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
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Siletz News
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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?