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About Siletz news letter. (Siletz, Oregon) 1989-1997 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1995)
April 1995 Letfow in Letters to the Editor : All letters received w ill be printed except those which are determined to be slanderous. Please type or write legible, no p ro fa n e la n g ua g e w ill be p r in te d . The Siletz N e w s le tte r and T rib a l G o v e rn m e n t accept no responsibility for statements made in the letters to the editor. The opinions expressed are souly those of individuals writing in. LETTERS TH A T EXCEED 350 WORDS IN LENGTH WILL BE EDITED as approved bv Tribal Council Resolution #91-04.__ All letters must include vour name. address and signature. Send letters to : Siletz News, P.O. Box 549, Siletz, Oregon 97380. Attn: Teresa Miller, Managing Editor. PLEASE NOTE: The C hief E x e c u tiv e O ffic e r o f th e S ile tz T rib e is th e C h ie f E d it o r of th e S ile t z N e w s le tte r. TO THE CHETCO TRIBE: (ANY MEMBER) It's of great importance that any tribal member get in touch with me, Linda Joan McBriety Bowar, at 1-503-592-3267, or write to: P.O. Box 376, Cave Junction, Oregon, 97523. By my information this is the only way for me to find any member to help me with my Indian heritage & traditions of the Chetco tribe. My indian spirit has gotten very strong & most determined to do this and I want to be able to pass this on to other tribal children of my Tribe. This spirit has set into the point of dying trying. To get through the government, I have sent several letters to express my opinion to the President, Bill Clinton, & he has asked me to keep him.. informed about the Tribe. If I can be of any help to the Tribe, please let me know & I will help. Linda Joan McBriety Bowar P.S. I am in process of adopting & I want this child to also know of his or her heritage & traditions of their tribe. I want to adopt an indian child. Tribal Members: About a month ago, I was at the Pub, there was tliis drunk whiteman that started to get mouthy with my brother about signing his name with 15/16 Siletz Indian. This drunk said he's a full blooded American, then he said that he was an Native American, what a joke, is he a descendant? Non-Indians do not understand what blood degree is, they don’t understand what Indian is, especially being Native American, the issues, land and river rights and the needs o f our people. If they are put on one roll, how can they help us? The point is, if we keep lowering the blood degree, non-Indian people will take over our Tribe and when they do, our tribal members will be left out o f the gains we made since restoration. Blood degree is a must, it’s our identity. Our tribal members needs to start considering being with our own kind so our Tribe will survive. If we do n 't we are terminating ourselves by lowering the blood degree. VOTE NO on lowering the blood degree, we need our identity. My family is very proud to be 15/16 Siletz Indian, this is why the drunk whiteman couldn't understand what being a proud Native American is. He is a European American and should not say that he is one o f us. This shows that people don't understand other peoples' culture or heritage. VOTE NO on lowering the blood degree, we need to go back to when our reservation began and correct all the wrong that was done to our people. Don't forget who you are and where you came from. Our ancestors suffered and died for us to be here, we are now educated and should use this to fight for them and correct the past. William Stanley Strong Siletz Indian - Native American SILETZ NEWS DEADLINE April 15, 1995 mail articles and photos to: Siletz News, P.O. Box 549, Siletz, Oregon 97380 The Public Information Office has moved to the STEDCO Conference Room at 297 SE Swan Avenue, Siletz. Call (503) 444- 4288 or 1 -8 00-922- 1399 e xt.#288. HEAR ME MY SILETZ INDIAN PEOPLE. We are called on to vote on the most important issue placed before we Indian People. Tribal Council is attempting to lower the blood degree to 1/16. Individually some of them will admit that their ultimate goal is to eliminate a required blood * degree. If I vote my emotions my tendency would be to vote yes, considering the effect on my unqualified infant descendants and relatives. This vote is more than concerns for children. Passage of this measure would open the door to untold numbers of individuals, with very lim ited Indian blood, to be eligible for all rights and benefits including the right to vote and serve on Tribal Council. Consequently I must consider the following: 1. Am I ready to relinquish the controlling tribal vote to individuals who have the potential to be lacking in the Indian perspective. 2. Am I ready to increase the possibility for individuals who are lacking in the Indian perspective to be elected to Tribal Council. The impact on the unify among tribes is an important consideration. The political climate in Washington D.C. is not "Indian friendly" as it relates to rights and benefits. The U.S. Government employs many tactics to diminish the unify among tribes. For instance, the Self Governance policy impacts the unity by pitting tribes against each other in competing for dim inish in g resources. Lowering our blood degree could be interpreted (and justifiably so) by our friends on the other reservations as a ploy to increase our leverage to be used against them. We have the responsibility as Indians and a tribal responsibility set forth under Purposes, sec. 5 and sec. 8 of our Tribal Constitution to preserve our unity with other tribes. If you are willing to: 1. Set aside your emotions, 2. Agree that the Indian vote and related effects should be protected, 3. The unity among the tribes should be preserved. Then I suggest you join 3 me in voting NO to lowering the blood degree to 1/16. I request that all eligible Indian People vote on this election. Please do not assist in approving this measure by neglecting to vote. Ed Ben As a tribal member and looking at "what's happening" In the Tribe, I could not stop the urge to write this letter. As you know, this was a close election. Tribal members are finally taking an interest in "whats happening" in the Tribe, which is good. I guess the Tribal Council is not getting the hint that "now is the time for all the Tribal Council to come to the aide of their people". We all know the history of whiteman taking our land and treating us inhuman. It really bothers me a great deal that we CAN go to federal court and get compensated for what was "ours" and in our hearts it Is still ours. I feel that the Tribal Council does not do this because of fear of stepping on somebody's toes. What I have been hearing a lot lately is Tribal members voicing their concerns & opinions and nobody likes it. There will always be conflicts, because not everybody can get along with one another. We live in a small town, we are a small Tribe and eve ryb o d y knows everybody's business and there will always be disagreements. I am glad that there is " fr e e d o m of s p e e c h ". Tribal Council/Administration are not gung-ho happy about it, but that is their choice to run for election and Administration gets paid big bucks. I was threatened with my job, (by this one person), at one time because I was very vocal against STE-DCO. I was turned down twice for promotions because of "who I was". I look at this Tribal Council person and I know he does not like me, but if a person in that position can not take criticism, he is in the wrong place. Everybody has a right to their own opinion, but one thing I can not stand is all this lying and tw o-faces. Tribal member, Joella Cain GOOD LUCK TO TRIBAL ELDER GILBERT TOWNER who is building sweat lodges to be used by veterans from the Portland and Vancouver VA hospitals. Gilbert is building these in cooperation with a private land owner in Vancouver, Washington.
