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Spílya Táimu, Warm Springs, Oregon
October 5, 2022
Museum seeks tribal artwork for Member Show
The Museum at War m
Springs will host the Twenty-
Ninth Annual Tribal Mem-
ber Adult and Youth Art Ex-
hibit November 15. The
show will be on display
through early February 2023.
Artists can submit work up
to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Octo-
ber 15. The application
for ms—for Adult and
Youth—include the guide-
lines and contract. You can
get a copy of the form at the
museum, or see kwso.org
For the exhibit the mu-
seum welcomes Contempo-
rary, Traditional and Video
art. Items will be displayed
in the museum Changing
Exhibits Gallery.
For adults, the museum
recognizes the individual tal-
ents of each artist. These
works will be considered by
a neutral judge. The Judges
Choice categories include
the Contemporary, Tradi-
tional and Video, including
shot films and music videos.
There will also be Honorable
Mention awards.
“We’re anxiously awaiting
your submissions, and are
looking forward to your par-
ticipation in making this ex-
hibit a great success,” said
Angela Smith, museum Cu-
rator and Exhibits coordina-
tor.
For the youth, ages 17
years and younger, their art-
work will not be judged. “I
ask that you encourage the
young artists of your fam-
ily to participate in the ex-
hibit,” Ms. Smith said. “It
would be fun to see artwork
by the different family mem-
bers.”
There will be a soft open-
ing on October 15, when all
the artwork be on display.
Due to continued health
and safety concerns, there
will not be an open recep-
tion, “though please con-
tinue to encourage your
friends and family to enjoy
the show,” Angela said.
If you have questions,
contact Ms. Smith at 541-
553-3331, extension 412.
Phone service has not been
reliable, so you might try
emailing her at:
angela@museumatwarm
springs.com
Or stop by the museum
and speak with her.
The Museum at Warm
Springs is open Tuesday
through Saturday 9a.m. to 5
p.m., closed for lunch from
noon to 1 p.m. The museum
is closed Sunday and Mon-
day. The museum will
present the exhibit Faces of
the Land through this month.
Reservation wildfire protection at U.S. Senate
The U.S. Senate Commit-
tee on Energy and Natural
Resources is looking at legis-
lation that would help protect
the Warm Springs reserva-
tion from wildfire, and em-
power the tribes to restore
cultural and forest resources
on Mt. Hood.
The legislation is co-spon-
sored by Sens. Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley.
“This legislation is about
honoring tribal treaty rights,
and making sure the deep
knowledge of tribes is inte-
gral to any forest manage-
ment plans on the moun-
tain,” Sen. Wyden said.
Sen. Merkley com-
mented, “The Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs are
the largest neighbor to the
Mt. Hood National Forest,
and have a unique interest
in maintaining and protect-
ing its cultural and ecologi-
cal resources.
“This legislation is an im-
portant step in fulfilling our
treaty and trust responsibili-
ties to the Warm Springs
community by creating a
framework for them to take
an active role in co-manag-
ing the forest and utilizing
their knowledge and exper-
tise to improve forest man-
agement.”
The bill is called the
Wy’east Tribal Resources
Restoration Act.
If enacted, the law
would direct the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture
and the Forest Service to
enter into a memorandum
of understanding with the
Confederated Tribes, and
develop a management
strateg y on parts of the
Mt. Hood National Forest
that incorporates the tribe’s
traditional knowledge of
the area and reduces wild-
fire risk.
Chemical cleanup work to begin on Columbia fishing site
A popular fishing site on
the Columbia River for tribal
members was listed last week
as a Superfund site by the
federal government.
Toxins
near
the
Bonneville Dam, at a place
called Bradford Island,
prompted the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency to
put the area on the National
Priority List in March.
The area near Bradford
Island is described as “a
toxic soup for resident
Courtesy
Bradford Island Superfund site to be cleaned up.
fish, with chemicals like
PCBs among the most haz-
ardous.”
The chemicals damage the
river, the fish and other
aquatic life, and can cause
cancer in people. Testing has
found the chemicals espe-
cially harmful to small chil-
dren, fetuses and immune
and thyroid-compromised
persons.
Fishing continues at the
site, making cleanup an im-
mediately pressing issue.
Sacrificing sacred sites in the name of climate change
By Jeremy Takala, Yakama
Nation; and Lauren Goldberg ,
Columbia Riverkeeper
Why should low-carbon
projects be permitted to de-
stroy legendary Native
American sacred sites? Our
elders witnessed the construc-
tion of The Dalles Dam that
flooded and silenced Celilo
Falls on the Columbia River.
The Goldendale pumped-
storage hydroelectric project
is proposed to benefit the
state of Washington’s clean-
energy portfolio.
The project site is situated
on Pushpum—a sacred site
to the Yakama Nation, a
place where there is an abun-
dance of traditional foods
and medicines.
The developer’s footprint
proposes excavation and
trenching over identified In-
digenous Traditional Cultural
Properties, historic and ar-
chaeological resources and
access to exercise ceremonial
practices and treaty-gather-
ing rights.
Notably, the project site
covers the ancestral village
site of the Willa-witz-pum
Band and the Yakama fish-
ing site called As’num, where
Yakama tribal fishermen con-
tinue to practice their treaty-
fishing rights.
Yakama Nation opposes
the development. The devel-
Courtesy
Proposed site of the Goldendale pumped-storage
hydroelectric project, an area sacred to the Yakama.
oper proposes two, approxi-
mately 60-acre reservoirs
and associated energy infra-
structure within the Colum-
bia Hills near the John Day
Dam and an existing wind
turbine complex.
The majority of the nearly
700 acre site is undeveloped;
the lower reservoir would be
located on a portion of the
former Columbia Gorge Alu-
minum smelter site.
The tribe’s treaty-reserved
right to exercise gathering, fish-
ing, ceremony and passing of
traditions in the area of the
proposed project has existed
since time immemorial. The
tribe studied mitigation; it is
impossible at this site.
Columbia Riverkeeper,
and more than a dozen other
nonprofits, stand in solidar-
ity with Yakama Nation and
oppose the development:
The climate crisis does not
absolve our moral and ethi-
cal responsibilities. Tribal
nations and environmental
groups have worked tirelessly
to stop fossil fuel develop-
ments and secure monumen-
tal climate legislation in the
Pacific Northwest. But we
refuse to support a sacrifice
zone to continue to destroy
Native American cultural
and sacred sites.
CRITFC grant for support services
The Columbia River In-
ter-Tribal Fish Commission
received a Violence Against
Women grant to continue
providing victim and inter-
vention services within the
area served by CRITFC.
“Native people who live and
fish along the Columbia
River face many social chal-
lenges, a situation that unfor-
tunately is common through-
out Indian Country,” said Aja
DeCoteau, executive direc-
tor of the Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commis-
sion.
“This funding will allow us
to continue providing vic-
tims of sexual violence with
essential supportive services
and culturally-informed pre-
vention programs that help
support stronger, healthier,
and safer communities.”
Oregon’s U.S. Senators
Ron Wyden and Jeff
Merkley last week an-
nounced the grant to
CRITFC, as well as Violence
Against Women funding to
the Klamath and Siletz
tribes.
In all the grants to tribes
and tribal organizations in
the state is $1.6 million.