Kim Kalliber, Author at Tulalip News

New interior secretary lays out agenda for Native-American issues

By Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told a Senate panel Wednesday that “Indian education is embarrassing” as she laid out her priorities on issues affecting Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Jewell made her first appearance as Interior secretary before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. The Interior Department includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which oversees a school system for Native Americans.

Jewell said some $2 billion has been spent on American Indian schools over the past decade and that dozens of schools remain in poor condition. She also said across-the-board federal budget cuts have forced a $40 million reduction to Indian education spending.

“Indian education is embarrassing to you and to us,” Jewell said.

After the hearing, Jewell said she has not yet been on a tour of schools — she was sworn in April 12 — but has been told of the serious condition of some of them.

“When we have a number of schools identified as in poor condition, that’s not what we aspire to,” she said.

In written testimony, Jewell said the $2 billion in spending had reduced the number of schools from more than 120 to 63, but she stated that the “physical state of our schools remains a significant challenge.”

Jewell testified that 68 schools were in poor condition but later said the number in written testimony, 63, was accurate.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked about the state of school repairs in his opening remarks before Jewell testified. He said a school on a reservation in his state is “desperate, desperate” for replacement and deals regularly with leaky roofs, mold, rodent infestations and sewer problems.

“When the wind starts blowing at a certain rate, they have to leave the school because it doesn’t meet the safety standards. This can be when it’s 20 below zero in northern Minnesota. It puts the Indian education system to shame,” Franken said.

There is a $1.3 billion backlog on Indian school-construction projects, Franken said.

Even so, the president did not request new funding for rebuilding schools, “leaving thousands of Indian children to study in crumbling and even dangerous buildings. This is unacceptable,” Franken said.

Further pressed on the issue by Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., Jewell said her department cannot repair and replace schools without money. She said her agency has made what happens in the classroom and repairs, rather than new school construction, the spending priorities for 2014.

She said she raised the issue of seeking help from philanthropic organizations while in the car on the way to the hearing, but federal law may limit that idea.

Garden Revival

By Melinda Myers

Spring floods, summer droughts and temperature extremes take their toll on gardens and the gardeners who tend them. Help your gardens recover from the crazy temperature and moisture extremes that seem to occur each year.

Start by assessing the current condition of your landscape. Remove dead plants as soon as possible. They can harbor insect and disease organisms that can infest your healthy plantings. Consider replacing struggling plants with healthy plants better suited to the space, growing conditions and landscape design. You often achieve better results in less time by starting over rather than trying to nurse a sick plant back to health.

As always, select plants suited to the growing environment and that includes normal rainfall. Every season is different, but selecting plants suited to the average conditions will minimize the care needed and increase your odds for success. Roses, coneflowers, sedums and zinnias are just a few drought tolerant plants. Elderberry, ligularia, Siberian iris and marsh marigold are a few moisture tolerant plants.

Be prepared for worse case scenario. Install an irrigation system, such as the Snip-n-drip soaker system, in the garden. It allows you to apply water directly to the soil alongside plants. This means less water wasted to evaporation, wind and overhead watering. You’ll also reduce the risk of disease by keeping water off the plant leaves.

A properly installed and managed irrigation system will help save water. The convenience makes it easy to water thoroughly, encouraging deep roots, and only when needed. Turn the system on early in the day while you tend to other gardening and household chores. You’ll waste less water to evaporation and save time since the system does the watering for you.

Capture rainwater and use it to water container and in-ground gardens. Rain barrels and cisterns have long been used for this purpose and are experiencing renewed interest. Look for these features when buying or making your own rain barrel. Make sure the spigot is located close to the bottom so less water collects and stagnates. Select one that has a screen over the opening to keep out debris. And look for an overflow that directs the water into another barrel or away from the house.

Add a bit of paint to turn your rain barrel into a piece of art. Or tuck it behind some containers, shrubs or a decorative trellis. Just make sure it is easy to access.

Be sure to mulch trees and shrubs with shredded bark or woodchips to conserve moisture, suppress weeds and reduce competition from nearby grass. You’ll eliminate hand trimming while protecting trunks and stems from damaging weed whips and mowers.

Invigorate weather worn perennials with compost and an auger bit. Spread an inch of compost over the soil surface. Then use an auger bit, often used for planting bulbs, and drill the compost into the soil in open areas throughout the garden. You’ll help move the compost to the root zone of the plants and aerate the soil with this one activity.

A little advance planning and preparation can reduce your workload and increase your gardening enjoyment.

Gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has more than 30 years of horticulture experience and has written over 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening. She hosts the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV and radio segments and is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers web site is www.melindamyers.com

HHS announces the winners of the reducing cancer among women of color challenge

Apps help undeserved and minority women take control of their health

Source: Department of Health and Human Services

HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE announced the winners of the Reducing Cancer Among Women of Color Challenge. A first-of-its-kind effort to address health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, the winning apps will help women of color prevent and fight cancer.

The winning apps, Big Yellow Star, Broadstone Technologies, Appbrahma, HW-Technology, and Netzealous, are designed to help women of color prevent and fight cancer by linking them to information regarding preventive and screening services and locations, including support groups and care services.

The apps all focus on providing high-quality health information in different languages to women and community health workers about screening and preventive services. The apps were developed to interface securely with patient health records and strengthen communication across a patient’s care team in an effort to better coordinate information and care.

“This challenge created an innovative opportunity to use new technologies and new platforms to engage women in communities that have too often been dismissed as ‘hard-to-reach,’” Dr. Gracia said. “Through these innovative tools, we are addressing disparities by reaching women where they are – and taking an exciting step forward in implementing the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.”

“The Reducing Cancer Among Women of Color Challenge is a great example of the positive impact health information technology can make. Getting timely cancer preventive and treatment information to patients has always been an effective strategy. The winners of this challenge increase our capacity to empower women across a broad socioeconomic spectrum,” said David Hunt, M.D., F.A.C.S., medical director of health IT adoption & patient safety at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

In the United States, breast and gynecologic cancers are responsible for more than 68,000 deaths each year with over 300,000 new diagnoses made each year. Women of color are disproportionately affected due to various reasons, including the inability to access health care and preventive information, services, referral, and treatment.

The Reducing Cancer among Women of Color Challenge is a partnership between HHS’ Office of Minority Health and ONC. It challenged innovators and developers to create a mobile device-optimized tool that engages and empowers women to improve the prevention and treatment of breast, cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancer in underserved and minority communities and that can interface with provider electronic health records.

Submissions were reviewed and judged based on:

Patient engagement
Quality and accessibility of information
Targeted and actionable information
Links to online communities and/or social media
Innovativeness and usability
Non-English language availability

To learn more about the app challenge, the winners, and information on how to download the winning apps please visit:
http://challenge.gov/ONC/402-reducing-cancer-among-women-of-color and http://www.health2con.com/devchallenge/reducing-cancer-among-women-color-challenge/

First Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Hearing With Sally Jewell Set

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will make her first appearance in front of the Indian Affairs Committee on Wednesday, May 15 when Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will hold a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs oversight hearing.

The hearing, entitled “To Receive the Views and Priorities of Interior Secretary Jewell with Regard to Matters of Indian Affairs” will examine Jewell’s perspective on the challenges currently facing Indian country according to a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs press release.

The hearing comes one month after Jewell was sworn in as the head of the Department of the Interior – “the principal agency charged with upholding the federal government’s trust obligations to American Indian tribes.” (Related story: Senators Confirm Sally Jewell to Lead Interior; Predict She Will be Good for Indian Country)

In her new role, it is her responsibility to coordinate the government-to-government relationship that exists between the U.S and American Indian Tribes.

When Jewell was confirmed in April Indian Country Today Media Network reported that she had supporters in Indian country, a few of them are Billy Frank, a Native American environmental advocate; Fawn Sharp, and Chris Stearns.

As Secretary of the Interior, Jewell coordinates the government-to-government relationship that exists between the U.S. and American Indian Tribes. Within that relationship, the Department of the Interior is responsible for providing safety, education, general welfare, and natural resource services to Indian communities, while also promoting Tribal self-governance and self-determination.

The hearing will be available online at indian.senate.gov.

Negotiating the Perilous Space Between Indian Tribes and Universities

Tanya LeeJohn Sirois, chairman of the Colville Business Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation; Alvin Warren from the Harvard Kennedy School; Dedra Buchwald, Washington University professor of epidemiology and medicine, director of the Partnership for Native Health and director of the University of Washington’s Twin Registry; and N. Bruce Duthu spoke at the May 9 Nation Building Symposium. — Tanya Lee
John Sirois, chairman of the Colville Business Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation; Alvin Warren from the Harvard Kennedy School; Dedra Buchwald, Washington University professor of epidemiology and medicine, director of the Partnership for Native Health and director of the University of Washington’s Twin Registry; and N. Bruce Duthu spoke at the May 9 Nation Building Symposium.

By Tanya Lee, Indian Country Today Media Network

The complex relationship between American Indian tribes and mainstream universities was the focus of a May 9 Nation Building Symposium sponsored by the Harvard University Native American Program in partnership with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development Honoring Nations Program.

Harvard University and Dartmouth College were established explicitly for the education of Native American and English young men. Dartmouth’s 1769 charter from King George III specified that the college would be created “for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land … and also of English Youth and any others.”

Darmouth’s N. Bruce Duthu, professor of Native American Studies and chair of the college’s Native American Studies Program, told the gathering that after 200 years of more or less forgetting its mission, in the 1970s Dartmouth got serious about recruiting American Indian students. This year, he said, the college has its highest percent of Native students ever.

But today, the universities’ relationship with American Indian tribes consists of much more than educating Native students in the tenets of the dominant culture, and much of that complexity is evident in how universities conduct research among American Indian populations.

Gone are the days when researchers could turn up on a reservation without the permission of tribal leaders, say they were doing one type of research and proceed to do something else entirely and publish the results with no regard for privacy or cultural propriety. Tribes increasingly have policies and procedures in place to protect themselves from being exploited in the area of health research, including permits, negotiated goals and procedures, limits on what can be published and designation of who will approve the text of those reports, speakers explained.

“Universities need to go out to tribes to understand what they want on their terms, not turn up with a research plan,” said Dwight Lomayesva, Tribal Learning Community and Educational Exchange at the University of California at Los Angeles. Or, as Norbert Hill, area manager for education and training for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, said, “We need help, but on our terms.”

Manley Begay, co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and faculty at the University of Arizona’s American Indian Studies Program, said, “When we think about universities, we sometimes think first about their sports teams, not about how they could help us. We need to go to them; we don’t have time for them to come to us. We need to say, ‘You’re a land grant college on Indian land—this is what we want—help us do this.’”

What speakers said tribes need help with is building human capacity, the foundation of nation building. Kenny Smoker Jr., head of the Fort Peck Tribes Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Wellness Program, said, “I went to our tribal elders who said we were once a strong nation, caretakers of the Earth. So we are rebuilding a strong nation. For that we need resources,” the vast resources universities have.

“We worked with University of Washington, and asked, ‘What does it take to have a healthy community? The answers were health and welfare, law and justice, education and a viable economy. We need all these working together,” said Smoker.

Human capacity, speakers agreed, is the infrastructure for modern nation building in American Indian communities.

That means educating American Indian students at both tribal colleges and mainstream institutions such as Harvard, Dartmouth, Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Berkeley and UCLA, all of which had representatives at the symposium. It means taking responsibility for both matriculating students and graduating them. And it means providing opportunities for them to go home and become reintegrated into their home communities. John Sirois, chairman of the Colville Business Council for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, said, “You have to be able to integrate university learning with who you are, who your people are.”

Educating sufficient numbers of Native American professionals across the board to create a critical mass is the next step, and that is where long-term relationships—between universities and tribes and among professionals—make the difference. Speakers stressed again and again that everything depended on building relationships, whether it is obtaining funding for projects, getting research help from universities or creating the trust and dialogue that mean projects will get done in a meaningful way.

Stephen Cornell, co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and director of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona said this, “Finding answers, that’s what universities are good at. Then we make [the information] comprehensible and give it to the people who can do something with it.”

Qayaq Co-Op Campaigns on Kickstarter for $25K To Build High-Tech, Indigenous Boats

By Ralph Richardson, Indian Country Today Media Network

When Traditional Culture Meets High-Tech Construction, The People Can Qayaq Forward

More than 10,000 years ago, Eskimos constructed the first kayaks from stitched seal and other animal skins by stretching them across a wood or whalebone-skeleton frame. Called skin boats, they used them to hunt on the inland lakes, rivers and coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean.

Today, kayaking is one of the fastest growing sports in North America, with nearly 8 million active participants in the U.S. alone, up from 3.5 million just 10 years ago, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

With its rising popularity, David Michael Karabelnikoff (Aleut/Athabaskan) noticed kayaking equipment was primarily being mass-produced. So, in August 2012, Karabelnikoff established Qayaq Co-Op with co-founders Julian Jacobes and Martin Leonard III.

The Co-Op’s mission is twofold, Karabelnikoff explains: To inspire a movement in Southeast Alaska to revitalize canoe building and paddling, while encouraging youth to learn science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and to produce top quality kayaks that elite athletes would seek for their own use on the water. While the nonprofit embraces traditional Native craftsmanship, it also updates the kayaks, canoes, and skin boats with digital manufacturing and fabrication technology.

Karabelnikoff explains that the first aim, “is to provide high quality digitally fabricated and individually customized Qayaqs. We do this by providing high school and college apprenticeship programs to be mentored by master boat builders in digital fabrication and traditional boat building, which will help in placing jobs for the apprentice.”

These apprentices, or young Qayaq builders, measure the person who will be using the boat with a biometric model produced with a 3-D printer. This allows the apprentice to produce a digital fabrication. After this digital fabrication has been created, the apprentice selects materials and constructs the Qayaq according to the measurements gathered. According to Karabelnikoff, this process provides rich opportunities for learning in all 4 STEM areas.

In addition to working with young apprentices, the company provides kits to schools so that students can assemble their own Qayaqs. Learners can use the process of designing and modeling, as well as the construction of materials, to develop STEM skills. Providing kits to schools also encourages the revitalization of cultural skin boat skills. Karabelnikoff says he wants to match the level of traditional skin boat revitalization that he says is taking place in Greenland.

Karabelnikoff, 31, is focused on helping young people harness their future success. “We provide a culturally relevant context to digital fabrication,” he says, “which improves apprentices’ self-esteem, and establishes a basis for long-lasting success. By learning the skills needed to build a Qayaq, the apprentice will earn the pieces needed to build his or her own skin boat – the skeleton pieces, the paddles, and the skin. We provide the opportunity for building on a long line of successes.”

An historic Alaska Native qayaq (UA Museum of the North)

Qayaq’s second core mission develops equipment suitable for top-tier elite kayakers. Qayaq’s Bio-Metric personalized kayaks will allow the company to compete for elite customers willing to pay top dollar. He claims his Qayaq’s are not only customized to the buyer’s size, they are also socially responsible because they engage young people in positive work, and are environmentally responsible because kayaks encourage traditional boating.

While young people in local schools and who work as apprentices have benefited from association with Karabelnikoff’s non-profit, Qayaq Co-Op has put together a Kickstarter campaign to train at-risk youth, especially Alaska Native youth. With funding from the campaign, Karabelnikoff wants to develop a culturally relevant social enterprise. This initiative would provide workforce development training and digital fabrication training for at-risk youth, particularly those who are Alaska Native. As is the case with Qayaq Co-Op, this Kickstarter campaign also aims to demonstrate a positive image of Alaska Native cultures to the broader community.

In addition to targeting at-risk youth, Karabelnikoff wants to jumpstart the development of an Anchorage-based maker space, a community-oriented, physical place, where people can collaborate on Native projects. He also needs to purchase digital manufacturing tools and secure space for prototyping and fabrication. With these initiatives in place, Karabelnikoff hopes to generate support for building community-based businesses related to kayaking. Currently, Qayaq’s Kickstarter campaign, which ends Friday, May 18, is about $20,000 short of its goal.

Karabelnikoff says, “Apathy is a difficult one to overcome, especially in meager beginnings. The cynical say that there are not enough young people interested in our traditional skin boats, that aluminum skiffs with power motors are the only thing youth are interested in.”

The Qayaq Co-Op is determined to show the world how hungry urban Alaska Natives are for culture and a connection with the technological understandings of their ancestors. Karabelnikoff says the Qayaq Co-Op is about more than business. “Aleuts are Survivors. We are descended from one of the longest lasting civilizations on the planet, spanning thousands of years. In less than 50 years the population went from 20,000 to 2,000. Now we stand in the doorway between oblivion and revitalization; at times I do feel that the place where I come from doesn’t exist anymore. Then I hear the call from the future generations and answer it with the only prayer I know, one to be guided by my ancestors.”

Support Qayaq Co-op on Kickstarter at http://kck.st/ZfKJwK.

County leadership still in limbo

Aaron Reardon has yet to formalize his resignation, which muddles the process for an appointment and election.

Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick and state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, have put forward their names seeking the position

By Noah Haglund, The Herald

EVERETT — The timing of Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon’s May 31 resignation has been a head-scratcher since he announced it in February.

If Reardon had opted to step down before the official candidate-filing period began this week, the county could have scheduled a special election in November to fill the two-plus years remaining on his term.

For that reason, some political insiders have speculated that Reardon would move up his resignation date. All the more so because the scandals dogging the executive have only grown since Feb. 14, when The Herald published a story linking two Reardon staffers to public records requests and attack websites targeting their boss’ enemies. Reardon has said he was unaware of the activity.

Sunday came and went, without Reardon sending a letter to the County Council formalizing his resignation.

That means whoever is appointed to fill Reardon’s job will serve unchallenged at least into November 2014, when results are certified in a special election expected next year.

Here’s a breakdown of the appointment process:

•Because Reardon is a Democrat in a partisan elected office, the law says it’s up to Snohomish County Democrats to pick three nominees to replace him. The county party’s central committee will forward the names to the County Council.

For the council to start the process, it needs to have written notice from the executive. That had not occurred as of Monday afternoon. Reardon never answered a May 2 letter from the council asking him to submit the letter and make good on his promise to create a seamless transition.

The County Council will have 60 days from the date of the vacancy to make a final selection. If a majority of the council is unable to choose an appointee, the task goes to the governor, who has 30 days to make a decision.

Under the county charter, Reardon’s deputy executive, Gary Haakenson, would be the acting executive for any period between Reardon’s departure and the appointment of his successor.

A special election to fill the remainder of Reardon’s term would occur on Nov. 4, 2014.

The person appointed executive can run in the special election and will serve until those results are certified. That’s due to happen on Nov. 25, 2014.

An election for the full, four-year term is scheduled in 2015.

The appointment and the special election would not count toward the candidate’s term limits. An executive may serve no more than three consecutive four-year terms.

So far, Snohomish County Sheriff John Lovick and state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, have put forward their names seeking the position. Lovick appears to have sewn up support from a majority of local Democrats. The party continues to seek a third nominee, said Richard Wright, chairman of Snohomish County Democrats.

Tulalip woman indicted in daughter’s death

By Scott North, The Herald

TULALIP — A Tulalip mother could spend a minimum 30 years behind bars if convicted as charged in the Oct. 8 neglect death of her young daughter.

A federal grand jury in Seattle on Tuesday indicted Christina D. Carlson with second-degree murder and criminal mistreatment charges. Her arraignment is scheduled May 23.

Federal prosecutors allege that Carlson, 36, all but abandoned her 19-month-old daughter Chantel Craig and her other daughter, 3, in a parked car on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

Chantel was found dying in a car seat, covered in feces and lice. An autopsy determined she was dehydrated and suffered from severe malnutrition. The older girl also suffered from lack of care and malnutrition.

In the hours before Chantel was found, Carlson allegedly was sending text messages, attempting to find drugs, according to court papers. Tests conducted on the older girl’s hair showed evidence that the girl had been exposed to opiates.

Carlson and the girls had for months been the focus of on-again, off-again searches by state and tribal child welfare workers.

An investigation by Tulalip Tribal Police and the FBI determined Carlson and her children had been living in the car since mid-September. The car was tucked out of the way, down a dirt road on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

The indictment mirrors charges federal prosecutors sought when Carlson’s case was transferred from tribal court in January.

If convicted as charged, Carlson faces a mandatory minimum 30 years in prison for her daughter’s death, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.

The criminal mistreatment charges are punishable by up to a decade behind bars.

Federal prosecutors allege that Carlson withheld basic necessities of life from her children. She allegedly told police she hadn’t changed the girls’ diapers in four days because she had run out. Police found a full package of unused diapers in the car’s trunk.

The case already has undergone a review by a team of experts who by law were required to examine the circumstances surrounding Chantel’s death. The panel offered recommendations, but found no “critical errors” on behalf of state Child Administration employees.

Since 2001, the Tulalip Tribes have assumed jurisdiction over criminal matters on the reservation involving Tulalip members and other people who belong to federally recognized tribes.

Federal authorities also have jurisdiction on tribal land to investigate and prosecute more than a dozen major crimes, such as murder, rape, manslaughter and felony child abuse or neglect.

Northwest Indian Gaming Conference and Expo

The 2013 Northwest Indian Gaming Conference and Expo will beheld July 15-17, 2013 at the Tulalip Resort Casino in Tulalip, Washington, about 30 miles north of Seattle, directly on I-5 at exit 200.

The Tulalip Tribe’s Resort includes the Tulalip Casino, 378 hotel rooms and luxury suites, casual and fine dining restaurants, the Spa, and 30,000 sq. ft. of conference space. Tradeshow exhibitors will be located in the 15,000 sq. ft. Orca Ballroom.

Our attendees come from the all of the Northwest states, with the largest number from Washington, followed by Oregon, California, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Montana. Save the date!

Our show manager this year is Buss Productions and the contact person is Heidi Buss at (651) 917-2301 or FAX (651) 917-3578 or email at hbuss@msn.com.

Registration Questions? Call Madeline Bahr at Washington Indian Gaming Assoc. 360.352.3248 or email: madelinebahr@reachone.com

Early Bird Discount Registration ends June 14th. Save $50 over the regular registration rate. Discounted Hotel rate is available through June 21st, but don’t wait! Rooms are going fast!

Soap Lake Pow Wow, June 7-9

June 7, 8, & 9, 2013 East Beach Park, Soap Lake, Washington

Contact: www.soaplakepowwow.com or 509.855.5085