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
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