KWSO News 2/6/19

The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs will hold a referendum next month which will ask the question “should Resolution 12,157 determining the blood quantum for the purpose of automatic enrollment be approved? A general council meeting about the 1980 Baseline Referendum is planned for next week on Tuesday evening at the Agency Longhouse.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, will host town halls in Bend, Madras and Prineville in February. Wyden, who holds meetings in all 36 Oregon counties each year, originally planned to visit Central Oregon in January but canceled those meetings because of the federal government shutdown. He’ll appear first in Madras, at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 22 at the Madras Performing Arts Center. Town halls in Bend and Prineville are planned for February 23^rd. Wyden will speak briefly about work in Washington, D.C. and then answer audience questions.

After grilling federal law enforcement officials at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis in December, U.S. Senator Jon Tester introduced legislation Tuesday to commission a federal study on the crisis, Indianz.com reported. Tester’s bill—the Studying the Missing and Murdered Indian Crisis Act—would direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a full review of how federal agencies respond to reports of missing and murdered Native Americans and recommend solutions based on their findings.  In addition to improving law enforcement cooperation and information sharing, the bill also directs the GAO to make recommendations on how to address economic, social, and other underlying factors that are fueling this crisis.