Artists of all ages are invited to submit original works of art that illustrate diversity in conjunction with the City of Marysville’s first annual Multicultural Festival, set for Sept. 28.
The Marysville Arts Coalition, in partnership with the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Diversity, is managing the art contest. Artists are encouraged to submit two-dimensional art that illustrates the council’s theme of “Diversity Works: Sharing Similarities, Celebrating Differences.” Winners will be chosen in several age-based categories, and the grand prize winner’s work will be displayed on the festival’s program cover. Deadline for submissions is August 2, 2013.
Members of the diversity council, which is chaired by Marvetta Toler, reflect the racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the Marysville-Tulalip area, ranging from individual citizens to frontline employees who work with various ethnic individuals and families, along with practitioners in the fields of multicultural and gender equity. The council has prepared a two-year work plan, and the organization of a citywide multicultural festival has been in the works for several months.
The Marysville Arts Coalition was asked to participate in the festival planning, specifically for oversight and judging of the community arts contest. Members of MAC are also involved in helping to arrange the festival’s entertainment schedule.
Art contest entries must include the artist’s name, mailing address, phone and email address. Youth entries should also include the artist’s age, grade and school, and the parents’ names.
Contest prizes include a $25 gift card and ribbon for each division winner and a Grand Prize worth up to $300, selected from among the division winners and announced at the multicultural fair. All artwork will be on display during the one-day festival.
Only one entry per person can be accepted. Artwork and the accompanying artist information must be submitted to City Hall, 1049 State Ave., by 4 p.m. August 2.
Tribal officials need your help planning tribal parks
By Niki Cleary, TulalipNews
As the houses and debris were slowly cleared away, tribal members began returning to Mission Beach, one of few open, accessible beaches on the Tulalip reservation. Although the homes are gone, the bulkheads remain, leaving room for an exciting opportunity: A tribal park.
Grassy areas, handicap accessibility from the road to the beach, interpretive signs that play Lushootseed place names at the touch of a button and, of course, nice restrooms. These are just some of the ideas tossed around at the public meeting that Housing staff hosted to gather input from tribal members about what they’d like to see in a ‘Mission Beach Park.’
The meeting was a brainstorming session with no limits, and while a water slide (that twirls and loops and then dips underground before shooting you into the water) might not make it into the final plan, many of the ideas will
“This is a great opportunity for tribal members,” said Public Works Executive Director Gus Taylor. “There are so many tribal members who go down there right now.”
Mission Beach’s accessibility has also sparked the creation of a Parks Committee.
“The Parks Committee formed last month,” explained Patti Gobin who works on Special projects for Tulalip. She pointed out that the return of Mission Beach to tribal members is only the latest and most visible reason that parks planning is needed.
“In the past we never called them parks, they’ve just been gathering areas,” she said. “We’re growing so fast and we’re starting to have more open spaces for our people to gather and enjoy. We need some criteria for those areas to make sure they stay clean, safe and sustainable for our people. We’re going to create a parks ordinance that will set those criteria with sensitivity to our culture and traditional ways. In hundreds of years we, the tribe, will still be here. We want to make sure our open space and parks will be here for generations to come.”
The Parks Committee is still in its infancy. Right now it is composed of staff from the different tribal departments (Natural Resources, Community Development, Public Works, Administrative Services and Cultural Resources) that are currently managing the common spaces on the reservation.
Unfortunately, the Parks Committee isn’t just an optimistic endeavor to construct parks, it’s also a reaction to some of the negative activities that are taking place in the tribe’s recreational areas. Since the Mission Beach home removal, several people have reported groups of both tribal and non-tribal members under the influence and verbally abusive on the beach, graffiti has sprung up along the old bulkheads and some of the bulkhead has been burned away.
“We need to be proactive in monitoring and providing maintenance for these areas,” said Patti. Ultimately that means a Parks Department. “That will require budget to pay for staff, and we’ll have to decide, what will be the criteria for those jobs? Will it include park rangers?
“This isn’t just for Mission Beach,” Patti went on. “We have gathering areas at Totem Beach, Hermosa, Spee-Bi-Dah, Tulare, and off reservation too, at Lopez Island, Baby Island, and Hat Island. Those are just the areas I can think of off the top of my head. Eventually a parks department would also be responsible for the connectivity and maintenance of walking trails throughout the reservation.”
Patti and her team are hoping to have a first draft of the Parks Ordinance submitted for Board of Directors Review by January 2014, but, she said, Mission Beach won’t wait that long.
Because Mission Beach is designated as lease property, it currently falls under the authority of the Tulalip Housing Department, although once a parks department is created and staffed, Mission Beach will revert to parks. Housing is currently requesting input from tribal members about what they’d like to see in the future.
“Right now we’re unsure when the next meeting will be,” said Anita Taylor of Housing. “We’re presenting the ideas from our first meeting to the board, then we’ll have another community meeting, hopefully in July.”
In the meantime, a sign outlining general park rules will be going up at the parking lot and on the beach, and tribal staff will continue to maintain garbage cans with the expectation that if you pack it in, you pack it out. For other concerns or to submit your input to the park plan, contact Housing staff.
“If you have an emergency, of course call 911,” said Anita. “But if you have any other issues, want to report graffiti, find needles or paraphernalia on the beach, contact myself (360-716-4449, ataylor@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov), or Malory Simpson (360-716-4454, msimpson@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov) and we’ll arrange to have staff take care of it as soon as possible.”
The following images from Brian Way of WHPacific, illustrate some of the proposals for Mission Beach. These include pathways, viewpoints, restrooms, fire pits and a rinse station.
Juneteenth is a holiday celebrating June 19, 1865, the day when Union soldiers finally arrived in Texas to spread the word that President Lincoln had delivered the Emancipation Proclamation almost three years earlier. Born in the midst of a terrible war fought to keep the United States together as a nation, Juneteenth has become a day for all Americans to celebrate the end of slavery, African American culture, and our lives together as a free people.
The Snohomish County Chapter of the NAACP will be celebrating Junteenth on Saturday, June 22nd, 11:30am to 5:00pm, at Edmonds Community College. (See Julie Muhlstein’s article in the Everett Herald) The event will include entertainment and free food. On the menu: Cajun Style Jambalaya and Etoufee Barbeque Chicken and Pulled Pork smoked hotdogs Cole Slaw. Among other things, you’ll have a chance to meet friends, old & new, listen to music & an open mic (no speeches), get a medical screening from the Snohomish Health District, and pick up a brand new directory of area businesses and organizations owned by people of color.
Oglala Sioux president Brian Brewer being harassed before arrest. Photo: Intercontinental Cry
Levi Rickert, Intercontinental Cry Magazine
WHITE CLAY, NEBRASKA – Oglala Sioux Tribe President Bryan Brewer was arrested today [June 17] in White Clay, Nebraska.
It was not immediately known what he is charged with at press time. He was reportedly taken to Rushville, Nebraska for booking, according to Toni Red Cloud, public relations director of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who talked to the Native News Network just after the arrest.
Several dozen Oglala Sioux tribal members were in the border town of White Clay to protest the sale of alcohol. The protest began as a walk into White Clay. A sheriff deputy asked the crowd to allow a beer truck through the road.
When the protesters did not move fast enough, security and police officers moved. One deputy began shouting at President Brewer and pointing his finger in the president’s face prior to President Brewer being arrested.
White Clay, Nebraska, is just over border from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It is a small town of 14 people, but sells almost five million cans of 12 oz. beer annually.
Last week, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council on Tuesday, June 11, passed a resolution that allows for a referendum to have tribal citizens living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to decide if sales of alcohol should be legal.
President Brewer was threatened with arrest when he led some 100 tribal members in a protest at White Clay in March, 2013.
[Of all the protesters, ] only President Brewer was arrested.
The last hurrah for the Radnor High School Red Raider, an American Indian mascot, may be the parting photos contained in the school’s 2013 yearbook. As of June 11, the Red Raider has graduated to the history books.
According to MainLineMediaNews.com, RHS Principal Mark Schellenger announced a mascot change to the Radnor Township School Board policy committee Tuesday. Going forward, the school’s sports teams will be known simply as the Raiders, without an accompanying mascot. Schellenger said the decision to end the mascot’s tenure was “a great example of student involvement.”
“There will be no mascot,” said Schellenger. “No character of an Indian on our sidelines. The Red Raider is graduated, while at the same time we will maintain the tradition of the Radnor Raiders.”
It appears the community at large was not involved in the decision, as the school’s students were. MainLineMediaNews.com reports that Board Member Charles Madden wished the larger community, including alumni, had been consulted before a decision about the mascot was made.
“This has been an issue for quite a long time and we’ve pushed it off,” said Madden. “It’s bigger than the school community. It’s bigger than the high school.”
One outsider who was involved in the process was Villanova University sociology professor Rick Eckstein. In addition to speaking with students about the “cultural insensitivity of having a Native American for a mascot,” Eckstein spoke at a board policy meeting in February about the matter.
Schools in New York and Idaho recently had to halt plans to change their “Redskins” mascots after community outrage at the decisions which were made without consultation.
AP Images Kevin Washburn, Sally Jewell, David Hayes.
Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network
When Kevin Washburn became Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in September 2012, he had some work to do. Not just the typical demands of running a complex subsection of a large federal agency, but also the complicated work of regaining a portfolio that had been siphoned off by overeager Obama administration officials.
Tribal officials and Indian insiders nationwide saw firsthand the shift in power away from the assistant secretary’s office in the early days of this administration, when Larry Echo Hawk, Washburn’s predecessor, was forced to recuse himself in several important Indian issues due to family ties and other possible conflicts of interest.
Concurrently, David Hayes, retiring Deputy Secretary of the department, began taking credit for progress in Indian affairs, including the Cobell settlement, water and other tribal trust settlements, while shifting any blame for problems in Indian affairs to others. Hayes, in perhaps his last leadership action on Indian affairs before exiting the department, has scheduled a June 18 teleconference on the latest aspects of the Cobell settlement land consolidation tribal trust land buyback plan. Washburn is scheduled to join him on the call.
Early on in Washburn’s tenure, Kevin Gover, who was Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs during part of the Clinton administration, warned that Washburn was coming into a power-depleted office. “He has to confront the reality that decisions about Indian affairs are being made all over the department—not just at the BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs],” Gover told ICTMN. “His predecessor… recused himself on a lot of key issues, including Cobell, trust, and the federal recognition cases. That means somebody else, somewhere else in the building, handled those issues. Those are major responsibilities for the assistant secretary to get back under his portfolio.”
There were some early signs that Washburn, former dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law, was working hard to take back the reins—he made several early land-into-trust decisions, announced plans to release a long overdue tribal jobs report, expressed concern that gaming has wrongly “hijacked” the federal Indian policy agenda, and promised to clean up the federal tribal recognition and trust systems.
But in the middle of this shift, his new boss, Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ken Salazar, announced he was moving on; his replacement was Sally Jewell, former CEO of an outdoor gear and clothing company, who beat out Hayes for the top spot at Interior.
That meant Washburn had a new boss to deal with, while the old guard at Interior, including Hayes, was advising Jewell on how they thought the BIA should run. Jewell has never worked in the federal government, and has little familiarity with Indian issues, which set up a potentially precarious position for Washburn.
His peril was evident on May 15, when Jewell testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for the first time to explain her Indian affairs agenda. On that day, Washburn was a thousand miles away, attending a child welfare conference in South Dakota. The same week, Jewell announced a long-awaited fracking policy affecting Indian lands with Hayes at her side; Washburn was not part of the announcement ceremony. Interior Department officials also attended and offered input an Indian affairs-focused hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee. Again, no Washburn.
Did this mean Washburn was being cut out of the loop? Jewell insists that’s not the case, telling ICTMN in a press conference call that nothing should be read into his absence, and that his attendance at the child welfare conference was a priority. “It’s difficult to get everybody in town when you want to do these,” she said, referring to the fracking announcement. “There was certainly no intent, in any way, to exclude.”
When Washburn returned to D.C., he immediately made news. Big news. He announced a so-called “Patchak Patch” to remedy a controversial and problematic Supreme Court decision tribal trust. His decision is expected to close the door on some costly lawsuits facing tribal projects on lands put into trust by the Department.
When he called ICTMN to talk Patchak, he made it very clear he was still the boss of Indian affairs—and he had a compelling argument for the recent power blips. “I was upset as anybody that I couldn’t be with the Secretary during her inaugural appearance before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, but I had this prior engagement that was exceedingly important and very substantive,” he said. “The Indian child welfare summit was crucial to a lot of tribes, and that’s why I was there.”
The many tribal leaders who like Washburn and want him to succeed fervently hope these recent incidents are truly attributable to scheduling conflicts or even honeymoon hiccups between Washburn and his new boss, and don’t signify a continuation of the neutered power structure that hobbled Echo Hawk. With Hayes heading out the door, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic that more strong tribal-centric fixes to federal Indian policy are yet to come under Washburn.
After getting another rebuff in tribal court, Nooksack Indians facing loss of their tribal membership have filed a new lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Seattle Attorney Gabriel Galanda filed the federal suit Monday, June 17, on behalf of Rudy St. Germain and Michelle Roberts, two tribal council members who are among the 306 who could be stripped of their tribal membership because the validity of their Nooksack lineage has been called into question.
The suit declares that the move to purge the 306 is based on “racial animus,” because all 306 are part-Filipino. That charge is hotly denied by Nooksack Tribal Chairman Bob Kelly and his supporters, who have noted that many other Nooksacks have Filipino ancestors but can demonstrate their Nooksack lineage in a way that meets the requirements of tribal law.
But as Galanda and his clients see it, Kelly and the other five members of the council are in the process of changing that law to keep them out.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs of the U.S. Department of the Interior is currently supervising a mail-in constitutional amendment election that could make it more difficult to qualify for Nooksack membership. Kelly and his five supporters on the council have asked voters to repeal a constitutional provision that makes tribal membership available to anyone who has at least one-fourth Indian blood, plus Nooksack ancestry “to any degree.”
That election is scheduled to conclude June 21.
Galanda’s lawsuit argues that repeal of that provision of the tribal constitution would make it more difficult for his clients and other challenged Nooksacks to re-enroll in the tribe if the current effort to strip them of membership succeeds.
That, the suit contends, denies the affected Nooksacks the right to equal protection under law and is therefore a violation of the Indian Civil Rights Act. Galanda wants the judge to order federal officials to halt the constitutional election.
All of the 306 facing loss of membership are descendants of the late Annie George. Tribal officials contend that George did not qualify as Nooksack under tribal law, because her name does not appear on a tribal census of 1942 or on the list of those who got an allotment of tribal lands. Galanda and his clients have submitted other records and letters from anthropologists indicating that Annie George was, in fact, a Nooksack.
Also on Monday, Nooksack Court Tribal Chief Judge Rachel Montoya repeated the legal arguments of her earlier rulings and refused to stop the constitutional election. She found that a majority of the tribal council was acting within its proper authority in launching the constitutional election to change the membership rules.
The 306 challenged Nooksacks face loss of housing and medical benefits, tribal hunting and fishing rights, tribal jobs and other benefits if they are pushed out of the 2,000-member tribe.
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/06/17/3056967/nooksack-tribal-dispute-heads.html#storylink=cpy
WASHINGTON — Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is calling on Congress to stop coal trains from rolling through the state.
McGinn doesn’t want the coal trains rolling through any cities in the Northwest, especially not in Seattle along the waterfront.
McGinn made his case testifying before members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee Tuesday.
He updated them on the plan by coal companies, railroads and international shipping companies to build two new export facilities in Washington state.
The arguments against the coal trains are familiar. People are worried about pollution from coal dust in the air and extra traffic from the mile-long trains.
Those who support the coal export expansion plans argue shipping more than 100 million tons of coal to Asia each year helps the state and federal economy and the new export facilities would create jobs.
McGinn called on lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to do an environmental impact study.
The award-winning chefs who design and oversee the restaurants at the Tulalip Resort Casino share their favorite recipes and tips with our readers. Although the dishes look and taste like gourmet treats, even household cooks can follow these instructions to put the wow factor back into family dinners.
Resort Casino Chef John Pnticelli
As the Tulalip Resort Casino Garde Mange Chef, I like to create fun dishes for everyone to enjoy. With summer upon us, I wanted to showcase an easy recipe for scallop ceviche. I chose scallops because they are sweet, tender and will complement many flavor profiles. Anyone can serve their favorite Ceviche in a bowl… I thought it would be more unique to deconstruct the dish by marinating the scallops, then topping it with a lively relish and lime vinaigrette to help transform the ceviche into a salad.
Using Asian spoons are a striking way to serve this ceviche salad. Everyone will love the presentation.
Makes about 30 spoons
Scallop Ceviche
Ingredients
1 pound scallops (med size), cut in half
4 limes, freshly squeezed
2 lemons, freshly squeezed
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Procedure
To marinate the scallops, mix the above ingredients in a large bowl. Store for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Relish
Ingredients
4 roma tomatoes (remove seeds and meat), finely diced
1 english cucumber (remove seeds), finely diced
1 red onion, finely diced
2 jalapeños (remove seeds), finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 lime, freshly squeezed
4 ounces cilantro micro greens (place the micro greens on top of each scallop right before serving)
Procedure
Place ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. (Note: Do not mix in the cilantro micro greens into the relish) Reserve in the refrigerator until serving.
Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
Ingredients
1 bunch cilantro, rinsed cleaned
2 limes, freshly squeezed
1 lemon, freshly squeezed
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
Place all the ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth. Reserve the vinaigrette in the refrigerator until serving.
Assembling the Dish
Using an Asian spoon, place a half teaspoon of the vinaigrette in the bottom, add one scallop, and top with a small dollop of the ceviche relish and cilantro micro greens.
United Way of Snohomish County will be investing $7.9 million over three years toward 107 programs in Snohomish County addressing a set of priorities identified by three panels of volunteers. These targeted investments represent an increase of more than $300,000 over the last three-year cycle.
Six north Snohomish County programs will receive $370,000 over the next three years.
Two of the programs are local to Marysville. One provides early childhood education and intervention to children living on the Tulalip Indian Reservation and is managed by Little Red School House. The other program supports the expansion of English language learner classes organized by YMCA of Snohomish County. The programs will receive $30,000 and $90,000 respectively from United Way over the next three years.
Four of the programs are based in Arlington. Village Community Services will receive almost $160,000 over three years for three different programs: a career planning and placement services program, a residential services program to help people with developmental disabilities live with dignity and respect in their own homes and a community access program to provide adults with significant disabilities learn essential life and job skills. The Stillaguamish Senior Center will receive $90,000 over three years for their Comprehensive Senior Social Services program.
Volunteers who serve on United Way’s Kids Matter, Families Matter and Community Matters Vision Councils spent more than 2,500 hours over the past year in a three-step process that included reviewing community conditions, establishing priority investment areas and evaluating grant applications.
“This was the first time I’d participated in the grants review process,” said Karen Madsen, former president of the Everett School Board. “As a donor, I saw firsthand how much time and effort goes into these decisions. Every program, whether or not they were funded last year, was reviewed very closely.”
Madsen and the 52 other volunteers who reviewed proposals work for a range of Snohomish County-based companies, educational institutions, nonprofits and local government agencies. They represent a broad cross-section of our community.
The 107 programs will serve people living in 23 communities throughout Snohomish County from Stanwood and Darrington in the north, Sultan and Gold Bar in the east and the larger cities along Interstate 5. Volunteers gave careful consideration to vulnerable populations, geographic diversity and programs that address critical service gaps in our community.
A complete list of funded programs is available on United Way’s website, uwsc.org.
The Marysville Arts Coalition, in partnership with the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Diversity, is managing the art contest. Artists are encouraged to submit two-dimensional art that illustrates the council’s theme of “Diversity Works: Sharing Similarities, Celebrating Differences.” Winners will be chosen in several age-based categories, and the grand prize winner’s work will be displayed on the festival’s program cover. Deadline for submissions is August 2, 2013.
