CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
vision as tribal chairman is of a tribe
whose members are bound together
socially, culturally, and as a tribe, regard
less of where we live. My vision is of
the 4,000+ members, even though
spread over the 11-county service area
and beyond, are bound together by our
common heritage, proud of who we are,
what we have achieved, and what we
will achieve together as a tribe.
Siletz Tribe Welcomes
New Year; Faces New
Challenges
First of all, on behalf of the Siletz
Tribal Council, I want to wish everyone
a Happy New Year and hope you had a
wonderful Christmas.
We bid farewell to 2003 and wel
come the new year! Despite the costly
war in Iraq in terms of money and lives,
and despite the plight of Oregon's
economy, 2003 generally was a very
good year for the Siletz Tribe - a year
of tribal accomplishments.
We now look to the year before us,
confident that we’ll continue to
surmount whatever challenges come
our way just as we did last year and our
ancestors did before us.
Our tribal population has grown, just
as our programs and economy continue
to grow. We now have more than 4,000
members-62 percent of whom live within
the 11 -county service area and 38 percent
outside of it. The largest number, 870,
live in Lincoln County, followed by
Marion, Multnomah, and other counties.
Twenty years ago, as a result of
termination that caused our people to
disperse, only about 50 percent lived
within the service area. The statistics
show that our tribal members are
moving closer to home where greater
prospects exist for jobs and services.
I, as chairman, and the Tribal Council
have been very sensitive to the fact that
tribal members who live outside the
tribe’s 11-county service area, about
1,500, are not eligible for certain federal
benefits. This is because the federal
Siletz Community Health
Clinic Services
Chairman Delores Pigsley
government, unfortunately, defines who
is or isn’t eligible for federal services.
The challenge for the Tribal
Council has been to somehow fill this
gap. We’ve moved in that direction by
allocating a percentage of gaming
revenues to meet the service needs of
members who live outside the service
area. We’ve determined that certain
health and other benefits, including per
capita payments, that are funded out
of gaming revenues do not require
members to live within the service area.
It’s important to remember that
although the federal government
defines who is an Indian eligible for
federal services, the federal government
can’t define who is a member of a tribe.
Like all other recognized tribes, we
exercise the sovereign right to define
who is a member of our tribe in the same
way the U.S. government defines who
is eligible to be a citizen of this country.
Our governmental headquarters
and tribal center will continue to be
Siletz and Lincoln County. But my
General Council Meeting
Feb. 7,2004 -1 p.m.
Siletz Tribal Community Center
Siletz, Oregon
Agenda
Call to Order
Invocation
Roll Call
Approval of Agenda
Approval of Minutes
Committee Reports from Council
Tribal Member Concerns
Chairman’s Report
Announcements
Adjournment
Elections
I’d like to address a health service
issue that has come to my attention. It
involves a few complaints that appoint
ments were made and then cancelled by
the health clinic. Unfortunately, these
apparently have happened.
In 2003, the Siletz Community
Health Clinic served more than 1,800
patients. Because CHS operated on
limited health funds, a priority system
had to be established to guide CHS in
determining in what order patients
should get services. Medical care must
be provided to patients who need it
most. Because of this year’s funding,
the clinic had to resort to Priority I
funding, which is treatment for urgent
and emergency cases.
As Judy Muschamp, health director
of the clinic, points out in Nesika
Illahee, we’re funded annually to provide
for these services but when extra
ordinary care is necessary as a result of
accidents or other emergency medical
needs (particularly when the member
has no insurance), CHS funds are drained.
To take full advantage of available
resources, the clinic screens patients
who might be eligible for the Oregon
Health Plan or other coverage and makes
appropriate referrals. (It’s important
that we all keep any health coverage
that’s available. Currently, we pay Part
B Medicare for 123 people who are over
age 65 or disabled.)
As you know, medical costs have
skyrocketed, a universal, national
problem. Appropriations for health care
have not kept up with inflation. The
problems that the tribe faced during
2003 basically occurred because of
the shortage of health care funds,
skyrocketing medical costs, and
catastrophic cases.
As Judy points out in her article,
gaming revenues were used to sup
plement funds that the clinic identified
would be needed to get us through our
budget crisis. The council also made
$200,000 available for certain medical
services to members who live outside
our service area (who are not eligible
for Indian Health Service benefits).
According to Judy, every effort is
made to notify patients well in advance
if services must be deferred because
he or she doesn’t meet the required
priority. There have been cases,
however, where the tribal member had
no phone or couldn’t be reached for
other reasons and word didn’t get to him
or her in time.
Judy regrets circumstances like
these that cause inconvenience and
other problems for our members. She
welcomes complaints that should be
brought directly to her if a patient
doesn’t get satisfaction from her staff.
Only in this way, she says, can CHS
live up to its mission of providing
satisfactory answers and services to
our members.
Oregon Supreme Court
Dismisses PACT Suit
Unfortunately, anti-Indian and anti
Indian gaming forces are alive and well
not only elsewhere in the U.S., but also
here in Oregon!
A group called People Against a
Casino Town (PACT) brought suit in the
Oregon Supreme Court seeking to stop
the Coos Tribe from establishing a casino
in Florence, contending that the state
legislature and not the governor has the
right to negotiate gaming compacts.
The suit, if upheld, would have inval
idated all gaming compacts in Oregon.
All eight gaming tribes, including
Siletz, have compacts negotiated and
executed by the governor.
PACT tried by bypass the usual
legal process by going straight to the
state Supreme Court. Although the
court dismissed the suit, PACT seems
determined to pursue its case by filing
its suit in Circuit Court.
This isn’t simply an issue of whether
the governor or the state legislature has
the right to negotiate gaming compacts.
A number of complex legal ramifica
tions can come out of this that can spell
trouble for tribal gaming in Oregon.
Oregon tribes are very aware of
what is happening and through the
Gaming Alliance, are prepared to deal
with this problem.
January 2004 □
Siletz News
□
3