Siletz news /, March 01, 2011, Page 5, Image 5

Tribal members Rose Bremner,
Donna Woods and Jeremy Cearley
(below) visit in one of the units of the
new Gwee-Shut Apartments. Cearley
owns Cearley Construction of
Milwaukie, Ore., which built the
apartments. This project provided
jobs for four Tribal members and
was completed a month ahead
of schedule.
Photos by Natasha Kavanaugh
Tribal Council members Loraine Butler, Delores Pigsley, Sharon Edenfield, Tina
Retasket, Lillie Butler and Robert Kentta join staff from the Siletz Tribal Housing
Department (Rob Smith, far left, and Valerie Hibdon, far right) to cut the ribbon
at the open house for the Gwee-Shut Apartments in Siletz. The 19 units consist
of three four-bedroom, two-bathroom units; seven three-bedroom, two-bathroom
units; and nine two-bedroom, one-bathroom units.
Siletz Reservation, con’t from previous page
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Courtesy of Brady Smith
This map of the 1855
Executive Order that
created the Coast
(Siletz) Reservation
shows President
Franklin Pierce's
signature on the
right side.
Having responded thus, the acting
commissioner also stated he was having
a special inspector investigate the mat­
ter further and report to him. The 1874
Inspection Report of Wm. Vandever, sent
to investigate the Siletz agent’s complaint,
confirmed what the acting commissioner
had already stated - that Vandever could
find no justification for the Grand Ronde
agent’s insistence that the north end of
the Coast (Siletz) Reservation was under
his jurisdiction, the Grand Ronde agent’s
turf was well-established by the 1857
Executive Order and he needed to desist
unless there was an official change to
his jurisdiction.
Vandever did pose the question of the
convenience of Tribes and individuals in
that part of our reservation having more
ready access to the Grand Ronde Agency
headquarters than the Siletz Agency
headquarters. But as fate (and the white
man) would have it, the majority of the
north end of our reservation was opened
to settlement just a few months later,
before any action on his recommenda­
tion could have been taken - if it would
have been at all - because taking part of
our reservation and handing it over to
Grand Ronde or even simply handing
jurisdiction to that area without title also
following both would have been legally
problematic (would have resulted in a
“claims suit” by us).
Even after the 1875 reduction of our
reservation, the Grand Ronde agent per­
sisted in attempting to claim the north end
of our remaining Siletz Reservation, from
the Salmon River south to even claim the
mouth of the Siletz River All this while
our former agent - Ben Simpson, who
had assisted with the opening of our res­
ervation to settlement under the 1875 act
by falsely reporting our “consent” - was
in 1878 sitting in his promoted position
of surveyor general of Oregon and advo­
cating that the Siletz Valley (our main
Tribally settled/farmed and otherwise
“improved” areas) be opened to settle­
ment and that only the Salmon River and
very mouth of the Siletz remain as Siletz
Reservation land.
These two seemingly diametrically
opposite positions have the familiar
smell of collusion and continued theft,
and likely would have been followed by
a recommended “cost saving” measure
of doing away with our Siletz Agency/
Reservation altogether and putting our
Tribes under the Grand Ronde agent.
Well, that did not happen, as much as the
Tribal Council of the Confederated Tribes
of Grand Ronde would like it to have.
If anything, the Grand Ronde agency
was closed and its duties folded under
those of the Siletz Agency in the early
1900s. The Siletz agent would travel to
Grand Ronde when needed to conduct any
business needing attention there.
You likely will hear more updates and
details of this (non)argument as this year
of nuisance (non)issues and distractions
from productive pursuits continues.
March 2011
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Siletz News
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