Siletz.Net

My name is Delores Riding In, and I have been a Siletz Tribal member since 1978. My father was four years old when he was kidnapped from his parents (for bounty money) and incarcerated in Chilocco Indian boarding school in Oklahoma. He enlisted in the Army straight out of boarding school, and served in Korea as a medic. After the Army my father, a full-blood Pawnee Indian man, earned his bachelor's degree and enrolled in medical school. I believe his studies in medical school triggered PTSD for him, because he dropped out of medical school and enrolled instead in law school. In 1959, he graduated from Northwestern College of Law with a J.D., while working full-time as a radiologist. My father was among the first six or seven full-blood Indians in the history of the U.S. to earn a law degree. He never passed the Oregon State Bar because he had never been taught to write in longhand in boarding school, and he couldn't meet the time requirement. I often think of my father, being forced by the white people to stand on his own as a four-year-old. His life is the standard I use when it becomes necessary to judge an Indian man. I was raised during a time and in a place where Indian men lived honorable lives, and held positions of status and respect because they did whatever had to be done to feed, care for, and protect tribal women and children.

I was in Tribal Court today, and I heard Tribal Judge Calvin Gantenbein, who is white, make a racist comment. His exact words were, "Tribal Council didn't make me the Chief of anything around here!" As you know, "Chief" is a derogatory word that white men use to describe all Indian males. In spite of his many accomplishments, my father was called "Chief" his entire life. He hated it, and so did my mom. The word is meant to demean Indian men, and disregard them as individuals with names and titles of their own. This comment from Judge Gantenbein was made while he sat, often smirking, directly beneath a staff of eagle feathers that hangs on the wall!

I was raised in the Indian way, and that means men and women each have their own roles. The traditional job of the Indian man is to fight our enemies. The Siletz Tribe can and will go bankrupt, exactly like the AIG, and the Wall Street banks. Secret deals worth millions of tribal dollars have gone out to non-tribal people, and are covered up to this day. Millions of tribal dollars are still “missing.” I am asking for the help of tribal members, and Siletz tribal men in particular, to step up to the plate and take a stand. Women like Lisa Brown and myself are growing tired of fighting on our own. If we are going to be an Indian tribe, then we must act according to Indian ways.

A long time ago, when we still lived as native people, if a man attacked a woman he was immediately exiled by the other men. It was too disruptive to the people, disrespectful, and caused too many bad feelings. I recall reading about native women going into battle and cutting the enemy’s bow strings, because the men wouldn’t touch them. A true Native man would never attack a woman, the way Robert Kentta has been allowed to attack Lisa. THIS WAS NOT OUR WAY. I encourage the men of the Siletz Tribe to fulfill their traditional role, and fight together to save this tribe, before there is nothing left to save.

Delores Riding In can be reached at siletzwoman@nativeweb.net