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.