Good leaders are servants of the people, not pigs at the trough

This entry was posted on 5/8/2008 7:47 PM and is filed under Tribal Government,elections.

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• 5/9/2008 8:32 AM herman dillon wrote:
  it is my understandment that all our other council members have used thousands of our money to there selfish benefits but not once do you hear of herman using the money to his benefit and there has been numerouse of occassions that he has helped me personally so if he was ever to be dismissed it would be a very large dumb mistake cause he takes a big pride in his work and gets things done the right way we could use more leaders like him self lannie jane burnettjames
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• 5/9/2008 7:26 PM JeremyMiller/Puyallup b4 percapt wrote:
  I am a young Puyallup man father of 7, and I am watching, listening and learning...thats all I feel like saying tonight... I will pray in our ways for us all in our tribe...
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• 5/11/2008 11:58 AM a member wrote:
  Well what about his new huge home he is having custom buildt. is the free home not good enough for who he has become. and we all understand how personal help helps us all. god bless the ugly and the greedy help them see thru the dark aND COME INTO THE LIGHT AND HELP THERE COMMUNITY.
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• 5/12/2008 8:12 PM Debra wrote:
  I am writing today to offer my endorsement for Nancy Shippentower-Games’ campaign for Tribal Council and to encourage you to vote for her.
  
  I had the pleasure of working with Nancy for many years on fishing and hunting issues on behalf of the Tribe. During much of my tenure at Puyallup, Nancy worked as the Natural Resources Policy Director. Her commitment to the protection and sound management of the Tribe’s natural resources, fishing, hunting, and gathering areas was exemplary and unsurpassed by the others I worked with.
  
  Nancy worked tirelessly and with passion. She worked collaboratively both as a team member and a leader at the various Tribal, State and Federal meetings and forums. I know, because I traveled with her to these meetings. She was truly an effective and strong advocate. Nancy attended the meetings and worked, unlike other tribal staff and policy representative.
  
  I have known Nancy, both personally and professionally, for 25 years and can confidently say that she is a dedicated leader. One who puts the best interests of the whole Tribe first. I’ve seen her provide clear direction and set doable priorities for herself and others. Most importantly, she doesn’t hesitate to ask questions if she doesn’t know something. She learns and then turns around to teach others.
  
  Nancy’s primary goal has always been to protect, enhance and utilize the Tribe’s natural resources including the most important resource, the children. The children need strong leaders, mentors, teachers and examples of how to live productively in this world. They need to see by example that it is better to live and struggle than to die and give up. The rewards from overcoming adversity are tremendous and joyous. Don’t be afraid to show the children both the struggles and the joyful victories. Nancy does this.
  
  Despite my unceremonious and wrongful firing in 2004, after 14 years, I have remained in touch with several friends and colleagues. I believe Nancy to be one of Puyallup’s greatest assets and I encourage all eligible voters to support and put Nancy back on the Tribal Council. As a member of the Council, Nancy can join what is becoming an effective, positive and collaborative leadership body. It has been exciting for me to witness the positive changes and constructive direction the Tribe has moved in over the last couple of years. I believe Nancy, as a reliable, trustworthy, and creative person that she is, will truly contribute greatly to this new direction.
  
  Because of her past experiences, if elected, Nancy would be able to hit the ground running. But she would also listen, collaborate and consult before taking action. And, she would not hesitate to take initiative and to tenaciously see projects to completion.
  
  I regularly read the news on this web site and am excited at the new developments. Keep up the momentum. Put Nancy back on Council.
  
  Debra O’Gara
  Juneau, Alaska
  dogara@acsalaska.net
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• 5/13/2008 8:33 PM David Z Bean wrote:
  Take it easy now.
  
  Herman Dillon is a good man. His heart is in the right place. He truly tries to help everyone.
  
  I sit next to him on a daily basis. He does a good job as the Chairman of the Puyallup Tribe.
  
  There have been many good things that has happened on his watch. I believe more good than bad. I can never understand why seemingly small insignificant issues overshadow many large and important ones.
  
  Herman is well respected within the Puyallup community. He is also well respected amongst many tribal leaders throughout the northwest.
  
  He has developed a strong working relationship with the Governor of this state of Washington. This strong working relationship has lead to many important positive changes to our tribe and our gaming compact. Most notably an increase in number of machines at our casino. This equates to larger revenues ($) to serve our ever growing Puyallup tribal population.
  
  He has testified before the United States congress on many occasions. These acts ultimately lead to a new funding source or expanded funding for services to the membership.
  
  It was not that long ago that we did not have a casino. The tribe did not have very much money. As Chairman, he has seen some tough financial times. He stuck it out through thick and thin.
  
  Has he made some mistakes? Probably. Has he made some decisions that we may not necessarily agree with? Probably. Haven't we all made mistakes or bad decisions at one time or another? YES! The man is human. Just like you and me.
  
  I would encourage each and everyone who reads this to go and visit with Herman some time. He has a lot of stories to tell. I have listened to him tell many Baseball stories, Fishing stories, and even stories of when he was young. The ones I enjoy the most are the ones about baseball and when his family would yell at him, in our tribal language, when he was young. There is some real history there. I especially enjoy sitting and listening when he and other elders tell stories about each other. Its not much different than when I sit around with my friends and we tell stories about each other. The only difference is time.
  
  In these last two years on council, I have gotten to know him well. I have come to respect him and many elders like him. For they have seen harder times than I care to know. They have fought many battles and made many sacrifices for much of what we have today. They have done so with far less resources than we have today.
  
  I am happy to share more about him if you would like to hear.
  
  Feel free to contact me at davidb@puyalluptribe.com
  
  Take care,
  
  David Z. Bean
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  1. 5/14/2008 2:33 PM kora ward wrote:
     Hi David, I strongly agree with your comment about Mr. Dillon I've had the opportunity to sit and chat with Herman and I believe that he means well in everything he sets out to do for his people and will try and help in any way he can and do the best for his people, and for those that have negative feelings about him probably never took the opportunity to go and visit with him and its true about the door is always open there have been several times with no appt scheduled Ive went to the council office and I was able to talk with someone and they really do listen to what you have to say, and so far I was able to work out my issues with their advice their knowledge, concern & help. I feel our council is very didicated to the people, and we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for the leadership & guidiance of Mr. Dillon.
     
     Puyallup Tribal Member:
     Kora Ward
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• 5/14/2008 5:31 PM Lasttoknow wrote:
  This is crazy I mean is everybody out there have that much anger? I am especially delighted to be apart of the Puyallup Tribe. We have it so good and it seems that everyone wants MORE now that is greed. How many other Tribes do you know get a per-capita, have there own clinic, have casinos, have all the programs that we have, plus gets an extra x-mas bonus and an election bonus, and to top it off each year we get 1000.00 of rent or anything else we want to get paid as well as a 1000.00 for our electric bill. It saddens me that you all want more rite now or I am going to talk about Council. If it weren't for them caring and representing our tribe what do you think we would have, Nothing but everyone trying to take over the tribe as a leader. I wish you would please look back and see what we use to have and compare to what we have today. BIG DIFFERENCE HUH!!! Thank you Tribal Council for all your hard work and I am truly grateful for you guys. Keep up the good job.
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  1. 5/28/2008 12:49 PM Beautyisnative wrote:
     I think all the anger is about, what we could have done with all our benefits. I mean Yes we have a casino (a tent),clinic, programs....etc. But I strongly agree with Nancy when she said "We were the first to have all this..." But we're the LAST to reap the award for it... Which means... We did a lot of things WITH the benefit of having all this MONEY, but we didn't Benefit from any of it, other than HAVING more money for per caps. More plans that could have happened WHAT 10, 15 years ago. We have a leader who has been on council for many years...What he's Chief of Puyallup now? Obviously he's not leaving, so he must be chief. He's been Chief for so long, why keep making mistake after mistake and not learn from it...then turn around and Reward himself with wealth and growth for himself. There are SO MANY of our people who struggle, BUT they are RICH...They receive monthly per cap...but are POOR... They're children go hungry, but THEY'RE children ALSO get MONTHLY per cap... I see something wrong with that. Our youth get paid one huge lump amount, and HAVE NOTHING to show for it, these young people who just got paid 50,000.$$ don't have a home, or car...WHy? What happened? Our leadership and our community should come together and set examples for this RICH youth we have. Why do some of our people think MONEY is all that holds this tribe together? it makes me sick. This tribe is LONG OVER DUE for change. It shows that our elders went through a lot of hardship for this tribe, why has it taken so long for OUR Chief to help them now. Our leadership sat there, giving themselves advances, spending all this money for themselves, but didn't think about who they also went through hardship with. They didn't think twice and say you know what, he went through a lot, why should I be the only one.
     Yeah we've come a long why, right. But where do our Elders sit? They sit in the same spot as always. They sit and watch they're own people they once grew up with get rich and healthy, while they sit and struggle.
     If you're going to sit there and say "we have it good" do we really? I think we could do better, and why can't we.Since we have all this MONEY right. It's time to get with it! Catch up to success. Instead of Temporarily doing a half ass job on a building, or spending MILLIONS of dollars on an ALREADY BUILT building. Why don't we do it the RIGHT way. Why do we cut corners around everything. Get it done, Get it right, the first time. We have the ability to do that right? Yeah I'm grateful to be a part of having benefits from the tribe. but I would like to see more tradition and Unity of the people that are in the tribe. I don't like to go to most events from the tribe, because it gets ridiculous. People get all big in the head and try to look better than everyone else, because they're part of a huge family. Yeah well i'm sorry I didn't have that benefit of being a part of a family that is a quarter of the tribe. I would rather be part of the tribe's community
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• 5/29/2008 6:42 AM JeremyMiller/Puyallup b4 percapt enrolly #883 wrote:
  A true leader works for his people ( as a whole ) and never takes more, our ways have been replaced with foreign ways so where do we turn ?.... there are people in the community that practice our ways do we seek them out ? and I am not talking about Shake,Christian,Catholic,Native American Church or Plains and we did have our ways here before plains came to our people there were long houses over here in the puget sound in the 60'z it's just our people didn't seek out the ones who carried our ways because of family politics, all though I have respect for all these ways but they do not belong to us... we will never now who we are or be able to share until we learn our ways.. and true healing will only come from with in... sure we can pay thousands of dollars to people from a far to come and perform on our tribe... but when all is said and done we are south Puget sound people we are Puyallup... and we can one day say we do know who we are , we can take care of our people with the proper doctorins as it belongs to us , and there for have a real and true medicine for our people to use, in stead of being up sh%$ creek with out a paddle in a canoe like we are today , as that is like being in this life with no SPIRITUAL BACKBONE ...
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• 6/5/2008 11:54 PM Just 'notha Indian! wrote:
  That is amazing that having money would consist in having everything. Without 1'nother we might as well be broke.
  And enuff about all that Herman Dillon did this & THAT, David. Anyone who has been at any casino events would know 1st hand that he demand to be treated as royalty along with his wife and kids. To watch him walk in there and demand so much from the PUYALLUP TRIBES casino, I'd would actually be embarassed for them. Our tribe has continued to allow this behavior and as our kids are into drugs, dead & gone or being sent away to prison we have no one to aknowledge but ourselves for accepting this as proper ways. We have seen the changes in behavior amongst council during elections, eye contact or maybe just a simple nod of the head.
  It has saddend me to see so much that has happend but we still have our blinders on, its like what Nancy brought up at the meeting. We give so much to the city / goverment but we still do not have a detox center for the drugs our youth have suffered from, NOW! All these programs and we send our youth across the state for rehab and our Tribe has a treatment center (not for that kind of drug). We are a urban res and we need to get in with that lifestyle to protect ours,gangs drugs and the peer pressure that is so strong in the community. We have drug dealers that are known amongst us and only WE as a tribe can come together and get rid of that our youth are prayed apond for the money they will recieve. As a tribe we can stop that if we can stop teaching our younsters the greedy ways that the leadership has shown us for sometime now, we can demolish that. I have seen change as they became Council to the fall of them, Sylvias kids got a humble awaking when she lost her throne. Our leaders need to be able to fear nothing at no cost stand up for our tribe. Not because times are hard since the last election.
  We have a history a legacy that we would need our youth to learn so they can have pride in who they are, if we cannot find our way here than we can borrow the ways of our neighbor. As long as we can continue to be proud of us as indian people. I pray for the tribe and if some think that the little things, like stealing or 'borrowing' from the tribe is ok than make that choice. But as we vote we cannot afford to elect anyone who will make mistakes, ecspecially at our expense. How it is a mistake "Oops I forgot to pay rent, for the past 15 years' is beyond me. But anyone who is not a friend deserves to live rent free; also! It is a sad day in Indian Country when we get a 'Voters Bonus', and by the way was it or was it not $1000 last year?!?! Lets vote for the tribe, make xhanges good for our future as our old people did, so we could exsist today!
  2AllMyRelations!
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• 6/7/2008 10:38 AM Anonymous wrote:
  JNI
  
  You are right, as tribal members we need to protect our tribe as well as we have an obligation to report such abuse.
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• 6/7/2008 7:49 PM Lucia wrote:
  Amen to today. the results are in and full circle/puyallup tribal member Nancy games is in along with previous council member Herman Dillon. The tribal election also broke it's total numbers of voters. just over 800 tribal member participated in this 2008 general election
  Hermon dill over 400 votes
  Nancy Shippentower-Games 358
  Syilva Miller 355
  Roleen Hargrove 250
  What a year it has been i look forward to next years and best of luck to all the candidates you did a good job.
  keep it movin forward.
  Lucia
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