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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2001)
CANDIDATES’ STATEMENTS Hello, For those who don’t know me, my mother was Illeana (Simmons) Blacketer, and my father was Kenneth R. Blacketer. My tribal affiliation is Rogue River, Tillamook, and Northern Mollala. There are several reasons why I am running for Tribal Council. My concerns and frustrations aren’t with what we have accomplished or what we are doing now. My concern is with “how” we are going about conducting tribal affairs. Hopefully, you have seen my letters to the editor. Do you feel you are fairly represented on Tribal Council? Do you feel that the rules are strictly enforced for some people but are not strictly enforced for others? Have you noticed that we discriminate against our own tribal members? Do you think that we should focus more of our efforts toward those whose higher incomes make them ineligible for program services? Why can’t we provide for our tribal members who live outside of the 11 -county service area? Do you think that Council and administration use the system to protect themselves from mistakes, rather than taking responsibility for those mistakes, yet hold those at the lower end accountable for the smallest mistakes? Have you noticed that the more rules we have, the less unity we have? Do you think that the rules, policies, and procedures create disharmony, rather than fairness and justice? Have you ever talked with a Councilperson or wrote to Tribal Council about a problem or suggestion and it was like dropping it in a black hole? No response, no nothing? Do you feel that the rules we have generated are used to create roadblocks for some tribal members? For example, compare the federal government hiring procedures and ours. The federal government gives hiring preference to veterans, those with disabilities, and Indians. Our tribe gives lip service to Indian preference and almost none to tribal preference. How many times have you heard that tribal members aren’t “qualified” for a position due to the fact that Council has increased the educational requirements, yet when we hire a non-tribal member we immediately send those individuals off to training? We have a program called “career track,” which was created to allow tribal members to work toward a specified position, yet it is rarely used. The plain fact is the federal government gives more preferences than we do to our own tribal members. The true expression of sovereignty is the ability to regulate ourselves. The single largest component in that is our Tribal Court system. Council recently attempted to limit that sovereignty via constitutional amendments. It failed. However, this does not address the fact that Council has been attempting to reduce Court jurisdiction through limiting its budget, limiting its jurisdiction via ordinances, appointing the judges, and having the power to remove judges. I would push for establishing a true separation of power doctrine within our tribe. In addition, the tribe does not have an administrative appeals process that is fair or adequate to meet the provisions of the Siletz Constitution or Indian Civil Rights Act. Currently, Council has nominated itself the Board of all our entities. However, when it comes to monitoring and regulating those entities, we have trouble. My goal would be to either advocate abolishing Council as the Board of all our entities, or creating true standards on “how” we are going to regulate ourselves. We have created a very legalistic, adversarial system and I feel Council uses those legalistic technicalities to eliminate many problems, as many tribal members don’t have the resources to fight long legal battles, even in Tribal Court. This fact reduces many problems without fair review or presentation of issues. We may not have enough services for all tribal members, but what we do have are jobs. The gaming center, the clinic and tribal administration could be perfect springboards to provide our tribal members with well-paid, exciting employment and career opportunities. Between administration, the clinic, and gaming, we have over 800jobs and careers to offer. Education can be had via employment. Not all members need to go to a four-year college. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars training non- tribal members, and many, if not most, leave after receiving that training. A resource assessment is one of the most basic tools of any business; yet we have only a limited idea of our tribal member skills and abilities. Assessments are readily available and could be easily obtained. We could use this information to tailor our employment needs with the skills and abilities of our tribal members, rather than finding reasons to “not” hire our own tribal members. My goal is to work toward filling all those jobs with tribal members who want to work and achieve. My goals if elected will be to find solutions to the questions I have posed. My first priority is looking at ail our rules, ordinances, and policies in light of unity. Do they assist in creating unity or creating disharmony? Without unity, we don’t have a tribe and without a tribe, we have no sovereignty. Unity does not just happen. It has to be one of our top goals. It’s time to stop hurting each other and claiming, “We are only following the rules.” We make the rules. Our tribe generates over 100 million dollars of revenue a year. That is a low estimate, which includes administration, the clinic, and gaming. Its is time to stop and ask ourselves, “Who profits if we continue to fight among ourselves?” Thank you. Raymond J. Blacketer w
