Article from August 2017 CUJ.

Indian Lake camping facilities southeast of Pilot Rock will receive major improvements following the award of $110,000 from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund. Another $240,000 was pledged by the Board of Trustees for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), which owns and operates Indian Lake Campground. The Umatilla Tribes' contribution was contingent on the award from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, which is the charitable arm funded by Spirit Mountain Casino owned by the Grand Ronde Tribes. Nearly $1 million was awarded by the Grand Ronde to Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes with each receiving $110,000.The major portion of the $350,000 Indian Lake project will be used to replace three vault toilets, according to Leigh Pinkham Johnson in the CTUIR Department of Economic and Community Development. Other major improvements will include the expansion of an arbor and removal of an old underground diesel tank. A man-made reservoir, Indian Lake was built in the early 1970s and the vault toilets were standard for that era, Pinkham-Johnson said. Now it is 2017 and they are out-of-date and need to be replaced,” she said. Wenaha Group, a tribal member-owned project management firm, did an assessment of the restrooms in November of last year – at no cost to the CTUIR. The assessment showed the restrooms are inadequate according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “In Depth Design and Maintenance Manual. ”The roof of each restroom needs to be repaired and the tanks need to be vented. Additionally, water removal is difficult. And the restrooms are ADA accessible. Many people who camp and visit Indian Lake Campground are from the Pendleton and Pilot Rock area. It is the closest campground for overnight stays and fishing. According to Pinkham-Johnson, three quarters of the people who camp at Indian Lake are non-tribal members. Last year approximately 2,790 people visited Indian Lake Campground. Two archery shoots – one in June and the other in August – are sponsored by the Pilot Rock Archery Club at Indian Lake.