 Candidate For Ketchikan Indian Community Tribal Council
Education & Certifications High School Diploma Elk River,
MN
Associations & Awards Union Pile Drivers & Divers
Qualifications Understands the importance of proper integration of tradition with today.
Primary Concerns: Children and Youth: I believe KIC can and should provide more community targeted services for our native peoples. Treatment, support groups, youth center, and health care including psychiatric treatment and cultural awareness programs. Adults: Programs and health care should be more user friendly. KIC needs to encourage and promote membership participation. KIC needs more members involved. The KIC standing committees and our health board need more membership input. KIC needs more membership meetings - one membership meeting a year does not provide the needed information needed to target our needs as a whole. KIC needs a better way to provide a more streamlined payment plan for some of the services provided. And our programs and health care should reflect our needs as a whole and also set a standard of prevention thoughout the native community. Again, empower our membership, hear the concerns and target our needs. Elders: Elders should be more active and involved with KIC. The first step KIC needs to take is the Elders' Council. KIC needs the elders' experience and guidance not just with culture and heritage, but also with conflict resolution. KIC has welcomed the ground work for an Elders' Council and thoughout the years the council has basically diminished - KIC needs to bring back the Elders' Council. The health care we provide for the elders should reflect their needs -- like long term care or treatment for those elders with the need. Better travel arrangements for those elders and most importantly, have travel available for family that must travel with family members to health care facilities out side of KIC. Elders should be treated with the utmost care and compassion. Our services should reflect support and our employees should be accountable for their effort to be able to provide a caring and concerned atmosphere for not just elders but our members as a whole.
Primary Health Concerns: We need natives providing natives with health care. Native preference needs to be the number one priority when seeking KIC health care providers. And a proper background check should be a concern. The health board should have that duty to hire and fire and have the right to look at ethics issues. The KIC Health Board needs to be empowered to provide the health care Ketchikan natives need. Also that would free the Tribal Council to focus on more growth for KIC as a whole. KIC is at a turning point right now, our health care can dramatically change for the better if we seek a native to fill the health director's position at KIC. That position is open. KIC needs to fill that position with a native, and hopefully, with a qualified native from our own community. Native preference should be applied at all levels of KIC.
Areas Of Needed Improvement at KIC: Improvements for KIC starts at the Tribal Councils level. The Tribal Council should be open to all the concerns of the membership. And how the Tribal Council follows the policies and by-laws or change the needed policies will ensure the fair and democratic way our tribal government works. Fair and open leadership - the door should always be open for members to express a concern. Also how can the Tribal Council make any changes for the membership if it does not hear the membership? Our members are KIC and KIC would not be anything without our members. That is the way I look at how I would decide or vote on issues if elected to the Tribal Council. Communication on all levels needs to be improved. The way things stand at KIC right now there are too many restrictions on how everyone communicates. And there are too many confidently breaches. So communication on both sides of the fence needs improvement.
Additional Goals for KIC: KIC needs more grant writers and to work out some kind of agreement to ensure or fill that need. Grant writers are one of the top priorities for KIC this coming year. KIC needs a court system in place or have some kind of justice system in place. I can see KIC having its own court house. The grants are out there for this kind of thinking. If there is a will, there is a way. Plus remember KIC is a sovereign government and part of a true tribal government is the ability to be self policing and to be able to provide better protection for our tribe. This is a missing link with our true ability of self government. Subsistence, having our own native foods available to members. KIC should have smoke houses and boats and classes on subsistence gathering. And most importantly, having native foods available for the elders in need. Many of our elders have fixed incomes or have limited resources to be able to provide themselves with native foods. KIC should provide native foods to our elders with need. Another area for improvement is our relationship with Saxman and their IRA. KIC needs to open a better dialog with Saxman. It seems that the separation between Saxman and KIC is not needed. Saxman is home to many of our brothers and sisters and they should be treated as such.
Additional Comments: My objectives are:
With that in mind, VOTE
ELROY C. EDENSHAW, JR. to the Tribal Council on Jan. 20,2003.
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