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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2004)
TRIBAL PROGRAM NEWS Another Year of Wisdom Happy Birthday! Jackie Buckman, 11/11 Bruce Butler III, 11/19 Loraine Butler, 11/22 Hallie CabaJr., 11/20 John Christensen, 11/10 Willa Daugherty, 11/26 Cecilia De Anda, 11/29 Robert Finley, 11/1 Minnie Hegge, 11/9 Helen Higgins, 11/5 Fredrick Hostler, 11/3 Geneva Johnson, 11/19 Gylene Jones, 11/20 Dixie Lee, 11/14 Frankie Logan, 11/18 Larkie Logan, 11/18 Robert Miller, DDS, 11/25 Joy Moses, 11/28 Jose Paez III, 11/20 Joyce Phillips, 11/25 Andrew Quitevis Jr., 11/1 John Roe Jr., 11/30 Sharmaine Scott, 11/28 George Short, 11/1 Joy Stewart, 11/1 Jeffrey Williams, 11/29 Beverly Youngman, 11/13 Feam Blacketer, 11/22 Kenneth Blair, 11/11 Open Your Heart and Home to a Tribal Child The Siletz Indian Child Welfare Program needs good homes for tribal children within the 11 -county service area. Foster homes as well as relative foster homes are necessary to provide children in need with the parental care and nurturing that promotes the growth and development / that our ■ tribal chil- dren deserve. If you are thinking of becoming a foster parent, relative placement, or just have questions, please contact Bekki Johns at 1-800-922-1399, ext. 1338, or 541 -444-8338. Please call Bekki for an application or if you would like to learn more about available programs that pro vide specialized foster parent training. 6 • Siletz News • Thanks for Help at Elders Woodcut, More Needed Thank you to the 24 volunteers who attended the woodcut on Sept. 25, 2004. We were able to cut 7.5 cords of wood and deliver it to 12 elders. Thank you to Oscar Hatfield for taking a load of wood to Salem for delivery. There still is more wood that needs to be cut and split with 15 elders still on the waiting list. If you are able to help cut and split wood for a future woodcut, please con tact Angela Ramirez at 541-444-8225 or 1-800-922-1399, ext. 1225, to be noti- fied of the date of the next woodcut. We want the elders on the waiting list to get wood before the cold weather gets here. Gerald Ben, Christopher Ben, Cathem Tufts (in background) and Jackie Ben help out at the elders woodcut. Walt’s Words of Wit and Wisdom by Walt Klamath This was sent to me or given to me, I don’t know when or by whom, some time ago. Anyway, it’s interesting. Columbus Day a holiday? It’s high time that people take a critical look at this “great” historical figure. He is not so great. First, Columbus didn’t convince people that the world was round. People knew about the sphericity from teach ings of Aristotle and Plato, who wrote and spoke about it many centuries be fore Columbus. Second, Columbus was not the first European to discover America. That honor belongs to a man named Biami Heriulfson. He discovered what is now known as North America in A.D. 985. (The first people here were the Native Americans, really.) Columbus’ reputation as a hero is widespread but undeserved. Exploit ative and murderous are adjectives that better describe him, especially in his November 2004 relationship with the Arwawak Indians, who lived in what is now called Haiti. Columbus was under a great deal of pressure from Spain to bring back riches, so he required all Arawak Indi ans older than 14 to make regular con tributions of gold. Those who didn’t lost their hands or were otherwise maimed and left to bleed to death. Those who weren’t killed or injured were enslaved and shipped to Spain. Many died en route. The remaining Arawak Indians refused to help Columbus and the Span iards who came after him. This gave Columbus an excuse to war with them and continue the genocide. Other European nations took note of Columbus’ “successes” and moved to emulate him. The Portuguese virtu ally depopulated Labrador and the French shipped almost the entire Natchez nation to the West Indies - in chains, of course. Interestingly enough, Columbus used religion as a rationale for his mur derous ways. When he tried to sell Queen Isabelle on the wonders of the Americans, he described them as “well built and of quick intelligence.” Later, to justify his warfare, he de scribed them as “cruel, stupid, and as a people warlike and numerous, with cus toms and religions very different from ours.” Many others, unfortunately, used the same rationale. We don’t need to thank Columbus for anything. True, he revolutionized race relations and transformed the mod em world. But he did it by taking land, wealth, and labor from indigenous peoples, leading to their near extinction and transatlantic slave trade that created a racial underclass. He led the economic exploitation of the Americans, which led to a legacy of genocide and slavery that still exists today. He also introduced alcohol to the Native peoples here. It’s said that the third ship of his was laden with wine. For this, America is celebrating?
