Agnes Pilgrim: Long life creates many adventures
Agnes Baker Pilgrim was the seventh
of nine children born to George Went-
worth Baker and Eveline Lydia Harney
Baker in 1924 in Logsden, Ore., on a
Tribal allotment near the headwaters of
the Siletz River.
Aggie, 92, has three sons and three
daughters – Robert, Keith and Tony (both
deceased), Mona, Nadine and Sonja, 18
grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and
one great-great-granddaughter.
Growing up, Aggie’s family lived
without electricity. They had chickens,
milk cows, sheep, longhorn cattle and
horses. They gathered greens, pick black-
berries and apples, fished, canned lots of
fruit every fall and with plenty of eels in
the creek, they never went hungry.
The Takelma language was spoken
in her home, but not encouraged outside
it. Always independent, as a teenager
Aggie insisted on dancing traditionally
in her buckskin dress even though this
was banned by her Catholic church. She
graduated from Taft High School in Lin-
coln City in 1942.
Over the next years she pursued a
wide variety of careers, including gather-
ing cascara bark and other wild plants,
singing in a band, being a bouncer at a
nightclub and a barber in a jail, driving
a log truck and setting chokers, racing
stockcars, working as a hospital scrub
nurse and managing a restaurant.
Around 1970, she decided to finally
take on the spiritual path she had always
felt calling her. She took the medicine
name of her Takelma great-grandmother,
“Taowhywee” or Morningstar.
Aggie described a pivotal moment in
her life when the Creator “wanted me to do
this spiritual walk. I said I’m not worthy,
but he’d come again and he’d come again.
So I said I might as well do it and when
I said that, it’s like a load fell off of me. I
went to my kids, told them to forgive me
for the mistakes I’d made. There’s no such
thing as parent school.”
From 1974 to 1989, Aggie worked as a
manager and counselor at the United Indian
Lodge in Crescent City, Calif. A main focus
was alcohol prevention, intervention and
rehabilitation. During this time, she also
received criminal justice training.
In the early 1980s, she joined the
tribe’s Cultural Heritage and Sacred Lands
Committee. She enrolled at Southern Ore-
gon State College and in 1985 graduated
with a bachelor’s degree in psychology
with a minor in Native American studies.
Another pivotal moment in Aggie’s
life came when the Creator told her he
wanted her to be a voice for the voiceless.
“I asked him, what does that mean?
I was sitting outside by a table with a
glass of water … then the wind came
up and rustled a big tree and I thought,
Grandfather, should I be a voice for the
wind, the air, is that what you mean?” she
said. “I reached for the glass of water and
thought, you don’t have a voice either. The
water doesn’t have a voice. He said to teach
wherever you go – water
is your first medicine.”
Aggie was one of
13 women from indig-
enous cultures around
the world who were
invited to the Inter-
national Council of
13 Indigenous Grand-
mothers in October
2004. This group “is
an alliance of prayer,
education and healing
for our Mother Earth,
all Her inhabitants, all
the children and for the
next seven generations
to come.” (grandmoth-
erscouncil.org).
Aggie said that the
most significant thing
for the Tribe that has
happened since 1977
(Restoration) was for
the Creator to empower
the Tribal Council to
fight to benefit all Tribal
members.
“One of the greatest
things I have is to pray
for the Tribal Council,”
she said. “I commend
them for what they do
for all of us. They fight
hard for our culture and
traditions.”
Election Deadlines
Timeline/Schedule
Dental Coloring Contest Winner
The Siletz Community Dental Clinic would like to congratulate
Rainbow Mason on being our coloring contest winner! Because
of her efforts to “bling” out a coloring page, she was rewarded
with a Sonicare toothbrush.
Feb. 4, 2017 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. In-person Voting – Tribal Elections, Tribal Com-
munity Center, Siletz
Feb. 4, 2017 (4 p.m.)
Deadline for returning absentee ballots
Funded Orthodontic Treatment Screening
If you are between the ages of 5-14, you too will have a chance to
win! Come pick up your coloring page at the Siletz Community
Dental Clinic and express your creativity. Submissions for the next
contest must be received before March 31 at 5 p.m. One winner
selected from ages 5-8 and one winner selected from ages 9-14
will receive a Sonicare toothbrush. One entry per patient per
contest, please. In order to maximize the oral health of the
community through these prizes, a patient can only win the
contest once through the duration of the contest. Good luck and
don’t forget – brush twice a day and floss daily!
The 2017 Funded Orthodontic Treatment Program is fast approaching!
All interested parties should contact the Dental Department to be placed on
a list. The screening dates are April 26-27 and May 22-23, 2017.
The program and amount of accepted applicants will be dependent on the
funding for that year. Applicants are selected by case severity, motivation of the
patient and guardian, reliable transportation, routine dental check-ups and the oral
hygiene history of the patient, to name a few.
We want the best results possible for the patient and thus place emphasis on
these items in order to achieve this. The unbiased selection process is performed
under the guidance of an orthodontic specialist and chosen through a committee.
Open to all ages who are CHS-eligible only. Must have a scheduled screening
appointment during one of the four screening days to be considered.
Each year’s selection process is independent from previous years and does
not carry over. Selected and treated individuals can only be selected once for the
duration of the program.
All applicants will be notified by mail if they have been chosen.
Please contact the Siletz Dental Clinic, 541-444-9681 or 800-922-1399,
ext. 1681, to be put on the list.
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Siletz News
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February 2017
