KWSO News for Mon., Feb. 7, 2022

Warm Springs Telecom reports that Saturday morning, an unknown vehicle, ripped down the Warm Springs fiber optic cable near the 4 way intersection by the Community Center.  This also led to an electrical outage for Pacific Power and Light customers Saturday morning.  Anyone who witnessed that accident is asked to contact Warm Springs Police.

The broken fiber feeds the CTWS Organizations, Utilities, the WSK8 and all customers off of Pelton Dam.  The Tribal computer network is impacted along with many of the Tribes’ phone systems.

At Indian Health Service their phones are down so they have designated cell phone numbers to be used temporarily.  (You can not leave a message so if there is no answer, please call back.)

The Descendants of tribes on the Northern California coast are reclaiming a bit of their heritage that includes ancient redwoods that have stood since their ancestors walked the land. As reported in Indian Country Today, a Group of 10 tribes will be responsible for protecting more than 500 acres dubbed “Fish Run Place” in the Sinkyone Language. The transfer marks a step in the growing Land Back movement to return Indigenous homelands to the descendants of those who lived there for millennia before European settlers arrived. Priscilla Hunter, Chairwoman of the Sinkyone Council, said it’s fitting they will be caretakers of the land where her people were removed or forced to flee before the forest was largely stripped for timber. Save the Redwoods League had planned to announce the transfer and has worked with the Sinkyone Council since 2012. The League has made several purchases over the years in order to help protect the land, such as a $37 million purchase of a scenic 5-mile stretch of the rugged and forbidding Lost Coast from a lumber company to protect it from logging and eventually open it up to the public.

In local prep sports – The Madras Boys varsity basketball team played hard Friday Night in front of the home crowd but came up just short 62 to 64.  It was an exciting game to watch and the boys gave it everything they had. Coach Brown gives us his insight on what he saw during the game. “Obviously there’s going to be a possession here a possession there, you look back cause you’re not going to play perfect basketball, but I was so proud of our guys tonight. They played great, we did, we played so well on both sides, we worked our tail off on the defensive end, got great looks on the offensive end. I mean really the difference was a millimeter on Seneca’s shot with 15 seconds left, another inch on Akili’s shot at the buzzer, I mean that was really the difference. Any time you’re playing a team with that size that likes to play inside, as soon as your two bigs get in foul trouble it’ll definitely hurt you a little bit.”  Next up for the Boys, they will travel to Estacada this Friday for League Action, Varsity tip-off is set for 7pm.

The Lady White Buffaloes won on the road in Molalla and sit atop the Tri Valley League with a 6 and 0 record and 4 more regular season games left.  Next Friday they host Estacada then have a game at North Marion on the 15^th.  Senior Night for the Lady Buffs is Friday February 18^th against Corbett and the final game of the season is at Gladstone – who are 5 and 1 – with their only loss to Madras.