Klickitat County in south-central Washington sees the most traffic, with 19 trains of over 1 million gallons per week passing through. Adams, Franklin, Skamania and Clark counties each have a listed count of 18 trains per week. More than 10 trains per week also pass through King, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane counties.
The notifications were provided as part of an emergency order from the U.S. Department of Transportation, meant to ensure state regulators and emergency responders were well informed about the shipments of particularly volatile Bakken oil, which has been involved in a string of fiery explosions.
Those notifications became the subject of a transparency debate after the railroads asked states to sign nondisclosure agreements. Washington refused to sign the agreement, saying it would violate the state’s public records law. But upon receiving public records requests the state gave the railroads a 10-day window to seek court injunctions.
After no railroads sought injunctions, the state posted all of the records online Tuesday.
Three other railroads also filed notifications. Union Pacific informed the state it does carry enough Bakken crude — meaning no shipments of more than 1 million gallons or roughly 35 tank cars — to be required to disclose. Portland and Western Railroad carries trains three trains per week from Vancouver across the Columbia river and into Clatskanie, Oregon. Tacoma Rail handles three trains per week in Pierce County received from BNSF.
In Oregon, Union Pacific, Portland and Western and BNSF all filed notifications. Oregon has yet to decide whether it will release the information to the public. Richard Hoover, spokesman for the State Fire Marshal’s office, said a decision is still likely a week or more away.
Data Sources: BNSF, Energy Information Administration, National Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau. Map by Jordan Wirfs-Brock, courtesy of Inside Energy.
FILE — In this file photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and shot Oct. 29, 2013, orca whales from the J and K pods swim past a small research boat on Puget Sound in view of downtown Seattle. AP Photo/NOAA Fisheries Service, Candice Emmons
Following the release of a federal report on the state of endangered orcas, one local researcher says there’s one factor that matters more to the whales’ wellness than toxins and vessel traffic: fish.
Ken Balcomb, whom many regard as the godfather of whale conservation, is the director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor. For almost 40 years now, the center has been keeping track of every individual whale in the three pods that make up the southern resident population of the iconic orcas that live in Puget Sound.
Balcomb says among the risk factors outlined in the report summarizing a decade of research, the orcas’ food is what matters most. They are very picky eaters, and scientists now know that about 80 percent of their diet consists of chinook salmon, another endangered species. So, if we want to recover orcas, says Balcomb, we need to focus on recovering that specific species of salmon.
“They need food. And that’s where the emphasis should be, is on enhancement of the chinook salmon stocks in the Salish Sea and the whole eastern Pacific,” he said. “We’re just not going to have a predator population without a sufficient food population.”
The research also shows the orcas hunt less and call louder when vessels are in the area, and they head to the outer coast during the winter, foraging as far south as central California. Toxins are also a factor in whale mortality, says Balcomb; high levels are found in their blubber.
But he says transient orcas are surviving in growing numbers despite these conditions, because their diet includes seals and porpoises, and they have plenty to eat. The toxins only become a critical factor when the whales are going hungry and living off their fat, triggering the toxins’ release, according to Balcomb.
Notah Begay III tees off, Saturday, on the 15th hole during the San Juan Open golf tournament at San Juan Country Club (AP Photo/The Daily Times, Jon Austria)
The greatest tip I ever received on a golf course happens to have come from the same guy who gave me the greatest quote I ever got while covering an event:
Notah Begay III.
As a senior at Albuquerque Academy during the 36-hole state golf championships in 1990, Begay had taken an ungodly lead after the opening round.
I knew there was no way he could lose, but I also knew – despite his remarkable skills – he was still just a high school kid.
So I tossed him a softball. Something like, “You’re up by double-digits, but you still need to just focus on your game and not worry about anyone else, right? I guess anything can still happen, right?”
Wrong.
Begay said something along the lines of “the only thing that can happen is I’m going to win. The only thing in doubt is if I will break the scoring record.”
Then came a quip for the ages:
“Today I waxed ‘em – tomorrow I’m going to buff ‘em.”
I didn’t want to bury the kid, so I called his dad, Notah Jr., and asked him what he thought.
“Print it,” Begay Jr., said with a belly laugh. “Print it. I love it.”
Sure enough, Begay III got the evil eye from just about every other kid, while they grumbled and stumbled through round 2. Begay III, meanwhile, went on to his second straight state title in record-setting fashion.
As for the tip, it came a few years later while playing a round of golf together. I hit an unlucky shot that bounced off a pole or sign or something, which started my usual whining about my bad luck.
Begay turned to me, held up his index finger and said “The game gives you what you deserve.”
I thought, “How true.”
If you’re playing well, the score almost always reflects it – and vice versa. More importantly, there are as many fortunate bounces in golf as unfortunate ones. They truly do even out in the long run.
That was more than 20 years ago, and I haven’t complained about a bad bounce since.
Home again
Begay, an Albuquerque native who now makes his home in Dallas, has been in town the past few weeks preparing for his inaugural Rio Grande Charity Slam. The event – with a junior golf clinic and banquet on Thursday and a celebrity golf tournament on Friday at Santa Ana Golf Club – is raising money for the Notah Begay III Foundation and the Jewish Community Center. His foundation raises thousands of dollars to launch, sustain and expand programming to combat health issues threatening Native children – more than 20,000 in 13 states of whom have benefited from the programs, and 75 percent of those in New Mexico.
Begay, a four-time PGA Tour winner and a full-blooded Native American, has been in the news a great deal the past year. He became an analyst for Golf Channel, has stayed very active with his foundation and made national headlines with a comment about Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder.
And – despite being just 41 – he suffered a heart attack in April.
On Saturday, after the third round of the 72-hole San Juan Open in Farmington, Begay and I shared a few laughs and a lot of thoughts.
Mark Smith: First off, how is your health?
Notah Begay III: Good. I mean, you wouldn’t be able to tell two months ago that I had a heart attack. I’m a little weak, I lost a little bit of distance in terms of my golf. But I got a lot back in terms of my health. I’ve gotten better, I’ve got more energy. I feel pretty lucky to have gone through it so well.
MS: Not to be too dramatic, but what was going through your mind when you were having the heart attack?
NB: Just shear shock. ‘How did I end up here?’ It was a complete surprise, in terms of, ‘I’m 41-years-old, I exercise on a regular basis, I eat well – and I had a heart attack.’ It wasn’t really until about three or four days after that I really started to ascertain all of the possibilities and outcomes that could have been. There’s been a lot of people in my situation that could have died, because they weren’t close to a hospital, or had more arteries blocked. I’m really lucky that it worked out.
MS: Your father also has serious health issues. (He recently became visually impaired, and last month was hospitalized for a couple weeks after falling down some stairs at home.) How much tougher has that made things?
NB: One of the toughest things with dealing with the heart attack, was my dad took that spill and broke his ribs. It all makes me realize even more so, what we teach (in the NB3F) about eating better, staying healthy, getting exercise. It’s been a tough time for sure. It opens your eyes even more so.
MS: This week you have your event at Santa Ana. Are you ready?
NB: I can’t wait. It looks like (former Lobo and PGA Tour pro) Tim Herron’s going to be here. We have a nice group of celebrities, and people who support what we’re doing. That’s all you can ask for.
MS: In April, you made news by telling USA Today you are against the Washington Redskins keeping their nickname, and you said owner Dan Snyder’s Original Americans Foundation was “more of a gimmick.” Did you have much controversy over your comments?
NB: No, not at all. I think most people would agree that the Washington football team needs to change its mascot name. Some would argue they should keep it. The simplest argument, which is not necessarily the right one, is it’s not an issue of being politically correct. Being politically correct is vastly different than using a dictionary-defined racial slur as a representation of a national franchise. I’m not trying to nit-pick on the political correctness, I just think we’re at a day and age that we should be demonstrating to the younger generations that we’re willing to embrace all the cultures.
MS: You and your brother Clint were raised in a house (on the 14th fairway) at Ladera (Golf Course). Do you ever go look from the backyard and think about old times there?
“My dad (and his wife, Claire) lives on the sixth green now, and I go to that back patio and watch people play the sixth green. And I think of how many times I’ve played the sixth hole. All the skins games, all the calcuttas, all the high school tournaments, the city tournaments – ever since I was 9 years old. Going from a junior playing in the Sun Country, to Stanford, to the PGA Tour to an analyst on the Golf Channel now? You couldn’t have written this script. Ever.
MS: You told me 20 years ago that you’d never forget your roots. This week shows you haven’t.
NB: A lot of that comes from my respect for the culture and tradition I came from, my dad and mom and the Native American heritage. I’ve since transposed that to the respect and admiration for 71 years at the City (Amateur) tournament, or 50 years (at San Juan Open), and how much goes into these events; how much the community and sponsors put into these events. These things don’t just happen by themselves. It’s a reflection of our love for the game. And so much has been given to me through golf, it would be very unappreciative for me not to give back through the game.
MS: Speaking of the San Juan, they listed the (third-round) cut as being the top 26 and ties. Initially, you missed by a shot. But then they decided to let in 33 players, including you, causing some players to call it “The Notah Rule.” But the sponsors enjoyed it.
NB: That’s too funny (laugh). On the PGA Tour, they always talk about “The Tiger Rules.” Now there’s “The Notah Rules.” I guess I’ve arrived.
MS: One last thing. We’ve talked about it before – the greatest quote in the history of sport. You remember it?
NB: (Belly laugh). I was a cocky senior at Albuquerque Academy (laugh). ‘Today I’m going to wax ‘em and tomorrow I’m going to ‘buff em (laugh).’ And I backed it up.
Tester Remains Committed to Finding a Path to Improving Economic Conditions Across Indian Country
Source: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Chairman Jon Tester
U.S. SENATE – Today, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Jon Tester (D – Mont.) held a hearing on economic and business conditions in Indian country. Access to capital remains a primary factor leading to stagnant economic growth on reservations.
“Over the last few months, I’ve highlighted the need for better education for Indian children. However, better learning opportunities will go for naught if tribal economies are struggling – forcing students to take their skills and find jobs elsewhere,” Tester said. “We can’t let that happen. Our First Americans should not have to choose between making a good living away from their family and homelands or living in poverty.”
According to the 2013 American Indian Population and Labor Force Report, only 50% of all Native Americans living in or near tribal areas, who are 16 years or older, are employed. Additionally, an estimated 23% of all Native American families in the United States in 2010 earned income below the poverty line.
“Despite notable progress over recent years, there still remains private sector uncertainty about whether Indian Country is a good investment,” said William Lettig, Executive Vice President of KeyBank. “This uncertainty, which I believe is based on lack of information and understanding about Indian Country, has a chilling effect on capital markets’ appetite for investing in Indian Country.”
Kevin J. Allis, Executive Director, Native American Contractors Association, said, “The communities which Native enterprises serve remain some of the poorest and most underserved groups in the United States. There is still tremendous work to be done in effecting positive and sustainable benefits for these communities.”
Gerald Sherman, Vice Chairman, Native CDFI Network, outlined the challenges, “Native communities experience substantially higher rates of poverty and unemployment than mainstream America and face a unique set of challenges to economic growth. Lack of physical, legal, and telecommunications infrastructure; access to affordable financial products and services; and limited workforce development strategies are common challenges that Native entrepreneurs, homebuyers, and consumers face and must overcome.”
Tester focused on programs that have shown results in Indian Country, “There are success stories out there. We have programs, such as the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and the Department of the Interiors’ Indian Loan Guarantee Program, that, when well-executed and properly funded, are attracting investment into tribal communities.”
Dennis Nolan, Acting Director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), provided an overview of the impact of the federal program he leads. “The Fund’s work in Indian Country is born of an awareness that Native communities all across the nation continue to face extraordinary economic challenges that limit access to capital. Since it was launched in 2001, the Native American CDFI Assistance Program has provided awards totaling more than $93 million to help Native CDFIs deliver financial services and financial products to their communities. What started as just a few Native CDFIs ten years ago has now grown to 68, headquartered in 21 states.”
Gary Davis, President and CEO of The National Center for American Indian Enterprise
Development, said, “The more successful federal business development programs are those that are specifically designed to help startups and larger companies in Indian Country. What does not work well is the ‘square peg – round hole’ approach of repackaging legacy federal programs and dictating how assistance must be delivered and to what size of business.”
Tester vowed to continue to examine solutions to unlock potential investment and development in Indian Country. The Committee has already adopted significant legislation that will directly impact and assist economic development in Indian Country such as the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act, the Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act, and the Carcieri fix.
MIAMI — In a lab on Virginia Key, a group of baby fish are being put through their paces on a tiny fish treadmill.
The inch-long mahi-mahi, being used as part of a study to assess damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that spread crude across the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days in 2010, were exposed when they were embryos to oil collected during the cleanup. Now, at 25 days old, the oil is doing exactly what scientists suspected it would do: hamper the swimming of one of the ocean’s fastest fish.
And significantly so. Young mahi usually swim at a rate of five body lengths per second. For perspective, imagine a 6-foot man swimming 30 feet in a second. The fish, struggling against a current in a little tube attached to a propeller called a swim tunnel, can only muster three body lengths.
For a fish that needs speed to survive, this could mean bad news. Mahi, one of the most popular fish on menus, is already heavily fished. So losing a generation to an oil spill could take a toll. It also suggests that other fish suffered from the spill.
“Any life form is optimized compromise,” Martin Grosell, one of the study’s authors, said as a way of explaining physiology perfectly evolved to maximize speed. And if you mess with that treaty of parts, he said, “you’re going to increase its vulnerability.”
The treadmill study marks the second in recent months by the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science that has found that oil from the largest spill in U.S. history damages young pelagic fish, the large predators found in the open ocean. In March, UM researchers working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists determined that the BP oil also damaged the hearts of tuna embryos, a condition that likely killed them in the wild.
Both studies – disputed by BP – are worrisome because tuna, whose numbers have dropped by as much as 75 percent in the last 40 years, and mahi began their spring spawning just as the spill occurred, sending fragile embryos across warm surface waters and into a patchwork of oil slicks that covered more than six square miles.
These newest findings, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, build on that earlier report by looking at fish as they age.
BP says the study is invalid because, according to the company, the tests used concentrations of oil not found in the Gulf during or after the spill. Researchers also failed to look at adult fish, spokesman Jason Ryan said in a statement.
“The tests only looked at impacts to fish under one year of age,” he said. “Even if there had been an effect on a single-year class of such fish, the study does not provide any evidence to show that an effect on that group of fish would have had a population-level impact.”
After the spill, NOAA began enlisting scientists to investigate the damage it caused – so far, the studies range from the acoustic damage done to endangered sperm whales to oil in fiddler crabs. For pelagic fish, which are particularly sensitive to changes in their near-constant deep-water environment, scientists want to know how much oil it takes to affect the fish and what those effects are.
To test the mahi, researcher Ed Mager first mixed oil from the spill and seawater in a Waring blender at concentrations replicating the spill. He exposed one group of embryos to the mix for two days and then raised them in clean seawater. Another group was raised in clean water and exposed to oil when they reached about 25 days.
Mager also wanted to ensure that no other factors stressed their performance. Like all babies, the mahi startle easily. So he wrapped the treadmill – a clear, four-inch swim tunnel outfitted with a propeller and immersed in a two-foot tank – in black plastic. Mager, who studied deadly respiratory viruses in premature human babies before he switched to fish, then curtained off the area and monitored his little subjects with a video camera.
Mahi are carnivores and foragers, so they swim fast. But when he turned on the treadmill, Mager was surprised to see that the outwardly healthy fish swam much slower. The ones exposed as embryos swam 37 percent slower. Those exposed as juveniles dropped 22 percent.
Because they are so sensitive to change, pelagic fish – and particularly fragile embryos and juveniles – can act as a kind of canary in a coal mine. So the information that Mager and the team have collected for the study, one of several ongoing at the school, will be fed to modelers to determine a more expansive view of the ecosystem after the spill and help figure out the limits for how much oil it can tolerate before damage happens.
“We’ll be a little closer to knowing what to look for and how bad when, I cynically say, the next spill happens. Because it will,” Grosell said.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/24/4197992/study-finds-oil-from-bp-spill.html#storylink=cpy
Indian activists in Illinois are planning to file a lawsuit against the Cleveland Major League Baseball team.
Activists have been protesting the team’s Chief Wahoo mascot for decades. They hope the lawsuit leads to the elimination of the racist symbol.
“We’re going to be asking for $9 billion and we’re basing it on a hundred years of disparity, racism, exploitation and profiteering,” Robert Roche, the director of the American Indian Education Center and one of the plaintiffs in the forthcoming suit, told ABC News.
Roche, who can be seen in the photo above on the opening day of the team’s season, said the lawsuit will be filed by the end of July.
“The cigarettes sold today are quite different from the cigarettes that were on the market five decades ago, according to the new report, and that’s because tobacco companies have done extensive research to figure out how to make smoking appealing for new customers. “
Fifty years ago, the U.S. surgeon general tied tobacco to lung cancer for the first time. Since then, additional scientific research has linked smoking with a host of other health issues, and efforts to publicize those harmful side effects helped spur a historic decline in the number of Americans who regularly smoke. Nonetheless, more than 42 million adults remain addicted to cigarettes, and the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that tobacco is still the greatest public health challenge of our time.
Why is tobacco still at the top of the CDC’s list? Why haven’t we moved past this yet? Largely because cigarette manufacturers have worked hard to keep their products relevant even in the midst of aggressive public health campaigns to crack down on smoking, according to a new report released on Monday by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The cigarettes sold today are quite different from the cigarettes that were on the market five decades ago, according to the new report, and that’s because tobacco companies have done extensive research to figure out how to make smoking appealing for new customers. They’ve essentially made it easier to get hooked on their products by increasing the levels of nicotine — the addictive chemical in cigarettes — and using new additives to help enhance nicotine’s impact. They’ve also added flavoring, sugars, and menthol to mask the effect of inhaling smoke, ultimately hoping that will make it more pleasurable to use cigarettes:
“Most people would think that 50 years after we learned that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, cigarettes would be safer. What’s shocking about the report we issued today is that we’ve found that a smoker today has more than twice the risk of lung cancer than a smoker fifty years ago, as a direct result of design changes made by the industry,” Matt Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in an interview with ThinkProgress.
On top of that, Myers’ organization notes that these corporations have made calculated moves to create the next generation of smokers, according to internal marketing documents from tobacco companies that have been made public as a result of litigation against them. Brands like Marlboro, Newport, and Camel have specifically worked to attract younger customers in order to remain viable, citing statistics that most regular smokers pick up the habit before they turn 18.
Most people know that cigarette makers have historically worked to target young people with their advertising. Indeed, before increased regulation attempted to rein in this practice, it used to be even more explicit than it is now. For instance, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company infamously used the cartoon character Joe Camel to help sell their cigarettes in the 1990s, a practice that mobilized anti-tobacco advocates to fight hard against marketing aimed at younger Americans.
But the new report finds that tobacco companies have actually gone even further to woo teens. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company didn’t just rely on its camel; it also looked to change its cigarettes to appeal to a younger demographic. “Two key areas identified for improvement were smoothness and sweetness delivery. Smoothness is an identified opportunity area for improvement versus Marlboro, and sweetness can impart a different delivery taste dimension which younger adult smokers may be receptive to,” a 1985 product development plan for the company noted.
“We would have thought, with the tobacco industry claiming they don’t market to kids, that they wouldn’t be making design changes that increase the number of our kids who smoke,” Myers said. “But they have, quietly and behind the scenes.”
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ report was released to coincide with the five year anniversary of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, historic legislation that gave the FDA power to regulate tobacco products and marketing efforts. At the time, that measure was hailed as the “toughest anti-tobacco bill in American history” — and Myers’ group wants the government to use it to undo some of the changes that have been made to cigarettes over the past several decades.
“At a very minimum, the FDA should act swiftly to require the tobacco industry to reverse all the steps they’ve taken to make these products more dangerous, more addictive, and more appealing to our kids,” Myers said. “I think this report tells us that the tobacco industry has not reformed over the last 50 years.”
Honorable Judge Gary Bass Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Judge Gary Bass discusses his career at Tulalip Tribal Court
By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
TULALIP – Honorable Judge Gary Bass, a Colville tribal citizen, has been a staple at the Tulalip Tribal Court for over a decade. He has witnessed the growth in staff, programs, and the selection of the court as one of three chosen as a pilot project to exercise special criminal jurisdiction as authorized by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 over non-Indians regarding domestic violence.
Recently Judge Bass received a lifetime achievement award from the Northwest Indian Bar Association in recognition for his long-term work in Indian country. The award recognizes his 49 years of law practice and work with Native communities. Tulalip News /See-Yaht-Sub was able to sit down with Judge Bass and discuss his work in Indian country and his retirement from Tulalip Tribal Court at the end of this year.
The decision to practice law
“I was a young officer in the Army, and when you are a young officer, people that are up for special courts marshals can request that they have an officer, even though they are not a lawyer, represent them. I did that a few times and I really enjoyed it. I had never thought about being a lawyer until that time. I had an old lieutenant colonel that was my regimental commander, I went to him and said, ‘you know, I am thinking about staying in the Army or I am going to law school.’ He said, go to law school. I never knew if that was a result of him thinking I was a lousy solider or he thought law school would be a better fit for me.”
The change from lawyer to judge
“I was in King County and I had a large practice. One of the court commissioners there asked if I would like to come and sit, as what they call a pro tem judge, in King County Superior Court on ex parte, and I said yes. I did that for 20 years, two to four days a month, and that was really the start of me being a judge. The reason I came here to Tulalip is because Mike Taylor called me, and said, ‘gee you know anybody that would like to come up here and sit as the criminal court judge three days a week?’ At that time I was thinking about going semi-retired, but I said, well sure. It was three days a week but immediately it became full time, and of course I have been here ever since. It has been a great ride. I have really enjoyed it. I had never thought about becoming a tribal court judge until Mike brought the issue up. It was a better fit than being in the Superior Court because I probably would have been appointed to the Superior Court as a minority candidate, but I didn’t really want to do that. So this was the best thing that could have happened to me.”
Life at Tulalip Tribal Court
“At Tulalip Tribal Court we hear all kinds of cases. Everything you can think of, from child custody to youth-in-need-of-care cases to criminal and so forth. Our days are really pretty busy. We have ex parte that we have two times a week, where we sign orders for people that need to get orders signed for default divorces, guardianships, probates, restraining orders for domestic violence cases, and minor settlement, and once a week I have the domestic violence staff-in meeting. It gets busy.”
Law in Indian Country, what makes it so different
“Tulalip Chief Judge Theresa Pouley and I are Native Americans, and we look upon the folks that come before us in the courts differently than we would in state courts. In state courts you probably are never going to see the individual in front of you again. Here, we get so that we know all the people that come before us. We know their family and we know all the things about them. Of course we look upon them as judges, but you kind of look at it more as of an elder guide. Their welfare and everyone that comes before us is extremely important to us. It is a different relationship and you get to be a part of the community here.”
“The law is frequently the same, but the things that are different of course are elders are treated with respect. We like to let folks have their say in court, which a lot of times in state courts the things that we allow people to talk about would never ever happen. Native Americans were treated so badly by the courts and justice systems that it is important to us to let them have their say. Some things that are said are not necessarily relevant to the case, but they should be entitled to have their say. As a result, we have a different attitude towards them. We regard everybody here as our brothers and sisters, and we are responsible for trying to solve their problems.”
Tulalip Tribal Court Honorable Judge Gary Bass (seated) explains Miranda rights to students during Heritage Law Day in 2013. Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
What Tulalip gave in return
“It has made me more aware of all the problems through the years that Native Americans have had, from generational trauma from sending them to the boarding schools and all the problems that have occurred because of that. It has made me aware of that and given me much more understanding of it, and the way we do things.”
“I was never a pow wow guy. My family lived on the [Colville] reservation and we did all the things that we normally do on the reservation, but we weren’t intimately involved in the cultural aspects of the tribe. So being here has made me more aware and respectful of all the traditions and culture of Native Americans. I have learned a lot that I never knew before. It has really been instructive to me as a Native American. As a judge, it has made me more understanding, and more willing to try to help people. One of the things I have always said is, when we get done, nobody is going to have statues of us like people in Washington D.C. and we are not going to have books written about us; our main legacy is that we have made lives better for our Native American brothers and sisters. That is our legacy and that is what drives me to want to do this.”
The awards
“I received a lifetime achievement award from the Northwest Indian Bar Association. It is recognition for someone’s long-term work they’ve done in Indian Country. At this point I have been working in Indian country, either urban or with tribes, for 48 years, so it is in recognition of that. When I was in Seattle I was very active in the urban Indian community.”
“I also have a plaque from the Martin Dale Hubbell organization, which is a world wide organization that sends out surveys to judges and attorneys to anonymously rate people. This award says I am AV, which means I have the highest ranking in legal and ethical ability that they can give. For me that was a great honor because it is from your peers. “
Accomplishing the task
“I am very satisfied with my career. I don’t think if I had to go back and do it again I would do anything any different. I have been very fortunate in a lot of ways, like coming here, I think that was the best thing that could have happened to me. I never had aspirations for being a Supreme Court judge, I always wanted to be a very good trial lawyer and I think I was. The crowning pinnacle of my career has been here at the Tribal Court, because hopefully I have helped make things better for Tulalip tribal members. The whole Court has contributed to the justice system here and the Tulalip Tribal Court is recognized through the nation as either one of the best or the best tribal courts in the nation. That is a result of the teamwork from the Board of Directors to all the departments, court staff and reservation attorneys. This Tribe should be proud of its court because it truly is one of the best.”
Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com
Damian Mulinix A crowd of tribal members and spectators take to the beach below Fort Columbia to honor the arrival of a canoe that carries the first salmon during Friday’s ceremony.
The Chinook Indian Tribe is fighting once again for federal recognition after the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs proposed changes to rules governing the process in May.
Under the revisions, currently unrecognized tribes, like the Chinook and dozens of others across the nation, would only need to prove continued existence back to 1934. Before, they had to provide documentation back into the 1800s.
Following the First Salmon Ceremony and Annual Meeting in Chinook last week, the Chinook Tribal Council began to plan. The first public meeting on the proposed rule changes will be held in Louisiana on Tuesday, July 1. The next public meeting will occur July 15 in Portland. (For details, see tinyurl.com/oq253k2)
“We’re trying to figure out who the folks are that we’d like to invite,” said Sam Robinson, acting chairman of the Chinook Tribal Council. Longtime Chairman Ray Gardner has stepped down from an active role on the council due to poor health.
Former Congressman Brian Baird has long been an advocate for Chinook recognition and told the council recently that he will continue to fight for them.
“It could be a full house,” Robinson said.
Recognition
The overarching Chinook Nation traditionally includes five tribes: the Lower Chinook, Cathlamet, Clatsop, Willapa and Wahkaikum tribes. However, the Clatsops on the south side of the Columbia now have a separate tribal organization in partnership with the Nehalem Tribe of northern Tillamook County. The Clatsop-Nehalem are pursuing federal recognition on a track independent of that of the Chinook Tribe in Pacific County.
Since explorers and sailors first encountered the Pacific Northwest, they have written about the Chinook people and the Chinook show up in nearly every history book about the region. Federal recognition, however, has been more elusive. They made a treaty with the U.S. at Tansy Point, Ore., in 1851 but Congress didn’t ratify the treaty.
Today, the Chinook have no reservation lands and no federal benefits though many were allowed to enroll in the tribe of their historical enemies, the federally recognized Quinault Indian Nation.
But they want to be known as the Chinook people and have pushed for this recognition for the last 40 years.
The Chinook were briefly recognized as a tribe in the closing days of the Clinton administration in January 2001, but in 2002 this was rescinded by the Bush administration, which cited irregularities in the process.
New rules
The Chinook blame politics.
The recognition process is long and complicated, often taking decades — several reasons for the proposed revisions to the rule now, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“The current process has been criticized as ‘broken’ or in need of reform,” the bureau wrote in the document outlining the changes. “Specifically, the process has been criticized as too slow… expensive, burdensome, inefficient, intrusive, less than transparent and unpredictable.”
Over the years, recognized tribes have also challenged the proofs put forward by unrecognized tribes.
In 1997, the Quinault Indian Nation filed a lawsuit in Tacoma’s U.S. District Court against the Chinook and Cowlitz tribes, which were both seeking recognition at the time. The Quinault asked the judge to halt the proceedings until they could examine the documents and records federal agencies were using to determine tribal status. They argued that the process unfairly favored the two tribes.
Though the lawsuit was eventually shot down and the Cowlitz maintained the federal recognition granted in 2000, litigation further slowed the process for the Chinook. Robinson and others on the Chinook Tribal Council worry it could happen again.
The Chinook aren’t interested in opening a casino, he said. It is unlikely they would get much by way of fishing rights.
“We need to be able to take care of ourselves,” he said. “Take care of our elders. The youth in our community.”
“You want to be on equal playing grounds with other tribes,” he added.
“We don’t have the services that everybody else has,” said Tony Johnson, chair of the Chinook culture committee and newly elected to the tribal council, at the tribe’s First Salmon Ceremony June 20.
Meanwhile, he said, the tribe has inherited other things common to recognized tribes: displacement, loss of tradition, drug and other substance abuse issues.
“We’ve managed to stay here,” said Peggy Disney, tribal secretary, standing in the middle of a circle of tribal members June 20, salmon smoking on cedar racks behind her. “But we have paid a large price to do so.”
First Salmon
There is one thing the Chinook have gained by continuing to go unrecognized: With no official programs in place to commemorate or build on Chinook traditions, the tribal members have had to cling to their history, passing it on carefully to their children.
“We had to hang onto it,” Robinson said. “We don’t have to squabble over money, that’s for sure.”
Over the years, he and Johnson have seen a growing interest among young Chinook to know their history and traditions.
It gives them hope that no matter how long this next fight for recognition might last, the generation behind them is ready for the challenge.
At a First Salmon Ceremony June 20, an important annual ritual for many Columbia River tribes, the atmosphere was like a family reunion. Parents, grandparents, children and guests of the Chinook Tribe welcomed a canoe paddled by tribal members. They shared cooked pieces of the first salmon and drank from Dixie cups filled with water drawn from a spring flowing on their traditional lands. They raised their hands to each other and gathered in a circle to drum and sing.
HELENA – Two Chippewa Cree tribal leaders were indicted Tuesday on charges they took cash and vehicles as kickbacks on lucrative business contracts awarded for work on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in north-central Montana.
The charges against Chippewa Cree Business Committee member John “Chance” Houle and former chairman Bruce Sunchild are the latest in an ongoing federal investigation into corruption on Montana’s Indian reservations. The investigation already has resulted in a round of convictions at Rocky Boy earlier this year, including a guilty plea by state Rep. Tony Belcourt in April to theft, bribery and tax-evasion charges.
Houle pleaded not guilty Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong in Great Falls. Sunchild was arrested after he failed to appear in court Tuesday morning. He later pleaded not guilty.
Larry Denny, a spokesman for the tribe, said he was unaware of the charges against Houle and Sunchild, and he declined to comment.
Houle was originally indicted with Belcourt in 2013, but federal prosecutors dropped the charges against him without explanation. In three new indictments unsealed Tuesday, Houle faces 10 charges that include conspiracy to embezzle tribal funds, theft, bribery and obstruction of justice.
Houle received nearly $307,000 between 2009 and 2011 in exchange for contracts he awarded Hunter Burns Construction Co., which was partly owned by James Eastlick Jr., a former psychologist at the reservation’s health clinic, prosecutors said in the indictments.
Eastlick, who is not named as a defendant, previously pleaded guilty to bribing Belcourt. Prosecutors said in the new indictments that Eastlick and Houle falsified documents to cover their tracks after learning of the federal investigation.
Houle also is accused of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from a bank account for the Chippewa Cree Rodeo Association, which prosecutors said had deposits of $2 million between 2009 and 2012 from rodeo events and contributions from tribes and businesses.
Houle and another tribal member disguised the payments to look like legitimate rodeo expenses, prosecutors said. He received cash and to buy a vehicle for his daughter, the indictment said.
Houle also used an intermediary to transfer money from the rodeo account to Belcourt’s wife to pay for a home in Box Elder, prosecutors said.
Houle is charged with fabricating documents to make the transfers appear legitimate once they learned of the federal investigation.
Sunchild was charged in a separate indictment with conspiracy to embezzle tribal money, theft and bribery.
Prosecutors said Sunchild and Belcourt authorized $300,000 in payments to a consulting company owned by Havre businessman Shad Huston. In return, Huston bought a sport utility vehicle for about $25,000 in 2011, and the vehicle’s title was transferred to Sunchild’s daughter, prosecutors said.
The next year, Sunchild authorized the payment of $27,200 to another Huston business and received $15,000 in return, prosecutors said.
Belcourt is not named as a defendant in the new indictments.
