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.