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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2000)
NOTICES SMILE Receives Scholarship Grant Participate in the Census By Katie Smith, Census Intern The Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience, or SMILE, program at Oregon State University has received a $20,000 grant from the Howard Vollum Scholarship Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation. Siletz Elementary and Siletz Middle schools participate in the program. The grant will help provide scholarship support for new and continuing Native American students at OSU. The OSU SMILE Scholarship/Mentor Program was established in 1996 to provide both financial and mentoring support for Native American students who had been members of the SMILE program in their local schools. Scholarship recipients will be students interested in majors in science, math, engineering, health professions, and other related fields. SMILE, now in its 12th year of operation, has served more than 2,500 students, provided professional development for more than 200 teachers, and been nationally recognized for its accomplishments. The Oregon Community Foundation of Portland, Ore., uses an endowment totaling $300 million in 600 funds from individuals, families and businesses to enhance and support the quality of life in Oregon communities. Taking part in the census is in the best interest of all American Indian and Alaska Native people. When you answer the census, you help your Indian communities, reservations, and urban areas obtain federal funding and valuable information for planning hospitals, roads, and more. Census information helps decision-makers understand which neighborhoods need new schools and which ones need greater services for the elderly. The Native American recruiter for your tribe is pictured above right. Her name is Dorothy L. Beaudry and she is Coquille and Kucuts Indian. If you have any questions or are interested in a job, contact her at the Eugene Census Office, 541-465-6670 or 541-756-4625. Before the census job, Beaudry worked at the Mill Casino in North Bend as a customer service representative and hostess. Now that she is working for the census, Beaudry feels that people don’t have correct information. Since Indians haven’t been counted correctly in the past, they have lost revenue from government. In her job, Beaudry tries to let people know how important the census is by telling them what the census is about. She also tries to recruit as many Natives as she can for jobs by going to reservations and working Dorothy Beaudry with the Indian Education Office, Alaska Natives, and with people from the tribes in the East. Beaudry’s mission is to get the word out to everybody about the census and to make sure people fill out the application. She said she didn’t get an application for the last census in 1990 and she lives near the airport in North Bend. The only way to make sure American Indian and Alaska Native people are represented in the census is to fill out the form and encourage others to do so. Please fill out the form when it comes to your house. NASF Publishes National Grant Directory The Native American Scholarship Fund (NASF) has published the first-ever comprehensive directory of grants to Indians. “The National Indian Grant Directory,” or NIGD, is a 600-page description of grant makers. It includes nearly 550 foundations, corporations, federal government agencies, and religious organizations that make grants to Indian tribes and non-profit organizations. “Indian people are only getting about 10 percent of their share of grants,” stated the editor of the book, Dr. Dean Chavers. “With seven-tenth of one percent of the U.S. population, Indians should be getting over $180 million in grants annually. Instead, the facts show we are getting less than $20 million. “This directory is intended to help tribes, tribal organizations, Indian schools, Indian colleges, and Indian non-profit organizations find and compete successfully for grants,” he continued. “This book has been needed for years, and it is finally here. “We spent over two years collecting information for this book,” Dr. Chavers went on. “The author, Stacey Jenkins, did a yeoman’s job of collecting information from public records, from the Internet, from the grant makers themselves, and from the Foundation Center and other repositories. “This book is so good that we are giving everyone who purchases it a money-back guarantee. If they do not like the book once they receive it, they can return it for a full refund, no questions asked,” he said. The book is available from NASF for $99.95 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. NASF is located at 8200 Mountain Road NE, Suite 203, Albuquerque, NM 87110, 505-262-2351. 8 Legal Aid Sponsors Divorce Workshops Legal Aid Services of Oregon provides self-help divorce workshops for uncontested divorces. Participants receive forms and instructions on how to do their own divorce. These regularly held, four-hour workshops in Newport are free, but pre-registration is required. Contact Legal Aid Services of Oregon for additional information and to register. Hours are Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Call 541-265-5305 or 1-800-222-3884. Phone messages can be left at any time. You also can reach Legal Aid at PO Box 1970, Newport, OR 97365, or stop by the office at 304 SW Coast Highway.
