Spílya Táimu
Coyote News, est. 1976
Agency
meeting
Thursday
The Agency District will meet
this Thursday evening, October 20
at the Longhouse. The purpose of
the meeting, as called by the
Agency District Tribal Council rep-
resentatives, is to consider the po-
sition of the Wasco Chieftainship,
and to hear the opinions of the
Wasco and Agency District people.
The issue can be complicated,
as demonstrated most recently dur-
ing the time from 2010 to 2012,
following the passing of atwai
Chief Nelson Wallulatum, who had
served for 50 years.
The Wasco Chieftainship was
vacant during 2010-2012, as the
Agency membership was determin-
ing how best to proceed. Following
nine district meetings over the two
years, the Agency consensus was
to conduct a survey of the mem-
bership on how to proceed.
A majority of the people who
responded to the survey said the
matter should be put to a vote,
which happened later in 2012.
The meaning of ‘tribal custom’
regarding the Chieftainship position
can be a point of disagreement
among some in the district. Chief
Wallulatum did not have a sub-chief
at the time of his passing. Chief
Smith did name his sub-chief,
Wissie Smith. The family held his
sub-chieftainship ceremony in
2016. The significance of this
would be a point for discussion
during the Thursday evening dis-
trict meeting.
The family of Wissie Smith
wishes to outline their position on
the matter in this edition of the
Spílya Táimu, as shown on page 4.
A policy of the tribal media, re-
garding the filling of the elected
positions on Council, is to present
all candidates equally and in the
same edition of the Spílya. This
policy does not seem to apply to
the situation at hand, as the Chief-
tainship position is not at this print-
ing subject to a popular vote of
the Agency membership.
Ballots are
out for the
Nov. election
The drop box sites opened to-
day for the November 8 election
ballots. Mailing is another and much
more convenient method of casting
a ballot. Mail-in ballots must be post-
marked by the end of regular work-
ing hours on Tuesday, November 8.
Local, state and federal questions
are on the November election. Lo-
cal races include a Jefferson County
Commission position. A local bond
measure on the ballot is for the Ma-
dras Aquatic Center Recreation
District, supported by property
taxes within the district. The state
Representative 57 position is on the
ballot in an unopposed election,
among several state and federal
elected positions.
October 19, 2022 - Vol. 47, No. 21
October – Anwicht’ash – Fall - Tiyam
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Upcoming work at Power & Water Enterprise
Warm Springs Power and Wa-
ter Enterprises is in position to
prosper, on behalf of the tribes,
for the foreseeable future. A
number of factors have aligned
to create the interesting scenario.
First of all, Power and Water
has the personnel on board with
years of experience and insight
to facilitate the progress. “Our
team here is great, as set up by
Jim,” said Cathy Ehli, Power and
Water general manager. Ms. Ehli
has been with the enterprise since
early this summer, following the
retirement of long-time general
manager Jim Manion, now serv-
ing on the Tribal Council.
Ms. Ehli mentions another fac-
tor that is coming into play, as
Power and Water looks to the
future: Oregon law now requires
electricity power suppliers in the
state to include at least 50-per-
cent renewable power sources in
their portfolios by the year 2040.
In addition to the hydro-power
of the Pelton-Round Butte sys-
tem—co-owned by the tribes and
PGE—Power and Water and the
tribes for years have also consid-
ered expanding into solar power.
The reservation has several sites—
five identified in particular—that
may serve as a profitable solar
power field.
An obstacle with solar has been
the cost of transmission from a
potential field to the power grid.
And this brings directly into play re-
cent federal legislation, specifically
the Inflation Reduction Act of
2022, and the Bipartisan Infrastruc-
ture Law of 2021. These laws could
provide a funding source to ad-
dress the transmission cost obstacle.
Through all of these factors—the
Power and Water team, the state
renewables mandate, the new po-
tential funding sources—“Some-
times in life, things just seem to line
up,” Ms. Ehli says.
And her own background is yet
another consideration. Ehli comes
to Power and Water from the
Bonneville Power Administration,
Cathy Ehli at Power and Water
where she worked for about 30
years at their main office in Port-
land. She retired from the BPA
early this year, and was looking for
a new opportunity. Seeing the
growth potential at Power and
Water, she applied for the general
manager position, coming on
board last June.
At the BPA, Ehli was the ex-
ecutive vice president for cor-
porate strategy, and vice president
for transmission marketing and
sales. Her education background
is in business. She has a Bachelor
of Science degree in Business Ad-
ministration from Portland State
University.
Foremost at Power and Water
her responsibility is overseeing the
tribes’ interests in the three dams
of the hydro system: The Pelton
and Round Butte dams, and the
wholly tribally-owned Re-Regulat-
ing dam.
This involves working with PGE
to meet at all requirements of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Com-
mission (FERC) license to operate
the dams, while maximizing the rev-
enue to the tribes, and continuing
to build on the fish passage compo-
nents of the dams.
Keeping the dams operating as
efficiently as possible will require
major capital improvements com-
ing up in the near future. Some of
the improvements are very long-
term involving, for instance, instal-
lation of large and specialized com-
ponents.
See POWER & WATER on 2
A focus
on mental
health
The Warm Springs Native
YouthLine is one of the more
recent additions to the tribes’
Prevention services. The youth
help line, located at the Preven-
tion building on campus, is a
crisis and support hotline for
teens, giving them an option to
talk, text or chat with a peer
about any issues they may be
dealing with.
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden vis-
ited this month with Rosanna
Jackson, who worked with
Lines for Life to start the
YouthLine for young indigenous
people. At the office with
Rosanna, and others with Pre-
vention and the tribes, Sen.
Wyden said he has a deeply per-
sonal interest in the YouthLine,
and in the other mental health
services that the tribes and
Health and Human Services
offer the membership.
“My brother was schizo-
phrenic, and every night for
years in the Wyden household,
we would go to bed at night
worried my brother was going
to hurt himself,” Sen. Wyden
said. “If there is one issue I
D.McMechan/Spilyay
Rosanna Jackson, Warm Springs YouthLine, talks with Sen. Ron Wyden at the YouthLine
office, located at Prevention. Dan Martinez, Emergency Management, and others from the
community, the tribes and Health and Human Services were on hand for the visit.
want to make a big difference on
in the future, it is mental health.”
The YouthLine is looking for
young volunteers to help with an-
swering calls. This involves train-
ing, and is conducted in a safe and
secure way. Anyone interested can
contact Rosanna at :
rosannaJ2linesforlife.org
During his visit to War m
Springs, Sen. Wyden also toured the
Homeless to Independent Living
facilities, located nearby on cam-
pus. The living facilities, including
the showers and bathrooms, laun-
dry room, food and storage lock-
ers, are to help people transition
from homeless to an independent
living situation, explained Caroline
Cruz, general manager of Health
and Human Services.
The Senator also visited Emer-
gency Management, speaking with
the team about their services such
as water and food distribution, and
response to emergency situations
like water outages. And he spoke
with Darryl Scott about the re-
sources available at Behavioral
Health. Sen. Wyden asked Rob-
ert Brunoe, Secretary-Trea-
surer, what might be the single
biggest need among the tribes.
Mr. Brunoe mentioned eco-
nomic development as a prior-
ity. And this involves the infra-
structure work, such as water,
that Sen. Wyden has helped the
tribes with over the years.
New skatepark construction
A construction crew is at
Elmer Quinn Park working on
the new skatepark that will re-
place the previous wooden
ramps. The new park will be
constructed wholly of concrete.
The skatepark is a coopera-
tive project involving a number
of people and groups, both lo-
cally and from out of the area.
Scott Koerner, of the Tac-
tics skate shop in Portland, first con-
tacted the tribes about the idea.
One of his skate team members is
from Warm Springs, so Mr.
Koerner became aware of the
need. He has worked with Tribal
Council and tribal Managed Care
manager Michael Collins to get the
project off the ground, as many oth-
ers, for instance the Community Ac-
tion Team, have come on board.
D.McMechan/Spilyay
Skatepark construction this week at Elmer Quinn Park.