Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Siletz news letter. (Siletz, Oregon) 1989-1997 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1994)
wxxxkxxxxxxxxxxxxxxk >< xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > oc <> w w x > ooo < 'April 1994 United States Senate JI Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs ! Testimony of Stanley Strong On S. 2055 (Siletz Indian Reservation Act) | Mr. Chairman, my name is Stanley (Strong. I am a Siletz Indian who was on the old JTribal Council before termination and is on the $ present Tribal Council. F I was born in Siletz on November 9, r1908. I attended the government school at the | Siletz Government Hill for a year until it was • closed. Then all Indians went to the public f school. Some had a hard time-they were shy | and timid. I learned to play all sports and made | good grades. | I loved to go fishing, hunting, trapping, land peeling Cascara Bark. It brought food and 5 put money in my pockets. My dad was a logger, forward hand in hand with the white man--as brothers. In years to come our grandchildren will believe in this because we built our tribe on a solid foundation. We need a plan here at Siletz where we were raised. It gives a feeling of home. r Stanley Strong (testimony of 1979) F ire By: Walt Klamath, Engineer Engine 802 Again, lets talk about fire alarms. These little rascals need to be outside of all bedrooms and any room that could be a starting place for a fire. The living room, kitchen, den, anywhere. The most important thing DOES IT WORK? If the batteries are dead, don't mean a thing. The alarm is not even a good ornament. It is a sad thing, that most or at least ) using horses in those days. He always managed half of the alarms in this county do not work. | to have a big garden-and who helped him? I Some are so corroded that the unit is worthless. (did, of course. I also had to milk twelve cows Some units will click or whistle or make some ( and ship cream as a boy. kind of annoying sound when the batteries get ( We had a few games, such as duckinaw, low. So the darn thing is relieved of its (shinny, etc. Also we learned games at school. batteries, it shuts up--and in the event of a fire sWe boys would much rather spear salmon in a it continues to be quiet. (salmon house during the season. You find a If one follows the newspaper stories of r riffle where the water is swift with an eddy or the fa ta l fire s, w hich usually involve ? switch current four to five feet deep and build a youngsters, most of the fatal fires, the smoke r shade over and above the water. The shade alarm was inoperable. ; allows you to see in the water. Spears are It is very important that these alarms : made of hard wood, bone or deer horns, or of work. The alarm gives one, maybe a two minute : iron. That was home, and freedom. Indians warning depending upon where the alarm is and | would smoke eels, fish, and deer meat for hard where the origin of the smoke is coming from. 1 months. We also canned lots of vegetables and Never the less, any warning is a big help. | fru its . Some may think that the smoke will wake them up. Not necessarily so. The smoke is •NO J But our land was taken. full of carbon monoxide gas, and other toxic ) TRESPASSING!" chemicals, that will put one into a deeper sleep. All homes need to have smoke alarms My mother told me: Our forefathers that work. All families need to have an escape were tricked into a meeting between Port plan. These plans need to be practiced often Orford and Brookings, Oregon. The white man enough that everyone in the household will know wanted our homeland. The soldiers drove our what to do and will do it automatically. The r people by foot to the beach of Port Orford families need to incorporate in this plan a * through the waters to the boat. Some tried meeting place, that when the fire department vainly to resist only to be gun-butted and arrives that all can be accounted for. For if a beaten. Families were separated. Tears and member of the family is not there, the fire blood stained the ground. Loneliness took its fighters will go into the structure to look for ) to ll. the person. Now, if the one not accounted for I I know how brutal the Army can get has went somewhere else, this has put a | because I was a Sergeant with five battle firefighters life in jeopardy for no reason. stars, Purple Heart, Silver Star and a Bronze We cannot over emphasize, keep fresh Arrow Head. Yes, I fought for our country-the batteries in your smoke alarms. Practice your United States of America. escape plans. Statistics show that most people I'm thankful we have dedicated men and will have a fire during their lifetime. Maybe we | women like our leaders here in Washington to can't stop everyone from having a fire, but with | help us. some precautions we can keep people around to f Allow us a land base and we'll show talk about the fire they had. r people we care about life. Just this month a CHECK YOUR ALARM BATTERIES NOW. If | young Indian fisherman brought a salmon to our you cannot afford a smoke detector or two, ' family, to share and share alike. You can't beat I ¡ 1 I can imagine what desperation does-it 1 makes criminals out of once decent people, i Some people are forced to cheat and steal to | live. We were given Government Hill and a | reservation to live on but the white man was i sure he got it all back. This left us without a land base or home. We became foreigners in our own land. It grieves me to see the land that was ours no longer ours. We need to prove ourselves as going Lb gumg check with your fire department, there are several organizations that will donate smoke detectors. There are detectors that can be checked with a flashlight. All that one needs to do is to put the beam on a button on the detector and the alarm will test. The others have little buttons to push on. Whatever it is, DO IT. DUII, Continued from page 2 1 drive in their business, a driver has to be hired. This could also cost a penny or two. Insurance! Wow, now this becomes almost unbelieveable. That could go up 250% , believe it or not. 19 years ago mine went up 300% for the cheapest insurance-at the time. In order to keep my license I had to have insurance for 5 years. Some companies that had reasonable rates would not insure me until I had not drank for 10 years. When we choose to drink and drive, we are gambling with a pretty good sum of dollars. There is always a chance that we will not be stopped for driving under the influence. We may be stopped for faulty or malfunctioning equipment, like a license plate light or tail light out or something small. When the officer comes to the side window he may then detect the odor of alcohol or see a container, open or unopened. Then the officer will proceed with a sobriety test after asking how much we have had to drink tonight. The answer is always the same, "just two beers". Sometimes an officer will follow for awhile. Now, I don't care who it is, when an officer picks up the trail, after awhile we become nervous, even off-duty officers get nervous when they are being tailed. Everyone does something that can be classed as dubious at times, maybe swerve a little, crowd the center line or the fog line, anything to give the officer an excuse to stop us. They do not need to have a reason at the time. They can stop one just to tell them how good they are doing. One can also get a DUII for using medications. Many medications have warnings on them, not to drive while taking these medicines. It makes no difference what the chemical is, if it is mind/mood alerting, then it is unsafe to operate a motor vehicle, and the DUII laws apply. If an accident occurs, the costs really soar. One accident could have one paying the rest of their life. This is not saying that those who do not indulge do not have accidents. Those who do drink and drive, or use other drugs and drive, the chances of a serious accident goes up maybe 85%. During the week, the national estimated average of people on the highways that are under the influence is 1 in 500. On Fridays and Saturdays it goes up to 1 In 10. In our lifetime 1 in 3 of us will be involved in an alcohol related accident. The best advice that can be given is: do not drink and drive. Any amount of alcohol cuts down the reasoning power. One drink, 1oz, has an effect, maybe we don't think so. It does. You know you have a drinking problem w h en : (1) You have had the roof of your mouth sun burned. (2) You have been run over by your own car, while driving it. (3) Your wife has dropped the electric cord in the bath tub. (4) You have woke up with a circus midget. In her bed! (5) You have done the Tennessee waltz in a straight jacket. (6) You have been arrested while in jail. (7) You have been run over by the "Welcome Wagon" (From the 1983 AA Grapevine.)
