Spilyay Tymoo
Coyote News, est. 1976
At Council
in December
The following are some of the
items coming up on the Tribal
Council agenda for December (sub-
ject to change at Council discretion):
Thursday, December 2: Cen-
tral Oregon Inter-governmental
Council meeting, virtual.
Monday, December 6
9 a.m.: Bureau of Indian Affairs
update with Brenda Bremner, su-
perintendent.
9:30: Office of Special Trustee
phone update with Kevin Moore,
Umatilla Agency BIA.
10: Indian Health Service update
with Hyllis Dauphinais, clinic chief
executive officer.
10:30: Covid update with the
Response Team.
1:30 p.m.: Legislative update
calls, federal and state.
2:30: Tribal attorney update.
Friday, December 10
9 a.m.: Blue Stone strategy group
follow-up session.
Monday, December 13
9 a.m.: Secretary-Treasurer up-
date with Glendon Smith.
9:30: January 2022 agenda, and
review minutes.
10: Draft resolutions.
11: Covid update with the Re-
sponse Team.
1:30 p.m.: Legislative update
calls, federal and state.
2:30: Enrollments with L u c i l l e
Suppach-Samson, Vital Stats.
3: O-Life Network with Matthew
Klebes.
4: Willamette Falls Trust update
with Gerard Rodriguez.
Tuesday, December 14
9 a.m.: Workshop on Columbia
River housing.
1:30 p.m.: Akana update.
Wednesday, December 15:
Government to government meet-
ing on Columbia River housing with
the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
Thursday and Friday, De-
cember 16-17: Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission meet-
ing, virtual.
Community
update
There were 20 people on the
reservation with active Covid-19, as
of Tuesday of this week, accord-
ing to the most recent update from
the Warm Springs covid Response
Team.
The early part of the week saw
three new cases from 64 tests ad-
ministered by Warm Springs IHS.
Community Health and IHS were
monitoring 13 close contacts, as of
earlier this week. Call 541-553-2131
to schedule a vaccination.
· Warm Springs IHS has con-
ducted 16,341 covid tests since the
pandemic began.
There have been 1,258 con-
firmed cases among the tribal com-
munity since the pandemic began,
according to the latest report.
December 1, 2021 - Vol. 46, No. 24
December – Nch’i-An - Winter - Yiyam
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
New districts and question of political equity
The Warm Springs Reserva-
tion next year will become part
of the large and rural Oregon
voting District 57. Meanwhile,
the city of Madras—where
many tribal members live, shop,
work, go to school, etc.—will be
part of District 59.
This separation dilutes the
voting equity of the Confeder-
ated Tribes, said Jaylyn Suppah.
She spoke earlier this fall at a
Oregon redistricting hearing be-
fore the Affiliated Tribes of
Northwest Indians.
With the reservation separated
from Madras and moved into the
larger District 57, including east-
ern Oregon, Indigenous represen-
tation is broken up, and thereby
weakened.
An example is Ms. Suppah her-
self. She had considered a candi-
dacy for state office in District 59.
With the reservation part of Dis-
trict 57, she is less likely to run.
Like on the reservation, she
knows the people and issues of
Madras, Jefferson County, and
District 59. This is not as true of
District 57, making a candidacy less
tenable.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable try-
ing to represent folks I don’t
know,” Ms. Suppah, an education
advocate, has said. She is less fa-
miliar with communities of the new
District 57, and this is the problem.
As summarized in a recent In-
dian Countr y Today feature:
“Tribal advocates who submit-
ted maps or worked to increase en-
gagement with the process in In-
dian Country say the new districts
will make it nearly impossible to
A
s the Warm Springs Prevention team
believes: Culture is Prevention. Toward this
belief in November the team hosted a drum
making class for community members of the all
ages. The class was one of their events celebrat-
ing Native Heritage Month.
In terms of Culture, the Drum is among the
most essential, a living tradition as vibrant
today as ever. The wood of the drum itself is a
living entity.
Drums are central to all the of many Native
tribes. Ahd while the styles of construction may
vary greatly from tribe to tribe, there is a shared
foundation among all of them.
For information on drum making , or classes
that may be upcoming , Warm Springs Preven-
tion can be reached at 541-615-0036.
elect candidates representative of
those communities at a time when
voter-engagement efforts were be-
ginning to make that a possibility.”
The state approved the new Or-
egon district maps in September. In
comparison, the state of Washing-
ton earlier this year drew its new
maps, prompting tribal communities
to speak in opposition. Washington
then redrew its maps to address the
concerns. In Oregon the new maps
brought a lawsuit by Republicans,
though this was dismissed recently
by the state Supreme Court.
Omicron
and vaccine
Participants in the drum class at Prevention.
The latest covid ‘variant of con-
cern’ is the omicron.
This variant may be even more
contagious than the delta variant.
As of earlier this week at least,
scientists were not sure whether the
omicron is present in the U.S.: If it
is already, then it surely will be.
And it is still too soon to know
whether the current covid vaccines
are fully effective against the omi-
cron. This should be known in the
coming days and weeks.
Yet the best advice advice for
now, until more is known about omi-
cron, is to get vaccinated and get
the booster when available, the
health experts agree.
Reach the Warm Springs IHS
clinic vaccine line at 541-553-
2131 for information or an ap-
pointment.
The omicron was first reported
in South Africa and its neighboring
countries, though the variant is now
found in many other countries, in-
cluding Canada.
Photos courtesy Scott Kalama/Prevention
A Year in Review ~ 2021 ~
The following are some of the
memorable news events during
2021 on the reser vation, as re-
ported in the Spilyay Tymoo.
The January plan called for the
return to the classroom by Febru-
ary, about one year since schools
first closed due to covid.
In other January 2021 news:
January
The year 2021 began with stu-
dents of the reservation and
school district still taking their
classes online from home.
In early January 2021,
though, the district conducted a
survey of families and students,
asking whether they would like
to return to in-person learning
in the classroom.
The purpose of the survey:
If enough families respond in the
affirmative, the in-person learn-
ing could resume by late Janu-
ary or early February.
As the survey was complete,
the overwhelming response was
A small private business jet
crashed in the Mutton Mountains
on the reservation. The pilot of
the Cessna Citation jet and the one
passenger on board were killed. And
elsewhere:
Spilyay photo
Scene in February 2021, the first day students returned to
in-person classroom learning. The schools had been
closed since March of 2020 because of the covid.
in favor of returning to class.
So in response, the school dis-
trict and individual schools adopted
Covid-19 health precautions.
In January, for instance, as pri-
ority workers, the teachers and
school staff received their Covid-
19 vaccines. This was through the
Oregon Health Authority and the
county health programs.
By mid January, the War m
Springs Health and Wellness Cen-
ter had administered all 400 Covid-
19 vaccines the clinic had received
in its December 2020 delivery.
As the month continued, Health
and Wellness administered several
hundred more vaccines. And this:
The year 2021 will see some sig-
nificant water infrastructure im-
provements on the reservation.
2021 REVIEW continues on 4