- The County Commission ignored Warm Springs request for a later date for the remand hearing to accommodate the seating of its new Tribal Council
- The County Commission also ignored clear direction from the Court of Appeals to reopen the record to allow the Tribe to provide more evidence about its treaty-protected fish resources
- The County continues to deny the Tribe meaningful opportunity to be heard and this recent vote continues County’s pattern of dismissing Warm Springs Treaty-reserved rights
- This vote by the Board of Directors harms government-to-government relationship between County and Warm Springs, say representatives of Tribes
On April 15, the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners, demonstrating a continued pattern ignoring the Tribe’s sovereignty, refused a written request by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (Tribes) to move a meeting date, submit additional evidence and expand testimony time for a proceeding involving its treaty-protected rights.
The hearing for an application for the Thornburgh Resort, scheduled for May 7 without consulting the Tribes, falls upon the same week that the Tribes will seat their 30th Tribal Council, leaving little time for the Tribes to fully prepare for, and participate in, the proceedings. These concerns were outlined in an April 10 letter submitted by current Tribal Council Chairman Jonathan W. Smith, Sr. to the Board of Commissioners, following a notice of the hearing received on April 9. The Board Commissioners did not share or reference the letter in the proceedings.
According to representatives of the Tribes, this decision is not consistent with the clear direction from the Oregon Court of Appeals to allow an “opportunity for the Tribes to present evidence.” Warm Springs also states that the vote causes harm to the relationship between Deschutes County and the Tribes.
“As a matter of respectful intergovernmental relationships, the Deschutes County Board’s decision demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the Tribes’ constitutionally recognized role as a sovereign co-manager of the Deschutes Basin’s resources,” said Jonathan W. Smith, Sr., the current Chairman of the Warm Springs Tribal Council. “The land and water impacted by the proposed modification of Thornburgh Resort’s Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Plan lies within our ceded territory where we retain treaty-protected rights to take fish and to have fish to take.”
The Treaty of June 25, 1855, is federal law and guarantees Warm Springs the right to take fish throughout the Deschutes Basin. It also requires that states, including Oregon, ensure there is a harvestable population available to the Tribes.
“The Deschutes River and its tributaries are in our homelands, and we have lived and fished on these waters since time immemorial,” said Chairman Smith. “Our Tribal knowledge – both scientific and cultural – is essential to deliver a healthy fishery for our people. The County simply cannot understand the full picture of this project’s impact without our perspective.”
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon is a federally recognized, sovereign Indian tribe, representing the Wasco, Warm Springs and Paiute peoples. The Tribes occupy the Warm Springs Reservation, which stretches from the summits of the Cascade Mountains to the cliffs of the Deschutes River in Central Oregon. The Reservation is reserved for the Tribes’ exclusive benefit by an 1855 Treaty with the United States, which reserved to the Tribes the right to fish, hunt, gather foods and pasture livestock in the ceded lands and at usual and accustomed sites throughout the John Day, Hood River, Deschutes and Columbia Basins.
