OR.COLL.
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«no. 5
May ¿0&2
'LETZ NEWS
Vol. 30, No. 5, May 2002
nthly publication by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Message from the Middens
by David R. Hatch
What’s Inside
Letters to the Editor
Chairman’s Report
Tribal Program News
Tribal Member News
Scholarships
Notices
Tribal Council Timesheets
Siletz Clinic
Chinook Winds
Passages
2
3
4
9
11
12
13
15
16
20
Siletz News
Confederated Tribes of Siletz
P.O. Box 549
Siletz, OR 97380
Delores Pigsley, Tribal Chairman
Brenda Bremner, General Manager
and Editor-in-Chief
identified before another attempt is made
to restore Elakha to the Oregon Coast.
In January 2000, the Siletz Tribe
helped establish the Elakha Alliance
with a $5,(XX) donation from the Siletz
Tribal Charitable Contribution Fund.
The Elakha Alliance is an informal
association of coastal tribes, agencies,
organizations, and individuals
committed to restoring the sea otter to
Oregon’s coastal waters. It developed
a plan for the restoration, but no action
could be taken until the appropriate
source population was known.
There are two potential source
populations. Genetic
exist
the
between
“southern” sea
111
1 1
otters now found in
California and the “northern” sea otters
found in Alaska and recently
successfully
reintroduced
to
Washington and British Columbia.
It turns out that as our relatives
were dumping the trash, they were
sending us a message that the original
Oregon Elakha was related to the
southern sea otters. They have shown
us the way to the first step in bringing
Elakha back to our coastal waters.
In our ancestors’ day, large beds of
kelp provided a diverse abundance and
protected the near shore waters. Elakha
was the only predator of the near shore
herbivores. When we lost Elakha, we
lost the source of our royal robes and
the uncontrolled urchin populations
decimated our kelp.
As we work together to restore
Elakha to our coast, we really will be
able to restore the balance of our near
shore communities.
Kloshe kahkwa (Chinook Jargon -
“It is good”).
elakha “,ions
nil in nc A
Siletz Tribe, Kiwanis Co-Host
Candidates Fair
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz
Indians, the Kiwanis Club of Lincoln
City, and Chinook Winds Casino co
hosted a Candidates Fair in the casino’s
convention center on April 7.
Nearly 70 people attended the
event. Candidates who attended
included Kevin Mannix and Bev Stein,
who are running for governor; Susan
Castillo and Rob Kremer, running for
Did our grandparents many times
over know that they were sending us a
message when they placed the bones
of Elakha (the sea otter) in their
middens? The second most common
marine mammal remains found in all
of Oregon’s coastal middens are the
bones of Elakha.
Eighteen bones have just given us
an important message. It could be that
at least one person hauling out the trash
did have thoughts of the future in 300
to 3,000 years, but it seems unlikely.
On April 10, 2002, Dr. Deborah
Duffield,
biology
professor at Portland
lx
State University, and
her student, Kim
Valentine, released the
clues unlocked from the
DNA extracted from those bones. In
gratitude for funding the research, the
Siletz Tribe and Oregon State
University’s Sea Grant program are the
first to receive the initial results.
In 1970 and 1971, 95 Native
Alaskan sea otters were removed from
their homes to make way for nuclear
testing on Amchitka, Alaska. These
animals were transported to the Oregon
Coast with hopes they could re
establish the Oregon Elakha population,
which was hunted to extinction in the
late 1800s. The animals did not survive.
In 1996, Dr. Lee Lyman wrote,
“Were the sea otters captured in Alaska
and translocated to the Oregon Coast
of the proper phenotype (or genotype)?
Zooarcheological evidence suggests
they were not. If this is a correct
interpretation, then perhaps those
translocated sea otters were doomed
from the moment they were captured.’’
Dr. Lyman recommended that the
closest relatives of Elakha should be
superintendent of public instruction;
Joe Meyer and Marcia Thompson,
running for state representative; Karen
Gerttula, Mike Holden, Edward
Johnston, and Don Lindley, running
for county commissioner; Lori
Hollingsworth and John Skipper,
running for Lincoln City mayor; and
Gary Lowe, Chester Noreikis, Robyn
Roloff, Wes Ryan, and Robert Whiffen,
running for city council in Lincoln City.
Roger Robertson from local radio
station KBCH moderated the
Candidates Fair and the station carried
a live broadcast to north Lincoln
County and south Tillamook County.
Sister station KNPT also carried a
live broadcast.
All candidates who will appear on
the ballot for Lincoln City voters were
invited to participate. Each candidate
made a five-minute presentation, then
spent five minutes answering questions
from the audience.
Siletz news
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