Photo by Andy Taylor
Photo by Andy Taylor
Andrea Summerlin, DAR chapter regent, and Delores Pigsley, Tribal chairman
Cultural Director Robert Kentta presented Western Oregon Tribal Origins of the
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians to the community at the Toledo (Ore.) Pub-
lic Library on March 16. This successful discussion was included in a series of
monthly open meetings held by the Lincoln County Genealogical Society. Kentta
showed a variety of things, including one of many parts of a Feather Dance dress.
Pigsley, continued from page 1
Pigsley’s nomination reads as follows:
In the capacity as Siletz Tribal chairman, Delores has been actively involved in
Tribal government, Indian commissions and boards, committees, and in many other
government functions and capacities throughout her career.
She has worked closely with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service,
Administration for Native Americans, Department of Labor, many other federal agen-
cies, Oregon governors and local governments.
Delores has been and is currently a tribal delegate to the National Congress of
American Indians, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, past chairman of the Oregon
Legislative Commission on Indian Services, the National Indian Gaming Association
and many other boards and commissions as well as the chief tribal spokesman.
As chief negotiator for the Tribe, she has successfully negotiated memorandums
of understanding, self-governance compacts, Tribal gaming compacts as well as many
agreements with federal and local governments, colleges and schools. She has testified
before Congress many times on various issues that affect Tribes nationally.
The history of the Tribe since termination in the 1950s to restoration in 1977 has
been one of growth and prosperity. Delores served on the Restoration Committee and the
Gaming Committee, both landmarks in the Tribe’s successful operation and business.
Delores credits the success of her Tribe to all of the past and current Tribal Council
leaders, and to many national Tribal leaders serving as mentors. The rebuilding of a
Tribe takes leadership and community support.
She was married to Donald Pigsley, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of
Wagner, South Dakota. She has three children – Timothy, Troy and Quanna – and seven
grandchildren, Don, Troy and Quanna are now deceased.
Delores has served on the Siletz Tribal Council for 40 years in total, 33.5 of those years
as chairman. In February, she was re-elected to another three-year term on the council.
Those also receiving DAR awards included Amanda, a blind Coos woman for whom
Amanda’s Trail in Yachats, Ore., is named; Loretta Hoagland, founder of Neighbors for
Kids in Depoe Bay, Ore.; and Mary Clare Smothers, NASA ambassador.
Resolution, continued from page 1
WHEREAS, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) is comprised of all
western Oregon Tribes whose ancestral territories include portions of the proposed
Pacific Connector Gas Line route, which would transmit LNG from Malin to Coos Bay,
and the site of the proposed Jordan Cove LNG export facility; and
WHEREAS, the Court of Claims in 1938 rightly found that the Coos, Lower
Umpqua and Siuslaw Tribes had been removed to, and confederated with other Tribes
on the Siletz Reservation; and
WHEREAS, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians has never ceded its aboriginal
title interests to Coos ancestral territory; and
WHEREAS, and the proposed Pacific Connector Gas Line poses multiple major
cultural and natural resource and environmental/habitat losses and ongoing threats to
not only unceded Coos territory, but throughout its proposed footprint; and
WHEREAS, the proposed LNG transmission line and proposed associated export
facility are not in the service of local or national business or energy supply or natural
resource interests; now
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
believes that the proposed LNG Transmission Line and associated proposed Jordan
Cove LNG export facility will directly negatively affect sensitive aquatic and terrestrial
habitat and vitally important species by its construction, many of which would be
permanent losses which cannot be mitigated; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that any long-term operation of such proposed
LNG transmission line and export facility would pose an ongoing threat of catastrophic
failures during a major Cascadia Subduction Zone Seismic periodic event, of which
there is a long proven geologic record; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that because of the foregoing concerns, and others,
the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians cannot support the planning, approval, con-
struction and maintenance of the Malin to Coos Bay LNG transmission line, or the
proposed Jordan Cove LNG export facility, nor the associated proposed Jordan Cove
to mouth channel widening, turning basin, and shipping berths proposed for the north
shore of Coos Bay, and the CTSI strongly opposes all related planning and construction.
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
By
_________________________________
Delores Pigsley, Tribal Council Chairman
CERTIFICATION
This Resolution was adopted at a Regular Tribal Council Meeting held on March
15, 2019, at which a quorum of the Tribal Council was present, and the Resolution
was adopted by a vote of 9 FOR, 0 AGAINST, and 0 ABSTAINING, the chairman
or vice chairman being authorized to sign the resolution.
By
_________________________________
Sharon Edenfield, Tribal Council Secretary
April 2019
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