Smoke Signals
Warm Springs-Tribe agrees tobuyisland
PORTLAND, OR. (AP) They
may not be able to build a casino
there, but the Confederated Tribes
of the Warm Springs said recently
they would purchase 30-acre Gov
ernment Island in Cascade Locks for
$1.9 million.
Gov. John Kitzhaber refused per
mission for a gambling operation
there last November.
Tribal spokesman Rudy Clements
said the Tribe hasn't decided what
to do with the island, which is con
nected to the mainland by a cause
way in the Columbia River on the
edge of the city.
Cascade Locks officials have re
served the island for commercial and
recreational development.
"It has all kinds of opportunities for
economic development," Clements
said.
The land is part of the 10 million
acres the Tribe ceded to the U.S. gov
ernment in the treaty of 1855, he said.
"We still have a real emotional and
spiritual relationship with that prop
erty," Clements said, adding that the
Tribe has had fishing sites in the
area since time immemorial.
Regardless of how the Tribe uses
the land; the purchase will be good
for Cascade Locks, said Phil Redlock,
chairman of the Port of Cascade
Locks Commission.
The Tribe's proposal to build a ca
sino on the island got a warm wel
come in Cascade Locks, where resi
dents saw it as a source of much
needed jobs. The Tribe has pledged
to share the revenues of the casino
with the city, setting aside 6 percent
of the casino's net income an esti
mated $800,000 to $1.2 million a
year to help finance community
projects.
Whatever the Tribe decides to do
with Government Island, they will
work with the people in Cascade
Locks, Clements said. "We're think
ing of setting up a joint planning
board. We're going to be part of that
community. We both have to be
working together."
After Kitzhaber rejected the Cas
cade Locks casino, tribal leaders said
they would consider other options.
On May 28, tribal members will vote
in a tribal referendum on whether
they want to build a casino on trust
land just north of Madras.
The Tribe also own a piece of trust
land just east of Hood River where
they could build a casino, although
access to the hilly land is difficult and
area residents have loudly opposed
the proposal.
One immediate option for the rocky
Government Island, Clements said,
is mining its rock, which would pro
vide revenue and also ready it for
any development to follow.
Corvallis woman wants
to change name of creek
Indians repeat ancient ceremony
CORVALLIS, OR. (AP) - The
name Squaw Creek has bothered
Suzanne Stillwaggon for years.
Now she is lobbying to change a
word she considers a racial slur in
vented by French trappers to refer
to American Indian women.
Over the years, other efforts to re
move the name from popular lexicon
have emerged in the Pacific North
west. In Washington State, the U.S.
Army recently changed the name of
a creek on its Yakima training cen
ter from Squaw to Lmumma.
Squaw Creek flows through south
west Corvallis and is crossed several
times by a recreational bike path.
"I've been up and down this creek
over and over, and there's not a single
sign to be changed, so this doesn't in
volve anybody's tax money," Still-
waggon said. "As far as I can see
there's no reason not to do it."
Stillwaggon plans to include land
owners, the Benton County Histori
cal Society and regional Tribes in her
effort to change the name. She
wants to gauge community support
and also generate new potential
names that honor the area's cultural
heritage.
The Corvallis Environmental Cen
ter has already offered support to
Stillwaggon's cause and will conduct
a survey about the name change.
The more support she has, Still
waggon said, the easier it will be to
convince the state Geographic Names
Board that the change is warranted.
The Benton County Board of Com
missioners is scheduled to discuss a
possible name change.
THE DALLES, OR. (AP) With
his hands red with blood, Bobby
Begay sliced into the 15-pound
chinook he and his crew, were pre
paring for the First Salmon feast at
this traditional tribal gathering spot.
Begay, 31, is grandson of the vil
lage chief and a ceremonial fisher
man and hunter. He and six other
men spent a week catching 50 spring
chinook, seven deer and two elk.
At the same time, ceremonial gath
erers women who gather roots and
berries for the feast collected bas
kets brimming with camas, bitterroot
and chokeberry.
Some 400 people took part in the
feast. Drumming could be heard
from inside the longhouse.
No trace remains of Celilo Falls, the
sacred fishing spot that disappeared
when The Dalles Dam was built in
1957. A First Salmon feast has been
held at Celilo since the oral history
of the river Indians began. It will
continue, they say, until salmon no
longer run in the Columbia River.
The feast once played a crucial role
in the lives of the region's Native
Americans, known to themselves as
the River People.
Few spots in North America were
more important before the arrival of
Europeans than Celilo Falls.
Situated 94 miles east of Portland,
the 15-waterfall site was the best spot
on the Columbia to catch salmon.
" The tribes stopped commercial fish
ing for spring Chinook in 1977. But
those gathered at the longhouse said
the feast retains a crucial role in
tribal culture.
The feast began with ceremonial
hunters and gatherers putting small
portions of the sacred first food
fish, meat, roots and berries on
each of the plates placed on straw
mats on the longhouse floor.
Military plane crash takes life of local man
By Brent Merrill
The crash of an experimental
military plane in the Arizona
desert Saturday night (April 8) hit
home here in Grand Ronde. One
of the victims of the crash, 24 year
old Keoki Santos, was the son of
Christina Mercier of Grand Ronde.
Mercier is married to tribal mem
ber Dean Mercier.
Santos was a U.S. Marine pri
vate first class rifleman stationed
at Camp Pendleton, California.
Santos was participating in a
training exercise near the Marana
Northwest Regional Airport 20
miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona
when the MV-22 tilt-rotor Osprey
crashed killing all 19 military per
sonnel on board.
Crashes and controversy have
plagued the Osprey since the mili
tary began flying the hybrid plane
in late 1999. The plane is the first
aircraft designed to take-off and
land like a helicopter and then
switch mid-flight to normal flight
operations.
Top government officials have ar
gued the need for and effectiveness
of the Osprey for several years.
Saturday's crash was the third for
the plane a crash in 1992 killed
seven military personnel.
According to Marine Lt. General
Fred McCorkle, the crash was re
corded on infrared tape by an F-18
fighter jet overhead. The tape will
be reviewed by military personnel in
an effort to better understand the
circumstances of the crash.
The military has grounded their
four remaining Ospreys until more
information about the cause of the
crash can be determined.
Santos, who followed his father
into the Marines, was living out his
lifelong dream of being a Marine.
Santos enlisted in the Marines in
February of 1999 after living in
Grand Ronde with his mother and
stepfather.
"He was so beautiful," said an emo
tional Mercier. "He was a true Ma
rine. He was so proud and we were
so proud of him. He had wanted to
be a Marine since he was old enough
to walk and talk."
The grieving mother said she
talked to her son on the phone at least
once a week and visited with him
during the holidays when he re
turned to Grand Ronde on leave.
"He had really grown up a lot and
he had changed for the better," said
Mercier. "He was really coming into
his own. He was very polite and re
spectful. He was the kind of person
that made friends so easily. Every
body that met him liked him."
Mercier said her son played foot
ball in high school and was an avid
outdoorsman.
"He loved to hunt and fish and
spent a lot of time with his friends
hiking and hunting," said Mercier.
The family will leave this week for
Camp Pendleton to attend a full mili
tary funeral service. President
Clinton is scheduled to attend the
service.
Santos' family plans an additional
v.
o
Keoki Santos
memorial service at Willamette Na
tional Cemetery in Portland.
Santos is survived by his mother
and stepfather and sister Janice
Marsh of Waldport.
If
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