THE MONTHLY NEWSPAPER OF THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE UMATILLA INDIAN
Homes going up at Nixyáawíí
By CHRIS AADLAND Reporter
MISSION – The first home in the Nixyáawíí neighborhood development sprung up in June and will soon be joined by several other homes that are part of an effort tribal leaders hope will spur home ownership among tribal members and help ease a reservation housing shortage.
Over the past month, the first home – owned by a tribal member on a parcel leased from the tribe –has gone from foundation to frame in a subdivision the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) established to increase home ownership options for a growing number of members who can afford to buy a home and/ or want to live on the reservation. More homes will begin to rise soon in the shovel-ready Nixyáawíí Workers build a house in the Nixyáawíí neighborhood in June as part of an effort to spur homeownership among Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation tribal members. CHIS AADLAND | CUJ PHOTO
HOMES CONTINUED PAGE 19
By TRAVIS SNELL CTUIR Communications
MISSION – A Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) elected leader is lauding a federal report released June 18 in which the U.S. government, for the first time, admits dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers have negatively impacted Columbia Basin tribes.
“It is the first time the federal government tells the truth about how the construction of the dams on the Columbia River devastated salmon runs, inundated tribal villages, important regional gathering and trading centers, sacred sites, burial grounds and fishing areas that tribes depended upon for subsistence and trade,” CTUIR
County filing legal action against CDA
The CTUIR hasn’t signaled that it would support Umatilla County in its lawsuit or pursue its own legal action, but is taking steps to monitor the situation.
By CHRIS AADLAND Reporter
BOARDMAN – Umatilla County plans to move forward with its threat to sue the Columbia Development Authority (CDA) for its leaders’ vote to exclude the county and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) from owning thousands of acres of potentially lucrative land eyed by developers.
The CDA is an intergovernmental
group of the CTUIR, Umatilla County, Morrow County and the ports of Umatilla and Morrow that formed to take ownership of more than 9,500 acres of the former Umatilla Army Chemical Depot for industrial redevelopment, agricultural production and cultural resource and habitat protection.
A board with a representative from each of the five partners oversees the CDA and makes decisions about how to develop the property.
In March, the board voted 3-2 to transfer ownership of approximately 4,400 acres of valuable land designated for industrial development projects to the ports, short-changing the tribes and the county.
A map shows the Columbia Development Authority's Depot Plan Zoning Districts. Leaders from Umatilla County are planning to file legal action against the CDA because of a recent vote to exclude the county and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation from owning potentially lucrative land at the former Umatilla Army Chemical Depot. CDA | COURTESY
A WILDFIRE
as a forest, grassland, or prairie.
A wildfire is an unplanned fire that burns in a natural area such as a forest, grassland, or prairie.
Often caused by humans or lightning. Can cause
Often caused by humans or lightning. Can cause flooding or create problems with transportation, gas, power, and communications.
Can
Can damage your property. Set up defense zones to protect your home.
Can
Can happen anywhere, anytime. Risk increases with little rain and high winds.
Can happen anywhere, anytime. Risk increases with little rain and high winds.
IF YOU ARE UNDER A WILDFIRE WARNING, GET TO SAFETY RIGHT AWAY
IF YOU ARE UNDER A WILDFIRE WARNING, GET TO SAFETY RIGHT AWAY
Leave if told to do so.
Leave
If trapped, call 911.
If
Use an N95 mask to keep particles out of the air you breathe. May 2018
Listen for emergency information and alerts.
Use
Sign up for your community’s warning system. The Emergency Alert System (EAS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio also provide emergency alerts.
Know your community’s evacuation routes and find several ways to leave the area. Drive the evacuation routes and find shelter locations. Have a plan for pets and livestock.
Gather emergency supplies, including N95 respirator masks that filter out particles in the air you breathe. Keep in mind each person’s specific needs, including medication. Don’t forget the needs of pets.
Keep important documents in a fireproof safe. Create password-protected digital copies.
Use fire-resistant materials to build, renovate, or make repairs.
Find an outdoor water source with a hose that can reach any area of your property.
Create a fire-resistant zone that is free of leaves, debris, or flammable materials for at least 30 feet from your home.
Review insurance coverage to make sure it is enough to replace your property.
Evacuate. Leave immediately if authorities tell you to do so.
If trapped, call 911 and give your location, but be aware that emergency response could be delayed or impossible. Turn on lights to help people find you.
Listen to EAS, NOAA Weather Radio, or local alerting systems for current emergency information and instructions. Use an N95 mask to keep particles out of the air you breathe.
Listen to authorities to find out if it is safe to return and whether water is safe to drink.
Avoid hot ash, charred trees, smoldering debris, and live embers. The ground may contain heat pockets that can burn you or spark another fire. Consider the danger to pets and livestock walking the ground. Send text messages or use social media to reach out to family and friends. Phone systems are often busy following a disaster. Make calls only in emergencies. Document property damage with photographs. Conduct an inventory and contact your insurance company for assistance.
Huesties passes the drip torch to future generations
Before colonization, the Umatilla Tribe and many other Northwestern tribes used fire to replenish lands.
By APRIL EHRLICH Oregon Public Broadcasting
HERMISTON – When Raymond Huesties first became a firefighter for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) in Eastern Oregon, he didn’t really have much of a choice.
“My boss gave me a hard hat and a fire shirt and said, ‘You’re a firefighter now,’” Huesties recalled as he stared out into the grassy wetland of the Wanaket Wildlife Area outside Hermiston. That’s where he recently joined about two dozen other people on a prescribed burn.
When it comes to fire, Huesties plays two roles: firefighter and fire starter. He fights fires that overtake buildings in town, then he sets fires to wild areas as a way to tamp down overgrowth.
He had joined the Nature Conservancy and several fire agencies on this three-day training to teach people how to safely use fire as a tool. Many of the students were from the reservation.
He said the tribe continues to struggle to recruit young tribal members into firefighting, but maybe
they would be interested if they got a taste of the excitement. He himself learned to love the adrenaline from the job.
“I always tell them that we’re all different,” Huesties said. “We’re not the same as the general public. We’re not the same as anything on this planet because everything on this planet – even the bear, the biggest boss of the woods – runs from what we run to.”
Fire is also important to the tribe’s culture. Before colonization,
the Umatilla Tribe and many other Northwestern tribes used fire to replenish lands. Those fires burned grasses and underbrush, adding nutrients to the soil and helping plants germinate.
“The fire part is very sacred because it consumes everything, and it also rejuvenates everything,” Huesties said. “After you get a burn, that’s where you go to the next year, because your mushrooms are going to be there.”
For decades, federal agencies aggressively suppressed fire and forced tribes to stop burning the land. Several studies in recent years have shown that fire helps keep forests healthy by making them more resilient to catastrophic wildfires, pests and diseases.
“There’s awareness of the inherent value of relating with fire on the landscape,” Day MacKendrick, fire specialist with the Nature Conservancy, said at the burn. “Prescribed fire offers one pathway for people to be able to work in relationship with each other and fire.”
Now government agencies in the U.S. are increasingly embracing prescribed burning as a way to mitigate catastrophic wildfires. But
for Huesties, that knowledge has been here all along.
“We just haven’t utilized it because no ‘ologist’ has discovered it,” Huesties said. “I don’t claim to be an ‘ologist.’ I don’t claim to be a scientist. I’m just a firefighter and I listen to my elders.”
That’s also what brought Huesties to the prescribed burn training: to pass on lessons of his elders to a new generation of young people.
“I’m trying to build them up and make them want it more, because I don’t want to do it anymore,” Huesties said. “I’m getting old.”
The tribe often sets a goal of burning a certain number of acres within a year, but modern rules and laws also present their own challenges. Tribes and other fire agencies need to follow certain parameters to ensure prescribed burns don’t get out of control or send smoke into nearby communities. This “prescription” usually calls for specific weather conditions. The humidity, wind direction and wind strength all have to be just right.
“A lot of times it’s gambling with the weather and air quality,” Huesties said. “That’s the difficult part.”
The prescribed burn was supposed to start that morning, but the winds kept blowing west, when the prescription called for an “easterly wind.” Students were kept busy by digging lines around sagebrush and other plants they wanted to protect. It wasn’t until late afternoon that the winds shifted, but by then, Huesties had to take off. In addition to fighting fires for the tribe, Huesties is on the CTUIR Board of Trustees, so he had to run to a meeting. After singing a blessing with another tribal leader, Huesties left the students with a speech.
“Thank you for all your hard work,” he told them. “I hope you guys succeed and learn and actually witness what this fire can do, the benefit of putting fire on the ground.”
With that, instructors guided the students through gearing up with drip torches and setting the field ablaze.
Jeremy Wolf, right, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation, uses a drip torch as part of a prescribed burn outside Hermiston, Ore., on May 15, 2024. APRIL EHRLICH |OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING PHOTOS
Raymond Huesties, Board of Trustees member and firefighter with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, speaks to students and instructors at a recent prescribed fire training outside Hermiston, Oregon.
ABOUT THE CUJ
The Confederated Umatilla Journal (CUJ) was created in 1975 as the official publication of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), which includes the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla people. The CUJ is produced monthly by the CTUIR Communications Department.
Publisher: Kaeleen McGuire kaeleenmcguire@ctuir.org
Editor: Lisa Hicks Snell lisasnell@ctuir.org
Reporter: Chris Aadland christopheraadland@ctuir.org
Advertising: M. Moses-Conner monecemoses@ctuir.org
Contributing Photographers: Dallas Dick dallasdick@ctuir.org
Lee Gavin leegavin@ctuir.org
CONTACT US
Confederated Umatilla Journal
46411 Timine Way Pendleton, OR 97801
Email: CUJ@ctuir.org
Phone: 541-429-7005
SUBSCRIBE
The CUJ is free to pick up at tribal entities and area businesses. However, a mailed subscription can be purchased for the price of shipping and handling by contacting the CTUIR Finance Department. Call 541-429-7150 or visit the Finance Department in person at Nixyáawii Governance Center, 46411 Timine Way, Pendleton.
One year: $15 • Two years: $28
The CUJ prints on the first Thursday of each month.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
• Limit to 300 words or less
• Information found to be inaccurate/libelous will not be published.
• Letters containing profanity will not be published.
• One letter per issue will be published. Campaigning is not allowed.
• Author’s full name, address and phone number must be listed for verification purposes.
EMAIL ADVERTISING, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & OTHER SUBMISSIONS TO: CUJ@ctuir.org
DEADLINE: 20th of the month prior to publication
For more information or daily news, visit the CUJ online at: https://cuj.ctuir.org
CTUIR hosts event focused on agriculture equity, access
MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) hosted three entities promoting equity in agriculture, specifically within Native American communities, on June 18 at the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute (TCI).
Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Wallowa Resources officials spent the day addressing equitable access to USDA resources, strategies for enhancing agricultural productivity and sustainability within Native communities, as well as partnerships and projects that honor and integrate traditional Native knowledge and practices.
“This convening provided an opportunity for tribal stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest region to partake in dialogue with leaders at the local, state and federal levels, as well as exchange ideas and solutions to challenges and opportunities advancing agriculture,” NAAF CEO Toni Stanger-McLaughlin said.
CORRECTION
In the article "Sexual assault report released to tribal members" on Page B1 of the June issue of the Confederated Umatilla Journal, Umatilla Tribal Police Chief Tim Addleman was erroneously misquoted in the 11th paragraph. Tribal police train for 16 weeks at the academy, not six.
Called the USDA Regional Equity Convening, the event shared the USDA’s work to improve the department’s experience for rural and tribal communities. Topics ranged from natural resource and climate strategies to forest restoration and workforce development and housing.
Since the release of the USDA’s Equity Commission’s Final Report in February, the department has co-hosted equity convenings to share the report and emphasize its recommendations. The convenings also serve as an opportunity to advance partnerships and institutionalize equity at the local level.
The USDA defines equity as the consistent and systematic treatment of all individuals in a fair, just and impartial manner, including those who belong to communities that often have been denied such treatment, including Indigenous and Native American, Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and
other peoples adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.
“We encourage tribal leaders and Native farmers, ranchers and producers to attend convenings such as these to engage in conversations and share their unique perspective on their food, farms, land and communities,” Stanger-McLaughlin said.
CTUIR Board of Trustees Member at Large Lisa Ganuelas, who attended the event, said she was glad to see the regional convenings are reaching rural areas, as tribal communities are often rural and remote. “The number of tribal producers and individual Native Americans in agriculture is growing. They need to not only learn what local, state and federal resources are available to them, but their voices also need to be heard when it comes to distributing resources and helping develop policy.”
For NAAF information, visit https:// nativeamericanagriculturefund. org. For USDA information, visit www.usda.gov and click Wallowa Resources for more information.
Ontario (Oregon) City Councilor Eddie Melendrez speaks during a session at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Regional Equity Convening on June 18 at the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute. Sitting next to Melendrez is Gustavo Morales, executive director of EUVALCREE in Ontario, Oregon. Sitting in front of them is Native American Agriculture Fund CEO Toni StangerMcLaughlin. NAAF was one of the three entities conducting the convening, along with the USDA and Wallowa Resources in Enterprise, Oregon. CTUIR | COURTESY PHOTO
PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Land Protection Planning Commission of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) will hold the following public hearing:
Zone Change File #ZC-24-001 – Applicant, Jim Richards, Cross L Welding, 62307 Leffel Road, La Grande, OR 97950 seeks a recommendation of approval from the Land Protection Planning Commission to the Board of Trustees for a change to the Master Zoning map from Farm Pasture (Ag2) to Industrial (ID) for a 6.69 acre parcel located at 45478 NE Hwy 11, Tax Lot 2N330000-01901. The property is the location of the former NWB Sales business. The site contains several large buildings that are currently vacant. The applicant would like to use the site for a welding/steel fabrication business. Zone Change amendments are subject to the CTUIR Land Development Code Chapters 9 and 13.
The hearing will be held on Tuesday, July 9th, 2024 beginning at 9:00 a.m. Individuals may attend the meeting in the Walúula and Wanaqit conference rooms at the Nixyáawii Governance Center, virtually, or by phone. Information on joining the meeting online is available at https:// ctuir.org/events/lppc-public-hearing-zc-24-001/. Participation in the hearing will also be available by phone at 872-242-7793 starting at 9:00 a.m. on the day of the hearing. The conference ID will be 489 280 313#. Staff reports and other materials pertaining to the hearing are available for review at the link above, or can be requested from the Tribal Planning Office by calling 541-276-3099.
The public is entitled and encouraged to participate in the hearing and submit testimony regarding the request. Written comments may be sent to tpo@ctuir.org or to the Tribal Planning Office at 46411 Timíne Way Pendleton, OR 97801 for receipt by 4:00 p.m. July 8th, 2024.
AG candidate visits rez
By CHRIS AADLAND Reporter
MISSION – Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) leaders hosted a candidate for one of Oregon’s highest elected offices in June, showing him around the reservation and answering questions about the relationship between the state and tribe.
Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, spent the morning of June 20 with several tribal officials, where he learned about CTUIR culture and history, land status issues and some of the tribe’s priorities and projects that surround the type of issues he would likely have to address if elected to be the next attorney general of Oregon.
Rayfield served as the speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives until becoming the Democratic nominee for attorney general, the top elected legal official in Oregon.
Rayfield said “relationships matter” and the visit allowed him to start to “build the foundation of a relationship.”
First, Rayfield heard from Nixyáawíí Community Financial Services and Department of Economic and Community Development leaders about housing projects – the Nixyaawii Neighborhood and Timine Way completed.
A short tour of the Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center followed.
During the tour, he was given a lesson about how CTUIR’s culture, homelands and access to first foods influence policy priorities and some of the initiatives the tribal government is involved in – like salmon population restoration –with state and federal partners.
“He’s been a great friend of the tribe and a great friend of Eastern Oregon,” said Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, who joined Rayfield on the tour and has worked closely with
WHEN IT COMES TO SAVING MONEY, YOUR HOME HAS A LOT TO SAY.
When you take the free Online Home Energy Assessment, you’re allowing your home to speak up about ways to save energy and money. Plus, we have lots of incentives that can save you even more - including smart thermostats, insulation and even air purifiers.
Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, listens to Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation's (CTUIR) Economic & Community Development Director Bill Tovey during a tour of the reservation June 20. CUJ PHOTO
4-year-old Oregon report identifies missing Native American women as an ‘emergency’ — but progress has been limited
Desiree Coyote, a family violence prevention manager for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and an anti-trafficking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons advocate, said the process is failing Indigenous communities.
By MELANIE HENSHAW Investigate West
SALEM – Carolyn DeFord was hoping for change. She was hoping for answers. She’s been hoping for 25 years.
It was Feb. 18, 2019, and DeFord was making the long trip from her home in central Washington to Oregon — a drive she had made many times to search for her missing mother, Leona Kinsey, who disappeared from her home in La Grande, Oregon, in 1998. This time the drive was different. DeFord was traveling to testify in the Oregon Capitol.
A first-of-its-kind bill in Oregon would declare missing Native American women a statewide emergency, launch an investigation into the crisis and produce a report designed to decipher the underpinnings of the problem. DeFord, a citizen of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, thought it could make a real difference.
“I went just hoping to have a couple of minutes to share,” DeFord said.
She discussed the story of her mother’s disappearance, how she seemed to vanish. The coffee pot was on, the beloved dogs in the yard — but Leona was gone. Nearly 25 years later, Leona remains missing and police have made no arrests related to her case.
The 2019 bill, sponsored by Rep. Tawna Sanchez, passed, but it hasn’t made the difference DeFord hoped.
Five years after DeFord made that long drive to Salem, there have been state and federal reports examining the problem of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP), a series of proposed improvements, and a handful of public events and photo ops. But there has been little progress on the main recommendations to improve data management and information sharing among law enforcement and the public, and to improve trust between tribal communities and law enforcement.
Key leaders have had little to say about the lack of progress. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek — who was speaker of the House when DeFord testified — said in December that she had not had a conversation about the issue since she was in the Legislature or read the 4-year-old recommendations of a task force in the report bearing her signature.
“I’m just brutally upfront, I have
not read those recommendations,” Kotek said. “To be honest, I haven’t had a conversation about this topic, probably since the Legislature. I know in 2019, I was supportive of the work that Representative Sanchez was doing. The Legislature did move forward on the recognition of the issue, how serious it is, asked for a report. And my guess is, it kind of got lost in the COVID conversation.”
Despite defining the ongoing disappearances of Native American women as a “statewide emergency,” the pandemic sidelined a “listening and understanding” tour to gauge the scope of the crisis. There is still no centralized system for sharing data or coordinating investigative efforts, and no single agency or official is accountable for implementing the report’s recommendations. Tribal advocates criticize the state for including few Native American voices in their efforts, and they emphasize that the cascading effects of long-standing failures of trust between Indigenous people, government systems and law enforcement remain.
Desiree Coyote, a family violence prevention manager for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and an anti-trafficking and missing and murdered Indigenous persons advocate, said the process is failing Indigenous communities. Coyote said that after 25 years of advocating for Indigenous women, she’s not surprised by the lack of awareness.
“The United States continuously makes us invisible, systems continually don’t include us at the table, and that continues to make us invisible,” Coyote said. “Could be lack of time, lack of energy, could be
that none of the people surrounding (Kotek) and addressing what’s going on in Oregon is keeping her up to date on tribal nations. So, I’m not surprised, I’m not angry — it’s just what it is.”
Sanchez, D-North Portland, said she’s disappointed that there hasn’t been more concrete progress. Sanchez, who is the second Indigenous person to serve in the Oregon Legislature, said she is considering proposing legislation to press forward on efforts to improve data collection and coordination.
“For now, (addressing MMIP) will have to be legal issues around how we do the work, how criminal justice responds to communities of color — but the long term, the deeply embedded systemic racism and oppression in this country, has to be addressed at some point,” Sanchez said. “It’s like picking with one little pickax at an iceberg — it’s going to take some time.”
Identifying the crisis
In the past decade, there’s been growing awareness and acknowledgment of a long-standing crisis — the disproportionate disappearances and murders of Indigenous people, particularly women.
Nationally, estimates of unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people number in the thousands. For Indigenous females between the ages of 1 and 45, homicide is one of the top 10 causes of death. More than 4 in 5 Native American and Alaska Native people report experiencing violence in their lifetimes, with more than 30% reporting violence in the prior year, according to a 2022 study by the
National Institute of Justice.
Oregon’s legislation called for the Oregon State Police to conduct a study on “how to increase and improve protective, responsive and investigative resources and systems for reporting, identification, investigation and rapid response to future and past cases” of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Oregon.
The bill passed unanimously — somewhat of a rarity in the oftenfractured Oregon Legislature — and the report was published in September 2020.
The report made four major recommendations: establishing a partnership between Oregon law enforcement agencies and the federal task force Operation Lady Justice to address cold cases and identify patterns and links between cases; providing education to officers on Native American history, cultural awareness and jurisdictional complexities; strengthening partnerships between law enforcement and Indigenous communities; and improving data collection and information sharing among agencies.
Oregon State Police has complied with some recommendations in the report. OSP appointed Capt. Cord Wood, who participated in the work group that produced the report, as coordinator for the agency’s response.
Wood said Oregon is “doing a lot of things right” when it comes to addressing MMIP and that data gathering is improving. Wood said OSP sees higher numbers of missing Indigenous people today than at the
Carolyn DeFord, whose mother vanished 25 years ago from her home in La Grande, has become a vocal advocate for improving the investigative response to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. CAROLYN DeFORD |COURTESY
time of the report because increased cooperation with tribal law enforcement leads to more reports to OSP.
In 2023, OSP hired its first tribal liaison, Glendon Smith, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, to work with tribes, including on MMIP. Smith did not respond to requests for an interview with InvestigateWest.
The Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, which covers all county, local, state and tribal law enforcement officers in Oregon, began offering training on jurisdictional responsibilities and working with tribal populations to all new officers in 2021. In that year, OSP offered a one-time, oneday training program on Indian Country policing and jurisdictional considerations to all sworn staff.
Smith is conducting visits with each of the nine federally recognized tribal governments within Oregon’s geographic boundaries, but not specifically to discuss MMIP or meet with community members.
Wood points to Smith’s hiring as the agency’s primary effort for improving communication with tribal communities and governments.
In a June 13 statement to InvestigateWest in response to her December comments, Kotek’s office emphasized her recent declaration of May 5 as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day and the efforts of Kotek’s tribal affairs director, Shana
McConnville Radford, a citizen of the CTUIR. Kotek’s office says Radford participates in a federal MMIP work group and is tasked with “understanding where the state of Oregon currently is — across the enterprise — as it relates to MMIP, what needs exist, and where to get engaged.”
The year after the Oregon report was published, the U.S. Attorney’s Office produced an expanded report on MMIP in Oregon, including people identified as male, and found similar problems — poor data makes the crisis impossible to quantify, enforcement agencies need to improve coordination and communication, and agencies need to strengthen and expand their relationships with Indigenous peoples and groups. The office’s regional coordinator for addressing the crisis was not available for an interview before publication.
Despite both reports, advocates on the ground say change moves at a glacial pace as working groups discuss the issues every few months.
Listening tour cut short Coyote and others say that poor communication with tribal communities and the exclusion of Indigenous voices and tribal perspectives — some of the very problems worsening the MMIP crisis — were built into the preparation of the state report.
On May 19, 2019, Gov. Kate Brown signed HB 2625 into law, in a room filled with Indigenous community
leaders and advocates dressed in red, the color associated with missing and murdered Indigenous women’s awareness.
To conduct the study mandated by the bill, the OSP convened a work group made up of members of primarily federal, tribal, and Oregon law enforcement officers, in addition to state and federal lawyers, a federal judge, a medical examiner, and Sanchez.
A key component of the effort was a “listening and understanding tour” with Native American community members to “grasp the breadth and magnitude of the crisis.”
The effort included two stops before a separate meeting in Pendleton, where an attendee highlighted that there were no community-based advocates in the work group. Coyote subsequently became the only Indigenous community member of the group.
Coyote said the most valuable information for the report came from the tour, though not all of the stops were advertised equally well, resulting in poor turnout at some sessions.
The listening tour’s lawenforcement-dominant makeup posed further difficulties, given many Native American communities’ longstanding distrust of law enforcement, according to Coyote.
Eventually, the group held five listening sessions in late 2019 and early 2020 — one each at the CTUIR, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, the
Burns Paiute Reservation, and the longhouses that are home to Native American student groups at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University — before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic halted it.
The report was published without visiting the remaining six federally recognized tribes within the geographic boundaries of Oregon or any urban Indigenous communities off of tribal lands.
Wood said there are no plans for future OSP-coordinated efforts to discuss this issue directly with tribal communities in a similar fashion as the abbreviated tour.
Sanchez, who sponsored the 2019 bill, acknowledged that the effects of the report fell short of the desired outcome.
“My hopes were a little bit broader than they ended up being, unfortunately,” Sanchez said. “I was really hoping that we would be able to work on a much more cohesive level with other states around building a data system.”
Trust?
The moment a person goes missing, critical questions arise for their loved ones — who can they trust and where can they get help?
For Indigenous peoples, this isn’t necessarily straightforward. If a missing person is Indigenous, filing a police report can be a complex and confusing process exacerbated by a
REPORT CONTINUED PAGE 10
REPORT
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
historic distrust of law enforcement and negative perceptions of criminal investigations involving Indigenous peoples as both the victims and offenders — a finding echoed in the OSP report.
On tribal lands, investigations occur amid a complex jurisdictional patchwork that may involve local, state, tribal or federal law enforcement, which can leave family members confused about who to report their missing loved one to or which agency is responsible. Indigenous peoples face disproportionate violence at the hands of law enforcement, and a litany of historical abuses against Indigenous peoples by state and federal government agencies leaves many reluctant to trust, especially in the vulnerable state of looking for a missing family member.
Beyond confusion during the reporting process, the OSP report found that Indigenous community members didn’t expect to be taken seriously or believe that police would act.
The pervasive distrust contributes to witnesses’ reluctance to work with law enforcement for fear of the negative associations within their own communities of working with police. Speaking out is also daunting — several family members of missing Indigenous peoples in
Oregon declined to speak with InvestigateWest for fear of negative impacts on their loved ones’ case should they make unfavorable characterizations of police efforts.
This means Indigenous peoples are often primarily relying on their fellow community members in the search for a missing loved one.
Coyote said that she advocated, in both the state and federal work groups she is a part of, for the inclusion of community-based tribal advocates to be directly involved in addressing MMIP cases as they are reported and investigated, but that she was ignored.
“When we have to rely on law enforcement who have been as bad as they are (during) our entire living experiences, since the great United States, then how can we expect them to do right by us now with the current federal and state laws?” Coyote asks.
Coyote is a part of a MMIP work group under the U.S. Attorneys Office’s missing and murdered Indigenous persons coordinator, Cedar Wilkie Gillette, and the assigned assistant U.S. attorney, Tim Simmons.
During one work-group session in late 2023, she felt she was ignored when she asked how many members of the work group made an effort to speak with community members about MMIP.
“So many law enforcement officers aren’t in the community and talking about MMI and what we’re doing with this,” Coyote said. “Not in the community about arresting
people, not in the community talking to tribal leaders.”
Simmons suggested forming a subcommittee to discuss community-related issues. Coyote said the discussion process has been frustrating and slow.
“Like six months’ work and we’re still addressing whether law enforcement needs to be in community or not,” Coyote said. “We’ve gone nowhere in regards to community issues, we’re still just doing law enforcement talking to law enforcement. It’s kind of disappointing.”
Wood, the OSP coordinator, said the law enforcement groups are working to build strong relationships with Native American communities.
“I think the trust is an ongoing, continuous process, right?” Wood said. “Trust is built on relationships, and you have to continue to grow
and meet those relationships to keep them going. So I don’t think the work ever stops.”
Data woes
The 2020 OSP report identified poor and inconsistent data collection and sharing methods as a major barrier to determining the true scope of the crisis. The methods for collecting crime data and information across local, state, tribal and federal agencies on missing Indigenous persons cases were inconsistent or not occurring at all. There is no centralized database to house information regarding missing Indigenous peoples — a fact that law enforcement, community advocates and legislators agree is a problem. As a result, it’s impossible to definitively determine how many
REPORT CONTINUED PAGE 11
Desireé Coyote stands on June 10, 2022 near the spot on the Umatilla Indian Reservation where she says her ex-husband assaulted her after kidnapping her from her home, at the time, in Mission. EO MEDIA GROUP |COURTESY PHOTO
Indigenous people in Oregon are missing.
Both the state and federal reports attempted to quantify the problem in Oregon while noting flaws in the data.
The OSP report included state and federal data from Jan. 23, 2020. It found 13 active missing persons cases on that date. The OSP report did not request data from individual tribes.
The federal report included all missing Indigenous persons and identified 11 active missing cases at the time of its publication in February 2021. It also identified eight active murder cases of Indigenous victims.
One critical issue that persists in Oregon and across the nation is that of racial misclassification of Indigenous peoples when law enforcement complete a missing persons report. Racial misclassification further complicates accurate accounting of the numbers of missing Indigenous peoples.
Without centralized data, it’s impossible to determine any trends or links in disappearances, one of the key recommendations in the OSP report.
Sanchez notes that media coverage of missing Indigenous persons cases has improved in the Portland metro area, but not in other areas of the state.
“Those alerts about a missing person have gone out, and they are far more impactful than they have been past, but that doesn’t mean that it really has picked up in more
rural areas in for tribal populations, nor is there a system that gives you feedback to let you know that someone either has been found or that there are concerted efforts being made,” Sanchez said.
Although collecting more centralized, uniform data wouldn’t be a panacea, lawmakers, law enforcement and advocates agree it would be an important step — one that Washington state has already taken.
Though a direct comparison is complicated by discrepancies in jurisdictional responsibilities between the two states, Washington has a more robust centralized data system. When an endangered Indigenous person goes missing, Washington state issues Amber Alert-like notifications, and it also produces weekly statewide reports listing active missing Indigenous persons cases across all jurisdictions.
Tim Addleman, chief of the Umatilla Tribal Police Department, said implementing a similar system in Oregon would be helpful in his work addressing missing people who often travel between different reservations and legal jurisdictions.
“I think (Washington) has done a very good job of getting all the information and putting it in a central spot and releasing it out,” Addleman said. “I think that would be very beneficial here in Oregon.”
Sanchez believes legislation mandating a better data collection system is the next necessary step, though she said she is still mapping
out what that would look like. The North Portland representative said she is also part of ongoing efforts to build out a process for providing a broader display of notifications to tribal populations when a person goes missing.
While legislators and advocates agree Oregon needs to improve data gathering on MMIP, how the data would be handled and used is a matter of debate. Indigenous advocates say a shift toward community-led efforts is essential to meaningfully address MMIP, as police-led initiatives are insufficient.
Wood notes the benefits of equitable information sharing capabilities for tribal law enforcement, the hiring of a tribal liaison and OSP’s 3-year-old Indian Country-specific education for officers as evidence of Oregon’s improvements, and that OSP is “pretty well hitting the mark” responding to the report’s recommendations.
“I would say that in Oregon, we really do a lot of things right,” Wood said.
Leona Kinsey
A challenge complicating law enforcement response in MMIP cases is the fact that disappearing isn’t a crime in and of itself — and reporting systems don’t necessarily take into account the vulnerabilities of a particular missing person. Without signs of foul play or criminal activity, investigative responses and resources are not robust.
Leona, who was initially misclassified as white after her disappearance, was a victim, not a perpetrator — which limited the initial response from law enforcement.
Although OSP and federal law enforcement both reviewed the case after DeFord’s testimony in Salem, there’s been no progress in the case.
DeFord, in collaboration with a missing persons’ advocacy organization, learned of multiple instances of communication delays between law enforcement agencies regarding the primary person of interest in her mother’s disappearance.
DeFord believes that major escalations in the investigation into her mother’s disappearance, like official searches for her mother’s remains, only occurred because of extensive advocacy on her mother’s behalf. She’s grateful for additional reviews of her mother’s case file, though they haven’t yielded answers yet.
“I’ve taken these answers and responses in her case for so long, as like, I’m grateful for peanuts, like throw me scraps, throw me crumbs and I’ll dance for you,” DeFord said. “I’ve just been so grateful for every little bit, and I’ve got to a place right now where I’m not ungrateful. But I’m also bitter.”
Reprinted courtesy InvestigateWest www.invw.org
CUJ reporter wins 2 Indigenous Journalists Association awards
By TRAVIS SNELL
CTUIR Communications
MISSION – The Indigenous Journalists Association on June 21 announced the winners of its 2024 Indigenous Media Awards, and Confederated Umatilla Journal Reporter Christopher Aadland earned two prizes for covering the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR).
“It’s an honor to have my work recognized like this, especially since I’ve been with the CUJ for such a short time,” Aadland (Red Lake Band of Chippewa/Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) said. “I’m excited to further earn the trust of the CTUIR community and tell the stories and highlight issues that are important to it. As (CUJ Editor) Lisa (Snell) and I spend more time in the community and learn more about the CTUIR, we can keep improving our coverage and making the CUJ something people rely on.”
In the Professional Division II –Print/Online category, Aadland won first place for Best News Story for his “Parent pushback leads to day care rate hike,” which published in the December 2023 CUJ. The story dealt with concerns from parents about the CTUIR’s proposed rate hikes of up to 74% at its Átaw Miyánašma Learning Center for families that didn’t qualify for tuition assistance. After hearing those concerns, tribal leaders paused the planned rate increase.
Aadland’s other award was for third place in Best Environmental Coverage in the Professional
Division II – Print Online category. His story “Surprising research findings challenge assumptions,” which published in the November 2023 CUJ, revealed that Umatilla Basin aquifers are being recharged by precipitation from the Blue Mountains at rates much lower than expected due to the range’s geological makeup and history. The findings were important because they help guide CTUIR policy makers and water managers address water rights and ground water issues.
“I wasn’t surprised Chris’ day care rate story won the category. He did some really good work on that piece, and it was an easy choice to submit it for consideration,” Snell (Cherokee Nation) said. “I started mid-July last year and Chris joined me in August, so we really only had four issues to choose entries from, September to December. I’m pleased he’s bringing home two awards out of the four categories entered and am looking forward to reviewing 2024 for next year’s competition. I’m proud of Chris for hitting the ground running and turning in some great work.”
Winners will be recognized during the 2024 Indigenous Media Awards Banquet on July 27 as part of the 2024 Indigenous Media Conference in Oklahoma City.
Chris Aadland
Judge orders railway to pay tribe for trespassing with oil trains
By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered June 17 after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik initially ruled last year that the railway deliberately violated the terms of a 1991 easement with the Swinomish Tribe north of Seattle that allows trains to carry no more than 25 cars per day. The judge held a trial earlier this month to determine how much in profits BNSF made through trespassing from 2012 to 2021 and how much it should be required to disgorge.
“We know that this is a large amount of money. But that just reflects the enormous wrongful profits that BNSF gained by using the Tribe's land day after day, week after week, year after year over our objections,” Steve Edwards, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, said in a statement. "When there are these kinds of profits to be gained, the only way to deter future wrongdoing is to do exactly what the Court did today — make the trespasser give up the money it gained by trespassing.”
The company based in Fort Worth, Texas, said in an email it had no comment.
The tribe, which has about 1,400 members, sued in 2015 after BNSF dramatically increased, without the tribe’s consent, the number of cars it was running across the reservation so that it could ship crude oil from the Bakken Formation in and around North Dakota to a nearby refinery. The route crosses sensitive marine ecosystems along the coast, over water that connects with the Salish Sea, where the tribe has treatyprotected rights to fish.
Bakken oil is easier to refine into the fuels sold at the gas pump and ignites more easily. After train cars carrying Bakken crude oil exploded in Alabama, North Dakota and Quebec, a federal agency warned in 2014 that the oil has a higher degree of volatility than other crudes in the U.S.
Last year, two BNSF engines derailed on Swinomish land, leaking an estimated 3,100 gallons (11,700 liters) of diesel fuel near Padilla Bay.
The tribe pointed out that a corporate predecessor of BNSF laid the tracks in the late 19th century over its objections. The tribe sued in the 1970s, alleging decades of trespassing, and only in 1991 was that litigation settled, when the tribe granted an easement allowing limited use of the tracks.
The easement limited rail traffic
to one train of 25 cars per day in each direction. It required BNSF to tell the tribe about the “nature and identity of all cargo” transported across the reservation, and it said the tribe would not arbitrarily withhold permission to increase the number of trains or cars.
The tribe learned through a 2011 Skagit County planning document that a nearby refinery would start receiving crude oil trains. It wasn't until the following year that the tribe received information from BNSF addressing current track usage, court documents show.
The tribe and BNSF discussed amending the agreement, but “at no point did the Tribe approve BNSF’s unilateral decision to transport unit trains across the Reservation, agree to increase the train or car limitations, or waive its contractual right of approval,” Lasnik said in his decision last year.
“BNSF failed to update the Tribe regarding the nature of the cargo
that was crossing the Reservation and unilaterally increased the number of trains and the number of cars without the Tribe’s written agreement, thereby violating the conditions placed on BNSF’s permission to enter the property,” Lasnik said.
The four-day trial in June was designed to provide the court with details and expert testimony to guide the judge through complex calculations about how much in “illgotten” profit BNSF should have to disgorge. Lasnik put that figure at $362 million and added $32 million in post-tax profits such as investment income for a total of more than $394 million.
In reality, the judge wrote, BNSF made far more than $32 million in post-tax profits, but adding all of that up would have added hundreds of millions more to what was already a large judgment against the railway.
The tribe said it expects BNSF to appeal the ruling.
This photo provided by the Washington Department of Ecology shows a derailed BNSF train on the Swinomish tribal reservation near Anacortes, Washington on March 16, 2023. COURTESY
The CTUIR and Umatilla County voted against the decision.
A law firm, Best Best & Krieger, hired by Umatilla County to pursue legal action, sent a letter to the CDA in late demanding that the board rescind its vote and listed reasons why the county believed it was an improper move.
CDA Board Chairman Kim Puzey, the Port of Umatilla’s manager, has said he has no plans to call for a vote to reverse the board’s decision.
Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer has directed attorneys to move forward with suing the CDA, the East Oregonian reported June 28. As of press time, the lawsuit has not been filed.
Umatilla County has also decided to stop contributing to CDA finances as the CDA’s staff members have warned that it didn’t have the money to pay looming bills unless the ports, counties and CTUIR made contributions.
While the board voted to honor a previous commitment to transfer about 4,000 acres to the tribe to create a wildlife refuge area, tribal officials have said that is not justification for the board’s vote to not share any of the property’s industrial acreage.
The CTUIR hasn’t signaled that it would support Umatilla County in its lawsuit or pursue its own legal action, but is taking steps to monitor the situation.
During the June 17 CTUIR Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting, interim Executive Director J.D. Tovey said the tribe had formed a “strike force” made up of all tribal departments involved in CDA activities that will confer about how to handle the management of its CDA land going forward.
That group had its first meeting on June 20.
The CDA has continued to conduct business as usual while fallout from the March vote continues.
At the CDA’s most recent meeting on June 25, members discussed a potential sale of 100 acres that
developments and the long-term strategy of the CDA – and how or whether the partnership can survive such a contested land division decision.
Tovey said he was frustrated because it seemed like the CDA wasn’t operating efficiently because it lacked clear direction that would be set out in something like a long-term strategic plan and would continue to struggle to make decisions until it did.
But that’s only “a symptom of something bigger,” he said, saying the March 26 land division vote introduced a “deeper issue” of the CDA board not being able to function because of how it divided members.
CDA staff also shared information about the receipt of potentially large development proposals for the industrial parcels that would generate tax revenue and jobs in the region.
The CDA’s executive director, Greg Smith, said he and his staff “feel like children caught in the middle of an ugly divorce.”
Until the strife among the board settles or a clearer picture about the CDA’s future emerges, Smith said he’s worried about many of those businesses going elsewhere with their proposals because they’ve expressed worries about pursuing their projects amid such bitter disagreement.
The board also held an executive session, minus Shafer, who stepped out of the meeting since he represents an entity likely to be involved in a legal affair with the CDA, at its June 25 meeting discuss the potential lawsuit.
During the executive session, the CDA’s attorney and board discussed the potential litigation and the attorney’s legal analysis of the vote and strength of the arguments Umatilla County made in its May letter threatening a lawsuit.
The June 25 discussions about potential litigation turned to talk about the implications of the March land allocation vote on future relationships between the CDA partners and how a fractured board could effectively govern the land until the partnership officially dissolves in seven years.
Saying the board’s March decision “feels like a land grab,” Tovey said he had heard from elected leaders across the region and state officials who’ve said they were disappointed with the board’s decision to split the industrial acreage among the two
J. D. Tovey
Open burning ban on UIR from July 1
MISSION – The local weather pattern of hot and dry conditions, along with drying grass and vegetation has prompted Umatilla Tribal Fire Department (UTFD) officials to prohibit open burning on the Umatilla Indian Reservation (UIR) beginning July 1.
The ban on open burning, which will remain effective on the UIR until fire season ends in the fall, includes trash in burning barrels and yard debris.
Sweathouse and ceremonial fires are exempt from the ban. However, to monitor sweathouse and ceremonial fires, a verbal burn permit must be obtained from the Umatilla Tribal Dispatch by calling 541-2780550. Burning will be regulated by
firefighting resource availability and weather conditions.
The 2024 fire season has begun with hot and drought-like conditions in the area, coupled with increased concerns of potential large-growth fire. Caution should be taken with the following items: fireworks, exploding targets, full metal jacket ammunition, off-road driving and small-engine use near cured grasses.
For information regarding agricultural or other types of burning or air quality, call the Office of Air Quality at 541-429-7080. The Office of Air Quality is responsible for burning permits and determining burning activities.
For more information, call UTFD Chief James Hall at 541-276-2126.
DAMS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Board of Trustees Member at Large Corinne Sams said. Sams also chairs the CTUIR’s Fish & Wildlife Commission and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “These governmentbuilt structures not only caused the salmon runs to precipitously decline, and contributed to the extinction of some runs, but have made it exceedingly difficult to rebuild runs, as well as exercise the treaty reserved fishing right that our ancestors fought for in the treaty negotiations with the United States.”
Sams called the Tribal Circumstances Analysis (TCA) “an honest acknowledgment” regarding “devastating impacts of development of the Columbia Basin on tribes,” including the region’s wealth going from the tribes to non-Indians. She added it serves as a foundation for future analyses of proposed federal actions or funding involving the hydrosystem, salmon or tribal resources in the basin.
Along with the CTUIR, the TCA lists the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, Nez Perce Tribe, Yakama Nation, Coeur D’Alene Tribe, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, Spokane Tribe and Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation as the tribes most immediately impacted by Columbia River dams and reservoirs.
Since time immemorial, basin tribes have relied on the river’s resources, especially salmon, which are integral to their cultures, identities and sustenance. According to the TCA, historically, up to 16 million salmon and steelhead returned to Pacific Northwest tributaries annually. However, dam construction beginning near the early 20th century blocked fish from migrating into certain basin reaches and flooded sacred sites, burial grounds and thousands of acres.
According to the TCA, tribal communities lost access to fish, which altered diets, deprived them traditional lifeways and changed how they teach and raise children in their respective cultural and spiritual beliefs.
The TCA also provides recommendations for upholding
This historical photo provided by the Library of Congress shows Indigenous people fishing for salmon at Celilo Falls, Oregon, in September 1941. The U.S. government on June 18, 2024, acknowledged for the first time the harms that the construction and operation of dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest have caused Native American tribes, issuing a report that details how the unprecedented structures devastated salmon runs, inundated villages and burial grounds, and continue to severely curtail the tribes' ability to exercise their treaty fishing rights. RUSSELL LEE | COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
the U.S. government’s treaty and trust responsibilities, including fully considering and integrating the inequities tribes have suffered via dam construction into future National Environmental Policy Act reviews, as well as pursuing costewardship and co-management agreements, continuing efforts to consolidate tribal homelands and incorporating Indigenous knowledge into decision making.
Sams said she is pleased with the TCA as it fulfills a commitment made in the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA) between the U.S. government and the Six Sovereigns (CTUIR, Yakama Nation, Nez Perce Tribe, Warm Springs Tribes and the states of Washington and Oregon). The RCBA stays litigation over the federal dams on the lower Snake and mainstem Columbia Rivers.
It also aims to restore salmon populations in the Lower Basin, expand tribally sponsored clean energy production and provide stability for communities that depend on the Columbia River for agriculture, energy, recreation and transportation.
Corinne Sams, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Member at Large and chair of Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, signs an agreement between the Biden administration and the Six Sovereigns (CTUIR, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, Yakama Nation and states of Oregon and Washington) on Feb. 23 in Washington, D.C. The agreement lays the groundwork for the federal government and the Six Sovereigns to protect and restore salmon, steelhead and native fish to the Columbia River Basin.
“It (TCA) is a remarkable document, and a demonstration of the (Biden) administration’s commitment to restore the salmon runs and the ecosystems they depend upon in the Columbia Basin,” she said. “We are confident that our partnership with the U.S. government will succeed in restoring our salmon runs, while at the same time meeting our needs for decarbonization and clean energy that does not kill fish and providing for the transportation, irrigation and recreation needs of our region.”
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Board of Trustees
MAY 13, 2024
Ascertainment of Quorum. BOT Present: Gary Burke, BOT Chairman; Aaron Ashley,ViceChair; Raymond Huesties, Treasurer; Roberta Wilson, Secretary; Lisa Ganuelas, Member; Steven Hart, BOT Member and, Alan Crawford General Council Chairman. Absent: Toby Patrick, BOT Member on Personal Leave; Corinne Sams, BOT Member on Travel. Quorum present.
Agenda Review. MOTION: Aaron Ashley moves to approve agenda with action items only. Raymond Huesties seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 6-0-0.
Old Business: None.
New Business: Proposed Resolutions: Next resolution number is 24-039:
Resolution 24-039: Topic: WRC Loan Agreement Amendment WHEREAS, the Board of Trustees conducted a work session on May 9, 2024 to review this Resolution and the Letter Agreement Amendment to the Loan Agreement attached to this Resolution as Exhibit 1C; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Board of Trustees hereby approves the Letter Agreement Amendment to the Third
Amended and Restated Wells Fargo Loan Agreement attached to this Resolution as Exhibit 1C and authorizes the Chairman (or the Vice-Chairman, in the Chairman’s absence) of the Board of Trustees (each, an Authorized Official) to execute, as necessary, the Letter Agreement Amendment in substantially such form; provided, that the Chairman (or the Vice-Chairman, in the Chairman’s absence) of the Board of Trustees may approve on behalf of the Confederated Tribes any further changes to the attached Letter Agreement Amendment recommended by tax counsel or legal counsel to the Confederated Tribes, and the signature of any such official on the Letter Agreement Amendment shall conclusively evidence the approval of the Confederated Tribes of such changes; and provided further, that the signatures of such officials may be manual or facsimile; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Board of Trustees hereby authorizes each of the Authorized Officials, on behalf of the Confederated Tribes, to execute, deliver and/or file (or cause to be delivered and/or filed) any government forms, affidavits, certificates, letters, documents, agreements and instruments and to take or direct such other actions that such Authorized Official determines
Nixyáawii Governance Center 46411 Timíne Way Pendleton, OR 97801 541-276-3165 bot@ctuir.org l ctuir.org
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is comprised of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Tribes, formed under the Treaty of 1855 at the Walla Walla Valley, 12 Stat. 945. In 1949, the Tribes adopted a constitutional form of government to protect, preserve and enhance the reserved treaty rights guaranteed under federal law.
to be necessary or desirable to give effect to this Resolution and to consummate the transactions contemplated herein; AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, the Board of Trustees hereby authorizes and directs its tax counsel to the Confederated Tribes to prepare the legal opinion necessary for the execution of the Letter Agreement Amendment; MOTION: Aaron Ashley moves to adopt Resolution 24-039. Ray Huesties seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 6-0-0.
Resolution 24-040: Topic: Oregon Department of Agriculture MOA for Pesticide Applications WHEREAS, the Board met at a work session on May 9th, 2024 to review and discuss the proposed Memorandum of Agreement; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Board of Trustees authorizes the Chair to sign the Pesticide Applicator Memorandum of Agreement (Exhibit 1) and hereby provides a limited waiver of sovereign immunity for the State of Oregon to issue fines or request specific performance regarding any violations of State law for applications outside of the Indian country of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and acknowledges the State’s authority, and otherwise waives sovereign immunity,
for the State of Oregon to take action on licensure, including suspension, revocation, and refusal to issue, reissue, or renew for violations occurring outside of the Confederated Tribes’ Indian country; AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, the Board of Trustees hereby authorizes and directs its tax counsel to the Confederated Tribes to prepare the legal opinion necessary for the execution of the Letter Agreement Amendment; MOTION: Alan Crawford moves to adopt Resolution 24-040. Steven Hart seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 5 for0 against-- 1 abstaining (Roberta Wilson).
Other Board Action Items: None.
BOT Travel or External Meeting Reports. None.
BOT Leave and Travel or Outside Meeting Requests.
Aaron Ashley: 5/3– 4 hrs
Alan Crawford: 5/3 – 2 hrs
Lisa Ganuelas: 5/9 – 3 hrs 5/17 – 7.5 hrs
Steven Hart: 5/8 – 5 hrs Took the whole day off and will submit a leave slip accordingly.
MOTION: Raymond Huesties moves to approve leave requests. Lisa Ganuelas seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 6-0-0.
CTUIR Board of Trustees Minutes
Gary I. Burke Chairman
Aaron Ashley Vice Chairman
Raymond Huesties Treasurer
Roberta J. Wilson Secretary Alan Crawford General Council Chairman
Corinne Sams Member at Large
Lisa Ganuelas Member at Large
Toby Patrick Member at Large
Steven Hart Member at Large
MAY 20, 2024
PUBLIC SESSION
Ascertainment of Quorum.
BOT Present: Gary Burke, BOT Chairman; Raymond Huesties, Treasurer; Roberta Wilson, Secretary; Toby Patrick, Member; Lisa Ganuelas, Member and Corinne Sams, Member. Aaron Ashley, ViceChair; Alan Crawford General Council Chairman and Steven Hart, BOT Member on travel. Quorum present.
Old Business: None.
New Business: Proposed Resolutions: Next resolution number is 24-041:
No. 24-041: Topic: Appointment of Rob Quaempts to Cayuse Holdings LLC Board of Directors.
RESOLVED, the Board of Trustees approves the appointment of Rob Quaempts to the Cayuse Holdings Board of Directors for a four-year term beginning January 9, 2024, and ending on January 8, 2028; MOTION: Corinne Sams moves to adopt Resolution 24-041. Toby Patrick seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 5-0-0.
Other Board Action Items: None.
BOT Travel or External Meeting Reports.
Corinne Sams (3): Washington, DC 5/6-9 CRITFC DC delegation to testify. Washington, DC 5/13-15 CRITFC DC delegation for meetings. Portland, 5/16-17 to attend US Vs OR meeting and mediation. Raymond Huesties: Washington, DC 2/11-16 to attend NCAI Convention. Seattle,WA 5/9-10 to attend SPARK event.
Toby Patrick, 5/5-9 at Santa Fe, NM to attend STWG meeting.
MOTION: Corinne Sams moves to approve travel reports and leave request. Raymond Huesties seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 5-00.
BOT Leave and Travel or Outside
Meeting Requests.
Roberta Wilson, 5/6 from 1-4 pm polled personal leave.
Toby Patrick, 5/16-17, polled personal leave for both days. Corinne Sams, 5/22-23 local to WRC for CRITFC meeting.
MOTION: Raymond Huesties moves to approve leave requests. Lisa Ganuelas seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 5-0-0.
JUNE 5, 2024
PUBLIC SESSION
Ascertainment of Quorum.
BOT Present: Gary Burke, BOT Chairman; Aaron Ashley, ViceChair; Raymond Huesties, Treasurer; Roberta Wilson, Secretary; Toby Patrick, Member; Lisa Ganuelas, Member; Corinne Sams, Member; Steve Hart, BOT Member and, Alan Crawford General Council Chairman. Full quorum present.
Others present: JD Tovey, Interim Executive Director; Paul Rabb, Interim Deputy Director; Kathryn Burke, Interim Executive Director; Helen S. Morrison, BOT Executive Assistant; Lee Gavin, Communications AV Support Specialist; Joe Pitt, Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) Lead Attorney; Travis Snell, Communications Specialist; Brandie Weaskus, Communications Legislative Manager.
Agenda Review: Today’s meeting is Action Items Only. Roberta Wilson, BOT Secretary asked to add before meeting Adjournment an agenda item regarding recruitment of the ED by Joe Pitt and Kathryn Burke. Joe Pitt, OLC Lead Attorney stated he submitted a draft motion to establish hiring committee. Roberta Wilson announced the BOT Treasurer and WRC Reports will be deferred. MOTION: Corinne Sams moves to approve agenda to reflect action items only. Toby Patrick seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 8-0-0
Old Business: a. Polled Motions: No. 24-004 Topic: Five Cayuse Men Day of Remembrance. This document did not go through IR and Finance said budget was off
by ten cents. Asked Paul Rabb to explain Indirect Cost discrepancy. Paul asked BOT to approve polled motion the amount will be corrected, and no Indirect will be charged.
MOTION: Raymond Huesties moves to ratify Polled Motion 24-004 with update of budget. Corinne Sams seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 7 for – 0 against – 1 abstaining (Lisa Ganuelas).
ii. No. 24-005 Topic: Colville Scoping Comments. MOTION: Corrine Sams moves to ratify Polled Motion 24-005. Raymond Huesties seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 8-0-0.
New Business:
Proposed Resolutions: Next resolution number is 24-042:
Aaron Ashley, BOT ViceChairman asked for explanation of resolution not being on today’s agenda. Roberta Wilson, BOT Secretary explained there was problem with the Internal Review process and also the resolution was submitted late yesterday, and the resolution was not corrected.
Other Board Action Items:
Commission/Committee Update by Roberta Wilson, BOT Secretary.
Roberta Wlson noted the Public Notice date will be corrected June 4, 2024. MOTION; Corinne Sams moves to approve Public Notice as corrected. Raymond Huesties seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 8-0-0.
-Science & Technology Committee (STC), 2 vacancies, 2 applications.
MOTION: Raymon Huesties moves to appoint Lee Gavin and Jeanine Gordon by acclamation to serve 2-year term on Science Technology Committee. Corinne Sams seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 8-0-0.
-CTUIR Culture Coalition, 1 vacancy, 1 application. MOTION: Corinne Sams moves to appoint Jolie Wendt by acclamation to CTUIR Culture Coalition for a 3-year
term. Toby Patrick seconds. Discussion. Question. Motion carries 8-0-0.
Will advertise for the following: 1 position for Education & Training Committee and 3 positions for Culture Coalition. The due date is June 24 for applications, BOT work session on June 28 with appointments being made on July 1.
BOT Travel or External Meeting Reports. Deferred.
BOT Leave and Travel or Outside Meeting Requests.
Aaron Ashley, 6/3 (all day) 4 (10 am to 4 pm) polled personal leave.
Alan Crawford, 6/10-14 polled travel to Washington, DC. Alan Crawford, 6/24-27 travel request to Canyonville for Annual Veterans Conference. Corinne Sams, 5/31 polled personal leave from 1-4 pm. Gary Burke, 6/10-14 polled travel to Washington, DC.
Lisa Ganuelas (4) leaves requests: Travel, 8/18-21 to Albuquerque, NM to attend Ulrich Investment Consultants Annual Summit. Personal leave, 6/3. Personal leave, 7/1 all day, Local travel, 6/12 to Pilot Rock to attend 2023 Soil Health event.
Raymond Huesties, 8/18-21 travel to NM to attend annual investment consultation. Raymond Huesties, 6/12-14 personal leave.
Roberta Wilson, 6/20-21 for 11 hours personal leave. Roberta Wilson, 5/24 personal leave all day.
Toby Patrick (3) leave requests: Polled personal leave, 5/30 all day. Travel, 6/24-25 to PDX Willamette Falls trust land meeting. Travel, 6/10-14 to Washington, DC.
MOTION: Steven Hart moves to ratify and approve leave requests. Corinne Sams seconds. Discussion: on elected official travel time. Question. Motion carries 8-0-0.
HOMES
neighborhood that was completed last year.
Construction crews will begin building four homes in the subdivision in the next few weeks, Nixyáawíí Community Financial Services (NCFS) Executive Director Dave Tovey said. CTUIR officials said they are the first of eight the tribe plans to build in the neighborhood this year.
Overall, the tribe will construct 21 homes in the neighborhood using $3 million in grant funding from Oregon Housing and Community Services. The tribe had also previously received $300,000 from the state for down payment assistance for tribal members.
Once completed, officials say members will be able to buy one of the affordably priced two- or threebedroom homes and lease the trust land it sits on.
Building the first home
Before that happens, CTUIR tribal member Andrea Rodriguez who owns the first home being built in the neighborhood, expects to be settled in her new house as the first resident of the neighborhood. By the end of June, the threebedroom home had been framed. Rodriguez, a first-time homebuyer,
said she hoped to move in with her husband and three children sometime in the fall.
The floorplan was selected by her, as well as things like the finishes and flooring. And for the first time, Rodriguez said she won’t have to deal with issues that come from renting, like worrying about putting holes in the walls from hanging art or pictures or not being able to paint a room a color she wants.
“It’ll be ours,” she said of her new home. “We put in a lot of hard work to get where we are and we’re finally seeing the results of all that.”
When that happens, it will conclude a yearslong journey for Rodriguez, a Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center employee, that started with improving her credit score and paying off debt she was saddled with when a previous marriage ended.
Even as her credit score improved, Rodriguez said homeownership seemed unattainable because of high home prices and the high cost of land. Then she heard about the Nixyáawíí neighborhood development. She said she attended every public information meeting or update after the development was announced because she knew it was her best chance at owning a home.
For years, Rodriguez said she worked with NCFS while working to improve her finances – taking financial literacy classes and seeking advice for working with creditors. She said she had participated in some of NCFS’s homebuyer educational opportunities and relied on it to help
General Council Draft Agenda
guide her through the process of leasing her parcel, securing financing and dealing with the builders.
Without the financial assistance and guidance from NCFS throughout the financing and building process, she said owning a home on the reservation may have remained an unfulfilled goal without the CTUIR establishing the neighborhood.
So seeing her home start to come together, Rodriguez said, has been a relief after years of sacrifices she made while rebuilding her credit, renting and trying to remain patient while the tribe worked to develop the subdivision and get it ready for homes.
“I was getting very impatient,” she said, adding that she had been looking at potential floor plans and other design features of a potential home in the neighborhood since about 2022. “In the end, the timing was probably right for when we were really ready financially.”
Unmet demand
Rodriguez is the exactly the type of tribal member the Nixyáawíí neighborhood subdivision was developed for.
Tribal leaders have prioritized housing developments in recent years to address a housing shortage that, according to a 2017 study, required 350 new units over 20 years to eliminate.
At the same time, more tribal members are looking to move to the reservation while the number of enrolled members who can afford to pay market rates for rentals or are positioned to buy a home has also increased.
But that segment, Tovey said, has struggled to find housing to suit their needs – whether that’s renting, buying an existing home or building on the reservation.
“There’s a pent-up demand,” he said during a June 20 discussion and tour of the reservation with Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, who is campaigning to be elected the next Oregon Attorney General.
According to officials, the new neighborhood was designed to eliminate some of the barriers – such as land fractionalization, high land and construction prices, a lack of affordable homes that have already been built or challenges obtaining mortgage for a home on tribal trust land – that have made it difficult for tribal members to buy or build a home.
The subdivision has more than 40 parcels for homes that would be a short walk away from the Nixyáawíí Community School, Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center and Nixyáawíí Governance Center.
Amenities include a small park, paved roads and easy connections to utility services.
Planners also reserved space for future neighborhood services like a coffee shop, laundromat or other commercial venture, as well as space for future apartments or elder housing. The location also makes it possible to expand the neighborhood with additional home sites.
Since the subdivision is on tribal trust land, those interested in building or owning a home in the neighborhood must obtain a 99-year lease from the tribe.
NCFS is overseeing the process of building and selling the 21 homes the tribe will build in the neighborhood over the next three years, while the CTUIR Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) will manage the land lease process.
About 10 tribal members have signed long-term leases for a home site in the development, with several others “in the works,” said NCFS Homeownership Services Manager Pamela Ranslam.
To make home ownership more attainable and encourage tribal members to consider the new neighborhood development, NCFS offers a suite of services that include ownership workshops, down payment assistance and one-on-one counseling.
Ranslam, who said she’s helped more than 100 tribal members navigate the homebuying process over 20 years, said NCFS has focused on hosting homeowner workshops and educational classes to show tribal members who are interested in owning a house that it is an achievable goal.
The 21 homes the tribe will build and offer to members further simplifies the home-buying process for those who want to own their dwellings by eliminating many of the confusing steps first-time buyers often face, making it so they just have to work with NCFS to finance the purchase, Tovey said.
“We want to span that kind of bridge, that challenge, for the
Members line up for monthly food distribution
The Food Distribution program has no age restrictions, and vendors can currently supply enough food for one event a month.
By TRAVIS SNELL CTUIR COMMUNICATIONS
MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s Department of Children & Family Services (CTUIR DCFS) distributed food to CTUIR members and others June 27 at the tribe’s Tutuilla Food Sovereignty Center.
DCFS Director Julie Taylor said the department’s Food Distribution program gives food each month to CTUIR members and members of federally recognized tribes residing on the reservation, as well as CTUIR members living off it.
“We feel this is important for our community as food security is a basic need, and with the prices of inflation, it is nice to be able to provide for our people in their time of need,” Taylor said.
Food Distribution events began in 2020 after DCFS received American Rescue Plan Act funds. When those funds ended in 2021, the CTUIR Board of Trustees
(BOT) approved supplemental funding to continue the program.
“When the BOT funding ended in 2023, DCFS sought out funds elsewhere, and we were able to partner with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) to start them up again in 2024,” Taylor said. “Currently, the funding we have allows us to work with socially disadvantaged vendors within our region. We have been able to find vendors to provide items such as frozen salmon, canned salmon, ground beef, roasts, fresh fruit and vegetables, jerky and even items such as freshly made chips and salsa.”
Although summer Food Distribution events are not tailored to children while they are out of school, they do help ease fiscal strains on families.
“There has been past funding available to focus more on kidfriendly foods/snacks, but the new funding doesn’t allow as much,” Taylor said. “However, the extra items provided can help relieve some of the financial burden of food during summer break.”
DCFS Administrative Assistant Brittney Eickstaedt said Food Distribution also partners with the Yellowhawk Senior Center to deliver food to approximately 25 homebound elders.
CTUIR to host domestic violence summit July 9-11
Expected to attend are the Oregon Department of Human Services Child Welfare Division and Oregon Department of Justice.
MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) Family Violence Services (FVS) will hold a tribal, state and federal summit focused on addressing domestic violence July 9-11 at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino.
FVS Coordinator Desiree Coyote said the CTUIR held its first summit in 2004 to enhance skills of professionals and community awareness. Since then, FVS has held at least six summits.
“The 2007 summit was specifically designed for law enforcement, systems and our community,” she said. “In 2010, a conference was held just after the CTUIR adopted a new and updated domestic and
sexual violence code, which included confidentiality for tribal domestic violence advocacy. The 2013 summit was specific to tribal, state and federal professionals as this was just after CTUIR had some experience prosecuting non-Natives in tribal court and solidifying our use of tribal protections orders.”
Coyote said this year’s summit follows the 2022 Violence Against Women Act renewal, which expanded tribal courts’ criminal jurisdiction to cover non-Native suspects of sexual assault, child abuse, stalking and sex trafficking. The act also strengthened the application of evidence-based practice by law enforcement in responding to gender-based violence, including promoting the use of trauma-informed, victim-centered training and improving homicidereduction initiatives.
This year’s summit agenda includes sessions regarding:
• The importance of a traumainformed approach in working with
families, survivors and communities by integrating trauma awareness into everyday interactions,
• The importance of confidentiality in providing victim service and how privacy is essential to survivors of domestic and sexual violence,
• How strangulation and traumatic brain injuries caused by domestic violence are rarely identified and almost never treated, and
• The barriers, inequities and system challenges resulting from unjust domestic violence and child welfare responses.
“Often, when intimate partner violence occurs, the system (police, child welfare, etc.) are quick to acknowledge the violence and that children may see or hear the violence,” Coyote said. “However, the incident impacts the whole family and often for a lifetime. Children, newborn, infant, youth and teens are impacted physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually – the whole being. From the context of the systems,
theirs is a work or practice handed down over generations that did not look at nor address the healing of the whole person. Bias, values, belief, stereotypes, ignorance and racism bleed into action, policy and laws, which in turn impacts our people who seek services or are forced to receive services by the systems.”
Coyote said agencies expected to attend include the Oregon Department of Human Services Child Welfare Division, Oregon Department of Justice, Umatilla County Juvenile Division and Umatilla County Community Corrections. She added that officials from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Coquille Indian Tribe, Klamath Tribes, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and Confederated Tribes of the Siletz are also expected to attend.
All are invited to attend the free summit. For information, call 541429-7415 or email desireecoyote@ ctuir.org.
Vehicles line up to receive bags of food on June 27 at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) Tutuilla Food Sovereignty Center in Mission. CTUIR members and members of federally recognized tribes residing on the reservation, as well as CTUIR members living off it, can pick up food during the monthly food distribution event. TRAVIS SNELL | CTUIR PHOTOS
Workforce Development Director Lindsey X. Watchman and Tania Wildbill, Department of Children & Family Services Family Engagement Wrap Around Services, load up bags of food.
Lindsey Pasena-Littlesky organizes bags of food for distribution.
Chief cuts ribbon on expanded, remodeled fire station
By CHRIS AADLAND Reporter
MISSION – Tribal firefighters revealed a recently expanded fire station June 13 that officials say will not only improve the quality of life for firefighters on the clock, but will improve services for the reservation community.
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Umatilla Tribal Fire Department (UTFD) staff led community members and tribal officials on a tour of the remodeled fire station – showcasing comfortable private bedrooms with individual storage space, a large and modern kitchen, comfortable common areas for firefighters to relax in during their shift, plus administrative and meeting spaces – before answering questions about the amenities and why they were needed.
The $2.5 million project included about $1 million worth of new fire trucks that have yet to fill unused station garage spots, Chief James Hall told attendees during the ribbon cutting.
“It’s a good day,” Hall said.
The upgraded fire station will allow the department to better serve the community, said Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Public Works Director Justin Northern.
The improvements also make the
station on Confederated Way a little more welcoming for fire department staff during their two-day shifts.
“The conditions that our firefighters were living in and working in here was kind of atrocious,” Northern said.
The department, which was founded in 1990, is responsible for fire prevention and suppression, hazardous materials emergency responses and emergency medical services across the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
According to Hall, federal Covid-19 stimulus funding and grants paid for the project and new equipment.
Marcus Luke, CTUIR Housing Department director, thanked Hall and the department for watching over the CTUIR’s 230 or so tribal housing units and said he appreciated the Board of Trustees for supporting the station expansion.
“We all got to protect our homes,” Luke said. “And it’s these folks right here, risking their lives every single morning, every single time they get a phone call; we all need to support them as well.”
After the June 13 ceremony, Hall said he picked up one of three new fire engines. The other two should arrive in the next few months. If there is room, he said he’d also like to acquire a mobile command vehicle.
While the new fire station was designed with enough space for growth, Hall said it and the new
equipment, isn’t the end of changes he’d like to see.
He said he’d eventually like to build a second station that would allow the department to respond more quickly across the reservation.
For example, Hall said a second station could be near Wildhorse Resort & Casino to ensure that asset is better protected.
Northern said a feasibility study that will address some of those additional infrastructure wants is in the works.
During the event, Hall said he appreciated tribal leaders approving of the project but pressed them to further support the department
by providing funding to hire more firefighters. Standard firefighting protocol calls for responders to at least work in two pairs, Hall said. The UTFD currently only has nine full-time firefighters and about 20 volunteers, which means only three staff firefighters can respond to a single call. This forces the department to rely on mutual aid from nearby departments before tackling emergencies such as a house fire, he added.
Still, Hall said the new station is a good start and necessary improvement.
“It’s all in the steps,” he said. “Now we’re asking for staff.”
FREE BOOK: “HEALING THE BIG RIVER”!
With your purchase of $50 or more, you will receive this beautiful book, “HEALING THE BIG RIVER - Salmon Dreams and the Columbia River Treaty” as our gift. Laden with extraordinary photography by Peter Pochocki Marbach with a Foreword by Roberta Conner and Introduction by Laurie Arnold, this book tells a compelling narrative through imagery and text. O er may not be combined with other o ers/discounts.
NEW EXHIBIT OPENS IN AUGUST
Coming August 2
Watch for the opening of our next exhibit on August 2! You'll be astounded at the craftsmanship and colorful detail of this exciting display of beadwork showcasing magnificent elk and deer.
July 5 10am-5pm
FREE admission all day at Tamástslikt Cultural Institute.
Celebrate the Fourth of July with FREE admission for all at Tamástslikt Cultural Institute.
The ArtWORKz Junior Art Show & Competition closes Saturday, July 6 so come see who the winners are today. Dine inside at Kinship Cafe or order take-out. Enjoy Indian Tacos ($10.50) and Frybread ($5) from 11am-2pm. Shop the Museum Store and earn a FREE book!
2024 ArtWORKz
Junior Art Show & Competition
Kinship Café Open for lunch 11am-2pm Tuesday through Saturday! Great lunch options, weekly specials, and tasty huckleberry treats!
Come view the incredible artwork submitted by talented youth from all over the region and see who won awards. Over 100 pieces of art are on display featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures, photography, ceramics, and traditional arts. The exhibit closes soon so don't delay! Thank you to St. Anthony Hospital, Nixyaawii Community Financial Services and Blick Art Materials!
Umatilla Tribal Fire Department Chief James Hall cuts the ribbon to officially open a renovated fire station June 13. CHRIS AADLAND | CUJ PHOTO
Miss Indian Northwest Pageant returns after pause
By JARRETTE WERK Underscore + Report for America
PORTLAND – On the night of June 14, hundreds gathered under and around two large white tents covering the powwow circle. Song and dance filled the Delta Park in Northeast Portland, celebrating the long awaited return of the Miss Indian Northwest Pageant in addition to the 51st annual Delta Park Powwow.
Spectators and family members of the seven young women competing to represent the Native Nations
from across the Northwest were on the edge of their seats as Rebecca Kirk, third-generation Miss Indian Northwest Pageant director, asked the contestants to make their way into the circle for the crowning.
“All of these contestants, they are so brave for being able to step to the forefront to represent their communities,” Kirk, Klamath and Leech Lake Ojibwe, said over the microphone that Friday night.
“Today you have made history by running for this pageant and you have made history as a warrior for
your community by representing your people proudly.”
After months of preparation, fundraising, and competing in the Miss Indian Northwest Pageant to showcase their cultural knowledge and talents, only one would walk away with the beautifully beaded crown and sash made by Kirk and the Miss Indian Northwest team.
“Congratulations to our new Miss Indian Northwest, representing the Klamath people, Miss Leilonnie Wilson,” Kirk announced as the crowd erupted into applause and
drum groups beat their drums.
Leilonnie Wilson, 19, representing the Klamath, Modoc, Yahooskin Paiute Nations will serve as the new Miss Indian Northwest 2024-2025. The last time a person held the title was nearly three decades ago.
“What it means to me is the start of something new, not just to represent all the tribes in the [Northwest], but to represent everyone,” Wilson said. “It’s a new flower, a new season, a new generation.”
Keyen Singer, representing the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), was awarded first runner-up, and Clarissa Morninggun, representing the Cowichan Nation was second runner-up. Mauricea TwoEagle, representing the Shoshone-Bannock and Washoe Nations was awarded Miss Congeniality, and Kamarin Gleason, representing the Yakama Nation, was awarded the Social Media Star award.
As Wilson made her victory lap, the Swarovski crystals used for the lettering on the sash sparkled and the buckskin fringe swayed with each step. As drummers sang her an honor song, Clarissa Morninggun’s mother threw down dollar bills as she danced by to show her blessings as the new Miss Indian Northwest.
– This story has been shortened from the original for space. Visit www. underscore.news to read the entirety.
The top three finalists of the 2024-2025 Miss Indian Northwest Pageant pose for their photo after the crowning at Delta Park Powwow on June 14, 2024. From left are Clarissa Morninggun, representing the Cowichan Nation was second runnerup, Leilonnie Wilson, representing the Klamath, Modoc, Yahooskin Paiute Nations was crowned Miss Indian Northwest, and Keyen Singer, representing the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, was awarded first runner-up.
JARRETTE WERK | UNDERSCORE/REPORT FOR AMERICA PHOTO
Safe Routes to School, NGC pedestrian trails open
By CHRIS AADLAND Reporter
MISSION – Whether it’s getting to work, going to an appointment or as a healthy living strategy, Umatilla Indian Reservation community members now have safer options to walk, run or bike near the tribal government headquarters area.
About 30 people joined Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Board of Trustees (BOT) members and the Youth Leadership Council on June 7 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of a $1.5 million segment of trails separated from traffic on busy roads around the Nixyáawíi Governance Center, Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center, the Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start program and Nixyáawíi Community School.
Tribal officials say the new walkways are a response to comments the CTUIR received when updating its long-term transportation plan about the need for options, other than the shoulder of a busy road, for walking, biking and horse riding.
“People who want to stay healthy now have a safe place to walk, a safe place to be for our reservation,” BOT Chairman Gary I. Burke said at the ceremony.
The project includes an Oregon Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School trail section
south from Mission Road along Highway 331, also known as South Market Road, to Timíne Way, the governance center’s entry road. A Community Paths trail diverges from the Safe Routes to School path and connects to an existing trail to the north of the governance center.
The trails provide approximately 1,700 linear feet of paths separated from Highway 331 traffic. Ramps and lighting will make it wheelchair accessible.
Additionally, crosswalks will be
marked at three of the four corners at the intersection of Mission and South Market roads.
The project is open for the public to use and expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
Before submitting grant applications to ODOT in 2020, the tribal Planning Office conducted community outreach and identified the four corners area at Mission Road and Highway 331 as an area that could be made safer for pedestrians, Shulte said.
ODOT grants covered about $1.44 million of the project’s cost, with the CTUIR allocating $65,000, according to the tribe.
Construction crews with Eastern Oregon Contracting in MiltonFreewater and Bryson Picard Grading & Excavating began work in April.
The project is also part of a larger vision of improved traffic signage and a trail system that links other parts of the reservation – and eventually, Pendleton – to the area around the governance center, Yellowhawk and NCS.
“I’m so happy that we have a safe place for this community to walk and roll,” Schulte said. “I hope we keep building on that success and make this community safer for folks who either choose to get around in
a way other than their vehicle or don’t choose and just use walking and biking as their way of getting around.”
After the ribbon cutting, many of those who attended walked the new stretch of trails.
During that walk, Schulte said the plan is for the system to eventually stretch to Pendleton’s Riverwalk and connect the Riverside neighborhood – which is within reservation’s boundaries and where an increasing number of tribal members live – to the rest of the reservation community.
However, that longer trail would be complicated and expensive to build, costing up to $7 million, according to the tribal Planning Department.
In the meantime, Schulte said the CTUIR is closer to breaking ground on other projects meant to make the Mission area safer for pedestrians.
The tribe, she added, has applied for three grants worth $4.5 million to pay for pedestrian improvements starting where Mission Road meets Timíne Way, going east to Short Mile Road.
Other future changes in the area near the governance center to improve pedestrian and motorist safety could include traffic pattern changes, like roundabouts, Shulte said.
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Chairman Gary I. Burke on June 17 cuts a ribbon signifying the opening of the Safe Routes to School Path sidewalk and Community Paths trail near the Nixyáawíi Governance Center in Mission. Also shown are members of the CTUIR Youth Council, Board of Trustees Treasurer Raymond Huesties, left in hat, Board Member at Large Corinne Sams, left of Burke, and CTUIR Transportation Planner Dani Schulte.
CHRIS AADLAND | CUJ PHOTO
Local resident working to get name on Nov. ballot
By LISA SNELL Editor
PENDLETON – She rejected the party line and withdrew from running Democrat, but her mother’s voice and an overly persistent earworm pushed her to back to the race.
“I’m hearing my mother’s voice call me to this race every step of the way,” Tania Wildbill said. “And it’s the Beatles. I can’t stop hearing the song ‘Come Together.’ Come together right now. But seriously, campaigns are destroying our country. We are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Indivisible. Except for this [politics]. We are divided.”
A Pendleton resident and contract employee for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) Department of Children and Family Services, Wildbill is hoping to get her name on the ballot this November for Senate District 29, which includes all of Umatilla, Gilliam, Morrow, Sherman, Union, Wallowa and Wheeler counties. She was originally on the primary ballot earlier this year as the Democratic nominee, but said she withdrew from the party when she was encouraged not to show support for charter schools to potentially secure campaign funds through the Oregon Education Association Political Action Committee (PAC).
“I will not be told to show no support for charter schools when I wrote the grant that opened a charter school. Every student has a unique, authentic path to thrive in their academic experience. For example, the Nixyáawíí Community School allowed our tribal kids to have a smaller classroom size, to have a curriculum that honored their history and integrated their native language. It reduced truancy and increased the graduation rate,” she said. “Ethically, I could not stand a party dictating how I should raise money, especially since I really didn’t want to take money and have a campaign tied to money,” Wildbill said.
She said a look at Umatilla County voter registration gave her a fair idea of the local political landscape and made note of the numbers. The current number of non-affiliated voters in Umatilla County is nearly 20% higher than the number of registered Republicans. The gap is even wider between non-affiliated voters and Democrats, with more than twice the number of registered voters.
“If that data is reflective of America in its current state, there’s clearly a yearning for something new,” Wildbill said.
So, instead of appealing to PACs, she has taken to the road, hosting what she calls “listening and sharing sessions” in lieu of a traditional
Tania Wildbill
political town hall. Wildbill has been to La Grande, Cove, Enterprise and Joseph to date. She said housing is a huge concern everywhere she’s been, and there are concerns about rising suicide numbers among the farming and ranching community and the need for increased funding for rural mental health care providers that have a solid understanding of those ranching and farming communities.
“In Wallowa County there are approximately 22 positions at the hospital that can’t be filled due to the housing shortage, thus presenting the barrier of providing needed rural health care,” she said.
The rapid growth of the houseless population and a need for increases in funding for alcohol and drug treatment, temporary housing, mental health resources and workforce development are among the other concerns she’s heard.
Before losing her to ovarian cancer, Wildbill had asked her mother what the most important message of life was. “She said, ‘Do something for another person every day. And when you’re called to serve your community, you say yes,’” Wildbill said.
“My message is this concept of a global campaign for humanity. When we find ourselves complaining about the current status of our community in America, our politicians and our presidential candidates, we [should] hold up a mirror and look into that mirror and ask ourselves, ‘as citizens, what can we do for another person today?’ ...In 2020, $14 billion was spent on federal campaigns in America. If that funding had been broken out into donations to 50 states, that could have been $280 million per state that could have gone to local nonprofits providing meaningful resources,” Wildbill said.
On Mother’s Day, she woke up hearing her mother’s voice telling her she needed to get back in the race. “You need to get back in the race because you were originally called to serve. So get back in this race,” Wildbill recalled. As she pondered the words, the Beatles cued up on her Pandora radio feed. “It was ‘Come Together’ and my whole room filled with that song,” she said.
She’s running on faith and intention – saying she wants to represent growing human connection without being tied to money. If she gets on the ballot and is elected, she said she would vote on bills with a clear conscious and making decisions based on research and evaluation.
“People are saying there’s no way this can ever happen with no money,” Wildbill said. “Lots of things can
happen with no money. This is America!” she said.
All Wildbill needs now is 250 registered voters from Senate District 29 to rally to her message, attend the July 27 nominating convention she’s hosting and stay for the certification that will put her name on the November ballot.
“All registered District 29 parties and nonaffiliated are welcome to my nominating convention,” she said. “I’m not accepting campaign contributions. My platform is simple. As the Beatles sang, ‘it’s time to come together, right now,’” Wildbill said.
If she succeeds in getting on the ballot through a nominating convention, Wildbill said the feat will be a historical first – especially since these conventions aren’t done a lot.
“I had to make a choice of either getting 791 District 29 registered voter signatures or hold a convention and get 250 registered voters there at my nominating convention. You can’t do both,” Wildbill said. “It’s really a fascinating process and no candidate has ever been successful.”
The convention to nominate Wildbill as a non-affiliated candidate for District 29 Oregon State Senator will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Pendleton Convention Center, 1601 Westgate. Information about Wildbill, her qualifications and her campaign is available at www.votewildbill.com. Those planning to attend the nominating convention are requested to RSVP using the link on her homepage.
– Editor’s note: This article was written solely from a human interest viewpoint and is not intended as a political endorsement by the CTUIR government or the Confederated Umatilla Journal.
Did you know?
Cay-Uma-Wa Toastmasters close out successful year, elect new club officers
PENDLETON – The CayUma-Wa Toastmasters Club is closing out its fiscal year on a high note. Jan Taylor, club president, recently competed in the District 9 Spring Conference International Speech Contest that included toastmaster participants from Washington, Oregon, and western Idaho. Her speech, “Spiders in the Workplace,” was able to make the audience members’ skin crawl at all the right moments and land her a third-place finish.
The club is also celebrated being named a “Select Distinguished” club. This honor recognizes clubs that reach specific goals in professional development, leadership and membership growth. For the 2023-24 year, only seven clubs in District 9 earned that distinction or above. This achievement comes on the heels of the conclusion of the club’s Speechcraft public speaking series in which participants Gilberta Gottfriedson, Kellen Joseph, Leah Harris, Lindsey X. Watchman, Louis Halfmoon, Lynette Minthorn and Aqil Karhout graduated. Speechcraft is a crash-course style training program for public speaking techniques.
Looking forward for the 202425 fiscal year, the club elected a new slate of officers to be led by Holly Anderson as club president.
Outgoing president Jan Taylor will serve as vice president of education and sergeant at arms; Roy Jones was named vice president of public relations and club treasurer; and Michelle Bratlie is the new vice president of membership and club secretary.
The mission of the Cay-UmaWa Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment
in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster selfconfidence and personal growth. Meeting times are weekly on Wednesdays, from noon to 1p.m. in the Waluula conference room at the Nixyáawíí Governance Center and online via Zoom. Guests are always welcome. To learn more about Toastmasters, visit the club website at www.1089523. toastmastersclubs. org, talk to any of the club officers or drop by a meeting.
The City of Umatilla was first incorporated as Umatilla City in 1864 but was quickly disincorporated in 1866 due to the local citizens belief that a municipal government was unnecessary. The City was reincorporated 40 years later in 1906. https://www.umatilla-city.org/citycouncil/page/history
FREIGHT HAULING • STORAGE TANKS • FUEL
Cay-Uma-Wa 2024-2025 Club Officers Michelle Bratlie, Jan Taylor, Holly Anderson and Roy Jones. COURTESY PHOTO
Is intermittent fasting better than counting calories?
By JONEL ALECCIA
As weight-loss plans go, it’s easy to see the allure of intermittent fasting: Eat what you want, but only during certain windows of time — often just eight hours a day.
Instead of counting calories or measuring portions, dieters just have to pay attention to the clock, said Courtney Peterson, a nutrition researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“You have this really simple rule: Eat or don’t eat,” Peterson said.
The technique has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, becoming a leading trending topic on social media.
But does time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, really help people shed pounds and boost health?
Here’s what you need to know about the practice:
WHAT IS INTERMITTENT FASTING?
Intermittent fasting is a meal strategy where people switch between fasting and eating on a regular schedule, defined as at least 14 hours with no food, Peterson said. That can mean variations such as eating every other day, eating five days a week and then fasting for two days or limiting daily eating to certain hours.
Time-restricted eating, where people condense all of their eating into a daily window of 10 hours or less, is the most popular form of intermittent fasting. Diners will delay breakfast until 10 a.m. or noon and then eat dinner by 6 p.m. or 8 p.m., forgoing food the rest of the time.
HOW IS IT SUPPOSED TO HELP?
The theory behind time-restricted eating is that it supports the circadian rhythm, or the body’s internal clock. Spending more time in a fasting state may boost the body’s processes that govern blood sugar and fat metabolism, for instance, scientists say.
Early studies in mice starting in 2012 seemed to show health benefits from time-restricted eating. Small
studies in people with obesity suggested that the practice might help them lose weight and improve other health markers.
IS TIME-RESTRICTED EATING EFFECTIVE FOR WEIGHT LOSS?
Research has shown that people on time-restricted eating plans tend to eat fewer calories, which could explain weight loss.
Results from combined studies suggested that adults with obesity who limited their eating hours without focusing on calories naturally reduced their energy intake by 200 to 550 calories a day, losing 3% to 5% of their baseline body weight.
But a larger study of people observed over a longer period of time showed that the time restrictions alone might not matter.
A 2022 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine tracked 139 people with obesity for a year. Participants either followed a calorie-restricted diet during a certain time window or ate the same number of calories throughout the day. Both groups lost weight — 14 to 18 pounds on average — but there was no significant difference between the strategies.
“Our data right now suggests that time-restricted eating isn’t any better or worse than cutting calories,” Peterson said. Nor does the technique help burn more calories, she added.
Still, Peterson said, the simplicity of time restriction might be easier to maintain than a typical diet.
“Almost no one likes calorie counting,” she said.
IS INTERMITTENT FASTING SAFE?
Early clinical trials with eating windows of six to 10 hours found that time-restricted eating was “generally safe,” researchers reported in the journal Obesity.
But headline-grabbing research presented this year at an American Heart Association scientific session suggested that people following an eight-hour time-restricted diet had a much higher risk of death from
cardiovascular disease than those who ate over 12 to 16 hours.
That research hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal, noted Dr. Francisco LopezJimenez, of the Mayo Clinic.
But he said there is reason to be cautious. Longstanding evidence suggests that skipping breakfast may be linked to cardiovascular disease and death. People should check with their health care providers before they try restricted eating, especially if the fasting window lasts until midday.
“It’s a call for pausing before you just recommend a particular diet,” Lopez-Jimenez said.
Supreme Court sides with tribes in health care funding dispute
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes June 6 in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities.
The 5-4 decision means the government will cover millions in overhead costs that two tribes faced when they took over running their health care programs under a law meant to give Native Americans more local control.
Covering those costs is “necessary to prevent a funding gap,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, joined by the three liberal justices and fellow conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch. Not reimbursing them forces tribes to “pay a penalty for pursuing self-determination.”
The Department of Health and Human Services had argued it isn’t responsible for the overhead costs associated with billing insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.
Paying those costs for all tribes that run their own health care programs could total between $800 million and $2 billion per year, the agency said.
“The extra federal money that the Court today green-lights does not come free,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the dissent, which was joined by other conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett. “In my view, the court should leave those difficult appropriations decisions and tradeoffs to Congress.”
The federal Indian Health Service has provided tribal health care since the 1800s under treaty obligations, but the facilities are often inadequate and understaffed, the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona said in court documents.
Health care spending per person by the IHS is just one-third of federal spending in the rest of the country, the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming said in court documents. Native American tribal populations have an average life expectancy of about 65 years, nearly 11 years less than the U.S. as a whole.
Attorney Adam Unikowsky, who represented the Northern Arapaho Tribe, said the decision puts tribes on equal footing with IHS on health care and will “promote tribal sovereignty and provide resources for health care in under-served communities.”
The tribes contracted with IHS to run their own programs ranging from emergency services to substance-abuse treatment. The agency paid the tribes the money it would have spent to run those services, but the contract didn’t include the
overhead costs for billing insurance companies or Medicare and Medicaid, since other agencies handle it when the government is running the program.
The tribes, though, had to do the billing themselves. That cost the San Carlos Apache Tribe nearly $3 million in overhead over three years and the Northern Arapaho Tribe $1.5 million over a two-year period, they said. Two lower courts agreed with the tribes.
The Department of Health and Human Services appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that that tribes do get some money for overhead costs but the government isn’t responsible for costs associated with third-party income.
The majority of federally recognized tribes now contract with IHS to run at least part of their own health care programming.
The Supreme Court sided with Native American tribes June 6 in a dispute with the federal government over the cost of health care when tribes run programs in their own communities. Seated from left are Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito and Elena Kagan. Standing from left are Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. FRED SCHILLING | U.S. SUPREME COURT COLLECTION
Head Start program wraps up year
MISSION – Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start wrapped up a year of learning and fun with their latest parent engagement June 5 at Wildhorse Quaking Aspen bowling alley for an afternoon of “pins and pizza.”
Fueled on pizza and pop, 15 children were joined by parents and grandparents who enjoyed all they could eat and drink while racking up strikes, spares and lots of laughs.
“Our special thanks to our Head Start staff, the crew that assisted us, the cooks that kept our tummies full.
We can’t wait to return for another Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start family engagement,” said Early Childhood Service Program Manager Jory Spencer, adding they plan to do the event again during the next school year.
Head Start graduation rounded out the academic year June 13 with a graduation ceremony at Wildhorse Casino Resort.
The program will hold a twoweek summer session beginning July 15-26 for students who will attend
Pendleton Early Learning Center this fall.
“This will support their learning and strengthen their knowledge and skills for their transition to kindergarten and we will also have some fun,” Spencer said.
For enrollment or more information about Head Start, email CayUmaWaHeadStart@ctuir.org
Students and parents alike enjoy family engagement outings, such as bowling at Quaking Aspens Lanes.
Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start students wrap up the school year with a graduation ceremony June 13 at Wildhorse Resort & Casino. DALLAS DICK | RED ELK IMAGES
Campbell honored with orchestral achievement award
PENDLETON – A 2024 graduate of Pendleton High School and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation member was recently recognized with the National Arion Foundation Award in Orchestra.
Faylinn Joann Campbell, who has been in orchestra since the fourth grade and choir nearly as long, dedicated two days a week her senior year to teaching music to fourth and fifth graders at Pendleton’s elementary schools. She is looking forward to furthering her education in music and is enrolled at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, to start her music transfer degree.
The Arion Foundation Award is a national honor given to band members for outstanding achievement. The award can be given to junior or senior band members. For junior band members the award recognizes contributions to the band program, academic standing, performing ability and personal integrity. The recipient’s name is often inscribed on a plaque that’s displayed on the school’s wall. For senior band members the award recognizes musicianship, leadership, dedication to music and achievement. The recipient’s name is often inscribed on a brass plaque that’s displayed in the band room.
CTUIR presents flags to school district
ATHENA – Bright red Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) flags are now flying at each school in the Weston-McEwen district.
At the invitation of the Atina Club, WestonMcEwens’ Native American student group, CTUIR General Council (GC) members presented the schools with five flags - one for each pole in the district - during a June 6 ceremony in Athena.
“What’s the value of the flag to the school? Or schools? Well, it’s for citizenship for all. And it’s a reminder that all of this area, for many, many miles,
is the CTUIR homeland and we’re all being educated in that,” said GC Chairman Alan Crawford as he unfolded the first flag.
GC Secretary Martina Gordon explained the history and symbolism of the flag to the gathered crowd of students and teachers followed by a formal presentation of the flag to the school by GC Vice Chairman Michael R. Johnson.
According to the book, They are Not Forgotten, the settlement of Athena was known to the CTUIR as “Atina,” and means “away from the river.”
Emjia Alvarez
Alvarez
General Council Chairman Alan Crawford, left, and General Council Vice Chairman Michael R. Johnson, right,
present a Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation flag to the Athena Weston school district during a ceremony hosted by the school’s Atina Club June 6 at Weston-McEwen High School. LISA SNELL | CUJ PHOTO
CTUIR member attends West Point STEM camp
PENDLETON – Teegan Herrera, a 14-year-old Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) member, recently spent four days attending the 2024 West Point High School STEM Workshop at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.
The Pendleton High School freshman said he gained hands-on experience in science, technology, engineering and math while attending the workshop June 11-14.
He said the camp’s first day dealt with math as he and his team participated in a scavenger hunt that required solving math problems. The second day covered science and required his team to build a robot. The team also got hands-on work with chemicals and batteries.
“It was pretty fun. The third day we did technology and engineering and made a bigger robot,” Herrera said. “For engineering, we had to make a small bridge that had to hold a 20-pound weight. Our bridge held the 20-pound weight.”
The last day, he said his team created a computer game using coding that required math.
Herrera was one of 120 middle school and high school students selected to attend the four-day camp, according to Rise Above. He qualified for the camp by demonstrating his interest and skills in STEM through an essay and video, along with his
grades and transcripts.
Rise Above empowers Native youth to lead healthy lives despite challenges by delivering education, prevention skills and mentorship through programs tailored to their needs.
According to Rise Above, through its partnership with Amazon, West Point officials in 2023 traveled to Seattle to provide education related to STEM, coding and robotics to Rise Above students. West Point officials then extended an invitation for Rise Above students to apply to their STEM camp in West Point.
According to the West Point website, the Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM (CLDSTEM) organizes and runs the West Point STEM workshops. Each summer, middle and high school students from across the United States are invited to West Point for the workshop. The goal is to increase interest in STEM through inquirybased projects; develop and reinforce student science, math and problem-solving skills that are prerequisites to success in high school and college; and motivate students from under-resourced, geographical locations to aspire to pursue STEM courses in high school and envision themselves in STEM careers.
“I was thankful that I got the opportunity, and being chosen was a
gift,” Herrera said. “I feel like I could have a chance at going to West Point if I truly wanted to, but it was super fun, and I was just thankful Rise Above reached out and told me that the camp was happening… It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
While at West Point, he stayed in the campus barracks and shared a room with two other students. “It was fun. My bed was broken, but it was fun, and I made new friends.”
His favorite part of the camp was building a small, light-powered robot. “That was my first time ever actually making a robot, and we welded stuff for engineering, and I find that might be an opportunity when I’m older. Those were my favorites,” Herrera said.
He added that he favors engineering and technology over science and math. “I’m pretty good at building stuff like with the bridge at camp. That was engineering. Then the robot, that was sort of engineering. And I know a lot about technology. I can do stuff with computers.”
Herrera said his immediate plans involve attending Pendleton High School and playing football this fall for the Bucks. He said he hopes to get a football scholarship upon graduating, but if that doesn’t happen he either wants to attend a trade school before eventually opening a construction company or
go into welding. However, he’s also now considering the Army. He said if he got into West Point, he would attend.
For more information about the West Point STEM workshops, visit www.westpoint.edu. For more information about Rise Above, visit Rise Above – Be a Pro at Being You at www.nativeyouthriseabove.org.
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) member Teegan Herrera performs a STEM task during the 2024 West Point High School STEM Workshop in West Point, New York. Herrera was one of 120 students to attend the workshop June 11-14. RISE ABOVE | COURTESY
have dozens of jobs open each month. Work on the Reservation, remotely from your home, across the US or overseas.
In Memoriam
Christopher Hochhalter
July 23, 1968 – May 27, 2024
Christopher Hochhalter, 55, of Caldwell, Idaho, died Monday, May 27, 2024. Viewing was held June 20 at Flahiff Funeral Chapel, Caldwell, Idaho. Graveside service with military honors took place June 21 at Idaho State Veterans Cemetery, Boise, Idaho.
Rosaline Dawn Jones (Hines)
September 20, 1987 – June 2, 2024
Rosaline Dawn Jones (Hines), 36, of Lapwai, Idaho, passed away at home on June 2. Rosaline was born September 20, 1987 in Pendleton, Oregon.
Dressing and viewing ceremony was held June 6 at Burns Mortuary in Pendleton, followed by Washat at the Mission Longhouse. Final Seven was Friday morning, June 7 at the Longhouse and followed by interment at Agency Cemetery, Mission.
Eva Danielle Enright
September 8, 1972 – June 16, 2024
Eva Danielle Enright, 51, passed away June 16, 2024. She was born September 8, 1972 in Pendleton, Oregon. Viewing and funeral service was held June 20 at Burns Mortuary of Pendleton, followed by burial at Agency Cemetery, Mission.
FOOD
“We get a van loaded up with items prior to the start of the big drive-thru distribution so they can get them delivered before the end of the business day,” she said.
The Food Distribution program has no age restrictions, and vendors can currently supply enough food for one event a month.
“We provide one bag of items per family with a max of two bags per car,” Eickstaedt said. “They simply line up, and when they get to the person taking names on the clipboard, they give their name/enrollment number, and if they are picking up for one family or two our team of staff/volunteers get it loaded into the vehicle for them.”
Along with CRITFC, Food Distribution partners with Yakama Nation Farms, Val’s Veggies and Bob Walchli Melons for produce. For meat and fish, it collaborates with Tutuilla True Fish, Cayuse Beef & Cattle, Hines Meat and Wahl Family Farms.
The Tutuilla Food Sovereignty Center is at 46678 Tokti Road.
Redfern “Red” Mardel February 7, 1963 – June 3, 2024
Redfern “Red” Mardel passed away June 3, 2024. Red was born in Anaheim, California on February 7, 1963, to Ron and Joyce Mardel. He was a proud member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and is a descendant of Walla Walla Chief Jim Kanine. He graduated from Wapato High School, Class of 1981 and went on to play football at Central Washington University. He continued his love of sports playing with the legendary scalpers. He loved to play and watch sports, his favorite teams were the Mariners, Seahawks, and the Lakers. He grew up as an avid Star Wars fan and passed this interest on to his family, he would eventually have a granddaughter named Leia. He never missed Pendleton RoundUp, Let’er Buck! He loved to spend quality time with his children and draw with his granddaughter Leia. Red married Bernadine on March 12th, 1997, in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He worked for TiinMa logging for 29 years as a Heavy Equipment Operator. Red is survived by his loving familymother Joyce, and wife Bernadine, children Latonia, Garrick (Tanara), Jacob (Lakoma), and Jocelyn; granddaughter Princess Leia; siblings Rosebud Sr. (Bernie), Radcliff (Theresa); nieces and nephews Rondelle, J.D.- Disney, Dayton, Rosebud Jr., Alix -Kylo, Raveign, Christian, Nathaniel - Zeriah, Michael - Allister, Chase, and Makayla. Redfern is preceded by his dad Ron Mardel, grandparents Anthony and Lillian Hoptowit, and “bro” Jeff Strom.
CTUIR June 2024 Weather Report
Weather information summarizes data taken at the Pendleton Weather Station, Lat 45 40 N and Lon -118 51 W, from June 1 to June 27. Temperature is reported in degrees Fahrenheit, and time is in Pacific Standard Time.
The average daily temperature was 66.7 degrees, with a high of 95 degrees on June 22. With a low of 42 degrees on June 16. With a departure from normal of 2.7 degrees
Total precipitation in June was .51, with the greatest 24-hour average of .40 on June 2-3. Four days out of the month had precipitation levels greater than .01 inches, with three days greater than 0.10 inches, one day greater than 0.50”, and zero days greater than 1.00 inches. There was a departure of -.47” from the average for the month of June.
The average wind speed was 9.8 mph, with a sustained max speed of 35.0 mph from the West on June 11th. A peak speed of 44 mph occurred from the West on June 11. The dominant wind direction was from the West.
There were 0 Thunderstorms, 4 days out of 27 in which some rain fell, 0 Haze events/ days, and 2 Fog/Mist. Air Quality Index values remained Green/Healthy, no wildfire smoke events in June.
– Submitted by Caleb Minthorn, Air Quality Technician on behalf of CTUIR Department of Natural Resources’ Energy and Environmental Sciences Program
Join our team! We have dozens of jobs open, including:
Chief Finance Officer (Remote), Director of Recruiting (Remote), Senior Desktop Analyst (Remote), Strategic Planner (Remote), Tier 1.0 Helpdesk Specialist (OR), Director of Business Development (HI).
CTUIR Enrolled Members, please email jobs@cayusess.com and indicate you are a CTUIR citizen to be considered for current and upcoming jobs.
WRC JUNE
Employees of the Month
Supervisor of the Month:
Kristoffer Dalrymple, Security Lead Officer
“He is an amazing Lead Security Officer and has always been there for all of us employees. He also has funny jokes!”
- Nominated by Sierra Schmerber, Security
Employee of the Month: Jose “Tony” Madrigal, Player’s Club VIP Host
“Jose “Tony” Madrigal is a fantastic asset to Wildhorse and even more so to Club Wild. He is attentive to his players and is always patient with the frontline whenever assisting players or co-workers. He is always extremely kind and polite. Tony will not only work his regular week, but also come in or call to ensure his players are helped when he is not here. You can tell Tony truly cares for his job and does it well. Tony is the most asked for host and I have never heard anything but good things from his handling of players. We are very lucky to have him on our team.”
- Nominated by Hollie Whatley, Club Wild
Support Employee of the Month:
Trisha Dreyer, Multimedia Specialist
“The Wildhorse Mobile App has reached over 10,000 downloads!!! A month before our June 30th goal! While many people played a part in the app’s success, few contributed more than Trisha! Trisha dedicated herself to ensure that internal deadlines were hit prior to launch, which has added value to the app since its launch and continues to go above and beyond as we move into the next stage of our app strategy. Trisha’s work has helped elevate the guest experience at Wildhorse and the feedback we’ve received from guests, including VIPs, confirms her efforts have made a positive difference. She has accomplished this while doing excellent work in her other areas of responsibility and while taking on additional responsibilities, including assisting with the launch of the new Hamley’s website. Trisha represents the work ethic and dedication that should make Wildhorse proud, and I hope she will be recognized through an Employee of the Month acknowledgement. Thank you for considering.”
- Nominated by Colby Keeler, Marketing
Birthdays:
5th: Lisa Watson
8th: Jalissa Dave and Sherry Saunders
9th: Tabby Brigham, Jr. Bronson, Zelda Bronson, Isaac Van Pelt, Ramon Nunez and Hazel Quaempts
11th: Freeman Barrett
12th: Kendal Thompson-Red Elk
13th: Roger Barrett
17th: Dolores Gonzalez-Quaempts
18th: Mason Meyer
20th: Cassandra Franklin, Jalen Kash Kash and Kaylee Barrett
21st: Osias Edmiston
22nd: Sara Frater
24th: Jayden Minthorn
27th: DQ, Sr. and Breyon Minthorn
28th: Dakota McLaughlin
29th: Sherry Barrett Anderson
Anniversaries:
16th: Tracy & Val Viegener
20th: Terrie & Sheldon Price
26th: Cheryl & Gene Shippentower
Tracey French Billing Clerk Support Team
Jose Santos Boat Captain Government Team
Curtis Spendlove Data & Reporting Lead Commercial Team
Employee of the Month
Frontline
