The following article appeared in the American Indian Report, January 2001

Assisted Living Community Provides Tribal Environment

An assisted living community in warm springs, Ore., designated specifically for members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, has won an award for being one of the best affordable assisted-living buildings in the country.

High Lookee Lodge, which includes a sweat lodge and longhouse, also provides meals featuring salmon, venison and native roots and berries. It also includes a special renal dialysis area because tribe members have a higher than normal incidence of kidney failure. The tribes own the lodge, which opened in August.

"It's a brilliant project," said Robert Jenkins, vice president of the National Cooperative Bank Development Corp., which along with the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging sponsors the award for excellence in affordable assisted living.

"High Lookee proves that an assisted-living facility can be managed under tight funding and still be culturally sensitive." Jenkins said the awards committee was impressed that High Lookee offered more than just basic services, but also made a real contribution to the whole community.

LRS Architects developed High Lookee by working with the Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute tribes, said Esa Murrell, director of research and development for Concepts in Community Living, which operates the community. Warm Springs lacked residential facilities specifically for older members and hospitals. The nearest hospital was 15 miles away and failed to provide culturally appropriate food and overnight stays for family members. After a four-year process, the tribes decided on an assisted living community.

"The architects were creative, very innovative people who were willing to listen to the tribes and translate their needs into a design and make it a reality," Murrell said. "It is representative of the culture and meets the spiritual and physical needs of the community."

Despite all the collaboration, however, the community has gotten off to a slow start. It opened in August and thus far has filled only about a half-dozen of its 40 units, Murrell said. More education will help, she said. "We have not really aggressively marketed because the tribe wants community understanding," she said.

Another issue is that the tribe currently pays rent for many of the elders, so convincing the elders to live somewhere that will cost them is difficult. She said High Lookee and the tribes are working to see if they can make similar provisions for High Lookee. "We don't see this as a negative," she said. "This is so new that it's all a learning experience. This will be conquered."

High Lookee has 17 two-bedroom and 12 one-bedroom assisted living units, 10 studio convalescent units and 1 two-bedroom hospice unit.