Siletz news /, August 01, 2007, Page 6, Image 6

TRIBAL PROGRAM NEWS
Windows in Time - Four Siletz women (above) gather together for a photo. Below, Daniel Brown
cooks salmon at the 2006 Nesika Illahee Bow-Wow.
Restoration, con’t from page 1
A sign posted in Siletz said, “Im­
portant! Meeting of former members of
the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Sunday,
Sept. 30, 1973 I pm VFW Hall - Siletz
Visit Old Friends, Discuss Reorganization.”
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing,”
said Tom of his and others’ efforts to
help the Tribe achieve Restoration. “We
were trying to preserve our ways for
future generations.”
Tom said the whole effort seemed
larger than life. Repeated trips to Wash­
ington, D.C., by Siletz Tribal Council
members reminded them of the fact
they were from a remote area on the
central Oregon coast and they were in
the nation’s capital.
“There is a few things in life you
can only do once,” he said. “This was
it. It had a sense of so much impor­
tance to it. Not many people in the
world have gone through something
like that. We were trying to accomplish
something that was a great thing to us,
but seemed like just one of many things
there in Washington.”
Tom, a student at the University of
Oregon at the time, said serving on the
Siletz Tribal Council before Restoration
and making those long trips back to
Washington. D.C., was one of the high
points in his life.
“It was the best American Govern­
ment class I ever took.”
Tribal Council Chairman Dee
Pigsley said she refused to be over­
whelmed by the process of putting the
Tribe back together again even if it
meant doing things she never thought
she would do.
“The big picture was enormous,”
said Pigsley. “1 traveled to Washing­
ton, D.C., and I had never talked to a
congressman in my whole life.”
Pigsley rose to the occasion and found
a sense of confidence along the way.
“I was there to convince Sen. Dale
Bumpers of Arkansas why it was im­
portant to restore a Tribe,” she remem-
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Siletz News
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bered. “The arguments we gave were
natural arguments. For some reason, it
was an easy thing to do.”
The facts were that many Tribes
and Bands of Indians were relocated
against their will and forced to integrate
into Tribes that had been living on the
land from time immemorial. The relo­
cation came about after treaties were
signed that said, among other promises
that were never kept, a permanent res­
ervation would be established.
No permanent reservation was ever
established. In fact, the land was taken
piece by piece.
In 1865, the first slice came from the
1.1 million-acre reservation, dedicated
to the Tribes in 1855, when 200,()()()
acres surrounding Yaquina Bay were
opened up to white settlers. Another
700,000 acres were claimed by an act
of Congress in 1875.
The fatal blow was dealt to the
people of the Tribe in 1892 when the
allotment act reduced Tribal land hold­
ings to 80 acres for each of the 551
Siletz Indians. Many allotments were
lost to tax bills. Many of the members
did not understand what taxes were.
These facts contributed to a story
that would eventually lead the Tribe to
Restoration in November 1977.
In response to the demands of the
federal government, the Siletz Tribe
elected an interim Tribal Council of
nine people. They set out to accom­
plish four things.
First they needed to update the
Tribal rolls by removing the names of
the deceased. Next they began to en­
roll members under the requirement
imposed on the Tribe of one-quarter
blood quantum. A Constitution was
established and a reservation plan de­
veloped once a management team and
a fiscal system had been put into place.
Once the reservation plan was sub­
mitted to the legislature to become a
bill, a modern-day Tribe was given life.
August 2007
For the first time in Oregon's century-
long history, a Native American Tribe was
returned to federally recognized status.
The descendants of the state’s origi­
nal inhabitants could now call their
ancestral lands home. Their children
now would be able to call these lands
their home. And their children ...
If you talk to elders of the Tribe, they
will tell you over and over again about
the respect they have for the land and all
its creatures. They will tell you stories
about a way of life that kept a certain
harmony in place for all.
“The Indians that lived on this here
precious place
we call Mother
Earth that was
slowly
taken
away,
taken
away
thought
they were part of
the land just like
the animals,” said
Tribal Council
member Frank
Simmons in the
Tribe's historical
documentary
S kook u m
TilUcum - The
Strong People of
the Siletz. “They
felt they were
part of the water,
the air, the rain
and everything
else. They were
just part of it.”
Simmons
said
Native
people have a
connection to the
land that goes
deep in their
history.
“Trees, fish,
water are all im­
portant to the
Tribe,” said Simmons. “The Tribe is
really trying to get the fishing back and
I know we take care of our share of it
because we touch the water, we touch
the ground. We touch everything that
is important to get the fish back. We
believe in the circle of life.”
All you have to do is hear a young
Tribal member speaking their ancient
language to see that the efforts to bring
back the Tribe was worth it.
“It is part of their culture,” said
Tribal Council member Lillie Butler. “It
is important that our children learn the
language. They will need to learn it in
groups so they can speak it to each
other and that way they can all learn it.”
Butler said discussion in Siletz
about bringing back the language
started when a Culture Committee was
formed in 1982.
All you have to do is see a Tribal
elder walk his ancestral lands to know
it was worth it. All the trips to D.C. to
lay the foundation for a people proved
to be worth it in the end.
“Being a Tribe is important to all
of us,” said Tom. “I feel great in that
we are developing our people. I go to
the dance house in Siletz and 1 see them
dancing the old dances. I see them re­
vitalizing the language. I love the his­
tory of who we are and I think all Tribal
members should get to feel like that.”
Simmons often tells a story that
gives perspective to the Tribe’s history
of loss and gain.
“A wise man said years ago, ‘If
you lose something go back and you
will find it.’ We lost an awful lot. There
is an awful lot out there that our Tribe
has lost over the last 150 years. It is
still there. It is waiting to be picked.”