab and
they employ many others who also
rely on the fishery. Sea otters eat
up to 15 pounds of shellfish a day,
a potential conflict with the indus-
try.
highest-ever rate with the release
of data in October, and the rate
has stayed consistently high.
Throughout most of the pan-
demic, the Alaska Area had seen
the lowest rate of covid cases within
the IHS.
Overall, 9.0 percent of IHS tests
have been positive since the onset
of the pandemic, the data shows.
Meanwhile, the seven-day average
stands at 9.6 percent following a
long period of far lower rates in
the spring of 2021.
The data, however, is incom-
plete. While 100 percent of facili-
ties run directly by the IHS are re-
porting data, only 33 percent of
tribally managed facilities and 44
percent of urban Indian organiza-
tions are doing the same, the agency
has said.