Election Commission confirms 32 candidates for Nov. 4 ballot
STAFF REPORTS
MISSION – On Aug. 25, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Election Commission officially announced the 32 candidates who will appear on the Nov. 4 General Election ballot.
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order in each race with an (I) denoting an incumbent.
For the Board of Trustees (BOT) chair race, the candidates are N. Kathryn Brigham, Gary Burke(I), Lavona Herrera and Julie Taylor. In the race for the BOT vice chair, the candidates are Aaron Ashley(I) and David Wolf Jr.
BOT treasurer candidates are Andrea Hall, Raymond Huesties(I) and Rosenda Shippentower. BOT secretary candidates are Monica Paradise, Cedric Wildbill and Roberta Wilson(I).
For the BOT Member at Large race, in which the top four vote getters are named winners, the candidates are Lloyd Commander, Lisa Ganuelas(I), Jill-Marie Gavin, Steven Hart(I), Malvin Jamison III, Kyle McGuire, Toby Patrick(I), Crystal Pond, Derek Quaempts, Sierra Quaempts, Corinne Sams(I), Ellen Taylor and Nizhonia Toledo.
In the General Council chair race, the candidates are Alan Crawford(I), Kathleen Elliott and Lindsey X. Watchman. The General Council vice chair candidates are Michael Ray Johnson(I), Boots Pond and Donald Sampson. The lone General Council secretary candidate is Shawna Gavin.
SB 1011, CTUIR will begin the process of seeking the return of civil jurisdiction under a newly established state process. DANELI ATILANO/CUJ
SB 1011 creates legal process for tribes
DANELI ATILANO
The CUJ
SALEM — The Oregon Legislature has passed Senate Bill 1011, establishing a clear and consistent process for Tribal nations to request the return of jurisdiction over their lands. The bill aims to address long-standing issues caused by Public Law 83280, a federal statute that gave
certain states, including Oregon, authority to prosecute crimes and enforce civil laws in Indian Country without Tribal consent.
SB 1011 passed both chambers of the Legislature with bipartisan support and is now law. Tribal leaders, including the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), have hailed it as a major step forward for Tribal sovereignty.
“[SB 101] lays out a statutory pathway and includes a timeline by which the governor must respond to such a request,” said CTUIR Board of Trustees (BOT) member Corinne Sams, in her testimony in support of the bill during a House Committee on Emergency Management, General Government and Veterans meeting. “Neither sovereign
LEGAL CONTINUED PAGE 9
$22M given for CTUIR-back wildlife project
MISSION – A wildlife area project backed by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) has been awarded $22 million in federal funding.
Funded through the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program, the Qapqápa (pronounced copCOP-a) Wildlife Area State-Tribal Partnership Project will complete an acquisition of more than 11,400 acres with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) to protect and restore property separating the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest on the east and west side of the Blue Mountains near Starkey, Oregon.
“The project would not have been
possible without the diverse group of stakeholders that recognized the great value of our shared public lands and came together in support of the Qapqápa Wildlife Area,” said Anton Chiono, CTUIR Department of Natural Resources Habitat Conservation project leader.
“The name means ‘place of the big cottonwoods’ and refers to the tribes’ placename for the property. In a first ever for the State of Oregon, the tribes and ODFW will co-manage the new wildlife area for the benefit of all. This is a terrific example of what Oregonians can accomplish by working together.”
The Qapqápa property also has
locations historically used by the CTUIR and designated with place names in its Sahaptian languages. This includes the entrance to the property at the confluence of the Grande Ronde River and Beaver Creek, which is a traditional fishing spot known as Titlúupe Qapqápa.
In March, the CTUIR and ODFW jointly applied for the Forest Legacy Program funding. On July 31, the two entities learned that the project was one of 25 projects funded nationally. The Qapqápa Wildlife Area StateTribal Partnership Project calls for the state owning the property
WILDLIFE CONTINUED PAGE 9
Happy Canyon Princesses Q& A on Page 1 in B Section
The CTUIR Tribal Courtroom, part of the justice system built after the Tribe regained criminal jurisdiction in 1981. With the passage of
Two firefighters arrested at Bear Gulch fire in Wash.
STAFF REPORTS
Two firefighters working at the Bear Gulch fire on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula were arrested by federal immigration agents on Aug. 27 for being in the U.S. illegally, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The arrests, which took place during a wildfire response operation, have prompted outrage from local leaders and raised concerns about the intersection of immigration enforcement and firefighting efforts.
Michael Kerwin-Smith, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, was among those present. He described feeling racially profiled. “I’ve heard reports from other tribal members who had their IDs checked, but I didn’t think it would happen to me,” he said, calling the situation “a setup.” Kerwin-Smith said he was also concerned for his colleagues who were detained.
The federal agents held the firefighters for about three hours, preventing some from saying goodbye to their detained crew members. Some were also ordered to leave the fire site.
Federal agents from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Forest Service, and Border Patrol conducted an operation at a wildfire worksite.
According to CBP, the agents checked the identities of 44
crew members from privately contracted firefighting companies, and two individuals were arrested for being in the U.S. illegally.
The firefighters were working near Lake Cushman as part of the state’s largest active wildfire. While waiting for their division supervisor to arrive, the crew was approached by federal law enforcement agents in unmarked vehicles.
The agents asked the firefighters to line up for identity checks, a process many of them found unsettling.
The two arrested men were taken to a detention facility in Bellingham, Washington. Colin Fieman, a federal public defender in Western Washington, said his office had not been notified of
any criminal charges as of the afternoon of Aug. 28. Federal law requires detainees to appear before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.
CBP did not provide further details about the criminal investigation, leaving questions about whether the arrests were part of a broader investigation or solely related to immigration status.
The contractors involved in the operation, ASI Arden Solutions Inc. and Table Rock Forestry Inc., were informed that their workers had been removed from the fire operation.
Table Rock crew boss David Diaz said no members of his crew were detained, but he expressed concern over how the operation
was handled. Diaz said the remote location of the fire, where there was no cell service, made the situation difficult.
Diaz, whose company has a history of supporting migrant communities, said, “It could have happened in a more humane way.”
In response to the arrests, immigration advocacy groups have raised concerns about the legality of the operation.
Isa Peña, director of strategy for Innovation Law Lab, which represents one of the detained firefighters, called the arrest unlawful. Attorney Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega added that federal agents had concealed the location of their client, preventing contact with legal counsel or family.
Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove also criticized the arrests, calling them part of the Trump administration’s “inhumane” immigration enforcement policies.
“This is all occurring at a time when immigration enforcement stokes fear and mistrust among people, including firefighters putting their lives on the line,” Upthegrove said in a statement.
Border Patrol defended the operation, saying it was necessary to verify the identities of all personnel at the fire site. Chief Patrol Agent Rosario P. Vasquez said the operation was a way to ensure the “integrity of government operations.”
Federal law enforcement agents, including some with the U.S. Border Patrol, arrived at a site in Mason County on Wednesday afternoon to demand identification from private contracting crews fighting the Bear Gulch fire near Lake Cushman. COURTESY
Vote Julie Taylor for Chair –Board of Trustees
Experience. Vision. Dedication.
Julie Taylor isn’t just running for Chair of the Board of Trustees she’s answering a lifelong calling to serve, lead, and uplift the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
With over two decades of service, Julie brings unmatched experience, deep cultural knowledge, and a fierce commitment to our people. Her leadership is rooted in compassion, accountability, and a vision for a stronger, more united future.
Education
• Master of Social Work – Portland State University
• B.S. in Social Science, Minor in Native American Studies – Portland State University
• Associate of Arts – Blue Mountain Community College
Professional Experience
Director, CTUIR Department of Children and Family Services (2012 –Present)
• Led child welfare operations with integrity and innovation
• Built strong partnerships with federal, state, and tribal agencies
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.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & OTHER SUBMISSIONS TO: CUJ@ctuir.org
DEADLINE: 20th of the month prior to publication
The CUJ prints on the first Wednesday of each month and is distributed the first Thursday.
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
For more information or daily news, visit the CUJ online at: www.TheCUJ.org
LETTER to EDITOR
The opinions expressed are those of authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CUJ
Sampson gives support for Julie Taylor
It is with great enthusiasm and unwavering confidence that I endorse Julie Taylor as a candidate for Chair of the Board of Trustees. Julie is a visionary leader whose integrity, strategic insight, and deep commitment to service make her exceptionally wellsuited for this role.
I am urging all our fellow Tribal members to support Julie Taylor as the next Chair of the Board of Trustees. Julie has always put our community first –our youth, our elders, and all our people. She is educated and has worked as the Director of Children and Family Services for over 12 years. She has received national recognition as an advocate for our children and families. Last year she was recognized by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) as the 2024 Individual Champion for Native Children.
“I feel very honored and blessed. I think it was a lot for working with the children and families, and that’s rewarding,” she said. “I have very good staff who assist me daily, and of course, I enjoy the community’s and my family’s support that I receive to keep me working hard every day. It’s a real honor to get this award through NICWA. They’ve been my mentor ever since I started my MSW (master’s degree in social work) program when I went to school in Portland.”
According to NICWA, Taylor is receiving the award for being a dedicated leader within her community who exemplifies how culture and connectedness can translate to lifelong service.
“Julie has demonstrated outstanding behavior for decades in child welfare practice and personal habits, engaging in service to her people, foraging innovation and always striving to make the next best decision for future generations,” NICWA states.
According to the association, a nominee should be an exceptional or emerging leader, social worker, case manager or foster parent who has made significant contributions to the well-being of Indigenous children, families and communities in the United States or Canada.
“In her own tribe, Julie’s unwavering dedication to its well-being and development is evident. Within the CTUIR community, Taylor is recognized for her leadership, commitment, and strength in empowering others,” NICWA states. “Taylor’s extensive involvement in various committees and positive engagement with government agencies underlines her commitment.”
Over the years, I have had the privilege of working alongside Julie in various capacities, and I have consistently been impressed by
her ability to lead with both heart and intellect. She brings a rare combination of strategic thinking and empathetic leadership, promoting collaboration while driving meaningful progress. She previously served as a Board member and her tenure on the Board has been marked by thoughtful governance, transparent decision-making, and a tireless dedication to the values of our community.
Julie’s track record speaks volumes. She has championed initiatives that have strengthened our financial sustainability, expanded our community outreach, and enhanced our tribal culture.
As Chair, Julie will bring not only her wealth of experience but also her unwavering commitment to equity, innovation, and excellence. I am confident that under her leadership, the Board of Trustee will continue to thrive and evolve in ways that reflect the highest standards of stewardship and vision.
I wholeheartedly support Julie Taylor’s candidacy and urge you to consider her exceptional qualifications and proven leadership. She is the right person at the right time to guide our Board of Trustees and will listen to and respect the needs and hopes of our people.
Don
Sampson Tribal Member
Letter from Treasurer Huesties
Raymond Huesties CTUIR Board of Trustees
As I joined the Board of Trustees, one of my top priorities has been to ensure that financial literacy resources and financial tools are readily available to help our members and employees achieve their financial goals.
The board adopted a goal to support this initiative during our current term.
To that end, we provided resources to Nixyaawii Community Financial Services (NCFS) to support its lending program and promote financial education.
We have had numerous discussions centered on this objective. On Friday, August 22, our finance director and representatives from NCFS presented a financial literacy update and recommendations to the Board of Trustees.
The purpose was to strengthen efforts to help our members become financially successful and self-sufficient.
We were pleased with the progress NCFS has made and the types of services they now offer.
The presentation also reinforced some of the persistent obstacles that our members face—especially those related to land ownership and associated financial barriers.
Similar to our board’s priorities, the U.S. government has also
made financial literacy a national focus. In recent years, it has partnered with banks and other institutions to expand educational opportunities and financial tools for all Americans. Oregon has also taken steps forward—state law now requires financial literacy education in high schools.
These broader efforts have created more opportunities for NCFS and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) to improve services for our community.
Whether you are interested in financial planning, investing, buying or building a home, or simply learning how to better manage your money, there is a wealth of helpful information and support available today.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to visit NCFS—it’s a great place to start.
Tribal Administration is also planning to host educational events focused on financial and retirement planning.
These sessions will be provided by the Tribes’ investment consultants when they are here to meet with and report to the board.
I encourage both employees and Tribal members to attend these events when they’re announced.
Before joining the Board of Trustees as Treasurer, there was much I didn’t know about the internal operations of our Tribal government.
I am proud of the work our leadership and staff have done over the years to put the Tribes on a strong financial and economic foundation.
One of my goals is to ensure that all Tribal members have a clear understanding of how the Board of Trustees manages our financial resources.
I have asked staff to prepare a brief publication titled “Managing the CTUIR Finances” that explains how our resources are handled.
I believe this publication will help members provide meaningful input to the Board and answer many of the questions I’ve received since taking office. We plan to make it available in the near future.
Don Sampson – Vice Chairman of General Council “Rooted in Tradition. Rising for Tomorrow.”
A Voice for Sovereignty. A Vision for the Future.
Don Sampson has spent decades standing up for the rights, culture, and future of the CTUIR. As a respected leader, environmental advocate, and cultural protector, Don brings experience, wisdom, and unwavering dedication to our people.
Why Don Sampson?
Proven leadership in tribal governance and national advocacy – we need strong leadership and an articulate voice to protect our rights during this Trump administration
Champion for salmon restoration and environmental justice
Defender of treaty rights and tribal sovereignty
Committed to youth, education, and cultural revitalization
Visionary for clean energy, sustainable development, and economic prosperity
KAYAK Public Transit keeps rolling amid federal funding uncertainty
LUCAS HELLBERG East Oregonian
MISSION – Kayak Public Transit will keep its bus routes running as other Oregon public transit agencies cut service amid uncertainty over rural federal transit grants.
The cuts to some Oregon public transit services came after the Federal Transit Administration revised its master agreement for federal rural transit grants –known as Program 5311– in April. The new agreement requires grant recipients to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
The Oregon Department of Transportation, which distributes Oregon’s Program 5311 allocations to public transportation agencies, said it initially declined to sign the new agreement because it violated state law.
Oregon and nearly 20 other states filed a lawsuit in May to stop FTA from withholding the grant money, arguing that the new requirement is outside the FTA’s jurisdiction. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in June, preventing the FTA from withholding the federal grant money for now.
ODOT said it was then able to sign the grant agreement
because the preliminary injunction was granted.
ODOT spokesperson Jenny Cherrytree said no Program 5311 funding has been delayed or withheld as a result of the master agreement change.
According to ODOT, Kayak Public Transit – which is operated and owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation – receives Program 5311 funding. Kayak provides bus services in Hermiston and Milton-Freewater and other areas of Southeastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon.
CTUIR Planning Director Patricia Perry said Program 5311 is about 50% of Kayak’s budget. But Perry said she does not expect any route reductions in the next couple of years. She said Kayak, the largest public transit agency in Eastern Oregon, has other funding sources – such as grants from ODOT and Washington state – to help keep buses running.
Perry said Kayak might hold off its future expansion plans until the lawsuit over the grant money is resolved. She said those plans might include bus service between Hermiston and the Tri-Cities.
If cuts became necessary, Perry said Kayak would target the routes with the fewest riders.
Election Commission tab at https://ctuir.org under Committee/ Commissions.
A referendum question asking whether the tribe should move forward with selling alcohol (beer, wine, hard seltzer and hard cider) at Arrowhead Travel Plaza for offsite consumption will also be on the ballot.
The CTUIR General Election will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
In-person voting will be held in the Cayuse/Umatilla Room at the Nixyáawii Governance Center.
For those voting by absentee ballots, the deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 14.
Absentee ballot request forms will be available Sept. 12 and can be requested by emailing tec@ ctuir.org or going to the CTUIR
Absentee ballots will be mailed to voters Oct. 14 and must be mailed back to the Election Commission on or by 8 p.m. on Nov. 4 or dropped at the Nixyáawii Governance Center ballot box in the parking lot or inside by 8 p.m.
Election Commission members will send election results to the General Council on Wednesday, Nov. 5, and winners will be sworn into office on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
The Election Commission is comprised of Chairwoman Delise Guerrero, Vice Chairwoman Mariah Watchman, Secretary Tami Rochelle and Members Leilani Eustaquio, Clarice Huesties and Elfrina Lubrin.
For more information, call the Election Commission 541-2763165.
A KAYAK Public Transit employee inspects the outside of a KAYAK bus at the transit agency’s hub at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Nixyáawii Governance Center in Mission. CTUIR
Federal cuts force Cayuse to lay off staff
CHRIS AADLAND
The
CUJ
MISSION— Tribal entity Cayuse Holdings has laid off nearly 30 employees and lowered its projected revenue by 14% for 2025, citing federal spending cuts and stop-work orders that disrupted its contracts with U.S. agencies.
Cayuse CEO Randall Willis told the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) Board of Trustees (BOT) during a June 18 meeting that the company was forced to make budget cuts after under performing projections and facing delays in federal payments.
“We have had cuts, we have had layoffs,” Willis said.
The tribally owned business employs about 700 people, mostly working remotely. About 90% of its revenue comes from federal contracts providing services such as unexploded ordnance removal, IT support, and medical staffing.
Federal agencies—including the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State—have issued stop-work orders to Cayuse and other contractors as part of a broader effort to cut costs. Although work has resumed, Willis said payments have been delayed and in some
cases agencies are attempting to reclaim funds for completed work.
One of Cayuse’s largest contracts, providing IT help desk services to the BIA and Bureau of Indian Education, was cut in half after its stop-work order expired.
Cayuse had originally projected $139.5 million in revenue and $2.2 million in profit. Last year, the company brought in just under $115 million and posted a $1.5 million loss. It now hopes to generate between $120 million this year, with little or no profit. Worst-case scenario earnings could be as low as $100 million.
“We’ve basically decided that we have to readjust,” Willis said. “In order to try and deliver to get back to the black and reduce [or] eliminate another loss, even given what’s going on, we have to cut costs.”
Initial cost-cutting efforts included reductions in travel and equipment upgrades. In March, Cayuse terminated about nine underperforming employees, followed by layoffs of 20 higherperforming staff in June. No CTUIR tribal members were among those cut.
Even after the layoffs, Cayuse projected a $700,000 loss. However, Willis said the cuts give the company time to see how many of its 28 pending contract bids—historically awarded at a
33% rate—it might win.
“It buys us time,” Willis said. “The goal at this point is just to be black on the net income line, and that’ll be a significant improvement over last year’s profitability, but it’s not where I wanted to be.”
Willis said another round of layoffs affecting 10 more employees could occur if new contracts are not awarded soon.
BOT Concerns Over Federal Reliance
The layoffs and lowered revenue projections raised concerns among BOT members, some of whom have been critical of Cayuse’s performance in recent years.
“We’ve struggled with this company for several years,” said BOT member Corinne Sams. “It’s difficult to see a path forward with what was presented today.”
Cayuse previously defaulted on a line of credit and posted multiple years of poor financial results, which led the CTUIR to provide a $10 million bailout. After CEO Billy Nerenberg was removed last fall, the company hired Willis to lead a turnaround effort.
Willis said Cayuse has since repaid the $10 million but did so by drawing on new credit lines with Wells Fargo. The tribe is the guarantor for up to $10 million of that new debt, tribal attorney Dan
Hester told the BOT in June.
Although Cayuse has stabilized its finances and secured up to $35 million in credit, some BOT members expressed concern over the company’s heavy reliance on federal contracting and the unpredictable nature of federal budgeting.
Looking Ahead
Willis told the BOT that Cayuse is also working to diversify its client base. He said the company has had success with contracts from local and state governments and commercial entities, where profit margins are higher.
Still, he acknowledged that Cayuse’s situation remains challenging.
“When you lay it out and look at the numbers and you look at the plan versus where we are, it looks like it’s bad news,” Willis said. “But we’re in good shape.”
He said Cayuse remains committed to becoming a $500 million to $1 billion company within the next decade and that the business has a strong foundation.
“I think the real story here is we have strong fundamentals. We have a good management team,” he said. “We could be stronger, and time will get us there. We’re making the decisions that we need to make sure that this is a viable, forever company for the tribe.”
Sams named YCEJ Indigenous program inaugural director
YALE SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Charles “Chuck” Sams understands, better than most what it means to break new ground. An enrolled member of the Cayuse and Walla Walla of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), Sams made history in 2021 when he became the first Native American to serve as director of the National Park Service. During his tenure, he championed initiatives aimed at supporting the well-being of NPS employees, increasing climate resilience, and expanding Tribal co-management of public lands. This summer, Sams broke ground again when he joined the Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ) as its inaugural director of Indigenous Programs. There, he will lead the center’s efforts to advance Indigenous governance, sovereignty and knowledge systems with an emphasis on building climate resilience. He also will co-teach a course on Public Lands and Native Rights.
Sams recently spoke with YSE News about the history and importance of Tribal comanagement of public lands, his plans for expanding YCEJ’s Indigenous programs, and what brings him joy in his work.
Q: What made you decide to join the center in a more permanent role?
I thought it was a great opportunity to continue some of the work that I've been doing over the last nearly 30 years on how to work with Tribal nations on natural resource management, and more particularly, on co-stewarding and co-managing public lands. Many Tribes and Tribal Nations across the U.S. reserved rights to usual and accustom places, mostly through treaty and executive orders, and, therefore, have the right to collect, hunt, fish, and gather natural resources there. A number of court cases over the past 200 years have reaffirmed that, and, yet there is a large gap of knowledge about implementation. I saw that firsthand as director of the National Park Service.
Q: What are some of the successful examples, or models, for expanding or strengthening Tribal co-management of public lands that you’ll be examining?
At Yale, we'll be exploring a number of these models. In the Pacific Northwest, there is the co-management of salmon in the Columbia River Basin. The longest-running court case, U.S. v. Oregon, is still open after 50 years to ensure that Tribes have that comanagement equivalency (with the federal and state government). This is important because salmon are a central aspect of Tribal life for Tribes here in the Columbia River and the Columbia Plateau.
We also will look at comanagement down in the Everglades with the Miccosukee and the Seminole Tribes, and how it was so important to them that, when the Everglades became a national park, it was written into the legislation itself that the Tribes had the right to not only go into their usual custom
places to live, camp, and gather plants and animals, but also to co-manage the species there, so that they would continue to be present on the landscape. We’ll also consider opportunities for co-management at Acadia National Park in Maine and what the Wabanaki people there are doing to ensure the propagation of sweet grass. There was initially a fear, even among NPS staff, that the Tribal ways of practice would lessen the propagation. Through shared experiences, they found that through co-
world and a changing climate.
Q: There’s an emphasis on environmental joy at YCEJ. It’s the overarching theme of the center’s annual conference and central to its mission. What has brought you joy or a renewed sense of hope in your work recently?
The outdoors always brings me joy. My wife will tell you, if you can get me up in the mountains or on the river, out from behind my desk, I will always find joy because being in the natural world, taking your boots off, and putting your feet in the river, just touching
management equivalency (with the federal and state government). This is important because salmon are a central aspect of Tribal life for Tribes here in the Columbia River and the Columbia Plateau. We also will look at comanagement down in the Everglades with the Miccosukee and the Seminole Tribes, and how it was so important to them that, when the Everglades became a national park, it was written into the legislation itself that the Tribes had the right to not only go into their usual custom places to live, camp, and gather plants and animals, but also to co-manage the species there, so that they would continue to be present on the landscape. We’ll also consider opportunities for co-management at Acadia National Park in Maine and what the Wabanaki people there are doing to ensure the propagation of sweet grass. There was initially a fear, even among NPS staff, that the Tribal ways of practice would lessen the propagation. Through shared experiences,
large part, to the education gap in our school systems. When we don't teach that, then people forget about that responsibility that we have as Americans to fulfill trust obligations. Beyond that, I'm just very honored and excited to be asked to join the Center for Environmental Justice at Yale. I’m really looking forward to working with faculty at the School of the Environment and across Yale, and particularly with motivated students who want to dig into this information and learn. It’s an incredible opportunity to train and educate the next generation of stewards to go out and tackle these huge issues that we face as human beings, such as how we are going to mitigate and adapt to a changing
Chuck Sams (center) pictured with Native American staff of the National Park Service in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. TONY DEYOUNG
LEGAL
should have to rely on an ad hoc and undefined process.”
M. Brent Leonhard, CTUIR Office of Legal Counsel attorney, said Oregon’s prior approach to Tribal retrocession was unpredictable. “…there was no established state process— everything was handled ad hoc,” he said.
Public Law 280 was passed in 1953 during the Termination Era, when the U.S. government sought to dissolve Tribal governments and diminish Tribal rights. The law required states to assume jurisdiction over crimes and civil matters on reservations, with no additional funding and little input from Tribes. Oregon applied PL-280 to every Tribe in the state except the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
CTUIR was the first Tribe
WILDLIFE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 and providing operation and maintenance expenses while the management and restoration will be undertaken jointly with the CTUIR.
The co-management arrangement includes:
• A plan focusing on CTUIR’s First Foods such as water, salmon, roots and berries;
• Joint fisheries restoration projects;
in Oregon to regain criminal jurisdiction under PL-280. In 1980, Governor Vic Atiyeh issued Executive Order 80-8 to retrocede the state’s criminal jurisdiction over the Umatilla Indian Reservation, following a formal request by the CTUIR in 1979. The federal government accepted the retrocession in early 1981.
Since then, CTUIR has built a comprehensive justice system, including a Tribal court and a police department. CTUIR now exercises the broadest possible criminal jurisdiction under existing law, including limited authority over certain non-Indian offenders under the Violence Against Women Acts (VAWA) of 2013 and 2021.
Despite that progress, Oregon had no defined process for other Tribes to request retrocession. Leonhard said overlapping authority often caused problems.
“There are lots of issues when multiple jurisdictions try to
• Sharing staff resources for restoration and monitoring; and
• Public and tribal use of the property.
The project will also protect, restore and provide access to 5.6 miles of the Grande Ronde River, 6 miles of Beaver Creek and many miles of smaller perennial and intermittent streams.
Threatened spring Chinook salmon, summer steelhead and bull trout use the Grande Ronde River and Beaver Creek for spawning, rearing and migration. The Qapqápa property is adjacent to existing restoration projects,
handle the same incident,” he said.
CTUIR’s push for SB 1011 began in 2023, when the BOT directed staff to pursue civil retrocession.
Leonhard, along with CTUIR Tribal Court Director Matt Johnson and CTUIR Communications Director Kaeleen McGuire, led the effort. Leonhard said the lack of a defined state process and the complexity of developing a Tribal probate code made it clear that legislation was necessary.
“Rather than pursuing retrocession through another ad hoc process, we determined that clearly defined procedures and timelines were essential,” said Leonhard.
He and fellow CTUIR attorney Martha Izenson drafted a bill that would establish clear procedures and timelines, while preserving the Governor’s constitutional authority.
The draft was vetted with the Governor’s Office, other Oregon
and the ODFW and CTUIR will continue to jointly implement aquatic restoration plans to protect and improve aquatic habitat on the property.
The property is located within the CTUIR’s 6.4-million-acre aboriginal title lands, but has been in private ownership, which has prevented public access or tribal use. The project will restore access to the 11,438-acre property, improve access to over 1 million acres of public land by connecting two national forest tracts to the north and south, and
Tribes and the Legislative Commission on Indian Services. With support from newly elected legislators, the bill became SB 1011 and passed unanimously in both chambers. The bill also includes provisions for restored Tribes, those whose federal recognition was terminated and later reinstated, ensuring they can access the same process.
Leonhard said CTUIR expects to complete a draft probate code by October and will send a letter to the Governor requesting retrocession of PL-280 civil jurisdiction after completing the CTUIR internal approval process. If approved, the request would be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“We have been keeping the USDOJ Office of Tribal Justice aware of our efforts, so they are ready when the request comes. I will continue to keep them apprised of developments as things move forward,” said Leonhard.
open access to 94 acres of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land that are landlocked by the property.
With the funding officially announced, the CTUIR and ODFW are working to finalize the property’s appraisal with the goal of closing on it by 2026. CTUIR staff will work with ODFW on the co-management pact in the coming months and present the project to the Oregon Fish & Wildlife Commission later this year.
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St. Anthony Hospital presents
Pride in Patriotism
A Fred L. Mitchell Collection of Patriotic Beadwork
This exquisite beadwork collection illustrates the deep patriotic pride of Tribal Plateau people who have disproportionately high rates of Armed Forces enlistment dating back to World War I through today. The creativity, artistry, and diversity in each of the beaded bags, vests, and gauntlets will impress and engage you.
Miccosukee Tribe helps halt immigration center
STAFF REPORTS
FLORIDA—The Miccosukee Tribe is playing a key role in a legal victory that has brought operations to a halt at a controversial immigration detention center deep in the Florida Everglades, a site environmental advocates have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The federally recognized Florida tribe joined environmental groups in a lawsuit that successfully argued the state of Florida and federal agencies failed to follow environmental laws before constructing the facility in sensitive wetland habitat.
On Aug. 28, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams upheld her earlier order requiring the state to wind down operations at the site indefinitely.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve had to fight for our land and rights,” Miccosukee Tribe Chairman Talbert Cypress said in a statement. “We will always stand up for our culture, our sovereignty, and for the Everglades.”
The detention center, located on a remote former training airport in the Everglades, opened July 1 and was designed to eventually hold up to 3,000 people. Florida rushed to build it in a matter of days, surrounding large white tents and rows of bunk beds with chain-link fencing.
But from the beginning, it faced criticism for alleged unsanitary conditions, lack of legal access for detainees, and its placement in an environmentally sensitive area that has been the focus of decades of federal and state restoration efforts.
The Miccosukee Tribe’s attorney Chris Ajizian told the court that neither the state nor federal government notified the tribe of the plan to build a detention facility—despite legal obligations to do so and the tribe’s deep historical and cultural connection to the Everglades.
“It is the life blood of their community, their history and their identity,” Ajizian said during the court’s August hearings, according to reporting from The Associated Press.
The tribe’s legal efforts contributed to Judge Williams’ Aug. 21 preliminary injunction, which blocked the state from bringing new detainees to the facility and ordered Florida to prepare to shut it down completely. The judge cited the government’s failure to conduct a required environmental review under federal law.
“What is apparent, however, is that in their haste to construct the detention camp, the state did not consider alternative locations,” Williams wrote.
According to the AP, the judge’s ruling allows the state to continue limited maintenance and safety measures while requiring the removal of fencing, lighting and generators once the detainees are transferred elsewhere. She also noted that every Florida governor for the past 75 years has pledged support for Everglades conservation.
“This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements
of legislation designed to fulfill those promises,” Williams wrote in her 82-page ruling.
Florida officials estimate that halting operations will cost the state between $15 million and $20 million immediately, with another $15 million to $20 million needed to restart the facility if allowed.
The state has already invested more than $218 million in construction and at least $245 million for operations.
An AP analysis of public spending data shows Florida has signed more than $405 million in vendor contracts connected to the project.
Environmental activists monitoring the site say equipment is already being removed. Jessica Namath, who has watched operations from the outside for weeks, said she has seen tent frames being hauled away, though FEMA trailers and portable bathrooms remain.
“It definitely seems like they have been winding down operations,” Namath told the AP.
The federal Department of Homeland Security said it is complying with the court order and relocating detainees, though it has not disclosed how many people remain at the site.
Miccosukee leadership, environmental groups and civil rights organizations have all argued that the facility threatens endangered species and risks
undoing years of Everglades restoration. Witnesses testified in court that over 20 acres of asphalt were added to the site, potentially increasing chemical runoff into surrounding wetlands and reducing habitat for species like the Florida panther.
The detention center is also facing a separate lawsuit over alleged civil rights violations, including claims that detainees were denied access to attorneys, held without formal charges and unable to attend bond hearings.
“We will always stand up for our culture, our sovereignty, and for the Everglades.”
A third lawsuit describes “severe problems” at the facility that are “previously unheard-of in the immigration system,” according to the AP.
Despite the mounting legal challenges, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is reportedly preparing to open a second immigration detention center at a state prison in North Florida.
His spokesperson responded to the injunction with a statement: “The deportations will continue until morale improves.”
As the legal battles continue, the Miccosukee Tribe’s stance remains firm.
Their message is clear: the Everglades are not a place for mass detention, and tribal sovereignty and environmental law must be respected.
Portions of
include reporting by The
this article
Associated Press.
Workers install a sign reading "Alligator Alcatraz" at the entrance to a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, as large fencing panels are unloaded from a nearby flatbed, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. REBECCA BLACKWELL/AP
President Donald Trump tours "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, on July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. EVAN VUCCI/AP
WSU team unlocks biological process behind coho die-offs
SHAWN VESTAL
WSU News & Media Relations
For years, scientists at Washington State University’s (WSU) Puyallup Research & Extension Center have been working to untangle a mystery: Why do coho salmon in Puget Sound creeks seem to suffocate after rainstorms — rising to the surface, gaping and swimming in circles before dying?
In 2018, the die-offs were linked to bits of car tires shed by friction and washed into the stormwater runoff. In 2020, researchers zeroed in on one particular chemical culprit, a tire preservative known as 6PPD.
Now, research led by WSU
Ph.D. student Stephanie I. Blair has established the biological mechanism for how that toxin kills the fish, laying the groundwork for tests to find an alternative to 6PPD.
When 6PPD interacts with ozone, it becomes a toxic chemical known as 6PPD-quinone.
Blair, working with a team from WSU and the University of Washington, demonstrated that 6PPD-quinone breaches the cellular walls that protect the brain and vascular system, known as the blood-brain barrier and the blood-gill barrier, causing oxygen deprivation.
“Prior to publication of this study nobody really knew what the event was that drove what they call ‘coho urban runoff mortality syndrome,’” said Blair, the lead author of the paper published in the journal Environmental
Science & Technology. “This is the first paper that gives a clear answer as to what’s happening.”
Understanding this makes it possible to design tests for potential alternatives to 6PPD, which is in virtually every automobile tire.
The need for an alternative is growing with concerns over the environmental impact of the chemical. Studies are increasingly showing that, while coho are one of the most sensitive to 6PPDquinone, it is also toxic for other fish and mammals, with possible effects on human health.
“We need those tools to be available so we can start screening for alternatives to 6PPD,” Blair said. “This tells us how to evaluate a potential substitute.”
Blair is in the home stretch of her Ph.D. program at WSU. She is also working as an environmental
toxicologist for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation.
An enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, she also uses her Ojibwe name, Negonnekodoqua.
Co-authors on the paper included Jenifer McIntyre, an associate professor of aquatic toxicology whose lab at the WSU Puyallup Research & Extension Center has been at the forefront of this issue.
McIntyre works closely with collaborators at UW and the U.S. Geological Survey Western Fisheries Research Center to understand the harmful impacts of 6PPD-quinone and work towards a replacement for 6PPD.
Coho, or silver salmon, are an iconic Northwest species. Born in freshwater streams, they swim hundreds of miles to the ocean, where they spend most of their
lives. A tiny percentage make the arduous journey back upstream to spawn before dying.
Several coho populations are listed as threatened or endangered, which has implications for the environment, economy, politics and treaty fishing rights of Northwest tribes.
Blair, who began working in the lab in 2018, has focused on trying to understand the cardiovascular response behind the die-offs.
In lab experiments on fish exposed to stormwater runoff, she and McIntyre used fluorescent markers to demonstrate there were certain points at the bloodbrain and blood-gill barriers that were “leaky” — something was crossing through the cardiovascular firewall.
They suspected that 6PPDquinone was the cause, and the current paper confirms it. Researchers exposed fish to runoff collected from a state highway near Tacoma and, separately, to concentrations of 6PDD-quinone typical for a runoff event.
Fish exposed to both exhibited the behaviors associated with the die-offs, and subsequent examinations showed substantial disruption of the brain-blood and gill-blood barriers.
“Every single time the coho show the surfacing symptoms and the loss of equilibrium, it always has blood-gill and blood-brain barrier disruption,” Blair said. “You will always find that. Every single time you have a sick fish from exposure to 6PPD-quinone, this is very causally linked.”
Ruling could lead to more wolf protections in Oregon, Wash.
Nothing changes for now, but a federal judge has asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
COURTNEY SHERWOOD OPB
Advocates for gray wolves won a partial victory in court on Aug. 5. Federal officials violated the Endangered Species Act when they determined these predators don’t warrant protections in parts of six states in the inland West, Judge Donald W. Molloy with the U.S. District Court of Montana ruled.
The decision includes wolves in parts of eastern Oregon and Washington.
Molloy is sending the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service back to the drawing board to take a closer look at the science and politics behind its decision last year to deny the animals extra federal protections.
Until the agency completes additional work, the status of the gray wolf in Eastern Oregon remains in flux: It’s not presently protected. Fish and Wildlife officials could grant it Endangered Species Act protections, or they could present new evidence bolstering their original ruling. It’s the latest volley in a battle
"Today’s ruling is an incredible victory for wolves. At a time where their numbers are being driven down to near extinction levels, this decision is a vital lifeline.”
over wolf protections that over the past 16 years has involved numerous court rulings, federal decisions and even an act of Congress.
“Today’s ruling is an incredible victory for wolves. At a time where their numbers are being driven down to near extinction levels, this decision is a vital lifeline,” Brooks Fahy, executive director of Eugene-based advocacy group Predator Defense, said in a statement.
While environmental advocates celebrated the decision, many ranchers east of the Cascades and in the Rocky Mountains worry that stronger protections for gray wolves could make it harder to keep their livestock safe. And U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, is pushing to strip Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves nationwide.
For now, the status quo continues: Wolves in Western Oregon and Washington, as well as most of the United States, are protected. And in the region affected by the Aug. 5 ruling –
which includes Eastern Oregon – wolves are still not federally protected, though Oregon law does limit how and when these animals can legally be killed.
Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must revisit its decision.
Judge Molloy noted that the agency did not consider changes to state laws in Montana and Idaho that would make it easier to kill wolves if protections are lifted there, and said Fish and Wildlife staff had not applied the best available science or an understanding of the animal’s historic range. It’s not clear how long that new review might take.
Millions of gray wolves once roamed North America, but by the mid-20th century, these massive predatory pack animals had been nearly wiped out as a result of hunting and predator control programs. The push to bring them back started with the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and remote areas of central Idaho in 1995.
As populations grew, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted
gray wolves from endangered species protections in the Northern Rockies region. After environmentalists successfully sued to bring the protections back, federal lawmakers overruled the court in 2011.
Nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife says that’s the only time Congress has removed an animal from the Endangered Species List.
Oregon had not seen any wolves for nearly six decades when a lone gray wolf wandered into the state from Idaho in 1999. M ore wolves naturally migrated over time, establishing new packs. State wildlife officials were aware of 14 gray wolves in the state in 2009. By last year, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife was aware of more than 200 wolves across the state, 49 living west of the Cascades and 155 to the east. The Aug. 5 court ruling is part of a long-running saga.
As gray wolves have returned, so has controversy and concern in the areas where their populations have seen the biggest surge.
Last year, people killed 26 wolves in the state — 14 because they had preyed on livestock, one through a motor vehicle crash, and six unlawfully. One additional killing is still under investigation.
Stephanie Blair, a PhD student at WSU's Puyallup Research & Extension Center, works in the lab on a study examining the causes of coho salmon die-offs in Puget Sound area streams. JASON BERG/WASHINGTON STORMWATER CENTER
ODFW’s list of species at risk surpasses 300 since 2016
Oregon Captial Chronicle
More than 320 species of plants and animals living in Oregon are in need of greater protection, according to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, up from 294 about a decade ago, the last time the agency updated its State Wildlife Action Plan.
The 2026 plan, adopted by the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission on Aug. 15, outlines what the state’s conservation priorities should be to maintain healthy fish and wildlife populations. The last time it was updated was in 2016. Since then, 27 species were added, including porcupines, Western grebe, California condors and sea otters. For a full list, visit https:// oregonconservationstrategy.org/ ocs-strategy-species.
States must update their wildlife action plans every 10 years to qualify for federal and tribal wildlife grants. Oregon’s fish and wildlife agency has until October to submit their updated plan to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for approval.
Despite being billed as an action plan, the state fish and wildlife department does not get consistent, dedicating funding to undertake conservation and species protection work.
Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill that would have increased the state’s transient
lodging tax from 1.5% to 2.5% to ensure regular and robust funding for wildlife conservation programs meant to address the needs of species on the state’s list. The bill passed the Oregon House, but it died upon adjournment before it could reach the Senate. To learn more about the State Wildlife Action Plan, visit the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife website at https://dfw. state.or.us.
“Oregon is home to some of the most iconic wildlife in the country, from puffins to pika, salmon to sand hill cranes,”
Oregon Wild Wildlife Program Manager Danielle Moser said in a statement, “but our wildlife is facing a very real extinction crisis. Without dedicated funding, Oregon’s conservation plan is just words on paper.”
Oregon is fifth among states with the highest number of at-risk animals in the U.S., according to a 2023 report by Virginia-based nonprofit conservation group NatureServe. More than half of Oregon’s amphibian species, 10% of the state’s bird species and 20% of all reptile species are already in decline.
Meanwhile, federal support for conservation is facing cuts.
Trump officials have proposed cutting U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s 2026 budget by $170 million, and proposed rolling back species protections enshrined under the Endangered Species Act.
A researcher holds a hatchery juvenile spring Chinook salmon in Oregon. MIA MALDONADO/OREGON CAPITAL CHRONICLE
Lavadour’s ‘Land of Origin’ exhibit at Schnitzer Museum
STAFF REPORTS
EUGENE – A career retrospective of artist and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) member James Lavadour is on display at the University of Oregon’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene.
“James Lavadour: Land of Origin” includes painting and printmaking and spans more than 40 years of Lavadour’s art, celebrating his status as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most original and powerful painters. The art and its accompanying catalog highlight his connection to the Blue Mountains region of northeastern Oregon, where he has spent most of his life.
The museum announced the exhibition opened Aug. 9 and will be on view until Jan. 11, 2026, before traveling to additional museums in the western United States thanks to a partnership with Art Bridges.
Lavadour’s work expresses the vibrancy of the land and sky he observes daily without seeking to be a literal representation of it.
“Lavadour’s studio practice demonstrates his deep connection to the land and his understanding of his place in it,” said Danielle Knapp, JSMA’s McCosh Curator and curator of the exhibition.
“The opportunity to view works from different periods of his art-making, especially works that have never previously been exhibited together, reveals how
“Lavadour’s
Lavadour’s approach to painting evolved over the course of his career.”
The exhibition focuses on Lavadour’s painting, particularly the multi-panel grids he began exhibiting in the late 1980s, according to a JSMA press release, calling these works “utterly original and viscerally convincing” and “a unique contribution to contemporary art.”
Two of Lavadour’s newest grids,
both from 2024, “Lucky Star” and “Bold as Love,” also debuted in the exhibition.
Lavadour has been a full-time artist since the 1980s and attained his first major museum exhibition in 1990. Soon after, he co-founded Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts on the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, a nonprofit center that provides printmaking facilities and training in traditional Indigenous art forms.
The painter was a part of the exhibition “Personal Structures” during the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, and he was awarded a Hallie Ford Fellowship in 2019.
The art of Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) member James Lavadour features over 30 paintings and prints from various private and public collections and the artist’s studio. Based in Pendleton, Lavadour makes work that expresses the land and sky of the CTUIR homelands. JORDAN SCHNITZER MUSEUM OF ART
“Picturing Family” exhibit honored with national award at TCI
DANELI ATILANO
The CUJ
WALLA WALLA—A Whitman College exhibition that brought together historical family photographs and contemporary artwork from descendants of the Métis community in the Walla Walla Valley has earned national recognition from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).
The exhibition, “Picturing Family: Métis Life in the Walla Walla Valley,” received a 2024 AASLH Award of Excellence. The awards, now in their 80th year, are a prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.
The Picturing Family exhibit brought together early 20thcentury family photographs of the mixed Indigenous and French-Canadian population of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with contemporary art created or collected by their descendants. It was shown at Whitman College’s Sheehan Gallery from September to December 2024 and at Tamástslikt Cultural Institute from February to May 2025. Sarah Hurlburt, professor of French at Whitman College and project lead, said the exhibit is “the latest chapter in an ongoing collaboration to document and preserve CTUIR Métis family photos.”
The digital collection, titled “Métis Families of the Columbia River Plateau”, is hosted by the Whitman College and Northwest Archives. It began with materials from CTUIR member Joey Lavadour, who has spent a lifetime gathering and sharing
family photographs and stories. The project has since expanded to include contributions from several other descendants, including Dave Lavadour and local historian Sam Pambrun.
Unlike traditional archival methods that required donors to give up ownership and copyright, this project follows a post-custodial model, which allows families to retain their original materials while sharing digitized versions online. “The Métis Families collection is the first example of this practice at Whitman College,” Hurlburt said.
The archive began in 2022 when Joey Lavadour contributed an initial set of 169 photographs. Since the exhibit’s launch, four additional family albums have been shared, and the collection is expected to grow to approximately 2,000 images once cataloging is complete.
Hurlburt emphasized that the collection is shared freely. “We are not purchasing the photos. Our grant money is needed to pay for
and
does not endorse specific candidates or constitutional amendments that may be on the ballot in CTUIR elections.
No political advertising for candidates will be accepted until the official filing period is completed and candidates are certified as official by the CTUIR Election Commission
All political advertising will comply with Section 5.01 of the CTUIR Election Code and all other applicable laws. It is the responsibility of the candidate to ensure political advertisements are compliant.
Payment for political advertising will only be accepted from individual candidates , or their campaign accounts, for the elected position they are seeking. Third parties are not allowed to pay. In the case of a constitutional amendment on the ballot, any person or entity shall be entitled to place an ad regarding the constitutional amendment.
The CUJ will not accommodate specific placement requests for advertising. Political advertisements will appear in the newspaper with consideration for color and design standards. Individual candidates will not be allowed to reserve prime space separate from other candidates, or advertise on the front page of the newspaper. The CUJ editor will have sole discretion on placement of ads with consideration for quality of print and ease of design to aid readers in effectively navigating information. No can didate or ballot initiative will be allowed to purchase all available space in a such a way that it excludes other candidates or ballot initiatives from advertising in a fair manner.
Advertising must adhere to standard CUJ ad dimensions published on the CUJ rate card.
CUJ staff will not create, modify, update or change political advertisements. Political advertisements MUST be created by the candidate or the candidate’s campaign.
Political advertisements must be submitted by deadline and prepaid. No excepti ons. Candidates are responsible for ensuring advertisements are submitted and paid for on time. Special circumstances will not be considered and no advertising will be allowed after deadline.
Without exception, political advertisements must be submitted paid, and cleared before ad space is reserved.
Political advertising rates will be the same for all candidates.
All ads will be reviewed for appropriate content prior to scheduling. No lewd or clearly defamatory subject matter will be allowed. The CUJ editor will have discretion to approve or decline any ads deemed inappropriate.
Political advertising for non-CTUIR candidates and issues in local, state and federal elections must follow the same rules and
the digitization and cataloguing work,” she said. “The photos are shared freely, from the donor to the archive and from the archive to the public.”
A key goal of the project is to restore and share family history that was intentionally targeted for erasure through systems like the Indian boarding school era.
“Family history is one of the many things that the Indian Boarding School system explicitly sought to destroy,” Hurlburt said. The digital archive aims to reverse that loss by making family stories and photographs accessible to
all descendants and the broader public.
The exhibition and digital archive are supported by community members and multiple institutional partners. In addition to Lavadour and Pambrun, other key collaborators include Judith Fortney, and artists such as James and Joey Lavadour, Gina and TeLa Picard Branstetter, and Terrance Gardipe. The Frenchtown Historical Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the history of Frenchtown and the Métis community in the Walla Walla Valley, has also been deeply involved for decades.
Whitman College students assisted with research and development of the archive, working alongside Hurlburt and curators at the Sheehan Gallery. The project reflects years of relationship-building between Whitman faculty, community members and tribal descendants.
“The trust and relationships that made that day possible go back over ten years,” Hurlburt said. “The family archivists behind the project have been working on their history almost their whole lives.”
More information and access to the digital archive can be found at bit.ly/metis-families.
CUJ
“Picturing Family: Métis Life in the Walla Walla Valley,” exhibit was displayed at Tamástslikt Cultural Institute in Spring 2025. SARAH HURLBURT/COURTESY
RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine contracts
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in an Aug.5 statement that 22 projects, totaling $500 million, to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted.
Kennedy’s decision to terminate the projects is the latest in a string of decisions that have put the longtime vaccine critic’s doubts about shots into full effect at the nation’s health department. Kennedy has pulled back recommendations around the COVID-19 shots, fired the panel that makes vaccine recommendations, and refused to offer a vigorous endorsement of vaccinations as a measles outbreak worsened.
The health secretary criticized mRNA vaccines in a video on his social media accounts, explaining the decision to cancel projects being led by the nation’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, that offer protection against viruses like the flu, COVID-19 and H5N1.
“To replace the troubled mRNA programs, we’re prioritizing the development of safer, broader vaccine strategies, like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms that don’t collapse when viruses mutate,” Kennedy said in the video.
Infectious disease experts say the mRNA technology used in
vaccines is safe, and they credit its development during the first Trump administration with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Future pandemics, they warned, will be harder to stop without the help of mRNA.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business,” said Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and pandemic preparations.
He noted mRNA technology offers potential advantages of rapid production, crucial in the event of a new pandemic that requires a new vaccine.
The shelving of the mRNA projects is short-sighted as concerns about a bird flu pandemic continue to loom,
said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“It’s certainly saved millions of lives,” Offit said of the existing mRNA vaccines.
Scientists are using mRNA for more than infectious disease vaccines, with researchers around the world exploring its use for cancer immunotherapies. At the White House earlier this year, billionaire tech entrepreneur Larry Ellison praised mRNA for its potential to treat cancer.
Traditionally, vaccines have required growing pieces of viruses, often in chicken eggs or giant vats of cells, then purifying that material. The mRNA approach starts with a snippet of genetic code that carries instructions for making proteins.
Scientists pick the protein to target, inject that blueprint and the body makes just enough to trigger immune protection — producing its own vaccine dose.
In the Aug. 5 statement, HHS said “other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement.”
The mRNA technology is used in approved COVID-19 and RSV shots, but has not yet been approved for a flu shot. Moderna, which was studying a combination COVID-19 and flu mRNA shot, had said it believed mRNA could speed up production of flu shots compared with traditional vaccines.
The abandoned mRNA projects signal a “shift in vaccine development priorities,” the health department said in its statement, adding that it will start “investing in better solutions.”
“Let me be absolutely clear, HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them,” Kennedy said in the statement.
Speaking hours later at a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska, alongside the state’s two Republican U.S. senators, Kennedy said work is underway on an alternative.
He said a “universal vaccine” that mimics “natural immunity” is the administration’s focus.
“It could be effective — we believe it’s going to be effective — against not only coronaviruses, but also flu,” he said.
Trump’s food stamp cuts could strain Oregon’s budget and increase hunger, US Rep. Salinas says
ALEJANDRO FIGUEROA OPB
SALEM – Oregon will soon be on the hook for millions of dollars more to cover the cost of its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, informally known as food stamps. But it’s unclear how the state will afford it.
People who rely on food stamps might eventually get less help paying for food, though the biggest cuts are a year or more out.
On Aug. 6, U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, a Democrat from Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, held a roundtable discussion with a small group of anti-hunger advocates and government officials.
She wanted to hear how changes to SNAP will affect the more than 740,000 people that currently receive food stamps in Oregon.
Ian Dixon-McDonald, the vice president of programs at the Marion Polk Food Share, was there.
He said food banks like his are
“It’ll just continue to be more people and less food available under these cuts. We can’t purchase our way out of this.
bracing to see even more people than they’re already seeing.
He added there will still be food to give out, but that people might just get less of it.
“It’ll just continue to be more people and less food available under these cuts,” he said. “We can’t purchase our way out of this.”
Congressional Republicans slashed safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” budget reconciliation they passed in July.
The bill shifts costs usually covered by the federal government onto states. For the first time ever it will require states to pay for a share of the SNAP dollars people get based on the states “error rate” — or the rate at which a state either over or underpaid benefits. That number is not a measure of fraud.
If the error rate is 10% or higher, the state is expected to pay a 15% share of SNAP costs. Oregon’s error rate is among the highest at 14%.
Oregon will also be responsible for 75% of the cost to administer the program, up from the current 50% — the federal government is responsible for paying the rest.
Those changes are not immediate though. The state will start paying a higher share of SNAP dollars in 2028, and more in administrative costs in 2026.
The Oregon Department of Human Services estimates the state will face $425 million in new yearly costs.
Salinas said she’s had “quiet conversations” with Oregon legislators but added she hasn’t received any indication the state will be able to close that gap.
“I think that they feel it’s going to be people going hungry. I don’t think they’re going to be able to make that up … There was hardly an appetite to do that for transportation,” Salinas said, referring to the Oregon Democrats’ failed transportation bill from this year’s legislative session.
A spokesperson with Gov. Tina Kotek’s office said they could not immediately comment on how the state is preparing to handle the funding shortfall when it takes effect.
Whether the state will be able to come up with the money necessary to continue SNAP at current funding levels is unclear. The state could stand to lose nearly $1 billion in revenue in the next two years due to the tax cuts from Congressional Republicans’ budget reconciliation, as reported by the Oregonian/OregonLive.
Other changes to SNAP include new work requirements, which advocates call burdensome, for parents of teenagers and for adults from age 55-65. And the program will soon exclude thousands of refugees and other humanitarian immigrants from participation.
Salinas said she’s emboldened by the pushback she’s seeing from constituents in Republican congressional districts calling out their elected officials for supporting the bill.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks as President Donald Trump listens at an event to promote his proposal to improve Americans’ access to their medical records in the East Room of the White House on July 30 in Washington, D.C. MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP
Oregon’s
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley returns from Gaza, Israel: 'there has to be anend to this war'
ALEX BAUMHARDT Oregon Capital Chronicle
A lot has changed in Israel and Palestine since Oregon’s Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley first visited in 1978 as a 21-year-old backpacker.
But the pace of change between his last trip to the region in Jan. 2024 and the present, as Israel wages an ongoing war against the militant and political group Hamas in Gaza, has been unbelievably devastating, Merkley told the Capital Chronicle Sunday morning from Cairo, Egypt, at the end of an eight-day trip to the region.
“There’s a lot that has transpired over those 20 months,” he said. “I don’t think 20 months ago, January 2024, we would have imagined that the war would be ongoing.”
He and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, returned in late August to Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel, and visited the West Bank and Jerusalem, to monitor the distribution of international aid meant to reach starving Gazans, and to learn more about the ongoing impacts of the nearly two-year war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
Since then, Israeli soldiers have killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals and considered by the United Nations and other independent experts to be the most reliable source for casualty numbers.
Israeli soldiers have also razed entire cities, leaving most of the remaining population of Gaza today displaced and facing famine. More than half of the Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas or rescued, while more than 80 are confirmed to have died and about 30 who are still being held captive are believed to be alive, according to the Israeli government.
“There has to be an end to this war. The hostages all have to be released. And there has to be massive intervention to address the medical problems and the starvation,” Merkley said.
Merkley, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called on his colleagues in Congress to halt hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons sales to Israel until Gazans receive immediate and critical aid being blocked by Israeli forces.
He has also, along with Democratic senators, called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East, to resume diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire agreement and end the war.
The U.S. has sent more than $20
billion in weapons and military aid to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel
The eight-day trip — including more than two dozen meetings in four settings — began in Israel, where Merkley and Van Hollen met with families of the Israeli hostages, with aid providers from the United Nations World Food Programme and with the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
More than 140 Gazans have died of hunger since the start of the war, including 88 children, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures. Most of those deaths were in the last couple months.
Between April and July, more than 20,000 children in Gaza were seen by doctors for acute malnutrition, and more than 3,000 of those children were deemed severely malnourished, according to a recent report from The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, a global initiative that provides food security analysis for charities and U.N. agencies.
The senators also talked on the phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely symbolic role in the government, and met with Greek, Latin and Armenian Catholic church leaders in the Old City of Jerusalem who are calling for an end to the war.
With those church leaders, the senators visited the Kerem Shalom Crossing, a gateway between Gaza and Israel, where they learned about how foreign aid moves from inspection areas in Israel into Gaza, where Palestinian trucks receive it and move it to warehouses, Merkley said.
Van Hollen and Merkley also returned to a kibbutz called Kfar Aza — a sort of intentional community, or commune, centered on egalitarian values and growing food — that they had visited in January 2024, and that was a site of Hamas violence against Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.
They met with a woman trying to rebuild the kibbutz so people will return over the next year, but so far, only 20 of the former residents have returned, Merkley said. The ongoing war had impacted their host, too.
“She knew many of the people who died and she knew many of the people who were taken hostage from the kibbutz. In fact, she basically knows everybody at the kibbutz,” he said.
But from the community, it’s possible to see over the border into Gaza City, Merkley explained. While he and Van Hollen were there, they could hear Israel dropping bombs on
Gaza City.
“And she said, as time has passed, her sense has returned of how we have to break this cycle of revenge and we have to find a way for the two peoples — all the Israelis and the Palestinians — to live together peacefully,” Merkley recounted. “But it had been like a long process of grieving and
U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley, second left, and Chris Van Hollen, center, walk with members of a delegation and Egyptian Red Crescent officials after arriving on Egypt's side of the Rafah crossing with Gaza, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohammed Arafat)
pondering in that regard.”
West Bank
In the West Bank, Merkley and Van Hollen met with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, as well as families of American Palestinians living in the West Bank who have been jailed by Israeli authorities, and who know others who have been jailed or killed by Israeli authorities or Israeli settlers.
They also visited a Christian village in the West Bank that was recently attacked by settlers, Merkley said, noting that Israeli encroachment into Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, and violence from those settlers towards Palestinians, has intensified.
“Almost nothing is done by the Israeli Defense Forces to protect the Palestinian villagers from the settlers,” Merkley said. “Many of the IDF forces that are in the West Bank are settlers themselves, and it’s almost as if the government of Israel has given a green light. They just are not engaged in stopping this escalation of violence, and it’s coming in many forms.”
Gazan borders
The Israeli military barred Merkley and Van Hollen from entering the Gaza strip when they visited in January 2024, but the two were able to go to Rafah Gate, where Egypt borders the southernmost edge of Gaza, to meet doctors and aid truck drivers who painted an early picture of a people beginning to starve.
“One conversation that really sticks in my mind was with two doctors who had just left the European hospital, and one of them was more of a specialist in burns, and the other in broken bones, and one of the doctors said: ‘Of course, we can put an arm in a cast, but our patients need more nutrition in order to recover,’” Merkley recounted. “Well, if you go 20 months forward, that brings us to the current moment. All of those things are true, but at such a higher level.”
Van Hollen and Merkley returned to Rafah Gate on Saturday, still barred from entering Gaza, but able to look out over the city of Rafah from the top of a building.
“We could see absolute rubble, like there was no semblance of a town remaining. It wasn’t like a bunch of buildings with holes
in the side — like shell holes and blown holes — No, everything was rubble,” he said. “Now, this same process is beginning in Gaza City, and there are upwards of about a million people in the Gaza City area. And realize, not that many months ago, a million people were in Rafah.”
‘We have our voices’ Merkley said the war is at a desperate moment and a ceasefire is needed to stop the assault on Gaza City, where roughly 1 million Palestinians are facing forcible displacement.
“There are ministers in the (Israeli) Cabinet who have this vision of depopulating Gaza and making it part of a broader Israel,” he said. “But there are many, many Israelis that are fiercely opposed to that vision as well. After all, to depopulate an area in that fashion is a war crime.”
He said Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has deeply damaged Israel’s standing in the world, and many Israelis understand this.
Thousands of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday demanding an end to the war.
“There’s deep, deep debates going on among the leadership and the people of the State of Israel,” Merkley said.
He returned to the U.S. on Monday and will resume work in Congress on Tuesday.
He and Van Hollen have written op-eds and attempted to pass memorandums that would make military aid to Israel dependent on humanitarian aid getting to Gazans, but they’re in the minority in Congress.
Recent polling shows most Americans disapprove of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Merkley said turnout at his 36 town halls this year has been five times what it was in past years, in part because people wanted to tell him to do something to stop the war.
Among the members of Congress who continues to vote in favor of military aid to Israel is Oregon’s senior U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, also a Democrat. Wyden has joined Merkley in calls for a ceasefire and aid to Gazans, but has so far not joined in efforts to end weapons sales.
His town halls have also been packed with constituents asking him to stop arming the Israeli military. One recent town hall in Grants Pass was cut short by protests.
Merkley declined to share anything about conversations with Wyden on the topic.
“Feelings are shifting, but there is no magic wand here. There is no ‘Oh, well, just say it louder,’ and somehow you will change the course,’” Merkley said. “You just have to keep pressing with ideas in amendments, and voting (…) and conversations with our colleagues, you keep pressing on everything.”
Princess Avery Quaempts and Princess Korie Spencer, both enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, are carrying on long-standing family traditions as the 2025 Happy Canyon Princesses. Quaempts,17, is a senior at Pendleton High School, a softball athlete and future pediatric nurse. She is the great-granddaughter of Chief Carl Sampson and a direct descendant of Treaty signer Chief Peo-Peo-Mox-Mox. Spencer, 23, is a Pendleton High and Treasure Valley Community College graduate who works in early childhood education and plans to continue her studies at Oregon State University.
What has been your proudest achievement this year?
Korie: I love to hear how much joy we have brought to the people we have met along the way. From luncheons, parades, rodeos, and signings we were able to leave knowing we made someone’s day better.
Avery: My proudest achievement this year has been riding in the twomile-long parade at the Portland Rose Festival with my horse Dixie. A parade that long is not easy on the horses or the princesses in regalia.
What has the experience of being a Happy Canyon Princess been like for you, your family and your horse?
Korie: This has been a once in a lifetime experience and a dream come true for me. The opportunities my family has been given throughout the year has made it a core memory for us and one we will cherish forever. The horse I am using is phenomenal at his duties and knows how to get the job done.
Avery: The experience of being a Happy Canyon Princess has been so special. The experience has brought our family closer than ever and created such a tight bond with our horses. It has been such an honor representing our community and traditions.
Could you tell us a bit about your horse?
Korie: Billy is a 16-year-old black and white paint gelding. He is owned by my best friend, Kayla Fossek, and he has been through this countless times. He is the best boy, he loves to eat, his walking… (no running!), and of course his charming personality.
Avery: My horse Dixie is a 17-year-old palomino mare, who
PRINCESSES CONTINUED PAGE 16
Largest-ever cohort awarded Šináata Scholarships
The scholarship removes barriers to Whitman for selected CTUIR members.
WALLA WALLA – Whitman College in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
have named Addison
Carey, Addison Jones-Kosey, Joel Satterwhite, Lauralee Stanger, Oscar Huesties and Tatiwiyat Buck as the Šináata Scholarship cohort for the 2025-26 academic year.
“It is a joy to welcome these six incredible students to Whitman’s growing cohort of Šináata Scholars,” said Whitman College President Sarah Bolton.
“Their academic achievements and leadership qualities are an honor to the families and the communities who have raised them. We look forward to them joining us this fall for the next step in their educational journeys.”
The scholarship builds on educational initiatives developed via a memorandum of agreement
that Whitman and the CTUIR signed in 2017. It removes financial barriers to attending the college for selected students who are CTUIR members. It may also be awarded to Native students from other parts of the Pacific Northwest with ties to the CTUIR.
COHORT CONTINUED PAGE 3
The incoming Šináata Scholars visit the Whitman College campus on Aug. 14 in Walla Walla, Washington. From left are Joel Satterwhite, Oscar Huesties, Addison Jones-Kosey, Lauralee Stanger and Addison Carey. Not pictured is Tatiwiyat Buck. WHITMAN COLLEGE
(CTUIR)
Korie Spencer (left) and Avery Quaempts (right) serve together as 2025 Happy Canyon Princesses. HAPPY CANYON
LETTER to EDITOR
The opinions expressed are those of authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CUJ
Housing Dept. gives thanks for donation
Dear Community Picnic
Sponsors:
On behalf of the Housing Department of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, we would like to give you a big thank you for your generous donation to our community picnic event. It was a tremendous success serving over 500 hamburgers, 200 hot dogs some 30+ community members’ including elders, Veterans & many kids that ate, played games & won over $1000 worth of raffle prizes.
It was great day to wrap up the end of summer with food & prizes from your generous donations that help kids think about gearing up for the fall school year. We especially are thankful for the volunteers that stepped up at the last minute and help make it a success and smooth operation.
“Inchii-qwuthla” A Big Thank You to our sponsor.
•Board of Trustees & General Council of CTUIR
Also thank you to all vendors that took the time to share resources.
•Tribal Departments of
CTUIR; CUJ, HeadStart, Title VI, Education, UTPD/UTFD, TERO, DNR-CRPP/Water Resources, Family Engagement, HR, Communications, Domestic Violence, Tamastslikt Cultural Institute.
•Nixyaawii Community
Financial Services
•Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center’s Community Public Health, Dental, Records & Behavioral Health
•Oregon Division of Financial Regulation
•Whitman College
•Eastern Oregon University
•Forest Service Umatilla
National Forest
•Pendleton Mobile Library
•Oregon Energy Trust
•The STAR Project
•Umatilla Electric Cooperative
•CAPECO
•AISES-CRPC
•Cayuse Native Solutions
•Bonneville Power Administration
•Oregon State Fire Marshall
We look forward for a bigger and better 2026 C-pic!
CTUIR Housing Department volunteers
Sarah Frank and familly give thanks
I would like to thank the programs & people that assisted me & my family through this past year, after the loss of Granddaughter Josephine.
Thank you Washington Elementary School & Staff, PELC & Staff, After-School Program Staff, DCFS Staff, CTUIR Enrollment, CTUIR Education Coordinators, Drummers, Cooks, Medicine
Wheel Treatment Center, Hands
Across the Bridge, Public Works Staff, Casan’s Place Staff, CAPECO & Living Waters Church. Your help is greatly appreciated, you all helped us through this past year.
I cannot list everyone, but thank you all Family & Friends we appreciate you all so much.
Sarah J. Frank & Family
Support for Julie Taylor
I am writing in strong support of Julie Taylor’s candidacy for Chair of the Board of Trustees. Julie’s longstanding commitment to our community and her ability to inspire the next generation of leaders make her an exceptional choice for this important role.
As a former member of the Tribal Youth Council, Julie has dedicated herself to mentoring young people, guiding them as they take their first steps in advocacy, learn to raise their voices for change, and understand the importance of representation. Her leadership has not only empowered countless youths but has also fostered a culture of civic engagement and responsibility
among emerging leaders in our community.
Julie’s remarkable talent for motivating new generations to pursue careers that uplift and strengthen our communities demonstrates her vision, dedication, and ability to serve effectively both now and in the future. Her proven record of mentorship and leadership assures me that she will bring the same passion, integrity, and commitment to the role of Board of Trustees Chair.
For these reasons, I support Julie’s candidacy,
Summer Wildbill
Tribal Member
COHORT
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Tatiwiyat Buck
Tatiwiyat Buck is from the Wanapum, Yakama and Colville Tribes and grew up in Priest Rapids Village, Washington. She attended high school at The Northwest School in Seattle. Buck stays connected to her culture through root gathering, fishing with her family, and riding in the Happy Canyon Night Show and Pendleton Round-Up. She is eager to join the Native American community at Whitman and help bring their perspectives to underrepresented spaces. Buck plans to pursue a career in the medical field.
Oscar Huesties
Oscar Huesties of Meacham, Oregon, is a member of the CTUIR and a graduate of Pendleton High School. Huesties has been active in his tribal community through root feasts, Memorial Day gatherings and participation in the Happy Canyon Night Show. He is excited to attend Whitman and explore academic opportunities, including chemistry and physics.
Addison Carey
Addison Carey is a descendant of the Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes and a graduate of WestonMcEwen High School in Athena, Oregon. Carey held leadership roles in student government and the National Honor Society and was active in clubs focused on Native culture and community service. Her work on the CTUIR Youth Council, including lobbying in Washington, D.C., deepened her commitment to tribal advocacy and environmental justice. At Whitman, she is excited to continue her education and explore new ways to serve her community.
Addison Jones-Kosey
Addison Jones-Kosey is an enrolled member of the CTUIR and a graduate of Nixyáawii Community School (NCS) in Pendleton. Jones-Kosey honors her heritage through language learning, traditional dancing, beading and participating in the Happy Canyon Night Show. She plans to study History at Whitman with the goal of becoming an Indigenous attorney and looks forward to gaining an education that will help her give back to her community.
Joel Satterwhite
Joel Satterwhite, a nontraditional student from Pendleton is a descendant of the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Nez Perce tribes. He is returning to college to study psychology and theater, inspired by his late grandmother’s dedication to community and education. Satterwhite sees the Šináata Scholarship as both a financial resource and a connection to his cultural and educational goals.
Lauralee Stanger
Lauralee Stanger is an enrolled member of the CTUIR and a graduate of NCS in Pendleton. Stanger participated in school clubs such as the National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders of America and, throughout her life, has been involved in cultural activities, including the Pendleton RoundUp Pageant and Happy Canyon Night Show. She expresses her creativity through beading, photography and digital art and is excited to grow her skills at Whitman while exploring studies in psychology.
“On behalf of the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation Board of Trustees, I would like to congratulate these students for being the 2025 recipients of the Šináata Scholarship at Whitman College. The board wishes them nothing but success with their academic and career objectives.”
Lisa Ganuelas, CTUIR Board of Trustees Member at Large, said, “On behalf of the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation Board of Trustees, I would like to congratulate these students for being the 2025 recipients of the Šináata Scholarship at Whitman College. The board wishes them nothing but success with their academic and career objectives.”
Jeanine Gordon, the college’s special assistant to the President for Native American Outreach, said the Šináata Scholarship is Whitman’s most generous educational opportunity. “This scholarship unlocks higher education pathways and remarkable experiences that could otherwise be unattainable or unimaginable.”
The Šináata Scholarship, established through a 2017 agreement between Whitman College and the CTUIR, eliminates financial barriers for selected CTUIR-enrolled students, supporting their pursuit of higher education. WHITMAN COLLEGE
Tatiwiyat Buck
Addison Carey
Oscar Huesties
Addison Jones-Kosey
Joel Satterwhite
Lauralee Stanger
Yellowhawk hosts youth mental health first aid training
DANELI
ATILANO
The CUJ
MISSION—Joy Garcia, a mental health counselor at Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center led a free Youth Mental Health First Aid training on August 5-6.
Participants included Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) employees, parents, guardians and grandparents.
Those who completed the training and passed a certification test are now certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid for three years.
Garcia said they became certified in the youth model because many adults feel confused or intimidated by teen behavior.
“It’s difficult for them to understand and they’re looking for guidance around that,” Garcia said.
The course, designed by the National Mental Health First Aid Organization, focused on helping adults identify and respond to
mental health challenges in youth. Attendees were taught how to recognize signs and symptoms of mental illness, develop a plan for helping in both crisis and noncrisis situations, and understand how to approach someone who may be suicidal.
Other areas covered included helping someone during a panic attack, non-suicidal self-injury, the impact of trauma and the role of social media.
In addition to offering the training three times a year, Yellowhawk also provides Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) suicide prevention training about four times a year. Garcia also offers LGBTQIA2S+ training to CTUIR partners who are interested.
Those who missed the training will have another chance to attend the next session in Fall 2025.
MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) Education Department gave away 228 backpacks during its annual Tribal Youth Backpack Distribution event.
Held Aug. 11-15 at the Nixyáawii Education Center, CTUIR members who are enrolled in grades kindergarten through 12th were eligible to receive backpacks and school supplies to assist them with costs of attending the 2025-26 school year.
Andria Scott, Education administrative assistant, said she and (Sahaptian) Language Resource Developer Clarise Huesties oversaw the giveaway.
“There were no income guidelines, but students must be enrolled CTUIR members,” Scott said. “Three hundred Native-style backpacks were purchased, and each student, or their parent or guardian, who came received a backpack and limited school supplies.”
She said due to the list of supplies requested by the local schools and the variety of grades the Education Department provides for, supplies ranged from crayons, paper, color pencils, scissors, erasers to dry erase markers.
“This year we purchased prepackaged supplies that made it simpler, as we didn’t have to pre-pack bags,” Scott said. “But we were limited to what is provided because they are prepackaged.”
Nixyáawii Community School senior Liana Higheagle said getting the backpack and supplies is vital to the community and she was glad to receive them.
“I think getting a free backpack
For more information about future trainings, contact Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center at 541-966-9830.
Education Dept. distributes free backpacks to CTUIR members
with school supplies is really important and awesome to have in our community,” she said. “It takes some of the weight off of students and parents to get the supplies. I am beyond grateful we have these resources in our community.”
CTUIR member Crystal Pond Kirkie grabbed two backpacks for her daughters – Cena Shiela Kirkie and Cadance Nixtias Kirkie, who are attending McKay Elementary School.
“My family is so happy to be back home and grateful to the Education Department for providing these resources for our children,” Crystal said.
The CTUIR Board of Trustees (BOT) allocates funds annually to buy backpacks and school supplies, Scott said. However, because of cost increases the Education Department covered the cost difference for school supplies that BOT funds did not cover.
Overall, the 300 backpacks cost approximately $8,400 while supplies totaled more than $7,200, she said.
This is the sixth year the Education Department has taken the lead on the backpack giveaway. Prior to that it was handled by the departments of Children and Family Services and Economic and Community Development.
“The backpack distribution started to help families with costs associated with going back to school,” Scott said. “Backpacks and supplies are necessary items for students to succeed, and we want to send our tribal students to school with every possible tool to succeed.”
Summer youth employment program celebrates success
LYNETTE MINTHORN
CTUIR DEPTARTMENT OF EDUCATION
MISSION—The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Education Department proudly hosted its first Indigenous Leadership & Youth Workforce Symposium from July 1–3 at the Nixyáawii Education Center, marking the kickoff of the 2025 Summer Youth Employment Program (SYP).
Over three days, Tribal youth attended workshops and speaker sessions focused on job readiness, higher education, wellness and cultural leadership.
Presenters shared knowledge and inspiration, helping youth envision a variety of career pathways rooted in culture and community. Featured symposium presenters included:
• Lomaktsi Restoration Project – Marko Bey & Belinda Brown: Championing Pathways for a Natural Resource Career
• Čuuš Waiqíšwit Aawxmamíya “Living Water for All Nations” Assembly of God –Pastor Michael VanPelt & Josh Simpson: Called to Serve
• Pendleton Public Library –James Simpson: A Day in the Life of a Librarian
• Oregon State University,
College of Public Health – Karen Elliot: Career Exploration Through Internships and Job Shadows
• CTUIR Drone Workforce Program – Grey Penney & Dazon Sigo: Careers and Learning Opportunities in the Drone Industry
• Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Education Department – Jeff Sweets: Breaking Intergenerational Trauma
• OSU Office of Black & Indigenous Student Success –Christy Jones: Helping Students
Thrive
• Wellness Practitioners –Shanna Murphy & Kaitlin Treloar: The Art of Mindfulness
• OSU College of Forestry –Glenn Jones: Culturally Informed Reconstruction of Cultural Fire Regimes
• Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center, Public Health Department – Jay Stanley: Tribal Tobacco and Tobacco Prevention
The SYP provided 40 youth employees, ages 14 to 18, with paid career experience across 10 CTUIR and partner sites. Site placements included CTUIR’s Communications, Natural Resources, Planning and Education departments; Yellowhawk’s Behavioral Health, Public Health and Allied Health departments; Wildhorse Resort & Casino’s Arrowhead Travel Plaza, Family Funplex and Golf Course.
Alongside on-the-job training, youth received over 55 hours of college and career readiness development throughout the summer as well.
Programming highlights also included a One-Day Youth Empowerment Training hosted by the CTUIR Department of Children and Family Services’ Youth Leadership Council, featuring Gary “Litefoot” Davis of Litefoot
Enterprises LLC. The event encouraged youth to embrace resilience, leadership and vision for the future, adding another powerful layer to this summer’s programming.
“Our youth are the heart of our community,” said Lynette Minthorn, higher education program manager. “By connecting them with role models, career pathways and cultural leaders, we are helping build confidence and opening doors to future opportunities.”
The Education Department extends its gratitude to presenters, site supervisors and program leaders who invested their time and expertise in uplifting the next generation.
A special thank-you goes to Sydelle Harrison, postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University, whose partnership was instrumental throughout the program.
Sydelle collaborated with SYP to launch a pilot project through the ASPIRE Children’s Environmental Health Center at OSU, “Through Their Eyes: Engaging Youth in Development of Wildfire & Air Quality Preparedness Media Materials.”
The project introduced youth to public health tools, wildfire preparedness and youth-led media campaigns, merging science, health and communication skills to strengthen community resilience.
As the Education Department looks ahead, the Summer Youth Employment Program will transition from the Higher Education Program and become part of the CTUIR’s Workforce Development Department.
With this shift, there is optimism that the new department will continue to carry forward the momentum of this year’s Indigenous Leadership & Youth Workforce Symposium or similar programming approaches that uplift Tribal youth.
8.
Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center staff (left to right) Carrie Campbell-Turk and Xochitl Roman with summer youth LeAndra Hart. Through the Summer Youth Employment Program, Hart spent the summer at the Nitch-Yow-Way Senior Center kitchen as a service attendant. COURTESY
TigerScots are locked and loaded for another successful season
ANNIE FOWLER
The
CUJ
ATHENA — The WestonMcEwen volleyball team has all the components that coach Marie Cain believes will help her team be successful this season.
“I really really like my team this year,” she said. “I can’t have favorites, but I really like this team. Great kids. They are so energized and engaged. They can’t wait to get on the court. You don’t teach that drive. They are hungry and they want to play.”
Weston-McEwen is coming off a season where it finished 6-4 in the Blue Mountain Conference and 18-13 overall. The TigerScots won their first-round match of the 2A state tournament and advanced to the quarterfinals. They lost both matches, but learned a lot about themselves.
“Everybody who is coming back for the squad has postseason experience, which is huge,” Cain said. “They are coming back, they have those jitters put away and are ready to go back. As a program, the freshmen coming in are very competitive and very strong. I step back and look, and it’s very exciting.”
Leading the way for the TigerScots are 5-foot, 10-inch junior Charlotte Hansell, a firstteam all-BMC player last year, and 5-11 senior middle Bre Ward.
“It’s a rare combination of a really dominant player, who has skills and is a huge team player,” Cain said of Hansell. “It’s super contagious. She is all about doing her best to help the team. She has a drive and a fire. She has really worked on her hitting and her all-around play. We are super excited for Charlotte.” Ward, who is one of the top softball pitches in the state, is just as dominant on the volleyball court.
“Bre also is one of those kids who takes everything coaches say and does her best and wants to make sure everyone else is doing well,” Cain said. “Last year, she broke her ankle and she had to sit on the bench and saw the game from a different perspective and that helped her. We are excited for her dominance in the middle. She loves her team.”
The TigerScots have moved setter Addy Hall to the outside and serve receive, where her skills will benefit the team.
“I need her passing and not her setting,” Cain said. “I will use her as an outside hitter. Her passing is wonderful. She may be short, but she jumps out of the gym. She plays smart volleyball. She and Charlotte feed off each other. She is the loudest person on the floor.”
Setting duties will fall to senior Mya Bryan and sophomore Reagan Pickard, while Hannah Fitzjarrell will be a defensive specialist and Bree Perkins will hit as well as play defensive specialist.
“They all have unique strengths and they complement each other,” Cain said. “It’s a great mix of kids. They build up each other’s strengths. We have options. We are going to have some good firepower, a great offense and a great defense.”
The TigerScots opened the season with a win over Dufur and a loss to Imbler. They are scheduled to play in the Baker Tournament and the St. Paul Invitational, as well as matches against Lowell and Umpqua Valley Christian.
“We are playing some good teams,” Cain said. “Our goal is to get back to state, which is in La Grande this year. That will be fun. We have a great fan base and it’s (Eastern Oregon University) a great facility.”
Weston-McEwen volleyball schedule
Aug. 28 vs. Dufur 3 p.m.
Aug. 28 vs. Imbler 6 p.m.
Sept. 3 at Ione/Arlington 5 p.m.
Sept. 6 at Baker Tournament
8 a.m.
Sept. 8 vs. McLoughlin 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 11 vs. Grant Union 5:30 p.m.
Sept. 13 at St. Paul Invitational
8 a.m.
Sept. 18 vs. Heppner 5:30 p.m.
Sept. 20 at Lowell 10 a.m.
Sept. 20 vs. Umpqua Valley Christian (at Lowell HS) 11:30 a.m.
Sept. 25 at Enterprise 4 p.m.
Sept. 27 vs. Crane (at Union HS) 1
p.m.
Sept. 27 at Union 3 p.m.
Oct. 2 at Grant Union 5:30 p.m.
Oct. 4 at Irrigon noon
Oct. 4 vs. Stanfield (at Irrigon HS) 2 p.m.
Oct. 6 vs. Pendleton 5:30 p.m.
Oct. 9 at Heppner 5:30 p.m.
Oct. 16 vs. Enterprise 4 p.m.
Oct. 17 at Stanfield 11 a.m.
Oct. 17 vs. Irrigon (at Stanfield HS) 1 p.m.
Addy Hall, of Weston-McEwen, gets a serve on Aug. 22, 2025, during practice as Megan McLouth looks on.
Kayli Choin, of Weston-McEwen, plays the net on Aug. 22, 2025, during a team practice. KATHY ANEY/THE CUJ
Rockets look to take off in tough Old Oregon League
“...We are focusing on consistency and having high standards. They are a great group. They have bought in and are ready to go.”
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
PILOT ROCK — The Old Oregon League is one of the toughest 1A leagues in the state, but Pilot Rock coach Jen Porter believes her team has the goods to be competitive.
“It is a tough conference,” Porter said. “Imbler, Union, Powder Valley and Cove are good and have good programs. Cove lost some seniors, but they still have a solid core. I think we are going to do just fine. We are focusing on consistency and having high standards. They are a great group. They have bought in and are ready to go.”
The Rockets also boast height that is rarely seen at the smallschool level, and a core of experienced players after losing just one player (Lillie Holman) to graduation and another (AJ Johnson) to a season-ending injury.
“We have a tall team that can actually move, which is nice,” Porter said. “I think we have a really good chance to make a run at state. We have to stay healthy. I worry about that. We don’t have a lot of depth. We have to stay healthy and get to the end of the season.”
Gracee Hemphill, a 6-foot junior, and Steve Osborn, a 6-0 sophomore, will patrol the net, along with 5-11 senior Kashley Golden.
Libero Coley Gibbs returns and may hit a bit for the Rockets, while Aubrey Corwin and Kessa Litfin will share the setting duties.
“This is the most fundamentally strong we have been as a team,” Porter said. “The girls feel it too. We have nine returning players. My core group from last year
are all here. The volleyball IQ is higher now. I just need to find a few younger players to fill some spots.”
Johnson would have been back as a defensive specialist, but now Porter is looking for a younger player to step up and fill the role.
The Rockets opened the season with a win over Wallowa and a loss to Joseph.
Their schedule includes the Helix Tournament and matches with Riverside and Stanfield.
Pilot Rock volleyball schedule
Aug. 29 at Wallowa 1 p.m.
Aug. 20 at Joseph noon
Sept. 2 at Ione/Arlington 5 p.m.
Sept. 6 at Helix Tournament 11
a.m.
Sept. 16 vs. Nixyaawii 5 p.m.
Sept. 18 vs. Echo 5 p.m.
Sept. 19 vs. Cove 1 p.m.
Sept. 20 at Imbler 10 a.m.
Sept. 23 vs. Riverside 4 p.m.
Sept. 25 at Griswold 5 p.m.
Sept. 27 Pilot Rock crossover 7 p.m.
Oct. 1 at Nixyaawii 5 p.m.
Oct. 4 vs. Imbler 11:30 a.m.
Oct. 4 vs. Cove 1 p.m.
Oct. 7 vs. Griswold 5 p.m.
Oct. 9 vs. Dayville/Monument/ Long Creek 5 p.m.
Oct. 11 at Echo 1 p.m.
Oct. 14 at Stanfield 7 p.m.
Bucks moving forward with strong core of returning players
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
PENDLETON — On paper, the Pendleton girls soccer team looks a little fragile with the loss of Kelsey Graham, who rewrote the school’s record books, and midfielders Halle Pederson and Sara Airoldi.
It’s a good thing the games are played on the field.
“We have a really strong returning group this year,” Pendleton coach Kiana Rickman said. “This year, we don’t have any freshmen, so having that experience is nice.”
The Bucks have five seniors and six juniors on the roster, along with four sophomores.
“Everyone came in with a really positive attitude this year and is really willing to put in the work,” Bucks senior captain Citlalli Garcia said. “The overall
atmosphere is competitive and people are pushing each other every single day.”
Garcia returns in goal for the Bucks, who have a strong core of returning players.
“Citlalli started every game last year,” Pendleton coach Kiana Rickman said. “She is getting more vocal in her leadership. I’m proud of how she is coming into her own.”
Junior Ava Jackson moves to striker and sophomore Presley Greenwalt will be out on the wing.
“Ava is a super strong left-foot striker,” Rickman said. “She is looking really good and super confident. Presley put away some goals for us last year.”
Adding to the offense will be seniors Noemi Alvarez-Barroso and Chais Surber.
“Noemi will be our anchor in the middle,” Rickman said. “A lot of play will go through her this
year. Chaise has really come into her own and is hungry to learn. She and Noemi will play close together and be our quarterbacks this year.”
Helping out Garcia on the back end will be seniors Aly Phelps and Hazel Case.
“Our senior class is really stepping into their own,” Rickman said. “We lost leadership but they have stepped up.”
The Bucks play in the highly competitive Greater Oregon League, where they posted a 2-2-2 record last year. La Grande placed second at state last year, and Rickman said Baker and Ontario have improved.
“La Grande is tough every year,” she said. “Our girls always have our best games against La Grande. I am always thankful for a strong preseason to get us ready for league. Baker always surprises us and Ontario will be tough this
year.”
Pendleton opened the season Aug. 30, with a 4-2 win over Junction City. The Bucks will host The Dalles on Sept. 4, then will hit the road for games at Redmond, Estacada and Madras before starting league play Sept. 23 at Baker.
Pendleton girls soccer schedule
Aug. 30 vs. Junction City 10:30 a.m.
Sept. 4 vs. The Dalles 4 p.m.
Sept. 10 at Redmond 4:30 p.m.
Sept. 18 at Estacada 6 p.m.
Sept. 20 at Madras noon
Sept. 23 at Baker 5 p.m.
Sept. 25 vs. Riverside 4 p.m.
Sept. 30 vs. Ontario 4 p.m.
Oct. 2 vs. Umatilla 4 p.m.
Oct. 9 at La Grande 6 p.m.
Oct. 14 vs. Baker 4 p.m.
Oct. 16 at McLoughlin 4 p.m.
Oct. 23 at Ontario 5:30 p.m. (MT)
Oct. 30 vs. La Grande 4 p.m.
Pilot Rock’s Kessa Litfin plays the net on Aug. 21, 2025, during a team practice.KATHY ANEY/THE CUJ
Pilot Rock head volleyball coach Jen Porter instructs her players on Aug. 21, 2025, during a team practice.
Schimmel adds experience to Rockets’ cross country team
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
PILOT ROCK — You could hear the excitement in Pilot Rock coach Tyler Zyph’s voice as he talked about the addition of Sun Schimmel to the Rockets’ cross country program.
Schmimmel, a junior, ran the past two years at Nixyaawii Community High School.
“We’ve only had him for a few days in Pilot Rock,” Zyph said. “He’s an awesome kid, an awesome athlete and he is a good addition to our team. We are excited to have an athlete like that. We hope to put him in a position to succeed.”
Schimmel placed seventh at the 3A/2A/1A Special District 3 Championships last fall and earned a wild card berth to state, where he placed 20th with a time of 17 minutes, 50 seconds.
“Honestly, with the addition of him, we have gotten a little more interest,” Zyph said. “We are starting to develop a cross country team. I’ve had a few kids saying they might want to come out. It adds a little more attention to our cross team. He brings experience and kids look up to guys like that.”
Schimmel will help fill Carter Ford’s shoes with leadership and experience.
“Ayden (Hoeft) is the most experienced kid we have going back,” Zyph said. “He’s a fouryear runner. He and Sun will make
them run a little harder.”
Sophomores Landon Norton and Mason VanHouten are in the top group of runners, as are senior Carter VanHouten and sophomore Elisha Sanchez, who also are playing football.
“Carter and Elisha are trying to balance football and cross,” Zyph said. “Shane (Munkers) and I try to communicate and share the kids best we can. I want our kids in Pilot Rock to try new things and be successful.”
On the girls’ team, sisters Hailey and Autumn Severe are the lone runners.
Hailey, a sophomore, ran last season, posting a season best 23:33.5. Autumn is a freshman
on Aug. 25, 2025. KATHY ANEY/THE CUJ
who played middle school football last year.
“They are very good athletes and runners,” Zyph said. “They will give each other a run for their money. They were some of the best middle football players we had the past three years.”
The Rockets ran in the Community Park Preview in Pendleton on Aug. 28. They have a strong schedule with the Three Course Challenge in Seaside, the Mustang Invite in Heppner and the Max Jensen Invitational in Richland, Washington.
Pilot Rock cross country schedule Aug. 28 Community Park Preview
Sept. 6 Kyle Burnside Dress-Up Parade Fun Run, Pendleton
Sept. 20 Three Course Challenge, Seaside
Sept. 26 Baker Invite
Sept. 26 Bridgette Nelson, The Dalles
Sept. 26 Stanfield Derbyshire
Twilight Run
Oct. 2 Mustang Invite, Heppner
Oct. 11 56th Annual Max Jensen Invitational, Richland (WA)
Oct. 17 Foot Race to Valhalla, Umatilla
Oct. 21 Kyle Burnside Memorial, Pendleton
Oct. 31 3A/2A/1A Special District 3 Championships, Pendleton
C E L E B R A T I O N S
B I R T H D A Y S :
1st: Troy Gillpatrick
2nd: Reese Shippentower
3rd: Preston Bronson and Aleron Mesplie
5th: Ayla Ferea, Johnny Milligan, Vicki Rodriguez and Audrey Shippentower
6th: Misty Brigham
8th: Cleo Dick and Alina George
9th: Manuel Soares
10th: Angelica Ancheta
11th: KariAnn Edmiston and Nijone Lockhart
12th: Robert J Van Pelt and Dean Harrison
14th: Kathleta Dave-Rodriguez
16th: Tyler Rodriguez, Dan Morris and Chris Brigham
17th: Charlie Morrison, Ela Morrison, Charlie (Brigham) Quaempts, Lanae Celilo and Remington Anderson
18th: Ralph Jones
19th: Rodrick Edmiston
20th: Jose Hernandez
22nd: Leo Crawford
27th: Neva Kash Kash
28th: Richard Orna and Mary T Renner-Wittkopf
A N N I V E R S A R I E S :
3rd: Michael & Deb Van Pelt
4th: Andrea Rodriguez & Jose
Hernandez
7th: Amber & Troy Gillpatrick
11th: Hanna & Rick Copsey
16th: Louie & Dolores "DJ"
Quaempts
24th: Chris & Tina Marsh
29th: Angelica & Chris
Ancheta
Pilot Rock cross-country runners set off on a practice run
Pilot Rock gets off to a good start to the season
“They may or may not be ready for it. We have to avoid injuries. If we could get some of the new kids in Pilot Rock to play football, that would be nice.”
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
PILOT ROCK — Pilot Rock opened the season with a 42-8 win over Pine Eagle, equaling the number of wins the Rockets had all of last year.
While the win is a big confidence booster for the Rockets, coach Shane Munkers already had a feeling his team could make some waves this season.
Senior Carter VanHouten returns at quarterback, sophomore Gage Williams is a solid option at tight end, and sophomores Tucker Holton and Marshall Hull are back on both sides of the ball.
“Carter played quarterback most of last year and did really well,” Munkers said. “I expect him to manage things pretty well. He runs well with the ball. Having Jullian (Endersby) at center will be huge for us. Gage started on both sides of the ball last year. It’s nice to have him back.”
Filling out key roles will be junior Dakota Enriquez, who will play nose guard, sophomore Elisha Sanchez at defensive back, and freshman Lucas Thieme at slot receiver.
“Elisha has amazing footwork, but he doesn’t have a lot of football experience,” Munkers said. “Lucas is really athletic and super knowledgeable. He will be big for us. It’s a very athletic family. Most of the freshmen are very athletic.”
Of the 15 kids out this season, four are freshmen and Munkers is excited about their potential.
“We have to watch physically and mentally if the freshmen will be able to stay on the field,” Munkers said. “They may or may not be ready for it. We have to avoid injuries. If we could get some of the new kids in Pilot Rock to play football, that would be nice.”
With the restructuring of the 1A 8-man leagues, the Rockets find themselves in Special District 3 this season with Cove, Dufur, Elgin, Echo, Imbler and Lyle/Wishram/Klickitat/ Glenwood.
“On paper, it looks better because Elgin and Imbler were down last year,” Munkers said. “Cove and Echo will be good. Our league will be rough.”
Pilot Rock toyed with the thought of possibly dropping down to 6-man football, but made the decision to stay at 8-man.
“We kind of of talked about it at the end of last year, but we just don’t have the speed,” Munkers
said. “In 6-man, you need speed. That isn’t our forte right now. Our middle school is loaded with kids, so it would have only been for a year or two.”
Pilot Rock football schedule
Aug. 29 at Pine Eagle 2 p.m.
Sept. 6 vs. Mohawk (at Dufur HS) 1 p.m.
Sept. 19 vs. Perrydale 7 p.m.
Sept. 26 vs. Echo 7 p.m.
Oct. 2 at Cove 7 p.m.
Oct. 9 vs. Lyle/Wishram/Klickitat/ Glenwood 7 p.m.
Oct. 16 at Dufur 7 p.m.
Oct. 23 vs. Elgin 7 pm.
Oct. 31 at Imbler 7 p.m.
Pilot Rock head football coach Shane Munkers instructs the varsity squad on Aug. 25, 2025, during a team practice. KATHY ANEY/THE CUJ
A pair of Pilot Rock football players face off in a drill on Aug. 25, 2025, during a team practice.
Pilot Rock football players face off in a drill on Aug. 25, 2025, during a team practice.
Reynolds leads strong herd of Bucks on cross country course
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
PENDLETON — Jack Reynolds has been the face of Pendleton cross country since he was a freshman.
Now a senior, Reynolds is impacting his wisdom and training on the younger runners
“Jack has had an amazing summer,” Pendleton coach Maddy Naughton said. “He put in a lot of miles. Jack sets a good example for the team. He will be a hard one to lose.”
Reynolds finished his summer training by running the Elkhorn Relay on Aug. 9, with runners from Union and Cove. The relay is an 80.6-mile adventure that goes along the Grand Ronde River and finishes near Anthony Lakes Ski resort.
Reynolds teamed with Mason Ritter of Union, Ian Garlitz, William Mallory and Gavin Pedro of Cove, and Eli Williams of Cove, who now runs for Western Washington University, setting a course record of 9 hours, 42 minutes.
Reynolds placed 15th at the 4A state championships last year after placing second at the GOL district meet. He was also 15th at state as a sophomore and 29th as a freshman.
“His goal after his freshman
year was to take everyone to state as a team,” Naughton said.
Reynolds has led the charge the past two years. The Bucks were ninth in the team standings at state last year as Khoda Brown was 43rd, Autry Robinson 62nd, Eric Baisley 69th and Mason Morioka 94th.
With all but Baisley and Morioka returning, the Bucks look strong again. Jefferson Steele also ran at state last year (100th), and sophomore Eagle Edmiston has improved tremendously, running a personal best 19:25.5 at the Community Park Preview
Shaul, Weseman at the
head of the pack for the TigerScots
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
ATHENA — Arden Shaul had a successful season on the course last year, and Weston-McEwen coach Bill Dobos believes the junior is capable of another trip to the 3A/2A/1A state championships.
“Barring any injuries, I see him making state again,” Dobos said. “We’ve had a couple of weeks of practice and I can see he will be the fastest boy on the team. Last year when he went to state, it was a huge accomplishment. The big thing will be what goes on in his head, not just the training.”
Shaul, who placed fifth at the district meet last year and 26th at state, will be pushed by senior Tristan Weseman.
“He really pushes Arden,” Dobos said. “He’s really into basketball and track is where his passion is. I think he can run faster and stronger than what he does. He’s a good runner and has run every year. He ran a 17:04 in Stanfield last year. He has it in him.”
The TigerScots have picked up a couple of new runners in Hunter Bissonette and Coleman Giger, with David Webb expected to join the team in a few weeks.
“David isn’t out yet,” Dobos said. “He has a dislocated shoulder, but I was told he could run.”
On the girls team, freshman Evelyn Hodgson is looking strong.
“I am going to run them (girls) all in the JV race in Tillamook,
but I may have her in the varsity race,” Dobos said of Hodgson. “We’ll see how she feels about it. She is a fireball. I am already assigning her more mileage than the other girls. She is running the longer miles with Arden and Tristan and she’s keeping up with them. She is giving them some competition and that is exciting.”
Junior Alethea Bond is in her third year with the TigerScots, and senior Manaia Wolf has joined the team, along with sister Stella, who is a freshman.
“Manaia plays several sports,” Dobos said. “She has really great form and is in good shape. I think she will turn out to be a good runner when we get the miles in. Stella, man can that girl run. They are both strong runners, we just have to get the conditioning in.”
The TigerScots open their season Sept. 6 at The Ultimook Race in Tillamook.
Weston-McEwen schedule
Sept. 6 The Ultimook, Tillamook
Sept. 12 48th annual Catherine Creek Scamper, Union
Sept. 19 Wallowa County Invitational
Sept. 26 Hawk Invite, Walla Walla
Oct. 3 Big Cross Invite, Pasco (WA)
Oct. 9 Atina Wilawiixt — Athena
Long Run
Oct. 17 Foot Race to Valhalla, Umatilla
Oct. 21 Kyle Burnside Memorial Invite, Pendleton
Oct. 31 3A/2A/1A Special District 3 Championships, Pendleton
on Aug. 28.
“Jack and Eagle went to the Steens Mountain Running Camp,” Naughton said. “Jack has really taken him under his wing.”
Sophomore Samuel Watrud and freshman Farley Hill also have shown promise this fall.
“Farley did a good job over the summer and he will be a good addition,” Naughton said. “We have more right behind them. Some are pretty darn new who are getting in there. They aren’t in the same shape, but we have some good new blood in there.”
Pendleton has 14 girls out on the course this fall, but are missing their top runner, Ella Pozar, who placed 47th at state last year as a freshman. Her family moved to
Minnesota over the summer.
“That was a blow to the team,” Naughton said. “She was a nice person to have around.”
Melissa Tune also ran at state for the Bucks, but she has graduated and is running for Mt. Hood Community College.
Junior Evelyn Hayes, sophomore Rylee Jackson and senior Evie Christiansen are the top three returning runners.
Sophomore June Reynolds, juniors Marion Tolliver and Ella Holtz, and freshmen Kimberly Tinoco and Savaya Cree MedicineMinthorn will be battling for topfive finishes among the Bucks.
“We are very young,” Naughton said. “The kids that we have have pretty good attitudes about what they are doing. They are working hard.”
Pendleton cross country schedule
Aug. 28 Community Park Preview, Pendleton
Sept. 6 Kyle Burnside Dress Up Parade Fun Run, Pendleton Sept. 13 Hermiston Melon Fest Sept. 20 Three Course Challenge, Seaside Sept. 26 2025 Nike Portland XC Oct. 3 Tiger Invite, La Grande Oct. 9 Live Nation Invitational at the Gorge, Quincy (WA) Oct. 21 Kyle Burnside Memorial Invite, Pendleton Oct. 31 GOL District Championships, La Grande
Pendleton’s Samuel Watrud, Eagle Edmiston and Khoda Brown warm up on Aug. 27, 2025, at Community Park at the start of cross-country practice. KATHY ANEY/ THE CUJ
Nixyaawii runners short on experience but rich in spirit
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
MISSION — Nixyaawii runners have been putting in the miles since the start of practice, but coach Weyekin Wildbill said the lack of experience on the boys and girls teams will leave the Golden Eagles with a few growing pains.
“They are all still pretty new, especially on the boys side,” Wildbill said. “A lot of them have been doing it, but haven’t finished a season yet. A few of the boys are kind of getting into the swing of things and are more motivated, which is nice to see.”
The Golden Eagles are moving forward this season after two of their top runners transferred to other schools.
Sun Schimmel, who ran at the state championships last fall, now is at Pilot Rock, and Ciicyle Thompson transferred to Umatilla.
“Losing Sun was a tough loss,” Wildbill said. “He’s a coachable athlete. It’s hard to lose one of those kids. At the end of the day, he represents our community really well. We will always root for him. I wish him the best. Ciicyle is a great athlete and a good student. We’ll miss her.”
While the losses are tough, Wildbill, a former standout runner at Pendleton High School, is ready to put in the miles to get his team ready for the fall season, which begins Sept. 6, with the Kyle Burnside Dress Up Parade Fun Run in Pendleton.
“It was strange when we only
had six kids out the first day,” Wildbill said. “The majority of the 14 came out the next day.”
The girls team has returning runners Ayanna Star Emma StarNez and Rosaella Salt.
For the boys, sophomores Irvin Stewart and Noah Snow join juniors Cassius Bevis and Jeffrey VanPelt.
“They have been working really hard, even in the classroom,” Wildbill said. “They are doing the work. There is a change in how they carry themselves. Running is good for mental health, social health and physical health. I have been getting to know them and making the team feel like a family. I feel like we are going in the right direction with the group. I think they will surprise themselves. That is the beauty of
the sport.”
Nixyaawii cross country schedule
Sept. 6 Kyle Burnside Dress Up Parade Fun Run, Pendleton
Sept. 12 48th annual Catherine Creek Scamper
Sept. 19 Wallowa County Invitational
Sept. 26 Champs Invite, Lebanon
Oct. 2 Mustang Invite, Heppner
Oct. 11 56th annual Max Jensen Invitational, Richland (WA)
Oct. 17 Foot Race to Valhalla, Umatilla
Oct. 21 Kyle Burnside Memorial Invite, Pendleton
Oct. 31 3A/2A/1A Special District 3 Championships, Pendleton
TigerScots start the season with a new look on offense without QB Berry
ANNIE FOWLER
The
CUJ
ATHENA — For the first time in four years, Weston-McEwen will not have Easton Berry at quarterback.
The all-state player, who started as a sophomore, was one of eight seniors who graduated in the spring, sending the TigerScots back to the drawing board.
“It’s not easy to replace an Easton Berry anywhere on the field,” W-M coach Morgan Dunlap said.
While Berry, running back Maddox King and linebacker Ethan Berry won’t be easy to replace, Dunlap said the cupboard isn’t bare.
“We have about 25 kids, but we have a strong junior class and several seniors coming back who played on the state championship teams,” Dunlap said. “We think it is a great group of kids and they are meshing really well. We don’t have the pressure of being a preseason No. 1.”
Junior Colby Perkins is at quarterback, with junior Aidenn Mahaffey as the backup.
Senior Jace Dunlap, a firstteam Blue Mountain Conference running back last year, after rolling up 800 yards and seven touchdowns, will share time in the backfield with senior A’Tish Williams, who Dunlap said can play a variety of positions.
“Jace was pretty much the starter last year after Maddox got hurt,” Dunlap said. “Jace had a good season stepping in. He will be a handful. He’s about 220 pounds. He will be hard to tackle. He would be a lineman, but he’s so athletic.”
Speedster Wyatt Parsons, who was second at the 2A state track meet in the 100 meters in May, will be out catching passes and playing in the secondary.
“He’s gotten bigger and stronger, but he’s still lightning fast,” Dunlap said. “We are expecting big things from him
Weston-McEwen’s A’Tish Williams sprints during a drill on Aug. 27, 2025, at a team practice. KATHY ANEY
this year.”
Juniors Angel Romero and Michael White also will play receiver and defensive back.
“We have a really good junior class,” Dunlap said. “They hit that growth spurt.”
The TigerScots got a boost with junior transfer Jonathan Leighty from Prairie City/Burnt River. He will play running back, linebacker and tight end.
“He’s just a really good athlete,” Dunlap said. “He is strong, athletic and stocky. He fills some holes for us, especially after losing Ethan (Reeder).”
Cason Pettyjohn will anchor the offensive and defensive lines, while Jayden Sparks returns as a starter on the offensive line.
The TigerScots have nine freshmen on the roster, but the oneDunlap is most excited about is lineman Ethan Stallings, who stands 6-5 and tips the scales at around 300 pounds.
“He is an animal,” Dunlap said. “He could end up starting on the line. He’s freakishly strong and a good kid. He’s just a monster. He just needs to learn the game.”
Because of enrollment numbers, Weston-McEwen had to end its co-op with Griswold High School. Dunlap said they lose about eight kids with playing experience.
“That is a big loss numbers wise, but we have a lot of good kids,” he said. “I think we may get overlooked, but it will be fun
playing the underdog.”
The TigerScots opened their season Sept. 30, with a 32-14 loss to Gold Beach. They have College Place, Washington, and Oakland left on their preseason schedule before they start league play Sept. 19 against Grant Union.
“We have a tough preseason,” Dunlap said. “Gold Beach only graduated two. College Place is the size of Pendleton and Oakland is always tough.”
Weston-McEwen football schedule
Aug. 30 vs. Gold Beach (at Culver HS) 1 p.m.
Sept. 5 vs. College Place (WA) 7 p.m.
Sept. 12 at Oakland 7 p.m.
Sept. 19 vs. Grant Union 7 p.m.
Oct. 3 at Stanfield 7 p.m.
Oct. 10 vs. Enterprise 7 p.m.
Oct. 17 vs. Heppner 7 p.m.
Oct. 24 at Irrigon 7 p.m.
Oct. 31 at Riverside 7 p.m.
Pendleton hungry for another trip to 4A state tournament
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
PENDLETON — Pendleton got a taste of the 4A state volleyball tournament last year, and now the Bucks want more.
“They don’t want to just get there, but do a little better,” said Bucks coach Jodi Primus, whose team went 0-2 at state. “We hadn’t been to state since 2012 when we were 5A. It was fun to get the girls there. They know they can get there. They want to keep working and pushing themselves to do a little better.”
Pendleton has all the components to put together a strong season, returning middle Avery Brown, outside hitters Sophie Nelson and Kelsi Primus and libero Finley Evans.
The Bucks have to replace twoyear starting setter Josie Jenness, but Maryn Broker and Caitlin Cooley have risen to the challenge.
Tatum Lambert, McKinley Moore and McKinley Lieuallen are settling in as defensive specialists, and junior Olivia Allen and freshman MJ Gomez are showing promise on the outside.
“We have a great returning core group and some new girls,” Primus said. “We have good depth. Our setters will step in and do a great job. We have a really strong hitting team and tough DSs. I’m super excited about those returning and those coming in. A lot of them have grown up
together and they are meshing really well. They are showing a lot of heart and hard work. I’m excited to see what we have.”
The Bucks also got a solid transfer from 6A South Salem in 5-10 junior Braelyn Gunter, who plays middle and right-side hitter.
The Saxons finished fifth at state last year and had a 23-8 record. She also played for the North Pacific Juniors Salem 16 Premier program.
The Bucks have won the past two Greater Oregon League titles. Last season, they went 6-0 in league play, beat Estacada 2518, 25-15, 25-21 in the first round of the state playoffs to reach the quarterfinals.
Pendleton dropped its quarterfinal game to Stayton, then lost a five-set match to Cascade in the consolation round. The Bucks finished the season with a 19-7 record.
“We sat down the first day of practice and set some season goals and how are we going to get there,” Primus said. “We want to do a better job of competing at the state tournament.”
The Bucks (3-0) are off to a good start to the season, winning the Hanna Cashell Memorial Tournament in La Grande.
Throughout the season, the Bucks will play in the Cascade Tournament, the North Marion Tournament and the Corbett Tournament.
They also will play nonleague
powers you? what
Wanda Exec. Director, Turtle Cove
matches against Redmond, Estacada, Weston-McEwen, Burns, Gladstone and Vale.
Pendleton will begin GOL play
Sept. 25 at Ontario.
Pendleton volleyball schedule
Aug. 28 at Pendleton Jamboree 4:30 p.m.
Aug. 30 at Hanna Cashell Memorial Tournament, La Grande 8 a.m.
Sept. 4 vs. Redmond 5 p.m.
Sept. 6 at Cascade Tournament
TBD
Sept. 9 at Burns 5:30 p.m.
Sept. 16 vs. The Dalles 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 17 at Clarkston (WA) 6 p.m.
Sept. 20 at North Marion Tournament TBD
Sept. 25 at Ontario 4:30 p.m. (MT)
Sept. 25 vs. Nyssa (at Ontario HS) 6 p.m. (MT)
Sept. 27 vs. Estacada 3 p.m.
Oct. 2 vs. La Grande 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 6 at Weston-MCEwen 5:30 p.m.
Oct. 9 at Baker 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 14 at Vale 6 p.m. (MT)
Oct. 16 vs. Ontario 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 18 at Corbett Tournament
TBD
Oct. 21 at Gladstone 6 p.m.
Oct. 23 vs. Baker 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 28 at La Grande 6:30 p.m.
Pendleton’s Avery Brown, senior middle blocker, serves on Aug. 26, 2025, during a team practice. KATHY ANEY/CUJ
Bucks face uncertainty at QB as season gets under way
ANNIE FOWLER
The CUJ
PENDLETON — Pendleton may have an unproven quarterback, but the Bucks do have a shifty running back, an all-state lineman and a Swiss Army knife in their arsenal of weapons.
“You are never as good as you think you are, and you are never as bad as you think you are,” Pendleton coach Erik Davis said. “They are working their tails off, but there is a little bit of the unknown. We are looking forward to young guys stepping up.”
Senior running back Tugg McQuinn (5-9, 175), the Greater Oregon League offensive player of the year last year, returns and will be joined in the backfield by fellow senior Vance Nelson.
“Kids like Tugg and Vance, with their skill set and ability to move the football, we will stay in a lot of games because of them,” Davis said. “They have the ability to turn an offensive series into touchdowns. We will be getting a stacked box from teams, so we will have to get creative. Tugg does things we can’t coach.”
Nelson, a first-team Greater Oregon League linebacker last year, has bulked up to 190 pounds.
“He is absolutely shredded,” Davis said. “He played summer baseball and lived in the weight room. We are moving him to free safety this year. Right now, he’s our Swiss Army knife.”
Junior Kaleb Lillie returns at center, which will help rookie quarterbacks Cole Sazue and Tucker Kuza. Lillie was a firstteam GOL pick at center last year and earned honorable mention all-state honors. He also will play on the defensive line.
“He had an outstanding sophomore year,” Davis said. “He’s our building block up front. He’s a really smart kid and really strong. He’s undersized height wise (5-10), but at 250 he’s plenty big. It’s nice to have that center who has experience. The young kids really look up to him.”
Senior Aidan Perkins will join Lillie on the offensive line and at defensive end.
“He’s going to create havoc defensively,” Davis said. “We have to let him play with his hair on fire. He’s put on some weight, he’s about 205. He is a tough, tough kid.”
Pendleton will get senior linebacker Adam Urbina back. He missed part of last season, and all of wrestling season, with a shoulder injury.
“It will be nice to have that experience back there,” Davis said.
It’s the quarterback position this season that lacks experience.
Junior Cole Sazue (6-2, 180) and sophomore Tucker Kuza (5-11, 155) are vying for playing time.
“Right now, I’m trying to get
two guys ready to go just because I want the competition. They both do some things very well. Tucker is real athletic and can add to the run game to the offense, and Cole is taller and can throw the ball. Cole has the look, for sure. Now it’s taking it from a JV game to varsity. It’s a faster game.”
The quarterbacks will have plenty of targets available.
Speedy John Thatcher has joined the Bucks for his senior year. Thatcher placed third in the 400 meters and sixth in the 200 at the 4A state track meet in May.
“He definitely has the speed, we’re just working on the nuances of the game,” Davis said.
Sophomore Aaden Hernandez, who made a splash as a freshman, returns at receiver. At 5-6, 140 pounds, he plays bigger than his size.
“He is super dynamic,” Davis said. “I just want to make sure he is durable. He plays like he’s 6-4. He works his tail off and is quicker than a hiccup. With a year under this belt he will continue to get better.”
Senior receiver Cole Roy (5-11, 175), junior tight end Jubal Hoisington (6-4, 220) and sophomore receiver Teegan Herrera (5-8, 150) will give the offense more options.
“We can also move Vance and Tugg to wide receiver options,” Davis said. “We have to think outside the box and let them get free in space.”
The Bucks also will have the services of soccer player Colin Harrington to take care of the kicking duties.
Pendleton is back in the Greater Oregon League this season, which has a new look with Crook County moving up to the 5A Intermountain Conference, and The Dalles taking its place.
“We just wait for the OSAA to tell us who we are playing,” Davis said. “Crook county did a great job. I don’t know how they will fare at the 5A level. We are lucky to get The Dalles back, we haven’t seen them in a few years.”
The Bucks were 3-1 in the GOL last year with a loss to Crook County. They finished the season 7-3 after bowing out of the state playoffs with a 44-26 loss to Cascade in the quarterfinals.
Pendleton, which will play its first four games on the road, lost its season opener Aug. 29, at Scappoose 56-29.
Pendleton football schedule
Aug. 29 at Scappoose 7 p.m.
Sept. 5 at East Valley (Yakima) 7 p.m.
Sept. 12 at Redmond 7 p.m.
Sept. 19 at Weiser (ID) 7 p.m. (MT)
Sept. 26 vs. Estacada 7 p.m.
Oct. 3 vs. Baker 7 p.m.
Oct. 17 vs. The Dalles 7 p.m.
Oct. 24 vs. Ontario 7 p.m.
Oct. 31 at La Grande 7 p.m.
CTUIR community picnic brings smiles and summer fun
PHOTOS BY TRAVIS SNELL/CTUIR
Wishing our niece, Angelica Sue a Happy Birthday
September, 1988 she arrived on Pendleton RoundUp
Dress-Up Parade evening.
Enjoy your day.
Love, Auntie Patty and Uncle Marvin
“Don’t worry be happy”
Athena-Weston schools to place $15M bond on ballot
LORYN KYKENDALL Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
ATHENA – Voters in the Athena-Weston School District will decide on a proposed $15.2 million bond during November’s general election that would pay for improvements to both the Athena and Weston campuses.
After several weeks of discussion and hearing feedback from the community, the district’s Community Bond Advisory Committee recommended the $15.2 million option to the school board. The school board voted to put it on the ballot at a meeting on Aug. 11.
“The reason we are looking at this now is the current bond will drop off next June,” Superintendent Ann Vescio said. “So if a bond passes, it will replace that bond. It does not get added on top of that.”
If approved, the bond would cost taxpayers a rate of $2.86 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation.
PRINCESSES
stands at 15.2 hands. She is a onein-a-million kind of horse, you can always rely on Dixie to get the job done, whether you ask her to walk in the Spokane Lilac Festival night parade in the pouring rain or take my sister Fallyn through the Sisters rodeo run-in as Junior Miss Rodeo Oregon.
What has being a Happy Canyon Princess taught you?
Korie: Being a princess has taught me that it costs nothing to be kind because you never know what someone else is going through. Every moment is a blessing and to really appreciate the little things in your life.
Avery: Being a Happy Canyon Princess has taught me to lead with kindness, pride, and grace. It has also shown me the value of hard work, teamwork, and honoring traditions.
What are you looking forward to most the week of Round-Up?
Korie: There are so many things during Round-Up to look forward to; the animals, the community, food, night show, rodeo, tourists, vendors and I get the chance to experience and meet them all. There is no better feeling than being in your hometown and connecting with the people who make this place special.
Avery: I am looking forward to spending the week meeting new faces that have traveled from all around to attend the Pendleton Round-up and Happy Canyon. I’m also excited to make memories with my court and take in every moment of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
When people come to see the Happy Canyon show, what do you hope they take away from the experience?
Korie: I hope they get the chance to see how charismatic our hometown is. How beautiful it is to see the town come together as one and share our cultures with
The bond would expire after 16 years but would be paid off in just over 15 years, Vescio said.
The bond would pay for renovations for the district’s reconfiguration: moving preschool through fifth grade into the middle school building and sixth through eighth into the elementary building.
The bond committee brought the idea to the school board in May as a way to help with staff sharing and increase efficiency. It would allow the middle and high schools, which do the most staff sharing, to be on the same campus rather than 10 minutes apart.
For the reconfiguration to work, several renovations are required at each building.
A large chunk of the bond, $11.2 million, will go toward building a new gym and locker room at the Athena campus. It will be the new flagship gym for the district and include a lobby, weight room, fitness room and gym that can be
divided for multiple events and practices.
“The thinking of the committee was if we’re going to build a gym, let’s build the gym we actually need and that supports the entire community,” Vescio said.
The bond will also pay for the construction of a $8.7 million career and technical education and science building for grades six through 12 at the Athena campus, $1.5 million to remodel classrooms and build a student commons area, and $400,000 for other minor improvements to support the middle school grades moving in.
At the Weston campus, $2.2 million will go toward Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility improvements, $500,000 to improving drop-off and pick-up areas, $200,000 to remodeling the lower gym classrooms, $410,000 on minor improvements to support the elementary grades moving in, and $275,000 for a new gravel parking lot.
Vescio acknowledged that there was a lot of community — and district — interest in building a new high school, which was built in 1949. She said the price tag for that project was too much to ask from the community all at once.
“The thought is that this is phase one of that rebuild,” Vescio said. “It doesn’t take anything off the table in the future … it builds the expensive parts of the high school first and then in 12 or 13 years when we start having these conversations again, we can start thinking about the second half of the project to completely rebuild the high school.”
If the bond passes, the district will also receive a matching amount of about $10.2 million from the Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching Program, bringing the total collected by the school district to more than $25.4 million.
“I hope people leave the Happy Canyon show with a deeper understanding and appreciation of our Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse history, culture, and traditions. Most of all, I want them to see pride, resilience, and spirit in our people.”
each other. To see we are not just a rodeo town, but a one-of-akind place with an immersion of cultures you won’t find anywhere else.
Avery: I hope people leave the Happy Canyon show with a deeper understanding and appreciation of our Umatilla, Walla Walla, and Cayuse history, culture, and traditions. Most of all, I want them to see pride, resilience, and spirit in our people.
What is your favorite part about participating in the Happy Canyon show?
Korie: One of my favorite parts of being able to participate in the night show would is going through the arena on horses while also trying to find people in the crowd. I also like to see how many people dedicate their time volunteering for this unique outdoor show.
Avery: My favorite part about participating in the Happy Canyon show is being able to share my culture and traditions with everyone. It is great to see our community members come together every year to keep the storyline of the Happy Canyon Night Show alive. It’s so special to be a part of the HC family. Do you have a memorable moment from performing in past shows or parades?
Korie: What made moments so memorable from past shows and parades are the strangers who have offered help at any moment. Alongside that are the people at the end of the parade waiting for me and seeing the excitement on their faces from a successful ride.
Avery: My most memorable moment in past parades was being
able to ride in the Chief Joseph Days parade. Growing up, my family made it a tradition to attend Chief Joseph Days every year, so being able to ride in my regalia through the streets of Joseph has been such a heartfelt memory. What advice would you give to young girls who hope to be a Happy Canyon Princess one day?
Korie: Some advice for all the young girls who dream of this position, try your best and never give up. Nothing is impossible. They say “you only live once” so remind yourself of all the hard work you put in to be there and take advantage of every moment you get.
Avery: My advice to any young girls who have dreams of becoming a future Happy Canyon Princess is to always stay true to yourself and carry yourself with pride. Becoming a princess isn’t just about the title, it’s about being a role model and treating others with kindness. Work hard, be humble, and never stop believing in yourself.
Outside of your role as Happy Canyon Princess, what are your goals for the future—school, career, or community involvement?
Korie: After my year I will continue my education, working towards a degree in fisheries, wildlife, and conservation sciences. After graduation, I would love to return to the reservation and work for the tribe. I will also stay involved with this association and community as much as possible.
Avery: Outside my role as a Happy Canyon Princess, my goal is to finish high school
strong and then continue my education in college while playing softball, pursuing a degree in sports medicine and minoring in business. I also hope to stay involved in my community and to come back to my community to use what I learn to help others. Is there anyone you would like to thank or acknowledge?
Korie: First and foremost, I would love to thank my family for always going above and beyond for me every single day. Especially my mother, my person, I could not have done it without her. Augustus & Virginia, your unwavering support throughout this journey truly means the world. Kayla, for always believing in me, especially when I couldn’t. Brian & Jennifer, not only being the best chaperones a girl could have but making this year one to cherish.
Avery: I would like to sincerely thank my family for all their love and support throughout my reign as a 2025 Happy Canyon Princess, it wouldn’t be possible without their time and energy. I would also like to say a special thank you to my horse crew this year, Carrie Sampson, Jesse Bronson, Johnny Sampson, and Fallyn Plume. Thank you all for putting in the time and effort to make sure everything runs smoothly.
The 2025 Happy Canyon Night Show will take place from September 10–13, 2025. Both Princess Avery and Princess Korie look forward to representing the tradition and history of Happy Canyon with pride!
“After my year I will continue my education, working towards a degree in fisheries, wildlife, and conservation sciences. After graduation, I would love to return to the reservation and work for the tribe. I will also stay involved with this association and community as much as possible.”
Walla
descendant returns for Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic
MISSION — Selanée Henderson Pendleton, a descendant of the Walla Walla Tribe, returned to her roots this August to compete in the 2025 Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic — her first professional tournament appearance since 2017.
Her maternal grandmother was born on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Oregon native said being back on familiar ground held deep meaning.
“It doesn’t really feel like pressure,” she said during a media event. “It feels like an honor to be able to come back out and represent both my family, all the work I put in, and then my heritage as well, all at the same time.”
Henderson Pendleton picked up golf at age six alongside her late father. By nine, she was competing in junior tournaments with him as her caddie. She went on to a standout collegiate career at the University of California, Irvine, winning six events and earning four All-Big West honors. She was inducted into UC Irvine’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
After turning pro in 2009, she spent nearly a decade on the
Epson Tour. Her best season came in 2014, when she made 10 cuts and recorded three top-10 finishes.
Now a mother of two, Henderson Pendleton returned to the competitive stage as one of the tournament’s sponsor exemptions. The week marked her first time playing at Wildhorse since childhood.
“I think this will be the first time playing here since playing with [my dad],” she said. “It didn’t occur to me until I pulled up.”
She also helped lead a youth clinic during tournament week — an experience she said hit home as a parent.
“Now that I have kids, it’s way easier to communicate with them,” she said. “It makes me want to get more involved with helping the kids in my community.”
In competition, she shot rounds of 77 and 75 for a total of 152 (+8), missing the cut by a few strokes. Still, the experience was about more than numbers.
“I hope anyone in the community feels inspired—whether it’s a mom or a tribal member,” she said in an Epson Tour press release.
“I appreciate that I have such a cool background. I just hope I represent it well.”
Selanée Henderson Pendleton speaks during a media event at Wildhorse Golf Course on Aug. 11, 2025, ahead of the Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic.
DANELI ATILANO
The CUJ
Selanée Henderson Pendleton helps a child with his swing during a golf clinic the week of the Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic.
Epson Tour 2025 Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic
Wildhorse Resort & Casino hosted the 2025 Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic, a tournament as part of the Epson Tour, from Aug. 15-17. This year’s winner is Erika Hara of Yokohama, Japan. Hara’s victory won her $37,500 presented by Wildhorse Resort & Casino CEO Gary E. George. Hara also secured her NO. 3 spot in the Epson Tour’s Race for the Card, a season-long points competition that qualifies the top 15 players for the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour in 2026.
PHOTOS BY WIL PHINNEY/COURTESY
Japanese Cultural Exchange Japanese Cultural Exchange
