Pendleton’s Avery Brown plays the net during practice on August 22, 2024. KATHY ANEY | THE CUJ

This week in area sports

Thursday, Aug. 29 Boys soccer The Dalles at Pendleton, 4 p.m. Girls soccer Pendleton at The Dalles, 4 p.m. Cross country Pendleton, Pilot Rock at John Hascall Memorial 3K, Pilot Rock, 6:30 p.m. Prep volleyball Pendleton, Nixyáawii, Pilot Rock at Umatilla/Morrow County Jamboree, Pendleton High School, 4:30 p.m. Imbler at Weston-McEwen, TBD Dufur at Weston-McEwen, 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30…

A bipartisan group of senators is demanding immediate action from USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack after several tribal nations reported that a federal food distribution program they rely on has not fulfilled orders for months, and in some cases has delivered expired food. DAILY MAIL | COURTESY PHOTO

Senators demand the USDA fix its backlog of food distribution to Native American tribes

By GRAHAM LEE BREWER, Associated Press A bipartisan group of senators is demanding immediate action from USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack after several tribal nations reported that a federal food distribution program they rely on has not fulfilled orders for months, and in some cases has delivered expired food. Last spring, the USDA consolidated from two contractors to one for deliveries…

Smoke rises into the air from a grass fire on Wednesday, Aug. 21 near the Johnly gravel pit in Cayuse, Oregon. The Umatilla Tribal Fire Department first responded to the fire and helped extinguish it later that day. JAMES HALL | UMATILLA TRIBAL FIRE DEPARTMENT COURTESY PHOTO

UTFD extinguishes grass fire near Cayuse

CAYUSE – At approximately 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 21 the Umatilla Tribal Fire Department (UTFD) helped contain a grass fire near the Johnly gravel pit. According to an incident report filed by UTFD Chief James Hall, firefighters responded to heavy smoke with a brush truck, a water tender truck and a chief’s vehicle near the gravel pit and immediately requested mutual aid…

CTUIR, IHS leaders to sign MOA for $44.5M water project

MISSION – Elected leaders of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) and Indian Health Service (IHS) officials will sign a memorandum of agreement on Monday, Aug. 26 for the tribe’s $44.5 million wastewater treatment project.  The ceremonial signing is set for noon at the Nixyáawii Governance Center to celebrate the $38 million IHS has appropriated from its…

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, speaks during a press conference in Salt Lake City to announce state action for Utah public lands on Aug. 20, 2024. JEFFREY D. ALLRED | THE DESERET NEWS PHOTO

Utah lawsuit seeks state control over vast areas of federal land

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Republican leaders made good Tuesday on a decade-old vow to launch a legal challenge aimed at wresting control from the U.S. government over much of the federal lands that dominate the state. The state’s attorney general said he asked to file a lawsuit with the U.S.…

This photo provided by the environmental group Earthjustice shows Ha’Kamwe’, a sacred spring near Wikieup, Ariz., March 5, 2022. ASH PONDERS | EARTH JUSTICE PHOTO

Judge blocks Arizona lithium drilling that tribe says is threat to sacred lands

By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press A federal judge has temporarily blocked exploratory drilling for a lithium project in Arizona that tribal leaders say will harm land they have used for religious and cultural ceremonies for centuries. Lawyers for the national environmental group Earthjustice and Colorado-based Western Mining Action Project are suing federal land managers on behalf of the Hualapai Tribe.…

Chuck Hoskin, chief of the Cherokee Nation, said he believes many institutions now understand they can no longer treat Indigenous items as “museum curiosities” from “peoples that no longer exist.” CHEROKEE NATION | COURTESY PHOTO

Museums closed Native American exhibits 6 months ago. Tribes are still waiting to get items back

By PHILIP MARCELO, Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Tucked within the expansive Native American halls of the American Museum of Natural History is a diminutive wooden doll that holds a sacred place among the tribes whose territories once included Manhattan. For more than six months now, the ceremonial Ohtas, or Doll Being, has been hidden from view after the…

Pornanong Phatlum shot par on the final hole to win the Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic on Sunday, Aug. 18, at Wildhorse Golf Course. EPSON TOUR | COURTESY PHOTO

Phatlum wins Wildhorse Classic by two strokes

By ANNIE FOWLER, CUJ Special Contributor MISSION — Pornanong Phatlum got a look at the leaderboard on the 13th hole. She saw she had a two-stroke lead, and by the time she teed off on the 18th hole, she admitted she was a little nervous. Those nerves were soon put to the rest as she shot par on the final…

Gabby Lemieux LPGA | COURTESY PHOTO

2 local golfers to compete in WRC Epson Tour event

Pendleton’s Haley Greb and Caldwell, Idaho’s Gabby Lemieux will play in the 2024 Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic Aug. 16-18. PENDLETON – Two local golfers will tee off against Epson Tour regulars during the 2024 Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino’s Golf Course Aug. 16-18. Returning to Pendleton for the third year in a row, the official…