Siletz News
Confederated Tribes of
Siletz Indians
P.O. Box 549
Siletz, OR 97380-0549
SILETZ NEWS
Delores Pigsley,
Tribal Chairman
Brenda Bremner,
General Manager
and Editor-in-Chief
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Vol. 43, No. 7
July 2015
Missing
Moccasins …
will not get their
per capita check
on time!
What is a Missing Moccasin? This is
the nickname for a Tribal member who
has an invalid address on file with the
Siletz Enrollment Department.
When a Tribal administrative depart-
ment receives returned mail that is
undeliverable, it notifies the Enrollment
Department. Enrollment staff will attempt
to contact the Tribal member at the most
recently provided phone numbers or any
other address provided.
Once staff has determined there is
no way to get a message to the Tribal
member to update his/her address, the
Tribal member will be added to the Miss-
ing Moccasin list for publication in Siletz
News each month.
In order to receive any mail from the
Tribal administration, including per capita
checks, the Tribal member must submit
his/her address change on the Tribal
Member Information Change Form to the
Enrollment Department.
For security purposes, address
changes are not accepted over the phone
and can only be made by the Tribal mem-
ber. To submit an address change in time
to still receive the mailing of per capita
checks, you must submit the address
change form in time for the Enrollment
Department to receive it by 4:30 p.m.
on July 17, 2015.
Address changes received after that
date will be put into the system, however
the address printed for per capita check
mailing already will be finalized.
As of June 11, 2015, there are 186
adult Siletz Tribal Missing Moccasins.
If you are on this list, please update your
contact information with the Enrollment
Department immediately. Additionally,
112 minor children have an invalid
address on file; however, children’s
names are not published.
If you are not receiving a quarterly
statement for your child’s trust account,
they may have an invalid address on
file. If you know someone on this
list, please ask them to contact the Enroll-
ment Department.
If you have any questions, contact the
Enrollment staff at 800-922-1399, ext.
1258, or 541-4448258.
To update your address with Contract
Health, you must fill out another form
that is available on the Tribal website
under Tribal Services>Health Care and
Download Registration Form link at the
bottom of the page.
See Missing on page 4
Presorted
First-Class
Mail
U.S. Postage
Paid - Permit
No. 178
Salem, OR
Tribe receives 2 Siletz baskets in separate donations
Carl and Deirdre Reynolds from
Lincoln City, Ore., have donated a
small double-handled Siletz basket with
a dyed root design to the Siletz Tribe.
Deirdre’s sisters, Betty McBee and
Patsy Minter (and her husband, John)
from Florence, Ore., accompanied them
to Siletz to gift the basket to the Tribe.
While they don’t have much history
on the basket, they do remember they
were anxious to get rid of a rather mean
horse at one time and traded the horse for
a number of things, including the basket.
Another basket has been donated by
the late Clarice Lane’s sister, Kathleen
“Katie” Overton, who grew up in Siletz
and received the basket as a gradua-
tion gift in the 1950s. The basket was
woven by Ida Bensell.
Katie had saved a newspaper
article showing Ida posing with one of
her baskets and preparing for her 91 st
birthday. The article was laminated and
came with the basket.
Photos by Diane Rodriquez
A basket donated by Katie Overton
(above); Deirdre and Carl Reynolds
(right) with their basket donation
Art competition opens for vocational rehab conference
The Consortia of Administrators
for Native American Rehabilitation
(CANAR) has opened its 2015 Annual
Conference Art Competition.
The conference will be held Nov.
9-12 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The competition is open to staff and
consumers of any American Indian voca-
tional rehab program in Indian Country.
The competition will be judged on
how well the entry portrays this year’s
mid-year conference theme, We are
CANAR: United as Warriors – Telling
Our Stories, which represents the con-
cept that CANAR’s strength is drawn
from all of its members collectively.
See Art on page 4
DOJ proposes legislation for Tribal Equal Access to
Voting Act of 2015 to guarantee Native voting rights
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice in May proposed legisla-
tion to Congress designed to guarantee
equal voting rights for American Indians.
Many Indian reservations and Alaska
Native villages are located great distances
from polling locations, which contributes
to low voter participation rates among
American Indians and Alaska Natives.
DOJ Assistant Attorney General Peter
Kadzik stated in a letter transmitting the
proposed bill, “The Department of Justice is
committed to ensuring equal access to vot-
ing for Native American voters. We believe
that the enclosed proposal would address
serious voting obstacles faced by citizens
who are members of Indian Tribes ….”
The following are a few examples of
the tremendous distances Native voters
encounter when attempting to vote:
•
•
•
•
•
Duck Valley Reservation – 104 miles
from the nearest polling place in Elko,
Nev. (a 2-hour, 7-minute drive)
Goshute Reservation – 163 miles
from the nearest polling place in Erda,
Utah (a 2-hour, 47-minute drive)
Hopi Tribe – 90 miles from the near-
est polling place in Joseph City, Ariz.
(a 1-hour, 43-minute drive)
Navajo Nation (New Mexico) – New-
comb is 34 miles from the Tohatchi
polling place and 58 miles from the
nearest early voting location in Gallup.
Navajo Nation (Arizona) – The near-
est polling place is in Kayenta, which
is 44 miles (50 minutes) from Shonto.
The legislation would require states
whose territory contains an Indian res-
ervation or Alaska Native village to
provide a minimum of one polling place
for each Indian Tribe in a location of its
own choosing.
States also must make voting materi-
als available and provide the same hours
of operation and payment to poll workers
at those locations as it does with all of its
other locations.
The obligation to provide polling
places is contingent on an Indian Tribe
filing a timely formal request.
“The right to vote is the bedrock
of our democracy and must be ensured
for Native people living on Indian res-
ervations or in Alaska Native villages,”
said Brian Cladoosby, president of the
National Congress of American Indians.
“We are very supportive of this legislation
because it comes directly from discus-
sions with Tribal leadership.”