KWSO News for Thu., Mar. 31, 2022

Work continues on campus to prepare the site for the Community Action Team’s Small Business Incubator Project.  The old Commodities building – most recently used by Natural Resources, located behind the Warm Springs Post Office will be moved beginning on April 4^th to the corner of Highway 26 and Paiute Street.  A blessing ceremony will take place at 8am before the move, Please avoid the area Monday morning as there will be delays and disruption. Asbestos and Lead Paint removal was completed in the oldest standing building on the reservation.  Renovations will be done to create space that will support local small business along with retail space and a food area.  They have successfully lifted the building off of its current foundation in preparation of the transfer to the new site. You can learn a little more about the initial planning that went into this project by checking out KWSO’s YouTube Channel in a video titled WSCAT Commissary Project.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHGbiY5j5z8

According to reports in the Pioneer, water company located in Culver, Earth2O is closing its plant as employees have reported that the company has said their jobs will end on April 1^st. The water bottling company started in 1991 as Sweet-water, was taken over by Steve Emery in 2005 and in 2007 was rebranded to Earth2O. In July 2021 Primo Water Corporation bought out the company and 5 and a half months later, appears to be closing the company. Neither Primo nor Earth2O have returned calls to the Pioneer. It’s unclear whether the brand Earth2O will continue, but apparently the bottle will no longer hold Opal Springs water. The sole honor now belongs to the company down the Street, Opal Springs water. Both Opal Springs, which goes by the brand H2Otogo, and Earth2O bottle water from Opal Springs, the ancient aquifer that gushes award-winning water so pure it need no treatment and is the source of residential water for Madras and other surrounding communities. The economic impact of the plant closure in Culver should be short term says Jon Stark, director of Economic Development of Central Oregon.

The 2022 NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS NOMINEES are still waiting for your vote for the awards which cover all recordings released from 2019 through 2021.  In the Best Debut Group or Duo category is Warm Springs’ own Blue Flamez and YL for “Warrior”. In the best R&B Recording Category – Blue Flamez Featuring Kaos is in the running for “Game Time” as is Bigg B for “Hometown.”   Also Blue Flamez “Blessed” is listed in the Best Rap Hip Hop Recording category, Kalliah and Black Water are up for the Best Single Recording for their song “I Will Always Fight”.  Today is the last day to vote for your favorite Native American music artists, a date and time for the announcement of the winners of the awards has not yet been set.

The final sentencing in the death of a Redmond man in August of 2020 has been handed down. Salbador Angeles Robinson has been sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole on charges of first-degree manslaughter and conspiracy to commit a Class-A felony – first degree robbery. As reported by the Pioneer the sentence comes in relation to the stabbing death of Brian Jones of Redmond. According to court documents, the defendants were high on methamphetamine and acid when they abducted Jones in his vehicle before stabbing him in the vehicle and dumping his body on NW Danube Drive between Warm Springs and Madras. Oregon District Attorney Steve Leriche, after reading a letter from the victim’s son, stated that defendant Robinson had been truthful, respectful and had always accepted his role in the crime and had expressed desire to plead guilty and begin serving his time. The sentence was delivered by Jefferson County judge Annette Hillman.

Almost every population of Northwest freshwater mussels is declining. Researchers hope to figure out what’s going on so they can save these keystone species. The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service is studying the western ridged mussel, one of only a handful of freshwater mussel species in the Northwest. One day, the service could add the western ridged mussel to the Endangered Species List. Courtney Newlon is a biologist for the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service. She says the western ridged mussel has declined by 43 percent across its habitat, which ranges from California to British Columbia. Newlon says freshwater mussels are a keystone species. “The mussels do a lot of work behind the scenes, such as maintaining water quality, filtering out sediments like pollutants and bacteria, and they provide food and habitat for other aquatic species.” Mussels are also important culturally to tribes, who use the shells to make jewelry and ornamentation. Historically, tribes also boiled and dried freshwater mussels to eat over winter.