One of the memorable activities at the Winter Prevention Camp was the building of a natural fire, using only sticks and a bow strung with para-chute chord. From Warm Springs, Silas Howtopat was able to get the fire going.
“You have to have a posi-tive mind set and a good heart to accomplish that,” said Scott Kalama, of Warm Springs Pre-vention, who with Rosanna Jack-son was chaperon at the camp.
Silas was one of two youth at the camp who was able to start the natural fire. The other youth was with the Native American Reha-bilitation Center (NARA) group from Portland.
NARA hosted of the camp— the first Winter Prevention Camp, held in late December at the Or-egon 4-H Camp in Salem. The Warm Springs team and NARA were the only two teams to make it to the camp, as road conditions were bad for traveling from other tribes.
In all about 20 youth attended the three-day camp.
Each day would start with a walk. These were in addition to a nine-mile hike on one of the days. All of the youth made the entire nine miles, Scott said.
The youth—organized into smaller clans— stayed in cabins, and were responsible for keep-ing them clean. There were les-sons in responsibility, the impor-tance of being clean, exercise and health.
They also had a talent show and dance. The next NARA Pre-vention Camp is coming up in the springs.
