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Yakama Nation Review, 80 Gunnyon Road, Toppen*sh, WA (2026)

06/18/2026

Yakama councilmen graduate tribal official academy training

Yakama Tribal Council members, Deland Olney and Brian Saluskin completed Evergreen State College’s 4th annual Elected Tribal Official Academy Training, which took place May 5-6 in the Seven Cedars Casino Resort in Sequim, Wash.
The academy is designed for newly elected tribal council members “aiming to equip them with the skills, knowledge, and networks needed to serve effectively,” stated an event purpose note.
“Networking and relationship building is important. We uphold in many directions. We need to stay humble. Don’t forget where you come from and our time in these positions are short. Mental health and addiction are the biggest challenges. My people come first and remember your values,” said Squaxin Island Chairman Kris Peters in a June 12 Evergreen State College release.
Presentations included finance, lobbying, jurisdiction issues on reservations, the Bureau of Indians Affairs, the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs, TVW, Indian Gaming 101 and Tribal Energy.

06/18/2026

Indian Affairs director resigns to sit on tribal council

Governor appoints Gordon James as interim director

OLYMPIA – Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a June 12 press release, Tim Reynon, his director of the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs, has stepped down following his election to the Puyallup Tribal Council.
Ferguson has appointed Gordon James, the Office of Indian Affairs special projects & training manager, as acting director.
Reynon has been a key leader in Governor Ferguson’s work to foster partnerships with state agencies and Tribal Nations. Reynon has served on the governor’s Executive Cabinet since Governor Ferguson elevated the position in October as part of his Executive Order establishing new consultation and training requirements for state agencies.
A Puyallup Tribal member and former Puyallup councilman, Reynon was appointed to Governor Ferguson's staff in December of 2024, taking the lead of Governor Ferguson’s Office of Indian Affairs (GOIA) on inauguration day in January 2025.
At this year’s Centennial Accord gathering, Reynon also played a key role in Governor Ferguson’s historic Executive Order setting out new requirements and steps for state agencies to improve Washington’s government-to-government relationship with our state’s tribes. It requires agencies to take a number of measures to engage with tribes, establishes training requirements for state leadership and employees, and requires agencies — including the Governor’s Office — to establish Tribal consultation policies.
The Executive Order also elevated the Executive Director of GOIA to the Governor’s Executive Cabinet. That change was made permanent by Senate Bill 6034, sponsored by Sen. Claudia Kauffman (D-Kent), with a unanimous vote.
To lead GOIA during the search for a permanent director, Governor Ferguson named GOIA Special Projects & Training Manager Gordon James as acting director.
James has led GOIA’s Government-to-Government Training since 2000, and is one of the developers of its curriculum. In this role, he has provided Government-to-Government Training for over 25,000 administrators and staff of state and federal agencies, non-profit organizations, city and county governments, colleges and universities, public school districts, and others.
James previously served eight years as Chairman of the Skokomish Tribal Council and continues to serve as a Skokomish Gaming Commissioner. He is also the former Education Director for the Squaxin Island Tribe.

06/18/2026

U.S. Army continues positive relationship with tribe

By Carol Craig
Yakama Nation Review

TOPPENISH, Wash. – Over the years, Yakama people have had permission from the U.S. Army’ Yakima Training Center to enter center grounds to dig roots, considered a usual and accustomed area.
A certain portion of the grounds are closed off to protect the tribal roots that grow in that location and every four years a new training commander is in place.
U.S. Army Lt. Col Terry Gambrel became Garrison Commander of the Yakima Firing Center a year ago and visited with the Yakama Nation Tribal Council (YNTC) on June 3.
“We have a long-standing relationship with the firing center,” said Yakama Nation Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis.
Gambrel finds the partnership growing.
“For the past few years, I sit down with directives from the YNTC. I share mutual respect for the land and history,” Gambrel said.
“For the few years I’ve been here, I’ve witnessed things and saw improvement with fewer issues at the training center,” he said. “We want to maintain a safe environment and have increased meetings in the last few years. Last month I shared the quarterly newsletter with the tribe.”
Gambrel said he would like to continue to build areas of im provement with the tribe and what the tribe would like to see in the future.
“I’ve appreciated working with him and the recommendation looking at and understanding the Yakama Nation at the training center,” said councilman Jeremy Takala.

06/18/2026

Activist took Native rights campaign all the way to the White House in the 1920s

By Raymond Wilson
Special to ICT

For decades, Cherokee activist, poet and educator Ruth Muskrat Bronson’s contributions put a spotlight on needed improvements to Native American conditions.
Her words and actions caught the attention of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge in December 1923, when she delivered a speech calling for Indian citizenship, self-determination and support for Native youth while presenting a Native history book to the president. Coolidge was so impressed he invited her to join him and the first lady for lunch.
Ruth was born in the Delaware District of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory on Oct. 3, 1897. Her Cherokee father, James E. Muskrat, was a farmer; her non-Native mother, Ida L. Kelly, was of Irish descent. Ruth had six siblings.
At an early age, she became aware of how her Cherokee ancestors suffered during the forced removal from their Georgia homelands to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears in the late 1830s. Federal legislation including land allotment issues and the acceptance of Oklahoma as a state in 1907 played significant roles in her becoming a major activist for Native rights.
In 1912, after attending rural primary schools in the Delaware District, Muskrat continued with a high school education at the University Preparatory School in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. She studied literature, served as associate editor of the school’s Crimson Rambler, and graduated in 1916.
She then took teacher education courses at Henry Kendall Academy in Tulsa and Northeastern State Normal School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and taught in rural schools for two years.
In 1919, Muskrat attended the University of Oklahoma for three semesters, majoring in English.
She found employment during the summer of 1920 with the Young Women’s Christian Association, the YWCA, and worked on youth programs for Native girls on the Mescalero Indian Reservation in New Mexico.
The YWCA recognized her exemplary work there by awarding her a scholarship to the University of Kansas in 1921. Muskrat completed three semesters at the university, majoring in journalism.
Additionally, the YWCA chose her to attend the World’s Student Christian Federation Conference in what was then known as Peking, China, in 1922. Among the places she visited during her six months abroad were Hawaiʻi, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, and Hong Kong. Articles about her appeared in national and international newspapers.
Muskrat’s experiences abroad convinced her that Native Americans must protect their rights and demand racial equality.
In 1923, she received a full scholarship to attend Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, entering as a junior and graduating in 1925 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
While still a student at Mount Holyoke, Muskrat gained more fame at the December 1923 Committee of One Hundred meeting in Washington, D.C. The committee, composed of leading Native Americans and non-Natives, was tasked with studying the so-called “Indian problem” and recommending needed reforms.
Dressed in traditional Native attire, she presented the book, “The Red Man in the United States,” by author G.E.E. Lindquist, to the president after delivering her speech calling for reforms.
During the summer of 1925, Muskrat worked briefly as dean of women at Northeastern State Teachers College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and in September 1925, she became an eighth-grade English teacher at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. She later assumed administrative duties, including being in charge of the college placement bureau.
Muskrat was a popular teacher who emphasized to her students that they should be proud of their Native heritage and to support Native reforms. She won the 1926 Henry Morgenthau Prize, an award granted for significant achievements to a student one year after graduating from college.
In 1928, she married John F. Bronson, a non-Native mechanical engineer who was a major supporter of her reform agendas. They later adopted a young Native girl.
She left Haskell in 1931 after receiving appointment as the guidance and placement officer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was in charge of scholarship and loan programs and helped Native graduates find employment. Bronson resigned in 1943 but remained a consultant for the BIA Office of Education for two more years.
In 1945, Bronson began working for the National Congress of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and held leadership positions such as executive secretary, treasurer, and editor of its monthly newsletter.
She also assisted Native delegations in the nation’s capital, defended the rights and land claims of Tlinglit and Haida Natives in Alaska, and vehemently opposed federal termination and relocation policies that threatened Native trust relationships.
In 1956, Bronson accepted a job as a health education specialist at the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona, where she helped combine Western medicine with traditional healing practices to improve health outcomes.
In 1964, Bronson moved to Tucson, Arizona, and began working for the Save the Children American Indian Program as a field representative, and shortly after became program director for the southern Arizona region.
She initiated Indian volunteer communities and community educational programs to identify and improve political, economic, and social reservation conditions. They included programs such as securing financial assistance to address reservation dwellings, land and water issues, and providing leadership training for young and adult Natives on the Tohono O’odham Reservation in south-central Arizona.
Her husband died in1966, and she suffered a stroke in 1972. However, despite these traumatic events, Bronson continued her efforts to improve Native conditions and protect their sovereign rights for the remainder of her life.
Bronson was also a prolific and powerful author of poems, articles, and books for decades. She drew on her Native heritage and oral histories to produce inspirational and significant publications.
A few examples of her works include, “The Wail of the Helpless,” in the Crimson Rambler, 1915; “The Trail of Tears,” in University of Oklahoma Magazine, 1922; “The Serpent,” Mount Holyoke Monthly, 1925; and “Indians Are People Too,” 1944; and “Much Work Needed,” Indian Truth, 1960.
She also received several awards, including the Indian Council Fire Distinguished Indian Award, 1937; the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare Oveta Culp Hobby
Award and the Superior Service Award, 1962; the National Congress of the American Indian Citation of Merit Award, 1969; and the National Indian Child Conference Merit Award, 1978.
A tireless and vigorous activist for decades, Ruth Muskrat Bronson died on June 12, 1982, in Tucson, Arizona. She was 84.
Sources: Cherokee Nation website; Mount Holyoke College website; Ruth Muskrat Bronson Poems online; Kirby Brown, “Stoking the Fire” (2018).

06/18/2026

GUEST OPINION

Propaganda won’t change the facts. Idaho’s salmon are in deep trouble

By Gregg Servheen

On May 14 the Idaho Statesmen published a response by Will Hart and Clark Mather to my April 20 op-ed. In that column, I called for Idaho’s Gov. Brad Little to “think like a mountain” for the benefit of Idaho and its wild salmon, which are on the brink of extinction. In response, Hart and Mather indicate they too want robust salmon populations. But instead of using science and facts, they seem to believe magical thinking is enough to bring Idaho’s wild salmon back from the brink of extinction.
Hart and Mather’s magical thinking is their claim that there are more salmon in the Lower Snake River and the Columbia River than ever before, even as hydropower, climate change and human impacts identified by science continue. But I think Hart and Mather underestimate the arithmetic skills of Idahoans. They have long known our wild salmon are on the edge of extinction. And not because of seals, birds, or fish. Idahoans know full well that the four hydropower projects on the Lower Snake River in Washington are driving Idaho’s wild salmon to extinction. These four dams, the last to be built on the Snake River in Washington, were the straw that broke the back of Idaho’s wild fish. And no matter how many barges, bypasses, screens or other ornaments of “mitigation” the Bonneville Power Administration or Army Corps of Engineers hang are on these dams; Idahoan’s know their wild fish are falling towards extinction. That fall is now so desperate they propose putting fish in boats or shooting them through tubes rather than face the reality that we must repair the Lower Snake River to recover Idaho’s wild salmon.
Hart and Mather state they are ready to work towards science-based solutions. That sounds good to me. I will put the decades of Columbia River salmon and fisheries science and traditional ecological knowledge on the table to devise the solutions that recover wild salmon in Idaho. On top of that, I will make sure we make good business decisions to save Idaho’s wild salmon. This includes modernizing our grid and electrical system for the benefit of ratepayers while holding BPA accountable. And because the Columbia River connects us all, the solutions can be done in collaboration with Washington, Oregon and tribes. Hart, Mather and I are in agreement on most of what is needed. What I disagree with is: 1) Magical thinking cannot be used to recover salmon or predict electricity outputs or costs for ratepayers. We must use real numbers, science and good business decisions. 2) Leadership not stepping forward on behalf of Idaho’s wild salmon and steelhead to hand off that legacy to future generations.
Little and our own Northwest Power and Conservation Council representatives should be insisting we take the necessary actions to prevent Idaho’s wild fish from winking out. This leadership should insist on being directed by the science, tribal treaties and the benefits that Idaho anglers, rural communities, ecosystems and future generations will gain from recovery of wild salmon and steelhead in Idaho. Idaho has the greatest salmon and steelhead habitat in the country. But it is becoming increasingly vacant. Made so by dams outside our state. Idaho leadership can change this. It can tip the scales, devise real solutions, overcome inertia and help us all think like a mountain for the future we deserve.

Gregg Servheen is a 43-year-plus hunting, fishing, camping, hiking and wildlife-loving resident of the state of Idaho.

06/18/2026

VIEWPOINT

If there’s $1.776 billion for January 6 rioters, why not for broken treaties?

By Levi Rickert

On May 18, 2026, the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Justice announced the creation of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a $1.776 billion program intended to compensate individuals who claim they are victims of politically motivated government investigations or prosecutions. Borrowing from the theme of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the fund was set at $1.776 billion.
The fund was part of a settlement negotiated by the DOJ in President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service. It is intended to compensate individuals who claim they were subjected to government “weaponization” or “lawfare,” a group that critics argued could include some participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Fortunately, on May 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema temporarily blocked the Trump administration from creating or distributing money from the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund while litigation moved forward. Two weeks later, on June 12, Brinkema strengthened that ruling by issuing a preliminary injunction that keeps the fund frozen and requires the administration to provide sworn assurances if it intends to abandon the program, marking a significant setback for the controversial initiative.
The images from January 6 still linger in my mind: rioters breached police barricades, forcibly entered the Capitol building, assaulted law enforcement officers, vandalized government property, and disrupted the constitutionally mandated certification of the 2020 presidential election, forcing lawmakers to evacuate or shelter in place. The insurrectionists even called for the lynching of then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was there to fulfill his constitutional duty of overseeing the certification process.
The attack resulted in hundreds of criminal prosecutions for offenses ranging from trespassing and disorderly conduct to assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. In one of the first acts of his second term, President Trump pardoned many of those convicted in connection with the attack, including individuals convicted of violent offenses.
This past week, President Trump publicly continued to endorse the concept of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, even as his administration told courts and Congress that it was no longer moving forward with the program. He called the fund “a good idea.”
The Trump administration has a strange way of deciding who deserves compensation.
For generations, Native Americans have endured broken treaties, stolen lands, forced removals, Indian boarding schools, cultural destruction, and policies designed to erase our very existence. Yet when tribes seek justice, we are told that the past is too complicated, too expensive, or simply too long ago to remedy.
When the United States signed treaties with Tribal Nations, those agreements were supposed to carry the full force of law. Instead, they were repeatedly violated whenever gold was discovered, settlers demanded more land, or political convenience took precedence.
Entire Tribal Nations were forced from their homelands. Sacred sites were destroyed. Children were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools, where many suffered abuse and were forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their cultures.
The consequences of those policies did not disappear with the history books. They continue to echo across generations in lost languages, fractured families, economic hardship, and ongoing battles over land, water, and sovereignty.
Even when courts rule in favor of tribes, enforcement often comes slowly or incompletely. Even when Congress acknowledges historical wrongs, meaningful compensation is rare and typically arrives only after decades of litigation and negotiation.
Native people have had to fight for every inch of justice.
The irony is impossible to ignore.
People who knowingly entered the U.S. Capitol during an insurrection may ultimately benefit from a compensation program championed by political leaders, while Indigenous communities continue to struggle to secure funding promised through treaties signed nearly two centuries ago.
That is not equal justice.
It reflects a deeper problem in how America remembers its history. We rush to rewrite recent political narratives while refusing to fully confront the nation’s original sins against Indigenous peoples.
If taxpayer dollars are available to compensate insurrectionists, then there should be an even greater willingness to fulfill treaty obligations, invest in Tribal infrastructure, protect Native languages, strengthen health care through the Indian Health Service, and address the long-standing inequities created by federal policy.
The federal government has both a legal and moral trust responsibility to tribal nations. That responsibility was not optional when treaties were signed, and it is not optional today.
The United States cannot claim to be a nation of laws if those laws are enforced selectively and historical promises are honored only when politically expedient.
Our ancestors were promised peace, protection, education, health care, and respect for our sovereign rights in exchange for millions of acres of land that became the foundation of this country. Too often, those promises were broken.
No amount of money can erase that history.
But paying people who participated in an assault on democracy while generations of Native Americans continue waiting for the federal government to honor its own commitments would send a devastating message about whose grievances matter and whose can be ignored.
America should be investing in justice, not rewarding insurrection.
The very idea of the Anti-Weaponization Fund should outrage every American who believes in accountability and justice.
Equally troubling is its symbolic design: invoking the spirit of 1776 by allocating exactly $1.776 billion to compensate participants who attacked the constitutional transfer of power is not patriotic – it is a distortion of the principles the nation claims to celebrate.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen – we are all related.

06/18/2026

Levee breach connects to past life as salmon, lamprey and tule sanctuary

By Brian Bull
KLCC Radio

After 15 years of planning and development, a major conservation project near the town of Florence has achieved its goal: connecting a large swath of restored farmland to the Oregon Coast.
The Siuslaw Estuary is a 217-acre expanse that’s expected to accommodate the return of salmon, lamprey, shorebirds and native plants as it transforms with the tides.

A surge of water
May 29 was a cool, misty morning at the estuary. Excavators and dump trucks hustled around an earthen levee that held the Siuslaw River back from a former dairy site that used to be called the Waite Ranch. For more than a century, the area had been used for dairy operations and cow herds, with agricultural features such as perimeter dikes, a tide gate, and drainage ditches.
The McKenzie River Trust purchased the property in 2010 for $750,000 with a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board. Redevelopment commenced in the late summer of 2023.
In the minutes leading up to the removal of an earthen levee, crews readied themselves and the property. Wearing a hard hat and reflective vest, Dan Kirk walked through the dewy brush and reddish mud, waving a smoking bundle of sage.
“I’ve been blessing the site almost daily,” he said. “We really care about this project and just putting as much intention and good thoughts and good feelings and gratitude as much as we can.”
Kirk is the restoration projects manager for the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians. Other tribal members, as well as partner organizations for the estuary project, were gathered nearby to witness the historic event.
“Today we will be reconnecting the tidal Siuslaw River into the site,” Kirk said, “creating about 180 acres of new wetland that was historically tidal wetland before the mid-1800s when it became a dairy farm.”
Margaret Treadwell, the central coast conservation manager for the McKenzie River Trust, stood by as a towering excavator crawled towards the levee.
“This is really exciting,” she said. “I have never seen a levee breach before.”
As the crowd watched, the excavator extended its toothy bucket and tore down a chunk of the levee. River water surged in immediately, as people cheered.
“Keep an eye out for animals coming back in,” said Treadwell. “Apparently, when these breaches happen, the animals figure it out very quickly.”
Treadwell said fish, birds, and even a seal could appear in good time.
The estuary began to fill with water it hadn’t contacted with for a century and a half. Many observers watched as the Siuslaw River water churned and poured into the estuary.
Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Chief Doug Barrett looked over the reformed farmland, which includes a 1.2-mile-long berm that’s 12 feet high and was designed to protect Highway 126.
The tribe sees this site as a place to gather and practice traditions, as the salinity of the estuary will develop new plant and animal life.
With the cost of the project coming to roughly $15 million and the development taking nearly three years to complete, Barrett was happy to have witnessed the historic breach.
“I kinda got goosebumps. Been a long time comin,’” he told KLCC.
Barrett also shared its new name.
“Now it’s called haich ikt’at’uu. Haich ikt’at’uu is the “heart of the river,” and so this is a pretty awesome place now to call our home,” he explained. “Just awesome to see the water coming in, knowing that the salmon and lamprey could come in here and hide from all of our predators. It’s a pretty good feeling.”

A waterborne blessing
Roughly four hours later, a contingent of tribal council members arrived in “Lottie,” a 32 ½-foot-long dugout canoe carved from Western Red Cedar. They paddled in from the Port of Siuslaw, nearly four miles away. After crossing through the mouth of the newly opened channel, the group sprinkled to***co and tule seeds into the water.
Jesse Beers, the cultural stewardship manager for the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw, lowered the remains of a salmon into the brackish currents.
“When we were in the channel there, almost brought tears to my eyes,” he said. “Returned some salmon remains to let the salmon people know it’s a good place to come again. And fatten up and be healthy. It’s just an amazing experience.”
In addition to the tribes and the McKenzie River Trust, the Siuslaw Watershed Council is another partner. Its restoration project manager, Mizu Burruss, said partnerships like these are essential because of the financial and logistical challenges a single organization would face.
“And they’re not only essential to making them happen, but they make them richer, better, more complex, and diverse projects,” she said. “Which, when we’re talking about ecosystem restoration, that’s what we want.”
By midday, the Siuslaw Estuary was submerged with increasingly salty water, as cormorants and swallows swooped overhead. Barrett looked out at the expanse and nodded.
“It’s great to see the water coming in,” he said. “It’ll come in all day, from now on, hopefully, ‘til the end of time.”

This report comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

06/18/2026

Roy Jones, Jr. Boxing at Yakama Legends has everything – even a center-ring marriage proposal

By Ryan Craig
KYNR News

TOPPENISH, Wash. – A seven-bout fight card June 12 in the Legends Casino Hotel Events Center included professional debuts, knockout punches, a women’s championship title bout and even a marriage proposal live in the ring.
Roy Jones, Jr. Boxing returned to Legends for a night of exciting professional boxing.
“The fact that the fans really enjoy and appreciate the events that we put on, we got to keep bringing them to them,” boxing legend Roy Jones, Jr. said before the event began.
Weight classes varied, with a middleweight match between female fighters Natasha Spence (10-8, 6KO) from Ontario, Canada fighting Maricela Cornejo (19-8, 7KO) from Grandview, Wash. as the main event.
The 10-round fight was for the WBA International Middleweight Championship. Spence, showing her ability to dodge punches throughout the match, would defeat Cornejo in the 10-round decision.
While the main event between the ladies saw fast paced action, the loudest, most evenly matched and hard-fought bout of the night came thanks to Andres Reyes and Brandon Watley.
For Reyes, the fight was a chance to compete in front of family, friends and students from his hometown.
“They’re giving me that extra fire,” he said before the fight. “That extra push and I’m ready to step up there with some more pep in my step and put on a spectacular performance.”
Having started his boxing journey at 13 with the Yakima Police Athletic League boxing program, Reyes has since opened his own gym in Yakima called 509 Boxing Gym. Reyes said his love for the sport never stops.
“It’s a full year sport,” said Reyes. “So you’re constantly training, constantly eating right and I take it seriously and I conduct myself like a professional. Boxing’s 24-7 for me.”
The 6 round super lightweight match saw Reyes (9-4, 2KO) defeating Watley (1-4) fighting out of Spokane, Wash.
The fighters went back and forth with uppercuts and hooks from start to finish. The battle saw no knockdowns and constant combat.
Reyes addressed the crowd after his victory.
“Hey, I’m never in a boring fight. So every time you come out, you know you’re going to get your money’s worth,” he said.
The crowd, some who were calling Reyes ‘Coach’ throughout his fight, erupted in applause and cheer.
“I knew he was a tough competitor,” Reyes told the crowd. “He was talking since the beginning, but I conducted myself like a true professional. It’s because of where I’m from, Yakima, Washington, stand up, baby! Let’s go!”
Running out of breath from excitement, and possibly nervousness, Reyes saved his most important words for the end of his celebration time in the ring.
After being handed a container from one of his coaches, Reyes turned and faced his corner of the ring where his manager stood. Calling her the “heart of our organization,” Reyes addressed Emmerscyn Grigsby.
“Emmy, in front of my hometown, and in front of everybody, you mean the most to me. You brought me back. You saw me when I was overweight, an alcoholic. I didn’t think that anything could happen with my life, but you came in and you showed me something new, you showed me the best version of me.”
Reyes took a knee.
“I want to ask in front of everybody in my hometown crowd. Will you marry me?” he said.
Grigsby and Reyes then embraced in the middle of the ring. Before exiting, Reyes’ daughter, looking to be around 5 years old, was offered a chance to speak into the microphone.
“My daddy kicked your ass,” Reyes’ daughter announced to laughter and cheers.
Other matches included a heavyweight bout between Darnell Thompson (2-0, 2KO) out of Raleigh, N.C. taking on Ryan Bailey (1-7) out of Seattle. The fighters weighed in around 240, exchanged blows for 4 rounds before Thompson was ruled the unanimous winner.
Thompson, who shared that he got into pro fighting later in his life, had Roy Jones, Jr. in his corner for the fight. For every other match Jones, Jr. wore a headset and microphone and did commentary for the matches for a video feed.
In a super lightweight match Johnathan Magana (1-0, 1KO) out of Kennewick showed off his speed and power with a first-round knockout of Seven Linford (0-1) from Lacey, Wash. Magana was seen after the event at the event center entrance posing with fans for pictures.
In the opening fight of the evening, Jesus Velasquez from Pasco made his pro debut in a middleweight bout with Gerald Powell-Wood (2-1, 1KO) out of Spokane.
While Velasquez displayed power and speed, the more experienced Powell-Wood would score a 3rd round knockout for the win. Powell-Wood would later be seen in the front row of the event cheering on his fellow Spokane teammates.
Isaac Russell, making his pro debut, had several family and supporters in the Legends Event Center crowd. The 20-year-old Kalispel tribal member with ties to the Blackfeet Tribe, shared that he had originally hoped to begin his pro career 3 years earlier before a traumatic event delayed his plans.
“I got in a car accident when I was down at the powwow in Heart Butte,” Russell shared before his fight. “I broke my C7 in my neck, fractured spine, split my head five inches. Got told, I’d never be able to box again, let alone even walk. God gave me the strength to keep going, gave me the faith to get back up.”
Russell, a featherweight, made quick work of Bryan Andrew Cox (0-3) from Medford, Ore. After pushing Cox into a corner, Russell delivered a body shot to Cox that saw him go down. The fight was over in the first round after Russell scored a TKO (technical knockout).
After the fight, Russell said he hopes to fight again in August at the Puyallup Tribe’s Emerald Queen Casino.
Another hometown boxer was heavyweight Carlos Villanueva (7-3, 1KO) fighting out of Union Gap. He faced off with Theo Doukes out of Spokane who was making his professional debut. Villanueva wore Doukes down, landing several more punches and in the third round, scoring a TKO.
Villanueva addressed the Legends crowd after his win.
“June is actually mental health awareness,” he announced. “And I want to show out for all my men out there.”
Villanueva paused to applause before getting emotional with his personal story.
“Five weeks ago, I weighed two hundred and eighty-four freaking pounds. I ate a lot of tortillas, a lot of tamales, a lot of posole, a lot of sushi and my favorite food is Chinese food, so I was eating a crap-load of that too,” he shared to cheers and laughs. “But to cut it, I just want to tell you guys, I was down, I was drinking mostly every day and I just talked to somebody, told them, ‘You know what, I want to come back. If you support me all the way.’ And she did. She’s out there, she knows who I’m talking about. She supported me and told me to keep going. I just want to tell all you men out there that are suffering in silence, speak to somebody! Don’t hold it in, you’re not weak! You got to let it go, ok? We got to let it go. I love you, guys!”
In the VIP section of the arena were Yakama Nation Tribal Councilman Christopher Wallahee and his father, Tim. Sharon Goudy was in attendance with her granddaughter and Brian Saluskin was sitting ringside as well.
Blackfeet and Yakima boxing legend, Joe Hipp also sat in the front row of the event. With several youth in attendance, Hipp shared his thoughts on more area youth taking up the sport.
“It does teach them discipline,” he shared from his ringside seat before the action began. “It teaches them to respect your elders and respect people around you. You’re not a bully. You go out there and fight.”
Hipp would stay for the entire card calling out directives to certain fighters in between signing autographs for fans young and old.
“This was my profession, it’s what I did, and I believe these young kids now would learn a lot from it,” he said.
Dubbed the Night of Champions, Roy Jones, Jr. Boxing and Legends Casino Hotel displayed another successful, all-ages event for Yakima Valley fight fans.
“Every time I come here, we have some of the best fight cards ever,” Jones told KYNR. “It works. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

Delbert Wheeler III contributed to this report.

Photo--Super lightweight fighter Andres Reys, right, lands a punch against opponent Brandon Wately Jun 12 at Legends Casino Hotel
Event Center in Toppen*sh. YNR photo by Delbert Wheeler III.

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Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	9am - 4pm