The Daily Message

Information by State  Esta página en español  Print version   Want More Information? Read previous daily messages in the daily message archives.

Monday, November 25, 2002

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians - From the Brink of Oblivion to Front Runners in Achievement

It's difficult to imagine losing your identity. But for almost 23 years, beginning in 1954, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians officially disappeared as a "people." The Siletz Tribes were an amalgamation of 27 bands of Indians that once ranged from Northern California to Southern Washington. During the mid-1800's, all of the Indians of Western Oregon were placed on a 1,300,000 acre reservation with a 26-mile wide strip of seacoast.

But the halcyon days appeared to be over. Through the years, the size of the Siletz Reservation was reduced to 225,279 acres, and continued to shrink until 1954 - when the Siletz Tribe, along with many tribes in western Oregon, lost federal recognition. Through a new federal law, the Western Oregon Termination Act, the Siletz lost the last of their land - 39 acres known as Government Hill - which was given to the City of Siletz. They had lost their aboriginal lands, their reservation, and their very identity.

But perseverance and fortune produced a remarkably different fate for the Siletz Tribe. Earlier this month, the tribe celebrated the bitterly cold day in 1977 when then-tribal chairman Art Bensell announced that he had just received a telephone call from President Jimmy Carter. Carter had signed Public Law 95-195, which meant the federal government once again recognized the members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians as a tribe.

Tribal members ignored the cold of the day and had a genuine celebration. Delores Pigsley, present chairman of the tribal council for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, said, "The place erupted in cheers," and the celebration began. This was a day for a powwow - they ate, they danced, and made memories that preserve that fateful day in their history.

Earlier this month - 25 years later - they again commemorated the Restoration Celebration. But their Silver Anniversary was not held in a cold building at the county fairgrounds as it was in 1977 (temperatures were frigid, and the fire department warned them that they would have to close down the building if they used the heater), but in the warmth of the tribe's Chinook Winds Casino and Convention Center in Lincoln City, Oregon. The Silver Anniversary ceremony also featured a traditional Siletz feather dance - an event rarely witnessed by the public - performed by the Siletz Feather Dancers.

Chairman Pigsley gladly welcomed dignitaries, tribal members, and guests - people from all walks of life who joined together for a day of reflection and celebration. While at its heart, it was a day for remembering the restoration of the Tribes a quarter century ago, there was more. They also paid homage to those whose hard work and good deeds accomplished so much for the Tribes and for tribal members since that November in 1977.

In those 25 years, the Tribes have become front-runners in achievement. They were the second tribe in the nation to be restored and recognized, and one of the tribes that became an early member of the Self-Governance Demonstration Project. In 1980 a reservation plan was approved, returning Government Hill to the Tribe. Today, the Tribal land base is 3,660 acres set aside in Lincoln County, Oregon, with resources including timber, water and fish. The Tribes also are authorized to offer programs and services to tribal members in an extended service area, which encompasses 11 Oregon counties.

The Siletz have been and are committed to the betterment of the more that 3,600 tribal members currently enrolled in the Tribes. The nine-member governing Tribal Council has been very innovative in exploring options to produce revenue and provide services.

HUD has played a helpful role in many areas of the Siletz' resurgence. One of the first problems the Tribes addressed was their desperate need for housing. Even before the implementation of the Indian Housing Block Grant Program in 1998, the Siletz Tribes were actively involved in the Traditional Indian Housing Program. They received grants for 10 projects and built 57 rental units, and 69 Mutual Help Homeownership Opportunity units. They also operated a successful Section 8 Voucher Program.

Since 1998 they have received over $15 million in funding under the formula-driven, Indian Housing Block Grant Program. Funds are utilized to maintain current housing units and to operate tribally relevant programs to provide new housing opportunities for tribal members. Some of the programs that are currently operated by the Tribes include: Welfare-to-Work Voucher program; Tenant-Based Rental program, patterned after HUD's Section 8 Voucher Program; and Homeownership Down Payment and Mortgage Assistance Programs. This innovative program, undertaken in partnership with Washington Mutual Savings Bank, makes homeownership a real option - anywhere in the United States - for tribal enrolled families not otherwise eligible for traditional mortgages.

During this time, the Siletz Tribes have also increased services available to tribal members. Using almost $1.5 million in HUD Indian Community Development Block Grant funds to augment and/or leverage other funds, they have built a tribal services building; a medical clinic that is open to both Indian and non-Indian community members; a social services facility; the necessary infrastructure for the reservation; and, most recently, a child care facility. The Tribes offer a wide variety of education, job training, food distribution, alcohol and drug rehabilitation, and cultural preservation and enrichment programs and services.

In addition to housing and services, the Tribes have actively pursued economic development. In 1985 the Siletz Tribal Economic Development Corporation (STEDCO) was formed as an independent entity to develop economic enterprises for the Tribe that create job opportunities and foster the economic and social welfare betterment of Tribal members.

"In a real sense, Restoration wasn't only a Congressional act," Pigsley said. "It's a continuing tribal process of renewal and growth. It's a process of helping our younger generation be sensitive to and knowledgeable about our Siletz culture."