Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
April 20, 2022
Page 7
For better broadband in Indian Country—Have your say, Speak Up!
The U. S. Department of Com-
merce, Economic Development
Administration has awarded a
Broadband Planning Grant to
Jefferson County to develop a
broadband plan. The Confederated
Tribes are participating in this
project, and the membership is
asked for input.
The plan will provide a strategic
roadmap in updating the broadband
system for the Confederated Tribes
of Warm Springs and the county.
The funding for the program
will help identify communities on
the reservation, and within the off-
reservation local governments and
municipalities, that are in need of
improved broadband access.
The plan will also identify ob-
stacles standing in the way of en-
hanced connectivity.
When each plan is completed,
the outcomes will lay out an imple-
mentation stratgey, and what steps
are required for the tribes and
Jefferson County to reach the goal
of developing a comprehensive
broadband approach, including a
roadmap identifying how to con-
nect communities with fast, reli-
able, and affordable broadband
availability.
A real challenge today is that
in rural areas the service when
available is often much less than
needed.
Based on fundamental barriers
to deployment in Indian Country,
the tribes and county find it criti-
cal to continue efforts to collect,
monitor, and analyze any relevant
data on tribal lands of the reser-
vation.
Strategic Networks Group—
SNG—has been retained to per-
form the consultation and outreach
for the Confedeated Tribes Broad-
band project.
Complete an assessment
Every Warm Springs resident
and business is asked to complete
the assessment.
Why is this important? Eco-
nomic barriers on tribal lands con-
tinue to raise deployment costs and
suppress indigenous communities.
Like other tribes across the U.S.,
the Confederated Tribes have had
less access to telephone and broad-
band service than other segments
of the population.
There are a number of reasons,
such as the high build-out costs of
the infrastructure necessary to pro-
vide ubiquitous telephone and
broadband services to residents on
tribal lands, and the limited finan-
cial resources of many of the
people.
In addition, the rural nature of
many tribal lands deters businesses
of all kinds, including communi-
cations service providers, from in-
vesting in businesses on tribal lands
due to the lack of an adequate re-
turn on investment, which in turn
contributes to high unemployment.
The Confederated Tribes’ appli-
cation to take over the local ex-
change on the reservation illustrates
this point.
War m Springs has built a
Telecom that serves most of the
population at this time, and the
tribes and Telecom are still work-
ing to improve the broadband ser-
vice coverage in the reservation.
Your valued time in completing
the assessments and insights into
how broadband is currently used,
and what is needed for the future,
will help to plan for better broad-
band services and to support ap-
plications to secure funding.
In November 2021, the Infra-
structure Investment and Jobs Act
was signed into law and provided
$65 billion for broadband.
Again, you can help with the data
collection by getting involved. Please
complete the broadband assess-
ment today. It takes about 20 min-
utes, unless your internet is slow,
then closer to 30 minutes.
You have nothing more to lose
and a huge advantage to gain.
Complete the eCheckups by
scanning below with your photo
camera on your smartphone. If
you have questions please
contact 1-844-WSTRIBE
eHousehold
eBusiness
PGE moves to condemn property at Willamette Falls
Portland General Electric took
legal action in April against the state
of Oregon to condemn a piece of
property alongside Willamette Falls
that is critical to tribal fishing ac-
cess.
The move, together with a no-
tice of condemnation, could allow
the utility to control access to
roughly five acres of land at the
base of the falls, exacerbating ten-
sions between Northwest tribes
with ties to the landmark.
PGE has been mired in an on-
going dispute over who has author-
ity over the property where the
Confederated Tribes of the Grand
Ronde have permission from the
state to operate a fishing platform.
Officials with PGE said the util-
ity has spent three years trying to
resolve the property dispute with
the Oregon Department of State
Lands, which granted a permit to
the Grand Ronde on land that the
utility argues is part of its licensed
hydroelectric project at the falls.
Other tribes have said the
state’s decision to grant permission
to the Grand Ronde interferes with
their treaty fishing rights at the
falls.
Warm Springs Council
Chairman Raymond
Tsumpti said PGE has
worked “in good
faith” to resolve the
property dispute...
In response to PGE’s filing,
Sara Thompson, communications
director for the Grand Ronde
tribes, issued a statement accus-
ing the utility of trying to “steal
one of Oregon’s gems from the
Willamette Falls remains a place of spiritual,
cultural importance for Northwest tribes
Willamette Falls, one of the
greatest waterfalls in Oregon and
a cherished natural area for thou-
sands of years, is in the midst of
a historic change-of-hands, as lo-
cal Indigenous communities re-
gain a year-round presence at the
waterfall that has been withheld
from them for generations.
And while only one tribe, the
Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde, currently owns land at
Willamette Falls, four other
tribes—including the Confeder-
ated Tribes of Warm Springs—
also cite ancestral connections to
the falls and have had an increas-
ing role in redeveloping it, working
with local and state officials to of-
fer public access to the waterfall
that has effectively been inacces-
sible for more than 150 years.
Davis ‘Yellowash’ Washines,
government relations liaison for
the Confederated Tribes and
Bands of the Yakama Nation,
said while he, too, is looking for-
ward to Willamette Falls reopen-
ing to the public, it should not be
forgotten that it will be the result
of the Pacific Northwest tribes
all fighting for their rights.
“It’s moving in the right direc-
tion of restoring the land as best
as we can back to what it was,”
Washines said of Willamette Falls.
“Not just for tribal members –
for all members of the commu-
nity, from all walks of life.”
Riverwalk remains on hold
Anyone hoping for a new pub-
lic riverwalk to Willamette Falls
in Oregon City will need to hold
out hope for a little—or maybe a
lot—longer.
Last month, the partnership re-
ceived a blow when the Confed-
erated Tribes of Grand Ronde an-
nounced it was leaving the
Willamette Falls Legacy Project
Courtesy
Scene at Willamette Falls, where the tribes have fishing rights.
The remaining part-
ners include... the
Confederated Tribes
of Warm Springs.
because of bureaucratic gridlock.
The tribe owns the property
where the public riverwalk will be
built using an easement, and is
working on a multiphase develop-
ment that will include a separate
cultural and community center of
its own at the site.
The remaining partners, which
include Oregon City, Clackamas
County, Metro and the state of
Oregon, as well as the Confeder-
ated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Con-
federated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs, and the
Confederated Tribes and Bands
of the Yakama Nation, have said
they plan to continue work on the
riverwalk— though details for that
plan remain elusive.
Salmon not returning from ocean
A research expedition in-
volving American, Canadian
and Russian scientists is trying
to understand salmon booms
and busts in the “black box’”
of the high seas.
During her three decades as
a government scientist, as cli-
mate change has intensified,
Laurie Weitkamp has watched
fluctuations in salmon numbers
become bigger.
Meanwhile, the models that
predict how many salmon will
return from sea become more
unreliable.
“Salmon will go out, in
what we think is a really good
ocean, and then it collapses,”
said Weitkamp, a fisheries bi-
ologist with the National
Oceanographic and Atmo-
spheric Administration based
in Oregon.
“They don’t come back.”
The pressures salmon face
in their home rivers, and their
experience in coastal waters, are
well documented.
But less is known about
what they endure on the high
seas.
public trust” to protect its “busi-
ness relationships” with other
tribes.
Raymond Tsumpti, chairman
of the Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs, said PGE has
worked “in good faith” to resolve
the property dispute and “unfor-
tunately, the Grand Ronde tribes
stepped away from those discus-
sions some time ago.”
Mr. Tsumpti said the Grand
Ronde blocked a proposal sup-
ported by other tribes, PGE and
the state to start a new round of
talks to resolve the ownership dis-
pute.
Delano Saluskin, chairman of
the tribal council for Confederated
Tribes and Bands of the Yakama
Nation, said his tribes support
PGE.
“PGE’s need to safely operate
and maintain the area within the
boundaries of its federally licensed
power plant is unassailable,” he said.
“We support PGE’s action to
move forward now, secure its prop-
erty and its ongoing efforts to fa-
cilitate a safe and equitable way for
all tribes to have everlasting access
to the site,” he said.
Below Bonneville dam fishery
The following regulations will
govern the fishery below Bonneville
on Sunday, May 1. The regulations
will be strictly enforced.
Warm Springs tribal members
may harvest salmon, steelhead,
shad, walleye, carp, catfish, yellow
perch and bass in the area described
below for subsistence purposes only
on Sunday, May 1. The bag limit is
five fish per person, fishing must
cease after the bag limit is reached.
Fish must be caught by and for the
fisherman not others. Only two days
will be allowed due to the size of
the predicted spring chinook run.
No ceremonial fishers can partici-
pate. Caretakers can help fishers or
handicapped to participate in fish-
ing activities but cannot fish for
themselves unless over 55 years old.
Sale of fish is strictly prohibited
this is a subsistence fishery only.
Retention of any sturgeon that
may be caught incidentally while
fishing for allowed species within
the prescribed area shall be prohib-
ited.
The fishery shall be open for el-
ders only, 55 years and older. Fish-
ing times may be limited by the lo-
cation fished such as Hamilton Park,
access gates open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Only one pole and pole holder
allowed per person.
Any Warm Springs tribal mem-
bers fishing below Bonneville Dam
pursuant to this resolution shall carry
an official tribal enrollment card and
produce it upon request by state or
tribal enforcement officers. Any
person who produces a War m
Springs tribal enrollment card will
not be required to produce a state
fishing license.
Gear restrictions: Tribal fishing
gear shall be restricted to bank sub-
sistence gear, which is defined by
the 1-year agreement reached
among the parties of U.S. vs. Or-
egon in 2008 as:
Dipnet or bagnet, spear, gaff,
club, fouling hook, hook and line
or other methods as determined by
the management entities. This fish-
ery will be with hook and line only.
The geographic scope of this fish-
ery covers the banks of the Colum-
bia River in the area bounded by a
deadline marker on the Oregon
bank, approximately four miles
downstream from Bonneville Dam
Powerhouse No. 1 in a straight line
through the western tip of Pierce
Island, to a deadline marker on the
Washington bank at Beacon Rock
up the river to a point 600 feet be-
low the Bonneville dam, but exclud-
ing the following four areas:
(A) Between markers located
150 feet upstream and 450 feet
downstream from the mouth of
Tanner Creek out to the center of
the Columbia River, during the pe-
riod August 16 to October 15;
(B) Inside the south navigation
lock at the Bonneville Dam from a
marker on the western-most point
of Robins Island to a marker on
the Oregon mainland shore;
(C) From Bradford Island below
Bonneville Dam from the south
shore between the dam and a line
perpendicular to the shoreline
marker at west end of riprap and
from north shore between fishway
entrance and a line perpendicular
to the shoreline marker 850 feet
downstream; and
(D) From Robins Island below
Bonneville Dam downstream to a
line perpendicular to the shoreline
marker on mooring cell.
(E) Fishing from boats or other
floating device is not permitted.
The CTWSRO Branch of Natu-
ral Resources will be responsible for
the biological monitoring of the
CTWSRO fishery. Reports will be
provided to the Fish and Wildlife
Committee. Fishery may be closed
if there is excessive harvest or the
run is deemed too small.
Conduct of tribal fishers shall be
consistent with Warm Springs Tribal
Code 340.310 which defines Off-
Reservation Fishing by Tribal Mem-
bers.