by Angela Ramirez, Treasurer, Siletz Tribal Arts & Heritage Society
In January 2023, Eddie Ben was on vacation and stopped in at a bead shop in Jackson, California. Up in the rafters was a Siletz basket. The owner said it has been sitting up in the rafters for over 20 years. They had only taken it down once. He contacted Angela Ramirez, Treasurer and Tribal Council Representative for the Siletz Tribal Arts & Heritage Society. He purchased it on behalf of STAHS and was reimbursed when he delivered to STAHS Board members Angela Ramirez and Shawna Gray in Lincoln City in February 2023. The Board of Directors sends a huge “thank you” to Eddie Ben for thinking of the Tribe to bring home another basket, one of ancestors, and driving all the way from California to hand-deliver the basket for the STAHS collection that will one day be in Ghii-Dee Ne Dvn.
