Dear Editor,
Would you publish the “Dear Robert” letter below? It’s a letter to former Tribal Council member (and Treasurer) Robert Kentta, who is running for Tribal Council this year and asked for support at the November, 2023 General Council meeting:
Dear Robert—As a long-time friend and admirer, I’d like to support you in this election, but my potential future support will depend upon my better understanding of actions you took last year while a Tribal Council member. The acts of yours which I found objectionable can be summarized by quoting a portion of the Tribal Council minutes of its 16 September 2022 meeting:
Heather [Heather Butler, Siletz Enrollment Officer] presented for approval 13 applications. Robert stated before a motion is made he has a question. Robert asked do we have the ability to add the one recommended for rejection and change it to 14 applications to include Robert Mannering. Bonnie asked Robert to explain why. Robert replied staff was under the impression that we do not use the McChesney Roll. This application has been delayed for a while based on that misunderstanding on the staff level. Robert stated he would like to make a Motion to change the number to 14 including the correction of “resovled” to resolved. Loraine asked would that go against the posting. Loraine asked does this need to be posted for a certain amount of time. Robert replied they were posted and recommended for rejection. He does not know if they need to be posted and recommended for approval.
Your intervention, Robert, was successful and the Tribal Council voted 8-0-0 to approve an application for enrollment at Siletz based on the McChesney Rolls after the Enrollment Committee had rejected that application.
According to Siletz law, however, prior to use for enrollment, the McChesney Rolls would need both 1) the Enrollment Committee’s decision to add the McChesney Rolls to the list of Siletz Rolls and 2) the Tribal Council’s approval of that addition in the form of a resolution. And the facts in September, 2022 were these: neither the Enrollment Committee had added the McChesney Roll nor had the Siletz Tribal Council passed a resolution approving that addition.
Those facts have not changed.
Why, Robert, did you not only act in a non-compliant way with Siletz law in this enrollment decision but also recommend that other Tribal Council members do the same?
You are reading this letter in the pages of the Siletz News because I’m confident that more members of the Siletz General Council than me are interested in your answer now as you seek again the responsibility and trust of elected office.
Yours Truly,
Drew Viles
The letter above was deemed unsuitable to print by editors of the Siletz News, the monthly publication of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. It was published in early January 2024 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ctsiunofficial/?mibextid=uJjRxr
Thank you for your continued service in keeping our tribe on track and for your continued dedication to transparency.