E Coosh EEWA: The way it is
Page 4 Spilyay Tymoo February 8, 2023
Letters to the editor
YouthBuild project at West Hills neighborhood
Seniors checks
The Confederated Tribes
of Warm Springs Finance
department reports a for-
matting issue with the most
recently cut senior citizen
pension checks for February,
2023. Tribal members who
have not yet cashed their
check should return them to
the Vital Statistics Depart-
ment, and they will be reis-
sued. If you did cash your
check, there is no need to
take any action.
Regarding
covid
All Covid-19 policies and
protocols, as outlined in
Tribal Council resolutions
12,696, 12,697 and 12,710
are suspended until further
notices, as stated in the re-
cent Council action resolu-
tion no. 13,026.
Mandatory vaccination
for employment is no longer
required. Proof of vaccina-
tion, boosters and exemption
forms are no longer required.
All administrative leave for
covid is no longer in effect.
If you are exposed or con-
tract Covid-19, please con-
tact Community Health, 541-
553-2460; or follow the in-
structions provided to you by
your respective health care
provider. Personal time off,
or leave without pay will need
to be utilities during a covid-
related absence. Should you
have any questions, please
contact Human Resources.
Storytelling
Listen to traditional Nez
Perce Storytelling from Harry
Slickpoo Jr., followed by con-
versation exploring the art,
history, and science embed-
ded in traditional stories and
their ability to hold and per-
petuate living culture.
Harry Slickpoo Jr. is an
enrolled member of the Nez
Perce Tribe. A Language In-
structor for Northwest In-
dian College and Lewiston
High School teaching
nimiipuutimt (Nez Perce lan-
guage), Harry is also the
Collections Specialist for the
Nez
Perce
Tribe’s
hitéemenwees Research Li-
brary.
He is a Cultural consult-
ant to Nez Perce Tourism,
a Nimiipuu owned company
enriching Nimiipuu cultural
identity and providing a
bridge for non-Native
people to think more deeply
about our connection to the
Land.
You can join Harry at 2
p.m. on Friday, February 17
on Zoom. To register, see
the website:
confluenceproject.org
Also coming up: Join
Confluence and filmmaker
Woodrow Hunt, of Tule
Films, for the premiere of
his most recent collaboration
with Confluence, a docu-
mentary short called Stories
from the Canoe. The film
centers on Pacific Northwest
tribal canoe culture.
The program includes a
panel talk with representa-
tives from Native canoe
families featured in Stories
from the Canoe. This event
will be on March 19 at 2
p.m. at the Whitsell Audito-
rium at the Portland Art
Museum, 1219 SW Park
Avenue in Portland. Admis-
sion is free.
The West Hills neigh-
borhood has had quite of
bit of construction work
happening over the past
several months, as reno-
vation of units is done by
the local Housing Author-
ity, contractors and other
programs.
The Heart of Oregon
Corps was doing some
demolition work last
week. The YouthBuild
crew is made up of young
people from Central Or-
egon, including the reser-
vation.
Shelly Bronson is the
Construction and Safety
Manager for Heart of
Oregon Corps Youth-
Build. Ms. Bronson and
the crew were in Warm
Springs doing de-construc-
tion on three houses.
YouthBuild had a team
of youth who come out
on a daily basis. Their work
included taking out flooring,
taking out walls, and work-
ing their hearts out.
The team loves working
on the reser vation. For
youth who are interested, the
YouthBuild Spring Cohort
will begin in April with in-
formation session starting in
March. All of the informa-
tion is available at
heartoforegon. org
Heart of Oregon and
YouthBuild rograms are de-
signed for young people,
ages 16-24, who are ready
to make positive changes in
their lives through a job, edu-
cation, and community ser-
vice.
Youth in the programs
work at hands-on outdoor
projects that improve the
community. This includes
activities like maintaining
trails, reducing wildfire fu-
els, and even building an en-
tire house.
Youth earn a weekly sti-
pend or minimum wage for
full-time work and can also
earn college scholarships.
Finally, the young people
learn everything from math
and writing skills to career
planning and resume writing,
all while gaining high school
credits, preparing for the
GED, or taking their first
college class.2023 Spring
Cohort Information Session
Dates
All interested applicants
must attend one pre-enroll-
ment information session be-
fore he or she can be invited
for an interview.
Interviews will take
place on Thursday, April
6. Each information ses-
sion is from 5 to 6 p.m.
at YouthBuild office, lo-
cated at 68797 George
Cyrus Rd, Sisters.
Upcoming YouthBuild
pre-enrollment Informa-
tion sessions are:
Thursday March 9.
Thursday March 16.
Thursday March 23. And
Tuesday April 4.
Applications for the
April Cohort are due by
Monday, April 3. Men-
tal Toughness orienta-
tion begins Monday,
April 10.
Tribes caught in food safety dilemma
Eat fish; it’s healthy. Ex-
cept when it isn’t.
That’s the quandary that
many Pacific Northwest and
Columbia River tribal mem-
bers face as they try to bal-
ance their strong historic and
cultural ties to salmon with
modern studies that show
salmon in their area can be
polluted by contaminants—
among them mercury and a
host of other toxic chemi-
cals.
The quandary arises be-
cause many tribal members
eat more than what health of-
ficials suggest is the safe
amount of salmon each
month—eight 8-ounce serv-
ings. Because of that, they
are particularly vulnerable to
the contaminants that can be
in the fish.
Why do the tribes eat so
much salmon? To begin
with, salmon has always been
an important part of the
Native diet. For many, it’s
medicine. Like other natural
foods they’ve always eaten—
berries and roots, for ex-
ample—it keeps them not
only well-fed but also
healthy.
“All of our foods were
medicine because there were
no chemicals,” said Wilbur
Slockish, who serves on the
Columbia River Inter-tribal
Fish Commission.
That approach to healthy
eating is no different from
modern-day medical experts
who advise people to stick to
a natural diet and avoid pro-
cessed foods. But it’s more
than health.
For many tribal members,
fish, especially salmon, is an
important part of their iden-
tity and their values. Tribes
have annual ceremonies wel-
coming the fish back to their
“native rivers,” and tribal
members make sure their el-
der members get some of that
fish. Not surprisingly, salmon
is considered a source of
strength and medicine—the
most important of all foods
on the table.
The seemingly simple so-
lution for health officials is
to recommend that tribal
members eat less salmon.
Whereas that solution, at first
glance, appears to be a prac-
tical one, it isn’t one that meets
tribal customs and cultural
needs.
“Absolutely not,” said
Fran Wilshusen, Habitat Ser-
vices director at Northwest
Indian Fisheries Commis-
sion. “It’s a precious re-
source. From a health
standpoint, it’s one of the
best foods you can eat.”
“The long-term solution to
this problem isn’t keeping
people from eating contami-
nated fish—it’s keeping it
from being contaminated in
the first place,” said Aja
DeCoteau, executive director
of the Columbia Inter-Tribal
Fish Commission.
Finding a way through sadness
by Dr. Shilo Shaw Tippett
for KWSO
This is the third article in
a four-part series on coping
with grief and loss.
Spilyay Tymoo
(Coyote News, Est. 1976)
Publisher Emeritus in Memorium: Sid Miller
Editor: Dave McMechan
Spilyay Tymoo is published bi-weekly by the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Our of-
fices are located at 4174 Highway 3 in Warm
Springs.
Any written materials submitted to Spilyay Tymoo
should be addressed to:
Spilyay Tymoo, P.O. Box 489, Warm Springs, OR
97761.
Phone: 541-553-2210 or 541-771-7521
E-Mail: david.mcmechan@wstribes.org.
Annual Subscription rates: Within U.S.: $20.00
It is normal to have good
and unbelievably bad days
during periods of deep sad-
ness. You might want to iso-
late and stay in bed all day
and feel like you never want
to see the light of day again.
You are the only person
that knows for sure what you
need, but it is important that
you stay connected to people
you trust who are closest to
you.
Some friends and family
might pull away, but remem-
ber that is because of their
process, not because of you.
It is best to remember to
engage in self-care as much
as possible during times of
intense sadness.
Keeping hydrated, eating
fruits and vegetables, and try-
ing to keep a good wake-sleep
balance is very important to
relieving sadness.
Try to be patient with
yourself every day. As time
goes on, try to balance your
sadness with getting back to
some more routine activities.
That will be very difficult
but is important to the heal-
ing process. There are medi-
cations and some cognitive
behavioral therapies that may
help, you can talk to a pri-
mary care provider for more
information.
Remember, you are not
alone. Text 741741 or call
988 for support.
~ A couple of Valentine’s Day Wishes for the
people of the Confederated Tribes ~
From Warm Springs artist Travis Bobb ~