Dear Editor,
At the November, 2024 Siletz General Council, a friend asked me the following question: “Are you enrolled in the Chinook Indian Nation (CIN)?”
“No,” I answered.
My grandfather, however, was from the mouth of the Columbia River. We share some similarities, but we have differences also, including these:
While my grandfather (Robert Nelson Service, Sr.) did not ever meet Siletz enrollment criteria, I do. And while my mother (Mary Service Viles) successfully petitioned to have my grandfather’s Clatsop/Flathead blood counted at Siletz, that only happened in 2018. About a hundred years before that, my mom’s mother (Ada Carson Service) successfully petitioned Siletz enrollment officials to enroll my uncles, aunts and my mom despite the fact that their father was not a Siletz Indian.
My grandfather and I have the same many relatives up north. Because CIN is not federally recognized, many of these relatives are suffering from inadequate housing, lack of health care, inadequate water and sewer infrastructure, lack of economic development programs, lack of social services, diminished hunting and fishing rights, lack of funding for education, etc.
When CIN relatives have their house catch on fire because of old wiring and have to bury their twelve-year old daughter, I feel bad for them. And I think, “If only they’d had access to federal housing rehabilitation funds, that girl may still be alive and well.”
When young CIN tribal members drop out of school, I feel bad for them. And I think, “Maybe that new guy working at the dispensary now would still be in college if CIN had higher education grants and Tribal education staff.”
When I see CIN people failing with sobriety, I feel bad for them. And I think, “If only CIN had money for drug/alcohol counselors and rehab treatment.”
When CIN hosts their annual Winter Gathering at a local school’s gym, I feel bad for them. And I think, “They’d have a community center of their own if only they had access to federal funds.”
I fully support the restoration of federal recognition for the Chinook Indian Nation. And while I won’t receive any tangible benefit myself from CIN recognition, there is something intangible I’m looking forward to receiving. The payout I will receive is the same payout that Warm Springs and many other Tribes were hoping to receive when Siletz sought restoration of our federal recognition.
Warm Springs people and many other of our friends and relatives around the region felt happy when we were restored.
The Siletz General Council unanimously passed a motion in support of CIN restoration in August, 2023.
It’s time for the Siletz Tribal Council to support CIN, too.
It’s easy! And it’ll make us happy!
Drew
PS My hope is that you will permit me a few more words than usual in order for me to report to the General Council the decision of the editor-in-chief of the Siletz News to refuse to publish a letter I submitted last month (November, 2024) and also to note quickly that this is the second time that this has happened to me this year.
PSS Also, I hope that you can publish a correction that Dick Basch furnished me to a letter of his that appeared in the October 2024 Siletz News. Here’s that correction:
When the late Joe Scovell’s application for Siletz enrollment was rejected in the 1980s, Siletz enrollment officials stated that he was “too much Clatsop” while apparently discounting his Tillamook/Nehalem ancestry.