Lovick right to call out Somers

In response to a letter, “Somers works consensus-style,” regarding remarks made by Dave Somers at a public meeting where Tulalip Tribal leaders were in attendance, the writer stated John Lovick should have contacted the tribal leaders before he took the stand that Mr. Somers comments were derogatory to Native Americans as the tribal leaders felt this was some sort of mild joke.

I am an enrolled tribal member and I did find the remarks made by Mr. Somers offensive. I personally thank John Lovick for taking the stand that he did. Our tribal leaders are elected by the Tribal General Council for the purpose of conducting tribal business. They are not elected to speak on our behalf on tribal members personal issues unless we authorize them to do so.

I even wrote a letter to our tribal officials and told them they do not speak on my behalf on issues such as this. If they want to make comments on issues such as this they should state that was their own personal opinion.

Mr. Somers was employed by our tribe and may have heard jokes made at tribal leaders meetings; however, we have our own sense of humor and as tribal members we tell jokes about ourselves.

Virginia Carpenter

Tulalip Tribal Member

Tulalip