August 2013 - Page 27 of 30

Death Tax For Twinkies! Navajo Health Activists Push for Junk Food Tax

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

A group of Navajo activists advocating for healthy living is not deterred by the tribal council’s decision to reject their proposed Junk Food Tax Act of 2013.

The Diné Community Advocacy Alliance instead plans to partner with private businesses and introduce their bill as a referendum next election, reported the Navajo Times.

The bill aims to increase the tax on “junk food” by 2 percent and eliminate the 5 percent sales tax on fresh fruits and vegetables. The Alliance also wants to ban sales tax on water. Money reaped from the junk food tax would be distributed to chapters with the intent of funding wellness programs.

While delegates largely supported the tax elimination on fresh fruits and vegetables, many criticized the tax on “junk food,” saying it might incite Navajos to purchase groceries in reservation border towns with tax-free food, such as Gallup or Farmington, New Mexico.

Among other concerns, delegates expressed worries the tax may place more stress on disadvantaged families. But those who use Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards or food stamps will not be affected, because sales tax is excluded from eligible items. The Alliance plans to address the federal issue with EBT cards in the future; the cards promote sales of processed foods like chips and soda by reducing their cost.

Last week’s deliberation over the bill left the council divided over the tax increase on junk food but has opened conversation lines about the potential benefits of making purchases of fresh produce more affordable, and taxing and labeling unhealthy foods as “junk,” thus making it less appealing to consumers for monetary and psychological reasons.

Global warming could cause 50 percent increase in violent conflict

Tim McDonnell, Grist

This week, the exiled head of the Syrian opposition movement said he would meet representatives of President Bashar al-Assad in Geneva, a promising turn for a conflict that has left 100,000 dead, including many civilians, since spring 2011. It has been a long, bitter battle, but for many Syrians one root of the violence stretches back to several years before al-Assad’s troops began picking off anti-government protesters. Beginning in 2006, a prolonged, severe drought decimated farmland, spiked food prices, and forced millions of Syrians into poverty — helping to spark the unrest that eventually exploded into civil war.

The Syrian conflict is just one recent example of the connection between climate and conflict, a field that is increasingly piquing the interest of criminologists, economists, historians, and political scientists. Studies have begun to crop up in leading journals examining this connection in everything from the collapse of the Mayan civilization to modern police training in the Netherlands. A survey published today in Science takes a first-ever 30,000-foot view of this research, looking for trends that tie these examples together through fresh analysis of raw data from 60 quantitative studies. It offers evidence that unusually high temperatures could lead to tens of thousands more cases of “interpersonal” violence — murder, rape, assault, etc. — and more than a 50 percent increase in “intergroup” violence, i.e. war, in some places.

“This is what keeps me awake at night,” lead author Solomon Hsiang, an environmental policy post-doc at Princeton, said. “The linkage between human conflict and climate changes was really pervasive.”

Any cop could tell you that hot days can make people snap — last summer veteran police boss William Bratton argued that a warm winter contributed to a rash of murders in Chicago. But Hsiang and his colleagues wanted to see how this pattern held up across the globe, at different times and with different kinds of conflict, to gauge just how much the climate can lead to violence.

So they rounded up recent studies that could reliably show a causal connection between climate and violence in a variety of contemporary, historical, and experimental settings. They re-crunched the raw data from these studies to smooth out details specific to each case (temperature data was converted to deviation from average, rather than absolute temperatures, for example) in order to make apples-to-apples comparisons across time and across the world. What emerged was an unsettling new picture of the exact effect climate changes have on our tendency toward violence: For every one standard deviation toward warmer temperatures, the median frequency of “interpersonal” violence rose 4 percent. In the U.S., that would translate to an additional 56,000 violent crimes every year on top of the average 1.4 million (according to FBI data) we’ve experienced annually in the last decade. And that could just be the beginning: Hsiang’s study points out that inhabited places on Earth are likely to see warming of two to four standard deviations by 2050.

Meanwhile, the study found the median frequency of “intergroup” violence jumped 14 percent for every standard deviation; again, in the context of projected future warming, this means that by 2050 the threat of war could climb more than 50 percent in some places.

The study also found general agreement amongst case studies that exceptionally high and low rainfall — particularly when it impacts agricultural production — can lead both to interpersonal and intergroup violence. But even looking only at scientists’ projections for future temperature increases, the statistical rise in violent tendencies is significant enough, the study claims, that “amplified rates of human conflict could represent a large and critical impact of anthropogenic climate change.” In other words, it’s something we might need to prepare for — just like rising seas or nastier wildfires.

It’s not just isolated hot days that spur increased violence; the study found increased conflict in warmer-than-usual periods over time spans ranging from an hour (in a controlled experiment where police trainees were stuck in rooms of different temperatures and asked to respond to a hypothetical aggressor; cops in the hot room were much more likely to fire their weapons) to thousands of years (in an anthropological study [PDF] of how summer temperatures drove the collapse of ancient human settlements in northern Norway).

With this connection nailed down, Hsiang said, the next step is to better understand what exactly about higher temperatures leads to conflict; he compared the pursuit to that of early 20-century medical researchers who knew smoking caused cancer but didn’t understand why at a molecular level. In the case of Syria, it’s easy enough to draw a line from heat and drought to civil unrest, but that doesn’t help explain why a protest is more likely to boil into a riot on a hot day, or why more murders are likely to happen in a hot decade.

“We have a mountain of evidence,” he said. “But we can’t completely explain all the intervening steps.”

Oglala Sioux will decide on reservation alcohol sales

Denise DePaolo, KSFY.com

An 1832 act of Congress prohibited all alcohol in Indian Country.

Today, Pine Ridge is the only South Dakota reservation that remains dry. Despite that status, alcoholism and alcohol-related crime run rampant.

Recently, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council decided that the people should vote on whether to allow sales on the reservation.

For some, the issue is about tradition. For others, it’s about maintaining sovereignty. And for others yet, it’s about ending the steady flow of money over the border to a tiny town called White Clay, Nebraska.

White Clay – population approximately 14 – is an unincorporated town located a couple miles from Pine Ridge – the largest community on the reservation of the same name.

Alcohol is White Clay’s big industry – really, its only industry – and many Oglala are angry.

“It’s committing slow genocide on our people,” said tribal member Olowan Martinez.

More than four million cans of beer are sold in White Clay’s four liquor stores each year – mostly to tribal members. Meaning the money is leaving not only the reservation, but the state.

Now, in a special election August 13, the people will decide whether to allow alcohol sales on Pine Ridge.

Tribal Vice President Tom Poor Bear doesn’t think that’s enough time.

“I don’t feel we’re ready for it. I feel there’s a lot of questions to be asked. We need to regulate it right to begin with. We need to change a lot of laws within our tribal code that surround alcohol.”

Part of Poor Bear’s concern involves allowing outside government in.

“You know, my biggest concern on this is I really feel we really need to do our homework in depth, and we really need to do some research. Because what I’m afraid of is state jurisdiction. We are a sovereign nation. And we’re going to be buying this alcohol – if it is legalized – from the state. We probably have to get an alcohol tax, which violates the treaty, because we’re a tax exempt people. Is State Patrol going to be allowed to patrol our reservation highways?” asked Poor Bear.

Many make the argument that the only way to stop hemorrhaging money into White Clay, and stop other problems that come with alcohol is to take the power back and eradicate what many consider a parasite.

“They’re just sucking us. Capitalizing on the disease that we have. White Clay is just…we’re in the belly of another little monster,” said Poor Bear.

For some, that means the tribe selling its own alcohol and using revenues toward treatment and prevention programs. For others, like a group of tribal members camped at the border since April 30, the solution is a return to traditional ways – saying no to alcohol under all circumstances.

“There are many issues facing White Clay, but personally for us here, the main goal we’re trying to achieve is changing the mentality of our nation. If we teach a ten-year-old today that alcohol is the enemy, and any time their parents bring it into their home, they know there’s an enemy in their home,” said Martinez, who is part of the months-long protest.

When asked about the example set by other tribes that have legalized alcohol, perspectives differed.

“We don’t want to join the rest of the sell-out tribes, by allowing alcohol or the state in. That’s out of the question for many of us. We’re the only nation that defeated the U.S. government, and we will never forget that,” said Martinez.

“I’ve been to other reservations that aren’t dry reservations. Like our neighbors to the east, the Sicangus – the Rosebuds – they do sell alcohol there. I do go to Rosebud a lot, and I don’t see the White Clays on Rosebud. Where you see empty cans, empty bottles. Their reservation’s really clean,” said Poor Bear.

And while opinions differ on the alcohol question, tribal members KSFY News spoke with acknowledge that the Oglala people must be the ones to answer.

“I don’t think we should dictate to our people how they should live their lives,” said Poor Bear.

“We know it’s not going to pass. Because when we set our camp up, we went to ceremony, and the spirits aren’t gonna have us put our camp here and give up our lives to break our hearts in the end,” said tribal member Misty Sioux Little.

Off-sale liquor licenses were first issued in White Clay during the 1970’s.

Today, more than 90-percent of crime in and around the tiny town is alcohol-related.

Bad news, coal industry: Proposed export terminal is in for a tough review

By Eric de Place and Clark Williams-Derry, Cross-posted from Sightline Daily, Source: Grist.org

Editor’s note: The coal industry is desperate to ship its product to Asia because demand here in the U.S. has dropped. Three coal export terminals are currently proposed for Washington and Oregon (down from six a year ago). Before they can be built, their environmental impacts must be evaluated. Climate activists have been calling for broad evaluations of the myriad impacts, while industry wants just narrow studies done. Today comes word that the environmental impact study for one of the proposed terminals will be wide-ranging and rigorous — a win for anti-coal activists.

Hot off the presses: The three “co-lead” agencies in charge of reviewing the proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal at Cherry Point, Wash., have published the scope of their review. The major takeaway is that it’s bad news for the coal industry.

The industry did win an empty victory with the Army Corps of Engineers, the sole federal agency at the table, which opted for a narrow scope of review. But in the end it doesn’t much matter. One of the other lead agencies, the Washington Department of Ecology, is going to require in-depth analysis of four elements that the coal industry had desperately hoped to avoid:

A detailed assessment of rail transportation’s impacts on representative communities in Washington and a general analysis of out-of-state rail impacts.
An assessment of how the project would affect human health in Washington.
A general assessment of cargo-ship impacts beyond Washington waters.
An evaluation and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions of end-use coal combustion.

Of those, two stand to be particularly damaging for would-be coal exporters: rail impacts and greenhouse gas emissions. There’s not a lot of wiggle room with either of those elements.

First, burning the 48 million tons of coal proposed for export at the terminal annually would release roughly 100 million tons of carbon dioxide, a staggering figure that amounts to as much carbon pollution as every activity in the state of Washington combined. In other words, it’s a clear environmental disaster that would overshadow every other effort the state has made to reduce climate-changing emissions.

Second, moving that much coal to a terminal will create congestion throughout the region. There’s simply no way around the math. In Seattle, for example, both Sightline and the traffic analysis firm Parametrix have confirmed that new coal export shipments would completely close major center city streets by an additional one to three hours every day, 365 days per year.

What’s worse for the coal industry is that the expansive scope of review will likely create further delay and uncertainty, potentially scaring off investors. Just yesterday, in fact, executives from Cloud Peak Energy, which plans to mine up to 10 millions tons of coal a year in Montana and ship it out through West Coast ports, griped about the slow progress on coal export terminals during a sad-sack discussion of its weak second-quarter earnings.

Now that public agencies will be tallying the manifest pollution, health, climate, and congestion impacts of the Gateway Pacific coal terminal, there’s likely to be even more opposition to planned export terminals. Plus, given more analysis and a wider exploration of the proposal’s problems, opponents will likely find abundant opportunities to litigate, which would of course create even more delay and uncertainty.

So the bottom line of today’s announcement for the proposed Gateway Pacific coal terminal: long delays, high costs, more opportunities for public opposition, and a near-certainty of litigation. Coupled with the ongoing collapse in Pacific Rim coal prices, it’s not a fun time to be in the Northwest coal export business.

Eric de Place is a senior researcher at Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based sustainability think tank.

Clark Williams-Derry is research director for the Seattle-based Sightline Institute, a nonprofit sustainability think tank working to promote smart solutions for the Pacific Northwest. He was formerly the webmaster for Grist.

Students Get Dirty Learning Archaeology That Respects Native Cultures

Jack McNeel, Indian Country Today Media Network

Sweating and digging in the Montana sun may not be most student’s idea of how to spend the summer, but seven Salish Kootenai College students did just that for six weeks as part of the requirement toward a degree in tribal historic preservation, the first such program in the nation.

“The main reason for this summer study is to learn archaeological techniques,” said Dr. Jeff Bendremer, an instructor at the college.

Archaeology is typically not a positive subject among Native Americans, but the opportunity to learn and practice the procedures, combined with being able to see it through a different cultural perspective, holds great promise for the future.

Jennifer Phelps, from the Ponca of Nebraska Tribe, thought the summer program was “outstanding, especially to break ground as an indigenous field school. It’s something new and something that hopefully will be looked at from a different approach. It’s coming from a Native perspective. It’s something our ancestors had. We’re not here to disturb everything, just find out what was here. Were our ancestors here and what did they do here? How did they live?”

Jennifer Phelps, Ponca of Nebraska, says “When we do it [archaeology] it’s done in a respectful manner.” (Jackie McNeel)

The first week was spent at Fort Connah, a Hudson’s Bay Trading Post built in 1846 in what is now Ronan, Montana. Salish Student Katie McDonald had a personal connection to the site because one of her ancestors ran the post in those early days.

The students learned to use archaeology techniques like ground penetrating radar and magnetometry, neither of which disturbs the soil, and worked with a tethered blimp for low level aerial photography in both visible light and infrared.

“It allowed us to pinpoint any kind of metals,” McDonald explained. “We can give coordinates of where it was so the people who own the land now, [Fort Connah Preservation Society] it’s up to them what to do with it. Our job was just to find it.”

The following three weeks were spent at Grant-Kohrs Ranch in Deer Lodge, Montana, once a 10 million acre ranch dating to 1862 and now a National Historic Site. The National Park Service has proposed building a new visitor center, but artifacts found raised some questions and the archaeology class was asked to come and investigate, “so they can make an informed decision about if their visitor center should be built on this site,” Bendremer explained.

Students dug excavation units throughout the site and located a well that had been covered over, the apparent foundation for the house and possible chimney, plus a variety of pieces of glass and metal.

“This is more real archaeological work,” McDonald commented. “You’re in the dirt. You’re finding different things. We’re able to put them away, write down where we found it, how deep in the dirt, and the stratigraphy. Ground levels will be able to tell us time periods. The best things to find are those with a date or a maker’s mark.”

Angela Iukes, Nez Perce from the Colville Reservation, talked of the physical work. “I knew it was going to be a lot of work but I didn’t know how much. We’re going to leave here really buff,” she laughed. Despite that, she plans to come back for the advanced course in the future.

The final week of the summer program was spent on the Flathead Reservation in western Montana with the approval of the tribal council.

“The aim of our program is to train Native students who can speak the language of their people, but also be able to converse with federal officials, with anthropologists and archaeologists” Bendremer said. “They will be able to go between these two communities and understand them and have a high degree of training to be able to negotiate all these complicated relationships: state, federal, private donors, tribes, and the great panoply of different jurisdictions. It’s very difficult but these students will have the training in both the culture and the language of cultural resource management as well.”

Amak Kenmille, Kootenai, carefully removes dirt searching for artifacts in one of the plots. (Jackie McNeel)

Where to go, what to if hankering for a humpy

By Wayne Kruse, The Herald

Big schools of pink salmon haven’t arrived in local saltwater just yet, but if you’re antsy to bonk a humpy or two, try beach casting at several spots on the west side of Whidbey Island. Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sport Center in Lynnwood said pinks are showing there in strong numbers, with limits being taken at Bush Point at times, and good fishing available at Fort Casey as well.

Use an 81/2- to 9-foot steelhead-weight spinning rig, Chamberlain said, 10- to 12-pound test line and a Buzz Bomb in the 21/2-inch size or a Rotator. The Rotator is becoming more popular — a flatter jig than the Buzz Bomb, allowing it to drop more slowly, Chamberlain said.

“Start with pink colors, then experiment from there,” he said. “And some guys like to dress the lures up with a pink mini-hoochie.”

A scattering of pinks also is being caught by trollers on Possession Bar, Richmond Beach, Jefferson Head and many of the other usual spots. The Snohomish River opened today, earlier than normal, from Highway 9 to the mouth, but Chamberlain doesn’t expect consistent catches in the river for a week or two yet.

Marine areas 8-1 and 8-2 also opened today, with most of the salmon action expected to be found toward the north end of the region.

“Pinks will probably be the early target on the incoming tide, at North Beach, around Hope Island and off the mouth of the Skagit,” said Kevin John at Holiday Sports in Burlington. “Pink Buzz Bombs or Rotators will be the popular lures with the beach fishermen.”

Mix incoming pinks with a strong and much earlier than usual coho run, and the ongoing selective chinook fishery in areas 9 and 10, and you have a unique opportunity to score on all three of those species in a single day’s trip. State catch sampling at Olson’s Resort in Sekiu on Saturday, for instance, showed 236 anglers with 84 chinook, 19 coho and 145 pinks. At the Port of Everett ramp on Saturday, it was 444 fishermen with 51 chinook, 27 coho and 63 pinks.

To the north, some 63 fishermen were checked at the Cornet Bay public ramp on Sunday, with 19 chinook, four coho and 44 pinks.

New tournament

The inaugural Harbor Marine Salmon Tournament ran Saturday and Sunday out of Everett, bringing the bass tournament mindset to Northwest salmon derbies. It was a full tournament format, both team and individual, total weight for two days of fishing, eliminating much of the luck factor of one-day derbies. It brought out many of the best salmon anglers on Puget Sound, not only for the money involved, but for the chance to compete against a field of their peers.

The event also was the newest stop on the prestigious Northwest Salmon Derby Series.

“It was truly exciting fishing,” said Nick Kester of All Star Charters, whose Team All Star won the best boat weight and $1,000, at 75.1 pounds of chinook for the two days.

“You know you’re going to be out there against the best in the area, and that it will come down to ounces at weigh-in time. That means you have to have a winning strategy and a game plan you can follow, balancing numbers against weight. There’s a place for derbies and there’s a place for tournaments as well, and I’m glad to see this format coming to Puget Sound.”

Individual winner was Brandon Robichaux, a member of Tom Nelson’s Team Outdoor Line, who weighed a two-day, four-fish total of 57.4 pounds. Second was Rob Byrd, who took home a check for $1,000, at 56.6 pounds, and third was Corey Thrasher, $500, at 54.5 pounds.

Team Outdoor Line, which included Nelson, Robichaux and Walt Hylback, nailed the grand prize of $5,000 and featured a second-day appearance of guest angler Brock Huard, former Husky and pro quarterback, and now a sports commentator for 710 ESPN Radio.

Few people who know T.J. Nelson, big, bluff and loquacious, would accuse him of being overly self-deprecating, but he said of his impressive win, modestly, “Hey, even the blind squirrel finds …”

Nelson has some excellent photos of the tournament on his blog. Check them out at www.theoutdoorline.com/blog.

Crab

The Puget Sound summer recreatonal crab season is progressing fairly well, according to Washingon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Don Velasquez.

“Some areas have been very good, but from some we’ve been hearing complaints that the tribal fishermen hit ’em pretty hard,” Velasquez said.

Areas 7, 9 and 10, and Hood Canal, are producing well — Area 9 particularly in Port Townsend Bay; Hood Canal around Misery Point and the north end; and Area 7 out of Bellingham. Generally, Velasquez said, Areas 8-1, 8-2, 11 and 13 have been hit or miss.

Baker sockeye

Also hit or miss has been the Baker Lake sockeye fishery. Kevin John said the fish are scattered and somewhat fewer in number than last season. You can still find decent fishing, John said, but you’re going to have to work at it and cover a lot of water and different depths. Most successful fishermen have been concentrating at the 40- to 60-foot range, and the north side of the lake’s upper third has been a popular area.

Coho seminar

Cabela’s Tulalip store offers a free seminar, Catching Coho with Captain Chris, Aug. 8, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Chris Long of Jolly Mon Charters will talk different saltwater techniques for successfully fishing coho while still targeting other species. There should be something here for both beginning and experienced anglers. Space is limited, so reserve a slot by calling 360-474-4880.

Lummi Nation Opposes Development of Cherry Point Export Terminal with Letter to Corps of Engineers

Position calls into question future of massive Gateway Pacific shipping facility

Source: Pyramid Communications

LUMMI INDIAN RESERVATION, BELLINGHAM, Wash.—Building the proposed Gateway Pacific export terminal and rail spur at Cherry Point would “have a substantial impairment on the Lummi treaty fishing right,” the Lummi Nation said in a formal opposition letter sent this week to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Opposition by the tribe could imperil the terminal and rail spur.

“It will make us reassess the direction we are going,” Muffy Walker, the Corps’ district regulatory branch chief was quoted as saying by The Bellingham Herald. The Corps of Engineers has authority to grant permits necessary to build the terminal. “We have denied permits in the past, based on tribal concerns,” Walker was quoted as saying.

In the letter, Lummi Indian Business Council Chair Tim Ballew writes, “Any impact on the Lummi treaty fishing right is inherently an impact on the Lummi way of life…. We believe that the Corps should see that these projects would without question result in significant and unavoidable impacts and damage to our treaty rights.

Lummi Indians maintain the largest Native fishing fleet in the United States, and Lummi fishers have worked in the XweChiexen (Cherry Point) fishery for thousands of years.

If constructed, the Gateway Pacfic export terminal would be the largest coal terminal on the West Coast of North America. It would significantly degrade an already fragile and vulnerable crab, herring and salmon fishery, dealing a devastating blow to the economy of the fisher community.

“It is imperative that the Corps carry out its trust responsibilities as they relate to the Lummi Nation and the treaty rights to fish, gather and hunt in the usual and accustomed places,” Ballew wrote.

The complete text of the letter follows.

July 30, 2013

Colonel Bruce A. Estok, District Engineer
US Army Corps of Engineers – Seattle District
PO Box 3755
Seattle, WA 98124

Lummi Opposition: Proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal Bulk Dry Goods Shipping Facility (Ref. No. NWS-2008-260) and the Custer Spur Rail Expansion (Ref. No. NWS-2011-325) Projects

Dear Colonel Estok,

The Lummi Nation has unconditional and unequivocal opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal (Ref. No. NWS-2008-260) and the inter-related Custer Spur Rail Expansion project (Ref. No. NWS-2011-325) projects at Cherry Point. As described in our resolution 2012-060 and in our previous letters dated October 17, 2011 and January 21, 2013 (attached), the Lummi Nation has a number of significant objections to the proposed projects.

In developing the Lummi Nation’s position on the projects, the Nation heeded the following principles:

“Everything is connected.” As our elders conveyed through our Xwlemi’chosen (Lummi language) that cultural and spiritual significances expressed by our ancestors for the land, water and the environment are all connected.
“We must manage our resources for the seventh generation of our people.” Our unique heritage requires us to honor our past, present and future generations. Since time immemorial we have managed resources that we are borrowing from our children and grandchildren.
As a tribal government, we have adopted the critical goal that we must preserve, promote, and protect our Schelangen (“way of life”).

Review of the known facts, data, site plans, and the development and operational goals of the projects have resulted in a clear and convincing conclusion that the proposed projects, if built and operated, would have a substantial impairment on the Lummi treaty fishing right harvest at XweChiexen (Cherry Point) and throughout the Lummi “usual and accustomed” fishing areas. Any impact on the Lummi treaty fishing right is inherently an impact on the Lummi way of life. The Lummi Nation cannot see how the proposed projects could be developed in a manner that does not amount to significant impairment on the treaty fishing right and a negative effect on the Lummi way of life. Please recognize this letter as a clear statement of opposition to these projects from the Lummi Nation.

The Lummi Nation expects that the Corps of Engineers (Corps), on behalf of the United States of America, to honor the trust obligations to the Lummi Nation related to these proposed projects. We believe that the Corps should see that these projects would without question result in significant and unavoidable impacts and damage to our treaty rights. If the projects at Cherry Point are constructed and operated there will be impacts on the Lummi treaty rights forever. It is imperative that the Corps carry out its trust responsibilities as they relate to the Lummi Nation and the treaty rights to fish, gather and hunt in the usual and accustomed places.

These comments in no way waive any future opportunity to participate in government-to-government consultation regarding the proposed projects and the associated state or federal government issued permits. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the attached comments or to schedule a government-to-government meeting regarding these projects.

Respectfully,

Tim Ballew II, Chair
Lummi Indian Business Council

Navajo Nation will support NM horse processing plant

By Rob Nikolewski, New Mexico Watch Dog

The Navajo Nation is about to wade into the heated debate over a horse-meat processing plant in Roswell and will support Valley Meat Co. becoming the first horse slaughterhouse in the U.S. in seven years.

“They’re eating up the land and drinking all the water,” Erny Zah, spokesman for Navajo Nation President Ben Shelley told New Mexico Watchdog of the feral horses on Navajo Nation land that encompasses 27,425 square miles, including parts of Arizona and Utah as well as a large section of northwest New Mexico.

Zah estimated there are 20,000 to 30,000 “feral horses on our lands,” and that Navajo Nation lawyers in Washington, D.C., are in the process of finalizing a letter that Shelly will sign in support of the horse slaughter facility “with the next couple of days.”

COMING OUT IN FAVOR: The Navajo Nation is about to come out in favor of a controversial horse slaughter facility in Roswell, NM. Photo from Facebook.

“I’m sympathetic to the native nations but all this is going to do is make New Mexico the slaughter state,” said Phil Carter of Animal Protection New Mexico, one of the facility’s opponents. “We have to move forward beyond this outdated and cruel slaughter model.”

The debate over the facility in Roswell has sparked heated arguments that extend beyond state borders.

Opponents of the facility include Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, former Gov. Bill Richardson, state Attorney General Gary King and State Land Commissioner Ray Powell, as well as actor Robert Redford and animal rights groups. The Humane Society of the United States is one of a slew of plaintiffs seeking an injunction to stop the company from opening its slaughterhouse operations.

Supporters say that given the rising cost of hay, horses have been abandoned and left to starve. They argue it’s better to have unwanted and dying horses killed in a federall -inspected facility in the U.S. than have them sent to plants in places like Mexico, where they often meet gruesome deaths in unsanitary conditions.

“Which would you rather do, put them down in a humane fashion or let them starve to death,” the facility’s attorney Blair Dunn said earlier this month.

The debate has become more intense as Valley Meat Co. hopes to open as soon as Aug. 5. A federal court hearing is set for Friday in Albuquerque

Last Saturday, a fire broke out at the company and officials suspect it may have been deliberately set. The blaze burned part of the exterior of Valley Meat Co.’s building and damaged a refrigeration unit. A Chaves County sheriff’s lieutenant described the fire as “very suspicious.”

“It was an act of domestic terrorism,” Dunn told the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership Tuesday.

Zah said the Navajo Nation’s decision to weigh in on the matter is “more economic” than anything else.

“We’re already in a drought,” Zah said. “We already have our registered cattle and sheep and registered horses to care for. We’re concerned about water and vegetation” being eaten by feral horses.

Zah said a horse slaughter facility in Roswell is simply closer and more cost-effective.

“We need some place to take them,” he said. “There are other options but they are more costly … The plant Roswell provides us this opportunity.”

But Carter says there are other options, including injecting horses with contraceptives, gelding stallions and euthanizing them.

But isn’t that expensive?

Carter points to the New Mexico Equine Protection Fund that his group administers and says the cost to tending to feral horses has been reduced to about $200 per head. “And there’s no reason those costs couldn’t come down more,” Carter said.

“They’re sacred animals,” Zah acknowledged but added, “We also have a kinship with our land. There’s a delicate balance there. Everything is related, everything is intertwined. When one is out of balance, we have to take care of that delicate balance.”

Supporters of the plant have estimated there are 9,000 feral horses on Mescalero Apache land in southern New Mexico. Numerous phone calls from New Mexico Watchdog to Alfred LaPaz, acting president of the Mescalero tribe, seeking comment have gone unanswered.

Cantwell, Barrasso Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Reauthorize Key Tribal Housing Bill

The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act is Set to Expire in Two Months

From the Chair of Maria Cantwell

WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced S.1352, to reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA), which is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2013. They were joined by Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD), Jon Tester (D-MT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Begich (D-AK), Al Franken (D-MN), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND).

In 1996, Congress first passed NAHASDA to help ensure that Tribes and their members are provided safe and affordable housing, and that housing programs meet the needs of Tribal members well into the future. NAHASDA helps address a critical need for housing assistance in Indian Country, where more than 28% of reservation households lack adequate plumbing and kitchen facilities, while nationally only 5.4% of households lack such infrastructure.

“Housing conditions in Native American communities remain some of the most challenging in the nation. This Act is designed to assist those communities, where substandard housing is rampant and poverty is a serious issue,” Cantwell said. “The reauthorization of this Act is critically important to help ensure that Tribes continue to have access to the tools necessary to provide for the basic housing needs of their members. While more must be done, I am pleased to note that this is one of the most successfully implemented programs in Indian Country to date.”

“Our bill responds to a fundamental need on our nation’s Indian reservations: safe, adequate housing for low income Indian people. Without adequate housing, families can’t thrive and parents can’t provide a healthy environment for their children so they can do well in school and life. This problem takes a toll on entire reservation communities and we have to address it,” Barrasso said. “I look forward to working with the Chairwoman and other members of the Committee to move this bill forward in the Senate as soon as possible.”

This bill improves the current law by:

Increasing usage of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits by developers and investors that target projects serving Indian communities.

Elimination of duplicative requirements when multiple agencies are involved in a housing-related project by identifying the majority federal partner and using that agency’s standards.

Allowing Tribes access to the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH).

Promoting clean energy and sustainable projects by raising the total development cost ceilings cited as barriers to building energy-efficient housing.

An estimated 200,000 housing units are needed immediately in Indian Country and approximately 90,000 Native families are homeless or under-housed. A 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report found that Native Americans make up 8% of the country’s homeless population, while they comprise less than 1% of the general population. Nearly 46% of Native households are overcrowded, a rate almost three times that of the rest of the country, according to a 2010 report from the General Accounting Office.

In 2002, NAHASDA was reauthorized for five years, and was again reauthorized in 2008 for a five-year period which expires in September 2013. NAHASDA replaced funding under the 1937 Housing Act with Indian Housing Block Grants and provided Tribes with the choice of administering the block grant themselves or through their existing Indian Housing Authorities or their Tribally-designated housing entities.

Haggen recalls ground beef sold at stores outside Whatcom County

Haggen has recalled some ground beef because of the threat of E. coli, but none of it was sold at stores in Whatcom County.

If you bought beef under the NatureSource label at Haggen or TOP Food stores outside Whatcom County, you might be affected.

Here is the information from Haggen.

Posted by DEBBIE TOWNSEND on August 1, 2013

The Bellingham Herald

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (August 1, 2013) — In an abundance of caution, Haggen, Inc. today announced it is issuing a recall prompted by a nationwide recall from ground beef supplier National Beef Packing Company. National Beef announced the recall of approximately 50,100 pounds of ground beef due to a sample testing positive for E. coli O157:H7. There have been no reported illnesses related to the recall.

Haggen’s recall is isolated to the 97% lean ground beef sold under the NatureSource label produced on July 18, 2013, with a use by/freeze by date of August 7, 2013.

The recalled item was sold in Haggen stores in Snohomish and Oregon City, as well as TOP Food & Drug stores in Olympia, Woodinville and Grays Harbor, Washington.

Haggen has removed the affected product from its stores and initiated its customer recall notification system. The company is asking customers of the affected stores to carefully check their refrigerators and freezers for recalled ground beef. Any opened or unopened products included in this recall should not be consumed and should be returned to their local Haggen or TOP Food & Drug store for a full refund.

Consumers who have questions about the recall may contact Haggen at 1-360-733-8720 or may contact National Beef’s consumer relations toll free at 1-800-449-BEEF.

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service advises all consumers to safely prepare their raw meat products, including fresh and frozen, and only consume ground beef that has been cooked to a temperature of 160° F. The only way to confirm that ground beef is cooked to a temperature high enough to kill harmful bacteria is to use a food thermometer that measures internal temperature.