Kim Kalliber, Author at Tulalip News

A Passion for Eagles Takes Flight in Volunteers

Story and photos by US Forest Service Kelly Sprute

Everett, Wash., Jan. 16, 2013—It isn’t an easy job: standing six long hours in rain, sleet, hail, sun and snow every weekend starting in December through January. Armed with binoculars, spotting scopes and a love for bald eagles they greet and teach thousands of people who pilgrimage to Skagit River for a glimpse of eagles roosting in trees and eating fish along the banks. And these Eagle Watcher volunteers do it for free.

Eagle Watchers are stationed at three locations along the Skagit River on the North Cascades Highway: Howard Miller Steelhead Park near Rockport, Wash., nature viewing area at milepost 100 and the Marblemount Fish Hatchery.

The Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and North Cascades Institute created the program in 1992 to control crowding that disrupted the birds and caused traffic problems on the highway according to Tanya Kitterman. The Forest Service Eagle Watcher coordinator said the Skagit River watershed boasts one of the largest wintering populations of bald eagles in the continental United States.

“The birds flock to the Skagit River for three reasons: the abundance of food, the river has good flows for spawning and it doesn’t ice over,” Kitterman said. Each year it takes 45 volunteers run the program, but most are eager to return, so she usually only needs to recruit about five people. All it takes to be an Eagle Watcher is enthusiasm about eagles and be an adult. “I bring the canopies, scopes, tri-pods and binoculars and they run with it. Their passion for the eagles is contagious,” Kitterman said.

The Forest Service trains volunteers about eagle biology and how they fit into the Skagit River ecosystem, readying volunteers for a multitude of questions: “How long do they live? How big is their wingspan? How much do they weigh? Why is the female bigger than the male? Where are they from?”

Harry Ota, a retired US army colonel who lives in Mt. Vernon, Wash., is a 20-year veteran Eagle Watcher. “It beats getting cabin fever,” he said. He still gets ready for the season every year by digging out his reference books and reviewing old videos.

“The eagles that arrive here are frozen out of their territory and food source up north and follow the salmon traveling south. It is amazing how nature works together. As one spawning route ends, another begins and the eagles move to follow,” Ota said. They are hungry when they arrive on the Skagit. “You’ve heard the saying about eating like a bird. Well, eagles are very voracious eaters and eat about a pound of meat a day. That is like us eating 40 quarter-pounders,” Ota said.

The years of observing these birds have given Ota insight into the eagle’s behavior.

He has noticed that some have become attuned to the presence of human activity. Although most will fly away from their meal when a boat drifts down river, some eagles just stop, guard their salmon, watch the boat pass and continue eating.

“Eagles are incredible animals with personalities. They have a favorite perch they return to, just like we do. Some watch the world go by, others fight over food, and a rare few perform flybys worthy of jet fighters over the bridge near the Howard Miller Steelhead Park,” Ota said.

In 2000 he got to help trap, tag and release eagles along the Skagit River for a Washington State wildlife research study. “Holding an eagle in my hands was an experience of a lifetime,” Ota said. They tagged 23 eagles and tracked them for five years. “The study discovered the eagles came from up north in the Yukon and were flying down the coast to northern California or east across the Cascades following the Yakima River,” he said.

One of Ota’s favorite stories is of the eagles’ resiliency and recovery. “In the 1950s there was an estimated 412 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48 states. The bird was later listed as an endangered species. By the 1990s the eagle’s population had rebounded to an estimated 115,000 and was later removed from the endangered and threatened list in 2007,” he said. But Ota said what keeps him coming back every year is seeing peoples’ face light up when they view an eagle through the scope for the first time. “It is wonderful,” he said.

You can view the bald eagles each weekend until the end of January. Learn more about the Eagle Watcher program or contact Tanya Kitterman at 360-856-5700.

The Idle No More Movement for Dummies (or, ‘What The Heck Are All These Indians Acting All Indian-Ey About?’)

Gyasi Ross, Indian Country Today Media Network, indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

INTRODUCTION

Lately, Native people have taken to the streets malls in demonstrations of Public Indian-ness (“PI”) that surpasses the sheer volume of activism of even Alcatraz and the Longest Walk. There’s a heapum big amount of PI going on right now! Many people, non-Native and Native alike, are wondering what the heck is going with their local Native population and how this so-called #IdleNoMore Movement managed to get the usually muffled Natives restless enough to be Indian in public. I mean, like Chris Rock said, he hasn’t ever even met two Indians at the same time. He’s seen “polar bears riding a tricycle” but he’s “never seen an Indian family just chillin’ out at Red Lobster.”

Yet, now people can’t seem to get away from us.

And that’s cool—but isn’t that what pow-wows and November is for? People (non-Native and Native alike) can only take so much PI, right? Is that what the Idle No More Movement is—an extended Native American Heritage Month, where non-Natives have to act like they’re fascinated by Native culture?

In a word, no. It is much more. Please consider this a fairly exhaustive explanation of the Idle No More Movement, what it is not and what it is. If for some reason you cannot read the next 1000 or so brilliant words, I can be summed up thusly: the Idle No More Movement is not a new movement. Instead, it is the latest incarnation of the sustained Indigenous Resistance to the rape, pillage and exploitation of this continent and its women that has existed since 1492. It is not the Occupy Movement, although there are some similarities. It is not only about Canada and it is not only about Native people. Finally, and probably most importantly, it (and we) are not going away anytime soon. So get used to it (and us).

#IDLENOMORE MOVEMENT: WHAT IT IS ABOUT

“The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors.”

Chief Plenty Coups, Apsaalooke

“…you have come here; you are taking my land from me; you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live.”

Tasunke Witko (Crazy Horse), Oglala Lakota

As the above quotes display, the Indigenous Resistance to the raping and pillaging of the Earth is not new. Likewise, Indigenous peoples’ efforts to protect the mothers of our Nations—the women—are not new either. The Idle No More Movement is simply the latest chapter in that resistance.

It’s About: PROTECTING THE EARTH. Idle No More is an inherently grassroots and localized movement, informed by the founders, but with local flair.

Photo art by Steven Paul Judd

First and foremost, the Idle No More Movement is about protecting the Earth for all people from the carnivorous and capitalistic spirit that wants to exploit and extract every last bit of resources from the land. Therefore, anybody who cares about this Earth should be interested in the Idle No More Movement. The engineers were Nina Wilson, Sheelah Mclean, Sylvia McAdam and Jessica Gordon. It was a response to Canada’s Bill C-45, which overhauled the Navigable Waters Protection Act and removed protections for many waters that go through First Nations. Changing the Act literally moves the emphasis of the protection—it morphs from protecting the waterways to protecting the navigation on those waterways. Now, instead of 30-some thousand lakes being protected under the old Act, only 97 lakes will be protected. As Canadian Parliament Member Kirsty Duncan eloquently states, “The days when Canadians take an endless abundance of fresh water for granted are numbered…”

These mobilized Native people wanted to ensure that children two, three and twelve generations from now would have clean water. The children who will benefit from the Native mobilization are not just Native children—it’s for all children. Lakes and rivers tend to be either clean or dirty for Native and non-Native children alike.

It’s not a Native thing or a white thing, it’s an Indigenous worldview thing. It’s a “protect the Earth” thing. For those transfixed on race, you’re missing the point. The Idle No More Movement simply wants kids of all colors and ethnicities to have clean drinking water. It’s also not a “Canada” or “United States” thing. Multinational corporations do not care about borders and neither should we. Despite legislation to intended to prevent pollution, corporations pollute freely with almost complete impunity and our children are the ones who suffer. We likewise should not care about borders—we are mobilizing on both sides because we understand that what we do affects one another.

We will continue to aggressively organize and be Idle No More about the attempts to destroy our sacred lands, whether its Keystone XL Pipeline or Tar Sands Mining in Canada. We will be Idle No More on SSA Marine’s attempts to create a deep-water shipping terminal for water and air poisoning dirty coal in the Lummi waters near Puget Sound, WA or any disrespect to our lands.

We’re not going anywhere, we’re not going to be silent, we’re Idle No More !

It’s About: PROTECTING WOMEN. Similar to the sustained, capitalistic effort to exploit and pillage the Earth, the carnivorous, capitalistic nature has also exploited and abused women since the founding of both America & Canada. That is something else about which Indigenous people have vowed to be Idle No More. America’s first marriage and property laws, or ‘coverture,’ stipulated that married women did not have separate legal existences from their husbands. Indeed, a married woman was a dependent and could not generally own her own property or control her own earnings. “…once she married she became a legal nonentity. Her husband not only assumed her legal privileges and duties but certain rights to her property as well.” (Women, Family, and Community in Colonial America: Two Perspectives, Linda E. Speth, Alison Duncan Hirsch, Pg. 8.)

And that was for privileged white women. Obviously for Native women, Black women and any women of any other color who were unfortunate enough to live in the United States, it was much worse.

Deborah Parker speaking about Violence Against Women Act at Seattle Idle No More rally. Image courtesy Alex Garland Photography

That pattern of condescension and indeed hatred for women has continued until the present. From the case Bradley v. State which affirmed a man’s “right” to “moderately” beat his wife to the Indian Health Service’s pattern of forced tubal ligations of Native women, the United States has shown a consistent trajectory of hatred and destruction for Native women.

Congress’s recent failure to pass the Violence Against Women Act—specifically because Republicans did not want tribal law enforcement to be able to prosecute non-Native sexual deviants—is a continuation of that exploitation of our women. Similar to the “clean water” discussion, above, the protections afforded by the Violence Against Women Act protected women of all colors—not just Native women. Conversely, Congress’s failure to act on the Violence Against Women Act hurts all women. Strong Native women leaders like Deborah Parker and others are advocating for safety and reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act for all women, not just a few.

It’s not a Native thing.

It’s a “NO women, of ANY color, should have to worry about getting raped” thing.

It’s a “NO women, of ANY color, should get beaten and battered” thing.

Those who are transfixed by race, again, are missing the point.

And we will continue to organize and be Idle No More about this attack on the women within our communities, as well as all communities. That is not new and it’s also not just about Native people.

We’re not going anywhere, we’re not going to be silent, we’re #IdleNoMore !

It’s Not an OCCUPY MOVEMENT. The Occupy Movement was powerful and necessary—yet the foundation was frankly not strong enough to sustain. Occupy was about a slowed-down economy and a lot of folks who were, unfortunately, out of work from that slowdown. As the economy began to improve in 2012 and also, significantly, the weather got colder, the Occupy Movement got noticeably weaker. As the economy got stronger, the sheer amounts at the Occupy events got smaller. Now, it looms very strong in everyone’s psyche, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not; Occupy emboldened the Idle No More Movement, just like Syria, Egypt and Libya emboldened the Idle No More Movement. Absolutely. Still, Idle No More is NOT Occupy for these reasons:

The Primary Reason #IdleNoMore is Not Occupy—Native economies are NOT getting any better. In many of our communities, there is 70% PLUS unemployment—more than a simple “boom and bust” economic upturn can fix. There are structural problems that will prevent a quick-fix, and therefore most Indigenous Idle No More will not have an economic incentive to stop their activism.

#2 Reason #IdleNoMore is Not Occupy—We’re Native… Hello? You’re not going to scare us off with the cold weather. My friends have literally texted me pictures of sisters and brothers in Alberta and Saskatchewan standing outside with #IdleNoMore signs in -35 degree weather; I have spoken at events where it is freezing and brothers and sisters are outside in t-shirts.

If we’re mobilizing 2,000, 2,500 people at an event in the freezing cold in January, just imagine how that number is going to multiply when it’s 65, 70 degrees outside.

#3 Reason #IdleNoMore is Not Occupy—Occupy was snapshot response to a 3 year economic downturn. #IdleNoMore is a continued response to more than 500 years of destroying the Earth and exploiting women. The foundation on which we’re building is literally centuries of resistance.

Finally, it’s not Occupy because we are surrounding our advocacy around the specific substantive areas that were discussed earlier—protecting the environment and protecting Native women via the Violence Against Women Act. Yes, like Occupy, this is grassroots—the people are fluid and definitely can change. Indeed, the specific subjects that we choose to organize around certainly could change in the future—whatever we need to be Idle No More about. Still, for now fighting against gratuitous exploitation of our lands and fighting against violence against women are areas where good organization can make a difference.

CONCLUSION

This has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Native people did begin this movement—energized by Chief Spence’s sacrifice and sparked by the Four Founders’ initiative. Yet this movement belongs to anybodywho wants to stand up for the Earth and women and also make a positive change in the community. That means that non-Natives are certainly welcome. We need non-Natives involved to save this Earth, to give our children and grandchildren the same quality of life that we have enjoyed. It’s about clean water. It’s about clean air. It’s about safety for all women. It’s about making a positive change in our communities. Critics seem to be so caught up on race; yet even racists want their children to have clean water just like non-racists. Right? Well, we want racists (and NON-racists, of course) to have kids with clean water too. Oh, and we don’t want them to get raped or beaten either.

Not too unreasonable, is it?

Here’s a little music and video to close this piece. It’s a project that we (Rock Paper Jet Productions, LLC) did with rapper and producer Brother Ali. Coincidentally, it doesn’t mention race—it mentions wanting to make the world slightly better. And when it comes down to it, that what the Idle No More Movement is about.

“I want to pass this planet to my son

A little better than it was when they handed it to me…”

Peace.

7 Questions with John McCoy, Washington State Representative

Richard Walker, http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com – January 16, 2013

John McCoy, a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes in Tulalip, Washington, was elected November 6 to a sixth term in the Washington state House of Representatives. A Democrat, he represents the 38^th District, which includes the Tulalip Tribes reservation, 40 miles north of Seattle.

He’s an important voice and a builder of bridges of understanding about the state’s First Peoples. The hallmark of his fifth term was a bill that establishes a procedure for states to cede jurisdiction over criminal and civil matters on tribal lands to federal and tribal governments. This year, he’s chairman of the Community Development, Housing and Tribal Affairs Committee; vice chairman of the Environment Committee; and member of the Education Committee.

He also is chairman of the executive committee of the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators; there are 79 Native legislators in 18 states. He is the former general manager of the Tulalip Tribes’ Quil Ceda Village.

McCoy, who along with Jeff Morris [D-Anacortes] are the only two self-identified American Indians in the state legislature, recently talked to Indian Country Today Media Network about his expectations for 2013.

Sales tax revenues are up, but overall revenues are nowhere near where we need them to be. Where’s the money going to come from to fully fund education and meet the state’s other needs without implementing a state income tax?

Everything is on the table. We’re discussing, right now, what can we accomplish as a legislative body and what items are we going to need to take to the voters of Washington. You know, the voters, they’ve sent a mixed message. They keep voting for the supermajority vote of two-thirds [of the Legislature] to pass any tax issue, but they turn around and tell them that they want all these services. Well, those services have to be paid for. So their message is we want all these services, but we don’t want to have to pay for it. There needs to be some reality set in with the voters, that if they want all these things they’ve got to pay for it because we can’t print money.

Will the Legislature be proposing some funding measures?

More than likely, I don’t know. Because of the makeup of the Senate now, we’re going to have to step back and review what we’ve been working on for the last year to figure out what we can and can’t do.

There are some brilliant young leaders in Indian country in Washington state. How do we get more Native people to run for state office and the Legislature?

I struggle with that almost every day. We need more bright young leaders. Because of the lack of resources, they in essence have had to stay home and take care of the community at home. But now that a majority of the tribes have resources, that they’re taking care of their own, now they need to understand that if they’re to be more successful, they’re going to have to start working with surrounding communities to accomplish things that they need to. In essence, we can’t live in a vacuum anymore, the vacuum of the reservation. You have to expand because you might say you’re outgrowing the reservation. If you’re going to outgrow it, then you have to work with surrounding communities. Standing around and thumping your chest over sovereignty – no, it’s the art of negotiation now: What is it that we can do to co-exist that is a win-win situation for everybody in the community. Tulalip’s done a pretty good job of that, but like everything else, it needs constant nurturing.

It seems too that if there were more Native people in the Legislature and mainstream politics, it probably would do a lot to improve the understanding of the culture and people as well. Wouldn’t it help build relationships?

Yes, I strongly believe that.

Was there anything that came out of the last session that gives you hope for the future, either in bipartisanship or the Legislature’s ability to work things out?

As horrible as last session was, I was able to get the retrocession process revamped. The previous process, which I used to take Tulalip through in ’96, that process was cumbersome. It was difficult to get through … I streamlined it. The first session of the biennium, there were all kinds of crazy things happening to that bill. I talked to the speaker, the majority leader, the governor. … The governor appointed a task force, which I chaired, and I convinced the Legislature to apply for and get that process qualified as a [Continuing Legal Education course], and they did.

We went through the education process, of what retrocession really is. We only needed three sessions [and] when we reintroduced the legislation, it sailed right on through. Again, it was about education, getting everyone to understand what retrocession really is – It’s Indians having jurisdiction over Indians within the boundaries of the reservation. Don’t read anything into it, that’s all it means.

What legislation of import do you see coming up in the next session?

I’m introducing a heavy lift bill to allow tribes to compact for their own tribal schools in the state. A heavy lift bill is a bill that is going to generate a lot of controversy. Once again, I have a lot of education to do.

How did that issue evolve?

A few tribes came to me and said they wanted it. They actually got excited about the charter school initiative, because they wanted their own schools. Well, the charter school process is cumbersome for tribes, not that it couldn’t work, it was just going to be cumbersome, and I had this bill in the works before the language for the initiative was done. The reason for the bill is that some tribes were successful in negotiating with their local school districts to create their own school which is actually in current law. The problem is, unilateral action can be taken and a couple tribes had their school districts tear up the memorandums unilaterally, so it undid everything that they had been working so hard on. So they wanted certainty. So, in working with the tribes and a couple of national organizations, we think we have a bill the tribes and the state can agree to. Another bill I’m working on which almost got passed in last session – it got caught up in the budget morass – is having the state recognize the fourth Friday of the month of November as Native American Day.

There really are 50 Eskimo words for ‘snow’

By David Robson, New Scientist, Washington Post

Anthropologist Franz Boas didn’t mean to spark a century-long argument. Traveling through the icy wastes of Baffin Island in northern Canada during the 1880s, Boas simply wanted to study the life of the local Inuit people, joining their sleigh rides, trading caribou skins and learning their folklore. As he wrote proudly to his fiancee, “I am now truly like an Eskimo. . . . I scarcely eat any European foodstuffs any longer but am living entirely on seal meat.” He was particularly intrigued by their language, noting the elaborate terms used to describe the frozen landscape: “aqilokoq” for “softly falling snow” and “piegnartoq” for “the snow [that is] good for driving sled,” to name just two.

Mentioning his observations in the introduction to his 1911 book “Handbook of American Indian Languages,” he ignited the claim that Eskimos have dozens, or even hundreds, of words for snow. Although the idea continues to capture public imagination, most linguists considered it an urban legend, born of sloppy scholarship and journalistic exaggeration. Some have even gone as far as to name it the Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax. The latest evidence, however, suggests that Boas was right all along.

This debate has rumbled on partly because of a grammatical peculiarity of the Eskimo family of languages. Boas studied Inuit, one of the two main branches; the other is Yupik. Each has spawned many dialects, but uniting the family is a feature known as polysynthesis, which allows speakers to encode a huge amount of information in one word by plugging various suffixes onto a base word.

For example, a single term might encompass a whole sentence in English: In Siberian Yupik, the base “angyagh” (boat) becomes “angyaghllangyugtuqlu” to mean “what’s more, he wants a bigger boat.” This makes compiling dictionaries particularly difficult: Do two terms that use the same base but a different ending really represent two common idioms within a language, or is the difference simply a speaker’s descriptive flourish? Both are possible, and vocabulary lists could quickly snowball if an outsider were to confuse the two — a criticism often leveled at Boas and his disciples.

Yet Igor Krupnik, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Washington, believes that Boas was careful to include only words representing meaningful distinctions. Taking the same care with their own work, Krupnik and others charted the vocabulary of about 10 Inuit and Yupik dialects and concluded that they indeed have many more words for snow than English does.

Central Siberian Yupik has 40 such terms, while the Inuit dialect spoken in Canada’s Nunavik region has at least 53, including “matsaaruti,” for wet snow that can be used to ice a sleigh’s runners, and “pukak,” for the crystalline powder snow that looks like salt.

For many of these dialects, the vocabulary associated with sea ice is even richer. In the Inupiaq dialect of Wales, Alaska, Krupnik documented about 70 terms for ice that mark such distinctions as: “utuqaq,” ice that lasts year after year; “siguliaksraq,” the patchwork layer of crystals that forms as the sea begins to freeze; and “auniq,” ice that is filled with holes, like Swiss cheese.

Building Bridges: January 2013 Outlook Column – Diversity

“Building Bridges” is the first in a new series of monthly columns to appear in the North County Outlook and written in rotation by leaders of the City of Marysville, Tulalip Tribes and Marysville School District. The purpose of these columns is to highlight various facets of successful partnerships that have become a hallmark of relations between our governments and respective communities, for the mutual benefit of all. Our sincere thanks to the North County Outlook and Editor Beckye Randall for graciously agreeing to provide us with this great platform for sharing our stories with the public.

A growing community such as Marysville that looks to pride itself on being a welcoming, more prosperous and livable city, is one that learns to celebrate our differences and leverage them to become our strengths.

I established the City of Marysville Diversity Advisory Committee, now into its third year, to build on that ideal. The Committee advises me on policy matters involving the community’s cultural and ethnic differences, and prioritizes issues concerning diversity and inclusion to ensure that the diverse character of our city is represented in decision-making processes.

Marysville has a lot to gain by becoming a more diverse, inclusive community that values diversity. In our community and business partnerships, and outreach with citizens, we recognize that diversity is an asset essential for innovation. It is more than just the right thing to do; diversity will enrich our community.

Both Tulalip Tribes and Marysville School District have been key partners in this endeavor, and they have provided their wisdom, key staff members and resources to the Committee since day one. In addition to the Tribes and District, the Committee is composed of community leaders from various ethnic populations, advocates for people with physical or mental differences, the business community, churches and location organization. I am indebted to the Committee for its tireless work and to the excellent support that is receives.

Bringing these diverse voices to the table is helping to ensure that as more people from ethnic populations and people with disabilities become active in positions of community leadership at levels more reflective of our broader population, the greater community will view these diverse populations as respected, valued members of the community. Committee Chair Marvetta Toler was a catalyst for making this Committee a reality, and her leadership has been indispensible, culminating in her nomination as first recipient of my Leader in Diversity Award in 2012.

Marysville is a growingly diverse community. Two major social-economic forces have changed the face of the Marysville area for the better. The influx of sailors and families stationed at Naval Station Everett have added a diverse character to the community, and the economic revival of the Tulalip Tribes and strong partnership the City and the Tribes have forged has laid a foundation for prosperity for both communities

Additionally, we have seen increases in our Hispanic, African-American and Russian/Ukraine communities, as evidenced in 2010 Census data. For illustrative purposes, consider that Marysville’s Hispanic and Latino population increased rapidly from 1,222 in 2000 to 6,178 in 2010 or as a percentage, from 4:8% of Marysville population in 2000 to 10.3% in 2010.

All too often, building an inclusive community does not emerge as a priority until a negative incident or series of problems erupts that require response from the City, resulting in time spent undoing damage and building community. That wasn’t the case in Marysville. We took a proactive approach, confident that a handful of key community leaders would step up and work together to bring the rest of the community along.

Committee members spent a year developing a vision and mission, and zeroing in on areas where they believed diversity actions could have the most impact. Beyond government and education, they chose business/workforce, outreach and engagement, arts and culture, partnerships with community stakeholders, law and justice, and children and families.

The Committee’s activities culminated in January 2012 with a Diversity Two-Year Work Plan. This thought-provoking document serves as a set of priorities, goals and recommendations designed to educate, enrich, promote, strengthen and enhance the social fabric of Marysville, and keep the inclusiveness dialogue going. Here are a few of their achievements, and projects in the works:

Added a prominently displayed translation tool on our city website.
Developed brochures about the Diversity Committee’s work in English, Spanish and Russian/Ukraine.
Delivering 20-minute community outreach diversity presentations to various groups, and seeking out other groups to present the message.
Participating in roundtable Race Conversations through the School District Superintendant’s diversity work via the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
City airing blocks of daily Native American programming provided by the Tulalip Tribes and shown regularly on our community cable access channels.
Working with Leadership Snohomish County to produce a diversity video.
Exploring the concept for a multicultural fair to be held in September in Comeford Park, and working jointly with the Marysville Arts Coalition to develop a Diversity Arts Contest tied into the fair.

Our vision is that Marysville will be a welcoming and inclusive community that recognizes and honors diversity and is free from prejudice, harassment, bigotry and hate; strives to achieve equality of opportunities for all residents, and creates a harmonious environment.

The City of Marysville, working with Tribes, School District and other key partners, is committed to being a community that takes pride in our ethnic diversity, creates an environment where differences are valued, and builds on the sense of belonging and quality of life we have come to share.

Indian Education Parent Committee meeting, Jan 16

The Indian Education Parent Committee meeting will be held tomorrow evening in the 1st Floor Training Room of the Tulalip Administration Buildin, beginning with a light dinner at 5:00 p.m.

A brief tentative agenda is as follows, there will be a full agenda at the meeting:

I. Announcements: Liaison/Advocate School Reports

II. Superintendent Search Process – Chris Nation, Wendy Fryberg and Wayne Robertson

Parents are encouraged to attend

Regional burn bans called to protect public health

Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

Burn bans in effect in King, Pierce, Snohomish

SEATTLE, WA – To protect the public from unhealthy levels of air pollution, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has issued burn bans for King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. The bans are designed to reduce public exposure to harmful wood smoke pollution from indoor and outdoor burning.

Wood smoke is a growing health concern nationally and increasing attention is paid to the health impacts from short- and long-term exposure to the fine particles and other pollutants it contains. Recent studies have tied wood smoke exposure to health effects such as aggravated asthma, increased heart attacks, acute bronchitis and chronic lung disease.

Locally, high levels of wood smoke pollution violate the federal Clean Air Act in the greater Tacoma area. Within this area, known as the Tacoma-Pierce County Smoke Reduction Zone, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is implementing robust new enforcement and assistance programs recommended by the community to clean up the air.

Fine particle pollution levels are monitored daily by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency at more than a dozen locations in four counties, including three sites inside the Smoke Reduction Zone. The figure below shows daily accumulation of fine particles as measured by a device known as a “Federal Reference Method sampler.” The sampler inhales approximately twice as much air as the average adult over the course of a 24-hour period.

The “Stage 2” burn ban will remain in effect as long as air quality conditions remain poor. Until then, no burning is allowed in any wood-burning fireplaces, stoves or fireplace inserts. Use of pellet stoves and all outdoor burning is also prohibited.

Residents should instead temporarily rely on their home’s non-wood source of heat.

Updated air quality information and current burn ban status are available through the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency at www.pscleanair.org or (800)552-3565.

Burn ban lowered to Stage 1 for King, Pierce and Snohomish counties

Source: Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

STAGE 1 BURN BAN IN EFFECT FOR KING, PIERCE & SNOHOMISH COUNTIES

Please rely on your home’s cleaner source of heat until air quality improves.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is lowering the air quality burn ban to a Stage 1 in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties effective at 1 PM on January 15, 2013. The ban remains in effect until further notice.

“Air pollution levels throughout the region have dropped, likely due to clouds and warmer temperatures,” said Dr. Phil Swartzendruber, agency forecaster. “The drop in pollution could also be due to the help of our communities following the burn ban.”

Dr. Swartzendruber added, “Calm, cold, and clear weather conditions are likely to continue over the next few days, so ongoing cooperation with the burn ban will help keep our air healthy.”

The Clean Air Agency will continue to closely monitor the air quality and weather situation.

During a Stage 1 burn ban:

No burning is allowed in fireplaces or uncertified wood stoves. Residents should rely instead on their home’s other, cleaner source of heat (such as their furnace or electric baseboard heaters) for a few days until air quality improves, the public health risk diminishes and the ban is cancelled.
No outdoor fires are allowed. This includes recreational fires such as bonfires, campfires and the use of fire pits and chimineas.
Burn ban violations are subject to a $1,000 penalty.

It is OK to use natural gas, propane, pellet and EPA-certified wood stoves or inserts during a Stage 1 burn ban.

The Washington State Department of Health recommends that people who are sensitive to air pollution limit time spent outdoors, especially when exercising. Air pollution can trigger asthma attacks, cause difficulty breathing, and make lung and heart problems worse. Air pollution is especially harmful to people with lung and heart problems, people with diabetes, children, and older adults (over age 65).

Tulalip Diabetes Day, Jan 16

Providing culturally sensitive diabetes health care to promote the overall well-being of our people

Join the Karen I Fryberg Tulalip Health Clinic staff on Wednesday, January 16 for Diabetes Day 2013.

The event is schedule for 9:20 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., and will being 8:00 a.m. with an opening prayer and song. Lunch will be served at noon.

Clinic staff will be offering comprehensive Diabetic Services for all Tulalip Tribal members and authorized patients of the Karen I Fryberg Tulalip Health Clinic.

United Way free tax preparation site in Marysville opens Jan. 22

United Way of Snohomish County, www.uwsc.org

(Marysville, WA) – Last year, volunteers at the free tax preparation center organized by United Way of Snohomish County helped 347 customers file their taxes and brought back $516,974 in refunds. That money gave a boost to the local economy, built up savings and helped people pay off credit card debt.

This year, the free tax preparation center in Marysville will be located at Goodwill’s Marysville Job Training and Education Center on 9315 State Ave. The site will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3.pm from January 22 to April 15.

This service is available for households earning $51,000 or less.

The Marysville site is one of six sites being opened by United Way throughout Snohomish County. The others will be in Everett, Lynnwood and Monroe. All of the sites will be staffed by United Way volunteer tax preparers.

In 2012, 2,511 Snohomish County working families had their taxes prepared for free at a United Way Tax Preparation Site, saving an estimated $414,315 in tax preparation fees. United Way customers had an average refund of $1,700, which amounted to nearly $4.28 million in refunds (including $1.25 million in Earned Income Tax Credits).

Over the past six years, United Way volunteers have prepared 9,181 tax returns worth more than $15 million in refunds for Snohomish County working families.

This year’s sponsors and partners include The Boeing Company, the Washington State Department of Commerce, Moss Adams, LLP, Goodwill, the Walmart Foundation, and the Internal Revenue Service.

What You Should Bring

Although no appointment is necessary, people should bring a picture ID; social security card or tax identification number for everyone on the return; W2s or other income statements from all employers, any 1099 forms; the name, address and tax ID number for your child care provider; records of student loan payments; record of payments for educational expenses such as college tuition; mortgage interest and property tax statements; a bank account number to receive your refund via direct deposit; last year’s tax return – if you have it; and if you’re filing jointly, both spouses must be present to file electronically.

For more information, please visit http://www.uwsc.org/freetaxpreparationcampaign.php or call 2-1-1 for information and referrals.