Local News

KWSO News for Tue., Jan. 26, 2021

Posted on by sue.matters
26
Jan

Yesterday Tribal Council concurred with the recommendation of the local COVID-19 response team to keep the Tribal Organization with reduced staffing.  There was clarification in the recommendation about the need to provide services to the membership – but the need to do so in a safe manner for both employees and the public.  Each Tribal Building is different and so accommodations to be COVID safe vary from providing barriers with acrylic dividers, marked social distancing, use of private offices to flexible work schedules and work from home.  You can see the recommendations that were approved HERE

As of yesterday, at the Warm Springs Health & Wellness Center, 200 people have been fully vaccinated with 2 doses of the Moderna vaccine.  An additional 400 people have received their first dose.  This week, immunizations begin for those in Phase 1 C which are Elders age 65 and older, Adults over 55 with underlying at risk health conditions, Veterans, and Traditional and Culture Keepers (as identified by Tribal Council).

With Oregon now prioritizing educators for COVID-19 vaccinations, the Jefferson County Public Health department has taken the lead on for 509-J school district staff including teachers and employees at the Warm Springs K-8 Academy.  Schools are planning for a return to a return to in-person, on-site school on Monday, February 1, 2021.  Superintendent Ken Parshall reported to Tribal Council that about 80% of families have indicated they will have students return to school with 20% keeping their youth at home with the CASA online school program.

Central Oregon residents age 75 and older are now eligible to schedule their COVID-19 vaccine at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center. Vaccines are provided by appointment only.  Residents in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties who are 75 and older, as well as individuals in Phases 1A and 1B – Group 1, can schedule an appointments at https://www.stcharleshealthcare.org/   Over the past week, the Deschutes County Fairgrounds vaccination site has been able to give COVID-19 doses to more than 4,000 Central Oregonians, including about 3,000 educators.  The vaccination site is a regional effort between St. Charles Health System, the Deschutes County Health Services and the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.

KTVL TV reports that a year after a proposal to change the name of Southern Oregon’s “Dead Indian Mountain, Creek and Soda Springs”, the Oregon Geographic Names Board (OGNB) recently approved the name change. Those features will now be named after the native Latgawa people, that lived in the area for thousands of years before being relocated to the Siletz and Grand Ronde reservations in the 1800s.    The Latgawa were never a federally recognized tribe.  And so the Board of Commissioners reached out to the 9 Tribes in Oregon for comments.   The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and the Cow Creek Tribe responded indicating that the locations of the features being renamed were not part of their homelands and so they had no comment.  No other Tribes responded.  Latgawa means “upland water source.”

sue.matters