By Cary Rosenbaum of the CUJ, POMEROY, Wash. – Instead of history in the making, it was history in the releasing. On May 21, the long-awaited restoration project came to fruition with the release of approximately 150,000 juvenile Pacific lampreys in waves by the thousands. A decade has passed since a revitalization effort was launched to bring back lamprey to…
Category: Features
Two Rivers inmate was advocate for Native rights
-Phyll Mendacino passed away at age 65 due to COVID-19 complications By Jill-Marie Gavin for the CUJ The last time Red Lodge Transition Services (Red Lodge) organized a large event at Two Rivers Correctional Facility (Two Rivers) was in August of 2019. On August 31, 2019, inmates and visitors gathered for the annual “prison pow wow.” Throughout the whole event,…
COVID IS HORRID: Tribal members share COVID-19 struggles
By Wil Phinney of the CUJ Frank and Nan Taylor suffer physically, emotionally For Frank Taylor, COVID-19 “got real” when nurses in the intensive care unit at St. Anthony Hospital suggested he might want to get his affairs in order. Frank is better, but for Nan Taylor, COVID-19 is still a nightmare. First it was a matter of life or…
The freaks were out on Dogwood Lane
About five years ago Frank Lopez decided he’d create a little Halloween fun in the neighborhood and he’s been making his yard look sicker and grosser and scarier every year since. “Nobody was doing anything so I decided I’d decorate the yard and little by little … something to get the trick-or-treaters out here,” said Lopez, a Coral Aztec Indian…
Reckoning at Standing Rock
Paddlers from the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere arrive by canoe at the main activist camp on North Dakota’s Cannon Ball River during a canoe demonstration in September against the Dakota Access Pipeline. photo: Terray Sylvester With tribal leaders in the front row, President Richard Nixon signs into law a bill deeding lands to the Taos and Pueblo American Indians, one…
Glavis Wagner prime example of CTUIR voc rehab client
By Casey Brown of the CUJ The open road became the long road that brought Glavis Wagner, 59, back home to Oregon in 1995. Wagner is a peer recovery mentor at Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center with the BH2I program and former bus driver on the Mission route for Kayak Public Transit. He is enrolled with the Confederated Tribes of the…
Rivera resigns as NCS hoop coach
By Wil Phinney of the CUJ MISSION – Shane Rivera is resigning as head boys’ basketball coach after compiling a record of 171 wins against 51 losses in eight seasons at Nixyaawii Community School (NCS). Rivera took NCS to the Oregon Class 1A State Tournament five times, winning the title in the 2018-19 season. That year Rivera was Oregon Class 1A…
McMichael wins Ford Family scholarship
2020 salutatorian wants to return to teach history at Nixyaawii Community School Cloe McMichael is comfortable being a bit of a contradiction. Or should we say she’s not bothered if people thinks she’s a little different. When this light-skinned Indian heads off to Corvallis and Oregon State University in the fall, she will be one of the few students who won’t…