Author: Kim Kalliber

Native American Appointed to Prestigious National Travel Advisory Board

Indian Country Today Media Network

Sherry L. Rupert, Paiute and Washoe, has been appointed as one of six new members to the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board by U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank. She is the lone American Indian member of the board.

The board, established in 2003, serves as the advisory body to the Secretary of Commerce on matters relating to the travel and tourism industry in the United States. Its members represent a broad cross-section of the industry, including transportation services, financial services, and hotels and restaurants, as well as a mix of small and large firms from across the country.

Rupert is a vice president of the  American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association and the excutive director of the Nevada Indian Commission.

“The travel and tourism industry is so important to our nation’s economy and important to many of our tribal communities,” Rupert said. “This opportunity is a huge step forward for Indian country. Indian country now has a seat at the table.”

With more than 20 years of tribal, public and private business experience, she possesses a strong  background in accounting, finance, business  administration, tribal tourism and Indian Affairs. Rupert is a graduate of the University of Nevada,  Reno with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and is currently the President of the Native American Chapter of the University of Nevada, Reno  Alumni Association.

She has presented at numerous tribal,  state, regional and national conferences and was elected to her second term as President of the Governors’  Interstate Indian Council, and was formerly the Treasurer for two terms. The  Governors’ Interstate Indian Council is a national organization promoting and protecting  the various interests, welfare and well-being of American Indian people of the United  States and in particular those American Indian residents within the various participating  states of the Governors’ Interstate Indian Council.

Sherry is the Chairwoman of the Nevada Indian Territory, a marketing arm of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, and was awarded the 2009 and 2007 Excellence in Tourism Award as well as the 2011 Statewide Excellence in Tourism Award from the Nevada Commission on Tourism for her success in promoting and advancing tourism in Indian country. She was also awarded the 2009 Human and Civil Rights Award from the Nevada State Education Association. Ms. Rupert distinguished herself in her term as  Treasurer for the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA) Board of  Directors (Southwest Region Representative) and during her service on the AIANTA Executive Committee; as a consequence, she was elected Vice-President of the Board of Directors.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/03/native-american-appointed-prestigious-national-travel-advisory-board-149682

Car Shine in downtown Arlington

arlingtonshowBy Beckye Randall, North County Outlook

Olympic Avenue in downtown Arlington will be an auto enthusiast’s dream on Saturday, June 8, as the Downtown Arlington Business Association (DABA) presents the 14th annual Show & Shine Car Show.
Drivers of antiques, classics, hotrods and muscle cars are invited to register Saturday morning at 8 a.m., in the 300 block of N. Olympic Avenue, to display their prized possessions and enter to win best of show and other awards. The registration fee is $20.

Pre-registration is also available by contacting organizer Marilyn Bullock, DABA president, at (360) 435-4963 or online at www.arlingtonwa.org.

The first 275 cars registered receive dash plaques, and an awards ceremony is planned for 3 p.m. A raffle will also be held during the event.

The Show & Shine Car Show is one of DABA’s major fundraisers, with proceeds from the car show helping support downtown projects and activities, along with a donation to the Arlington Food Bank.
DABA meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 8 a.m. at the Wild Rose, 318 N. Olympic Ave. Business owners and interested individuals are welcome to attend.

 

Photo courtesy of Chuck Goolsbee.

Misdirected Indian Education

Indian Country Today Media Network

About two and a half centuries ago, Northeastern Indian leaders chided American colonial educators for wasting their young men’s time in giving them a European education. The young men who attended colonial schools returned with no relevant skills to hunt. They could not run or take care of themselves in the wilderness. They did not fit into tribal communities. They tended to break down into depression and drink. As a result, the Indian leaders refused to send them to such schools any longer. Instead, they suggested that the colonists send some of their young European men to be educated among Indians.

Some 250 years later, that defiant gesture is still relevant.

In general, education as it is promulgated by those who swept over this country from Europe has been, and continues to be, grossly misdirected for Indian nations and individuals. Its emphasis has almost always been on individual achievement, higher personal income, and jobs and economic opportunity within the non-Indian national market. In other words, it’s all about individual assimilation.

That’s tragic, because education has long been a high priority topic for many Indian communities. There is considerable published research about educating Indian students. However, most of that research focuses on personal success, getting a job, moving out of poverty, and entering the middle class. Those goals are not bad in and of themselves. In many ways, in fact, they may even be commendable. But their problem is that they foster intellectual and economic goals that do not center on tribal communities or their economic and political futures.

As is well known by now, public schools simply do not teach Indian students about tribal nations, Indian policy, or the history of tribal peoples in North America. Even Bureau of Indian Affairs schools do not offer curricula or course content about the organization and operations of tribal government or the meaning of tribal sovereignty. Nor do public and bureau schools train students in local history, the meaning of land, the future issues and problems confronting tribal nations and myriad other subjects.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if schools set themselves the task of turning out workers for the American job market by creating national citizens, then they are not doing much in the way of creating tribal citizens. It doesn’t take a genius to realize, either, that a population of thoroughly American citizens and workers will not uphold or sustain tribal goals, culture and self-government.

So where can we look for hope if misdirected Indian education is failing to produce generations of students who are willing and able to serve tribal communities and cultures through a shared appreciation of collective tribal goals and values? We can’t simply rely on elders and tribal knowledge, neither of which are accorded a primary role in the teaching of Indian students. Nor can we afford to wait and cross our fingers that things will get better. With every day that passes, Indian students are not taught sufficiently, and they get one step nearer to graduation with few usable skills to serve them as adults.

There is no alternative. Appropriate education simply must be a key element in Indian nation renewal. Students must be taught to support the values and goals of tribal communities, and at the same time develop the skills that will enable tribal communities and individuals to compete in present-day national and world markets. It is up to American Indian communities to regain control over the education of their children, and schools are obliged to serve the national renewal projects of tribal nations and cultures.

The stakes are too great. Not training students to participate and contribute to tribal nations undercuts tribal efforts for sustained and broad tribal renewal and continuity. A new Indian education system should aim at fostering highly instructed Indian students who are deeply grounded in tribal culture understanding and who are equipped to meet and overcome the challenges that tribal nations will have to reach their goals of cultural, political and economic sustainability.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/05/misdirected-indian-education-149521

Veterans Helping Veterans ride for Hearts Toward Home International June 8

Marysville Globe

SMOKEY POINT — The third annual Veterans Helping Veterans Spring Run will start at Sound Harley-Davidson in Smokey Point and end at the Angel of the Winds Casino in Arlington on Saturday, June 8.

The pre-ride briefing is slated to start at 10:45 a.m., in time for the motorcycles to go out by 11 a.m. The casino will greet riders with a slot tournament, as well as a raffle and silent auction in its banquet room.

“We strongly believe that our community is not just where we live, but is the place we have chosen to make a home for our families,” said Tracy “Chainz” Rowe, president of the Washington State Chapter B of the Warrior Brotherhood Veterans Motorcycle Club. “For this reason, we want to strengthen our ties within our community, and in doing so, provide assistance to the military community, veterans and their families.”

The club is a nonprofit veterans organization, and the annual spring run’s proceeds go to benefit Hearts Toward Home International.

“We have more than 60 items, valued in excess of $5,000, for the raffle and silent auction,” Rowe said. “The more folks we get to attend, the more money we can raise for Dr. Bridget Cantrell, who was appointed the 2004 and 2008 Outstanding Female Non-Veteran, for her service to veterans, by the Governor’s Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee and the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Cantrell is the founder and CEO of Hearts Toward Home International, a charitable nonprofit organization dedicated to the recovery and reintegration of trauma survivors. Since 2008, Hearts Toward Home International has been received the Best of Bellingham Award, in the Nonprofit Charitable Organization category, by the U.S. Local Business Association for three years.

Trails along water in Everett offer views of wildlife

A weasel pokes its heads out of the rocks along the boat launch parking lot.
A weasel pokes its heads out of the rocks along the boat launch parking lot.

Mike Benbow, The Herald

You typically don’t associate wildlife and the outdoors with business and industry, but the Port of Everett wishes you would.

It’s no secret that people want access to the waterfront; they’ve told port officials that quite frequently.

So through the years, the port has partnered with the city of Everett to create a system of trails for hikers, runners and bicyclists. On both ends of the trail are postage stamp parks

But with a few notable exceptions, like the summer ferry to the beach on the port’s manmade Jetty Island, public access along the waterfront isn’t well known and is certainly under used.

“A lot of people, somewhat surprisingly, still don’t know there are all these walking trails,” said Lisa Lefeber, the port’s public affairs administrator.

She’s talking about a system of trails developed in 2009 called the Marina District Waterfront Loop. It combines walkways along the port’s north and south marinas with those along W. Marine View Drive to provide a variety of opportunities for exercise coupled with a chance to see lots of wildlife.

“You have a better quality of life when you have a walkable waterfront,” Lefeber said.

And while many people don’t know what’s available, the wildlife have.

For example, the mudflats on the north end of the port once teemed with logs waiting to be shipped to Asia. The logs are mostly gone now, but the pilings used to tether them have been taken over by osprey.

On a short walk along W. Marine View Drive where the city has established two small view parks, Southview and Northview, there are five or six active osprey nests.

Depending on the state of the tides, it’s not unusual to see osprey or eagles soaring overhead looking for a meal. Ospreys also often dive to the tideflats to snatch a stick to add to their nests.

And, of course, where else would you expect harbor seals than around the harbor? On the opening weekend of boating season earlier this month, those walking behind Anthony’s Homeport restaurant were treated to seals looking for a quick meal around a net pen used to rear salmon. They didn’t appear to find one.

On my walks, I always try to include a trip along the parking area for the 10th Street Boat Launch because that’s probably the closest view of some of the osprey nests. They’re a ways off, so you may want to bring binoculars.

On a recent visit I saw something flash in the corner of my eye and looked down on the riprap to see a weasel dashing back into the rocks. But weasels are curious critters, and it wasn’t long before he poked his head out to have another look at me.

Probably the most popular access to the waterfront begins on July 5 with the opening of the Jetty Island ferry. It’s a short trip across the boating channel to a beach popular with families and with kite boarders.

Most people like the island for its shallow, sandy beach. But the area is teeming with wildlife and well worth the visit to see it.

Even though the ferry isn’t running yet, kite boarders are going there now using a variety of their own tiny watercraft: everything from paddle boards to canoes and inflatable kayaks.

You can too, but don’t forget your life vest and whistle for safety.

If you don’t have a boat, you can still get to a beach right now at one of the port’s least known areas: Pigeon Creek Beach and Viewpoint. It’s at the south end of the trail system and skirts the area where the port unloads and stores cargo from incoming ships.

To get there, you park at the end of Bond Street near the old train depot, walk across the railroad tracks, and walk or bike less than a mile.

First timers may be a little leery of the trip because it has all the charm of a prison exercise yard. You walk on an asphalt path between two chain-link fences; one keeps you off the railroad tracks and the other, topped with barbed wire, keeps you away from the cargo.

The walk is thankfully short, however, and the payoff is worth it.

Pigeon Creek is a gem of a park with a couple tables for picnics, and some logs and rocks for sitting. When the tide is out, there’s a nice beach and the water is pretty shallow. The view is stellar.

Walking/biking map

For more Information on port waterfront access, visit bit.ly/12ML7k5bit.

Signs of decline in health of Puget Sound organisms

By Associated Press

SEATTLE — Despite improvements in the most industrialized and populated areas of the Puget Sound, a new report issued Tuesday by the Washington Department of Ecology shows the overall health of the state’s broadest waterway is declining in at least one way.

Sediment health in the central sound — from just south of Whidbey Island to the Tacoma Narrows — has deteriorated over the past decade, according to the report, which has some scientists who closely monitor the watershed wondering what they’ve been missing.

The study of sediment pulled from the bottom of the sound in 2008 and 2009 found a decline in sediment-dwelling life — known as benthic invertebrates — in 28 percent of the region, compared with 7 percent of the region in results from 1998 and 1999.

The results were surprising in contrast with other recent health checkups for the Puget Sound, which have shown improvements such as a decrease in toxic chemicals. Scientists also have found a decrease in concentrations of lead, mercury, silver, tin and other toxics in the central sound sediment.

It is possible scientists have not been looking deep enough or broad enough for other environmental problems, said Rob Duff, manager of the Ecology Department’s environmental assessment program.

“We don’t measure everything. We measure dozens and dozens of chemicals we are concerned about,” Duff said, adding, “There are thousands and thousands of chemicals in commerce today.”

Emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products may be responsible for the decline in the number and variety of small creatures within the Puget Sound’s sediment, Duff said, but there are other possible causes.

The decline in the number and variety of small creatures in the sediment also result from natural influences, such as the normal population cycles of sediment-dwelling organisms, or sediment movement and changes in dissolved oxygen, pH and ammonia levels in the water above the sediments.

“One report only tells you a piece of the puzzle,” cautioned Jan Newton, an oceanographer from the University of Washington who was not involved in this Ecology Department study.

The health of Puget Sound is so multi-faceted — from toxics to habitat to climate change — it’s difficult to talk about its overall health, she said, adding, “definitely, there’s reason for concern.”

Meanwhile, the health of Elliott Bay in Seattle and Commencement Bay in Tacoma has been shown signs of improving health, with decreases in chemicals found and water chemistry overall.

That suggests years of port cleanup and storm water management seem to be working, said Maggie Dutch, lead scientist for the sediment monitoring program.

But the contrasting results also suggest the need for more research, she added.

“We’re thinking that there are other things happening,” Dutch said. “It could be things that we also have an influence on.”

This kind of report shows the importance of continuing to monitor the sound as a tool for figuring out what else needs to be done to clean up the water, Ken Dzinbal, who represents the Puget Sound Partnership on the monitoring program.

“We’ve done a pretty good job of addressing big issues like storm water,” he said. “There still might be something else out there that we haven’t addressed.”

— The Associated Press

Oklahoma Tornadoes: New Website Collects Aid for Native Victims

Brian Daffron, Indian Country Today Media Network

The lives of at least 50 Native families have been turned upside down, many of them literally, by the tornadoes that devastated Oklahoma in May. One of the many groups reaching out to help is coordinating and sending aid directly to Indian families affected by this disaster.

As another tornado tore through El Reno, Yukon and south Oklahoma City on Friday May 31—also touching down in Moore, still reeling from the devastating May 20 tornado that killed 24—Native people from throughout Indian country were already reaching out to help their fellows.

The El Reno Indian Clinic, which lies within the Cheyenne & Arapaho tribal jurisdiction, was also damaged in the storms. None of the 42 fatalities reported—18 people, including three well known storm chasers doing research, perished in Friday’s five tornadoes—were American Indian. More than 20 American Indian families lost their homes in the May 20 tornado alone, according to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., from tribes including Arapaho, Cherokee, Choctaw, Comanche, Delaware, Jicarilla Apache, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Pawnee, and Shawnee.

While several individual tribes are offering aid, a new group has sprung up to channel aid directly to Indian families themselves. At Trails of H.O.P.E. (Helping Our People Earnestly), people can donate directly to Native American families.

The website is the idea of Oklahoma City area social worker Cortney Yarholar, who is of the Sac & Fox, Creek, Pawnee and Otoe tribes. He was inspired, he said, by words he had been told while growing up.

“ ‘Don’t ask for permission,’ his family elders often told him. ” ‘If you see something that needs to be done, just go do it.’ ”

Yarholar’s wife is from Moore, so he had seen firsthand the aftermath of both the 1999 and 2003 tornadoes that had hit the area. Her family had lost their home both times. He also knew that although FEMA and the American Red Cross handled immediate relief needs, these types of government and non-profit organizations are not always there for the long term. To fill this gap, Yarholar collaborated with the website Last Real Indians to create Trails of H.O.P.E., which is collecting donations to go directly to the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference disaster response committee. The Oklahoma Indian Missionary is the governing body of the American Indian Methodist churches within Oklahoma and exists to assist American Indian disaster victims.

“They’re really in it for the long haul, the long term, in helping families rebuild their lives—not only their physical homes but also their lives,” Yarholar said.

As of Monday June 3 the site had raised $5,000, said David Wilson, Choctaw tribal member and the conference superintendent of the missionary. The funds are being used to obtain temporary housing and car rental assistance for storm victims. The missionary has also helped funnel grief-counseling referrals through the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic and assisted in cleanup.

“Because of our various connections with the tribes, we usually know what tribes are going to offer, what support we might get from different agencies that the general public might not have access to,” said Wilson.

The missionary has received pledges for more support from throughout the country, Wilson said, adding that the group will continue working with both the individuals and tribes affected for as long as is necessary.

“Families have gone in to recover as much as they can,” said Wilson. “What we’ve worked on for the last three or four days is helping folks with temporary assistance, with housing. We’ll continue to work with that. We’ll begin looking at the rebuilding stage.”

Trails of H.O.P.E.’s efforts will not stop with this spate of tornadoes, Wilson said, even when the Oklahoma Missionary moves on as it travels throughout the country to help with other disasters.

“Thinking realistically, there will  be another disaster somewhere in Indian Country,” Yarholar said. “That way, it will give [the missionary] an opportunity to respond in a timely manner.”

Donations to Trails of H.O.P.E. can be made online through the group’s website, or by sending checks directly to the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, 3020 S. Harvey, OKC, OK 73109. ATTN: Disaster Relief.

More on the Oklahoma tornadoes and relief efforts:

Tornadoes Pummel Moore and Oklahoma City Anew; At Least Five Killed

Oklahoma Awakes to Grim New Reality as Recovery Efforts Begin

President Obama to Oklahoma: Every Resource Is at Your Disposal

More Than 50 Dead as Tornado Decimates Moore, Oklahoma, Hometown of Rep. Tom Cole, and Levels School

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/04/oklahoma-tornadoes-new-website-collects-aid-native-victims-149715

SR 529 Ebey Slough Bridge closure slated for June 8-10

The Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — The State Route 529 Ebey Slough Bridge is slated to be closed for the weekend from 5 a.m. on Saturday, June 8, to 5 a.m. on Monday, June 10.

“At this time, the bridge’s final paving is scheduled for this weekend,” said Kris Olsen, of the Washington State Department of Transportation Communications, on Tuesday, June 4. “It’s weather-dependent, but the weather forecast looks good at this time.”

According to Olsen, the final striping should be laid down on the bridge 21 days after the final paving is complete, although the striping work is also weather-dependent.