Siletz News H
Page 2
August 1,1992
Siletz Tribal Council Meetings
♦Averages are for Meetings Held During the 6-month Periods Ending on Dates Above
The graph above was produced by totalling the total amount o f time spent by Tribal Council in meetings during eight consecutive
six-month periods and then dividing the total by the amount o f time spent in Executive Sessions during the same periods. The
graph does not distinguish between two different sorts o f Executive Sessions. The first sort is a general clearing o f the room o f
people, including tribal members, who are not members o f the Tribal Council and who are not invited by the Chair o f the Tribal
Council to remain. The second variety is "to go o ff the record" while allowing tribal members and others in attendance to remain
present. Tribal Council documents do not record this difference.
" Ingrates, ” continued from page 1
“illegal” activities such as feeding yourself and your
family.
The advantage of this method is great. You
don’t have to be called an ingrate. You won’t be
encouraged to see other Indian people as ingrates,
either.
Option 3) You can just stop noticing that what
you’re offered is not what you’ve been promised.
The main advantage to this method is that,
theoretically, it's available to all Indian people.
The disadvantage is the “not-noticing” part.
Generally, it is hard for a person not to notice a reality
as harsh as perpetual injustice and on-going deceit It’s
also hard to practice the art of forgetting when people
around you still talk of the importance of remembering.
Drugs, such as alcohol, help people become
numb to their realities. Violence has the same effect,
along with a number of other compulsive behaviors.
Once you've become numb, forgetting is easy.
And while it's likely that people will call you a number
of unfavorable names, you will never be accused of
“ingratitude.”
Option 4) It is possible to get rid of the word
“Migrate” and the concept of this sort of “ingratitude.”
People who remember what a promise is and who
notice that what's happening now is not in accordance
with past promises are simply called something else.
Historians. Rememberers. Sages. Seers.
Or maybe just people. Our people.
This path is open to many. I know plenty of
people who work for the Siletz, for instance, who don’t
accuse the people they serve of ingratitude.
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