It was a beautiful Saturday morning. The sun was shining bright and the sky was blue as I made the 45-minute drive from Philomath to Siletz to take in the sights and sounds of the Nesika Illahee Pow Wow Parade.
Just as I arrived in Siletz, I found a parking spot at the admin building, grabbed my lawn chair and walked a couple of blocks to find a spot to watch the parade, which started at 10 a.m.
People lined the streets with chairs, seeking coffee or a soda before the parade began. I picked a spot directly across from the Siletz Public Library, a beautiful building that houses an archive of tribal history.
The parade opened with a tribal elder in Native dress, along with a man carrying a staff adorned with eagle feathers. The eagle and its feathers carry significant spiritual and cultural meaning across Native tribes.
Following them were veterans carrying the U.S. flag and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians’ tribal flag.
A truck pulling a float full of veterans followed the color guard. Veterans are warriors — and both elders and veterans are treated with noticeable dignity and respect in every tribal ceremony I’ve witnessed.
Members of the Tribal Council came next. Tribal Chair Delores Pigsley wore a beautiful lavender outfit and tossed candy to children along the route. She was joined by other tribal members, including Buddy Lane and Robert Kentta, who gave a memorable cultural talk at Philomath City Hall in 2020.
Robert spotted me, smiled and asked, “How are things in Philomath this morning?”
“Things are great!” I told him.
Next came a vehicle carrying Siletz tribal royalty. Just as Philomath crowns a Frolic and Rodeo queen, the Siletz Tribe selects three princesses to represent it: Miss Siletz, Junior Miss Siletz and Little Miss Siletz. In case you’re unaware, Little Miss Siletz once rode in a yellow Jeep in the Frolic parade several years back.
I was also impressed to see princesses from other tribes taking part. Particularly notable was the veteran princess from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community, seated on the hood of a jacked-up Ford pickup truck.
Dozens of colorful parade participants followed, dressed in Native regalia of all types. I could see the pride in their faces as they walked past a crowd taking pictures and waving to friends and family.
A pickup truck carrying a drum circle rolled through, its riders dressed in Native regalia, playing their drums and singing as they made their way along the route.
Fire trucks old and new from Siletz Fire and Toledo Fire drove by, along with vehicles from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Waverly the Shark, mascot for Oregon Coast Community College in nearby Newport, waved and handed out candy.
Groups of young people passed out water bottles, free T-shirts and plenty of candy. The local dental office tossed out tubes of toothpaste and handed out toothbrushes, which was fun to see.
One girl handed me a package of calendula seeds harvested this year from Tet-tvm’, the Siletz farm.
The Siletz Tribe is full of generous people. It was wonderful to see their culture and customs on display at the Pow Wow Parade, and it made me reflect on the connections the Siletz Tribe and the Philomath community have built over the past several years. Here are a few of those reflections.
This past year, the Siletz Charitable Contribution Fund awarded grants to Philomath Community Services to support Nancy’s Food Pantry and to the Philomath Scout Lodge to help pay for a badly needed water heater.
The Philomath Youth Activities Club served as one of the dance sponsors for the youth jingle dance at this year’s Pow Wow, announced ahead of the dance competition. How fitting that our own youth activities organization helps promote tribal youth activities.
In 2019, the Frolic selected the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians as grand marshal of the Frolic Parade. Longtime Philomath resident and tribal member Jeff Williams represented the tribe in that year’s parade.
Last year, Philomath High School renamed its softball field Warrior Field in honor of the PHS mascot. Members of the Siletz Tribe gathered to perform an honor song with the girls’ softball teams from Philomath and Newport before the first pitch.
I read in the May edition of Siletz News that the tribe was recently awarded a $25 million grant in broadband funding from the State of Oregon’s Broadband Program and other sources. The funds will connect at least 537 homes and community locations across 117 miles of new fiber.
The article stated: “To start strong, the tribe is entering into an operations agreement with Pioneer Connect, an experienced broadband provider. Under this agreement, Pioneer will manage day-to-day operations — things like connecting homes, answering customer calls, keeping the network running and responding to outages …”
I couldn’t help but notice what a neat connection that is to a local business right in the heart of downtown Philomath. Our community is literally forming connections with the tribe.
Building connections with our tribal neighbors is a great way to build a larger community. Relationships form through snapshots over time, and they make us stronger together.
The Philomath Rotary is organizing another such effort, having purchased peace poles that read “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in four languages.
The Philomath School District has been working with the Siletz Tribe to ensure one of those languages is Siletz Dee-ni (“the people’s words”), an Athabaskan language historically spoken by tribes in Western Oregon. Look for more on this effort later this fall.
Taken together, these snapshots show that Philomath has built a strong relationship with the Siletz tribe. I encourage everyone to keep strengthening our ties with our generous, kind neighbors — and to remember: “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”
(Eric Niemann is a former mayor and city councilor in Philomath. He can be reached at Lifeinphilomath@gmail.com).
This month, the Siletz Charitable Contribution Fund also awarded Philomath Middle School with a generous grant for the 7th Grade HERO Challenge!