Siletz.Net Virtual Community Center for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

If this is paid for out of the Siletz Charitable Fund, I don't see a problem because that funding would go out into the non tribal community regardless, but if it comes from other tribal sources, it's wrong to disregard our membership like that.

There are a number of tribal members who have graduated throughout the state and country who didn't get blankets honoring them. Shouldn't our graduating tribal members receive honors from their own tribe before non tribal members do? It's nice to have the luxury to afford these honors to non tribal graduates, but this should not be done at the cost of ignoring graduating tribal members just because they finished school outside of Siletz. We should honor all graduating tribal members first, regardless of where they live.

This illustrates the greater conflict of interest that we have when our assistant general manager is also a Siletz City Council member. The tribe picks up a lot of the expense for non tribal members in and around the city of Siletz. The tribal administration forgets that it's the membership, much of which exists far away from Siletz, that pays for this largess. The tribal government should ask the membership before they commit our resources to serve non tribal members. Especially when out of area members are being denied basic health care needs because of lack of funding.

These blankets were gifted to these graduates for being the first Graduating Class from Siletz High in 23 years. Of course they deserve them............No matter their race. It was a wonderful gift for them, they worked very hard to graduate.

...and those are valuable commodities. That's what all graduating students everywhere earn, and that's what they deserve if they worked for it.

College tuition would be a wonderful gift for non-tribal graduates; should the tribe pay their college tuition no matter what their race?

People who want to give such gifts should pay for them themselves, or solicit voluntary donations to pay for them. They shouldn't use tribal money.

I made my observation, as I recalled a time in the past, when I worked with youth, and it was not approved to spend Tribal funds for services/incentives for community youth who were "non-tribal".

I also read in the most recent "Tribal" housing residents organization minutes about their having a topic of the same content. So this is still a issue of concern.

The solution I had to implement - we did fund raisers to pay for the incentives for the non-tribal kids. This is a fair and appropriate action. The Tribe and the casino have a charitable contributions fund for this purpose.

I hope that there is some kind of documentation, to identify the funding source/amount for this and other expenses or requests for funding.

I recall purchasing a discount card at Figaros that was a fundraiser for the Toledo grad night party. I am curious about what kind of fundraisers are there for the Siletz Valley School?

I am a little out of the loop on this one, so maybe you (Felicia) can fill in the gaps.

I do recall being in the audience at Tribal Council meetings, and hearing the impressive accomplishments Van Peters had summarized in his report. I have expressed my compliments to Bev Youngman, on many occasions. This is an endeavor that has been a long time in the making, and there were many who deserve credit.

I believe a substantial portion of the funding for expenditures is a result of what is recommended in "budget" committee meetings:
[example - notes from 8/18 Regular Tribal Council meeting]

Dee recommended, “looking at a summer education program”, Brenda shared about a program her son Sam attended. Reggie commented that it was a very expensive program. Brenda agreed that is was very expensive. Brenda said she “will ask them [Siletz Valley School] to put in a request for the budgeting cycle”.

We are very fortunate to have EPR funds to cover the requests for funding. I recall in the past that requests required some pretty detailed goals/objectives, AND asked "what other funding sources" would be used [this is where we did fundraisers].

It would be of great interest for the info regarding funding for SVS to be posted to the CTSI website, so we can demonstrate all the partnerships in this endeavor.

Lisa Brown, CPS

No of course I wouldn't expect non-members to get their tution payed for regarding college... however a blanket is a gift.

Wouldn't tuition be an even more generous gift? Does it seem greedy to withhold such funds from non-tribal graduates who worked just as hard as tribal graduates?

I would hope that a few blankets at the end of the year are not kept in greed.

It's easy to be generous with other people's money. Real generosity entails giving of one's own resources. How many such gift blankets would you be buying out of your own pocket if they weren't paid for with tribal money?

If the tribe is supplying the money for the blankets then it is a gift from the tribe. However, there must be those members out there who are not willing to gift our graduates and I feel that it goes back to the word selfish and greed.

Then isn't it selfish and greedy to withhold a gift of college tuition from all those same graduates?

Those are a lot of expensive gifts. If it's such a little thing can I have a blanket too? It would be a generous wedding gift.

I really cannot belive how the three of you stress so much about little things.

We've featured a lot of coverage about Siletz Aeroteam, the empty Flex Building, the multi-million dollar clinic expansion, real estate deals galore, the Chewmawa project and many more big things relevant to the tribe. Do you have any comments on those matters, or do you only want to talk about little things?

...that the school bought the blankets from the tribe, and that local taxpayers picked up the tab for these gifts?

We graciously donate to our local school to offset the amount that is taken off the top of their annual grant and provided to the Lincoln County School District to supposably provide admin services.

An article in the Newport News-Times says the tribe donated almost $350,000 for the last school year for operating expenses, athletic programs and extra-curricular activities. And I'd be surprised if tribal benefits to the school ended there. I suppose it is very gracious for tribal members to put up all that money, especially tribal members who live out of area and derive little benefit from it.

But when you're giving an institution more than a third of a million dollars in charity a year, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask why they're buying expensive gifts for graduates instead of investing the same money in actual education.

If the Tribes money issues stress you so much............
RUN FOR COUNCIL!!!

Because the tribe is leasing the land to save the school, with intentions of purchasing someday, the attorney and HR services are provided as an in-kind service so additional admin expenses do not have to be spent does not make the tribe a tribal school or enterprise. Lo and Behold, John....we are actually donating to our local school in hopes of keeping one here for our tribal members and non tribal members in our community.

But you can't just take it at what it is, a gift to this community. You have to make everything look corrupt. Get the facts straight!

Kelley, I hope you don't think Loraine and I mentioning this was stupid.... and as you know we do live here.

Also, you say "we", do you mean the charitable contributions committee donated the money for these blankets? (As I realize you are on the Charitable Contributions Committee)

In closing, I hope soon, you will be willing to agree to disagree, instead of making this thing so personal. Your opinion is welcome, but some of your comments of a personal nature are rude and vicious.

Please, I myself am trying to refrain from making rude comments of a personal nature towards you, and I hope you will be good enough to return the favor.

I agree though, that some statements have been inflated, and even disrespectful, the ones I had made I apologized for, and I have refrained from such actions, and continue to do so in the future. I cannot speak for some persons, and hope the tone of comments less than civil can be amended by those parties, prior to posting.

It is my hope that others will follow suit, granted we are human, and subject to mistakes, for which such an action would deserve a genuine apology and retraction.

Answers to questions would be nice also. So it looks like we have a lot more to work on. I hope that maybe this forum, or the one being created can use this exchange as a prototype.

Wishing you all a good night and kind thoughts.

Lisa Brown, CPS

Kelley Ellis wrote:

Hopefully someday, someone will end this forum

The only one who could end it is me and I have no plans to.

Unfortunately, the Siletz.Net will survive because Lynette and John choose it too. Not at the request or the participation of the Siletz membership, just because they need a place that allows them and Lisa and Monte to provide false, half-truths, and negative personal attacks upon our government. This forum is the only avenue that they feel the membership will get what they determine “real information”. But what our membership is realizing more and more with each and every false information and personal attack and accusation that is provided on this forum is that the authors credibility slips further and further below what is commonly acceptable.

There are what maybe five or six people on this forum out of how many tribal members? This forum is more one sided than the General Council meetings with about 20-30 participants. The spin is consistently negative not positive. Even the gift of blankets to some well deserving graduates has been turned into a negative rotten deal. It is pathetic how this topic has generated so much discussion based on Lisa, Lynette and John's lack of knowledge or their lack of reading and understanding facts. There always has to be a spin put on every act that may be related to the tribe. The most pathetic part is, the blanket gifts had absolutely nothing to do with the tribe yet it is still being made an issue. Even when they are wrong they don't admit it because whatever they believe to be the truth no matter what facts are provided to them, they still hold on their initial beliefs. This website has been created for the spread of misinformation, accusations and personal attacks. I don't see how this can benefit our membership any more than the accusation that the membership was left in the dark with the lack of information from Tribal Council. Getting bad information is not better.

Lynette’s claims that people respond directly to them because they fear retaliation is such a farce. This forum allows anonymous participation. It is real easy to sit far away and write on paper that you have supporters for your cause. But I ask to see proof that there are supporters of this vindictive movement of false, misinterpreted information.

Eliska:
Geez! Yes, I agree with you that the blanket article did get a little blown out of proportion.

We all got to remember a graduation is a gift giving event. This was a special graduation event in where those graduating were the 1st in many years. I thought it was a nice gesture that our tribe decided to give them a gift. They also give out a 50.00 gift to high school grads, and I believe the nice pendelton blanket to college grads. Plus our tribe has some incentives out there for going to college. Education is so important, and the incentives help to motivate them into going for higher education.
I believe the blanket article started out by letting people know that the graduation was a successful and happy event, but because the author of that article expressed an interest in the financials, then that is where I feel it escalated. So, I feel since graduation is a gift giving and happy occassion, I would have never questioned the cost, and never do in any social gift giving occassion such as weddings, birthdays, showers and etc, but that is my opinion.
Our nation is full of citizens and members interested in the financials, and budgets of governments all over this country. Budgets is the nations # 1 concern in governments and the other is health reform. It doesn't matter how small those people are in numbers. I quote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." The truth of that statement is quite overwhelming. Our history is full of small groups of citizens whose raised voices rallied ever-increasing numbers of other citizens to listen, think and take action.
I agree some bias exists on this site, but it is no wonder when the topics and issues are mostly in regards to our tribal government.
As for information - I have found a lot of truthful information here on tribal businesses that I never knew existed. Recently, I have read a few minutes and get info there also. I still haven't been able to find out about the fungas or better, the mushroom business that is at the Toledo Mill site. Does that exist? Can anyone answer that?
Just this past week, I have seen 3 truthful postings. The graduation gift of the pendelton blanket, the 50.00 gift to our grads, and free DVD's regarding minutes to members who want them. All good things.
Elder guest

At the recent 1/19 Regular Tribal Council meeting there was discussion about students behavior, and lack of volunteers, I attended and a portion of the draft notes are as follows:

Lillie Butler asked, “Who handles staff volunteers at Siletz Valley School (SVS)?” Brenda said, “Mona handles staff volunteers at school. It was… They had pretty… What we’ve seen.. We have people who volunteered, but their kids aren’t in school there any longer”.

LLB said, “Discipline is a problem. People are pulling their kids out of school”. She shared.. “One of our grandsons, [how] other kids were treating them. We chose to send our granddaughter to another school, and we’re looking at sending our grandson too.”

Bud said, “I’ve looked down there at the beginning, I think it’s improved”. [1/19/08 TC meeting 11:40 am]

Dee said, “Maybe a resolution… that we have a concern about discipline at the school?”
LLB said the resolution should state… “Concern.. lack of discipline at SVS… next month SVS provide report to TC”… Celesta asked for clarification on how to word the resolution, Brenda said, “I’ll go get Tina”. When Brenda returned there was discussion about how TC had to wait a while for Brenda to write a resolution, Brenda smiled, and jokingly responded, saying “Yeah, Tinas’ been out, she’s the resolution maker, If I was the one [writing this] you’d probably be waiting for a while”.

While Tina, Lillie & Dee clarified the wording, Brenda shared, “I coach a basket ball team at the school”, [an experience she had with as student at SVS], “I found out from Heather, that one of my players had taken a kid, backed him into a corner and frightened him…. Shoved his big shaggy head [at him], well, I talked to him at practice, actually I made him run laps till he couldn’t [stand]…. And I told him, I’ll be at the school to take of it myself if he ever did it again”. There was some laughter about this comment.

LLB referred to an e-mail related to the Clinic/Health, and Dee said, “I’ll have Judy respond”.

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This info is shared in hopes that other community members as well as Tribal members might submit comments on what resources or solutions might exist, as well as general feedback on their own personal experiences.