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…

Come on America: Listen to COVID-19 experts

It’s summer so the virus must be over, right? Not so fast. Pull that mask back up over your nose. A coronavirus resurgence is wiping out two months of progress sending infections to scary new levels across the southern and western United States. Hospital administrators and health experts are warning that politicians and a cooped-up public are letting a calamity…

Chief Don Sampson
Chief Don Sampson

Coronavirus changes ceremonies, challenges leaders

By Don Sampson Our tribes and our ancestors have been infected by deadly viruses and diseases brought to the shores of our native homeland by European immigrants since Columbus in 1492. This onslaught of new disease spread by European immigrants amongst Native Americans resulted in millions of Native people dying in the “greatest demographic disaster in human history.” The deadliest…

Jill-Marie Gavin
Jill-Marie Gavin

COVID-19 gives new meaning to Mother’s Day

By Jill-Marie Gavin for the CUJ This year Mother’s Day has landed in the middle of Covid-19. While our governments, communities and families brace themselves for the requirements of essential work, sheltering in place and seemingly endless extensions of stay-at-home orders there have been words of encouragement. Some of these messages have been soothing, and some not so much. A…

Lindsey X. Watchman
Lindsey X. Watchman

Kii hiiwes wew’eex wala! – it’s spring time!

Normally during this time of year, the weather becomes warmer, daylight longer, and families enjoy community events like the Fun Run and Flag Day. Normally playgrounds and basketball courts are active with our children. Also during this time, you can find tribal members in the mountains carefully harvesting, caring for, and preparing our sister roots.   Normally, we are honoring our…

N. Kathryn Brigham
Chair of the CTUIR Board of Trustees

Follow guidelines so we can reopen community

By N. Kathryn Brigham The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are at war with an invisible enemy and we fight this war alongside all 574 Tribal Nations, the United States, and the World as a whole. In the beginning it seemed that this enemy would only take those over 60 years of age.  Now we know that it…

Where are our local legislators?

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) work extremely hard to address issues of mutual concerns with the State of Oregon. This government-to-government relationship ensures open and clear communication to ensure the needs of all of our citizens are being addressed through executive, legislative and judicial bodies. To this end, the CTUIR regularly meets with elected members of…