Minor Trust year-end statements have new look and feel
By Daniel McCue, Chief Financial Officer
Starting with the year ending Dec. 31,
2021, minor trust statements will have a
brand new look and feel. There have been
a few changes to the Tribal Minor Trust
Program the past few years, one of which
is a transfer of all assets to a new provider.
As the Tribe has communicated in
the past, we now have a new investment
advisory firm, Sovereign Investment Advi-
sors, LLC (“SIA”) and a new trust admin-
istrator, Providence First Trust Company
(“PFTC”). They have allowed us to better
administer all of the funds the Tribe is
responsible for in terms of minor trust
contributions and investments.
The partnership has allowed better
tracking of contributions and better track-
ing of distributions, and allows these third
parties to manage the funds much more
efficiently.
Because of the change, the statements
will come directly from PFTC this year.
In the past, statements from Stifel Invest-
ment Services would come to the Tribe
CTSI Jobs
Tribal employment information
available at ctsi.nsn.us.
and the Tribe had to re-mail them out to
all beneficiaries. They should be mailed
by the end of January 2022 and received
sometime in February 2022. Be on the
lookout. Statements are not junk mail.
If you do not get a statement by the
end of February and would like one, or
would like to discuss your account or
statement when it’s received, please con-
tact PFTC at 800-350-0208, 8-5 MST,
Monday-Friday. You will need to provide
identifying information when you call.
If you are over age 18, only you can
access information on your account unless
you allow, in writing, a parent or guard-
ian to have access. Parents and guardians
have access to information on accounts
for those under 18.
We hope we can roll out more benefits
of having this administrator later this year,
such as online access to view your account
activity and performance. We will let you
know when that becomes available. The
Investment Committee meets on a quar-
terly basis and is closely monitoring the
status of the Tribe’s investments with our
financial advising company, SIA.
This also serves as a reminder that
if you are age 18 and wish to withdraw
your Minor Trust funds, you must first
complete a Minor Trust Payment Request
Form. You can request once per calendar
year. You must have your request form
notarized with an original notary seal
before returning the form to the Tribe.
In addition, please include a copy of
your Social Security card and a current tele-
phone number where you can be reached
should we have any questions concerning
your request. You can obtain a copy of the
Minor Trust Payment Request Form on the
Tribe’s website – ctsi.nsn.us. Please see the
Tribal Member Distribution Ordinance on
the Tribe’s website for details on distribu-
tion limits and other rules.
You can find more information on
our trust administrator and our invest-
ment advisor at the following websites,
respectively – providencefirst.com and
sovereignfinance.com.
“Open Until Filled” vacancies may close at any time. The Tribe’s Indian Prefer-
ence policy applies. Tribal government will not discriminate in selection because of
race, creed, age, sex, color, national origin, physical handicap, marital status, politics,
membership or non-membership in an employee orgnization.
2021/2022
HUNTING/FISHING/GATHERING
INCENTIVES
Reminder to all Siletz Tribal members:
Please report all harvests of deer, elk,
salmon and shellfish to the Natural
Resources Department. The name on the
tag/permit will be submitted into a
drawing after the seasons end and could
receive one of the following Cabela’s gift
card incentives.
HUNTING INCENTIVES
$100
~
$75
~
$50
CABELA’S GIFT CARDS
FISHING INCENTIVE
$50
CABELA’S GIFT CARD
SHELLFISH INCENTIVE
$50
CABELA’S GIFT CARD
Please report all harvests to:
Mike Kennedy
541-444-8232
mikek@ctsi.nsn.us
or
Denise Garrett
541-444-8227
deniseg@ctsi.nsn.us
Shall we talk about trauma and health? How does one influence the other?
By Nancy Ludwig, MS, RDN, LD, Head
Start Consulting Nutritionist
Talk about trauma seems to be every-
where these days. I’ve included trauma
as a health concern in my articles since
2013 when my Head Start message began
to be included in Siletz News. Trauma is
real, despite having been hidden to the
“mainstream.”
There are many types of trauma and
many ways that it impacts our lives and our
health. Two previous articles specifically
looking at trauma are Digestion under
attack? (February 2017) and ACE impacts
digestion and health (January 2019).
Adverse childhood experiences
(ACEs) range from physical, emotional
or sexual abuse to parental divorce or the
incarceration of a parent or guardian. The
effect of unresolved emotional trauma on
health from childhood across a lifetime
is possibly the most under-exposed risk
factor for major chronic health conditions
in the world today.
Trauma isn’t always a direct experi-
ence with a memory. It can be a collective
experience passed down through families
and groups. Collective or intergenerational
trauma is at work in the Native population
and adds a burden to health.
“Developmental trauma” has caught
my attention. This is also referred to as
complex post-traumatic stress disorder
(C-PTSD) and appears to be more hidden
than some of the overt traumas associated
with big events or ACEs. One defining
point is how early in life the trauma started.
Developmental trauma commonly
starts within the first 4-7 years and
expresses differently at various ages and
stages of development. Another signifi-
cant factor that sets developmental trauma
apart from other types is that it is chronic
and is often invisible or unsupported.
4
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Siletz News
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Furthermore, it isn’t always about
what happened. It includes what didn’t
happen, such as lack of attentive care, not
being seen – in other words, neglect. This
can even occur in families where children
are loved, when the primary caregiver(s)
is unavailable emotionally. For example,
in a situation where the parents are in
deep grief or gravely ill, they may not
be attuned to their child. Children aren’t
able to see that they are inherently good,
despite being in a bad situation.
Trauma is what happens inside a per-
son’s nervous system when it is overloaded
and is not defined as specific events or
lack of events. When our nervous systems
are on high alert, we can’t digest food
properly. Some traumas are chronic and
not always readily visible. Additionally,
some children are quite sensitive and may
be more vulnerable due to how intensely
they feel. This amplifies what the nervous
system must handle.
In the past, I’ve shared foods and
herbs that can calm the nervous system
(January 2021, Can nutrition really help
my mood?). While these foods and herbs
are important, they are not sufficient alone
for the healing process.
Acknowledgement and therapy are
critical on the healing path. This is not
my specialty and it is important to find
help from a professional with appropri-
ate training in trauma therapy (not just
trauma-informed).
My purpose here is to share that
this early trauma can set us up for ill-
ness. Young brains become hardwired
to respond to stress more easily and less
external stress is required to produce all
the cascading changes in the body result-
ing from a stress response.
February 2022
Toxic early-life stress also creates
low-grade inflammation in the brain. This
toxic stress prevents neurogenesis (the for-
mation and development of nerve cells),
leading to depression, digestion problems,
hormonal imbalances such as chronic
fatigue, and immune system problems
such as susceptibility to infection or food
and chemical sensitivities.
In some cases illness can occur despite
healthy lifestyles. It may be autoimmune
forms of illness, where the body attacks
itself. In other cases, the early trauma
may result in self-betrayal, self-sabotage
or lack of self-worth. These beliefs can
influence food choices as well as how well
our body can receive nourishment.
The body is designed to slow down
or put off digestion while under stress
for survival. Often people who grew up
in chronic stress/trauma don’t even real-
ize it isn’t “normal.” The word “normal”
presents a problem because possibly it
felt normal, it looked like it happened
to everyone and no one talked about it.
Therefore, it can be difficult to identify
what happened until after things go badly
in adulthood and we look back.
What can we do? Pay attention and be
a reliable adult. If during childhood there
was no outside support or the adverse
childhood events were even a family
“secret,” research shows the impact is
worse for the child. Research shows having
just one reliable adult to speak to about
their experience can help a child recover
from a trauma.
Remember family meals. Connect
with each other while sharing food. Ask
questions and listen to the answers. What
went well today? What was hard? What
are you grateful for? What is your goal
for tomorrow? Acknowledge the answers
and offer support rather than diminishing
your child’s experience in ways that may
cause him or her to feel worse or unloved.
This dinner ritual can serve to miti-
gate some of the trauma a child may be
experiencing as well as provide a platform
to notice how the young ones in your
life are developing emotionally. Some
trauma-patterns won’t show up in dinner
conversation because often children learn
to accommodate and care take of others to
feel safe. In order to do this, however, they
also learn to suppress their own needs.
Later, this can undermine healthy choices
or the body’s ability to pause the chronic
stress to digest food properly.
Support your loved ones when they
are facing illness, yet not getting well
despite addressing nutrition and physi-
cal care. Full healing may not occur if
the emotional or past traumas are not
resolved or released. In fact, we can look
at disease, illness and physical symptoms
as our body’s way of getting our attention
to address our unique needs.
Healing emotional trauma is one of
the most important aspects to address in
all chronic complex illnesses. Unresolved
trauma leads to a state of chronic stress
and inflammation, which perpetuates ill-
nesses and leads to beliefs that sabotage
our ability to recover. We all need to feel
safe. We can’t be a strong community
without supporting each other.
I believe that health always has some
kind of connection to nutrition. Please
know that Siletz Tribal Head Start offers
nutritional support at no cost to Head
Start families. This usually occurs over the
telephone. If you have nutrition concerns
about your Head Start child or want to
discuss family nutrition concerns, please
contact your teacher or the director and
ask to speak to the nutritionist.