May 2013 - Page 7 of 21

Tribal Programs Cited for Innovation

By Mark Fogarty

Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation has singled out several Indian country initiatives in honoring 25 government-related programs.

The center has recognized the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) of Anchorage, the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, Fairbanks, Alaska and a Department of Housing and Urban Development program that is helping the Oglala Lakota tribe of South Dakota.

The Ash Center on May 1 named a total of 25 government programs as semi-finalists for awards which will be given later this year. Four finalists and the Innovation in American Government Award winner will be named in the fall.

Kate Hoagland, communications manager for the Ash Center, said the impetus for the program was “to shed a light on governments that are doing really good work.”

Does that include tribal governments? “Absolutely,” she said. Hoagland revealed that three tribal government programs have won the award since 1990.

They are Ho-Chunk Inc., the business arm of the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska, in 2001; the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Tribe of South Dakota in 1999 for its Cangleska Domestic Violence program, and the Northwest Arctic Borough of Alaska, in 1990 for its program Inupiat Ilitqusiat: Traditional Values.

Projects are judged on five criteria, Hoagland said—creativity, effectiveness, tangible results, significance, and transferability (being a model that can be used by other jurisdictions).

The ANSEP program, based at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, provides inspiration and guidance to Alaska Native youth on a career path towards the fields of science, engineering, technology and mathematics. The Center said.

According to ANSEP’s website, the program has been working for 18 years to aid Alaska Native students from the sixth grade to postgraduate work, and numbers 1,200 students and alumni.

“ANSEP students at every level are successful at rates far exceeding national and state numbers,” ANSEP said, adding:
– ANSEP Middle School students complete algebra 1 before graduating from eighth grade at a rate of 83%. The national average is 26%.
– More than half of ANSEP high school students graduate engineering ready. 4% of minority students nationwide do so.
– More than 70% of all ANSEP students who begin BS STEM degrees graduate.

The Yukon River group includes 70 indigenous governments in the United States and Canada that are focused on creating drinkable water for their communities. According to the Ash Center, “they are navigating complex jurisdictional challenges, historical conflict, and diverse partnerships with government agencies, private industries, research institutions, and communities.”

The council itself pointed to a five part vision “dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Yukon River Watershed” from the headwaters to the mouth of the river. The five parts of the vision are understanding; education; stewardship; enforcement; and organization, according to the council.

According to the center, the Sustainable Communities Initiative is targeting 142 communities in an attempt to link jobs with transportation and housing. HUD is partnering with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency on this effort.

HUD’s Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) noted that one community that will benefit from this initiative is the Pine Ridge reservation of the Oglala Lakota in South Dakota.

It said the Oglala Lakota nation “is leveraging a Regional Planning Grant to catalyze an economic transformation of their community while holding true to their cultural values.”

The end goal is a 34 acre development designed to promote homeownership among tribal members. Also, the Thunder Valley CDC (community development corporation) on the reservation will enhance programs for healthy food, active living, mental health and spiritual health, ONAP said.

The Innovations in American Government awards were created in 1985 by the Ford Foundation, and have to date recognized more than 400 programs that have received more than $22 million in grants, Harvard said.

Populations plummet for frogs, toads, salamanders

Source: The Washington Post

Frogs, toads and salamanders continue to vanish from the American landscape at an alarming pace, with seven species – including Colorado’s boreal toad and Nevada’s yellow-legged frog – facing 50 percent drops in their numbers within seven years if the current rate of decline continues, according to new government research.

The U.S. Geological Survey study, released Wednesday, is the first to document how quickly amphibians are disappearing, as well as how low the populations of the threatened species could go, given current trends.

The exact reasons for the decline in amphibians, first noticed decades ago, remain unclear. But scientists believe several factors, including disease, an explosion of invasive species, climate change and pesticide use are contributing.

The study said the populations of seven species of threatened frogs, including the boreal toad and the yellow-legged frog, are decreasing at a rate of 11.6 percent a year.

More than 40 species of frogs, such as the Fowler’s toad and spring peepers, are declining at a rate of 2.7 percent. If that pace keeps up, their populations will be halved in 27 years, the study said.

“We knew they were declining and we didn’t know how fast,” said Michael J. Adams, a research ecologist for USGS and the lead author of the study, Trends in Amphibian Occupancy in the United States, published in the journal PLOS ONE. “It’s a loss of biodiversity. You lose them and you can’t get them back. That seems like a problem.”

The disappearance of amphibians is a global phenomenon. But in the United States, it adds to a disturbing trend of mass vanishings that include honeybees and numerous species of bats along Atlantic states and the Midwest.

Bees, which also are disappearing in Europe, serve nature and farmers by pollinating a wide range of plants and food crops. Bats, which have died by the millions from a disease called white nose syndrome, also are pollinators but, along with amphibians, eat many metric tons of insects each year, allowing farmers to cut back on insecticides.

Frogs and their like are much more than slimy animals that come alive in the dark and croak; they are deeply woven into the lives of humans. The offspring of frogs and toads, tadpoles, are the first organisms children watch in school as the creatures develop arms and legs. Adult amphibians are routinely dissected by many of those same children as they go through school.

Scientists have produced pharmaceutical drugs from chemicals found in the skin of frogs and toads, and large numbers of amphibians are collected for medical research.

For the USGS study, researchers pored over data collected at 34 watery and swampy areas from Sierra Nevada mountains to Louisiana and Florida over nine years. They traveled to sites and counted clusters of nearly 50 amphibian species, marking their decline year after year for nearly a decade.

Researchers carried a list of species – some thought to be faring well, others to be strugglng – compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which seeks solutions to environmental challenges. The data were studied by USGS’ Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative.

The loss of amphibians is occurring even in areas where animals are protected, in national parks and wildlife refuges, the study said.

The disappearance of frogs, toads and salamanders first got attention in 1989 when “my colleagues and I began reporting that in familiar amphibian haunts the numbers of frogs and salamanders were declining,” biologist James Collins wrote in an article for Natural History Magazine nine years ago.

“By the mid-1990s we were hearing reports that species were going extinct in only a few years,” he wrote. So “the search for the answer to our question – why are they gone? – was becoming paramount.”

It was hard to answer the question at the time “because there was very little monitoring going on,” said Adams, the author of the new study. “We were trying to convince ourselves there was really something going on with amphibians that wasn’t happening with other species, the disappearance of frogs around the world.”

The new research is the first to document the steepness of the decline. But others sought to answer why years ago.

A study of Minnesota’s northern leopard frog fingered farm chemicals as a contributor to its decline, according to the journal Nature. After studying more than 200 factors that led to infection, two stood out, a synopsis of the report said, an herbicide called atrazine and phosphate, a fertilizer.

Whatever the reason, the declines have led at least one activist group to call for an end to another practice that contributes to the mortality of frogs: dissections. Save the Frogs set an unlikely goal to get dissections out of every school by 2014.

“They are contributing to the depletion of wild frog populations and the spread of harmful invasive species and infectious diseases,” the group says.

Environmental coalition wants single coal port study

By Bill Sheets, The Herald

A coalition of environmental groups is asking the federal government to step in and combine the environmental studies for three different coal export terminal proposals into one.

In addition to the Gateway Pacific terminal proposed for Cherry Point near Bellingham, export terminals also are proposed for Longview in southwest Washington and Boardman, Ore., on the Columbia River.

Earthjustice, a Seattle environmental law firm, sent a letter on Wednesday to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offices in Seattle and Portland.

The letter was signed by 11 environmental groups, including Climate Solutions, National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and the Washington Environmental Council.

The Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports, a Seattle-based group of business organizations and others formed to support the export terminals, issued a counterstatement to the environmental groups’ request Wednesday.

“This is a stall tactic, pure and simple,” said Lauri Hennessey, a spokeswoman for the Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports.

“We continue to support the (environmental study) process as it exists today.”

Meanwhile, last week, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, a coalition of tribes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Northern California, issued a joint resolution opposing fossil fuel exports.

“We will not allow our treaty and rights, which depend on natural and renewable resources, to be demolished by shortsighted and ultimately detrimental investments,” said Tulalip Tribal Chairman Mel Sheldon, Jr., who is a vice chairman for the tribal coalition, in a written statement.

The environmental groups’ letter points out that while the terminals will be located only in those three towns, the trains will be carrying coal from Montana and Wyoming across Idaho and Washington state.

The Gateway Pacific terminal, proposed by SSA Marine of Seattle, would serve as a place to send coal, grain, potash and scrap wood for biofuels to Asia. Trains would bring coal from Montana and Wyoming across Washington state to Seattle and north through Snohomish County to Bellingham.

The terminal is expected to generate up to 18 more train trips through Snohomish County per day — nine full and nine empty.

Proponents, including U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., point to job creation. Opponents say the plan could mean long traffic delays at railroad crossings and pollution from coal dust.

More than 14,000 people registered comments on the Gateway Pacific plan last fall and winter. The comments are being used to determine the environmental issues to be studied. The process is expected to take at least a couple of more years.

Meetings were not held in Montana or Idaho despite the fact that trains will be rolling through those states, the groups point out.

The petition asks for the area-wide study to include the effects of increased mining in Wyoming and Montana; increased rail traffic throughout Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon; and the effect of coal exports on domestic energy security and pricing. The petition also asks for hearings to be held around the region.

On the positive side, the plan is projected to create 1,200 long-term positions and 4,400 temporary, construction related jobs, according to SSA Marine.

No hearings have been held yet for the Longview terminal, said Larry Altose, a spokesman for the state Department of Ecology. The Army Corps of Engineers has yet to require a study for the terminal in Oregon, according to Power Past Coal.

Common aspects of the two terminals in Washington state may be studied together as it stands now, he said. The ecology department and Army Corps of Engineers are working on both the Bellingham and Longview proposals, with help from Whatcom and Cowlitz counties, respectively.

For instance, if train traffic from the Longview terminal has a ripple effect on train traffic north of Seattle, or vice versa, then it may be included in both studies, Altose said. The same goes for any other issues, such as coal dust, that may be addressed in the studies, he said.

Washington’s ecology department, of course, does not have jurisdiction in Oregon.

Therefore “the unified approach is something that would involve the federal government,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers office in Seattle could not be reached for comment.

Events scheduled to mark Memorial Day

Source: The Hreald

Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. military.

Its origins date back to the Civil War, when it was known as Decoration Day. The solemn holiday has been observed on the last Monday in May since 1971.

Here are some of the events occurring in Snohomish County in honor of the holiday:

Edmonds: The Edmonds Memorial Cemetery is hosting a Memorial Day Observance at 11 a.m. Monday between 100th Avenue W. and 15th Street SW. The one-hour event is set to feature a presentation by Tom Hallums, member of the VFW Post No. 8870 and a Korean War veteran. Program includes refreshments, a rifle salute and guided tours of the cemetery. Seating is limited and people are encouraged to bring their own folding chairs. For more information, contact Dale Hoggins, Cemetery Board member at 425-776-1543.

Everett: Flowers will be placed at gravesites by the Snohomish County Central Memorial Committee at 11 a.m. Monday at Evergreen Cemetery, 4504 Broadway, Everett. This year’s service is dedicated to Vietnam veterans. A luncheon is planned from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at Fleet Reserve Association Branch 170, 6802 Beverly Blvd., Everett. Meatloaf is on the menu. Cost $5.

Everett: Pearl Harbor survivor Ray Wans plans to give a speech about his experience at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Grace Lutheran Church, 8401 Holly Drive. The event serves as a Memorial Day remembrance and a barbecue follows the service.

Everett: The Flying Heritage Collection plans to host its second annual Tankfest Northwest at 10 a.m. Monday at Paine Field, 3407 109th St. SW. There will be tanks, artillery, treats and activities for children. Cost is $12 for adults and $8 for youth. Veterans enter free.

Lynnwood: 11 a.m. Monday, Lynnwood Veterans Park at 44th Avenue W. and 194th Street SW. There will be bagpipe music and a flag ceremony. Event organized by the VFW Post No. 1040. More information at 425-774-7416

Marysville: American Legion Post 178 of Marysville hosts its annual Memorial Day Ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday, Marysville cemetery, 8801 State Ave. with speakers and honor guard. After the service, the legion hosts an open house with a light lunch from noon to 2 p.m. at 119 Cedar Ave, in Marysville. Both events are free. There will also be a display of 230 veteran’s burial flags by Legion members, cemetery staff and community partners all weekend. For more information, call the cemetery at 360-659-5762, 360-722-7825 or go to americanlegion178wa.cfsites.org.

Stanwood: Frank H. Hancock American Legion Post 92 plans to hold its Memorial Day Observance at 11 a.m. Monday at Anderson Cemetery, 7370-7816 Pioneer Highway, Stanwood.

Diane Janes has been collecting and preserving tribal photos for years

Photo courtesy Diane JanesBob and Johanna Sheldon are shown in a wedding photo from around 1885-1890. The two were Diane Janes' great-grandparents on her father's side. — Photo courtesy Diane Janes
Bob and Johanna Sheldon are shown in a wedding photo from around 1885-1890. The two were Diane Janes’ great-grandparents on her father’s side.

By Bill Sheets, The Herald

TULALIP — Often when people on the Tulalip Indian Reservation have old photos of family members they can’t identify, they call Diane Janes.

If she doesn’t know who they are, often she can find someone who does.

She’s been collecting tribal photographs for close to 50 years. For more than a decade, she’s been preserving history by compiling the photos into self-published books.

Countless tribal members, their ancestors and many events on the reservation are chronicled in a dozen volumes, each an inch thick or more. About 10,000 photos are shown in 2,000 pages.

The books are available to the public at the tribes’ Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve.

Photo courtesy Diane JanesThomas Adams, a non-tribal member, laid the first telegraph lines across the Tulalip reservation, in the 1860s. His wife, standing, was S'Klallam tribal member Ellen Giddings. The couple lived at Warm Beach. The photo is from the late 19th century. — Photo courtesy Diane Janes
Thomas Adams, a non-tribal member, laid the first telegraph lines across the Tulalip reservation, in the 1860s. His wife, standing, was S’Klallam tribal member Ellen Giddings. The couple lived at Warm Beach. The photo is from the late 19th century.

Though many tribal members know of Janes, 70, and her books, a lot of others don’t, she believes.

“I’m hoping as more people see these, they’ll say, ‘That’s my relative,'” she said.

When Janes was about 20, she started getting photos reproduced for her parents so they could have multiple copies — piquing her curiosity about her family in the process.

Later, Janes began taking photos at Tulalip events. She compiled tribal photos for the Everett centennial celebration in 1993.

“It just sort of grew from there,” she said. “I thought it was going to be simple.”

Janes is not a certified genealogist but, through her work, has helped many tribal members learn more about their ancestry — starting with her own family.

Stan Jones Sr., a longtime tribal leader and board member, is Janes’ uncle. Jones and his sister, Gloria, Janes’ mother, for a long time wanted to find the grave of their mother, who had died at a young age. They heard it was at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Monroe, but didn’t have an exact location.

Several times over the years, they looked through the cemetery but couldn’t find the grave.

Later, in the early 1990s, they were discussing the matter with Janes and she produced an extended-family photo that included a half-brother, Mickey Malone.

He was contacted and knew exactly where the grave was located, in the same cemetery.

“They were looking in the wrong place,” Janes said.

Stan Jones’ wife, JoAnn, said Janes’ photo collections have meant a lot to their family.

Having the photos helps put faces to names when relating family history to young people, she said.

“We really appreciate them, she’s done so much work on those and done such a good job,” JoAnn Jones said.

Tribal Chairman Mel Sheldon Jr. is a cousin of Janes’ on her father’s side.

“It was really good looking at the pictures to know how far my family went back,” he said.

“She’s done a great job of compiling the pictures that many of us might not have had access to or didn’t know existed. What a great service not only to our families but to our whole community.”

As Janes began to collect more images, she felt the need to get them organized and documented.

“I thought, ‘This could go on forever, and I’m getting older,'” she said.

She began typing up captions and pasting them along with the photos on 8½-by-11 inch pieces of paper. She took them to a printer and had the pages reproduced and bound into a paperback.

Photo courtesy Diane JanesTulalip tribal member George Jones is shown in ceremonial regalia at the opening of the tribal longhouse in 1914. Jones was the maternal grandfather of Diane Janes, who has compiled a series of books of tribal photos. — Photo courtesy Diane Janes
Tulalip tribal member George Jones is shown in ceremonial regalia at the opening of the tribal longhouse in 1914. Jones was the maternal grandfather of Diane Janes, who has compiled a series of books of tribal photos.

The first book, “The Children of the Owl Clan,” was devoted to photos of the Jones side of her family. Two more volumes of photos on the Owl Clan and closely related families were to follow. She then produced three volumes focused on her Sheldon side.

After that, she broadened her scope into other families, tribes and different aspects of reservation life.

“Tulalips and Friends” and “The Mountain, River and Sound People” include photos of members of neighboring tribes, such as Lummi, Sauk-Suiattle, Swinomish, Upper Skagit and others, as well as Tulalips.

One photo shows well-known Upper Skagit tribal member Vi Hilbert at age 4 or 5, taken in the early 1920s. Hilbert played a key role in preserving tribal culture through her storytelling and work on reviving Lushootseed, the native language of the area. She died in 2008 at the age of 90.

Another of Janes’ books, “The Children of the Longhouse,” shows photos of Tulalip ceremonial events from the early 1900s to the present day.

“Paddle to Tulalip” features photos of the intertribal canoe journey and ceremony hosted by the Tulalips in 2003. “Tulalip Salmon Ceremony” spotlights the annual tribal ceremony honoring the summertime return of salmon to streams. Janes took many of her own photos for this ceremony and some of the others.

Another book is devoted to the history of education on the reservation, including photos and narrative about the white boarding schools where young tribal children were sent in the early 1900s.

In borrowing photos from tribal members to reproduce, at first she’d take them to photo stores and pay to have them copied. She then tried to learn how to use scanning equipment, but that didn’t go well, she said.

Then someone told her she could take photos of photos, and that made her work much easier, she said.

Janes cares for a disabled daughter, Julie, 51, who was hit by a drunken driver at age 19. Janes doesn’t have to work at a regular job, which gives her time for her work. And it does take time, she said. In visiting a family to borrow photos, “You don’t just go in there, you sit and talk,” she said.

She doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. The next book will be titled “Images of our Ancestors.” She’s also planning a book about her daughter.

“All I want to do is record history as it comes, for whoever decides to share their photos,” Janes said.

“There are so many tribal members who are historians. They don’t realize it, but they carry our history.

“I try to make my books so the next generation will take over.”

Where to buy

Diane Janes’ books of photos about tribal life are available for $30 at the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve, 6410 23rd Ave. W., Tulalip.

For more information, go to hibulbculturalcenter.org or call 360-716-2600.

First indigenous map of its kind; U.S. map displays “Our own names and locations”

By Monica Brown, Tulalip News Writer

Aaron Carapella, a Cherokee Indian, has taken it upon himself to create a map that shows the Tribal nations of the U.S. prior to European contact. The map is of the contiguous United States and displays the original native tribal names of roughly 595 tribes, and of that, 150 tribes are without descendants. Without descendants means that there is no one known to be alive from that tribe and are believed to be extinct.

Aaron’s journey to making the Native American Nations map began 14 years ago. At the age of 19, Aaron had already gained a great deal of knowledge from listening to stories from his family, elders from his tribe, and reading books on Native American history. To explain where his knowledge came from Aaron said, “My Grandparents would tell me, you’re part Native American and that’s part of your history. They would give me books to read about different tribes’ histories, so, I grew up with a curiosity of always wanting to learn more about Native American history.”

After reading the many books on Native tribes and not finding any authentic type maps which failed to accurately represent the hundreds of modern day and historical tribes, Aaron decided to start creating a map for himself that would be authentic and cultural. “The maps in the books were kind of cheesy, they only had maybe 50 to 100 tribes on them,” said Aaron.

The inspiration for the map to depict original tribal names came from a book that he was reading which explained the real names of tribes and reason they were given the names they have today.

“I didn’t want to make a map with just tribe’s given names on it. I wanted it to be accurate and from a Native perspective,” said Aaron.

The process to collect tribes’ real names led Aaron from books, to making many phone calls to tribes across the country, asking them one seemingly simple question, what is the actual native name of your tribe?

“Some tribes, once contacted, wouldn’t know that information,” he said, but they would get him in contact with an elder or someone that would have the information he needed. “Every tribe I’ve contacted, I’ve noticed they are really good about getting back to you about cultural questions, they had a really good response time,” said Aaron.

On the map there are approximately 175 merged tribes, listed among the 595. The map displays what others fall short of, to make known the significant fact that is overlooked every day and that is, that tribes inhabited the entire U.S. and not just small portions of it.

“It is kind of sad that I can’t find a tribe’s real name because they aren’t here anymore,” said Aaron about learning the truth of what happened to many tribes. Some tribes were victims of genocide, some dwindled away from disease or other life threatening situations and some were merged forcefully or willingly with other tribes to make one large tribe. “Today some small tribes are enumerated under larger tribes, and do not have separate sovereignty. A good example of that is the Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma who recently split from the Cherokee Nation,” said Aaron explaining about how some tribes have merged.

“To be honest, in general in the United states, Americans are very ignorant about Native American history and the only time they deal with Native history or reality is when tribes have enough money to fight back against injustice happening to them. In my small way, making this map is to reinforce the true history of the injustice and the genocide that occurred,” Said Aaron.

Aaron has not received any funding to create the map and any profit from the map sales will go towards Aaron’s future map projects, which will include an in-depth look at the tribes of the states of California and Washington. A map of the First Nations in Canada is already in the works and close to being complete.

Aaron is of European and Cherokee descent and can speak the Cherokee language. He has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and is considering returning to school to get a master’s degree in Native American studies so that he can pursue his interest in Native American history.

The Native American Nations map can be purchased from his website and prices range from $89 to $199. For more information or to purchase a map visit http://aaron-carapella.squarespace.com/. Aaron can be reached through email at tribalnationsmap@gmail.com and by phone at 949-415-4981.

U.S. House Acts to Help Native Veterans

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The U.S. House of Representatives passed bills May 21 that will impact Native veterans. It’s a fitting time to move on this legislation, as May is National Military Appreciation Month.

The Improving Job Opportunities for Veterans Act of 2013, HR 1412, directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a public relations campaign, advertising in national media outlets, to promote VA on-the-job training and apprenticeship programs available to veterans as highly efficient and cost-effective ways of obtaining jobs.

The American Heroes COLA Act, HR 570, requires that whenever there is an increase in benefit amounts payable under title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall increase by the same percentage the amounts payable as veterans’ disability compensation, additional compensation for dependents, the clothing allowance for certain disabled adult children, and dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses and children.

The Helping Heroes Fly Act, HR 1344, directs the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration) to develop and implement a process to provide expedited passenger screening services for severely injured or disabled Armed Forces members and veterans.

On May 20, the House also passed the latest version of the Stolen Valor Act, HR 258, a law that will make it a crime to don the medals and ribbons that soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen are awarded for combat actions.

All four bills now head to the Senate. It’s hoped that they will be signed into law by or on Memorial Day, May 27.

Celebrating Two Years of Let’s Move! in Indian Country

By Jodi Gillette, White House Blog, May 8, 2013

Matthew Mooney, Jodi Gillette, and Dakota Lorenzo at Chimney Rock (by Harry Burell, Southwest Conservation Corps)

I recently had the honor of attending an event to mark the 2nd Anniversary of Let’s Move! in Indian Country at Chimney Rock National Monument in southwestern Colorado. I hiked and learned about this magnificent landscape on our way to the top with fifty youth from the Southern Ute Montessori Elementary, the Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture Butch Blazer, and a handful of youth from the Pueblos who work with the Southwest Conservation Corps, an AmeriCorps partner organization that engages and trains a diverse group of young women and men and completes conservation projects for the public benefit.

I had lengthy conversations with Aaron Lowden, an Acoma Pueblo, regarding the strength and resiliency of the ancient people who built and lived in that space, and how their journey is connected to his own. Below I’d like to share some of his thoughts:

Guwaatse howba tu shinomeh kuwaitiya eshte e Aaron Lowden madiganashia kuhaiya haanu stu da aakume’ haanu stu da! Hello everyone my name is Kuwaitiya in Acoma and Aaron Lowden in English and I come from the bear clan of the Acoma people. I am a program coordinator for the Southwest Conservation Corps’ (SCC) Ancestral Lands regional office in Acoma Pueblo, NM.

Our day began in the way I began this blog with a greeting to all attending the Let’s Move! in Indian Country (LMIC) 2nd Anniversary event and by saying a prayer. The prayer was done for the entire group before we entered the ancient Puebloan site of the recently designated Chimney Rock National Monument, CO. It is as a sign of respect for those who came before to let them know we were there to learn from them. When we started at the trail head we were joined by Southern Ute schoolchildren, the Southwest Conservation Corps, the US Forest Service and US Department of Agriculture to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of LMIC. We were also joined by Jodi Gillette, the White House Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs and Butch Blazer, the Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment at the Department of Agriculture.

Finally, we were ready to do what we all came there to do: get outside and get active. Led by the Chimney Rock Interpretative Association guides, we hiked with anticipation to see the ruins. Walking through the Great Houses on steep inclined trails the group gained knowledge by experiencing the difficult and active living conditions of the original occupants of these sites.

Aaron Lowden Welcomes Hikers to Chimney Rock

Aaron Lowden welcomes hikers and youth to Chimney Rock (by Harry Burell, Southwest Conservation Corps)

We learned how every single bit of rock and mortar had to be transported up to the top of this steep peak. If you were to talk with one of the ancestral inhabitants today and ask them about environmental stewardship, exercising, and eating right it’s reasonable to assume that they wouldn’t know what you were talking about, it’s just how they lived.

Today, Native Americans – particularly youth – have one of the highest obesity rates in the country. Although progress can be a good thing and has made our lives extensively easier, it is imperative that we keep these reminders and retain our old ways to have a healthy future as indigenous peoples. I feel this is even more appropriate when on the subject of Native American issues of our health and environmental stewardship. After all, if we can’t take care of the haatsi (land), how can we expect it take care of us. By getting outside and being active in our country’s public lands, and by eating right and caring about where our food comes from, we can raise a healthier, more environmentally conscious generation.

After the group finished the hike, the Southwest Conservation Corps Ancestral Lands staff prepared a popular Pueblo dish: green chili stew. We were all ready to eat after our hike! Everyone enjoyed the nutritious meal and discussed the hike while the students played outdoors.

As the day winded down and once everything was finished, we all headed home thankful for the beautiful day we had been given.

Please click here to learn more about Let’s Move! in Indian Country.

Jodi Gillette is the White House Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs

Building Opportunities in Indian Country: Congratulations to the Graduates of Navajo Technical College

By Dr. Jill Biden, White House Blog

Dr. Jill Biden walks with the procession of graduates of the Navajo Technical College Class of 2013, Navajo Tech President Elmer Guy, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and the Board of trustees on the Navajo Tech campus in Crownpoint, New Mexico. May 17, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

On Friday, I had the honor of addressing a class of graduates at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, New Mexico. The Navajo Tech graduating Class of 2013 earned certificates in 34 fields that will provide the tools they need to serve their community as teachers, nurses, engineers, mechanics, bankers, chefs and countless other opportunities all made possible by their commitment and dedication to improving themselves through the pursuit of a higher education.

Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) play a key role in President Obama’s educational goal of making the United States home to the best-educated, most competitive workforce in the world. TCUs are critical institutions that build tribal communities, create good jobs across Indian Country, and provide Native Americans with the skills they need to do those jobs.

As a community college teacher, I love seeing what a tremendous difference a community like the one I saw at Navajo Tech can make in the lives of its students.

The impressive class of graduates included veterans like Jerrilene Kenneth, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army mechanic, before she became the first college graduate in her family with an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education. It also included Navajo Tech Student of the Year Sherwin Becenti, who dropped out of college more than ten years ago but returned to school in order to build a better life for his family and set a good example for his children. Dwight Carlston, who grew up with no running water or electricity, was also among the graduates. Dwight maintained a 3.8 grade point average, ran cross country, served as Student Senate President and was recently elected as the Student Congress president of all 38 tribal colleges.

The Class of 2013 also marked a key milestone for Navajo Tech itself as they celebrated their first student to graduate with a Baccalaureate Degree. Dody Begay received his Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology-Computer Science – a path many other students are now planning to follow.

It is thanks to students like Jerrilene, Sherwin, Dwight, and Dody, and their dedicated faculty and administrators, that for the second year in a row Navajo Tech was recognized by the Aspen Institute as one of the top 120 community colleges in the United States. It was the only TCU and the only college in New Mexico to receive this distinction.

During my trip to the Navajo Nation, I also had the privilege of taking part in a traditional blessing by Medicine Man Robert Johnson who shared the traditions and spirituality of the Diné people. Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and his wife First lady Martha Shelly also provided a wonderful welcome to their community with an introduction to the leadership of the tribal government. Students from the Diné Bi Olta Language Immersion Elementary School and Miyamura High School performed the traditional basket and ribbon dances at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona.

From a traditional hogan in Window Rock, Arizona, Dr. Jill Biden listens to Medicine Man Robert Johnson along with Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, First Lady Martha Shelly, Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council Johnny Naize and Barbara Naize. May 17, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Thank you to the Navajo Nation, and the faculty, staff and students of Navajo Technical College for welcoming me into your community. Your drive to improving yourselves and the generations who will follow you through a continued commitment to education sets an example for not just Indian Country, but for communities all across America. Congratulations to the graduates of 2013. But above all, congratulations to your parents, your grandparents and your ancestors for having the vision and commitment to strengthen their community by building your college and investing in all of our futures.

Ahe’hee!

Dr. Jill Biden is the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, a mother and grandmother, a lifelong educator, a proud Blue Star mom, and an active member of her community.

Sovereign Nations Walk Out of Meeting With U.S. State Department Unanimously Rejecting Keystone XL Pipeline

Source: Huffington Post

The State Department, still with “egg on its face” from its statement that Keystone XL would have little impact on climate change, sunk a little lower today as the most respected elders, and chiefs of 10 sovereign nations turned their backs on State Department representatives and walked out during a meeting. The meeting, which was a failed attempt at a “nation to nation” tribal consultation concerning the Keystone XL Pipeline neglected to address any legitimate concerns being raised by First Nations Leaders (or leading scientific experts for that matter).

Climate Science Watch, The EPA and most people with common sense rebuked the State Department’s initial report and today First Nations sent a very clear message to President Obama and the world concerning the future fate of their land regarding Keystone XL.

Vice president for conservation policy at the National Wildlife Federation Jim Lyon said of the department’s original analysis that it “fails in its review of climate impacts, threats to endangered wildlife like whooping cranes and woodland caribou, and the concerns of tribal communities.” Today tribal nations added probably the most critical danger of the pipeline which is to the water. Their statement is below:

On this historic day of May 16, 2013, ten sovereign Indigenous nations maintain that the proposed TransCanada/Keystone XL pipeline does not serve the national interest and in fact would be detrimental not only to the collected sovereigns but all future generations on planet earth. This morning the following sovereigns informed the Department of State Tribal Consultation effort at the Hilton Garden Inn in Rapid City, SD, that the gathering was not recognized as a valid consultation on a “nation to nation” level:Southern Ponca
Pawnee Nation
Nez Perce Nation

And the following Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires People):

Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate
Ihanktonwan Dakota (Yankton Sioux)
Rosebud Sioux Tribe
Oglala Sioux Tribe
Standing Rock Tribe
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe

The Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association supports this position, which is in solidarity with elected leaders, Treaty Councils and the grassroots community, and is guided by spiritual leaders. On Saturday, May 18, the Sacred Pipe Bundle of the Oceti Sakowin will be brought out to pray with the people to stop the KXL pipeline, and other tribal nation prayer circles will gather to do the same.

Pursuant to Executive Order 13175, the above sovereigns directed the DOS to invite President Obama to engage in “true Nation to Nation” consultation with them at the nearest date, at a designated location to be communicated by each of the above sovereigns. After delivering that message, the large contingent of tribal people walked out of the DOS meeting and asked the other tribal people present to support this effort and to leave the meeting. Eventually all remaining tribal representatives and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers left the meeting at the direct urging of the grassroots organization Owe Aku. Owe Aku, Moccasins on the Ground, and Protect the Sacred are preparing communities to resist the Keystone XL pipeline through Keystone Blockade Training.

This unprecedented unity of tribes against the desecration of Ina Maka (Mother Earth) was motivated by the signing on January 25, 2013, of the historic International Treaty to Protect the Sacred Against the Tar Sands. Signatories were the Pawnee Nation, the Ponca Nation, the Ihanktonwan Dakota and the Oglala Lakota. Since then ten First Nations Chiefs in Canada have signed the Treaty to protect themselves against tar sands development in Canada.

The above sovereigns notify President Obama to consult with each of them because of the following:

The nations have had no direct role in identifying and evaluating cultural resources.

The nations question the status of the programmatic agreement and how it may or may not be amended.

The nations are deeply concerned about potential pipeline impacts on natural resources, especially our water: potential spills and leaks, groundwater and surface water contamination.

The nations have no desire to contribute to climate change, to which the pipeline will directly contribute.

The nations recognize that the pipeline will increase environmental injustice, disproportionately impacting native communities.

The nations deplore the environmental impacts of tar sands mining being endured by tribes in Canada. The pipeline would service the tar sands extractive industry.

The nations insist that their treaty rights be respected⎯the pipeline would violate them.

The nations support an energy policy that promotes renewables and efficiency instead of one that features fossil fuels.

The nations regard the consultation process as flawed in favor of corporate interests.
The sovereigns of these nations contend that it is not in America’s interest to facilitate and contribute to environmental devastation on the scale caused by the extraction of tar sands in Canada. America would be better served by a comprehensive program to reduce its reliance on oil, and to invest in the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies, such as electric vehicles that are charged using solar and wind power.

If the Keystone XL pipeline is allowed to be built, TransCanada, a Canadian corporation, would be occupying sacred treaty lands as reserved in the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties. It will be stopped by unified resistance.

To sanctify their solidarity with The Lubicon Lake First Nation of Canada, who are the traditional stewards of the land that 70% of the tar sands oil sit on, along with tribes across Canada and The United States, Chief Arvol Lookinghorse has called for a day of prayer everywhere on May 18, 2013. Chief Lookinghorse, The 19th Generation Keeper of The Sacred White Buffalo Bundle, has stated,

“I am asking ‘All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer’ to help us during this time of this gathering by praying with us on this day wherever you are upon Mother Earth. We need to stop the desecration that is hurting Mother Earth and the communities. These recent spills of oil are affecting the blood of Mother Earth; Mni wic’oni (water of life).”

Gatherings are being planned all over the world in solidarity during the weekend including one outside the UN at Isaiah’s Wall in NYC on, May 17th.

We all know that we are living in unprecedented times. We just surpassed 400ppm CO2 in the atmosphere for the first time in 10 million years, the planet is warming and we humans must bear the responsibility of our actions and their effects on the environment. What we do, and what we don’t do will effect the generations to follow. A better world is possible.