In a similar vein to its popular “Breaking Amish” franchise, TLC once again places its gaze on a subculture whose youth want to experience the outside world on new series “Escaping Alaska.”
The six-part series will be the first program from Discovery Networks International (DNI) that will air in the United States first before moving on to more than 200 countries and territories across the world.
Debuting on Sunday, July 27 at 9/8c, “Escaping Alaska” will feature the challenging journey of Alaska natives, broadly referred to as Eskimos, Mary, Frank, Tamara, Qituvituag aka Q and Nuala, as they set out to explore the world outside their villages and small towns. Though filled with love and pride in their heritage, these young people yearn to know life outside the insular communities. But, that’s not how their families will take it.
“‘Escaping Alaska’ provides a rare window into a remote world that is quite foreign to many of TLC viewers – a look at the lives of an endangered culture and private community that is seldom seen by the lower 48,” said DNI’s production and development vice president, Jon Sechrist in a statement.
He continued, “The series is a fascinating study of people struggling to preserve their traditional way of life, and the aspirations of its younger generation who are seeking their own way. The five characters featured are a microcosm of their community.”
Leaving one’s home is considered a betrayal in that culture, so these young people will have to use cover stories to mask their true intentions for leaving for California. Their new experiences will include new jobs, dating and challenging their traditional upbringings. In the end, they’ll each make the decision to return home or continue their lives within the contiguous 48 states of the U.S.
Sechrist commissioned and executive produced the series. Hot Snakes Media is producing the series for DNI.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The chairman of the Spirit Lake Indian Tribe said Tuesday that his reservation in northeastern North Dakota still has difficulty handling child protection issues and finding resources.
“The problems still remain,” Leander R. McDonald told a House subcommittee hearing organized by U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer. “We continue to struggle to meet the child protection needs of our community.”
McDonald said the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation is trying to change its culture and improve the way it handles justice and child care issues. But he said tribal officials have struggled to fill key social worker positions and have found limited help from the federal government.
Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said he pushed for the hearing because he is trying to gauge whether Congress needs to take action in order to improve conditions at the reservation. He said he was disturbed by repeated cases of child abuse and two cases involving child deaths on the reservation.
“The system is failing,” he said.
Spirit Lake has had numerous documented cases of child abuse, and last year federal prosecutors successfully tried two cases involving child deaths on the reservation. The tribe has ousted a former chairman and taken other steps to fix what officials have called a broken child protection system, since it initially came under fire in 2012.
Last year, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs intervened, taking over some operations to try and improve conditions. The agency assigned seven agents to the reservation.
Tribal members agreed about a year ago to remove Chairman Roger Yankton Sr. in a recall vote, saying his administration was corrupt and ineffective and had allowed a culture of child abuse and child sexual abuse to worsen on the reservation. Yankton has denied the allegations.
Members of Congress seemed skeptical Tuesday that enough was being done to correct dire problems on the reservation. Earlier in the hearing, Cramer and other members of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs pressed federal officials about why more wasn’t being done.
Rep. Don Young was dismissive when addressing remarks from Michael S. Black, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Young said he was annoyed the bureau had not accomplished more during its stewardship of Spirit Lake.
“This is good words,” the Alaska Republican said. “It doesn’t necessarily accomplish something.”
Black and another federal official, Joo Yeum Chang, an associate commissioner with the Administration for Children and Families, defended the federal response and said they were doing the best they could with limited resources.
Black said conditions had improved but that his agency simply didn’t have enough resources to deal with all of Spirit Lake’s issues.
“We’re reaching a point where we’re talking to other tribes to try and recruit some of them,” he said. “To have them come up and address issues they can help us resolve.”
He added, “I think we as a community have been making progress.”
RECIFE, BRAZIL— Chris Wondolowski, the first tribally enrolled American Indian to participate at the World Cup, will be on the field as the U.S. Men’s National Team will plays Germany at noon, Thursday, June 26 in the World Cup in Recife, Brazil.
Wondolowski is a tribal citizen of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. He is a forward on the U.S. team.
Wondolowski plays Major League Soccer for the San Jose Earthquake. He is known by the nickname “Wondo.”
In 2013, Wondolwski tallied 11 goals and three assists in 29 MLS games, becoming the 11th player in league history to record double-digit goals in four consecutive seasons.
Wondolowski was born into the Kiowa Tribe through his mother, Janis Hoyt. He was given a tribal name, Bau Daigh, pronounced Bowe Dye, which means “warrior coming over the hill.”
His brother, Stephen Wondolowski, is also a professional soccer player.
APTN National News OTTAWA–The Supreme Court of Canada has granted a declaration of Aboriginal title to the Tsilhqot’in over 1,750 square kilometres of territory in a historic ruling handed down Thursday.
This is the first time the high court has ever granted a declaration of Aboriginal title to a First Nation. The ruling also acknowledges Indigenous nations can claim occupancy and control over vast swaths of land beyond specific settlement sites, provides more clarity on Aboriginal title and sets out the parameters for government “incursion” into land under Aboriginal title.
The ruling also hands a final victory to the Tsilhqot’in Nation, which encompasses six communities with a population of about 3,000 people, over British Columbia in a long-running battle, which included blockades, over logging permits in their claimed territory.
“I would allow the appeal and grant a declaration of Aboriginal title over the area at issue, as requested by the Tsilhqot’in,” said the unanimous ruling, written by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. “I further declare that British Columbia breached its duty to consult owed to the Tsilhqot’in through its land use planning and forestry authorization.”
British Columbia and Ottawa both opposed the Tsilhqot’in claim to title.
The Supreme Court blasted the B.C. Court of Appeal, which had overturned a lower court ruling on what territory the Tsilhqot’in could claim under Aboriginal title. The high court found the Court of Appeal’s definition of occupancy too narrow.
“There is no suggestion in the jurisprudence or scholarship that Aboriginal title is confined to specific village sites or farms, as the court of appeal held,” said the ruling. “Rather, a culturally sensitive approach suggests that regular use of territories for hunting, fishing, trapping and foraging is ‘sufficient’ use to ground Aboriginal title.”
The high court said that Aboriginal title could be declared over territory “over which the group exercised effective control at the time of assertion of European sovereignty.”
Tsilhqot’in Nation Tribal Chair Joe Alphonse called the ruling “amazing” and said it marked the beginning of a “new Canada.”
Alphonse said the ruling also sent a message to Canada’s political leaders.
“It sends a strong message to all provincial leaders and Stephen Harper to deal with us in an honourable and respectful way,” he said.
A judge found probable cause Wednesday to support an accusation that a 28-year-old Seattle woman was one of two women who burglarized Gov. Jay Inslee’s private office in the Legislative Building in Olympia on June 15.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor said there is probable cause to support accusations that Rachel Kamiya committed second-degree burglary, third-degree theft and third-degree possession of stolen property. However, Tabor allowed Kamiya to be released on her personal recognizance, meaning she was released from custody at the Thurston County Jail without having to post bail.
Kamiya, who has no prior criminal record, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at a coffee shop in Capitol Hill in Seattle where she works.
On Monday night, a Washington State Patrol segreant arrested the other suspect, Emily Huntzicker, 22. The sergeant arrested Huntzicker when he pulled her vehicle over for speeding on Interstate 5 in Chehalis. During the stop, the sergeant noticed a ceremonial WSP campaign hat lying on the floor of Huntzicker’s vehicle that was similar to a WSP hat reported stolen during the burglary of Inslee’s office.
Huntzicker gave a full confession, and helped State Patrol detectives find Kamiya, court papers state. As of Tuesday afternoon, Huntzicker, who is from Beaverton, Oregon, had been released from the Thurston County Jail after posting $2,000 bail.
WSP spokesman Bob Calkins said Tuesday that neither of the suspects realized they had burglarized the governor’s office.
Items reported stolen during the burglary included the WSP hat, a Native American blanket from the Squaxin Island Tribe, a bottle of wine, a Native American mask and a framed photo of Inslee and retired basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
According to court papers, Kamiya also stole a framed photo of Inslee and former President Bill Clinton. Kamiya recognized Clinton, but “could not recognize the second male in the photograph (Governor Inslee),” court papers state.
Huntzicker has told detectives that she and her friend had been drinking alcohol and were walking on the Capitol Campus about 7 p.m., when they came to an open window on the second floor of the Legislative Building, court papers state. Calkins has said that the suspects had to have boosted one or the other up onto the ledge in order to enter Inslee’s second-floor office.
WSP has clear surveillance footage of the women rummaging around Inslee’s office for about 10 minutes, taking items, court papers state. Calkins has said high-value items were passed up in favor of the seemingly random items that were stolen.
When a trooper visited Kamiya Tuesday at the Capitol Hill coffee shop where she works, Kamiya said “she had intended on returning the items back to the Capitol building and turning herself in to law enforcement,” court papers state.
Both suspects are tentatively scheduled for arraignments in Thurston County Superior Court in Olympia on July 8.
Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2014/06/25/3199633/second-suspect-in-break-in-of.html#storylink=cpy
A woman carries a girl from their home as a SWAT team searching for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings enters the building in Watertown, Mass., Friday, April 19, 2013. (AP/Charles Krupa)
SWAT teams were designed to capture dangerous criminals, but unnecessary SWAT deployments are putting innocent lives at risk.
A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union compares U.S. police officers’ treatment of American citizens to the U.S. military’s treatment of the country’s enemies in 800 different instances.
In its report, “War Comes Home,” the ACLU determined that police departments throughout the U.S. are growing increasingly militarized.
State and local law enforcement agencies are unnecessarily employing military-grade weapons and tactics used in war zones to police American citizens — especially in communities of color — without first obtaining public permission or implementing any sort of oversight program. This is happening even though law enforcement agencies are supposed to use the minimum amount of force necessary and not violate the civil rights of any individual.
From 2011 to 2012, 50 percent of Americans affected by unnecessary SWAT deployments were black or Latino, according to the report, while whites were only affected about 20 percent of the time.
Of all SWAT deployments in that same year, 62 percent were for drug-related searches in which heavily armed SWAT teams, which often included 20 or more officers outfitted with assault rifles and grenades, served search warrants to homes.
Officers would sometimes use dangerous equipment such as flashbang grenades to temporarily blind and deafen residents before searching a home.
SWAT teams often conducted no-knock raids if the homeowner was suspected of possessing a weapon — even a legally-owned firearm. In these no-knock raids, officers broke down doors and smashed windows in order to enter homes. They screamed at the people inside, telling them to get on the floor, while often pointing weapons at the individuals, even when there were children present.
Due to the violent nature of the SWAT teams entrances, many innocent people were seriously hurt or even killed. For example, Tarika Wilson, 26, was holding her 14-month-old son when the SWAT team broke down the front door of her home and began shooting. Wilson’s son was shot, but survived, and she was fatally wounded in the officers’ search for her boyfriend, a suspected drug dealer.
Other victims who were not suspects included Eurie Stampe, 68, who was shot and killed while watching a baseball in his pajamas when a SWAT team entered his home, and 19-month-old Bounkham Phonesavanh, who was put into a medically induced coma after a flash grenade was thrown into his crib, piercing his cheek and chest and scarring his body with third-degree burns.
Although SWAT teams were designed to apprehend school shooters, hostage takers and escaped felons, 8 in 10 SWAT raids were initiated solely for the purpose of serving a search warrant. Only about 7 percent of the SWAT raids were “for hostage, barricade, or active shooter scenarios.”
As the ACLU reported, “Law enforcement agencies have become equipped to carry out these SWAT missions in part by federal programs such as the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program, the Department of Homeland Security’s grants to local law enforcement agencies, and the Department of Justice’s Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program.”
In 36 percent of the SWAT raids, no contraband was found, but the ACLU noted that this figure may be closer to 65 percent, since there are incomplete police reports for a number of raids that produced nothing.
While the ACLU’s report is full of startling data proving the existence of an increasingly militarized law enforcement community throughout the U.S., the advocacy group ultimately concluded that the report was incomplete because “[d]ata collecting and reporting in the context of SWAT was at best sporadic and at worst virtually nonexistent.”
An inspirational video featuring Native American youth from this year’s Leadership Development Camp shows viewers who the youth are and who they are not—mascots, savages, alcoholics, drug addicts.
A black and white silent portion of the video has students each holding up a sign saying what they are not, like “I am not a mascot,” and “I am not a savage.” The students are then seen in color and explaining what they are—beautiful, a basketball player, a dreamer, a leader, the next cultural generation.
“We’re proud of our culture and never will ever hide it,” one of the students in the video says.
The Leadership Development Camp is designed for youth ages 13 to 17 from the Coeur d’Alene Reservation. Its goal is to develop leadership skills, resiliency, and strengthen academic skills.
The camp brings the students to the Washington State University Pullman campus for a week-long stay.
“Through participation in team building and sports activities and culturally responsive specialized academic seminars, this one-week residential camp offers students a chance to develop new skills, experience college life, and reflect upon and prepare to meet their goals for the future,” says information with the video.
Klickitat County in south-central Washington sees the most traffic, with 19 trains of over 1 million gallons per week passing through. Adams, Franklin, Skamania and Clark counties each have a listed count of 18 trains per week. More than 10 trains per week also pass through King, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane counties.
The notifications were provided as part of an emergency order from the U.S. Department of Transportation, meant to ensure state regulators and emergency responders were well informed about the shipments of particularly volatile Bakken oil, which has been involved in a string of fiery explosions.
Those notifications became the subject of a transparency debate after the railroads asked states to sign nondisclosure agreements. Washington refused to sign the agreement, saying it would violate the state’s public records law. But upon receiving public records requests the state gave the railroads a 10-day window to seek court injunctions.
After no railroads sought injunctions, the state posted all of the records online Tuesday.
Three other railroads also filed notifications. Union Pacific informed the state it does carry enough Bakken crude — meaning no shipments of more than 1 million gallons or roughly 35 tank cars — to be required to disclose. Portland and Western Railroad carries trains three trains per week from Vancouver across the Columbia river and into Clatskanie, Oregon. Tacoma Rail handles three trains per week in Pierce County received from BNSF.
In Oregon, Union Pacific, Portland and Western and BNSF all filed notifications. Oregon has yet to decide whether it will release the information to the public. Richard Hoover, spokesman for the State Fire Marshal’s office, said a decision is still likely a week or more away.
Data Sources: BNSF, Energy Information Administration, National Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau. Map by Jordan Wirfs-Brock, courtesy of Inside Energy.
FILE — In this file photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and shot Oct. 29, 2013, orca whales from the J and K pods swim past a small research boat on Puget Sound in view of downtown Seattle. AP Photo/NOAA Fisheries Service, Candice Emmons
Following the release of a federal report on the state of endangered orcas, one local researcher says there’s one factor that matters more to the whales’ wellness than toxins and vessel traffic: fish.
Ken Balcomb, whom many regard as the godfather of whale conservation, is the director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor. For almost 40 years now, the center has been keeping track of every individual whale in the three pods that make up the southern resident population of the iconic orcas that live in Puget Sound.
Balcomb says among the risk factors outlined in the report summarizing a decade of research, the orcas’ food is what matters most. They are very picky eaters, and scientists now know that about 80 percent of their diet consists of chinook salmon, another endangered species. So, if we want to recover orcas, says Balcomb, we need to focus on recovering that specific species of salmon.
“They need food. And that’s where the emphasis should be, is on enhancement of the chinook salmon stocks in the Salish Sea and the whole eastern Pacific,” he said. “We’re just not going to have a predator population without a sufficient food population.”
The research also shows the orcas hunt less and call louder when vessels are in the area, and they head to the outer coast during the winter, foraging as far south as central California. Toxins are also a factor in whale mortality, says Balcomb; high levels are found in their blubber.
But he says transient orcas are surviving in growing numbers despite these conditions, because their diet includes seals and porpoises, and they have plenty to eat. The toxins only become a critical factor when the whales are going hungry and living off their fat, triggering the toxins’ release, according to Balcomb.
Notah Begay III tees off, Saturday, on the 15th hole during the San Juan Open golf tournament at San Juan Country Club (AP Photo/The Daily Times, Jon Austria)
The greatest tip I ever received on a golf course happens to have come from the same guy who gave me the greatest quote I ever got while covering an event:
Notah Begay III.
As a senior at Albuquerque Academy during the 36-hole state golf championships in 1990, Begay had taken an ungodly lead after the opening round.
I knew there was no way he could lose, but I also knew – despite his remarkable skills – he was still just a high school kid.
So I tossed him a softball. Something like, “You’re up by double-digits, but you still need to just focus on your game and not worry about anyone else, right? I guess anything can still happen, right?”
Wrong.
Begay said something along the lines of “the only thing that can happen is I’m going to win. The only thing in doubt is if I will break the scoring record.”
Then came a quip for the ages:
“Today I waxed ‘em – tomorrow I’m going to buff ‘em.”
I didn’t want to bury the kid, so I called his dad, Notah Jr., and asked him what he thought.
“Print it,” Begay Jr., said with a belly laugh. “Print it. I love it.”
Sure enough, Begay III got the evil eye from just about every other kid, while they grumbled and stumbled through round 2. Begay III, meanwhile, went on to his second straight state title in record-setting fashion.
As for the tip, it came a few years later while playing a round of golf together. I hit an unlucky shot that bounced off a pole or sign or something, which started my usual whining about my bad luck.
Begay turned to me, held up his index finger and said “The game gives you what you deserve.”
I thought, “How true.”
If you’re playing well, the score almost always reflects it – and vice versa. More importantly, there are as many fortunate bounces in golf as unfortunate ones. They truly do even out in the long run.
That was more than 20 years ago, and I haven’t complained about a bad bounce since.
Home again
Begay, an Albuquerque native who now makes his home in Dallas, has been in town the past few weeks preparing for his inaugural Rio Grande Charity Slam. The event – with a junior golf clinic and banquet on Thursday and a celebrity golf tournament on Friday at Santa Ana Golf Club – is raising money for the Notah Begay III Foundation and the Jewish Community Center. His foundation raises thousands of dollars to launch, sustain and expand programming to combat health issues threatening Native children – more than 20,000 in 13 states of whom have benefited from the programs, and 75 percent of those in New Mexico.
Begay, a four-time PGA Tour winner and a full-blooded Native American, has been in the news a great deal the past year. He became an analyst for Golf Channel, has stayed very active with his foundation and made national headlines with a comment about Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder.
And – despite being just 41 – he suffered a heart attack in April.
On Saturday, after the third round of the 72-hole San Juan Open in Farmington, Begay and I shared a few laughs and a lot of thoughts.
Mark Smith: First off, how is your health?
Notah Begay III: Good. I mean, you wouldn’t be able to tell two months ago that I had a heart attack. I’m a little weak, I lost a little bit of distance in terms of my golf. But I got a lot back in terms of my health. I’ve gotten better, I’ve got more energy. I feel pretty lucky to have gone through it so well.
MS: Not to be too dramatic, but what was going through your mind when you were having the heart attack?
NB: Just shear shock. ‘How did I end up here?’ It was a complete surprise, in terms of, ‘I’m 41-years-old, I exercise on a regular basis, I eat well – and I had a heart attack.’ It wasn’t really until about three or four days after that I really started to ascertain all of the possibilities and outcomes that could have been. There’s been a lot of people in my situation that could have died, because they weren’t close to a hospital, or had more arteries blocked. I’m really lucky that it worked out.
MS: Your father also has serious health issues. (He recently became visually impaired, and last month was hospitalized for a couple weeks after falling down some stairs at home.) How much tougher has that made things?
NB: One of the toughest things with dealing with the heart attack, was my dad took that spill and broke his ribs. It all makes me realize even more so, what we teach (in the NB3F) about eating better, staying healthy, getting exercise. It’s been a tough time for sure. It opens your eyes even more so.
MS: This week you have your event at Santa Ana. Are you ready?
NB: I can’t wait. It looks like (former Lobo and PGA Tour pro) Tim Herron’s going to be here. We have a nice group of celebrities, and people who support what we’re doing. That’s all you can ask for.
MS: In April, you made news by telling USA Today you are against the Washington Redskins keeping their nickname, and you said owner Dan Snyder’s Original Americans Foundation was “more of a gimmick.” Did you have much controversy over your comments?
NB: No, not at all. I think most people would agree that the Washington football team needs to change its mascot name. Some would argue they should keep it. The simplest argument, which is not necessarily the right one, is it’s not an issue of being politically correct. Being politically correct is vastly different than using a dictionary-defined racial slur as a representation of a national franchise. I’m not trying to nit-pick on the political correctness, I just think we’re at a day and age that we should be demonstrating to the younger generations that we’re willing to embrace all the cultures.
MS: You and your brother Clint were raised in a house (on the 14th fairway) at Ladera (Golf Course). Do you ever go look from the backyard and think about old times there?
“My dad (and his wife, Claire) lives on the sixth green now, and I go to that back patio and watch people play the sixth green. And I think of how many times I’ve played the sixth hole. All the skins games, all the calcuttas, all the high school tournaments, the city tournaments – ever since I was 9 years old. Going from a junior playing in the Sun Country, to Stanford, to the PGA Tour to an analyst on the Golf Channel now? You couldn’t have written this script. Ever.
MS: You told me 20 years ago that you’d never forget your roots. This week shows you haven’t.
NB: A lot of that comes from my respect for the culture and tradition I came from, my dad and mom and the Native American heritage. I’ve since transposed that to the respect and admiration for 71 years at the City (Amateur) tournament, or 50 years (at San Juan Open), and how much goes into these events; how much the community and sponsors put into these events. These things don’t just happen by themselves. It’s a reflection of our love for the game. And so much has been given to me through golf, it would be very unappreciative for me not to give back through the game.
MS: Speaking of the San Juan, they listed the (third-round) cut as being the top 26 and ties. Initially, you missed by a shot. But then they decided to let in 33 players, including you, causing some players to call it “The Notah Rule.” But the sponsors enjoyed it.
NB: That’s too funny (laugh). On the PGA Tour, they always talk about “The Tiger Rules.” Now there’s “The Notah Rules.” I guess I’ve arrived.
MS: One last thing. We’ve talked about it before – the greatest quote in the history of sport. You remember it?
NB: (Belly laugh). I was a cocky senior at Albuquerque Academy (laugh). ‘Today I’m going to wax ‘em and tomorrow I’m going to ‘buff em (laugh).’ And I backed it up.
