Jesus “Zues” Antonio Echevarria, 44, passed away unexpectedly on July 24, 2015, surrounded by his family and friends.
Zues was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico on January 11, 1971, to Jeannie and Carlos Echevarria. Zues was an active participant throughout his school years and an excellent lineman. He graduated from Franklin High School in 1990. Throughout his life, Zues was famous for being a protector, watching over all of his family and friends.
It is difficult to summarize everything that he was great at; he was a wonderful daddy, brother, son, mate, cousin and friend. Zues was a professional entrepreneur; excelling as a fisherman, cook, football coach, security guard, and fireworks stand owner. Zues will forever be remembered for his compassion with regard to children and was known for being a baby whisperer. His larger than life personality and humor will never be forgotten.
Zues is survived by his parents, Carlos and Jeannie Echevarria; brothers, Carlos Echevarria, and Juan Echevarria (Nazmi); nephew, Raihan Echevarria; special parents, Tony and Judy Gobin, sisters, Joni Gobin (Josh), Jamie Gobin, and Toni Jo Gobin; children, Mekalani, Alexzes and Jesus; and his best friend “The Warden” Heather Gobin. He is also survived by an extended family too numerous to list.
He is preceded in death by his grandparents, Norma and John Rivera, Cruz and Manuel Echevarria, aunt, Lydia Rivera, uncles, John and Carols Rivera, Papa Jim Bow, Gib Baker and cousin/brother, Michael Lee Joseph.
Visitation will be held at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, July 30, 2015, at Schaefer-Shipman Funeral Home, 807 State Ave., Marysville. An Interfaith Service will be held on Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 6:00 pm at 6700 Totem Beach Road. Funeral Services will be held on Friday, July 31, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. with burial to follow at Mission Beach Cemetery.
Tony Reider, president of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, wants to make his tribe the first in the nation to sell recreational marijuana. Here he’s shown under the grow lamps of a medical marijuana growing facility in Phoenix in March 2015. PHOTO COURTESY OF TONY REIDER — Handout
WASHINGTON — Tourists soon may be able to go to a South Dakota Indian reservation, buy a cigarette-sized marijuana joint for $10 to $15 and try their luck at the nearby casino.
In December, the Flandreau Santee Siouxexpect to become the first tribe in the nation to grow and sell pot for recreational use, cashing in on the Obama administration’s offer to let all 566 federally recognized tribes enter the marijuana industry.
“The fact that we are first doesn’t scare us,” said tribal president Anthony “Tony” Reider, 38, who’s led the tribe for nearly five years. “The Department of Justice gave us the go-ahead, similar to what they did with the states, so we’re comfortable going with it.”
The tribe plans to sell 60 strains of marijuana. Reider is hoping for a flock of visitors, predicting that sales could bring in as much as $2 million per month.
“Obviously, when you launch a business, you’re hoping to sell all the product and have a shortage, like Colorado did when they first opened,” he said.
Other tribes have been much more hesitant.
“Look at Washington state, where marijuana’s completely legal as a matter of state law everywhere, and you still have tribes adhering to their prohibition policies,” said Robert Odawi Porter, former president of the Seneca Nation of New York.
It comes as no surprise to Washington state Democratic Rep. Denny Heck, who says he works on tribal issues every day.
“Not once has anybody ever brought up that they wanted to go down this track,” he said.
Heck speculated on one possible reason: “We’re all aware of the painful history of alcoholism in Indian Country.”
Tribes won the approval to sell pot in December, when the Justice Department said it would advise U.S. attorneys not to prosecute if tribes do a good job policing themselves and make sure that marijuana doesn’t leave tribal lands.
But federal prosecutors maintain the discretion to intervene, a worrisome prospect for many.
“This administration is very pro-tribes, very supportive. What if the next one isn’t?” asked W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington state.
He said many of the state’s 29 tribes also want assurances from federal officials that they won’t lose millions of dollars in grants and contracts if they sell a drug banned by Congress.
“We’re not getting definitive answers back,” Allen said. “There’s a number of tribes that are very aggressively looking into it and trying to sort through all the legal issues. The rest of us are just kind of on the sidelines watching.”
Federal authorities said they raided the operation because the tribes planned to sell the pot on non-reservation land.
“That’s a warning shot to Indian County that this isn’t carte blanche to do whatever you want, even in a place like California,” said Blake Trueblood, director of business development for the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, based in Arizona.
Trueblood said marijuana could give tribes an economic boost, much like gaming. He said tribes will have the best opportunities in states such as Florida and New York, where demand for pot is high but the drug has not been legalized for recreational use by state voters.
“Ultimately, I think you’ll see legal marijuana in every state,” Trueblood said. “I think that’s fairly inevitable, even in very conservative places like Florida.”
Reider said his tribe plans to sell both medical and recreational marijuana. Minors will be allowed to consume pot if they have a recommendation from a doctor. Under a tribal ordinance passed in June, adults 21 and over will be able to buy one gram of marijuana at a time for recreational use, no more than twice a day.
“We really don’t want the stuff getting out to the street,” Reider said. “So we’re going to have like a bar setting where they’ll be able to consume small amounts while on the property.”
Kevin Sabet, president of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said the California raid shows that it’s still “an extremely risky venture” for any tribe to start selling marijuana. And he said pot sales would fuel more addiction.
“If we think alcohol has had a negative effect on young people on tribal lands, we ain’t seen nothing yet,” Sabet said.
As part of his homework, Reider said, he traveled to Colorado, the first state to sell recreational pot last year. He said he does not smoke marijuana but has concluded that it’s safer than alcohol, citing the behavior he witnessed at the Cannabis Cup, a marijuana celebration held in Denver in April.
“It was a peaceful environment,” he said. “Everybody was overly friendly, overly talkative to each other and respectful of each other. Where if you go to a concert where there’s a lot of alcohol, you typically see fights and arguments.”
Reider said the tribe plans to begin growing 6,000 marijuana plants in October and is renovating a bowling alley to house a new consumption lounge that will include four private rooms. He said the tribe may consider allowing marijuana consumption in its casino in the future.
Reider acknowledged that it’s “kind of an awkward feeling” to start selling pot, but he figures the tribe is well-equipped.
“When we started looking into it, it’s comical at first, but then you realize it’s an amazing business,” he said. “It’s highly regulated, and we’re used to the regulation from operating our casino. We’ve got security and surveillance.”
Reider said profits from pot sales will be used to help tribal members. He said that could include the construction of a facility for those addicted to alcohol, prescription drugs or methamphetamine.
“We don’t have a recovery treatment center on the reservation right now,” Reider said. “Potentially we could look to fund one of those operations, and not just for marijuana addiction.”
Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/07/29/6341934/indian-tribes-set-to-begin-marijuana.html#storylink=cpy
Scott Steltzner, biologist for the Squaxin Island Tribe, inspects a newly constructed logjam in 2013.
SHELTON – The combination of dam removal and aggressive habitat restoration has meant record runs of juvenile coho salmon in Goldsborough Creek for 2015.
This year’s run of 113,000 juvenile counted by the Squaxin Island Tribe continues a strong trend of increasing the numbers of juvenile coho leaving the Goldsborough watershed. The previous record was 61,000 coho.
Almost 15 year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed a dam on Goldsborough, opening over 30 miles of near intact habitat to salmon. Since then, the Squaxin Island Tribe has worked with community partners to further improve the habitat through restoration projects throughout the watershed.
“The lesson of Goldsborough Creek is pretty basic: If you give salmon habitat, they’re going to succeed,” said Andy Whitener, natural resources director for the Squaxin Island Tribe.
For example, a couple of years ago, the tribe worked with the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group, Simpson Lumber, the Green Diamond Resource Company and Miles Sand and Gravel to restore habitat along the creek. The project partners added wood structures to the stream, which give both juvenile and adult salmon places to feed and hide.
A year earlier, the Tribe and the enhancement group replaced undersized culverts just upstream from the old dam site that were blocking a tributary to Goldsborough. The project opened nearly a mile of new spawning and rearing habitat that had not seen salmon in over 100 years.
“These projects, coupled with dam removal, reversed a negative trend for coho on Goldsborough,” Whitener said.
The tribe has operated at least one smolt trap on the creek since dam removal to count out-going salmon migrants. Smolt traps are safe and effective devices for counting young fish. Smolt comes from the word “smoltification” which is the term used to describe the physiological changes that young salmon undergo while in freshwater, just before migrating downstream and entering saltwater.
“By using the trap every year, we’re getting a great picture of the benefits salmon see from good habitat,” said Daniel Kuntz, fisheries biologist for the tribe.
Most importantly to coho salmon, the removal of the dam opened up access to a series of wetlands where juvenile salmon could rear. Unlike most other species of salmon, coho spend an additional year in freshwater before heading out to sea.
The Tribe along with WDFW also conducts yearly adult spawning surveys on Goldsborough Creek above the former dam site. “We get a good look at these salmon at both ends of their life-cycle – as they leave as juveniles and as their returning as spawning adults,” Kuntz said.
“The success salmon have seen since we’ve begun restoring the watershed shows directly how much salmon really do depend on habitat,” said Whitener. “
SEATTLE – Several Puget Sound cities are one step closer to water restrictions as the region’s record-setting hot, dry summer continues.
Seattle, Everett and Tacoma are all activating the first phase of their drought and water shortage plans, starting Tuesday. Those cities supply about two-thirds of all of the water used by Puget Sound residents and businesses – about 180 million gallons a day in the summer.
The conservation measures aren’t as drastic as in California, where people in some municipalities can’t water their lawns or wash their cars.
But city officials agree it is now imperative to begin with some voluntary steps, with local rivers running at historically low levels – killing off the oxygen fish need to survive.
Each city’s plan is a little bit different – but the basics are the same in each case. Residents are being asked to:
• Water plants early or late in the day – before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. – to prevent evaporation.
• Water longer but less frequently – a good soaking lasts longer.
• Fix leaks on faucets and toilets to stop wasting water.
• Use a broom instead of a hose to clean off driveways or patios.
Right now, all of these ideas are voluntary, but it’s clear that will change if conditions get worse – as we head into another round of hot weather this week.
Debbie Brown, owner of Bouquets of Sunshine. photo/Kim Kalliber
By Kim Kalliber, Tulalip News
As famously quoted by Luther Burbank, a botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science, “Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”
Giving flowers to someone special, on any occasion, is one of the best ways to let that person know you’re thinking of them. A good florist can make life much easier by helping you choose the perfect floral bouquet. With the rise of online delivery florists it’s easy to forget that a floral shop isn’t just a store, it’s an experience. With the vast array of bright, beautiful colors and delightful smells, a visit to the florist is sure to put a smile on your face.
Local residents are in luck that there is such a shop right on Third Street in Marysville. Owned by Tulalip Tribal member, Debbie Brown, along with her business partner, Shonta, Bouquets of Sunshine makes choosing creative floral bouquets an adventure in art, design, history and fun. From what flowers are best suited for certain occasions or seasons, to classic flowers or modern designs, Bouquets of Sunshine has it all.
An added benefit to shopping for flowers at a shop, versus the local street carts or grocery stores is that flowers are perishable, and shops carry the freshest blooms and can teach you how to treat them for longer lasting enjoyment. Flowers sold in open markets are susceptible to damage from temperature changes and attacks from bacteria and mold. And during holidays when flowers are in high demand, you can place an order ahead of time and beat the rush.
Debbie talks with Tulalip News and explains a bit about what led her to the floral industry and how she ties Native American culture into her designs.
Bouquets of Sunshine’s current specialty is tropical plants and orchids. Photo/Kim Kalliber
You’ve spent years working in tribal leadership, what prompted you to open a floral business?
Working 20 years at the Tribe, I achieved executive level. My last job was C.O.O of the Tulalip Casino. I always wanted a flower shop; I guess it was my dream job. I love delivering flowers the joy is indescribable. I’ve had my own floral business for 15 years, this September, and was ready to expand. We opened our doors on Third Street on June 15th.
What are some of the challenges in the floral industry?
Definitely 1-800 numbers and places like that where you can order flowers on the Internet. For me, right now, the challenge is getting the word out that my shop is here. But we are a member of FTD.com and Bloomnet.net so you can send flowers across the country. Please visit our website at www.bouquetsofsunshine.com.
Where do you look for your inspiration and do you incorporate traditional Native plants into your designs?
I am continually challenged by all the beautiful work I see others do. I have created specialty items for funerals, graduations and weddings. And my husband Howard does work on the design forms I use. As far as Native plants, I use Sword fern, huckleberry and salal.
So far, what is your career highlight as a florist?
I think for my current career as a floral designer, initially it was graduating from Seattle Floral Design School. I discovered a talent I didn’t know I had. Sometimes I’m designing a floral arrangement and thinking about the person I’m designing it for and voilà it’s finished and oh so beautiful. A lot of times I look at it and can’t believe I even created it.
Classic red roses are perfect for Valentines, anniversaries and other occasions. Photo/Kim Kalliber
What is your favorite flower and favorite flower combo?
My favorite flower used to be a Stargazer lily, but now I’m allergic to them! I think a colorful arrangement is the best expression of how someone feels that day; cheerful is always good! Our specialty right now is plants, especially tropical, orchids and anthuriums.
Do you have suggestion/tips for what types of bouquets to send for certain situations?
Definitely roses for an anniversary, the more the better, and always in her favorite color. For weddings, definitely come here, I›m less expensive than anyone else. Often you can›t even do it yourself for what I can make them for. I love to stay at the ceremony too so that I can see that everything is perfect for the bride to walk down the aisle. Funeral arrangements are always a hard part of loss. Tulalip does a great job expressing their love and support through flowers. I can bring my flower books to the family›s home or meet them at the Funeral home. Now I’m just a few blocks away from Schaeffer Shipman. I try to take into consideration the family›s choice of flowers and colors and coordinate all other orders with what the family has ordered. Thank you and other arrangements are generally a very affordable $15 to $35.
Besides walk-ins, what is the best way to place an order with Bouquets of Sunshine?
Most of my orders come through phone calls or emails. I am available by also text at 425-501-5406. You can visit our website at www.BouquetsofSunshine.com and like us on Facebook. We have lots of choices to help you find the right flowers for any occasion. I’m open 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday – Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. My shop is located at 1512 3rd Street, at the same place Marysville Floral was previously, just down from Hilton Pharmacy. The shop number is 360-716-2626. I’m also the first business uptown to use Salish networks phone service.
Contact Kim Kalliber, kkalliber@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
Garlic stalks were harvested from the Wellness Garden and used to create herbal garlic braids for home cooking.
by Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
On Thursday, July 16, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. the staff of the Tulalip’s Diabetes Care and Prevention Program hosted a diabetes cooking class. The purpose of this class was to learn and talk about the health benefits associated with garlic, onions and sugar free, wild berry jams. To make the class an enjoyable, hands-on learning experience, the participants did some gardening in order to create practical applications for the harvested foods with the assistance of the Wisdom Warriors and some community youngsters.
“Our garlic and onion crops were substantial this year, so we decided to offer a class structured around the harvest,” describes Veronica “Roni” Leahy, Diabetes Program Coordinator, of the bountiful produce found in the Wellness Garden, located behind the Tulalip health clinic. “Garlic is low in calories and very rich in vitamin C, vitamin B6 and manganese. For this reason, garlic is known to boost the function of the immune system and reduce the severity of common illnesses, like the flu and common cold. Other health benefits include relieving arthritic pain and assisting in lowering blood sugar levels for people with diabetes.”
Garlic is a wonderful seasoning to add aroma, taste and added nutrition to your dishes. To make use of its multi-purpose value, class participants were shown how to harvest the garlic, along with other herbs, from the Wellness Garden and then used them to make garlic braids. Braiding the garlic with herbs allows the garlic sufficient time to dry and be readily used at home in a variety of meals.
Around midday, the class took a timeout in order to relish on a healthy lunch of pita bread sandwiches, some smoked salmon compliments of Marvin Jones, and a bounty of fruits and vegetables while enjoying the 80-degree weather and sunshine.
Following the lunch break, the class participated in making sugar free, wild berry jam mixed with chia seeds. Many people are familiar with local berries, but not so familiar with chia seeds. The combination of protein, fiber, and the gelling action of chia seeds when mixed with liquids all contribute to their easy to use benefits.
“Chia seeds, like flaxseeds, are very high in omega 3 fatty acids, and they contain no gluten or grains for those who are on a gluten free diet,” explains Leahy. “Because of their high fiber content, chia seeds have the added health benefits of helping to reduce inflammation, enhancing cognitive performance, and lowering high cholesterol. Also, adding chia seeds to smoothies or yogurt can give people the feeling of being full and satisfied, which helps lower food cravings between meals.”
The joys of gardening can reap great benefits, from tasty, healthy vegetables to just enjoying the outdoors. Pride in cooking with food you helped to grow and harvest counts also. Combine these benefits with proper nutritional education and you have an enjoyable experience that can last a lifetime. For those who missed on this session, there will be future gardening and cooking classes offered. Keep a look out in future articles or ‘like’ our Tulalip News facebook page to stay in the loop.
