Siletz news /, May 01, 2000, Page 4, Image 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the editor:
Tribal members, never before in the
history of the Siletz Tribal newsletter
have letters to the editor been subjected to
libelous attacks by the Tribal Council
chairman such as Delores Pigsley’s
commentary in April’s issue.
The facts:
1) We submitted individual letters to the
editor before the February deadline for
March’s issue.
2) Within a few days, Brenda Bremner,
general manager/editor-in-chief, denied
publication and our letters were returned to
us without explanation.
3) Because our letters contained no
slanderous or racist remarks, we jointly
wrote to the Tribal Council asking for written
explanation for denying our letters.
4) No explanation was given; instead
Delores Pigsley published a personal attack
on us and our letters, and used tribal
attorney Craig Dorsay to threaten us with
legal action.
5) Delores Pigsley omits the fact that
the general manager, Brenda Bremner, is her
niece and recipient of a personal payment
from tribal monies. Both have a conflict of
interest because they’re named in the letters,
and neither should be making official
decisions or comments about them.
6) Delores Pigsley falsely accused us
of lying/slander, falsely accused us of being
“non-stop” complainers having filed lawsuits
and grievances, and she made the untrue
statement that we were all either recalled
or resigned.
7) She intended to damage our
reputations and discredit the factual
To the editor:
I’m writing this letter not because it
involves my grandson, but because it
involves a tribal member who is representing
our tribe in a foreign country. I have since
found out that there is another student in the
sports program of the same non-profit
organization who is representing our tribe.
These young students have been
working hard to earn their tuition to this
program by selling candy and baked goods,
collecting cans, and running a raffle. They
are doing this on their own since the casino
and tribe only recognized them as
individuals; they do not look at the program
as a whole.
When I was on the restoration
council one of my main concerns was
education. My father, Daniel Orton, was a
strong believer in education and felt that you
were a wealthy person if you had education.
He said that they could take your home, your
land, and your money, but they could never
information we were attempting to share with
the membership. After accusing us of lying,
she admits to taking the actions that we
wrote about.
8) We raised very important issues:
fair and equitable treatment for all tribal
members, the recommendations of General
Council should never be ignored, tribal
members need to exercise their
constitutional rights and restore democracy,
separation of powers, individual rights, full
financial accountability of the tribe, Tribal
Council and recipients should reimburse the
tribe for personal payments made in Oct.-
Dec. 1998. Delores Pigsley stated that these
issues were unimportant.
Is there anyone who could be objective
about our letters after reading Delores
Pigsley’s personal attack on us? This is a
violation of our constitutional rights under
Article III. Apparently, she prefers to make
personal attacks on individual tribal
members, diverting attention away from the
extremely important issues of how our tribal
government conducts itself. We demand a
public apology in the May issue.
Even more harmful, the supposed
unbiased position of “Tribal Council
chairman” is now a position of prejudice, and
the result for the membership is more
division and more separation. Instead, we
need actions that bring the tribe together -
an honest and fair government that is fully
accountable to all tribal members.
To the editor:
Aren’t you getting a little tired of
hearing the same gripes and complaints
from the same people month after month? It
is easy to make accusations, but what
about actual facts and truths for a change.
If Dee did everything she is accused
of, she would have to be some kind of
superwoman. We all know she works at a
hard and thankless job, but I think even she
will admit she couldn’t be in this many places
and do all she is accused of. If the
complainers would put as much effort into
productivity as they do complaining, it would
be great.
As for all this money and payoffs Dee
is supposed to be giving away, I have heard
a lot of rumors but no facts. I do know that
at any job anywhere, if you are terminated
without just cause, you can sue for back
wages, etc.
I also can’t believe anyone would
complain because everyone agrees at
Council meetings. Now that Reggie Butler
is on the Council, is he going to vote against
everything so he won’t be voting with the
rest of the Council members? I have Been
on committees before and you discuss the
pros and cons and decide which is best.
Thought it was time to let Dee know
that she is appreciated for all her hard work
and how far we have come and for giving
us a chance to go further.
Sincerely,
Wanda Melton
Sincerely,
Pat Duncan
Denise Peterson
Lori A. Johnson Cynthia Viles
take your knowledge that you earned
by education.
At the Spring Pow-Wow, we could
have had a raffle for Tyler but it would have
cost us $25 for a table. Most people thought
we should pay the money to have the raffle,
but that amount of money would help pay
for his tuition. Also, his raffle prizes were
more for the Portland/Milwaukie area since
it has been this small community that has
given Tyler the most support.
We have not received any support
from the tribe and only the Portland area
office has offered to help Tyler. Tyler’s
program requires him to do educational
studies and Katy Kaady in the Portland
office has been working with Tyler on these
studies and has encouraged him to maintain
his journals. Tyler will send his journals to
the program and a university will review
them. He will receive a college credit for his
participation in this program.
It seems we are more concerned
about other matters than the education and
support of our tribal youth. Remember that
they are the future leaders of our tribe; they
are the ones who will take over our future. I
feel our newsletter should have more news
of our tribal youth’s accomplishments than
some of the negative articles that
now appear.
Respectfully,
Kay Steele, Tribal Elder