Kim Kalliber, Author at Tulalip News

Tribal leaders welcome Holder’s plan to increase voting access for Indians, Alaska Natives

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivers his keynote address at a tribal conference on the campus of United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, N.D., on Thursday. Holder announced Monday he is recommending ways to increase voting access for Native Americans and Alaska Natives. (Photo: AP Photo/Kevin Cederstrom ) — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivers his keynote address at a tribal conference on the campus of United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, N.D., on Thursday. Holder announced Monday he is recommending ways to increase voting access for Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
(Photo: AP Photo/Kevin Cederstrom )

By RACHEL D’ORO, Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday his office will consult with tribes across the country to develop ways to increase voting access for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Holder said the goal is to require state and local election officials to place at least one polling site in a location chosen by tribal governments in parts of the nation that include tribal lands. Barriers to voting, he said, include English-only ballots and inaccessible polling places.

In Alaska, for example, the village of Kasigluk is separated into two parts by a river with no bridge. On election day, people on one side have just a few hours to vote before a ballot machine is taken by boat to the other side.

In Montana, a voting rights lawsuit is pending from tribal members on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap reservations. They want county officials to set up satellite voting offices to make up for the long distances they must travel to reach courthouses for early voting or late registration.

“These conditions are not only unacceptable, they’re outrageous,” Holder said. “As a nation, we cannot — and we will not — simply stand by as the voices of Native Americans are shut out of the democratic process.”

After consulting with tribal leaders, his office will seek to work with Congress on a potential legislative proposal, Holder said.

Associate Attorney General Tony West discussed the announcement later Monday in Anchorage, during a speech to the National Congress of American Indians.

Despite reforms to strengthen voting rights, there also have been setbacks, West told the crowd. He cited last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Shelby County, Alabama.

The decision effectively stripped the federal government of its most potent tool to stop voting bias — a requirement in the landmark Voting Rights Act that all or parts of 15 states with a history of discrimination in voting, mainly in the South but also Alaska, get Washington’s approval before changing the way they hold elections. Now, changes do not have to be submitted, and it is up to the U.S. Justice Department or others who sue to prove changes are discriminatory.

West also pointed to a Justice Department court filing last week that sided with plaintiffs in a voting rights lawsuit filed by several Alaska villages. The lawsuit alleges the state has failed to provide accurate, complete translations of voting materials into Alaska Native languages.

The Justice Department also intervened earlier this year in response to a plan by Cibola County, New Mexico, to eliminate voting-rights coordinators.

Remote geography and the inability to speak English do not free Americans from the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship, West said. Neither should they “impede the rights to which we are all entitled,” he said.

American Indian and Alaska Native leaders attending the conference welcomed the announcement.

“I think anything that involves tribes and tribal authority is extremely important,” said Dr. Ted Mala, director of traditional healing at the Alaska Native Medical Center and director of tribal relations for an Anchorage-based tribal health services organization.

He said tribes have had more opportunities for such consultations with the federal government under the Obama administration.

“We even meet with the president once a year, and it’s a wonderful thing,” Mala said.

Carol Schurz is a councilwoman for the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona. She said the community organizes its own elections and consults with state officials on state and federal elections.

Schurz encourages voter registration and said the Justice Department proposal would be well-received. She said it could empower indigenous voters “if we have the opportunity to get all our people engaged.”

Southbound I-5 Stilly River bridge work will disrupt traffic for months

By Chris Winters, The Herald

ARLINGTON — Bridge work on I-5 over the Stillaguamish River will result in a major traffic disruption this summer.

The state Department of Transportation is replacing the concrete deck and part of the steel support frame of the bridge span that carries southbound traffic across the river.

Starting in mid-July, work crews will close the 607-foot-long span and redirect southbound vehicles across the median onto the bridge that currently carries northbound traffic.

The northbound bridge will be restriped to allow for two lanes each of northbound and southbound traffic, separated by a concrete barrier.

Each span of the bridge carries an average of 39,000 vehicles per day, but that can rise to 50,000 per day during summer. The heaviest traffic volume occurs between 3 to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the weekends northbound, and from 4 to 6 p.m. Sundays southbound.

The work is expected to take approximately four months, ending in late October or early November. An exact start date for the closure has not been set.

The bridge bearing the southbound lanes was built in 1933 to carry Highway 99 across the Stilly.

The bridge deck has been overlaid several times since then, but after a 2012 inspection it was put on the state’s “structurally deficient” list.

The northbound bridge was built in 1971 and is still rated as being in good condition.

“It’s come time that we need to replace the concrete deck,” said Todd Harrison, WSDOT’s regional assistant administrator.

The bridge deck has potholes and cracks, and some of the underlying steel beams and stringers — beams that run parallel to the direction of travel — that support the deck are corroding, Harrison said.

“Structurally deficient” does not imply the bridge is in danger of imminent collapse, but indicates that one or more components of the bridge need repair or replacement.

According to the transportation department’s website, there are 139 state-owned bridges in Washington with that rating.

The steel truss bridge comprises three spans over the river. The superstructure of the bridge is in good condition, Harrison said, and is not included in the project.

Last year, an oversize truck hit one of the overhead trusses on the Skagit River Bridge on I-5, causing a span to collapse. There is a significant difference between the two, however, in that the old Skagit River Bridge’s overhead trusses were arc-shaped, with just 15 feet, 3 inches of clearance at the outer edge of the travel lanes, which is where the truck hit the span, compared with 18 feet at the center of the roadway.

The Stillaguamish River Bridge’s trusses are horizontal, with uniform clearance of 16 feet, 5 inches all the way across, Harrison said. The new Skagit River span has horizontal trusses with 18 feet of clearance.

Once the work starts, speed will be reduced through the work area to 55 miles per hour, and the lanes will be reduced to 11 feet in width, from 12 feet.

Tow trucks will be in the area to quickly remove any disabled vehicles from the bridge.

“The goal is to keep traffic moving and keep it safe,” Harrison said.

The interchanges immediately north and south of the bridge, at 236th Street NE and Highway 530, will stay open.

During the work period, the transportation department is encouraging drivers to avoid traveling on the bridge during peak hours, to check the state’s website for updates (wsdot.wa.gov/projects/i5/stillaguamishbridgerehab), and to plan for delays of up to 35 minutes if you need to cross the bridge during those peak hours.

Alternate routes for local traffic include Highway 9 east of I-5 and Pioneer Highway west of the interstate.

Mowat Construction Co. was awarded the $8.7 million contract for the project. All but $350,000 is paid for by federal bridge preservation funds, with the state picking up the remainder.

The contract has a built-in incentive of $50,000 per day, up to a maximum of $500,000, if the work is finished in fewer than 120 days. It also has a disincentive built in if the work takes longer than expected.

Everett AquaSox Host “Good Karma Monday” for Oso Relief

Source: Cascade Valley Hospital Foundation

Arlington, WA – Fans can name their ticket price and support Oso at the Everett AquaSox’s “Good Karma Monday,” being held on Monday, June 16^th. One hundred percent of all proceeds from ticket sales at the booth will go to support the Cascade Valley Hospital Foundation’s Oso Landslide Relief Fund. Throwing out the first pitch will be Assistant Chief Toby Hyde of the Oso Fire Department. We will also welcome other members of the Oso Fire Department and their families. Game time is 7:05pm.

The Cascade Valley Hospital Foundation is grateful to the Everett AquaSox for their support of the mudslide relief efforts through “Good Karma Monday.” Funds raised through this event will help fund the continuing needs of those affected by the slide through the Foundation, a local 501(c)3 organization.

“We are very excited about Good Karma Mondays as we will be able to partner with a tremendous sponsor in Heritage Bank and at the same time raise much needed funds in our community,” said Brian Sloan, VP of Corporate Partnerships for the Everett AquaSox. We would also like to thank Whidbey Island Bank for their generous sponsorship of “Good Karma Mondays.”

For more information about the Cascade Valley Hospital Foundation, please go to www.cascadevalley.org/foundation. To learn more about the Everett AquaSox, please visit their site at www.aquasox.com.

Fence in the sky — border wall cuts through native land

Ofelia RivasPhoto by R. Furtado) — Ofelia Rivas
Photo by R. Furtado)

By Russell Morse, June 9, 2014. Source: The Native Press

SANTA CRUZ, Ariz. The swath of land in southern Arizona that bleeds into the northern Mexican state of Sonora is a sprawling, largely uninhabited, desert divided by mountains and spotted with shrubs. Driving down dusty roads with a punishing sun overhead, it seems almost lifeless.

But this region is home to the Tohono O’odham Nation, a tribe of 25,000 people, who have shared the land with the road runners, mountain lions, jaguars and wolves for over 6000 years. In 1853 the US Mexico border was redrawn, effectively cutting the O’odham Nation in half.

This border itself did not present grave consequences for the tribe, however, until the late 1990s, when the US Border Patrol developed a new strategy for Border enforcement in the southwest. At that time, operations Gatekeeper in San Diego, Hold the Line in El Paso and Safeguard: Arizona in Nogales shifted enforcement to urban areas. The object was to force migrants into desolate desert regions, where they would either be deterred by the terrain or easily apprehended in open spaces.

The only thing that’s changed, however, is where migrants are crossing. The narrow corridor they have been edged into goes right through the Tohono O’odham reservation.

This land is also where the proposed border fence would be built, isolating the communities of O’odham people on either side of the fence and threatening the animals and vegetation of the biologically diverse Sky Island region.

Tribal members and environmentalists there are not concerned with the politicized issue of undocumented immigration to the United States. Their concern is the preservation of the culture and habitat that have flourished here for thousands of years and now face decimation by the construction of a wall.

Every October, O’odham tribal members make a pilgrimage from the US side of their land to Magdalena, Sonora in Mexico side as part of their annual St Francis festival. The procession is part of a larger event, with music, food and dancing and is their largest tribal festival. Increased border enforcement in the past twenty years has restricted this movement, but they still made the annual procession. Until this year.

On October second, the electrical lines to an O’odham community in Mexico were cut, leaving them without power. A tribal member decided to drive to the US side to get some generators so the celebration could go on as planned. As he was driving, his truck was shot at.

The man’s sister, Ofelia Rivas, along with most tribal members, is convinced that the cut lines and the shooting are related, perpetrated by drug smugglers who have set up operations on O’odham land and are trying to intimidate the residents.

Ofelia is a tribal elder and she has watched the impact that increased border security has had on her people’s land. Aside from the aggression from smugglers, she’s had to endure harassment by Border Patrol officers restricting movement on traditional routes. “One of the main things is that we are impacted by the immigration policies and we’re not immigrants,” she says. “We have to carry documents to prove who we are.”

Ofelia tells a story of one Border Patrol encounter that turned into terror for her and her family. She was with her daughter and grandson, driving home from an all night dance when they were pulled over. “Right away they said ‘Get out, get out’ because I’m in the back seat and I’m brown skinned and I don’t talk English too well, you know.” She asked why she had to get out of the car and the agent asked whether she was a US citizen or a Mexican citizen. She answered, “I’m an O’odham don’t you know you’re on my land? You should have some respect.”

At this point, Ofelia recalls, the officer got angry, unclipped his pistol and put it to her head, demanding that she say whether she is a Mexican or a US citizen. He said if she didn’t answer, he would handcuff her and have her deported. “I said where are you gonna deport me to? Mexico is my territory. My father’s community is there. O’odham community is there.” Ofelia shakes her head. “By then my daughter is crying, my grandson is crying and I can’t cry because I’m really angry but I’m very much afraid.”

Then another Border Patrol truck pulled up and the agent accosting Ofelia put his gun in his holster. They were promptly let go.

The terrain in this corner of the continent is referred to as the Sky Island Mountains. The name alludes to the natural phenomenon of lush, vegetated mountains surrounded by a sea of desert. It is considered the most biologically diverse region in North America, connecting desert, tropics and mountains.

Matt Skroch is the executive director of the Sky Island Alliance, a non profit organization which dedicates itself to the preservation of the region. Most of their energy now is spent trying to raise awareness to the importance of what they call “wildlife connectivity” across the border, which he says would be devastated by the construction of a wall.

“The region is defined in both the United States and in Mexico,” Matt explains. “It’s one unique biological region that spans the international border. In that sense, it’s very much connected. The Sky Islands to the north of the border are connected geographically, topographically, biologically, ecologically with the mountains south of the border. And its imperative that permeability of the landscape remains so that our web of life, our plants and animals are able to migrate back and forth.”

Sergio Avila, a wildlife biologist for the Sky Island Alliance, uses the example of the jaguar — an animal native to the region — to explain his position.

“Animals don’t know about borders, different countries, languages or visas. So anything that prevents the animals from moving is gonna be a problem, no matter what side the animals are at. . . It’s just dividing the same region. Its’ not going to be a matter of well, what side is the jaguar in? Is it in the US side? Are we going to keep it in the US? Or is he gonna stay in Mexico? It is not good to leave it in one side or the other. We shouldn’t have to choose for the animal.”

Beyond the abuse and the fear, Ofelia Rivas is most troubled by the prospect of the construction of a fence. “We don’t agree with this wall,” she said. “It’s like a knife in our mother (earth). These metal things are going to go in our mother and we can’t pull them out.”

Assistant Secretary Washburn Announces Solicitation of Grant Proposals to Assess and Develop Tribal Energy and Mineral Resources

$11 million available in 2014 for federally recognized tribal communities

Source: Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn today announced that the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) is soliciting grant proposals from federally recognized tribes for projects that promote the assessment and development of energy and mineral resources on Indian trust lands. IEED has $11 million available in FY 2014 for grants, which is a historic level of investment that will support tribes seeking to put their energy and mineral assets to work for their communities.

“The IEED Energy and Mineral Development Program is another example of how Indian Affairs is working to assist tribes in realizing and maximizing the potential of their energy and mineral resources,” Assistant Secretary Washburn said. “This solicitation will provide tribal communities owning energy and mineral resources the opportunity and financial support to conduct projects that will evaluate, find and document their energy and mineral assets, and bring those assets to market.”

Energy and mineral development on Indian trust lands plays a critical role in creating jobs and generating income throughout Indian Country while also contributing to the national economy. All natural resources produced on Indian trust lands had an estimated economic impact of $12.08 billion, with over 85 percent of this impact derived from energy and mineral development on tribal lands, according to the Department of the Interior’s Economic Contributions report issued in July 2012. The report also noted that out of an estimated 126,000 natural resources-related jobs on tribal lands in Fiscal Year 2011, 88.7 percent were directly associated with energy and mineral development. Energy and mineral resources generated more than $970 million in royalty revenue paid to Indian mineral owners in 2013. Income from energy and minerals is by far the largest source of revenue generated from Indian trust lands.

IEED’s Division of Energy and Mineral Development, through its Energy and Mineral Development Program (EMDP), annually solicits proposals from federally recognized tribes for energy and mineral development projects that assess, locate and inventory energy and mineral resources, or perform feasibility or market studies which are used to promote the use and development of energy and mineral resources on Indian lands.

Energy and mineral resources may include either conventional such as oil, natural gas or coal, or renewable energy resources such as biomass, geothermal or hydroelectric. Mineral resources include industrial minerals such as sand and gravel; precious minerals such as gold, silver and platinum; base minerals including lead, copper and zinc; and ferrous metal minerals such as iron, tungsten and chromium.

The EMDP is mandated under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (25 USC 3501 et seq.) which requires the Secretary of the Interior to “establish and implement an Indian energy resource development program to assist consenting Indian tribes and tribal energy resource development organizations…[and]…provide grants…for use in carrying out projects to promote the integration of energy resources, and to process, use, or develop those energy resources, on Indian land….”

EMDP is funded under the non-recurring appropriation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs budget and is based on available funds. It is an annual program, and uses a competitive evaluation process to select several proposed projects to receive an award. Since 1982, the EMDP has invested about $90 million in developing energy and mineral resource information on Indian lands. These funds have defined more than $800 billion of potential energy and mineral resources.

The Department published a solicitation on the Grants.gov website on June 9, 2014. Proposals must be submitted no later than 75 calendar days from the announcement date. The Grants.gov website posting contains all of the guidelines for writing a proposal and instructions for submitting a completed proposal to the DEMD office.

The Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs oversees the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, which implements the Indian Energy Resource Development Program under Title V of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. IEED’s mission is to foster stronger American Indian and Alaska Native communities by helping federally recognized tribes with employment and workforce training programs; developing their renewable and non-renewable energy and mineral resources; and increasing access to capital for tribal and individual American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses. For more information about IEED programs and services, visit the Indian Affairs website at http://www.indianaffairs.gov/WhoWeAre/AS-IA/IEED/index.htm.

King Khan Talks Psychedelic Mushrooms, Black Panthers and Native Americans

Sash StamatovskiKing Khan — Sash Stamatovski
King Khan

By Jenn DeRose, River Front Times

King Khan, rock & roll’s spiritual leader by way of Montreal, is returning to Off Broadway with psychedelic soul outfit the Shrines on Saturday, June 15, to promote the group’s latest, Idle No More. The album takes its name from a 2012 Native American movement to unite tribes for the betterment of their people and the environment. Khan’s interest in the campaign is personal.

“My heart really goes out to indigenous people,” he says. “[Growing up] in Montreal, when my father used to kick me out of the house I would seek refuge at my Mohawk friend’s house on the reservation. One of my best friends, who recently passed away, was another Mohawk on the reservation. It’s really horrible what has happened and keeps happening to the indigenous people. I hope that things change.”

Although Khan is best known for his wild stage shows and gleefully irreverent songwriting, this latest effort contains plenty of introspective moments as well. The album’s closer, “Of Madness I Dream,” seems drawn from an especially deep well.
“I read this line by Keith Richards once where he said that he didn’t really write songs, but he received them,” Khan explains. “I think that — especially in that song, when I was trying to figure out vocals for it — it was almost like I got kind of dizzy, and this thing just poured out of me. I feel like I received something from another place. That song especially sums up what’s wrong with the world, and how sometimes the simplest things can describe a complicated problem.”

The inclusion of socially conscious messages in what might otherwise be thought of as party music follows the tradition of one of his heroes, soul singer the Mighty Hannibal, who Khan says could “balance making fun music for dancing and freaking out while also making these really deep songs to inform the public to stay away from drugs, or to stay away from the American government.”

Social justice is a theme in another of Khan’s projects — a soundtrack to director Prichard Smith’s The Invaders, a documentary about the social work of the Black Panthers in Memphis. Khan says it will feature original compositions and music “picked from the spectrum of rhythm & blues and free jazz and, basically, great black-power music.”

“For me, a lot of inspiration comes from the music of the civil rights movement. It’s gonna change the perception of a lot of things, this documentary,” Khan explains. “It finally gives justice to all of the people who were blamed for all of the violence that weren’t responsible for it. It also shows a side of Martin Luther King that was hidden for a long time — when he asked the militants to work with him for the Poor People’s Campaign. I’m really honored to be a part of this film.”

Khan will be in St. Louis twice this year, reappearing with the King Khan & BBQ Show and the Black Lips on September 15 at the Ready Room. This lineup is especially exciting for his fans; it suggests the possibility of a performance by the Almighty Defenders, the gospel-punk supergroup composed of both bands.

That tour precedes the release of the King Khan & BBQ Show’s newest album, which will be out early next year on In the Red Records. “I think it’s one of the best records we’ve ever done,” Khan says. “We’re changing our name. We’ve been called King Khan & BBQ Show for a long time, and, to be honest, people always get it wrong. People don’t understand that Mark Sultan is half the band. Mark wasn’t getting the proper justice for being his own entity and a great singer and songwriter. We want to be called the Bad News Boys.”

King Khan considers Mark Sultan to be family, and, like most families, the two have had their share of troubles, including a temporary breakup. Shortly before the split in 2009, they were detained by the law on their way to a show in St. Louis which they infamously were forced to cancel.

As Khan explains, “The only reason we got in trouble was such a stupid formality. I mean, yes, you’re not supposed to carry psychedelic mushrooms around there. It’s just a rule of thumb that I stupidly did not adhere to. But I’ve never been scared in America — thank the gods that nothing bad has happened to us there. I think that, in a certain way, if you follow the right path, you’re protected. You know, a lot of people might not believe that, but if your intentions are good, then there is some kind of protection out there.”

“Sometimes, of course, the storm comes and destroys certain things,” he says with a pause. “But whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

VAWA Already Improving Life for Pascua Yaqui Tribe

Jacelle Ramon-SauberanPascua Yaqui Tribe Attorney General Amanda Lomayesva and Pascua Yaqui Tribe Chief Prosecutor Alfred Urbina are working to improve the Pascua Yaqui community through the Violence Against Women Act. — Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan
Pascua Yaqui Tribe Attorney General Amanda Lomayesva and Pascua Yaqui Tribe Chief Prosecutor Alfred Urbina are working to improve the Pascua Yaqui community through the Violence Against Women Act.

By Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, Indian Country Today

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe is making progress in Southern Arizona after being chosen to take early advantage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). “So far VAWA is helping us analyze our own process and the Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council is really interested in how this is going to work out,” said Amanda Lomayesva, Attorney General for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.

On February 6, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Tulalip Tribes of Washington and the Umatilla Tribes of Oregon were chosen by the Obama Administration to exercise criminal jurisdiction over certain crimes of domestic and dating violence, regardless of the defendant’s Indian or non-Indian status, under the 2013 VAWA law.

Lomayesva (Lumbee) said the Pascua Yaqui Tribe became interested in VAWA when they wanted to expand their tribal jurisdiction. “I think it really started to gain steam in 2007 when people started talking about problems in Indian Country –about crimes that were reoccurring and not being taken care of,” said Chief Prosecutor for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Alfred Urbina.

Not to mention, the Domestic Violence is the main crime on the Pascua Yaqui reservation, he said.

Prior to the assertion of VAWA, when a non-Native American committed a crime on the Pascua Yaqui reservation, the Pascua Yaqui Police officers would drop them off on the edge of the reservation, Lomayesva said.

Also, prior to 2010, tribal members accused of a crime would only be incarcerated for one year and the Pascua Yaqui jail was not fit for anyone. The office was in a house and the jail was a cage, said Urbina (Pascua Yaqui).

In 2010, the Tribal Law and Orders Act changed that allowing the tribe to sentence criminals up to three years of incarceration per offense with a maximum of nine years.

And the tribe was able to have a multi-purpose justice complex built through a $20 Million American Reinvestment Recovery Act in 2010. “There has been a real tribal effort to address these problems and a challenge to not only our courts, but all tribal courts to protect tribal members,” said Lomayesva.

The tribe currently has 12 VAWA investigations that have lead to arrests of non-Native Americans, said Urbina. “We had two individuals that were wanted felons by the State of Arizona hiding out on the reservation,” he said. “This happens on our reservation a lot, and other surrounding reservations.”

Also, they are finding that majority of the women involved in the cases are single, young females with children. Typically, both parties are unemployed, alcohol is involved and the accused are repeat offenders.

Urbina admits it is too early to start drawing conclusions. But he’s beginning to see what some of the key issues are, and is asking questions. “VAWA is giving us an opportunity to do an assessment and look into bigger problems,” he said.

Lomayesva admits that a couple of the VAWA cases have fallen apart, and it has led them to question what the tribe can do to help support domestic violence victims.

Tribal members Lourdes Escalante and Feliciano Cruz Sr. both believe VAWA will have a positive effect on their community. “As a community member I think it is about time the tribe start prosecuting non-Natives,” Cruz said. “If they live on our reservation they should abide by our laws.”

Cruz believes that domestic violence on the Pascua Yaqui reservation has gone on long enough and is happy to see that non-Native Americans who are accused won’t be “slapped on the back of the hands anymore. They commit the crime, they go to do the time.”

As for Escalante, a law student at the University of Arizona, is interested to see what VAWA does for her tribe. “I like that my tribe was one of the first to take this on,” she said. “Hopefully, it makes a huge difference; but since it is still kind of new, we will have to wait and see.”

Traveling ‘Native Voices’ Health Exhibit Opens Today in Anchorage

© Howard Terpning Courtesy of The Greenwich Workshop, Inc., Courtesy National Library of MedicineBlessing from the Medicine Man, Howard Terpning®, 2011 — © Howard Terpning Courtesy of The Greenwich Workshop, Inc., Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Blessing from the Medicine Man, Howard Terpning®, 2011

Indian Country Today

The traveling exhibit “Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness” opens June 9 in Anchorage.

Starting at the Dena’ina Center, the exhibit will debut with a noon luncheon ceremony featuring the Southcentral Foundation, the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the National Congress of American Indians.

The exhibit will remain open for visitors of the Conference of the National Congress of American Indians until June 12, and then it will open to the general public at the Alaska Native Heritage Center from June 13 through mid-September.

Oral history and the wisdom of medicine men are recognized in the traveling exhibit, which made its grand debut at the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland with a blessing ceremony on October 5, 2011.

Some of the most revered native healers were interviewed for the project, plus tribal educators, curators and others. “One of the major goals is to share from the native community and in their own words and own descriptions what is important to them in terms of native concepts of health, healing and illness,” Fred Wood, a National Library of Medicine curator involved with the project’s development, said. “We’re doing our best to make that in their words, not someone else’s interpretation.”

Topics featured in the exhibition include: Native views of land, food, community, Earth/nature, and spirituality as they relate to Native health; the relationship between traditional healing and Western medicine in Native communities; economic and cultural issues that affect the health of Native communities; efforts by Native communities to improve health conditions; and the role of Native Americans in military service and healing support for returning Native veterans.
Indian Health Service Director, Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, a featured speaker at the opening ceremony, said the concept for the exhibition grew out of meetings with Native leaders throughout the nation, “and reflects the Native tradition of oral history… This wonderful exhibit is helping to make Native voices and cultural perspectives seen and heard, and to promote understanding and appreciation of Native cultures.”

For web browsers all over the world, photos and summaries on the web site pull out specific aspects of the exhibit, such as the healing properties of certain plants. The introduction to the “Medicine Ways” section states that “[m]any traditional healers say that most of the healing is done by the patient and that every person has a responsibility for his or her proper behavior and health. This is a serious, lifelong responsibility. Healers serve as facilitators and counselors to help patients heal themselves. Healers use stories, humor, music, tobacco, smudging, and ceremonies to bring healing energies into the healing space and focus their effects.”

Ceremonial drums, pipes and rattles from Upper Plains tribes are displayed in one section on healing. Another explores ceremonies that traditional healers performed to give relief to returning veterans who suffered from combat-related stress. “Because physical and spiritual health are intimately connected, body and spirit must heal together,” says printed material in the exhibit, on “The Key Role of Ceremony.”

Another section explores Native games “for survival, strength and sports.” Surfing figures big here, as the exhibit pays tribute to Duke Kahanamoku, Native Hawaiian Olympic medallist who is credited with reviving surfboarding as a sport. In the lobby of the library is a 10-foot model of the Hokule‘a, a traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe. It is intended to show visitors “how the mission of the Hokule‘a has spurred a Hawaiian cultural and health revival.”

Gov. Inslee signs ban on tanning beds for those under 18

By Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Teens under the age of 18 will be banned from using tanning beds in Washington state under a measure signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee.

Inslee signed Senate Bill 6065 Thursday, and it goes into effect in mid-June.

Users of tanning equipment would have to show a driver’s license or other form of government-issued identification with a birth date and photograph. Tanning facilities that allow people under age 18 to use a tanning device could be fined up to $250 per violation. The measure allows teenagers to use a tanning bed or related device if they have a doctor’s prescription.

California, Illinois, Nevada, Texas, Vermont and Oregon ban the use of tanning beds for all minors under 18, and at least 33 states and the District of Columbia regulate the use of tanning facilities by minors, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Skokomish Tribe Controlling Japanese Oyster Drills on Tidelands

Shellfish technician Josh Hermann loads a cinderblock cell with oyster clusters with oyster drills on them. Click on the photo to see more at NWIFC’s Flickr page.

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

The Skokomish Tribe has strategically placed nearly 100 cinderblocks on the Skokomish tidelands with hopes of attracting an invasive shellfish, the ornate Japanse oyster drill.

“Oyster drills are known to seek out hard vertical structures to gather and lay their egg cases, so by experimentally baiting them with cinder blocks, we’re hoping to lessen their impacts on our oyster seed,” said Chris Eardley, the tribe’s Shellfish Biologist. “We’re going to try and use the biology of these creatures against them.”

The snails release a pheromone to attract others, so Eardley hopes his 72 cinder blocks across eight acres of tidelands will be covered with snails and eggs soon, which will be collected by the staff and removed from the tidelands. The tribe is employing a few methods of drill control and will do an end-of-season survey in late summer to see if the population decreased.

The invasive snail with a pointed two-inch shell latches onto young Pacific oysters, drills a hole through the shell, then eats the meat, killing the oyster.

“They’re detrimental to the oyster population that we’re trying to build and sustain on the tidelands,” Eardley said, “but my chickens will like them.”