Submitted by Megan Boyle, Tulalip Children’s Advocacy Center
Teen dating violence is a widespread issue that can lead to serious short- and long-term effects.
Victims are often more likely to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety, think about suicide, and engage in unhealthy behaviors, like using tobacco, drugs, and alcohol.
Teen dating violence can occur between current and former dating partners, in person, or electronically. Examples include physical and emotional harm, as well as stalking. Once teens experience violence in one relationship, research has shown they are at significant risk for experiencing violence in another relationship.
According to a study funded by the National Institute of Justice, 69 percent of youth age 12-18 who were either in a relationship or had been in the past year reported being a victim of teen dating violence. Additionally, 63 percent of that same sample acknowledged perpetrating violence in a relationship. Psychological abuse was the most common type of abuse victimization reported (over 60 percent), but there were also substantial rates of sexual abuse (18 percent) and physical abuse victimization (18 percent).
Consistent with other adolescent relationship abuse studies, researchers found there was significant overlap between victimization and perpetration; 84 percent of victims also perpetrated abuse in a relationship. This finding has important implications for prevention and intervention; it serves as a reminder that programming should recognize the fluidity of these roles among youth in relationships.
Identifying teen dating violence is key to breaking the cycle. It is critical that teachers, parents, coaches, or any others in a teen’s life maintain awareness and take action to get help when it occurs. It is important that teens who experience dating violence seek help soon after so they can receive services to protect against the potential psychosocial impacts of violence and reduce the likelihood of future violence.
If you or someone you know needs to speak with someone regarding teen dating violence contact the Tulalip Children’s Advocacy Center (360)-716-KIDS(5437).
The Forbes Travel Guide recently released their top ten spas to visit for a new year renewal in 2018. Among the many extravagant spas from around the world, including spas in Bali, Okinawa and Cancun, was none other than the luxurious T Spa at the Tulalip Resort Casino. The T Spa has been a favorite relaxation destination among locals, frequent travelers and high rollers alike since first opening their doors nearly a decade ago. Within those short few years, the T Spa has received several accolades for their exceptional body treatments and excellent guest service, including Best Day Spa by King 5’s Best of Western Washington Awards as well as two features on the local TV show, Seattle Refined.
“We’re a Tulalip inspired spa, that’s why we’re named the ‘T’ Spa,” explains Spa Manager, Naomi Ervin. “We wanted to focus on bringing the beautiful nature of the area to the inside of the spa with the birch trees, cedar saunas and the river rock services. We are 14,000 square feet; we have fourteen treatment rooms, including two VersaSpa spray tan beds. We have a full nail salon, where we do natural nails, as well as a hair salon and we also do teeth whitening.”
The T Spa offers a variety of relaxing body services that are sure to dissolve away the stress from the daily grind and leave you feeling spiritually grounded and tranquil. Such services include massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, milk baths and body wraps. If you wish to experience a little of everything in one service, be sure to inquire about the Vital Relaxation Body Ritual. The spa also accepts Health Care Management Administrators (HMA) insurance for fifty-minute massages, with a choice of a relaxation, deep tissue or hot stone massage.
Aside from the elegant stress relieving services, one of the main attractions of the T Spa are the relaxation rooms which feature eucalyptus steam rooms and dry-cedar saunas. The spa recently completed renovations that saw the addition of a workout area for Resort guests, as well as a revamped boutique which offers an assortment of items such as sage, yoga apparel and BareMinerals makeup as well as hair and skin care products.
“The T Spa is really helpful for people who live a stressful life and is a place where they’ll be able to unwind and relax,” says Naomi. “The whole atmosphere is really relaxing, it’s great for your well-being. It’s important to take care of yourself and focus on your mental wellness as much as your physical appearance. Sometimes when you take care of yourself on the outside, you feel better on the inside. And it’s all about feeling good.”
In the near future, the T Spa plans on revealing their new meditation suite, complete with a Himalayan salt wall. The T Spa is also hosting the Live Love Spa Convention this March, a two-day event for top spa industry leaders from across the nation. To view a complete list of their services and to book online, please visit TulalipResortCasino.com and for further information, please contact the T Spa at (360) 716-6350.
On a recent hike my sweetie and I noticed a bright spot of color peeking out from behind the scrubby gray remnants of last year’s underbrush. Nettles, one of the first foods of spring, were perfect for picking. We also noticed a gigantic sign that indicated no harvesting local plants. But now we knew these tasty treats were growing, so we made plans for the next day.
The freezing morning made them a little hard to spot, but we quickly found a patch of nettles. A short half hour of harvesting netted us two grocery bags of the tasty greens. After finishing our hike, we settled down for a cup of fresh nettle tea and got to work on dinner, a spinoff of lasagna minus the noodles and tomatoes and featuring our freshly picked nettles.
You may be thinking, no noodles? No tomatoes? That’s not lasagna. Nailed it! However, it is a tasty and low carb lasagna-like dish. Instead of a traditional tomato sauce, roasted red peppers provided the base for a meaty red sauce and the lasagna noodles were swapped with thin slices of zucchini. If you can’t find nettles, or aren’t interested in risking stings, you can substitute spinach.
If you’ve ever shopped for groceries or cooked with me, you know I believe we vote with our dollars, so when I shop I prioritize local, seasonal, organic and grass fed. If I have to choose, I’ll buy grass fed and organic meat over organic produce. Every year the Environmental Working Group (EWG) produces the dirty dozen and clean 15 lists, which can also help you decide what to buy organic vs. conventionally grown. The dirty dozen are the most pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables, the clean 15 are the least contaminated, you can find them on the EWG’s website, www.ewg.org.
Spring nettle lasagna
Ingredients:
wilted nettles – two grocery bags, fresh
6-8 medium zucchinis – salted and drained
Meat sauce
Olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 cup diced celery
4 cloves of garlic
1 pound of grass fed (preferably organic), ground beef
12 oz package mushrooms, chopped
2, 16oz jars of roasted red peppers, blended until smooth
½ cup fresh basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp lemon juice
Salt/pepper to taste
Parsley cheese mixture
½ cup chopped Parsley
2 eggs
2 cups Ricotta
1 cup Parmesan
Topping
2 cup Parmesan
2 cups grated Mozzarella
Preheat oven to 350, and oil a 9 x 13” baking dish. Prepare Nettles and Zucchini, roasted red peppers and cheese mixture. Prep your nettles by removing the leaves and discarding the stems. Rinse thoroughly to remove dirt or contaminants. Place in a large pot of water, boil until wilted, drain and set aside. Slice zucchini into ¾ inch slices, salt to draw out the moisture and let drain in a colander. Blend roasted red peppers until smooth, using no more than 4 tsp of the reserved liquid (use water if additional liquid is needed) and set aside. Combine parsley, ricotta, and eggs in a small bowl, set aside.
Meat sauce: Coat bottom of pan with olive oil, bring to medium heat. Sauté onions and celery over medium heat until onions are translucent. Add garlic, ground beef and mushrooms. Cook until meat is brown and crumbly. Add blended roasted red pepper, basil, oregano and lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 15-30 minutes to reduce and thicken sauce.
Assemble: In a 9 x 13” baking dish, spoon enough of the meat sauce to cover the bottom of the dish. Layer zucchini slices to cover the dish, then 1/3 of remaining meat sauce, 1/3 of the parsley cheese mixture, and 1/3 of the nettles. Repeat until the ingredients have been used up. Top with parmesan and mozzarella. Bake for about an hour, or until dish is bubbling and cheese is browned. Let cool slightly before slicing.
When you see a class hosted by the Tulalip SNAP-Ed Program it’s safe to say you can expect a little fun and often times, some good eats. The program offers education about nutrition and the importance of exercise, encouraging community members to live healthier lifestyles. SNAP-Ed is known for their Tulalip Walking Club that meets each week to walk about the reservation and their Wellness Wednesdays classes, formerly held at the Tulalip Administration Building. Maybe it’s the food, maybe it’s the activities or perhaps it’s the prizes, but whatever it is, the participants of a SNAP-Ed training have a good time, showcased by their many smiles and laughter. Which is why it’s no surprise that SNAP-Ed’s most recent endeavor is extremely popular.
If you haven’t heard of the Eat Smart, Be Active, Nutrition and Cooking course, you’re going to want to get in line for the next series of classes so you can experience the nine-week health journey in its entirety. Classes are currently held every Wednesday, until March 21, from 5:00 p.m. to approximately 6:30 p.m. at the Tulalip Dining Hall where the students are gaining much of knowledge about buying, preparing and consuming healthy meals.
Tribal communities nationwide face health issues such as diabetes and hypertension due largely in part to assimilation and a disconnect from traditional foods. Whether its lack of time or kitchen knowledge, many Americans end up hitting the drive-thru or placing an Uber Eats order at the end of the day.
The Eat Smart, Be Active course not only teaches participants how to cook, it also teaches how to meal plan, put together a budget-friendly grocery list, the nutritional value of foods and how to incorporate more veggies into your diet. The classes also include exercise breaks throughout the daily lesson plan, which the students enthusiastically participate in.
“There are four really important exercises that you need to know,” explains SNAP-Ed Nutritionist, AnneCherise Jensen. “You need to know muscle strengthening exercises, cardio, stretching or yoga and also bone strengthening exercises. Today we did a cardio pyramid which is a series of exercises to get our heart rate up, get fresh oxygen to the brain and wake us up a little bit.
“We’re all about promoting an active, healthy lifestyle. We’re trying to teach people different ways to prevent disease before it starts happening,” she continues. “I personally believe that it all starts with diet and exercise. Food is medicine. The food that we eat determines our health and our future; food affects our mood spiritually, mentally and physically. All good things come from eating good, healthy foods.”
After their daily nutritional lesson, the students enter the kitchen where they work together to prepare a meal. SNAP-Ed incorporates fresh ingredients with hand-picked produce and also raffles off reusable grocery bags filled with ingredients that the students can use to make recipes at home.
“I come to the classes to learn more about being healthy and being active,” states Tulalip tribal member, Tyler Fryberg. “I like everything in the class because it’s all useful. The exercises are fun. I enjoy cooking, it’s fun making new recipes. It’s just a really fun class.”
Fun might be the best way to describe the Eat Smart, Be Active course as Tyler’s views were shared by a group of co-workers from the Tulalip Resort Casino as well as numerous community members.
“These nine weeks focus on important areas where we can make changes in our life, to make a positive impact on our health and our overall well-being,” states AnneCherise. “There’s lots of one-on-one activities, everybody gets to cook, we learn new things and try new recipes. It’s a great program to get a fresh new start on a journey to a healthier you.”
For more information, including how to sign-up for the next course, please contact SNAP-Ed at (360) 716-5632.
Tulalip Youth Services celebrated “Say Hello Week” with an added focus of taking the stigma out of mental health awareness. The week included a variety of learning activities for the children and teenagers of the community. The biggest event was without a doubt the open house and grand opening of the C.R.E.A.T.E. Space on Friday, February 2.
From 10:00am-6:30pm on that Friday, the 2nd floor of the Youth Center was a destination for celebration and hands-on learning while becoming acquainted with the newly created space designed for inclusion, offering a place for community youth to go when they need to decompress.
C.R.E.A.T.E. Space stands for Calm Room & Expressive Art to Empower. It’s the result of a collaborative effort of the Methamphetamine Suicide Prevention Initiative through Behavioral Health and Youth Services. All community members and youth are invited to visit the space and learn more about its uses and how to remove the stigma and shame surrounding mental health issues.
“With the recent creation of the Tulalip Special Needs Parent Association by several key community members and Youth Services, we wanted to honor the great work that’s going on by making sure that we create activities and places that are wholly inclusive of all youth,” explained Monica Holmes, C.R.E.A.T.E. Space designer and Parapro for the M.S.P.I. Grant. “That meant taking a look at our facilities first and asking the question: Are we accessible in every sense of the word to our youth with special needs be they social, emotional, physical or mental?
“The C.R.E.A.T.E. Space has two major components that were developed to meet those needs. The Calm Room is a sensory inclusive space with various elements that can be utilized to provide a sensory environment which promotes a sense of calm and well-being, while addressing the individual sensory input needs of our youth with sensory overload challenges. We’ve stocked it with items like play dough, Legos, fidgets, soft furnishings, lower lighting, colored mood lighting, essential oil infusers, nature sound machine, yoga mats and resistance bands that can deliver the right amount of sensory input and/or relax the nervous system that is agitated or overloaded by typical lights and sounds of most spaces.
“The Expressive Art studio is the second component to the C.R.E.A.T.E. Space which serves youth in a unique fashion. It doubles as an art studio and gathering spot for teens who want to hang out in a homey, quiet, comfortable location to interact in small groups or one-on-one with a staff member trained to use art and games as a means to express creativity and emotion in a safe space.”
For the grand opening event many Tulalip service departments were invited to setup their own information booths where they could interact with visitors to the Space. Community Health, Smoking Cessation, Problem Gambling, Chemical Dependency, and Behavioral Health were among those who accepted the invite. Partnerships are key in spreading awareness and resources to our community members. With all those services under one roof at the same time, they were able to let people know they have many choices and places to go for help with various addictions or issues. They also helped de-stigmatize the act of reaching out for help.
A variety of free expressive art classes were offered to visitors and attendees of the grand opening event. The one receiving the most youth attention and excitement was the Broken Bowl Project. The bowl represents us as an individual, we are vessels that hold many things. But sometimes we break and need to be put back together. Our brokenness changes us, makes us who we are. And so the painting on the outside of the bowl represents who we are on the outside, and the words on the inside of the bowl express all the hidden components that make us who we are.
“The lesson of the Broken Bowl Project is to embrace the brokenness, to add words and colors and fill the cracks and holes with beautiful reminders and positive messages about the things we have overcome or hope to be someday,” says Monica, who guided over fifteen youth undergoing the project. “But mostly we should be able to stand back and admire this new vessel we have become, not despite but inspite of all we have done, been or had happen to us.”
The C.R.E.A.T.E. Space is a place to decompress and also learn positive coping skills with an adult who has been trained to provide sensory appropriate options during times of high stress and overload. As the mother of four special needs children with sensory processing issues, Parapro Monica Holmes has spent years learning ideas from occupational therapists and creating spaces like this at her own home and in public settings for children.
Hours of C.R.E.A.T.E. Space are Monday – Friday from 3:30p.m. – 6:00p.m. Individual sessions can be made by appointment or small groups wanting a private setting can make a reservation. For more information please contact Monica Holmes at 360-631-3406 or mholmes@tulaliptribe-nsn.gov
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average U.S. household generates more than twenty pounds of household hazardous waste (HHW) each year for an estimated total of 530,000 tons nationally. HHW items include products for your car, such as anti-freeze, motor oil and brake fluid as well as products around the house, like fluorescent light bulbs, paint, cleaning products and pesticides. These items are often accompanied by warning labels that read caution flammable, poison or corrosive. Improper disposal of these items, like pouring excess paint, oil or chemicals down the drain, in the trash or off the side of the road, are leading to serious concerns for Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants.
“For environmental pollution prevention purposes, trying to control storm water pollutants or toxins in the environment is paramount to folks who are interested in protecting salmon,” states Tulalip Planning Code Enforcement Officer, David Nellis. “It’s very important that we are working to prevent toxins like paint, spent fuels and these types of things from entering storm water runoff. When it rains, it hits paint that was spilled on the ground and the paint rushes off and gets into the creek and then flows downstream and salmon eggs get that covered on them. It’s either causing damage to the salmon eggs by affecting their DNA or killing them.”
At the turn of the 21st century, the EPA conducted a study which showed that pharmaceuticals and personal health care products (PPCP) in bodies of water were becoming an ‘emerging concern’ for fish. Overtime, the PPCPs bio-accumulate in the fish’s tissue, which can lead to endocrine system disruption causing reproductive and behavioral problems for the fish. Though that particular study did not focus on HHW like motor oil and paint thinner, it did show that the chemicals eventually work their way back up the food chain and now pose a problem for people.
“You can only eat an x amount of salmon and tuna now because of mercury; we have mercury in our light bulbs,” David explains. “These are called PBTs, or persistent bio-accumulative toxins, that the EPA tries to keep out of the environment. Some of them are in paints, light bulbs, and pesticides – a lot of these things we spray outdoors or spill accidentally. When they get into a body of water, they get into our body by getting into the bodies of the things we eat. And when that accumulates it can cause problems.
“The EPA states if you’re pregnant, you should only eat one meal of tuna a month,” he continues. “Because the level of mercury, it can interfere with the central nervous system development in children ranging from learning disabilities, to severe neurological damage to death being the worst case. What have we done? This is healthy food. We should be able to eat fish every day. All these things are impacted by things we put in the environment. Every salmon egg that dies is a salmon that won’t be smoking on the grill and providing food for ceremonies. Every one we can save, by not allowing pollution in the environment, will benefit our society. So, how can we make it better? By recycling and disposing these harmful products in a safe and proper way.”
The Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Station is located at 434 McDougall Avenue, off Broadway in Everett.
Snohomish County provides free disposal of HHW products for their residents at the Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Station in Everett. The station accepts a variety of HHW products and is located at 3434 McDougall Avenue, off Broadway, a block adjacent to the Brown Bear Car Wash. The station collects and separates HHW to be recycled, consolidated and disposed of safely. They will also accept hazardous waste from small businesses that qualify as a small quantity generator, by appointment and for a fee.
“We take household items,” explains Ginger Swint, Moderate Risk Waste Specialist at the HHW Drop-Off Station. “Unwanted cleaners, pesticides, automotive, florescent lamps, and all batteries including car batteries. We don’t take sharps, radioactives, explosives, ammunition or empty containers. All the fluorescent [bulbs] are taken down to Seattle where they capture the mercury and phosphate, and the glass and everything else is recycled. I think this station is essential because it keeps [HHW] out of the waterways and away from children. It gives us an opportunity as a community to dispose of it properly instead of throwing it in the garbage.”
“They do chemical manipulation and restore it, reuse it in another product or dispose of it entirely in a way that doesn’t negatively affect our health and resources,” says David. “We can take some these spent fuels like for boat engines, you put additives in it and after a year it’s not good anymore, it kind of turns into lacquer. You can take all this stuff and take it to the household hazardous waste disposal site and give it to them. If you’re a private home owner they’ll take it for free and that gets it out of our waste streams. You’re essentially taking this massive pile of stuff that’s causing our demise – the demise of salmon, shellfish and poisoning people, and making it a little less than before. It’s more consolidated and compact. If we can try to remove some of these from the environment, then we can curb some of these man made problems.”
The Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Station is open Wednesday through Saturday between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. To view a complete list of what the drop-off station accepts and does not accept please visit www.SnoCo.org
Tulalip tribal youth Jaycenta Miles-Gilford’s Indigenous Resilience design was chosen as the winner of the ‘Reclaiming Wholeness Through Recovery’ contest. The Problem Gambling Program will feature her art on t-shirts.
By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News
Tulalip Family Services held a contest during the month of January for the youth of the community. The contest encouraged kids to explore their creative minds to create a t-shirt design for the upcoming National Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March. Open to kids between the ages of twelve and eighteen, the theme for the contest was Reclaiming Wholeness Through Recovery. Family Services’ Problem Gambling Program has several special events planned next month to help bring awareness and education to the Tulalip community about gambling addiction.
The Problem Gambling Program often collaborates with the Tulalip Youth Council to brainstorm ideas for upcoming events. The t-shirt contest idea was so popular, the council spent an extended amount of time, excitedly discussing ideas and debating whether the design should be created on computer or by hand.
“We went to the Youth Council and asked for their input on awareness month and what they want to see, because we want them to know that they’re heard and that their voices mean something. We want them to know that they’re included in this process because a lot of times we hear how gambling, whether it’s them personally or a family member, this disease is impacting their lives,” states Robin Johnson, Problem Gambling Counselor.
Family Services accepted art designs through January 30th and received several submissions. On the first of February, young Tulalip tribal member Jaycenta Miles-Gilford was informed that her art was picked as the winning design. The Problem Gambling Program will feature her art on t-shirts that will be handed-out at all of the upcoming events during National Problem Gambling Awareness Month.
“It’s the ribbon of awareness,” states Robin. “And the color for National Problem Gambling Month is blue. She also incorporated the cultural aspect with the canoe and paddle. And I love the message, Indigenous Resilience, that’s exactly what it’s all about, not giving in and fighting back. The young lady who won is going to be honored at our Annual Community Dinner and will be presented with a three-hundred dollar Wal-Mart gift card.”
The program aims to provide as much education as possible about the addiction to the Tulalip Youth. Sarah Sense-Wilson, Tulalip Problem Gambling Coordinator, believes that many times the youth become gambling addicts because they find it taboo and thrilling because of the risk and reward, as well as exciting when competition is involved which is extremely popular in the sports realm.
“March is identified as National Problem Gambling Month because of March Madness and the mainstream promoting of gambling during the entire month,” Sarah explained. “It’s really a campaign to promote awareness. Three years ago, we initiated the campaign in the tribal community here in Tulalip. We really want to show people that this is a real illness, this is an addiction and that it’s something that affects tribal communities just like it affects non-tribal communities. And given the proximity of the casino and other gambling establishments, we want to let people know that there is treatment and that treatment does works. We’re available and accessible to everyone.”
Sarah explained that when the Problem Gambling Program was in early development, they chose to focus on two age groups, the elders and the youth, who are statistically more vulnerable to the disease. For the elders, she attributes the addiction to an excess amount of time due to retirement, as well as an escape from both physical and emotional pain caused by grief and loss. Studies conducted by the American Society of Addiction Medicine show that gambling causes a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain, which seemingly appear to ‘numb’ the pain receptors, when in actuality the gamblers found a way to temporarily mute their problems and relieve their pain.
“We wanted to do community outreach, supporting these groups so they know that we’re a resource,” states Sarah. “If you want to come and learn more or see about setting up an intervention for a family member, we’re here to offer support, education, materials and anything we can do to help promote the wellness of our community. We strongly encourage people to get their families involved because statistics and data show that the more the family is involved – spouses, extended family, friends and the important people in their life – then the likeliness of that individual getting well increases dramatically.”
The upcoming National Problem Gambling Awareness Month events include the 3rd Annual National Problem Gambling Month Community Dinner on March 3rd at the Hibulb Cultural Center from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., a community movie night on March 17th at the Boys and Girls Club beginning at 5:00 p.m. as well as the Annual Honoring Elders Luncheon at the Tulalip Senior Center on March 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
For more information, please contact Tulalip Family Services at (360) 716-4304.
