Siletz news., June 01, 1987, Image 7

SILETZ, OREGON, JUNE, 1987 - PAGE 7
under our Manual, have the same rights as Indians. You cannot give
Siletz tribal members preference over other Indians. Lillie felt in­
house advertising should be done away with so that tribal members
would have a better chance at getting the jobs with the tribe. If
there are no Indian applicants for art in-house position, then the
Tribe should advertise ouside the tribe so Indians can apply. Bud
Lane suggested that tribal members look at the number of people
who have been promoted in-house. The numbers will show an
overwhelmingly significant number of those individuals were tribal
members. We have a substantially larger amount of tribal members
working for the tribe than non-Indians. Gary asked if the Council
was going to consider what the General Council has expressed to­
day. Dee said they would. Josh Rilatos stated that in 1977, restora­
tion was for health, education and welfare. He is a tribal member
and the talk he is hearing is that we need to help ourselves before
we can help others. He asks if we are helping ourselves or letting
our people go by the wayside. There are a lot of problems and
dissension in oür tribe. This is the first meeting he has attended and
he would like people to think about Indian people. People keep br­
inging up the issue of white -vs.- Indian. There are only a few full-
blooded Indians.left in our tribe. This is not the issue. If the Federal
government recognizes him as an Indian, he should be afforded the
full rights. Everybody is against each other. He would like to see the
Council act on some of the suggestions people are presenting to­
day. We vote for the Council, they represent the people. If they do
not represent us, the General Council make their complaints to the
Council. Our people make a lot of complaints but nothing seems to
be done about them. The Council is a representative of the health,
education and welfare. If we cannot help ourselves how can we
help anyone else outside of the tribe. He asked if it is based on fami­
ly name. Frank Simmons responded that many people ask what the
Tribe can do for them. He feels that we should use the cliche that
John F. Kennedy used, "W hat can we do for the Tribe." Josh
discussed the Elders Program asking for voldhteers. Every elder he
knows has grandsons. How can you ask a tribal, member to
volunteer when they do not have a job. Frank Simmons responded
that he volunteers his time after work. Josh asked what STEDCO
has done for tribal members. Dee reported that Ted would make a
presentation on STEDCO. Alta Courville reported on 3 positions
available at Chemewa which could be filled with Siletz Tribal
members if they would apply. The NPAIHB has a nursing program
and are looking for 10 students. None of these students are Siletz.
There is a postion open for CHR at the Salem Area Office. Four non-
Indians and one Indian, not a Siletz Indian, applied for the position.
People keep talking about training. If you want to get someplace
you have to get training. We cannot employ every tribal member
with the few jobs we have. Elouise suggested the CETA/JTPA pro­
gram provide a solution to this problem. Alta mentioned the con­
cern over having aerobics instructors who are not properly trained
to tèach. Alta'ftientioned a workshop for training to become an
aerobics instructor. She stressed informing our young people about
the nursing program. Applications are through Tom Ball and the
deadline is May 31 St. We cannot all work in administration but we
can train to work elsewhere, also. Gary Butler feels the jobs open
and available are in Salem. Our home base is Siletz and we are try­
ing to bring tribal members back. We are building 54 homes here
and we have to have jobs here for them. He is afraid the training
, programs are encouraging them to move away. Alta pointed out
that thé nursing program would be beneficial to tribal members in
that they would be qualified to work locally and àt thé hospital in
” Newport. Gary asked if Alta, as an elected tribal official, was going
to consider the recommendations made today. Alta responded they
would. Gary asked if the Council would be open to the suggestions
today. Bud asked if the General Council would make a motion
regarding this. Bud responded, using Gary as an example, explain­
ing thé benefits of in-house policies. Gary is opposed to non-tribal
members working for thé tribe.
MOTION #3
Gary Butler moved to,fire non-Indian members who
work for the tribe and to train tribal members to take their positions.
Seconded by Elouise Case. Discussion held. Bud felt it was break­
ing federal law to do this. A lot of our contracts are federally-funded
and we cannot discriminate against non-tribal members. Lillie felt
we were discriminating against our own Indian people by not allow­
ing them to apply for these jobs. The in-house policy does not allow
them to apply. Bud stated that we promote in-house, it is a policy to
reward our employees to take on a higher paying position or a job
with more responsibility. Bud agrees with this policy. He does not
agree.with discriminating against anyone, tribal member or non-
tribal member,-.and he feels the Council is being asked to do this.
Tina Jones stated it took her three years to get in the tribal organiza­
tion and once she was hired she has been promoted by hard work
and diligence. Tribal members who want jobs should go out and
get training and then try for a job with the Tribe. It is hard to get
your foot in the door but once you do you have the opportunity to
work yourself up. Pauline said it was difficult to get your foot in the
door. There are some people who have education and no ex­
perience that have trouble getting a job, also. Frank Simmons was
glad tribal members were bringing this information out in the open.
A lot of contracts mandate a certain amount of experience. The
Council is unable to recommend someone for a position if they do
not have this experience. Gloria Werth thought federal money
should create jobs for tribal members and that our own money
should be used only for tribal members. Bud Lane explained that
the Council has looked at using timber monies for hiring of tribal
members. We can enforce this with our own funds, and the council
has talked about it before, but they need to take a hard look at this
before putting a policy like this in place. Bud was concerned that by
putting an unqualified person in the position, tribal members who
they serve may suffer because they are not qualified. Lillie felt Bud
was saying if a white person and tribal member were going for a
position they would look at who was better qualified. We are get­
ting federal grants and they do have job requirements. Some of the
requirements are high and she talked to Mr. W itt to see if they
needed to be so high. She referred to a Secretary position. The
Tribe requires 60 or 70 words per minute. The federal government
says that minimum qualifications are 30 words per minute. All tribal
members are not highly trained people but some of them can go in­
to the job with the experience they have. Elouise asked Lisa about
the Receptionist position. Lisa responded she was hired under
JTPA On-The-Job Training Program for this position. Elouise said
she was curious because she thought it should go to a tribal
member. Gary suggested that when a non-tribal member was hired
they would be told that when a trained tribal member got out of
school they would have to vacate the job for the tribal member.
Tina Jones called for the question. Dee read the motion again. Gary
Butler asked to retract his motion and stated that what he was try-
, Jpg tp.say is tbqt vyhpn a tribal member became qualified for a jbosi-
ir .
..v.çv j'.'/r S f .i.-i ”
» r .’ A '..
.'«V
tion, they would have preference and would be able to move right
into the position a white person has. Dee noted Gary was rescin­
ding his motion and Elouise agreed to rescind her second. Motion
rescinded.
Dolly asked if Gary's motion was to train tribal members and fire
non-tribal employees. Elouise said it was but he wanted to rescind
the part about firing the employees. Gary continued that when
tribal members are qualified for a position they would move into the
position and non-tribal members would have to give up the posi­
tion. Lori said this motion did not take into consideration what Lillie
said about in-house. When the positions opened up in Portland,
tw o staff from Siletz filled the positions through in-house and she
had hoped these positions would be filled by tribal members from
Portland. She asked how you would promote Indian people within
your own organization. Dee said that promoting them would be like
an in-house promotion. She asked if they were asking for training
for a tribal member to replace a vacant position instead of pro­
moting. Gary stated that a tribal member should be trained for the
position. Dee said that it was contrary to what is being asked. They
want the position advertised for all tribal members.
MOTION #3 — Gary Butler moved to train qualified tribal members
to be placed in certain positions when a vacancy occurs, but adver­
tise all vacancies. Seconded by Elouise Case. Discussion held. Alta
asked how many tribal members would be trained for any one posi­
tion and how will you decide who will be trained; o f those trained,
how will it be decided who will get the position. Josh asked how
they expected to get rid of all white people in the tribe and other In­
dians employed. The focus should be to train Indian people to work
in the mainstream because the tribe cannot employ every tribal
member. Ted Werth feels in-house preference is a good thing but it
can be abused. Those companies who run the best and do the best
job all take care of their employees. By throwing out all the non-
tribal members would have a negative impact on services to tribal
members. He feels people are saying there are some positions that
do not require a lot of eduction or experience and those positions
can be filled by tribal membes, even if they don't have all the train­
ing. He feels we should identify those positions and fill them with
tribal members. A proposal is out to establish a Community College
Service District for training using existing facilities. He feels a
drawback to the Siletz area is that young people have to go away to
go to school. This service district would open up opportunities, for
employees who want to better their skills can utilize this Service
District. Those employees who work their way up the ladder have
put a lot of effort into obtaining training. Dolly asked if someone
had asked for the question. Dee responded the motion was chang­
ed. Ted continued that a lot of tribal members have benefited from
in-house preference to build up training for other positions. He felt
we could not penalize non-tribal members working here for any
mistakes that may have been made in the past. We need to identify
entry-level positions and hire tribal members for those positions.
Lillie stated the school district advertises all their positions even
though someone in-house may be qualified for the position. She
feels we should do so, also, as it gives tribal members a chance.
Since Reggie was not an in-house employee he did not have an op­
portunity for applying for jobs with the tribe. Lori Johnson stated
the tribe has waived minimum qualifications before and it should be
done for others. Josh Rilatos said we should not drop the standard
of minimum qualifications, but send our people for education or
higher education because if we cqritiriue to drop the minimum
qualifications it will not benefit the tribal members. The incentive
should be to get an education. Dee stated there have been long
discussions on whether it is better to hire a person with an educa­
tion versus a person with a lot of experience. It is not easy to make
those determinations. Gary read the motion again. Dee asked all
tribal members who voted in favor of Gary's motion to raise their
hands. Dee asked all tribal members who opposed Gary's motion to
raise their hands. Motion failed 12 against, 10 for, 0 abstaining.
Dee said the Council would place this issue on their Saturday
meeting agenda. Wilma Strong asked why the Council left off
emergency assistance from Revenue Sharing funds., She felt this
was the most help to our'tribal members in need. She suggested
paying Death Benefits from timber revenues in order to pay for
emergency grants under Revenue Sharing. Wilma asked when the
Tribe was going to close their rolls. Dee noted that other Tribes
have closed their rolls for 6 months at a time. They close it because
they cannot afford to keep an Enrollment Clerk working full-time. If
we do this, our Bureau contract would be affected and we could
not keep Shirley Strickler's position open. It used to be that they
closed and the Bureau was responsible for certifying tribal
members. Dee reported it was a unanimous decision of the Council
not to put emergency grants in. The Council had a habit of not de­
nying any request that came in and that pot of money is gone
quickly and there isn't any more money to cover other special pro­
jects. Council thought that to cover most emergencies, usually
when there is a death in the family, it was really important for them
to have money to help pay for feeding people and other expenses
as they come in. The Council has discussed the idea of buying an
insurance policy for tribal members so there would be death
benefits. It is part of the Comprehensive Plan to do that as soon as
there is money coming in from our economic development projects.
Bud pointed out the amount of money available for Revenue Shar­
ing budget was $7,000.00. Council figured the amount of requests
for emergency grants would have depleted that money within a
week. Pauline Ricks asked if there would be money for flags for the
cemetery. Dee said in the Tribal Government — Cemetery Projects
line item there is funding for this. Gary asked if council agreed on
the archaeologists form so he could present it to other tribes. Coun­
cil approved it at the last Council meeting. Gary reported SLPC
sponsored a dinner honoring Art Bensell on April 26th, for being the
second tribal member to be inducted into the Indian Athletic Hall of
Fame so he would be recognized by his own people. There were
many elders that were there and a lot of good feelings that day.
SLPC thanked everyone that helped that day. There was one pro­
blem that SLPC would like to address. They were unable to get hot
water to operate the dishwasher. They also did not have hot water
from the taps. Tina Jones tried to help by finding the breaker for the
hot water but was unable to. Gary contacted Danny Rilatos by
phone requesting that he assist. He said he was unable to come up
to the Community Center because he had walking pneumonia. He
did not offer any suggestions to the problem nor instructions on
how to fix it. Gary asked Danny to just show him where the switch
was. Danny became abusive and began yelling. Gary felt that he
should not have to take this abuse. SLPC feels that tribal employees
should not be disrespectful to other staff and tribal members and
that the Maintenance Supervisor should be available to help. They
also want it noted that Danny was at work on Friday and Monday
and did not appear to be ill. He was also at the store on the
weekend and they feel if he can go to the store he can come up on
Government Hill to show them where the switch is. The SLPC had
to heat water on the stove to wash dishes w ith and feel this would
not pass a health inspection. SLPC asked that the Council look
strongly into the allegations o f unnecessary behavior on Danny's
part. Tribal employees are here to serve tribal members.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
<
-, ■
There are a lot of issues the Council has been concerned about in
the areas of health and education. Council has spent a lot of time
and money going to meetings to understand what theAssistant
Secretary is promoting. Through the efforts of the Northwest tribes
and our own, we have found out that Congress has not acted on
the initiatives he has proposed and has defeated them nearly across
the board. One area he does not have responsibility for is the area of
health. One concérn that will affect our tribe more than larger tribes
is that IHS is proposing to phase out CHR’s oyer a 3-year period. A t
the end of the three years they expect tribes to pick up the pay and
activities of the CHR's. CHR's have been very visible in our tribe by
contacting people in their homes, assisted the elderly and many
other things. This initiative has not died and the proposal still stands
to eliminate them. This will be a concern We w ill express to our Con­
gressmen. The Veterans Memorial will, be placed over by the
cemetary. Unveiling will occur during " the Memorial Day
ceremoney. The Tribe has adopted ar concept paper on Land Ac­
quisition, which will address payment for timber lands, operations
and general use o f the timber land. Leroy Wilder is preparing a bill
which will be introduced into Congress explaining how we will ob­
tain the land. We are currently working ón an access trail to
Harney/Evans/Baker Cemetery. A t this tim e We are unable to use
the road, but we h a ve a cré w working on the tràH below.
STEDCQ REPORT
Ted Werth reported the idea for a Fern Plant has been discussed for
a long time. Our tribal members are being very helpful. They control
most of the fern market. Ted contacted several places and found
that most of the fern is being sent to Europe. We are in a position to
control the supply of fern. Ted is in the process of acquiring a con­
sultant w ith agricultural and forestry expertise. STEDCO is looking
into creating a co-op which would be set up as a profit sharing ven­
ture owned mostly by tribal members who handle the fern. Ted
noted prices for fern. Research shows the price overseas for fern is
larger than the domestic market. STEDCO will be trying to tap into
the market others have had for a long time. A t this time we have at
least a dozen tribal members involved in this operation and hope
that upon starting operation we will hire more. Ted hopes to apply
for a grant from EDA for this project to provide half of the money
needed. Dee noted that Ted is the Executive Director for STEDCO.
SILETZ INDIAN HOUSING AUTHORITY REPORT
Dee called on Jeff to discuss the new Siletz Housing Project. There
have been many discussions with the City of Siletz on the water
agreement. Jeff reported he has been dealing with HUD, IHS, BIA
and the City of Siletz. He is advertis ing for contractors with a clos­
ing date of June 5th for bids.' He is pushing for start of the site
development by July 1,1987. There are tw o separate contracts out,
one for a conventional contractor for site work and the other is tur­
nkey for the housing. The turnkey contractor will submit the design
concept to SIHA and the people moving into the home will have an
opportunity to discuss what will go into their homes. Jeff is unsure
where the water agreement-issue is at. The City and the Tribe are
negotiating this now. IHS will do an off-site water line up to a
150,000 gallon tank. SIHA has not gone through the selection pro­
cess yet. Elouise Case is the Counselor and she is in training to
' understand what the requirements are for selecting names for the
homes. SIHA applied for an additional 15 homes, and this was ap­
proved. There are vacancies. There will be a 25-year payment plan
and it is based on 15% of your income. Therè is a $1,500 down pay­
ment which the tribe has taken care of. There will bé a minimum
payment of $87.00 per month. The owner will be respbrisible for
any and air maintenance. Once the house is paid\,off, there are no
taxes on it. Tribal members cannot buy the houses as real estate in­
vestment. If you choose to sell the house, it goes back to the Hous­
ing Authority arid you can get some of yóur equity back. It is possi­
ble to rent the house out, with SIHA approval. The homeowners
would still have to pay for all maintenance, even while renting them
out. House payments received by the Housing Authority will go into
an account which will earn interest. Part of this rnoney would be
returned as equity, but not all of it. The SIHA Board makes deci­
sions on whether or not pets are allowed, etc. These regulations will
be set up before the homeowner contracts are signed. SIHA must
fill vacant houses to cover the expenses of the homes. Alta asked
about renting the homes to low-income tribal members. She is con­
cerned about those people who are not able to meet the financial
committments to buy. Jeff responded that this is the home-owner
program. HUD requires SIHA to operate the homeowner program
before they will consider a rental program to ensure there will be in­
come to cover the costs associated with a rental program. Jeff has
been looking into a rental program. The SIHA owns the homes until
they are paid off. It is necessary to have children identified as the
successor in the contract in the event of the parent's death. The
successor will be held responsible to finish paying off the house.
The first three years of fire insurance are paid by the Housing
Authority. It is possible to build onto the house at your own cost.
TRIBAL HISTORIAN
.
Cynthia Viles showed a presentation of slides of tribal members
dating from 1909 - 1940. Cynthia noted that a major influence was
boarding schools. Group photographs were shown of hop farms,
Chemawa students, house construction on Government Hill and ex­
hibits of cultural artifacts. Tribal members identified the.people they
recognized. Cynthia will have the slides in her possession for an in­
definite period and will be making copies or a video presentation of
the collection so it can be checked out for viewing by interested
parties.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Lisa Norton has resigned her position as Miss Siletz. Cherie
Williams will be taking her place. Darcy Jones is Little Miss Siletz
for this year. A Memorial Day Ceremony will be held at Paul
Washington Cemetery on Monday, May 25th, beginning at 10:00
a.m. The dinner will be served at 12:00 noon in the Tribal Communi­
ty Center. Springfield Indian Education will be having a Pow-Wow
honoring students on Saturday, May 16th, at Sprinfield High
School.
Meeting Adjourned, 4:16 p.m.
Mary Alice Muncey
Tribal Council Secretary
f -V v ? f . * ; J J J y,