Siletz.Net

On January 6th 2008 I asked Tribal Council member Robert Kentta a simple question:

Has the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation ever shown a net profit in any of the years you've served on it's Board of Directors?

Kentta is of course also on the Board of Directors of STBC. I had not heard from him by January 26th, so I asked again.

His response is posted here.

I sent Robert a point-by-point response which I will now post below. Robert Kentta's words are indented.

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Robert,

You wrote:

Please don't be put out by my late, or lack of, response to you. We've had our communications in the past, and I've pointed out to you that I've grown to distrust your motives, intentions and ways of spinning that which is told to you. You have a generally poor opinion of your tribal government, and are in the process of again seeking office, and I know that which you glean from the individual responses will be pitted against each other, or used to spin a great rant, or both.

I've sworn to protect the interests of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and anything that feeds your hate-mill I consider to be a detriment to the CTSI. You, I consider to be a detriment to your tribe. Not for the questions you ask and results you expect, but the whole sale tearing-down of all for whatever reason, or maybe no reason at all.

Regardless of your suspicion of my motives, I think any tribal member is entitled to have Tribal Council members answer simple questions about our tribal government and businesses.

We have not had a good track record with the investment of tribal resources into businesses. Very few in fact have produced a profit over the years. I think you know that. I think you know that I know that. So what is your point in asking, and then hounding me for an answer - after I've indicated my position on communication with you? If that seems harsh, I will share my philosophy: To be treated with respect, you must treat others with respect. Once you've proven that, we may begin to have open lines of communication.

My question was: Has the Siletz Tribal Business Corporation ever shown a net profit in any of the years you've served on it's Board of Directors? It's a simple question and you still have not answered it.

My point in asking is that the Tribal Council has never told tribal members that STBC has lost large sums of money during every year of it's existence. The reports you publish would lead members to believe that STBC hits a bump in the road now and then but is basically doing all right. Don't you think that the Tribal Council, which is also the Board of Directors of STBC, has a responsibility to tell members plainly and honestly that they have lost considerable sums of money every year in STBC? Don't tribal members have a right to know that your business decisions have consistently lost money?

You may explain these losses any way you like, but don't tribal members have a right to the plain truth?

You and Lisa, always harping about "Transparency" but where is all of that when it comes to you - the finger pointers???

You've gone on and on (in what should have been a "campaigning" - i.e. convincing people of your skills, will and intent to serve their best interests) about how rotten this one, and that one, and all these others are too, because they signed the letter... and this one's related to that one, and they're both related to this one... *You are related* to the entire core group you demean. You're all descendants of Scott and Minnie Lane, and if you extend that to Tina, then again, another generation back, and you're ALL descendants of Joshua Louie. Monte is included in that same scenario. Because you have diminished sense of family ties, does not mean that you are absent from the family tree. You talk about all of those people being related to each other, like it's some sort of crime, but never that you are related to all of them.

I am a second-cousin of Dee Pigsley. We discuss genealogy at Siletz.Net and I've been entirely candid about my ancestry. See http://siletz.net/node/21 for instance.

As I said explicitly at the General Council meeting in November, there is nothing wrong with tribal members supporting their family members in tribal politics. But it was important for tribal members to know who signed the letter in order to understand the profound conflict of interest involved.

You said you do not know what was in the campaign letter Tina Retasket sent out while on the Election Board. I'll take you at your word, even though this directly contradicts Chairman Pigsley's assertion that everyone on the Tribal Council knew exactly what had happened. I certainly don't hold you, or anyone else who signed the letter, responsible for the fact that Tina sent it out if you had no knowledge that she would do so.

But, as a Tribal Council member, you are fully responsible for the fact that you didn't even bother to find out what was in campaign letter sent out by by a member of the Election Board. You are fully responsible for not bothering to find out who else was involved. You are fully responsible for not disclosing to tribal members that the offender was in fact the Assistant General Manager. You are fully responsible for allowing Tina to depart with no paper trail recording her removal. And you are responsible for saying nothing when Tina was put back on the Election Board for the very next election.

It is important for tribal members to know who signed the letter, to demonstrate Chairman Pigsley's conflict of interest when she whitewashed the matter on election day. Tribal voters had a right to know what had happened so that they could judge for themselves. But it was not in Chairman Pigsley's personal political interest to admit that Tina Retasket had been caught campaigning for Dee and Bud, sending out a letter that you had signed.

Can you honestly say you don't see the conflict of interest?

...and continuing along with the transparency theme: Everybody.....EVERYBODY has a past. and Lisa can scream about how nothing is out in the daylight.....but how much of her dirty laundry has she shared? What kinds of of opportunities has she had - and blown - how long has she stayed in various positions, and why not longer? ....and you, what of your past? Is it true that you was a supporter of Clifford Case, Pat Duncan, Lillie, Reggie and that set prior to/around the RECALL of several then Council Members?.... - are you aware of the vast dollar amounts and other ways that cost the Tribe dearly? That brief era was a particularly low point of CTSI history.

Are you are saying that Lillie Butler/Pat Duncan chaired Tribal Council cost the tribe more money than STBC has lost during your tenure on it's Board of Directors? May I see the figures?

You don't seem to understand much about your own tribal community. People can live far-off and criticize, I'm sure it's easy to do. Few who live outside the area probably have any true sense of how small and fragile and essential the group of families who live and *on a daily basis* support, defend and work on behalf of this confederation is. Go back far enough, and most of our present day "families" collapse down into several base families. We've been torn down by warfare, disease, imposed political systems, church rule, and other federal policies including being barred from freedom of spiritual expression, language, thoughts, beliefs.... and those battles are not over, and yet you want to tear down those who are willing to step forward and dedicate so much of their time and energy to the re-building and betterment of our tribe? Count me out on adding to your "campaign".

I hope that you do reach understanding of yourself, your family, your tribe, federal Indian policy, and whatever it takes to reach a place where you can shed the blind-hate that you have now. When you are that reasonable, respectful person, then we can talk for hours, and work together.

R...

Robert, the fact that I criticize your performance doesn't mean I hate you or any other tribal official. I don't. My criticism has been measured and well supported by evidence.

Lynette

Tina Retasket

Dee Pigsley

Bud Lane

Robert Kentta

Tina Retasket departed from the Election Board in early 2007 because of the ethical scandal associated with the campaign letter shown below. Read the rest of this article »