SEATTLE, Sept. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — The Garden City Group, Inc. (Garden City) and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, announced that the first checks were mailed today, Monday, September 15, to the Trust Administration Class in the Cobell Indian Trust Settlement.
On August 30, 2014, the Interior Department provided the data to Garden City, the firm Court-appointed to administer the Settlement, for the payments and on September 11, The United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered an Order approving plaintiffs’ unopposed motion to begin distribution of nearly $950 million. This was the final approval needed to commence payment of the Trust Administration portion of settlement funds to Class Members.
“Garden City is sending checks to Trust Administration Class Members where we have a current address beginning today,” said Jennifer Keough, Chief Operating Officer, Garden City. “Checks may take five to seven days to reach Class Members once they have been mailed.”
The Cobell Settlement is the largest class action settlement against the federal government. Filed in 1996 by the late Elouise Cobell and other Native American leaders, it sought an accounting of the individual Indian trust accounts and reform of the trust system, which had been mismanaged for over a century. Once the case settled, counsel for the Plaintiffs, Bill Dorris and David Smith of Kilpatrick Townsend, and Garden City were tasked with distributing funds to 500,000 individual Indian beneficiaries across the country. However, the records from the Department of Interior reflected decades of neglect.
As David Smith, Counsel for the Cobell Plaintiffs in the Washington, DC office of Kilpatrick Townsend explained, “There were insufficient or absolutely no addresses for over 315,000 class members, 22,000 individuals Interior listed as alive were deceased, over 1,200 Interior listed as deceased we found were still alive, and there were thousands of whom Interior had no record at all. But it was important that Elouise Cobell’s legacy be fulfilled and that class members receive the money to which they were entitled under the Settlement. By working closely with tribes, associations, and individual Indians across the country we were able, in just over a year and a half, to fix trust records that had not been adequately addressed by the federal government for generations.”
EVERETT — The Snohomish County Council last week signed off on an agreement that brings it closer to creating salmon habitat on Smith Island.
The county plans to create a 350-acre wetland at the mouth of the Snohomish River. The $25 million project involves removing dikes and allowing the acreage to flood, turning it back into a saltwater estuary.
Those concerns range from construction traffic at Dagmar’s Marina, sedimentation affecting Buse Timber’s ability to float logs in the river, and saltwater degrading the soil at Hima Nursery.
The three firms, which comprise Diking Improvement District 5, had been negotiating the agreement with the county to clear the way for the project in exchange for assurances that it won’t affect their businesses.
Wednesday’s decision followed a continuation of public comments from the previous week.
Ed Husmann, president of the Farm Bureau, listed a number of concerns his group has had with the project, including that the county hasn’t followed legal processes, that $25 million is an “absurd price” for a project that might return just 800 adult salmon to the area, that the county hasn’t fully investigated the project’s effects on a buried Puget Sound Energy natural gas pipeline, and that no science has been submitted that would show the project would succeed.
“This is not a restoration project,” Husmann said. “There’s no known document that shows Smith Island has ever been salmon habitat.”
Brian Dorsey, deputy prosecuting attorney for Snohomish County, said the signed agreement with the diking district doesn’t commit the county to the project or even authorize the project to begin but, rather, lays down the legal framework under which the project would operate.
The County Council would have to approve a separate ordinance specifically authorizing the work to begin, Dorsey said.
Debbie Terwilleger, the director of the county’s Surface Water Management Program, explained that the project is focused on the creation of habitat for juvenile salmon. The anticipated return of 800 adults to a revitalized estuary could produce up to 250,000 juvenile fish.
Steve Dickson, the special projects manager for the county Public Works department, told the council that the county will need to get approval from Puget Sound Energy before the project can commence.
That agreement should be worked out in the next couple of weeks, Dickson said.
The council voted 3-1 to approve the agreement with the diking district, with Councilman Ken Klein voting against it, citing his opposition to converting agricultural land into an estuary and the need to expand support for local farmers.
“Until I see a reversal of those trends, a reversal of the death spiral of the farming industry, I cannot support one acre being taken out of production in Snohomish County,” Klein said.
Council Chair Dave Somers agreed in spirit but felt that much of the loss of farmland in the county started with converting farmland to development, especially in the Marysville-Arlington area, and restoring salmon habitat was also a commitment the county had to keep.
“We do need to remember that we do have a commitment to everybody, but that doesn’t mean we stop everything in our fish and estuary restoration,” Somers said.
TULALIP – Heritage Hawks welcomed the 2014-15-varsity football season Saturday with a win over Evergreen Lutheran Eagles, 56-46.
The Hawks, who added eight new players this season, battled the Eagles through fumbles, turnovers, and a few hard calls by the referees, before taking the win with a 10-point lead. The return of Robert Miles Jr., and the addition of fullback Jessie Louie, who combined to rush for 329 yards and 8 touchdowns, boosted the Hawks offense.
Organizers with both the People’s Climate March and members of the Flood Wall Street team are already framing their work in terms of “after the march,” springboards for long-term climate justice organizing rather than one-off days of action. (Image: floodwallstreet.net)
Over the past month, the Mayday community space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, has been a buzzing organizational hub in the lead-up to the highly anticipated People’s Climate Mobilization taking place September 20-21 in New York City in advance of the U.N. special session devoted to climate change. But along with providing space and support for the march — including round-the-clock art-making of every conceivable sort — Mayday has also been the incubator for a large scale act of creative civil disobedience planned for lower Manhattan’s Financial District on the morning of Monday, September 22. Entitled Flood Wall Street, the centerpiece of the action is a massive sit-in intended to at once compliment, punctuate and radicalize the politics of the march itself.
Since the basics of the action were released early this month, social media buzz has turned into fever-pitch momentum, with high-profile figures like Naomi Klein, Chris Hedges, and Rebecca Solnit committing themselves to participate in various ways. Also involved is the Climate Justice Alliance, which first put out the call for disruptive direct action over the summer. As energy mounts and commitments roll in from individuals and groups, there is a palpable feeling among organizers that the Monday action has the potential to be an historic watershed, both in its projected scale and the boldness of its message: “Stop capitalism! End the climate crisis!” Potential participants are invited to sign an online “Pledge to #FloodWallStreet” in order to indicate what kind of role they will be able to play in the action.
The symbolic logic of Flood Wall Street is evoked in a beautiful hand-crafted graphic by legendary illustrator Seth Tobocman emblazoned on dozens of signs, flags and banners fabricated during an enormous art-build at Mayday on Sunday: In the image, poisonous effluents ascend into the sky from an archetypical stock exchange building, forming ominous storm clouds emblazoned with the phrase “climate chaos.” The clouds, in turn, rain back into the sea, which surges back toward the land with a tidal wave of human bodies readable as both victims of apocalyptic disaster and agents of a popular storm surging toward the source of the emissions. At once a mythic vision and a simplified diagram of ecological feedback, the image is accompanied by the hashtag #FloodWallStreet.A poster made by Seth Tobocman.
A poster made by Seth Tobocman
The stakes of staging an action in the Financial District on September 22 become clear when understood against the backdrop of the People’s Climate Mobilization and some of the tensions surrounding it. This so-called “weekend to bend the course of history” has two primary components, the energies of which Flood Wall Street organizers hope to both draw upon and intensify in their action.
On the first day of the People’s Climate Mobilization, a distributed “climate convergence” — intended to develop grassroots education and cultivate movement networks — will take place at various sites around the city. This convergence is designed to set the stage for the Climate March on September 21, which is expected to draw over a hundred thousand people from around the country into a massive demonstration through midtown Manhattan. The march is a big-tent affair, with a lofty if generic “demand for action, not words,” addressed at once to the assembled leaders at the United Nations and to “the people who are standing up in our communities, to organize, to build power, to confront the power of fossil fuels, and to shift power to a just, safe, peaceful world.”
For all this talk of action, though, the march itself is designed as a traditional street protest, permitted by the New York Police Department with a predetermined route, marshals and barricades. As Chris Hedges pointed out in an inflammatory take-down of the “last gasp of climate liberals” earlier this month, the big organizations funding the march are determined to play it safe, ideologically and tactically. However, the march will provide a platform for groups like the Climate Justice Alliance that place economic and racial justice at the forefront of their organizing, linking the climate crisis to issues of displacement, housing, food sovereignty and solidarity economies. Further, as an aesthetic event, the march promises to be beautifully kaleidoscopic and poetically inspiring thanks to the artistic organizing efforts of the Sporatorium project headquartered at Mayday.
Finally, as with any large march, the possibility of autonomous actions, diversity of tactics, and unforeseen confrontations is high. All this said, however, the backbone logic of the march is one of appealing to the accountability of elected leaders, with a political horizon defined largely in terms of campaigns like fossil-fuel divestment and socially-equitable green jobs programs.
For the purposes of building a wide-ranging populist coalition aiming to bring thousands into the streets to place climate change at the center of the political landscape, these basic principles make a kind of lowest-common-denominator sense. But for many activists in a city that has over the course of the past three years undergone both the upheaval of Occupy Wall Street and the disaster of Hurricane Sandy, the People’s Climate March is, by itself, lacking the teeth necessary to confront the deeper nature of the emergency. “The climate crisis is not just a narrow ‘environmental’ problem of resources or jobs in need of better management,” Flood Wall Street organizer Sandra Nurse said. “It is the supreme symptom of a political and economic system that is bankrupt to its core.”
According to Nurse, the action will project “an explicitly anti-capitalist message” that can take advantage of whatever space is created by Sunday’s march. The setting for the two events is telling: While the one on Sunday is a permitted march through midtown Manhattan, Flood Wall Street is intended to be a disruptive direct action right at the front door of the climate criminals themselves.
At 9 a.m. on Monday, participants are invited to begin gathering at Battery Park just down from the iconic Wall Street bull. People are invited to wear blue and to bring blue materials of all sorts to enhance the visual narrative of a “flood” — including the possibility of a single gigantic blue banner visible from the sky. The brief programming during the gathering-period will involve food, music courtesy of Rude Mechanical Orchestra, and speakers from frontline communities, kicked off by 13-year-old artist-prodigy Ta’Kaiya Blaney of Sliammon First Nation and numerous members of the Climate Justice Alliance from around the world. Also scheduled to speak are high-profile writers like Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit and Chris Hedges. Following that will be a mass training session led by direct action specialists Lisa Fithian and Monica Hunken that will combine physical exercises with choreographed ritual intended to symbolically highlight the action-logic of the “flood” in advance of inundating the Financial District with bodies.
For obvious reasons, tactical details about the sit-in are under wraps, but an explicit call has indeed been made for it to occur at 12 p.m. What ultimately transpires is of course a wildcard, but the guiding intention is to stay put and to hold space.
“With the right numbers, the action has the potential to be a game-changer,” organizer Zak Solomon said. “Of all the times for folks to risk arrest, this is a historic occasion to do so with a massive base of support and visibility.” However, Solomon added, “Obviously not everyone is in a position to take an arrest. While no action is ever completely without risk, Flood Wall Street is designed to be inclusive, and to facilitate the participation and support of non-arrestable people, too. The key thing is to have a critical mass of bodies in the Financial District at a moment in which the whole world will be watching New York.
Speaking to this imperative of capitalizing on the global media presence expected in the city for that week, David Solnit, an artist and direct action veteran of the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, described Flood Wall Street as a “counter-spectacle” to the U.N. conference, one that will “intervene and disrupt the hollow public relations spectacle of Obama and the United Nations with the simple message: Corporate capitalism equals climate crisis.”
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Flood Wall Street is an evocative metaphor for both ecological crisis and popular power. Yet it also has an uncanny resonance with the recent history of New York City. Indeed, a little more than two years ago, the Financial District was literally engulfed by floodwaters in a scenario that had otherwise seemed imaginable only in a Hollywood disaster fantasy. As evoked in a Flood Wall Street meme, the iconic Wall Street bull was in fact surrounded by seawater. Business was shuttered, power was knocked out, and the skyline went black — except for Goldman Sachs, which had its own private generator system. Strangely, then, the dream of “shutting down Wall Street,” frequently invoked by Occupy, was accomplished not through a massive blockade planned by humans, but rather by the unpredictable force of the global climate system. This era, which has been dubbed the Anthropocene, is one in which the elemental systems that life depends on — water, soil and the atmosphere itself — are fundamentally marked by the traces of human activity, organized according to the dictates of Wall Street.
Thus, while Hurricane Sandy was not a human action, neither can it be considered a “natural” event in any simple sense of the term — a philosophical and political conundrum explored by artist-organizers Not an Alternative in their recently-opened Natural History Museum project. In the words of Tidal magazine, Sandy was a “climate strike” in which, like Frankenstein’s monster, the unintended fruits of Wall Street’s drive for perpetual growth had come home to ripen. As diagrammed in Tobocman’s Flood Wall Street graphic, the carbon-saturated atmosphere doubled back upon those who had treated it as a dumping ground for what neoliberal economists describe as the “externalities” of capitalist progress. What had been treated as an externality — environmental destruction happening to the little people downstream from the centers of profit-making — was now internal to the system itself, with floodwaters literally pouring into the headquarters of the world’s leading financial institutions. The flooding of major urban centers does not bode well for the task of sustaining the global capitalist system, even if profits are certainly to be made along the way. It is clear to almost everyone that something has to change, but the question is by whom and for whom such changes will be made.
This is the question that looms over both the U.N. summit and the People’s Climate March itself. Koch brothers-style climate change denial remains rampant, and superficial corporate greenwashing is more pervasive than ever. But significant segments of the 1 percent are beginning to take climate change seriously, as both a source of risk to be mitigated and a source of profit-making to be mined, whether in the form of new insurance instruments, green luxury development schemes or energy-efficient technologies of all sorts. Indeed, a veritable rogues gallery of climate-profiteering CEOs will be gathering on the same afternoon as Flood Wall Street at the Morgan Library and Museum in midtown Manhattan for a strategic meet up of the Climate Group. Its mission is to foment “the clean revolution,” through what member Tony Blair describes as the group’s “unique ability to convene key business and government stakeholders, communicate the economic opportunities presented by bold climate action, and drive leadership.”
Obviously, the People’s Climate March generally presents a people-centered vision of economic development rather than the profiteering of the Climate Group, but the fundamental question posed by Sandra Nurse remains: “Will we take the climate crisis as an opportunity to reimagine the very meaning and structure of economic life itself, or devote our energies to the signing of treaties and the development of more efficient and humane forms of global capitalism?” As suggested by the popularity of books like Thomas Picketty’s Capital and Naomi Klein’s forthcoming This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, the triple blow of the 2008 crisis, Occupy and Hurricane Sandy in the past five years has helped make “capitalism” a viable object of public critique in the United States rather than the taken-for-granted horizon for all of social life.
The People’s Climate March is undoubtedly a historic occasion, but without the spur provided by direct action and a more comprehensive narrative concerning capitalism itself, it risks becoming a merely beautiful spectacle to match that of the United Nations, making us feel good about ourselves without pushing us beyond our comfort zones. Of course, Flood Wall Street runs this risk too, even if its tactics are planned to be more aggressive and its messaging more militant. For this reason, organizers within both the larger mobilization coalition and the Flood Wall Street team are already framing their work in terms of “after the march,” with the latter understood as a springboard for long-term climate justice organizing rather than a one-off day of action.
Such organizing will take on numerous forms, ranging from the mitigation and adaptation policy tools called for by groups like 350.org to exciting experiments that link fossil-fuel divestment efforts to reinvestment in locally-based, self-organized green economy networks in places like Jackson, Miss., and the Far Rockaways section of Queens. The concept of dual power is relevant here: It means not only forging alliances with diverse groups and supporting demands on existing institutions, but also developing counter-institutions of “commoning” that can provide support for resistance, while testing out forms of non-capitalist life in the face of ongoing crises.
Of all places, the Far Rockaways has pride of place as a reference in upcoming mobilizations. When the climate went on strike against Wall Street during Hurricane Sandy, the entire city paid the price — first and foremost in low-income communities of color with the least access to services, provisions and infrastructure. The dialectical counterpoint to the images of Wall Street underwater are those of physical destruction and human suffering in such areas — the monumental ruins of the Rockaway boardwalk, streets transformed into beaches, homes moldering and uninhabitable, darkened housing projects filled with stranded families. But at the same time, the Rockaways also has a landscape of people-powered relief, reconstruction and resistance that developed in the void of the state. Think of the You Are Never Alone community center, the relief hubs housed in churches overflowing with donations and volunteers, projects like the campaign against the Rockaways natural gas pipeline (which itself has actions planned for the weekend of the People’s Climate Mobilization), and the local chapter of the nation-wide community organizing Wildfire project, which is working long-term to develop sustainable grassroots economies in the face of both further climate disaster and the rapidly accelerating gentrification/displacement process on the peninsula.
The precarious conditions and multifaceted struggles of a place like the Far Rockaways epitomize the challenge of climate justice. According to the Climate Justice Alliance, “The frontlines of the climate crisis are low-income people, communities of color and indigenous communities… We are also at the forefront of innovative community-led solutions that ensure a just transition off fossil fuels, and that support an economy good for both people and the planet.” This is a concept that will strongly inform many of the activities of the climate convergence on September 20, including a special session of Free University NYC called “Decolonize Climate Justice” that will take place at the historic El Jardin community garden on the Lower East Side.
The educational session is devoted to approaching climate crisis through the “experiential lessons” of inequalities based in race, class and migration-status — both in terms of environmental damage, as well as the internal cultures of climate organizing itself: “The face of climate justice activism is often white, Western, middle class and male… As a result, the issues raised by such activism frequently exclude the urgent perspectives and priorities of those most impacted by climate change.”
Informed less by environmentalism as a narrow arena of concern than with a broader vision of collective liberation, the call to “decolonize climate justice,” issued by Free University places climate crisis in a deep sense of historical memory stretching back to the colonial violence at the origins of capitalism itself. This historical vantage point stands as a humbling challenge, and question, for an action like Flood Wall Street: How to use a mediagenic mass arrest as something more than a one-off disruption concerned with just the climate, but instead as a groundbreaking event for a continuous struggle-to-come encompassing landscapes of resistance ranging from the Rockaways to Ferguson to Palestine?
As demonstrated throughout the period of Occupy, taking an arrest in political action can be a radicalizing and life-changing event. But in taking this risk, those with the privilege and support to do so must not lose sight of the systemic violence of incarceration to which low-income communities of color are subject — the very communities that bear the brunt of environmental injustice. Without this level of analysis, the solidarity required for true climate justice cannot be built, and environmentalism risks fading back into the unexamined white, middle class sphere that has long defined it.
As the date approaches, consider the invitation: Come for the climate march, stay for the flood. And if you join the flood, be careful not to get swept away in the beauty of a single action. In the words of Talib Agape Fuegoverde, “May a thousand floods of the people sweep the land in coming years, washing away the walls and borders that capitalism erects to keep our struggles apart.”
Yates McKee is an art critic working in Occupy Wall Street; his work has appeared in venues including October, The Nation and Tidal: Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy.
The 22nd annual Salmon Homecoming Celebration being held September 18 to 20 at Waterfront Park in Seattle, Washington is dedicated to the life and memory of the late Billy Frank Jr., Nisqually, longtime defender of treaty rights and chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.
The celebration’s theme is “Man has responsibility, not power,” based on a traditional proverb of the Tuscarora Indian Nation.
Frank passed away on May 5 at the age of 83. He had been an adviser to and supporter of Salmon Homecoming throughout its history. “Billy understood the responsibility spoken about in that Tuscaroran proverb,” said Salmon Homecoming president Walter Pacheco, Muckleshoot. “He knew we are all responsible for the health of the salmon, the environment and the protection of the land, air and water.”
The event celebrates Native American culture and the importance of salmon—culturally, economically, environmentally and spiritually—to the people of the region. The celebration includes arts and crafts, environmental exhibits, visits to the Seattle Aquarium, storytellers, a salmon bake, a Northwest gathering and powwow, and a canoe welcoming event.
“For 22 years, the Salmon Homecoming Alliance has brought Native American culture and traditional environmental knowledge into the heart of Seattle, providing a unique opportunity for people from all walks of life to learn about and enjoy the many lessons and customs of the indigenous people of this land,” Pacheco said.
“It has always been our belief that everyone, regardless of age, gender or vocation is someone of great importance and—as the Tuscarora proverb indicates—has a responsibility to help take care of the land and natural resources needed to sustain future generations.”
Salmon Homecoming Celebration sponsors include Native American governments, the City of Seattle, the State of Washington and King County.
The U.S. Mint has announced its designs for the 2015 and 2016 Native American $1 coins, and the choice of subjects—Mohawk Iron Workers and Code Talkers—represent a focus on late 19th- and 20th-century Native history. Since 2009, beginning with a depiction of the “three sisters” agricultural technique, which Natives practiced for thousands of years before European contact, reverse-side coin designs have spotlighted elements of Native culture or episodes from history in a sort of timeline. The 2014 coin commemorated the Native role played in Lewis and Clark’s 1804-06 journey into the Pacific Northwest.
2015 Native American one-dollar coin reverse design, ‘Mohawk high iron workers, builders of New York City and other skylines (from 1886).’
Under the terms of the Native American Coin Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2007, the 2016 coin will be the program’s last.
2016 Native American one-dollar coin reverse design, ‘Code Talkers from both World War I and World War II (1917-1945)’
Below is the full press release, dated September 3, from the U.S. Mint:
WASHINGTON – The United States Mint announced today the reverse (tails side) designs selected for the 2015 and 2016 Native American copy Coins.
The theme for the 2015 design is “Mohawk high iron workers, builders of New York City and other skylines (from 1886).” The design depicts a Mohawk ironworker reaching for an I-beam that is swinging into position, rivets on the left and right side of the border, and a high elevation view of the city skyline in the background. The design includes the required inscriptions United States of America and copy, and the additional inscription Mohawk Ironworkers. United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) artist Ronald D. Sanders designed the reverse, and United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Phebe Hemphill will sculpt it.
The theme for the 2016 design is “Code Talkers from both World War I and World War II (1917-1945).” The design features two helmets with the inscriptions WWI and WWII, and two feathers that form a “V,” symbolizing victory, unity, and the important role that these code talkers played. The design also includes the required inscriptions United States of America and copy. Artist Thomas D. Rogers, Sr. designed the reverse. The sculptor-engraver will be selected at a later date.
The obverses (heads sides) of the 2015 and 2016 Native American copy Coins will continue to feature sculptor Glenna Goodacre’s “Sacagawea” design, introduced in 2000. Inscriptions will be LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. The year, mint mark, and E PLURIBUS UNUM will be incused on the coins’ edges.
The Native American copy Coin Program is authorized by the Native American copy Coin Act (Public Law 110-82). The program, launched in 2009, calls for the United States Mint to mint and issue copy coins featuring designs celebrating the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the history and development of the United States.
The story most people learn about the Nez Perce Tribe and the capture of Chief Joseph doesn’t tell the whole history.
Ruth Wapato of Spokane is the granddaughter of one of the members of the Nez Perce Tribe who fought alongside Chief Joseph in 1877.
Credit Jessica Robinson / Northwest News Network
Now the federal government and Northwest Tribes are trying to fix that with a new historic site.
You may have heard about the Nez Perce’s epic 1,200-mile flight through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana in 1877. The U.S. Army caught up with them before they could reach Canada. And in history books and documentaries, the story usually ends with the tribe being forced to surrender just 42 miles from the border — and freedom.
But in fact, for about a third of the Nez Perce, it didn’t end there. Nearly 300 people escaped the battlefield and did cross into Canada.
Ruth Wapato’s grandfather was one of them. Wapato is part of a group that’s been working to get the federal government to recognize the final leg in the Nez Perce National Historic Trail.
Map of the current Nez Perce National Historic Trail.
Credit U.S. Forest Service
“They weren’t all off together, some up front, some way behind,” Wapato said. “Their moccasins torn and worn out, you know. And it was cold — in October. But they were on their way.”
Some stayed and their descendants remain in Canada. Wapato’s grandfather returned to the U.S. and was arrested and sent to Oklahoma.
The Forest Service is holding a series of public meetings in Oregon, Idaho and Washington through early October. They’re asking for public comment on adding an extra section and making other updates to the trail.
Annual Taste of Tulalip event benefits local non-profits
By Niki Cleary, Tulalip News
Sumptuous food, locally roasted coffee and custom blended wines are some of the images that spring to mind when you mention the Taste of Tulalip. However, according to Tulalip Resort Casino (TRC) Food and Beverage Director Lisa Severn, the event is so much more than foodie fantasy. It’s a branding campaign, a showcase of local talent and a way to give back.
“We’ve always had a charity component,” she explained. “The team picks a cause that is near and dear to our hearts, the first year we donated to the Hibulb Cultural Center. Because of our chefs, a lot of times it’s a culinary effort. We’ve donated to Fair Start, an organization taking at risk adults and giving them culinary skills. One year it was Food Lifeline.
“We donate to causes that make an impact on us. Many of us know what it feels like to grow up hungry. Some years,” Severn continued, “it’s based on what’s happening to us personally. We donated to Make-A-Wish one year. That year we had a team member on the property who had a son with cancer.”
Although the event has always included a charitable donation, this year it is actually a ‘benefit’ event. The beneficiary, the Tulalip Foundation, is a 501c3 organization separate from the Tulalip Tribes. The Foundation’s mission is, “dedicated to empowering the wellbeing of the Tulalip Reservation and surrounding community, by helping meet its cultural, scientific, benevolent, and educational needs through charitable fundraising and dispersal of funds.
“Whereas before there was a small donation towards an organization on the TRC’s behalf, this year it’s actually the Tulalip Foundation’s event and we are running it for them,” Severn clarified.
As always the Sixth Annual Taste of Tulalip will include a range of culinary artists, including Tulalip’s own expert chefs who look forward to the opportunity share their skills with an appreciative audience.
Severn pointed out that the event also gives big names in the food and wine industry an opportunity to see for themselves what makes the TRC so unique and why it deserves its four diamond status.
“This gives our chefs an outlet to represent not only their restaurant, but their creativity,” she said. “We talk about food, wine and tradition, this is about partnership and showcasing our quality of chefs and still holding true to who we are as Tulalip by incorporating tribal art with our traditions of giving.
“This year we’ve partnered with guest Chef Ming Tsai,” said Severn. “He’s an incredible Asian chef with an amazing personality. Dillanos Coffee Roasters, they roast our Killer Coffee, makes a special blend for the event every year. Then we have Anthony Giglio, he’s a wine professional with Food and Wine Magazine, we’ve partnered with them in the past and they’ve provided us with these national talents. Q13 Fox has provided Bill Wixey and Kaci Aitchison to host and emcee the dinner.”
The event grows every year, Severn enthused.
“Taste of Tulalip started because most casinos don’t have a good reputation,” she explained. “We needed to get it out there that we have talented chefs. Their talent and creativity can hold up to the best chefs in Seattle. Then we thought, let’s spread our wings and be the best in the northwest. Now, we’re not just representing Tulalip with this event, we’re representing Washington as a whole and Indian gaming as a whole.”
The event showpiece is always a custom vintage in an etched glass bottle featuring one of a kind Tulalip artwork.
“We partner with a Washington winery to create a unique blend,” said Severn. “We choose a winery that’s been a good partner and is known for their quality. This year it’s Sean Boyd of Woodinville Wine Cellars.
“Each year we have a Tulalip artist create the art, this year it’s Joe Gobin,” she continued. “We’ve taken his art and incorporated it into the event. It’s going to be on the bottle, on the chargers and the wine charms. In the past we’ve had designs by Jason Gobin, Joe Gobin and James Madison.”
Severn emphasized that although wine is featured, the event is not just a wine event.
“This is a balance, it’s about the entire experience,” she said. “It’s huge for the food community of Washington, but our gamers also love the event. It brings them here, they enjoy the seminars and the entertainment factor, and they get a game or two while they’re here.”
To keep it exciting and fun, chefs will again be challenged to create delectable fare from mystery ingredients.
“During the grand taste we have the Rock and Roll Challenge,” Severn described the challenge. “Our Executive Chef Perry [Mascitti] has gathered up a box of food, the chefs won’t know what is in it and they have an hour to create something.”
Guest Chef Ming Tsai, Seattle local, the “Chef in the Hat,” Thierry Rautureau, Wine Expert Anthony Giglio and Mauny Kaseburg, of the Aspen Food and Wine Classic, will judge the challenge.
The Sixth Annual Taste of Tulalip begins Friday, November 14th with a celebration dinner. Saturday, November 15th, all access pass attendees will be treated to cooking demonstrations and wine seminars as well as the Grand Taste. For more information about the Taste of Tulalip or to purchase tickets go to www.tasteoftulalip.com.
