Siletz news /, November 01, 2014, Page 19, Image 19

Breon named SuperStar for great
customer service, help for guests
Siletz Tribal member and Transporta-
tion Supervisor Bensell Breon was named
the Chinook Winds Superstar for the
second quarter at a luncheon in August.
The event recognized the nine
employees nominated for the SuperStar
award, 40 employees who completed one
year of service, nine employees who com-
pleted five years of service, 16 employees
who completed 10 years of service and
eight employees who completed 15 years
of service.
Breon was nominated by a fellow
employee who wrote: “I witnessed
Bensell assist an extremely frail elderly
woman through the front doors. It is not
uncommon to see him and the rest of his
team go out of their way in this fashion.
I am constantly seeing Bensell go out of
his way for one of our guests, who always
appreciate him lending an arm to walk
them to and from their car. Bensell was
Courtesy photo by Chinook Winds staff
quick to see her desperate need for assis-
tance to make it into our establishment. Bensell Breon
I could see the appreciation and relief on
the guest’s face. Kudos to Bensell – he always has the guest’s best interests at heart.”
Other Superstar nominees included Jerry Marzan, Joshua Manley, Starlene McKinley,
Douglas McNair, Diane Moore, Barry Yeager, Jennifer Berti and Susan Martin.
ONABeN names new board members
PORTLAND, Ore. – ONABEN-Our
Native American Business Network
seated three individuals to one-, two- and
three-year terms on the board of directors
on Sept. 17.
New board members include Guthrie
Ducheneaux (Cheyenne River), Nathan
Segal (Eastern Band of Cherokee) and
Cherie Gordon (manager of economic
development, Burlington Northern Santa
Fe Railway).
Newly elected members join current
directors Jack Lenox (Coquille), Robert
Whitener (Squaxin Island), Aurolyn
Stwyer (Warm Springs), Bryan Mercier
(Grand Ronde), Direlle Calica (Warm
Springs) and Ted Piccolo (Colville).
Veronica Hix, ONABEN executive
director, expressed her gratitude for the
service of the new board members.
“It is an honor that these folks are
interested in the mission of ONABEN and
support the work that we conduct across
the nation,” said Hix. “These new direc-
tors bring with them expertise in business
development and growth and will add to the
enthusiasm and energy for our programs
and projects from our existing board.”
In the reorganization of the board, the
directors re-elected Lenox as chairman,
Whitener as vice-chairman and Stwyer as
secretary-treasurer.
The ONABEN board of directors
meets up to six times each year on a bi-
monthly basis.
ONABEN is a 501(c)(3) corporation
headquartered in Portland, Ore., that was
created in 1991 by four Oregon Tribes to
encourage development of a private sector
on their reservations. ONABEN provides
curriculum, training and organizational
consulting focused on developing entre-
preneurship in Native communities.
ONABEN serves Native business
development organizations and entrepre-
neurs nationally through its Indianpre-
neurship curriculum.
For more information about ONA-
BEN and its products and services, please
visit ONABEN.org.
Siletz News Letters Policy
Siletz News, a publication of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, is
published once a month. Our editorial policy encourages input from readers about
stories printed in Siletz News and other tribal issues.
All letters must include the author’s signature, address, and phone number in
order to be considered for publication. Siletz News reserves the right to edit any
letter for clarity and length, and to refuse publication of any letter or any part of
a letter that may contain profane language, libelous statements, personal attacks,
or unsubstantiated statements.
Not all letters are guaranteed publication upon submission. Published let-
ters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Siletz News, Tribal employees, or
Tribal Council.
Please type or write legibly. Letters longer than 450 words may be edited for
length as approved by Tribal Council Resolution #96-142.
Please note: The general manager
of the Siletz Tribe is the editor-in-chief
of Siletz News.
Editor-in-Chief: Brenda Bremner
Editor: Diane Rodriquez
To the editor:
Thank you to everyone for all the love, support, food, flowers, prayers and care
that was shown for Quanna Pigsley during her long struggle to live. A special thank
you to Bud and Cheryl for all the good food delivered to Quanna’s – that was special.
Lisa Taylor and Cherity Bloom-Miller, you were Quanna’s own angels. Thank
you for all your help.
She was blessed to have so many friends and family who attended her services
and helped in her time of need. The family thanks you.
The Pigsley family
To the editor:
Children who dance outside of our fires
We enrich their lives with family and Tribal history. We smother them in Tribal
culture. We enlighten and build their self-esteem. We nurture them with family and
community camaraderie and commitment.
We awaken their spirit with the past, present and future goals. We build strong ties,
bonds. We help them paint their world with rainbow colors of opportunity.
We encourage them to breathe in deeply the early morning light of a new fresh
awaiting dawn. We watch them spread their wings while encouraging them to fly high,
reach toward the stars! We see them blossom through guidance and when day is done,
we teach them respect, humbleness, to find quietness and center in contentment.
Then, with a darkness of age our children whom we have put such priority upon,
our families’ futures, our children who have danced with song and energy are rudely
awakened, transported from our warm circles of pride, they begin a tourney as did
our ancestors of yesterday.
The long journey from ancestral ties, dreams, community and the harsh detachment
is as brutal as was our Tribal removal from the homelands. At this age, their sensitive
identity is snatched away, leaving them fragile, limp, lifeless, lost. Snared, trapped
between two traveling worlds of indifference.
Our people have survived because our ancestral identity has been held intact
through dedicated perseverance. Sacrifices were made to survive, to rekindle our
past, breaking trail. This transported us into our present environment that enables us
to build toward our future.
There is a ripple of reflection that encourages, that no child shall be left behind or
become a throwaway, instant gratification commodity. For it is their blossoming spirit
that awakens the dark. If not ever-vigilant, our Tribal future can become bottlenecked,
suffocated, stifled by shortsighted negligence.
Direct dependency is an inheritance by right of birth. Our children who dance out-
side of our Tribal fires, away from the warmth of family, friends and community are a
valuable lost treasure trove of diversity and are one of our most valuable Tribal assets.
Quantum, one step down can mean one step up for a wide-eyed Tribal dreamer
with grandiose expectations, dreams.
Eva E. Clayton
My Green campaign releases music
video about minors’ trust payments
ATLANTA – First Nations Develop-
ment Institute’s My Green campaign, a
social marketing campaign focused on
financial empowerment for American
Indian youth, has released a new music
video that addresses 18 Money, which
is the age at which some Native teens
receive a significant financial distribution
while they often lack the skills to effec-
tively deal with the windfall.
Theodore “Theo” Brown, a member
of the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin,
wrote and recorded a song titled Turned
18 about the challenges and pitfalls of
receiving a minor’s trust payment.
Working alongside the Ho-Chunk
Players, a Native youth theater troupe
directed by Sherman Funmaker, Brown
and the group produced a music video to
illustrate a day in the life of a Ho-Chunk
youth who “turned 18.”
The video was shot over several days
this past summer in Baraboo and Wiscon-
sin Dells, Wis., and is available on YouTube
at youtube.com/watch?v=NsLB8vzk-80.
It can be called Minor’s Trust, Big
Money or 18 Money and for a number
of American Indian youth, it represents a
blessing and a curse.
A small number of Tribes pay out divi-
dends from Tribal businesses, or per capita
payments, to their members. Payments for
Tribal members who are age 17 or younger
usually are held in a financial trust until the
youth turns 18. At age 18 (although some-
times later), youth receive a substantial pay-
ment and are faced with the responsibility
of managing their “big money.”
With funding from the FINRA Inves-
tor Education Foundation, First Nations
launched the My Green campaign to help
Native youth learn to manage their “18
money.” This includes raising awareness
of the challenges and opportunities pro-
vided by the minor’s trust payment.
The campaign features a website at
mybigmoney.org that provides a platform
for four Native youth age 17-23 to present
their stories about how they managed their
money, share their lessons learned in sev-
eral videos and serve as guides throughout
the different components of the website.
First Nations, which is headquartered
in Longmont, Colo., participated in a
Financial Education Summit on Oct. 26
as part of pre-conference activities for the
National Congress of American Indians
Annual Convention.
The purpose of the summit was to
share information with the President’s
Advisory Council on Financial Capability
for Young Americans and discuss suc-
cessful programs for providing financial
empowerment for Native youth.
November 2014
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