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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2000)
Smoke Signals 2 homemade bomb foumid near reseirvafcion Story and photos by Brent Merrill T; Iribal Enforcement Officer Marce Norwest assisted the Polk County Sheriffs department recently after a homemade bomb was discovered loosely buried in dirt at the base of a Hampton Lumber Company gate on Wind River Road. Norwest was patrolling the Tribe's reservation when the assistance call came in. j Norwest guided officers into the scene from his pa trol vehicle. The bomb was a prescription pill bottle filled with long grain gunpow der. A fuse had been waxed into the top of the bottle and had apparently burned out before igniting the device. Responding Polk County sheriffs Derrick Trombla and Nathan Erb contacted the Oregon State Police ex plosives unit to examine the bomb. An explosives technician, Det. i Steven Sigurdson of the Oregon State Po lice Department, de stroyed the bomb. "The device was a Dlastic pill bottle ... with a screw-on top with a green fuse going into it," said Erb in his report. "The bottle was filled with granular gun powder. The fuse had been lit and was burned down to the top of the bottle. The device was found on the base of the backside of a support rail of the gate. It was un der some leaves and dirt and placed close to the rail." Ron Pearson, and independent con tractor working for Hampton repair ing road gates, discovered the bomb when he and Victor Salgado began working on the gate. The gate blocks access to one of Hampton's logging r Umatilla awaits approval of new gaming PORTLAND, OR. (AP) An agree ment to expand gambling on the Umatilla Indian Reservation awaits Gov. John Kitzhaber's approval. The pact would allow the Umatilla to proceed with plans to double the size of the tribe's Wildhorse Casino near Pendleton. In exchange, the tribe must set up a charitable foundation to share net gambling revenues with organiza tions in four surrounding counties, according to Umatilla spokeswoman Debra Croswell. The agreement is the fourth in Or egon that enables a tribe to add Las Vegas-style games such as craps and roulette to slot machines, poker and blackjack. Leaders of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation signed off on the agreement. The Grand Ronde, Cow Creek and Siletz have agreed in their compacts to give about five percent of net revenues to their own grant-making founda tions, said Chip Lazenby, the governor's legal counsel and top gam bling negotiator. After two years of talks, negotia tors for the Umatilla were able to ar gue for a more flexible total be tween three percent and six percent because the Umatilla already of fer extensive services to non-Native Americans living on the reservation, including police, water, fire and am bulance service. Warm Springs may gain control of dams Yamhill County sheriffs examine the homemade bomb. PORTLAND, OR. (AP) - The Con federated Tribes of the Warm Springs may gain control of two of Portland General Electric's hydro power dams. A final agreement has not been reached, but the deal would give the tribe control of the Pelton and Round Butte dams on the Deschutes River in central Oregon. The dams pro vide about 20 percent of the utility's generating capacity. "What we have is an agreement in principle to sell the project, in parts, to the tribe," Portland General Elec tric spokesman Mark Fryburg said. "This will be in steps, and we will transfer them a minority in owner ship in one period and then, in steps, they will get up to a little over 50 percent." He would not disclose the sale price. The deal follows the recent sale by the Montana Power Co. of a hydro power plant to the Flathead Indians. If approved, the sale should not affect rates for the utility's 717,000 customers, Fryburg said. The Pelton Dam was built in 1958 for $21 million and the Round Butte dam in 1964 for $60 million. Together, they can produce more than 400 megawatts of power enough for 114,000 homes and generate $26.8 million in revenue each year. The tribe announced plans to wrest control of the dams from PGE two years ago when they filed for the federal operating license against the utility's application to renew its ex isting license, which expires in two years. The new license will run for up to 50 years. Collateral talks on joint manage ment produced the tentative deal, Warm Springs Power Enterprises Manager Jim Manion said. The deal should be sealed next month, he said, subject to tribal and state regulatory approval. The tribe want control of the dams because of their significant environmental and social impact on the reservations and because of the revenue power generation provides. roads. Pearson and Salgado appeared shaken, but joked with the two Polk County officers and Norwest about what could have happened. Pearson said he built the gate in September. The tribe already shares three per cent to six percent directly with the community, Croswell said. In addi tion to charitable donations, gam bling revenue has provided such im provements as a $500,000 fire sta tion expansion that benefits the roughly 2,000 non-tribal members half the population , who live on the tribe's 172,000-acre reservation. Wildhorse brings the Umatilla roughly $12 million a year in net profits, which the tribe uses to sup-, port tribal government, scholarships, tribal Elders, housing, investments and economic development. That would mean a minimum of about $360,000 a year could be used to make grants to local community and Norwest said he checks gates with a stick while on patrol. "People have lost their hands be cause of those type of bombs going off when checking a gate," said Norwest. pact governmental organizations. Although the Umatilla probably won't add the new games for another year, Croswell said the tribe's board of trustees probably would move ahead early in the new year to set up a foundation. ; ;:r,y ?; ;; ;i1 Lazenby said he expected the gov ernor to sign the new compact late this week or next; it will then be for warded to the Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt for final approval. Under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, tribes must negoti ate with states over the scope and lo cation of certain forms of gambling otherwise legal in the state. Eight of nine Oregon tribes operate casinos. Appeals court returns tribal slots case SPOKANE, WA. (AP) Lead ers of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will con tinue the legal fight to keep slot machines at their casinos. The fate of 1,800 slot machines at casinos operated by the Colvilles and the Spokane Indi ans is back in U.S. District Court in Spokane, after a federal ap peals court recently declined to rule on the issue. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to the lower court with instructions to determine if the machines are le gal under Washington state law. "We are disappointed that the court did not grant the specific relief requested by the Tribes," Colleen Cawston, chairwoman of the Colville Business Council, said Thursday. But the Colvilles were pleased the appeals court did not order the machines removed immedi ately, and may have improved prospects for negotiating with the state, Cawston said. The Colvilles contend the slot machines fund many of the Tribe's operations and contribute to social and health programs. Until now, the question before the courts was whether the ma chines were legal under the fed eral Johnson Act, but determin ing the legality of the devices un der state law is the most efficient way to handle the case, the ap pellate judges decided in their ruling issued Dec. 28.
