News Stories Mon., May 7, 2018

Strive is a residential summer college readiness program for Native American  9-12 grade students who have at least a 2.0 GPA. The goal of the program is to provide cultural and academic support and help young Native students develop leadership skills. Students take culturally appropriate classes from college professors in a variety of subjects and also work with current Native American college students. STRIVE is free for all students. It will be held June 28 — July 2 at the COCC Bend Campus. Any recently graduated high school senior that completes STRIVE and attends COCC will receive a $1,000 scholarship for school. The deadline to apply is Friday June 8^th. Interested students should can visit cocc dot edu slash multicultural for more details.

Four Democrats from Oregon’s congressional delegation are promising changes for Chemawa Indian School after meeting with tribal representatives and the federal school’s leadership in Salem. U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Kurt Schrader and leaders from seven Oregon tribes met Thursday to express concerns and press administrators for answers. That follows an OPB series last fall that documented long-standing concerns over student safety, academics, school management and finances. The group emerged with both immediate and long-range plans to reform the country’s oldest federally run boarding school for Native youth: increased transparency, greater tribal involvement and a potential overhaul of the school’s governance. Tribal Representation included Tribal Council Chairman Austin Greene and Paiute Chief Joe Moses from Warm Springs.

Two 500-year-old skeletons discovered in Idaho’s high desert plains will be turned over to tribes.  U.S. officials in a series of notices starting Friday say the remains of the young adult and child will be given to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in eastern Idaho and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes in southern Idaho and northern Nevada. The AP reports other tribes have expressed an interest in the remains were northern Idaho’s Nez Perce Tribe, the Burns Paiute Tribe of eastern Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs, and the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation in Nevada and Oregon. U.S. officials said those tribes deferred to the tribes selected to receive the remains but declined to elaborate, citing the confidentiality of the government-to-government communications. U.S. officials in the public notices give the approximate range of the remains from 1436 to 1522 and said that’s based on overlapping dates from the two sets of remains.

Oregonians are reminded to turn in those ballots for the 2018 Primary Election.  Historically, voter participation has been relatively low in non-presidential primary elections, which means that the voters who do turn in their ballots have greater influence.  Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson says in order to help level the playing field, for the first time ever, the Voters’ Pamphlet includes statements from all eight of Oregon’s political parties. In past primary elections, only the two largest parties were permitted to include statements in the Pamphlet.  If you are going to mail your ballot, give yourself plenty of time for it to arrive before 8:00pm on May 15. If you prefer to deliver your ballot, you can take it to a ballot drop box – which in Warm Springs is on the campus area, across the street from the post office.