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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2000)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Editor’s note: The following is from Tribal Chairman Delores Pigsley. Printed here, in their entirety, are four letters from tribal members relating to individual complaints. With the hope that I do not lend dignity to the contents of the correspondence, I want to explain the situation. The four letters were not printed only because the letters were not available for publication at the deadline. The letters contain material that the general manager thought might be slanderous. It is the policy of the newsletter not to print such material. Because the general manager is not trained in law, she asked the tribal attorney to review the letters for legally slanderous content. The attorney’s opinion was not received in time to meet the deadline. The attorney suggested that the letters may contain matters of a slanderous nature. Because the letters are directed primarily at me and I have heard it all before, I have asked the general manager to publish them in full. To the editor: On Aug. 1, 1998, I resigned as your chairman for the sole purpose of assuring you the constitutional right to vote for your leaders. But on Aug. 3, 1998, four Tribal Council members consciously violated our Constitution, denied you the right to vote and “seated” five more members to the Council. We suffered a takeover by an illegal dictatorship. For the most part, I have been publicly silent, but let me assure you that I have been doing everything possible to restore the democracy once enjoyed by the Siletz Nation. My commitment to you, the membership, has not diminished in the least. I am speaking out now because the wheels of justice have been slow. This dictatorship continues to destroy every constitutionally protected right we have - illegally establishing a police force without a vote of the people, controlling our Tribal Court and elections, retaliating against tribal members who oppose them, and awarding payoffs totaling over $400,000 to a handful of family and friends. (Compare this to the $100 dividend given out to each member.) Now, this dictatorship is trying to sneak through constitutional amendments that will cement their fascist government. If these amendments pass, the results would be devastating to our individual rights. Most contemptible is the change from our constitutionally required quorum of five elected members to two “seated” Tribal 4 I respect the right of each tribal member to express his or her opinions, including the rights of the individuals who filed these complaints. I am not concerned about their characterizations of what took place in our tribe or my role in it because I know that the Council and I took actions we believed to be right and proper. We did not expect the individuals who persist in complaining about our actions to agree. They have filed lawsuits and grievances and complained non-stop since they were recalled or resigned from their positions of tribal leadership. I expect they will continue to do so indefinitely, which is their right. By insisting that their letters be printed in their entirety, I hope to make it clear that the more important business of the tribe must and will go on. I intend to devote my efforts to that end. I expect that those efforts will be subject to debate and criticism. That goes with the territory. Council members taking action on behalf of the tribe. Our tribe is not unique in this situation. It's happened with the Navajo Nation, Cherokee Nation, and White Earth Band of Chippewa - just to name a few. But the people of each of these nations stood together, demanded their rights be restored, and successfully rid their tribes of corruption. There are a number of us General Council members who have been actively working to restore democracy to our tribe, but there needs to be overwhelming support shown by at least one-third of the General Council. Do you want to allow this dictatorship to continue taking our tribal resources for their own personal uses? If not, exercise your constitutional rights while you still have them. Demand that these constitutional amendments not be considered. Demand that the tribe participate in electronic elections to eliminate election fraud. Demand that the four Tribal Council members and their appointees are removed and a fair election is held to replace them. If we stand together against the current regime, we can restore democracy to our tribe. For more information on what you can do, or if you want to review supporting evidence of these facts, please write to General Council News, 6820 SE Foster Road, Suite 145, Portland, OR 97206. Sincerely, Pat Duncan To the editor: Delores Pigsley wrote in the August/ September 1999 issue of the newsletter that she gave individuals monetary awards because they were “successful plaintiffs” in Tribal Court. She had repeatedly referred to these monetary and employment payments as “out of court settlements.” In my opinion, this is fraud and embezzlement of tribal, casino, and federal dollars. None of the recipients of the large payoffs were plaintiffs in Tribal Court cases against the Tribal Council at the time of the “settlements,” and there were no court orders for these payments. These payoffs, made between October and December 1998, were given to family and friends who went to Delores Pigsley’s Council with personal proposals. Details have been kept secret; worse than that, in one settlement, Delores Pigsley agreed to alter tribal financial reports by omitting settlement amounts. The individuals who received payoffs are: Phil Rilatos Sr., Keith Taylor, Brenda Bremner, Kristi Martin-Bayya, Evaristo Bayya, Nancy McCrary, and many unknown employees. Two attorneys also were named in the payoffs - Kent Thurber and Leroy Wilder. The following definition is for out of court settlements: “In civil cases, the resolution of a dispute between parties prior to the rendering of a final judgement by the [tribal] court,” Barron’s Law Dictionary. Delores Pigsley acted without legislative or executive authority as a Tribal Council member. First, she acted like a judge and determined that these individuals deserved personal awards. And then, she acted like the tribal attorney and negotiated the terms of the financial and employment awards. It was especially unethical for Delores Pigsley to negotiate payoffs to her nieces, Nancy McCrary and Brenda Bremner. When questioned about how the Council could justify giving her niece, Brenda Bremner, monetary and employment rewards, Delores Pigsley answered, “She earned it because we deemed her to.” In other words, Delores Pigsley deemed her niece the second highest position in the tribe, along with a year’s worth of benefits, including replacing her retirement fund as if she had worked for an entire year. Wow, what adeeming! Another niece, Nancy McCrary, was awarded $39,413.11 as the voluntary Election Board chairman, even though she testified in Tribal Court about her wrongdoing during the recall elections and took the fifth so as not to further incriminate herself. Like Delores’ other niece, she was given a high- paying managerial position with the tribe. (See Johnson on page 5)
