By Brian Bull/Opinion for Underscore For more than a century, “The Pioneer” stood tall on his pedestal on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. With his bushy beard, boots, and buckskin, he struck many Oregonians as the embodiment of frontier courage and determination, representative of settlers who traveled thousands of miles to tame the Wild West and build a…
Category: Opinion
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…
Lindsey X. Watchman
Birthday hugs and kisses, long-awaited sweat brings spirit alive once again
By General Council Chair Lindsey Watchman Oykalo iinim himiyuume, iin wees lilooyca – I am thankful/happy. Around mid-May, I turned 48 years old. Like many of you (as well as our children), birthday celebrations have been a bit more challenging these past few months. Held virtually, and even car parades … who would have thunk? Yet, each of us have…
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
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…
Maintaining productivity in crisis-management mode
By Ted A Wright, PhD These have been challenging times for us all, through the devastation of the Umatilla River flood right into a worldwide viral pandemic. So, as a government, we’ve been working in crisis-management mode for 13 weeks, and most management and staff have not taken a day off since the end of January. Despite all these struggles,…
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…
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…