Running for Tribal Council Secretary
My name is Joanne Decicio. My mom and dad were Barbara Henry and Walter (Steve) Henderson. My grandparents were Theresa (Cooper) Nason, Walter Henry, Sr., Kelly Henderson and Dovey (Ledford) Bishop-Wood.
My grandma, Theresa, was born on Squaxin Island. She came from a family who understood the science of harvesting and processing of natural materials as well as the Salish design of baskets. In 1923, when my grandma Theresa was 8 years old, she and her brother Bennett Cooper who was 12, were taken from Squaxin Island to Saint George’s Catholic Indian Boarding School in Milton, Washington. My grandma never spoke of this time and we did spend a lot of time together.
My mom told me when she was very young, my grandma, Theresa, and my great uncles, Bennett and Buddy (Frances, Sr.), would speak in Indian to each other whenever they were together; however, my grandma would not teach their language to her own children, neither would my great uncles. Squaxin Island Tribe has already lost its own tribal language. When they started teaching Lushootseed, my grandma told me, “That is not our language.” This was disappointing and affected my ambition to learn our newly adopted language. In approximately 2011-2014, I told a few tribal members that Lushootseed is not our language. It got quiet, then Charlene Krise stated, “she’s right,” Charlene was able to verify my words to those who had any doubts. I have since decided to be grateful that we have a language similar to our lost language that we could, and did, adopt as our own. I have accepted it after mourning the loss of our own language and plan to learn it. I think it’s important to recognize where we are Tribe, honestly.
My grandma was born before women and minorities had a right to vote. She lived through horrific times, surviving to have twelve children, nine of whom grew into their latter teens or all the way into adult hood. All of us have ancestors who survived much more than we can ever imagine. We have survived a lot, too. My mom had challenges as a dark woman born in 1939. I remember teachers being nice to me in grade school and then it felt like they didn’t like me and treated me differently after my mom had a parent-teacher conference. This caused me to love my mom even more, if that’s possible. Whenever people treated her badly just because she was dark, all it did was make me wish I was dark like her. I used to resent being pale. I wish so many people wouldn’t treat each other a certain way because of their skin color; some of all races do it. I have cousins who look full blooded, but they are ½, just like me, yet they get treated like they’re full-blooded. I love my whole family, regardless of what shade they are. These experiences I’ve had of being treated badly for being Indian by white people, and then being treated badly by Indians for being pale, has just made me realize both races can be really mean and racist. I should love both races because, if you hate a race that is inside of you, that means you hate yourself and this is mentally unhealthy. I really wish we could all get past all the racism. Even with our descendants, there are some members who will insult a descendant, call them white and then give special, positive attention to another descendant, not calling them white, because they like them or prefer them. This may not make sense to some of you, but it’s part of the racism that affects and hurts many young and old, unnecessarily.
Good Luck to all the candidates! My platform for running for Tribal Council Secretary is:
Accountability – Consistent steps toward holding everyone accountable, from the highest-level officials (i.e. Tribal Council and leaders to government and enterprise high level employees) to subordinate level employees (temporary hires, aide’s, etc.). If everyone is held to the same standard, if council members work to set a higher example, this would resolve a lot of inequities that can occur when, or if, there’s nothing in place to ensure that accountability is consistent. I believe that, if leaders set a high level of integrity in all that they do, it will flow on down and be a positive.
Inclusiveness – Finding a way to engage ALL, if not a majority of our tribal members, especially voting age tribal members, to work on our BIGGER issues that need time, care, and feedback from ALL TRIBAL MEMBERS. There are issues no one can easily agree on, issues that have no right or wrong answers, that are very delicate and precious to our hearts and we should allow each other to have our own opinions and respect all of them. We need to talk about it a lot, if necessary, so we can move forward, even in disagreement, UNITED.
Honesty – Honesty is hard. Many people do not like honesty. However, if honesty is not a priority, things will be muddled, will be hard to resolve, and it will be impossible to have consistency, fairness, or healthy movement forward. Honesty, as a priority, would improve things. Lack of honesty will lead to negatives that may be hard to bounce back from. Honesty is something we’ll never have at 100%, but we should strive for it.
Transparency – We need to have ACCURATE information. We cannot have personnel information or HIPPA-protected information discussed or provided to us openly, but we need to find a way to inform everyone about important announcements, consistently, including those who do not have social media. I do not know what the answer is, however, I feel really alone when I publicly raise concerns that notices sometimes go out on social media only, because many members and community members are losing out on an opportunity if they do not have social media. I wonder why we do not care about it, then I think maybe we do not have the time? If this is true, I wish we would make the time. Not everyone has a family member or a friend who will make sure they know of an announcement that is only available on social media.
Social media – Social media is great when information is accurate. When information is not accurate, social media can be used to manipulate the truth, and this can be very harmful. I have read posts or comments from various people that are inaccurate and hurt some of the people involved in the posts. I had expressed concern about this without any confidence that this concern was taken seriously. This is an area that can cause so much unnecessary harm.
I have 35 plus years in finance/accounting . . .
Government accounting – payroll, per capita processing, 1099 processing, travel, six years as Accounts Payable Manager, six years as Grant/Contract Compliance Officer (can fully manage grants and contracts).
Business accounting – Main KTP #1 and the espresso stand we used to own – payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliation, JE’s, etc., and trained the current, Certified Public Accountant (Becky) who is the KTP#1 accountant right now.
Human resources – Almost four years in human resources, onboarding new employees, off-boarding separating employees, adding/dropping benefited employees to all benefits on-line, managing family medical leave, worker’s comp claims, short-term disability claims, answering employee questions, providing replacement benefit cards, UMR reconciliations, etc.,
Housing – 15 years experience in housing, 12 years on Southern Puget Sound Inter-Tribal Housing Authority (SPSITHA), the last six years as chair or vice-chair. In the absence of our executive director, the chair and vice chair made executive decisions. The SPSITHA board hired and evaluated the executive director. This committee was independent of their tribal councils. I served three years as Squaxin Island Tribe’s first housing manager when we separated from SPSITHA, 24+ years on our Tribal Gaming Commission, 14 years on our enrollment committee (involved in getting our enrollment code passed in 2009), and on a colorectal cancer advisory committee with SPIPA.
I am honored to have worked with so many past, successful, giving leaders, and am thankful to have had this experience and to have earned such high respect from a majority of them. I was able to advise many leaders and the Tribal Council on various issues over the years. This historical, close-up experience has given me insight as to why things have changed so much and/or why we have not been able to keep up with our growth. We grew quite fast after per capita became a reason that so many wanted to transfer their membership to this Tribe. There’s a lot to consider. I now understand why some elders eventually discontinued participating in elections and other tribal events.
I am hopeful we will get council members elected who will take the necessary steps to set a positive example, to put Squaxin Island Tribe back where it was in the 1990’s when we were leading the way, keeping up with our growth. For example, our surveillance in the casino was outstanding for quite a few years; we were an example others came to see, but now we have fallen behind. We’ve been unable to keep up with our growth, in my opinion, and if we take positive steps forward, we should be able to improve what has fallen behind and add more. Operating a successful casino is not easy, and we have been doing this for almost 20 years now.
I do not have high expectations because when you tend to be truthful, you find out who is comfortable with the truth and who is not. You find out many even dislike or hate the truth. The Serenity Prayer is what I hold onto.
People exhibit if they are givers or takers, and some are in the middle, However, a lot of us are one or the other. We really need to make sure we have equality in givers and takers within our leaders to balance it out, if possible.
Any of us can make promises, however, once any of one us is elected, we find out it takes four votes or the entire council to vote and agree to make changes.
I have a lot of love in my heart. If you hurt someone I love, a reaction may pop out more strongly than if you hurt me. However, sometimes we hurt each other, or we think someone is hurting us, when it is not so. Friendship and love, especially family love, are very complicated. Life is so short, shorter for some than others, and death is permanent. We all have positives and negatives, so let’s accept each other as we are.
I’d like to recognize all the successes and positives we, as tribal members, have benefited from. Our successes show in the quarterly per capita checks and with all the services we have. Being on Tribal Council, an employee, self-employed, or any other status we have, is not easy. We all have to get up and navigate through life and whatever it throws at us. Because there’s so much going on, it’s easy to forget all the good that has occurred. Because I’ve watched so much for so long, up close, I know it is not easy to be on Tribal Council, and really want to acknowledge this fact.
It would be beneficial if we could find a way to disagree, communicate, plan, and celebrate by having respect for each other, regardless of what may be going on. It’s easy to complain and judge each other. It would be such a breath of fresh air if we could find a way to uplift each other – every day. We need to retain our successes, add to them, and be grateful we’ve made it this far. Yes, we need to find a way for the general body to have a voice, if it’s possible.
I know this is long. Hopefully, by reading it, some will choose to act more like a tribe and be able to openly support each other, instead of cutting each other down. When I go to drum jams at other tribes, I do not see anyone calling each other white or acting the way I see some of us act. I am not trying to be mean; I am trying to get us all to work toward acting like a tribe of people who care about each other every day. This is for all of us. It’s easy to cut someone down; it’s also the choice of someone who is insecure. So, I really hope we can be more positive for each other and keep the harmful negativity to ourselves, or figure out why it’s there and find a way to vent it out without harming others.
I recently found out Puyallup had to build their cultural traditions from literally nothing, most of their traditions, such as weaving etc., because they were completely urbanized. In hearing this, I know we can do it too.
I have always loved my Tribe, have served many, many years, and will continue to. I am thankful for all the Tribe offers and has provided. We, as a Tribe, have so much more than we had when I was a little girl. My Hope Floats.
Have a great week.
1970’s or early 80’s, taken at the tribal center when it was down at the bottom of the hill in the old school. This was the dining area. My grandmother Theresa Nason and my mom, Barb Henry.
Have a great week.