Spílya Táimu
Coyote News, est. 1976
2023 budget,
Wasco Chief
meetings
November will see two impor-
tant meetings at the Agency
Longhouse. The General Council
meeting on the 2023 budget pro-
posal is scheduled for Tuesday, No-
vember 15, dinner at 6 p.m. and
the meeting at 7.
The Agency District meeting re-
garding the Wasco Chieftainship is
currently scheduled for next Thurs-
day evening, November 10 at the
longhouse. The previously sched-
uled meeting on this subject had
been postponed due to the passing
of an elder of the community.
At Council
in November
The following are some of the
items coming up on the Tribal Coun-
cil agenda for the month of Novem-
ber :
Monday, November 7
9 a.m.: Bureau of Indian Affairs
update with Brenda Bremner,
Agency Superintendent.
9:30: Office of Special Trustee
update by phone with Kevin
Moore, Umatilla agency BIA.
10: Realty items with Greta
Whitelk of BIA, and James
Halliday, Land Services.
11: Covid update with Response
Team.
11:30: Legislative update calls,
federal and state.
1:30 p.m.: Tribal attorneys up-
dates.
Tuesday, November 8
9 a.m.: High Lookee Lodge up-
date with Lonnie Parsons.
10: Indian Head Casino and Pla-
teau Travel Plaza update with
Shawn McDaniels.
See TRIBAL COUNCIL on 2
Veterans Day
at Indian Head
Indian Head Casino will host a
special Veterans Day Slot Tourna-
ment from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday,
November 11. Some of the fea-
tures include a guaranteed prize
payout of $500 cash; and all buy-
in revenue exceeding the guaran-
teed prize payout will be distrib-
uted to winners according to the
payout structure: First, $250 cash
or 50 percent. Second, $150 cash
or 30 percent. And third, $100 cash
or 20 percent. These three also
include a $25 gas card.
Ten-dollar unlimited buy-ins
with sign-ups starting at 4 p.m. Vet-
erans and King Tier receive one
free $10 entry. Some of the pro-
motional rules: Must be a Players’
Club member; membership is 100-
percent free. Must be 21 or older
to participate.
November 2, 2022 - Vol. 47, No. 22
November – Anaku Ipach’aanxa Yaamash
PO Box 489
Warm Springs, OR 97761
ECR WSS
Postal Patron
U.S. Postage
PRSRT STD
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Casino team welcomes new general manager
Shawn McDaniels started as
general manager at Indian Head
Casino about a month ago. He
comes to the tribes from the
Roseburg area, where he had
worked as general manager at
the Seven Feathers Casino Re-
sort of the Cow Creek Band of
Umpqua
Indians.
Mr.
McDaniels was with Seven
Feathers for nine years.
In fact, his tribal and other
gaming management and devel-
opment experience is extensive,
going back more than 30 years.
Some years ago, just starting
out, he was studying in the field
of marine biology when he took
a position at Harrah’s Casino in
Lake Tahoe. It turned out to be
Shawn McDaniels
a good fit: He was made a Harrah’s
‘presidential candidate,’ meaning
over time he would work at all of
the jobs at the casino, getting to
know the many aspects of each
position.
When tribal gaming took off in
Oregon, Mr. McDaniels moved
north, helping design and open
Spirit Mountain Casino, and then
the Three Rivers Casino at Flo-
rence. Besides Oregon tribes, Mr.
McDaniels helped develop two ca-
sinos on the Navajo Indian Reser-
vation.
The Indian Head Casino board
of directors earlier this year was
looking for a new casino general
manager. The board reviewed close
to 100 qualified candidates, find-
ing McDaniels’ skills, insights and
strategies to be outstanding.
Indian Head Casino, like others
everywhere, was badly impacted by
the pandemic. The work now is
challenging, getting back to the vi-
At St. Charles Madras ~
Here’s to
the cooks
Two of the outstanding
cooks at the St. Charles-Madras
Hospital Juniper Ridge Café
are Maraya Culpus and Juanita
Kalama White Elk. As it turns
out, their mothers—Gina
Walker and Greta White Elk—
are long-time friends. Juanita
and Maraya learned this after
getting to know each other as
Madras hospital cooks.
Maraya joined the café
staff—she and Juanita also
serve as dietician aids and cash-
iers—five or six years ago. At
that time, Maraya worked as a
server at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort.
As it was becoming clear the re-
sort was going to close, she
found the cook position with the
hospital kitchen.
Juanita joined the hospital
staff about 14 months ago. Be-
fore, she was a cook at the
D.McMechan/Spilyay
Maraya (right), Juanita with Juanita’s granddaughter Catalana.
Warm Springs Academy. She had
been with the Academy for several
years working, for instance, during
the covid school closures, when the
cooks would prepare the student
meals and help deliver them.
Juanita has five grandkids, some
attending the Academy.
Maraya is from Warm Springs,
where she grew up with brother
Davey, and parents Vincent Culpus
and Gina Walker.
Juanita, who is Oglala Sioux, is
originally from the Pine Ridge Res-
ervation in South Dakota. She grew
up in Warm Springs, and now lives
in Madras. Her parents are Ross
Kalama Sr. and Greta White Elk.
This month Juanita and Maraya
will be making the Indian tacos and
brant and profitable enterprise of
before.
Yet the progress is already notice-
able. The Cottonwood Restaurant,
for instance, is just starting to reopen,
featuring the buffet table.
At full operation, Indian Head
and the Plateau Travel Plaza together
would have about 250 employees.
At present the number is at about
150. The two years of pandemic
shutdowns and restrictions took a toll
on the workforce, and an effort now
is to gain this back.
Mr. McDaniles, who moved here
a month ago with his wife Cindy of
30 years, will be overseeing the re-
newal and rejuvenation of the tribes’
gaming enterprise.
Dave McMechan
other good items for the Na-
tive American Market at the
Madras-St. Charles Hospital.
The market will be from 11 to
3 p.m. on Tuesday, November
15. Tribal members will have a
discount during the market, in
recognition of Native American
Heritage Month.
St. Charles’ approach to
health care overall includes cul-
tural inclusion. At the Madras
hospital, for instance, you see
this on display with the wall art
and at the Healing Garden, fea-
turing works by Lillian Pitt, and
the water feature with a sculp-
ture of three salmon.
The goal for the hospital
staff and providers is to mir-
ror the demographics of the
ser vice area, and for St.
Charles-Madras that would be
about a third Native American,
a third Latino and a third White.
Maraya and Juanita will help
celebrate the diversity at the up-
coming Native American Mar-
ket, November 15.
Dave McMechan
Health, funding tour with IHS leadership
The Indian Health Service
is a major funding source for
health-related infrastructure
improvements on the Warm
Springs Reservation. This sum-
mer, as a recent example, IHS
committed $25 million in infra-
structure money for the tribes,
as part of the bi-partisan In-
frastructure Law of 2021.
Much of this money is for
necessary water system im-
provements, and for the Dry
Creek landfill, both clearly com-
munity health projects. Last
week, a team of top national
and regional IHS officials vis-
ited the reservation, meeting
with Tribal Council, and tour-
ing the water treatment plant.
IHS director Roselyn Tso
was on hand for the Council
meeting and tour. “This was a
very productive day,” director
Tso said.
The Council meeting and
tour with tribal Utilities, she
said, clarified the pressing need
Courtesy IHS
Utilities general manager Chico Holliday (second from left), IHS director Roselyn Tso (second from
right) and the leadership team tour the Dry Creek water treatment facility, slated for improvements.
for action on the water infrastruc-
ture.
“And I had a great visit with the
dedicated team at the IHS Warm
Springs Health and Wellness Cen-
ter.”
She expressed her gratitude for
their dedication, and presented spe-
cially minted IHS Covid-19 Pan-
demic Response Coins to the
Warm Sprinhgs IHS clinic team.
Please see IHS on 2