Time for a “throw-down” in Indian Country as we search for the truth in Western Oregon! We all know that Robert Kentta of the Siletz Tribe and David Lewis of the Grand Ronde Tribe are the “go to” First Peoples’ scholars for Oregon. Each of them are heavily relied upon by the media, public educators, universities, politicians, the BIA and historical societies for their expertise. However, it is often that type of expertise that allows the roadblocks of political corruption to keep working against justice for the CTLR, since one again our history has been erased from the article they wrote for the winter 2010 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly, ohs.org/research/quarterly/winter-2010.cfm. As a student-scholar who has spent a great deal of time touching the same hard copies of the identified archival records of the BIA, I can attest to the fact that Kentta and Lewis have seen countless pages listing numerous CTLR ancestors. This is because they sit in the same exact census folders that kept track of the “non-reservation,” “public domain” and/or “fourth-section allottees” that were also supervised by the same Western Oregon Indian agencies they each discuss, and account for close to 1/3 of the population, covering several decades. That is a lot of history for a lot of people to lose track of, especially since George Washington Meservey was 95 years old in 1957, when the Judgment Award roll was completed. This is the same roll that was used by the Coquille Tribe in their restoration bid before Congress in 1989. When a scholar looks at these Judgment Award rolls they will see that George was the oldest “first generation” born from the oldest ancestors that has survived the Rogue River Wars of 1856 for all of the peoples on these rolls, along with the rest of the 106 descendants from his mother, Jennie Meservey Tichenor. Robert Kentta would be familiar with the Judgment Award rolls, since his ancestor, Minnie Lane who was born 20 years after Jennie, had 67 living descendants recorded in the same ancestor folders in the archives. Jennie also has her Will in the same book as Joshua Louie’s Will, Minnie Lane’s father, https://play.google/books/reader?id=6XRotF4iE7QC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PP5.w.0.0.0.4 . It is actually quite common to find the Lane and Meservey histories overlapping in the same record books, boxes, folders, and files. All of these “forgotten” peoples by Kentta and Lewis are also part of the same community that belonged to the category of the southwestern tribes that were terminated in 1954, in addition to the Siletz and Grand Ronde tribal communities. A fact that was confirmed by the 1976 Task Force 10 report that was sent to Congress after they had come to the Lower Rogue to visit the Tututni-15 “off-reservation” elders. An invaluable report that provides additional evidence that discusses how the agencies were really functioning all those decades leading up to termination, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024313820;view=1up;seq=3 . These facts on who was terminated would have also been known by Dr. Wilkinson too, who published “The People are Dancing Again” in 2010 on the Siletz Tribe. This is because he would have had easy access to the details of the 1976 report that was prepared by the faculty of University of Oregon, where he was teaching law at the time. He would have also seen all of the census records on the “off-reservation” peoples too when research was being done in the 1970s and then once again for his book. The voices of the CTLR ancestors have always been there. If Mr. Kentta and Mr. Lewis were to pull in all of the evidence and expose all of the details, instead of keeping the public in the dark, then they could have meaningful debate. But until the “off-reservation” peoples are added to the story, then every debate on the subject is without substance. This is why a reasonable conclusion will never be reached, since critical evidence continues to be omitted. It is too bad that Mr. Kentta and Mr. Lewis failed to teach the public that Western Oregon Indian history was never about “reservation” peoples only! So please enjoy the historical images that help to demonstrate how the CTLR ancestors were left out of this important story, and share it with those that are interested in learning about what has been hidden from mainstream public. Why is the history of the CTLR such a problem, because history isn’t about justice, its about power, especially in Oregon’s Indian Country. Hopefully someday these scholars will re-visit their narrative to share the rest of the truth with the public. If they believe that First Peoples scholarship should be about justice for every tribal community, federally recognized or not. I predict that the “ethnic cleansing” of the “off-reservation” peoples from mainstream history for profit will become a thing of the past very soon, since the truth will prove to be priceless and much easier to find now thanks to the Internet. The CTLR ancestors love Ancestry and all of the historic BIA records that are flooding the Internet now, since their voices will no longer be silenced!
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:48:35 +0000
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