KWSO News 8/30/19

There were several lightning strikes yesterday on the Warm Springs reservation – with many on the western side near Sidwalter, Mt Wilson and Ollalie.  Crews today will be watching for signs of sleepers popping up.  Near Eagle Butte – on the west side of the Warm Springs River across from the fish hatchery lighting sparked a wildfire yesterday afternoon.  Fire Management got a call just before 5.  Initial response included use of a helicopter stationed here in Warm Springs, followed by crews hiking in.  The “Fish Hatchery” fire was manned overnight and is contained this morning at about 54 acres.

The back to school BBQ was held yesterday at the Warm Springs k-8 Academy.  The annual event is held to being families and students together with school staff and for the community to show their support for education.  This year – new administrators were introduced including Bambi Van Dyke – the new K8 principal and Lonny Henderson the new K8 assistant principal.  Also attending was the new Madras High principal – Brian Crook.  There’s a new principal at the Bridges alternative high school too – his name is Jay Wheat.   The Warm Springs Bridges annex is located at the ROOTS trailer on teacher row here in Warm Springs and Mr. Earl Simmons will again be running that program.

KWSO gave out Eagle News “Native Student” t-shirts at the BBQ yesterday.  For families who missed out – you can pick up a shirt today at the KWSO booth at the Outdoor Market on campus in front of the Community Action Team Office.  KWSO is also hosting our Membership BBQ and encourage everyone to stop by to check out our merchandise, buy a raffle ticket for our fuzzy blanket drawing today and you can also purchase a food plate.  Chicken Kabobs are on the menu.

This week the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington issued an order in Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation v. Klickitat County et al.,  affirming the reservation status of more than 121 thousand acres within the southwestern corner of the Yakama Reservation, including Mt. Adams and the Glenwood Valley.  The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation ceded certain rights to more than 10,000,000 acres of land for the rights reserved in the Treaty of 1855, including the right to the exclusive use and benefit of the 1.4 million acre Yakama Reservation.  The Treaty includes a tract of land south of Mt. Adams known as ‘Tract D’ within the Reservation boundaries, which the United States depicted on a Treaty Map in 1855, but the map was lost in government files until 1930.  Klickitat County argued at trial that the Reservation Boundaries were changed by Congress in 1904 based on an erroneous survey referenced in a surplus lands act passed while the Treaty Map was misplaced.  In the ruling –  Chief Judge Thomas Rice stated in the Order  Applying the canons of treaty construction, the Yakama Nation would have naturally understood the Treaty of 1855 to include Tract D within the Yakama Reservation,” and said. “The 1904 Act did not change the Treaty boundaries of the Yakama Reservation and did not effectuate a diminishment of the Reservation.”