Image provided by: Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians; Siletz, OR
About Siletz news. (Siletz, Oregon) 1983-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1987)
PAGE 2 - SILETZ, OREGON, NOVEMBER 1987 CHAIRMAN'S REPORT In September, Mary Fisher and I attended the National Congress of American Indian's Annual Conference in Tampa, Florida. Our tribe has been a member of this organization for the past twelve years. The highlight of the conference was on the very first day. Senator Dan Evans of Washington and Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii were guest speakers. Both Senators were there to listen to testimony provide by Tribes on the Indian Self-Determination Act-amendments and then both addressed the General body of NCAI. Senator Inouye gave a most eloquent speech instilling in those present the Immediate need for Indian tribes to be supportive of their neighboring tribes and those that are miles apart because the issues facing tribes today are so serious that tribes cannot afford to stand alone, or to let other tribes lose ground bn issues that will surely affect other tribes at a time in the future. Senator inouye talked about the legislation he introduced that would move the Museum of the American Indian from its new York city home to a spot on the Mail in Washington, D.C. He said the spot picked would be directly in front o f the U.$. Capitol. Even though Washington, D.C. has in excess of 500 monuments, there is not one monument honoring the American Indian. The Senator from Hawaii is also the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and serves on other committees. In the opinion of the Indian leaders of today, he w ill probably be the most dedicated, outspoken and influencial person the Indian people could have in Washington, D.C., as the Chairman of the Committee that affects every single tribe in the United States. Needless to soy, I was quite impressed with his presence at the convention. The rest of the week was taken up with individual tribal issues that covered a wide spectrum of concerns as well as national issues that affect all tribes. "Opinions Questions Concerns" All letters received will be printed. Please typo j / <?r write legible, no*profane language will be , printed. All letters must include your name and address. Send letters to: "SHetz News"; P.O. Box < 54S[, Siletz, OR. 97380. Questions?Call 444-2532 I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Alta Courville for her participation on the tribal Council over the past four years. Alta resigned on October 16, 1987. She is recovering from recent surgery and we all wish her a speedy recovery. As many of you know, Alta was first elected back in 1975 and worked very diiligently for the tribe during the Restoration years. Al Courville (a Salish Kootenai), her dedicated sidekick, also has been recovering from ill health. especially, will miss them. Deloris Pigsley Tribal Chairman To The Editor: : ' I would like to pay special tribute to Walt Klamath and Irene Holland. These two people arranged and participated in two over night raft trips on the Deschutes River with children 9 to 15 years old. They arranged with guides from CAEC RISK Team (Chemawa AlcohoTEducation Center, Recreational Intervention Strategies for Kids) to get these trips. Walt transported children from Siletz, Albany, and Salem. Irene rounded up food and transported children from Portland. The trip included alcohol and drug prevention, along with learning to understand the disease of alcoholism. Wait and Irene worked hard and I want to thank them for my children and others. The kids had a great time. You two are special people. Thanks Jolyne Conover Mill City, OR NOTE: The rafting trip w as in August. {LEW EM 7® 7G8E EWTO® September 16,1987 OCTOBER 13,1987 Dear Editor: Dear Editor: Since when has the Paul W ashington Cemetary become the local dumping ground for garbage? For the past several weeks unwanted home garbage has piled up next to my Father-in-iaw's gravel! Would you believe right behind a sign th at clearly states NO DUMPING!!! A Complaint by my Mother-in-law to one of our Council members was of no avail. An empty promise to see th at it would be cleaned up. Guess what, its still there!! An unwanted recliner, an old table top, metal stand, and several piles of newspaper and magazines with the name of one of our tribal members as the person who received these magazines on them. Whether th at person is the "dumpee” makes you wonder. DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid. It determines our hair color. It determines our physical appearance. It is a composite of our ancestors chromosomes. Researchers can now "fingerprint" our cell's chromosome structure and determine who could have been and who could not have been our ancestors. The common thread of oùr tribal existence is heredity. Our tribal enrollment records include facts linking us to ou r known ancestors. DNA has the possibility o f greatly adding to our ancestral knowledge. If each of us were given a DNA Radiograph "blood - print", the combined research could greatly benefit our knowledge of our pre-treaty ancestors. Sincerely, Rick Dodds Smyrana, GA Where is our Maintenance people we pay to "clean-up" and "maintain"? Shouldn’t their job also be to keep people from dumping their home garbage in our cemetary? Shouldn’t th e person who’s doing the dumping pay to have their garbage picked up at their home just like the rest of us? If we let this dumping continue, pretty soon everyone will be dumping their unwanted home garbage in the cemetary. Will we be forced to call it the "PAUL WASHINGTON DUMP’? DUMPING BURNABLE MATERIAL Come on people show some respect for our ancestors and pay to have your garbage picked up! And hopefully by the time this letter comes out the present garbage will have been removed. The current site for dumping ’’Burnable” material will be moved. Tribal members that want to dump burnable material must first obtain approval from Alton Butler, Grounds Crew Supervisor prior to dumping. Sheryl Simmons Siletz, Oregon Editor note: The issue of dumping burnable materials has been taken care o f see notice in this issue of Siletz News.
