Andrea Taylor from the Public Information Department interviews Gloria Ingle, our Planning Department Grant Writer.
Andy Taylor
Hello everybody. My name is Andrea Taylor and I am the public information assistant for the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Welcome to our podcast. We have a great show for you today. This is Gloria Ingle. She’s our guest for the day. Gloria, how are you?
Gloria Ingle
Good morning. I’m fine.
Andy Taylor
So, Gloria, tell us a little bit about yourself. What are you doing here today?
Gloria Ingle
Well, I’m the planner grant writer for the Tribe. So, I work in the planning department. As for positions, this is my actual first time working for the Tribe. Well, unless you said council isn’t working for the tribe.
Andy Taylor
Are you sure?
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. So, one time I was on council and on the different committees that we have. Several of them, in fact. And everything from budget committee to the health committee, you know, and enjoyed it a lot, I think maybe six, eight years of service that way, you know, volunteering with the Tribe and now actually having a position. And I’m coming out of retirement.
Andy Taylor
Right, you’ve been retired. You’ve been done.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah, for a long time, about 25 years. But, it just kind of got boring sitting around doing nothing. I miss the social interaction with people. The planning group is great. We get along well, they’re are willing to jump in and help each other out if we’ve got something going, we need to get done. You know what to do, they say nothing too big, too small. You know, we’re not, our ego isn’t all tied up in position, so we’re helpful that way. And about every three months, we have a potluck, a working potluck, actually, where we review what we’ve done, where we’re headed. That’s really good, keeps us on track. So position wise, this is the first one actually working within this tribal community.
Andy Taylor
That sounds awesome. I like the idea of a working potluck. I feel like we implement that in probably most departments, to be honest, because it’s a great way to actually bond and sit with each other and connect as well as is just talk about what we’re doing and “how can I help you” and “how can you help me?” And that’s just teamwork. That’s team building at it’s best.
Gloria Ingle
Good, nice.
Andy Taylor
All right, so tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you like to do when you’re not working? I mean you said already that you volunteered places, you’ve been on committees. Are you still on any of those? Like what is what makes Gloria Gloria?
Gloria Ingle
Well, probably the idea that “you’re not just put on the face of the earth to take up space.” You’re somehow- and my dad always said that “do everything you can, we’re a people that need that.” And here again, he was really great. He would say, “and you can be anything you want to be.” And that is, kind of, different because in the time that I grew up, girls didn’t have that type of opportunity. They were pretty limited. Housewife, teacher, that type of thing, you know?
Andy Taylor
So your dad was progressive?
Gloria Ingle
Very, very.
Andy Taylor
That’s awesome. What is your favorite hobby then?
Gloria Ingle
Well, actually, I like to make necklaces, some of them modeled on the older regalia and then some of them with the new spins, you know, because they’ve got types of beads and things that we never, ever had. In fact, a lot of the old, old white beads, if they’re colored, they were probably dyed that way. They’re they were almost all white. But I love the look of the new beadwork, you know, and I like that.
Andy Taylor
And you’re learning the new styles then. It’s always a learning curve, right, because everything changes.
Gloria Ingle
I like that part of it, it keeps a culture alive, you know, if you don’t ever go into new things it becomes static and anything that’s static, it’s gone.
Andy Taylor
It is, it is stale and we don’t need it anymore.
Gloria Ingle
And they have beautiful things now that you can incorporate and you don’t, you know, you can say “well, that was like something” you know, well it’s not it, it’s not an exact replica. It’s like that, an older item.
Andy Taylor
Okay. And, what’s your favorite book?
Gloria Ingle
You know, this is kind of odd. When I was in third grade here, Siletz got its first library, and it was over in what we call the housing project, and that would be somewhere right around the fire station now was a huge, huge project. And so I went over to the library and they didn’t have kids books, that wasn’t a priority. But I found this book called The Odyssey. It was a heroic poem by the Greek Homer, and it introduced me to things like legend and myth, how to be a hero. Not everything is going to go your way all the time, what are you going to do about it? it was real influential. I’m probably thinking about it now, and being in third grade probably didn’t get a lot of it, but it inspired me to be a reader. And so, that and a new pair of glasses, and I was off and running.
Andy Taylor
So you were in third grade and you read the Odyssey. You just trying to one up everybody right now?
Gloria Ingle
And it was like there were no kids’ books.
Andy Taylor
Have you reread it?
Gloria Ingle
Yeah.
Andy Taylor
Okay. So you’ve absorbed even more of it and become even more attuned to its magnificence honestly.
Gloria Ingle
Oh yeah. it’s actually a poem, and then after that I read the Iliad because there were no kids’ books, you know, there were a few in our class in the classroom libraries, but they didn’t let you check them out or anything.
Andy Taylor
Well, there was so little despair, probably.
Gloria Ingle
We had books at the house.
Andy Taylor
Okay. What’s your favorite movie?
Gloria Ingle
Okay, my favorite movie is actually Outlaw Josey Wales.
Andy Taylor
Okay. I’ve not seen that one.
Gloria Ingle
You’re going to have to look at it. There’s a chief Dan George is in this movie, and he plays an elderly native man. And in one of the scenes he’s talking about the Cherokee leaders from the Cherokee Nation going to Washington, DC, and he says something like “And the next day in the papers, they said, we shall endeavor to persevere.” Well, that’s become a saying in my family. “Well, what do you do It?” I’m endeavoring to persevere. So, yeah, I love that movie. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it. It’s great.
Andy Taylor
You know, that you don’t even need to watch it and you know the words.
Gloria Ingle
But you know, and then the other thing is like, don’t judge me, okay? But I’m really into K-dramas, you know, the Korean and Chinese dramas.
Andy Taylor
Oh, okay.
Gloria Ingle
My daughter got me hooked on that one.
Andy Taylor
I, I didn’t even know they had it. I know that a lot of people like Spanish drama, like daytime TV. But I didn’t know that they, I mean, it makes sense that they have those, but I didn’t even know.
Gloria Ingle
You’ve got to check one out, they’re just something else, particularly the period ones from, you know, 100 years ago. Their costuming is just out of this world. The scenery reminds me a lot of the Oregon coast sometimes, and Alaska.
Andy Taylor
Okay.
Gloria Ingle
And, oh gosh, it’s just like their sets are spectacular. And these people act, you know what I mean? They put their whole face and body into it. So, yeah, I really enjoy them.
Andy Taylor
All right. And what is your favorite vacation you’ve taken so far?
Gloria Ingle
Well, several years back Tom and I went with a niece on a cruise, and we went down to Mexico, Central America. We went to the Panama Canal. over to Nicaragua and then Miami to home, right. That was spectacular. In the fact that one day I spent, oh, hours just sitting on a park bench in Guatemala, I believe. And, the people that were there, I people watch more than anything, right, and they were the ones that had the tapestries and the textiles on their head and would walk around. And so it was pretty fascinating. They live in, like to me, just a Paradise. It is the most, some of the most beautiful country in the world.
Andy Taylor
Okay. So can you tell me, what does a grant writer do?
Gloria Ingle
Well, pretty simply writes grants, right? But the funny thing about this is that’s probably the last thing you do, because you can’t just write something and expect someone else to say “Oh, this is just wonderful. Of course I’ll do this for you.” You know, so that takes meetings, meetings with managers, meeting with folks that would actually administer the program. it has to fill holes in their budget, something else that they might want to do. But what it can’t and shouldn’t do is… if you’ve already working eight hours, why would you be looking at me favorably when I’m saying “Oh, I’ll write you this grant It only adds two more hours to your day.” I think another misconception is, I mean, I search for grants and I’ll approach people with the idea of just grant and hope that they can use it to either enhance their program some way or extend it somehow, meet the needs of more people, that type of thing. So the meetings are important because it gives you direction, the grant writer direction, you know, if I decide that you need a grant on, I don’t know what? What would you think? Like, buying paper, you know, and but I think you need apples. What’s the point? Right? We’ve wasted both our times. So researching meetings with people to see if they’re if the grants appropriate, actually writing the grant and I come across a really neat thing yesterday, because budget is always a bear, right? You write these wonderful narratives that tell how what you’re going to do, and then here comes a budget. It’s like “ah, nuts” well this lady said writing a budget is just another way of expressing your narrative. How cool is that? Right. Okay. All of a sudden it takes $10,000 to buy paper. I mean, it was like this boing went off in my head, you know, why be fearful of something? And that’s, you know, the more you learn, the less likely you are to really screw up on something. And there’s enough support, I think, that people will say “Let’s take another look, this might go another direction.” So you have to be open, about all these things and not feel bad when someone says “Gloria, it’s not going to work, just not for us.” So th ose are, I think that is probably the main things about it.
Andy Taylor
You do some research and then when you write the grant, you justify it, correct? With how, why this is important to us, why we need this and what we want to do with that. And I would likely assume that you’re using things from your meetings to reason with the, I don’t know, the person giving the grant.
What do they call those people? What does that mean?
Gloria Ingle
The Grantors.
Andy Taylor
Okay.
Gloria Ingle
Right. And it can be anything from like a private foundation. Most of them are government grants of some sort, whether it’s on a state level or a federal level. How you express your need is really important otherwise…Remember back in school in English they were taught, who, what, where, when and why and to what extent, right? Well that’s pretty much what a grant is, a grant narrative.
Andy Taylor
Why do we need grants? Why does the tribe need them when we apply for them?
Gloria Ingle
Well, we have entities in the tribe that are actually businesses, right, like the casino. That’s a moneymaking proposition. The flip side is that we’re a service part admin here. We administer eight different areas. Basically we have seven, eight, excuse me, eight standing committees that people are appointed by the council. So it’s like housing, education, Pow-Wow committee, budget committee, natural resources. And, there’s a few more. Those are not money generators.
Andy Taylor
No, no, they take resources.
Gloria Ingle
Right. And how are you going to- where are you going to get those resources? Well, you get them through grants. I know that there is at least one program has, I think, a total of seven, six or seven, reflected in their budgeting. So, it provides the services and programs directly to tribal folks. So right here and there are really, really important in getting services to those who need it the most.
When we look at what we’ve requested and what we get, it drives some of our most basic programs. But there can also sometimes be a little misconception on what? For instance, say I wrote a grant and it was for Flags. Then somebody says “But we have money in that grant. I want to use that grant. I want to buy baseballs for kids for summer program.” And you say “well, you can’t do that.”
Andy Taylor
Right, because then you’re misusing the grant. It was given to you for a purpose
Gloria Ingle
For flags, that’s correct. There are parameters and a manager can’t just say “sure, I understand your need, honey, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Baseballs would be better than flags.” but you can’t do it. And there are some penalties.
Andy Taylor
Oh, yeah, you can get in trouble.
Gloria Ingle
Oh yeah.
Andy Taylor
What sort of grants do we have and how does it benefit our tribal members and communities?
Gloria Ingle
First off, most people don’t really realize it, but there’s a hazard mitigation grant, and it’s a plan about natural hazards: floods, ice.
Andy Taylor
The devastating ice storms of Oregon.
Gloria Ingle
And so just like for all of our lands and reservation lands, fee lands, trust lands, all of that. But it has to be done. It’s a mandate from the federal government. If you do not have that mitigation plan, which the planning department does, by the way, you can’t apply for government grants. So that’s why we’re able to get all of these grants. And to me, they’re all service grants. They’re- most of them are service grants. Once in a while you come across a grant that allows construction. But, or you can combine or they’ll allow you to combine some grants for construction. I think the new educational center or whatever we got going there, activities and…
Andy Taylor
A service grant would be something that provides maybe school supplies and educational supplies or, learning tools. What..
Gloria Ingle
Well, even like our 477 plan, you know, program. Those types of things. So it’s big like that. or you can, get a grant, let’s say, would help on a smaller, smaller degree. And the backpack program, I don’t know, I thought that they had that here where kids get backpacks with supplies.
Andy Taylor
Yeah. The education department has the JOM school supply fund. I don’t know how it’s funded specifically, but I didn’t know if that’s what, maybe that’s how that was funded or if it just came out of their budget. So SSP has then, service grants. And that’s for what TANF and, general assistance and, probably for the GED program.
Gloria Ingle
And remember, so there’s always the tribe does put in money too sometimes.
Andy Taylor
Correct? Correct. Right.
Gloria Ingle
it’s not everything is completely maybe floated by a grant, but we’ll say 80% of it or 90% of it. A large amount of money goes to this tribe every year, to grants.
Andy Taylor
Then I guess the next question is, do we have any programs that are entirely funded on grants, or have we moved away from that? How does that happen?
Gloria Ingle
Well, because we’re not money generators, you know… It would take a lot of bake sales to, fund some program, right?
Andy Taylor
Right.
Gloria Ingle
So you can’t move away from it. Totally. Like I said, sometimes it’s a, say, a third party funding settlement, a grant or carryover funds might help extend a grant or continue a grant, but there’s a grant in there somewhere. Trust me.
Andy Taylor
So how do we how does a program show that they’ve used the grant?
Gloria Ingle
That’s kind of tricky because each grant might ask for something different. I mean, somebody might want well, let’s give me three photos and a graph and they’re fine with it, right? Others? It’s extensive. It can be pages.
Andy Taylor
Documentation and proof and photos, receipts and.
Gloria Ingle
Exactly.
Andy Taylor
Okay.
Gloria Ingle
Exactly. And sometimes the more, the more the merrier. You know what I mean?
Andy Taylor
Right?
Gloria Ingle
It’s a narrative but short because people, real people, have to read all these things. Right?
Andy Taylor
So what happens when a grant ends? Like what is the process? Do we reapply? Does it just end? Does the funding go away? What do you see?
Gloria Ingle
Sometimes the tribe picks it up because it’s a worthy program, right? Yeah. Can’t live without it.
Andy Taylor
The services are too – too great.
Gloria Ingle
Vital. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes it means looking for a grant. It’s really similar. That allows most of the functions that happened in the first grant.
Andy Taylor
Which is where your research comes in.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. I mean I have one already for 2025 that I’ve filed on my computer file. So you’re looking forward like that too. And I know that that’ll be a good grant. And, and it’ll really complement some things that are already in place when you think about it.
Andy Taylor
About the process?
Gloria Ingle
Well, the process is like when a grant does and like that and it is a good service. I think there’s other ways. And one of them is to look forward on other funding sources. A good example might be like Healthy Traditions. Over the years that grant is ended, it has really, named itself. It has, pretty much kept its purpose but changed some things in it.
Gloria Ingle
So it’s kind of an ongoing thing, but it’s not the same grant every time. Like it’ll be close enough that it the program can continue. And that’s important. And that’s where you really like I said, you have to kind of be forward looking. I already have some grants that I know are going to be good in 2025.
Gloria Ingle
I missed the deadline for them when I got hired. Yeah. So it’s like is a process.
Andy Taylor
Sounds like a lot on, on your plate as far as grants go.
Gloria Ingle
Be really organized. That’s the one thing. Actually, I went to, Albuquerque in February for a grant training. I about froze to death it’s the first time I ever saw frost on palm leaves and branches. It’s like, oh, my gosh. But it was good. And, it was a good refresher, you know? Yeah. So I think that, I think the thing that I came away with is that, if you look long enough and hard enough, you’ll find something that will fit a need that someone has determined.
Andy Taylor
I learned that with, grants for college, there’s a grant for everything. There’s a million grants. You just have to look for them and apply for them. And you might not get them all, but if you get a $500 here, $500 there, $500 there, it all adds up and it does a lot.
Gloria Ingle
It does.
Andy Taylor
Yeah.
Gloria Ingle
Particularly when it fits a need. You know, it’s got to fit a need. Yeah. Once you got that you’ve got everything.
Andy Taylor
So let’s move into planning. Tell us a little about planning. Like what. What is planning do how many departments are there.
Gloria Ingle
Planning is I don’t think I really understood either what they did. You know, for the time I was on council, they would come with projects. a lot of times they became project managers. So I know, like the position tribal planner. Right. So and they the one thing about planning is they don’t do things on their own.
Gloria Ingle
Right. It’s to make real whatever Tribal Council has determined as being a project or a goal or whatever. And then that is to the Chief Executive Officer who gives direction then to the planning department. So the planning department is active, develops and makes real whatever the dream, wish or whatever that that is. And that comes to Tribal Council, the Chief Executive Officer, to the tribal planner, and then they can pretty much bring in the people that they need.
Andy Taylor
So they’re in for the assist, vital but in for the assist.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. They’re the ones that make the dream real.
Andy Taylor
Okay, okay.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. There’s a transportation program, this is kind of tricky because it’s with the creation of the, systems with the transportation plan, and then it’s the Siletz reservation improvement transportation plan. And so that’s a pretty vital role. One of the ways that that benefits, people is that, you know, the bus passes on the transit system? That’s been, for people that, can’t drive or just need this extra little help. That’s there. That transit system was actually is under planning.
Andy Taylor
Oh, I did not know that. That’s very cool. Okay.
Gloria Ingle
And then, of course, they do other things, you know, than just that. But when you think about it’s bigger responsibility then and I think people realize there’s a reality program that’s under planning.
Andy Taylor
That’s separate from housing. Okay.
Gloria Ingle
Anything that you would normally think about say buying land or buying a house or whatever is an individual you would do, that’s exactly what planning has to go through too.
Andy Taylor
Okay.
Gloria Ingle
So any kind of a realty transaction, if the tribe was going to buy some land or. Well, you know, and they have they’ve added some beautiful properties.
Andy Taylor
Oh, like, garden property up Logsdon Road.
Gloria Ingle
Oh, yeah. That was just a dream.
Andy Taylor
And was that through planning?
Gloria Ingle
No. No, it was a direction of the council. And it’s actually under the clinic, the clinic structure.
Andy Taylor
Okay, see, and I knew that it was under the clinic in terms of, like, how it serves communities and that and tribal members. But I didn’t know if planning purchased the property or if they were, had any hand in that.
Gloria Ingle
you don’t want I don’t know.
Andy Taylor
It’s hard to know.
Gloria Ingle
I mean, I was there, but I don’t know, I can’t remember exactly how the. How’s that work through the system? They do, in that reality program. You know, there are, but they are, involved in, the environmental studies. That’s really important to know and particularly in Siletz where there’s a lot of groundwater, right. And if you don’t know that and you build, then there’s lots of things that happen with whatever you build.
Andy Taylor
Your foundation can go bad.
Gloria Ingle
That goes to heck yes. They do those types of things in their different areas. I know on the Hill, different buildings that have put up there. You know, they’ve pretty well got that mapped out of there. So and there is a lot of water. And then of course, there’s the grant writer. That’s I mean, that’s in planning and the GIS and I have no idea what GIS stands for.
Andy Taylor
Geographical Information Systems, I believe.
Gloria Ingle
Oh, you’re good,
Andy Taylor
I believe…. You know, because my, my oldest son is really interested in that. He had a lot of fun doing that in school, and it’s one of the few things he got excited about, which I was excited about.
Gloria Ingle
We’re going to go with you.
Andy Taylor
Okay!
Gloria Ingle
And then we have that program anyway. And it’s in planning. It does more than just mapping. I mean, I think that people think that and it’s just maps, right. And then we’ll there are beautiful maps and shows where flood areas are, and that’s important to people if you highlight problems.
Andy Taylor
High lands and low lands, and boundaries.
Gloria Ingle
And the water system, main systems, all kinds of things like that. But they’re actually gathering information on all tribal lands and Aboriginal lands. It’s more than you know, let’s just make a map. I think that’s important. The, big department under planning is Enrollment. Enrollment is a busy spot. I mean, there’s so many things that they do. You know, its enrollment.
Andy Taylor
Oh yeah, it’s Enrollment. It’s a hub.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah.
Andy Taylor
So I didn’t realize that, enrollment was under planning, and I’ve been here for quite some time now. I’ve been working in my official capacity for, for seven years, so I didn’t even know. I thought that they just shared space similar to, you know, counting as across from us. But I didn’t realize that they were part of planning as well.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah they are.
Andy Taylor
That’s very cool.
Gloria Ingle
And they’re, you know, they’re involved with everything from, well, they accept your enrollment package, right?
Andy Taylor
Correct.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. And, but really another really important part of it is, they also administer the death benefits and, those types of things and keep on file, you beneficiary information, all those types of things there. Again, you know, they do a lot. And so many times I think which every one of these departments and probably everybody that works for the tribe, what we always see is just like the iceberg tip, right?
Andy Taylor
Right! We don’t see the body under. Yeah.
Gloria Ingle
It’s like accounting. Oh I get a check from accounting. But what happened before that ever happened.
Andy Taylor
The 20 steps before they issued that actual physical check.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. Those are the kind of the programs that the major programs over there. And probably one of the biggest things that happens with planning is that we’re the ones that do the, community input meetings.
Andy Taylor
Yes. You guys, just did one.
Gloria Ingle
Well, we did for out of area.
Andy Taylor
Out of area. That’s correct.
Gloria Ingle
We’re going to reschedule that because, last year there was 42 people that came on online. This year there was only two. And so we’ll reschedule it. We, we don’t know just exactly. We were thinking it was how we got the information out.
Andy Taylor
Right, right. I did see it. And it was at 3 p.m. our time, which most of the state of Oregon is at that. And it was a work day as well. And I wondered too, if that didn’t have any influence, if, if that would affect how the attendance went. I know that not everybody is in Oregon. There’s people in, you know, New York and Georgia and I mean, all across America and in other countries. And so the time difference is, I think you guys were just, not you specifically, but that planning in general was trying to maybe make it accessible to all time zones.
Gloria Ingle
Right. Well, it was a suggestion last year, right from the zoom meeting for out of area. But with the time change, you know. Well, it’s amazing, isn’t it, that we are scattered throughout the globe.
Andy Taylor
Planning is in charge of the comprehensive plan. What is the comprehensive plan?
Gloria Ingle
We are in charge of developing it. Right. I think here again, but we’re not in charge of administering it.
Andy Taylor
Okay.
Gloria Ingle
There’s a difference. Well, we start off with the input from, the community, from tribal members, and that’s through our community meetings. We, are pretty, I think, open to like. Yeah. Give us a call if you have a question, you know, or if you want to add. And I still have people that that email me and say, you know, when I had to leave the meeting early, but I really wanted to make a comment under health. There’s 17 different areas or goals in the comprehensive plan.
Gloria Ingle
And everything from elders to communication, and to per capita to, natural resources, just many things. Legal. And in the meetings we have white papers on the board, and people can come up and write their concern. Or sometimes it’s like, good job, you know, so that that gives us the community input that we need. And it’s vital, but it’s ongoing.
Gloria Ingle
So we’re we’re approachable that way. But because the comprehensive plan can really be based on the 17 areas, it’s not just planning doing it. It’s also with input from, say, the education department. We write it and I would hope with good, good, solid communication between those people that are affected by it, that they can take a look at it and they’ll say, you know what?
Gloria Ingle
We decided that we were going to have a reading program right after school reading program that meets five of the things that people were really stressed that they wanted to have happen. And so, well, we develop a plan with their input. We don’t administer the plan. And, you know, if you go to our website, the tribal website, up in the search box, you just put planning, it’ll take you right to planning.
Gloria Ingle
And then you click on planning. And there’s everything about planning the comprehensive plan is there, the mitigation plan is there. I would hope that people because this is an easy, easy to access this.
Andy Taylor
It’s everything’s right there. The website is so nice now.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. It’s usable. Yeah. User friendly. I think that’s what I’m looking for.
Andy Taylor
I’ll bet the new website was probably part of the comprehensive plan for the last one.
Gloria Ingle
*Joking* This thing isn’t working, help me.
Andy Taylor
So the comprehensive plan is it’s pretty important then it outlines our goals and what we strive to do within our tribe for our members and our communities. Then because you guys, you guys put in those sidewalks forever ago, right? When? Because they were here when I moved here. But I remember being told that there was no sidewalks. And so that was pretty important.
Gloria Ingle
Oh no kidding. I mean, come on. I was here when there wasn’t even a road. It was gravel, it was a gravel road.
Andy Taylor
I don’t believe that! You don’t look a day over 20!
Gloria Ingle
Yeah, right! And those lug and trucks would fly through here at about 40 miles an hour, you know?
Andy Taylor
So, how often is this, plan renewed or adjusted or is there, is there a cycle for it?
Gloria Ingle
Their ten year plans. The last one was actually put together to go to 2015. Now, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything done to it. It was updated.
Andy Taylor
Right, but revised.
Gloria Ingle
Revised and looked at and things and then, there’s a new one due in 2005. And that’s what we’re working on right now.
Andy Taylor
You mean 2025?
Gloria Ingle
Oh, did I say that? Well, we, yeah, we have a small committee right now. I’m sure if anybody wants to be on that, that Pam would be more than happy to discuss it with them.
Andy Taylor
Nice plug.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah, I thought so. And, because it’s important in there right now, there’s just three of us.
Gloria Ingle
We’re just starting the process to, take a look at some things. We have Micah, who’s doing new graphics, of course, will update the photos in there. Each, each department has an area where they describe, you know, almost everybody here has their mission statement and their purpose. So that’s pretty much done. And, we’d have to have a meeting to see if. Have they modified that over time? Has things changed? You know, because goals become different.
Andy Taylor
Goals change. Needs change.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah, they.
Andy Taylor
And sometimes something that was really important ten years ago is now no longer important. It’s not relevant. Right?
Gloria Ingle
Right. So it’s have they been updated. And do we need to do that. You know, so there’s a lot of things and carving out some time with CEO you know.
Andy Taylor
Right.
Gloria Ingle
Things like that. So well, like I said, if, if somebody really wanted to be a part of that, I’m sure it would be appreciate because, there’s a lot to do.
Andy Taylor
There is a lot that’s a lot for three people. Yeah, especially it seems like it’s staff and they already have a job. And if we could get more input and more, a broad opinion from members that would be probably pretty appreciated.
Gloria Ingle
Well, if we would have, you know, people would say just even say, you know, I really think you’re heading right direction or, you know, don’t you think you should beef up this area or we always see these same pictures. How come you don’t change the pictures? Well, true. Okay. How can we update the look? How are we going to set this up so people are going to want to access it?
Gloria Ingle
How is it going to be of any use to people in departments that have to, or want to, or need to, make these things happen for the community? Right? So there’s a lot involved in it, and it can be, a real good tool for just to guide a person or guide a department, you know, and that’s where that input going to be really, really important.
Gloria Ingle
Because what is important to me, natural resources may think, “Gloira. That, nah.”
Andy Taylor
No, it’s not a priority here. That’s a back burner issue. We got a front burner going here. All right. So, so what happens… Well, I think you kind of already touched on this already a little bit. So what happens when they don’t meet all of their goals outlined in the plan? Are they recommended? Is there a failure or is it just like we had other priorities, it took longer. We get to it. When we get to it, we’ll put it in next year’s. It’s still a goal. How does this work?
Gloria Ingle
Well, remember, it’s ten year.
Andy Taylor
Correct.
Gloria Ingle
Right? You don’t have to do everything tomorrow.
Andy Taylor
That’s correct.
Gloria Ingle
You know, and so whatever the department to me, whatever the department’s goals are, you know, like in planning, we get together and, okay, we’re going to have this done by this time. So you don’t have to do everything. But sometimes one thing takes care of four things. I mean, you know, have a community.
Andy Taylor
Like, two birds and one stone.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah, very much so.
Andy Taylor
Okay.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. They have, I think there’s plenty of, there’s plenty of time for them. We’re the ones on the short short haul here. Okay? You know, we’re under the gun and it has to be done in January.
Andy Taylor
What are what are some accomplishments then that planning has made in the last five years?
Gloria Ingle
Well, in the last five, I don’t know.
Andy Taylor
COVID took out quite a bit of everybody’s goal time, but I’m sure that I mean, things were done.
Gloria Ingle
Oh, yeah. Yeah, they were. And the thing that I was looking at, with planning is, planning doesn’t do it. For instance, one of the things that, for 12 years, STAHS had a staff person from planning that worked with them, planning set up and went to with Akana to developthe plans for the building, the land use.
Andy Taylor
For the museum?
Gloria Ingle
And, but planning didn’t do the stuff. You know, the sidewalks here. I mean, they came up with the plan. They probably manage the plan. But they didn’t build the sidewalk. You know, but that’s one of the things that they can do is, you know, put it, you know, set together things that are from the bid process, all those those types of things. We have an engineer on staff, you know, so there’s a lot of things that they do do, but they don’t actually do the project right. They can oversee it. So I and I think that in some instances, you know, might not always be true for everything.
Andy Taylor
Was there, one really big thing that they did accomplish.
Gloria Ingle
If I had to say, what did they do? They built a clinic, you know, they oversaw that. The fitness center, the sprung structure, the veterans Memorial was a planning project. They built that huge water tank up there, the road, a little road that comes into the cemetery, those types of things. Community gardens was under planning at the time.
Andy Taylor
The one up by the fitness center.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah.
Andy Taylor
Yeah that’s a great, a great lot.
Gloria Ingle
Now they’re into you know building the road up and the parking, parking area up on the hill for that’ll work with for the new cultural center with the museum. And one of the other things that they do is they oversee the property out at Chemawa.
Andy Taylor
Oh they do. Yeah. Oh. Very cool. The, the business center. Right.
Gloria Ingle
No, no.
Andy Taylor
No?
Gloria Ingle
No. The actual, the old, old Chemawa land that the school housing, part of the housing and stuff was on. The cemetery. They if the grass is mowed, Siletz did it.
Andy Taylor
Good to know.
Gloria Ingle
Know. Yeah, there’s a big, push that they help out there.
Andy Taylor
So what is what are they trying to achieve in the next five years?
Gloria Ingle
It depends on what the council says we’re going to achieve.
Andy Taylor
That’s a good answer. Good answer. They again, they’re in for the assist they’re in to carry out, to help guide.
Gloria Ingle
To make the dream real
Andy Taylor
Yeah. Fingers crossed that we’ve got big plans.
Gloria Ingle
Hope so, yeah. That’s, planning is right there. And there’s like I said, they’re good people and they work hard. And, that’s from a newbie coming in, right.
Andy Taylor
Right. Yeah.
Gloria Ingle
I really enjoy my time there.
Andy Taylor
It’s good that your, first impressions so far are, “This is a great place. This is a good relationship a good, good crop of people to have around you”
Gloria Ingle
Well makes you want to do things, you know and yeah help out and lend the extra hand and, and things like that. So, yeah. No, I really appreciate them. And I didn’t appreciate them enough earlier on, I really didn’t. We have reports from everybody or the, the council does. Right, right. And from every department. And yet, I don’t think I really, really knew many of the things that they did. I was like, oh, I saw the end product.
Andy Taylor
Right. Your boots are on the ground now, though, and you’re running the marathon with them.
Gloria Ingle
And I’m like, oh, you had to do these 15 things before.
Andy Taylor
Yeah. Correct. So we just have one final question for you, for this podcast. And that is what is your favorite annual event or activity that Siletz Tribe does and why?
Gloria Ingle
You know, it’s it was really hard because Run to the Rogue has its own special spiritual feeling. But I think, probably Pow-Wow.
Andy Taylor
Nesika Illahee or Restoration.
Gloria Ingle
Oh, no! On the hill in August, along.
Andy Taylor
Nesika Illahee
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. The, and the reason for that is to me, it brings people together. Right. So there’s that part of it that’s an important part. You make those connections and you reconnect. But it highlights native people in real positive way in celebration and ceremony. Spiritualism that goes along. I mean, those drums start and, the all the, the follicles on my body just stand right up and I’m, I am thrilled and happy. I look at dancing, the art of dancing, the art of regalia making.
Andy Taylor
The hours of time put into that regalia. And, and the love of, you know, when braiding your sister’s hair and your daughter’s hair and your son’s hair.
Gloria Ingle
Because of the, because of the people, you know, don’t quite maybe understand the depth of the feeling that happens there and the connectedness, and that happens also to me, it’s like, connecting to the past. You know, you’re up there and I remember lying in bed at my Grandma Pearl’s house, which is down below the hill, at night and lying in bed, and I and I was going on, I could hear the drums. That’s still a real significant memory for me, a wonderful one. And, so I try to that, and I also equate the ability to dance like that as an art form.
Andy Taylor
Oh, it is.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah. Or the ability to develop regalia. The way it’s done is an art form. And not everybody can do that, you know, as I can’t break dance, but I can around dance. I mean, come on.
Andy Taylor
I’d like to see you break dance now.
Gloria Ingle
So. Oh, yeah, that’d be really, really break! Every bone in my body. You know, so I think it would be Pow-Wow. I absolutely love it.
Andy Taylor
Good, good. Well, I think that that concludes our podcast today. Unless you have any other final thoughts you want to throw out there. But.
Gloria Ingle
Well, one thing we have community meetings. Please. Please come. It’s a good way to have your voice heard. It’s, different from… Oh, we have food if you’re.
Andy Taylor
If you’re hungry.
Gloria Ingle
But. Yeah. So if you come, and we do this in small areas, so we do it. we have the Eugene area office. We go to Salem to Portland and to Siletz. And then we have one that’s available to the out of area people through zoom. I mean, technology has really been able to include those folks that we haven’t been able to, they’ve been excluded simply by where they lived.
Gloria Ingle
Right?
Andy Taylor
Correct. Correct.
Gloria Ingle
So now they can be a part of everything because we have that technology. So yeah, make your voice heard if you got a problem or if you like I said, we get complements too. “The tribe did so well in that” you know, or I think one was under per capita. It was just “thank you” you know, so that’s a good thing, you see people’s dreams and what they would like to see happen.
Gloria Ingle
I am impressed with the fact that there reasonable, attainable, measurable. They’re not saying I want a million house. You know.
Andy Taylor
It doesn’t.
Gloria Ingle
Yeah, but they are saying, like, let’s take a look at the older housing. Okay. those types of things. So, I think there’s a few wants, but it’s mostly needs that I think are valuable. And I think they do too. So they when they said it, they when they made the journey to come to a meeting. So yeah, it’s another way to be heard that isn’t Facebook.
Andy Taylor
Well thank you, Gloria, so much for coming today and letting us know about grants and planning and all the efforts you and your team are doing to support our tribal members.
Gloria Ingle
Well, thank you, thank you, I enjoyed this. This is fun. bye. Bye. Now.