Celebrate Indian Grants will help provide services for families; farmers
market, bus routes for community; study of salmon for all
heritage at the
The Tribe continues to operate transit
Tribe receives one of just to address those needs. In some areas,
Lincoln City
we’re stronger and more capable of deliver- grants supplied by the Oregon Department
six awards nationwide
ing than in others and, of course, those are of Transportation (ODOT) and the Federal
Cultural Center
the ones we will focus on,” said Davis. “But Transit Authority (FTA). Elderly or dis-
What are some of the traditional
foods of Oregon’s coastal Tribes and
how are they used today? How does the
art from American Indians in this region
differ from those in the Northwest at
large and from Tribes in other parts of
North America? How are members of
the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
preserving their traditions and contribut-
ing to the historical record?
You can explore those questions while
enjoying free food samples, a historical
exhibit, book sale and make-and-take
art projects at the second annual Native
American Heritage Festival on Nov. 10 at
the Lincoln City Cultural Center.
The afternoon festival, which is free
and open to the public, will be held from
noon to 4 p.m. It will be followed by an
evening concert, a ticketed event with flut-
ist Jan Michael Looking Wolf, starting at 7
p.m. All events will be held at the center,
540 NE Highway 101 in Lincoln City.
These experiences are made possible
through the financial support of the city
of Lincoln City and in-kind contributions
from Chinook Winds Casino Resort, the
Siletz Tribe and the Historic Anchor Inn.
The festival was planned with the help
of three partner nonprofits – the Siletz
Tribal Arts & Heritage Society, the North
Lincoln County Historical Museum and
The Oregon Encyclopedia.
The free afternoon festival will
include a visit from cultural historian and
Tribal Council member Robert Kentta.
His presentation, Baskets, Beads and
Regalia: Cultural Treasures from the
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians,
will begin at 1 p.m.
At 2 p.m., professor Rebecca Dobkins
of the Oregon Encyclopedia project, will
discuss “Hidden in Plain Sight: Native
American Art in Western Oregon.”
At 3 p.m., the public is invited into
the LCCC auditorium for ideas and free
samples from Chef Jack Strong, a Siletz
Tribal member and the executive chef at
Chinook Winds Casino Resort.
The cultural center will close at 4
p.m. and will re-open at 6:30 p.m. for
the evening concert presentation by Jan
Michael Looking Wolf, a member of the
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde,
who has become a renowned interpreter
of Native American flute music.
Looking Wolf’s concert will begin at
7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, $17 at
the door and free for children age 12 and
under. To learn more, call the LCCC box
office at 541-994-9994.
The People Are Dancing Again, an
exhibit about the history of the Confeder-
ated Tribes of Siletz Indians, will be on
display in the Chessman Gallery through-
out the month of November.
The display is on gracious loan from
the North Lincoln County Historical
Museum and is based on Charles Wilkin-
son’s ground-breaking book by the same
name. It draws from oral tradition and
personal interviews and includes artifacts
from the museum’s collection.
to help Tribal families
By Diane Rodriquez
The Siletz Tribe received two grants
in the last six weeks that will help it focus
on at-risk Tribal families with young
children and establish a farmers market
in Siletz.
David Davis, Tribal grant writer/
planner, discussed these and other grants
during a radio interview on Spotlight on
Siletz on KCUP on Oct. 10.
The Tribe has received a five-year
Tribal Maternal, Infant and Early Child-
hood Home Visiting grant from the
Department of Health and Human Ser-
vices, one of just six granted nationwide.
“During the program’s first year,
we’ll be conducting a comprehensive
needs assessment of at-risk Tribal families
who reside in our entire 11-county service
area,” said Davis, indicating a focus on the
following concerns:
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Healthy pregnancies and birth
outcomes
Infant and child health outcomes
Parent-child relationships
Safety and security of infants, chil-
dren and families
Child maltreatment, abuse and neglect
School readiness and child academic
achievement
Crime and domestic violence
Family economic self-sufficiency
Coordination and referrals for other
community resources and supports
“We will be visiting families so we can
determine in a systematic way what these
at-risk families really need and what kind
of program would best work for our Tribe
we can’t define exactly what we’ll be doing
in the remaining four years of the program
until this initial year of study is done.”
This initial year of the grant comes
with $200,000 in funding and Davis says
that in subsequent years, the amount of
funding approximately doubles for each
year “because then you’re done studying
and you’re actually doing.”
Farmers market
While the grant for the farmers mar-
ket is less money (nearly $43,000), its
implications for the community of Siletz
stand out. The grant calls for a half-time
position for two years.
“To me, this could be more than just
a farmers market. I see it as a way of
providing a place for the community to
come together once a week and do vari-
ous things, not just have produce for sale
but bring in some of the local musicians,
bring in some of the crafts producers and
maybe even doing craft instruction there,”
said Davis. “It’s really kind of open-ended
at this point. I think we can’t look to rep-
licating the kind of farmers market they
have in Newport here in Siletz. We’ve got
to think about it in a different way of what
a farmers market would look like here in
Siletz that would be a success.”
The goal is to have the farmers market
up and running next spring.
Other new grants
A Rural Housing Preservation Grant
from the USDA will enable the Tribe to
replace the roofs on about a half dozen
homes in the Silatchee Park area of Tribal
housing in Siletz.
abled Tribal members or those who need
transportation to such things as doctor’s
appointments benefit from the ODOT
funds. Tribal members and the Siletz
community benefit from the FTA funds.
“We have contracted with Lincoln
County Transit to use that (FTA) money to
add four new (bus) routes to their regular
services, all of them directly servicing Siletz
and filling large holes in the schedule that
existed before this grant,” Davis said of the
added mid-day and early evening bus runs.
The Tribal Natural Resources Depart-
ment recently received a grant from the
Administration for Native Americans to
study the genetics of salmon and steelhead
breeding across the Siletz River Basin.
The three-year grant for $360,721
has the Tribe coordinating activities
with several partners, including the OSU
Marine Fisheries Genetics Laboratory;
the Oregon Department of Fish & Wild-
life (ODFW) Fish Management Office in
Newport, Ore.; the ODFW Fish Research
Lab in Corvallis, Ore.; and the Mid-Coast
Watersheds Council in Newport
The project has two goals – to describe
the presence or absence of unique breed-
ing groups of Chinook salmon and
steelhead in the Siletz River Basin and
if unique breeding groups are shown to
exist, describe what mainstem and tribu-
tary habitats are utilized by the offspring.
The project should help increase the
understanding of specific spawning habitats
and juvenile rearing habitats that should be
protected and enhanced. This could lead to
improved fishing for traditional Tribal fish-
ers and Tribal and non-Tribal sport fishers,
and to more fish returning to the Siletz.
Restoration, con’t from page 1
units there and 19 apartments in Siletz
that opened in 2010; completing the
Siletz Dance House in 1996; opening the
Tenas Illahee Childcare Center in 2003;
opening the Tillicum Fitness Center and
a new USDA food distribution warehouse
in Siletz in 2008; and opening the Siletz
Rec Center in 2009.
Through its economic development
division, the Siletz Tribal Business Cor-
poration, the Tribe purchased the Lincoln
Shores office complex in Lincoln City in
2001; opened the Siletz Gas & Mini-Mart
in Siletz in 2004, the Logan Road RV Park
in Lincoln City in 2004 and the Hee Hee
Illahee RV Resort in Salem in 2006.
The Tribe purchased the Imprints
printing business in Lincoln City in 2008.
It also opened O’Downey’s Irish Pub and
Family Dining in Depoe Bay in 2010.
Tribal offices in Portland, Salem and
Eugene now are housed in Tribally owned
buildings. The Eugene office moved to
its current location in 2005, the Salem
office did the same in 2006 and the Port-
land office moved to its current location
in 2008.
The Tribe also played a lead role in
opening Siletz Valley School in 2003 and
the Siletz Valley Early College Academy
in 2006.
Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln
City opened in May 1995. In June 2004,
the Siletz Tribe purchased the former
Shilo Inn adjacent to the casino and
opened Chinook Winds Casino Resort.
Chinook Winds Golf Resort opened in
April 2005 when the Tribe purchased the
former Lakeside Golf and Fitness Center
in Lincoln City.
The combination of Tribal employ-
ees and those at Chinook Winds Casino
Resort has allowed the Siletz Tribe to
become the largest employer in Lincoln
County.
The Siletz Tribe has honored its tra-
dition of sharing within the community
by distributing more than $9.8 million
through the Siletz Tribal Charitable Con-
tribution Fund and other Tribal resources.
Chinook Winds has donated nearly
$2.3 million in cash and fund-raising
items since 1995. It also provides in-kind
donations of convention space for various
fund-raisers as well as technical support,
advertising and manpower for events.
Photo by Diane Rodriquez
A young one enjoys a dance during the
2011 Restoration Pow-Wow.
November 2012
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