It’s All in Your Head: Create Your Own Success

Leadership Snohomish County and Economic Alliance Snohomish County present Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs
 
Everett, WA – How does your own mindset allow you to make, not just find, opportunities in the world? What really drives the thinking of wildly successful entrepreneurs?
 
To find out, join Leadership Snohomish County and presenter Ian Ayers on Friday, April 12th, at Jackson Center at Everett Community College for Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs. Learn how your way of thinking can allow you to thrive in the face of uncertainty. Come for the morning workshop, from 8:00 to 11:00 AM, or stay and take advantage of the small group session from 11:30AM to 2:30PM as well.
 
“It’s essential that we all use entrepreneurial thinking to strengthen our communities, our companies, and our organizations,” said Sarri Gilman, Executive Director of Leadership Snohomish County. “We’re excited to offer this workshop because the information is very accessible and it’s relevant to every aspect of building thriving companies and communities.”
 
Presenter Ian Ayers is the creator of the Effectual Method, a system that teaches entrepreneurial expertise through doing. The morning workshop is a mix of theory, storytelling, exercises, and breakthrough moments. You’ll learn five principles you can apply right away to grow your business, develop your team, and solve problems. Based on research published in INC Magazine, “How Great Entrepreneurs Think,” you’ll grasp the fundamental differences between causal, or predictive thinking, and effectual thinking. And, you’ll leave with a set of practical next steps and a way to move forward.
 
Stay for the small group afternoon session (maximum 30 people) and continue to work with Ian Ayers, diving deeper and applying the principles learned in the morning workshop.
 
“Co-creation is central to this method, and the best way to improve is through doing, “ said Ayers. “So, to make sure you hit the ground running, we’ll try some live co-creation within our group and make new opportunities right before our very eyes.”


Shannon Affholter, Vice President of Business & Economic Development at Economic Alliance Snohomish County, endorses and is sponsoring the workshop.
 
“Attending the Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs workshop will help community leaders better understand the important qualities that make entrepreneurs succeed in our current economy,” said Affholter.
 
Co-sponsored by Economic Alliance Snohomish County, Everett Community College, and the Greater Everett Community Foundation.
 
Register for Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs at www.leadershipsc.org. Fee is per person: $65 morning only (includes coffee and snacks), $175 all day (also includes lunch). Please note: tickets may be transferred to another attendee but are not refundable.
 
 
About Leadership Snohomish County
Leadership Snohomish County develops leaders for a lifetime by providing education and opportunities for people and organizations to strengthen our community. Our program helps participants acquire an understanding of the critical issues affecting the region and the leadership and stewardship capabilities necessary to resolve them.

United Way Lobby Day focuses on Kids, Food, Seniors and Housing

News Release, United Way of Snohomish County

(Everett, WA) — On Feb. 7, over 80 United Way volunteers and staff attended the 7th annual United Ways of Washington Lobby Day.  United Way of Snohomish County had more than 20 volunteers and staff travel to Olympia to participate in the annual event. “This is going to be a challenging legislative session,” said Katrina Ondracek, Vice President of Public Policy and Community Initiatives for United Way of Snohomish County. “By lobbying, we are ensuring that our priorities are heard, and the issues facing our county are addressed.”
This year’s legislative agenda focuses on early learning, hunger, homelessness and seniors.
The group encouraged lawmakers to support several programs related to its agenda, including:

  • The Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS)
  • Increasing the number of ECEAP slots
  • Protecting and funding the Housing Trust Fund
  •  Ensuring long-term care options for the aging population
  • Promoting financial education by creating financial education standards for the common core standards for English language and math

The delegation also urged lawmakers to maintain Senior Citizens Services Act funding, restore funding to State Food Assistance Program (SFA), and increase funding for Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP).
The delegation, in addition to Ondracek and United Way staff included Rich White, Patrick Pierce and Dennis Kendall, members of United Way’s Public Policy Committee; board members Josh Estes, Jackie Rae and Jim Litz; and community volunteers Tiffany Litz and Donna Wilson.
The group met with Senators Rosemary McAuliffe, Kirk Pearson, Barbara Bailey, Steve Hobbs, Nick Harper, and Paul Shin, as well as Representatives Norma Smith, Mike Sells, Hans Dunshee, Ruth Kagi, Derek Stanford, John McCoy, Elizabeth Scott, Cindy Ryu, Dan Kristiansen, Marko Liias, and Dave Hayes.  The group also shared information with the legislative assistants for Sen. Maralyn Chase and Representatives Mary Helen Roberts and Mike Hope.

Food Excellence Awards honor top kitchens

Press Release, Snohomish Health District
SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. – It’s like winning an Oscar Award for safe food handling. The Snohomish Health District Food Excellence Awards honor the top restaurants and institutional kitchens in six categories, selected from more than 4,000 food permit holders in Snohomish County.
 
Only businesses with no food code violations in the past year are even nominated for an award by food inspectors. After that, nominees are scrutinized by the Food Advisory Committee, a group of restaurant owners, managers, chefs and food safety specialists who volunteer their time to advise the Health District on policies and procedures.
 
The winners were honored at this week’s Snohomish County Board of Health meeting. Food Program Manager Rick Zahalka noted that each year the competition gets tougher and there are new challenges to food safety that must be addressed by businesses.
 
“I am always impressed by the achievements of Excellence Award winners.  Their efforts result in excellent food safety and quality as well as in the happiness and satisfaction of their customers,” Zahalka said.
 
2012 Excellence Award Winners
 
Full Menu Establishment–Playa Bonita Mexican Restaurant, Marysville. Owners Jorge Acero, Mario Zambrano and Jose Luis Zambrano were commended for their professionalism and having no violations for the last five inspections.
 
Fast Service Establishment–Miyako’s Teriyaki & Wok, Marysville. Michael Kim owns and manages the restaurant near the Costco in Lakewood. It’s the second year this business received a nomination. The owner apologized for being late to the meeting – he was delayed by a food inspection. He shared some of his tactics for keeping surfaces clean and food fresh.
 
Limited Menu Establishment–Surf Shack Espresso, Lake Stevens. Theresa Personius owns and runs the business in Frontier Village.
 
Grocery Store–Harbor Pointe QFC #832, Mukilteo. The store is managed by Kevin  Heuser – QFC’s corporate food safety specialist Jane Dale also attended the meeting. Last year, the QFC store in Bothell won this award.
 
School/Industry/Institution–Marysville Getchell High School. The school’s kitchen is managed by Donna Geise. She brought three kitchen workers with her, and noted that everyone on her team of 10 helped earn the award. The school serves breakfast and lunch in multiple buildings across the campus.
 
Temporary Food Establishment–Silver Firs Safeway. The store is managed by Mike Eagle. In addition to its deli and in-store food, the store does many temporary events outdoors, which add complexity.
 
Snohomish Health District created the Excellence Awards program in 1989 as a positive reinforcement of its restaurant and food service inspection program. The public health agency’s 11 food program staff visits every establishment at least once throughout the year. Restaurants with more extensive – and potentially hazardous – menus are inspected three. School kitchens, temporary food booths, assisted living businesses and grocery store barbeques are all inspected to ensure food safety.
 
Food inspection reports may be viewed online at www.snohd.org. Search for “restaurants.”
 
In addition to inspecting food facilities, the Health District offers classroom and online training for food workers and managers. In 2012 more than 25,000 Snohomish County food handlers received food safety training.
 
Call 425.339.5250 to learn more about the Food Program at Snohomish Health District, or visit us online at www.snohd.org.
 
Established in 1959, the Snohomish Health District works for a safer and healthier Snohomish County through disease prevention, health promotion, and protection from environmental threats. Find more information about the Health Board and the Health District at http://www.snohd.org.

Traditional plains sport comes to Tulalip

Members of the Washington Stealth lacrosse league introduce the game of lacrosse to members of the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club.
Members of the Washington Stealth lacrosse league introduce the game of lacrosse to members of the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club.

By Kim Kalliber TulalipNews writer; photo by Jeannie Briones, TulalipNews staff

The sound of clashing sticks echoed throughout the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club as kids, club staff and members of Everett’s Washington Stealth lacrosse league took part in the exciting sport of lacrosse. Members of Washington Stealth paid a visit to the club on February 11th to teach the kids not only the game of lacrosse, but its history and Native American cultural identity, along with the importance of staying physically fit in order to combat obesity, an issue that is prominent in children across America.

The history of Lacrosse

Lacrosse, a word that means “stick,” is one of the oldest team sports in North America, and can be traced to tribal games played by eastern tribes and some Plains Indian tribes in what is now known as Canada.  The sport was well established with Europeans by the seventeenth century, and was documented by Jesuit priests.

Traditional lacrosse games were often major events, lasting several days, with as many as 100 to 1,000 men from various villages or tribes playing against each other in a single game. These large number of players would swarm a ball, which could not be touched by hands, and maneuver it across an open field.

Medicine Men served as coaches and women traditionally served refreshments.  Games were followed with a ceremonial dance and a large feast to honor the hungry players.

Early lacrosse balls were often made of wood or deerskin stuffed with hair, and the sticks resembled a giant wooden spoon, without netting. No protective gear was worn during traditional lacrosse games.

 

Blue Pony Lacrosse

Washington Stealth have partnered with Blue Pony Lacrosse, a program dedicated to rejuvenating lacrosse in Native American culture and teaching the history and importance of the game to Natives.

“It is grounded in tradition.  It is an Indigenous Native sport, originally part of the medicine game of the Iroquois. We want to start a foundation of understanding more than just the sport, but the spiritually and cultural history behind the sport itself,” said Dave Waterman, Native American Liaison for Washington Stealth. “We will move on to contemporary lacrosse, which is what you see today. Hopefully this will initiate some interest in the youth and in the community.”

For centuries the Iroquois have played the “Creators Game,” sending the message that the game is a symbol of unity, health, and the power of the good mind; it’s message transcends territory, boundary and time, manifesting through the players, representing honor and respect of all people, generating a gift of healing so all people may have peace of mind.

Blue Pony co-sponsored a resolution at the 1996 National Congress of the American Indian, which designated “The Creator’s Game.”  Part of this resolution states, “the involvement of Indian Lacrosse with young people may go a long way towards solving the problems faced by Indians in dominant culture schools, the lack of respect for Native culture and history, coupled with racism and an expectation of failure.”

 

Sticks 2 Schools

Not only are they working to teach the origins and culture of lacrosse, members of Washington Stealth are also educating children about the dangers of obesity, through a partnership with Sticks 2 Schools.

Sticks 2 Schools is a non-profit corporation that helps combat child obesity by motivating youth to increase their level of physical activity while learning to play lacrosse. Since many schools can’t afford additional physical education programs and equipment, Sticks 2 Schools, through corporate sponsors and private donors, has introduced co-ed lacrosse in over 100 elementary, middle and high schools in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area of California, and since 2010, twenty schools in the Greater Seattle area.

 

Tulalip Boys & Girls Club member Dakota Fisher has fun learning the game of lacrosse.
Tulalip Boys & Girls Club member Dakota Fisher has fun learning the game of lacrosse.

“The overlying message is to fight childhood obesity, but so much more comes out of it. They learn leadership skills and communication within their own peer groups,” said Chris Kelley, Manager of Service and Retention for Washington Stealth and lacrosse coach for Mukilteo High School.

“I think the game of lacrosse is a great outlet for the kids to promote the importance of an active, healthy lifestyle while celebrating the history and heritage behind the sport in Native culture,” said Chris

McElroy, Washington Stealth team member.

 

Let the games begin

Washington Stealth members arrived at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club, packing equipment, knowledge and team spirit to share with Club kids and staff. Kids were taught the importance of wearing proper helmets and elbow and chin pads and were introduced to the latest sporting equipment. Thanks to modern technology, sticks now increase the pace of the game.

After a pre-game warm-up, the kids got to test their newly learned skills on the court.

Tulalip Boys & Girls Club member Andrea Parrish learns she's a natural at lacrosse.
Tulalip Boys & Girls Club member Andrea Parrish learns she’s a natural at lacrosse.

The objective of the game is to score by shooting the ball into an opponent’s goal, using the lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball. The defense tries to keep the opposing team from scoring and to gain control of the ball through the use of stick checking and body contact or positioning. The game can be played on an outdoor field or indoor court.

“I was born to do this!” said Tulalip Boys & Girls Club member, Andrea Parrish, who proved to be a natural at the game.

As a special surprise, the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club received a gift of 50 lacrosse sticks. The sticks were originally donated to the Sticks 2 Schools program, which passed them on to Tulalip in order to increase the interest in lacrosse among Native American youth.

Unsure of what the future holds for lacrosse at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club, Don Hatch III, Athletic Director for the club said, “I hope our kids grasp onto this sport; I want them to give it a shot. We are more than just a basketball club now; we have soccer, t-ball, baseball, and football.”

Gray whale sighted near Mission Beach

Watch for whales

Source: HeraldNet

A gray whale has been sighted near Mission Beach at Tulalip, about a month before the first of a group of migratory whales usually shows up.

Kathie Roon, who lives at the beach, said she saw a whale offshore Monday morning while walking her dog. Roon saw several spouts and the fluke come out of the water, she said.

Gray whales visit Possession Sound and Port Susan on their annual trip from Mexico to Alaska, usually between March and May, experts say. Normally about a dozen stop over, according to John Calambokidis of Olympia-based Cascadia Research. About six of them are the same whales every year and about six are different, as identified by photos, he said.

Mansion in Mukilteo recalled: The history of Mukilteo’s first mansion is the topic for a meeting of the Mukilteo Historical Society on Thursday.

The home’s current owner, Alan Zugel, is to talk about his house at the meeting, scheduled for 7:15 p.m. in the Fowler Room at the Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave. The house was built in the early 1900s for the manager of the Crown Lumber Co., according to the historical group.

The meeting is open to the public and refreshments are planned.

Alpacas on display: The Alpaca Association of Western Washington plans to hold their second annual Valentine’s weekend Herdsire Review from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, 14405 179th Ave SE, Monroe. Some of the best alpaca herdsires available for breeding in Western Washington will be on display for local alpaca farms to observe and schedule breeding dates for their females.

This year’s event has expanded to include an Alpaca Pen Sale and Fiber Market so that the public can see and buy alpaca products as well as alpacas. Admission is free. For more information, go to www.alpacawa.org or call 206-510-0434.

Statement by Billy Frank Jr. on selection of Sally Jewell as Interior Secretary

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

“We are excited about President Obama’s selection of Sally Jewell for Secretary of the Interior,” says Chairman Billy Frank of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “We think she’s a great choice.”

Jewell, the former chief executive officer for outdoor gear giant REI, grew up in Washington state and knows the issues important to Indian tribes, Frank said. “She’s one of us, and we couldn’t be more pleased that she will be leading the Department of Interior for the next four years,” he said.

Frank said that Jewell brings a strong blend of business sense and a natural resources conservation ethic to the agency. “A healthy environment and a healthy economy can go hand-in-hand,” Frank said. “We can have both, and I think Sally Jewell will help make that happen.”

Frank praised Jewell’s knowledge of tribes and tribal issues, and respect for tribal sovereignty and treaty rights. “We are facing big challenges such as achieving salmon recovery, protecting water quality and adapting to climate change,” Frank said. “Our cultures, economies and treaty rights depend on a healthy environment and healthy natural resources.”

Because the Department of Interior also includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Jewell’s understanding and respect for tribal governments are critical to a good working relationship between the tribes and the agency, he said.

“I believe Sally is the right person, in the right place, at the right time,” Frank said. “We look forward to working with her, and thank President Obama for his wise choice.”

Sought-after local, sustainable seafood sold at Lummi market

Lummi tribal fishermen harvest Fraser River sockeye during 2010′s record-breaking run.
Lummi tribal fishermen harvest Fraser River sockeye during 2010′s record-breaking run.

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Tribally caught fish sold at the Lummi Nation’s Schelangen Seafood Market is both locally sourced and sustainable, two of the most sought-after qualities for chefs, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Schelangen, in the Lummi language, means “way of life.”

“Harvesting has always been the cornerstone of our culture,” said Elden Hillaire, chairman of the Lummi Fisheries Commission. “All of our harvest targets healthy stocks while protecting weak wild runs. Fishing sustainably and being able to supply locally caught seafood is important to us.”

Locally sourced meat and seafood is the top trend in the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot 2013 survey. Ninth on the list is sustainable seafood. The What’s Hot list is compiled from a survey of professional chefs about the food, cuisines and culinary themes that will be popular on restaurant menus this year.

Tribes have been forced in recent years to limit fisheries because of widespread damage to salmon habitat. “Fortunately, because of careful management, we can still harvest without impacting weak wild runs,” Hillaire said. “But in the long term, sustainable harvest and the restoration of salmon habitat are our goal.”

The Lummi Gateway Center, off Interstate 5 north of Bellingham, is intended to promote community prosperity through tribal enterprise. The nearly 10,000-square-foot shopping center also includes a cafe serving lunch daily and a gift shop featuring Lummi artwork.

In addition, the Lummi Gateway Center has space for seven small businesses to start up. These “incubator” spaces will provide an opportunity for tribal members to develop a new business in a prime storefront area. The building itself has been designed to use less energy on a daily basis than a traditionally constructed building, and earned a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver Certification.

Hopi and Diné Meet to Discuss Future of Navajo Generating Station

By Tanya Lee, Indian Country Today Media Network

Long the cause of conflict and distrust, Black Mesa coal is becoming the key to a new approach to building a sustainable future for the Native peoples of the region and the many non-Native peoples who have lights and water because of that coal.

In early December, three generations of Navajos and Hopis met with representatives of grassroots and national human rights and environmental groups to discuss the future of Navajo Generating Station (NGS) on Navajo land near Page, Arizona. Former Navajo Nation president Milton Bluehouse says, “This was a strategy meeting about how to phase out coal for energy over a period of time and find a way to use other resources such as solar, wind or biomass to produce electricity.”

The 2,250-megawatt coal-fueled power plant was built in the early 1970s to provide power for the Central Arizona Project (CAP) and electricity for the growing cities of the Southwest. Marshall Johnson, Navajo, who describes himself as a watchman for his people, explains that most of the power generated at NGS and owned by the federal government “is used to push water uphill from Lake Havasu to Phoenix and Tucson. Eighty percent of the people in Arizona depend on CAP for their water.”

The fuel for the power plant comes from Kayenta Mine on Black Mesa. That coal is owned by the Navajo and Hopi; the strip mine is owned and operated by Peabody Energy, which pays royalties to the tribes. According to a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the power plant and the mine together provide copy50 million to the tribes, including coal royalties, bonuses, groundwater, leases and air permits. NGS employs 450 American Indians and the mine 400.

The future of NGS is up for grabs for several reasons, says Johnson: “Coal is too expensive and water is too expensive to use for generating power.” First, plant owners will in the next few years have to install pollution controls for emissions of nitrous oxides, mercury and other toxics under new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules. Estimated cost: as much as copy.1 billion. If Congress or the EPA imposes limits on carbon dioxide emissions, NGS’s position in relation to the Clean Air Act would be even more tenuous.

Second, the water service contract between Salt River Project and the Bureau of Reclamation that supplies water to the power plant expires in 2014.

Third, the power plant is on Navajo land, and the 50-year site lease for the plant, as well as the rights-of-way for transmission lines, railroads and haul roads, expires in December 2019.

Finally, the power plant uses 34,100 acre-feet a year of water from the Upper Basin of the Colorado River. Arizona’s share of that water under the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact is 50,000 acre-feet a year. The Navajo Tribe has claimed all of Arizona’s share under the Winters Doctrine. The Hopi also have a claim under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. In the original water contract to supply NGS drawn up in the late ’60s, the Navajo Nation waived all rights to Upper Colorado River water in exchange for job preference at the mine and power plant, the exclusive right to sell coal to supply the mine, an allocation of power from the plant to the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, copy25,000 over five years for Navaho Community College (now Diné College) and some CAP water. The resolution passed by the Navajo Nation Tribal Council says the tribe promises to limit its claim to 50,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water per year “for the term of the lifetime of the proposed power plant, or for 50 years, whichever shall occur first.” That 50 years is up in 2016, just one year after the life-of-mine permit expires in 2015.

Given this constellation of environmental requirements and expiring leases and contracts, Joe Browder, who worked on environmental issues in the Carter administration and is now an international consultant on energy development, says, “It is inevitable that NGS will go through some kind of transition. Since the transition will occur anyway, and funds will be invested to make that happen.… It’s not some radical dream for the tribes to think they could get a better deal.”

Clark says the Flagstaff meeting looked at two main questions: “How do we talk about what this transition should be? And how do we present our ideas to tribal and federal leadership in such a way that our ideas will be part of their discussions? We hope to elevate this issue to a top priority in President Obama’s second term.”

The options for converting NGS into a cleaner generator are many. The Navajo Reservation has excellent solar potential, according to the NREL report, and for some, solar is the preferable—or indeed the only—answer. In addition to conventional solar farms, Clark, citing a draft working paper on NGS prepared by the Grand Canyon Trust, suggests the possibility of covering the CAP canals with photovoltaic solar panels.

Natural gas could be another option as a stand-alone or it could be combined with solar, says Browder. “Tribes could offer a combination of solar and natural gas generation, which would be of real value to the utilities and their customers,” he says.

Other possibilities include the sale of the water used at NGS to cities such as Las Vegas, which, according to Clark, is paying $2,000 to $3,000 an acre-foot. The water used at NGS—which the tribes have or say they can claim—would be worth at least $68.2 million. Another option would be to use California’s carbon market.  In the global carbon market, says Clark, there are examples of indigenous people earning revenues by not cutting down their forests. Not turning organic carbon, in the form of Black Mesa coal, into atmospheric carbon could work the same way. Not running NGS could also produce revenues. At the low end, the global carbon market is paying copy0 per ton of emissions. At that figure, the carbon dioxide emitted by NGS would be worth approximately $200 million a year.

Regardless of which option (or options) is pursued, the effort will have to be led by the Department of the Interior (DOI). Clark says the Trust’s key point is that there needs to be a commitment from DOI, the Department of Energy and the EPA to come up with a sensible solution to a unique set of problems and to look at a transition plan involving the development of economic alternatives for Native peoples, providing low-cost electricity for CAP and reducing the health impacts of the mine and power plant on the Navajo and Hopi people. Several of the steps needed to keep NGS going or to create alternative energy sources will require an environmental impact statement. There is interest in the environmental and business communities in looking at the life-cycle costs of projects, which could mean, for the first time, quantifying the long- and short-term health and social impacts of coal-based generation in general and NGS in particular.

Bluehouse suggests a principle under which such a plan could evolve. If an orderly transition is going to occur, “we have to cooperate with people in Phoenix, Tucson and Southern California who use the electricity produced at NGS in a civil, respectful negotiation. We should plan this transition with compassion and humanity among all the people involved. We all have to be at the same level in terms of non-Indians and Indians.”

Despite years of struggle, which Janene Yazzie, Navajo, and others say was fostered by the federal government in order to obtain cheap coal and water from the Navajo and Hopi people, Bluehouse says he saw at the meeting “no hard feelings between Navajo and Hopi,” but rather a group of well-informed young, middle-aged and elderly people who had gathered to work collaboratively. He added, “We will have to pull together as brothers and sisters to handle this.”

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/12/hopi-and-din%C3%A9-meet-discuss-future-navajo-generating-station-147587

Tribal Instructor Encourages Healing Through Music—It ‘Helps Folks Reach Their Inner Being, Their Soul’

Phil Bradley, music instructor for the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, teaches using music for expressing emotions and overcoming challenging situations. (Margaret Starkey)
Phil Bradley, music instructor for the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, teaches using music for expressing emotions and overcoming challenging situations. (Margaret Starkey)

By Brian Daffron, Indian Country Today Media Network

Many people throughout the world find peace and solace through music. For the prolific writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., music was the only proof needed “for the existence of God.” Victor Hugo, the original author of Les Miserables, wrote that music “expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”

Former Nashville writer and studio musician Phil Bradley, an enrolled member of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe, has similar philosophical insight about the need for music in our daily lives.

“I believe music helps folks reach their inner being, their soul,” Bradley says. “[Music will] reach really deep into your soul, and teach you that you’ve got something more than just working every day or going to school and coming home, and doing it again tomorrow.”

Bradley’s journey back to his Absentee Shawnee people came with the illness of his mother.

“I came back [to Oklahoma] because they said in 2000 my mom had been expected not to live, say, for a year,” says Bradley. “I said, ‘Well, I’ll come back there and visit her.’ The Lord saw fit that she live three more years.”

By February 2010, Bradley had been contacted by the Absentee Shawnee Tribe’s Behavioral Health Department and written into their Meth and Suicide Prevention Grant. For this new program, the tribe wanted to include both music and drug education. The free music program started with just one child from an abused home. Now Bradley works with more than 85 children and elders.

“There were so many youth in our communities—Native Americans—that had troubles,” says Bradley. “They came from troubled homes—alcohol and drug abuse homes. A lot of them are just thrown aside and not given a chance for anything.”

Since then, Bradley’s position has changed to where he is now the head of the tribe’s Music and Arts Department. Bradley finds himself working up to 13-hour days at times, and teaching guitar, bass guitar and piano in the towns of Shawnee and Little Axe, both of which are within the tribe’s jurisdiction in central Oklahoma. At press time, Bradley had 58 active students ranging in age from teenagers to elders in their 80s.

“The therapists have said it’s been a big benefit to the [students],” says Bradley. “I teach them to respect who they are, and that they have a gift inside them.”

The Music and Arts department’s other endeavors include raising money for their annual summer program and helping with the Meth and Suicide Prevention Walkathon, which takes place annually in October. Bradley also has plans to collaborate on a Shawnee language DVD that will be produced by the tribe.

“I teach them attitude can move mountains,” says Bradley about his style of teaching music. “It can take you places that only people can dream about. That’s our logo. It’s on my wall.”

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/12/tribal-instructor-encourages-healing-through-music%E2%80%94it-helps-folks-reach-their-inner-being

U.S. State Department Asks Sonny Skyhawk to Be Cultural Ambassador

Indian Country Today Media Network Staff

Sonny Skyhawk, Rosebud Sioux, an accomplished actor and activist, has been asked by the U.S. State Department to serve as a Cultural Ambassador representing Indian country around the world. His first visits will likely be to South America, the Caribbean, Canada, and Mexico.

As a Cultural Ambassador, Skyhawk will be for the most part an educator, sharing all aspects of Native American culture with people in other nations upon request. Talks could be geared toward, for example, indigenous peoples or the business communities of the countries he visits. He also aims to promote tourism and economic development by inviting people to come to visit reservations and traditional Indian lands within the borders of the United States.

Skyhawk is the founder of American Indians in Film and Television, and has spent his career trying  to improve the depiction of American Indians in media as well as the treatment of Native actors in Hollywood.

“It is an honor to serve and represent my people, and I am humbled by the privilege,” Skyhawk said. “It is my hope to continue fostering lasting bonds of understanding amongst all indigenous cultures in the Americas, and to nurture our ancient Lakota belief, which is ‘mitakuya oyasin’ — ‘we are all related.'”

Skyhawk has appeared in 58 films and television shows, and is also author of the “Ask N NDN” feature at ICTMN.com.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/11/us-state-department-asks-sonny-skyhawk-be-cultural-ambassador-147593