Lt. Michael Blasy, senior environmental engineer for the Indian Health Service’s Yakama Field Office, right, listens as Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Public Works director Justin Northern talks about a planned 60-acre manmade wetlands area located near Tamástslikt Cultural Institute. The wetlands will store reclaimed and recycled wastewater for use on Wildhorse Resort & Casino’s golf course and serve as habitat for birds, pollinators, waterfowl and native plants. CHRIS AADLAND | THE CUJ
By CHRIS AADLAND, The CUJ MISSION – Standing on the edge of dry, brown fields near the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute (TCI) on Aug. 26, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Public Works director Justin Northern told about two dozen tribal leaders and federal officials gathered around him that much of area would likely soon be much wetter. That’s…
Pendleton’s Landon Van Pelt blocks during football practice on Aug. 22, 2024.
KATHY ANEY | THE CUJ
FALL FOOTBALL PREVIEW Pendleton/Nixyáawii has talent, but lacks varsity experience By ANNIE FOWLER, CUJ Special Contributor PENDLETON — Pendleton/ Nixyáawii football coach Erik Davis loses players to graduation each year, but when you have 17 players pick up their diplomas and march on to college, it leaves a pretty big hole in your game plan. “We have a lot of…
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Chairman (CTUIR) Gary I. Burke and Indian Health Service Deputy Director Benjamin Smith sign a ceremonial memorandum of agreement appropriating $38 million from the IHS Sanitation Facilities Construction Program for the Mission Community Wastewater System Upgrade. The signing was held Monday, Aug. 26 in front of the Nixyáawii Governance Center. Also shown is CTUIR Interim Executive Director J.D. Tovey. CTUIR PHOTO
MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) chairman and Indian Health Service (IHS) deputy director signed a memorandum of agreement on Monday, Aug. 26 for the tribe’s $44.5 million wastewater treatment project. In front of the Nixyáawii Governance Center, CTUIR Chairman Gary I. Burke and IHS Deputy Director Benjamin Smith signed the MOA appropriating $38 million…
Pendleton’s Avery Brown plays the net during practice on August 22, 2024.
KATHY ANEY | THE CUJ
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
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
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…
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
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
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
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…
