Once the woven pieces are ready, it’s time to being putting the caps together.
“The creation story of Coast Salish people explains that there once lived a good man who always gave away his belongings and food to others. The creator recognized the man’s kindness and declared that once the man dies, a red cedar tree will grow where he is buried and the tree will continue to help the people.”
By Judy Gobin, Tulalip tribal member
The finishing touches.
This beautiful tree has provided so much for us such as clothes and canoes for travel, and today we have them being made into graduation hats, (mortarboards). I have for many years woven hats upon demand, for students here in Tulalip, and for friends from all over that order them for their children.
This year my daughter Toni Jo and I were asked to weave for our own graduates at Tulalip. I felt so honored to be asked and as I wove them I thought about our children.
Tools used to create the caps.
This is the largest order we have done to date, the complete order was 105 hats! We started cutting and splitting in mid-February and completion was this week (June 9). The photos show the progress and what tools we used, and of course the picture of all the completed hats.
Photo/Mike Sarich, Tulalip News
Students wore these beautful graduation caps at the June 13 high school graduation ceremony held at the Tulalip Resort Casino.
The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), the largest and most highly attended film festival in the United States, had a massive lineup in its 42nd annual 25-day run from May 19 through June 12. This year SIFF screened 421 films representing 85 countries: 181 features, 75 documentaries, 8 archival films, and 153 shorts. The films included 54 World premieres and 27 U.S. premieres.
Among those hundreds of films, two (Mekko and Before the Streets) were made with North American indigenous issues central to their theme. Prior to their Seattle premieres, SIFF publicists and media relations staff reached out to local tribal media about covering the films and meeting the directors for potential publications. According to festival publicist Sophia Perez, the staff of Tulalip News were the only tribal media who responded to the SIFF invitation.
Mekko director Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek) at his film’s SIFF premiere. Photo/Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
Mekko is the product of director/writer Sterlin Harjo who is a member of the Seminole nation with Muskogee heritage. Born and raised in the small town of Holdenville, Oklahoma, Sterlin studied film and art at the University of Oklahoma. Sterlin is a founding member of the Native American comedy troupe, the 1491s, whose bold stylings have garnered millions of views on YouTube.
Mekko is a film that explores the rarely seen slice of life about marginalized homeless Native Americans. Mekko is an uncompromising thriller set against the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma wherein a Muscogee Native is released from prison and falls in with the homeless “street chiefs” at the edge of the city, struggling to find shelter, hope, and redemption among the local Native population.
“People walk past or drive past the homeless all the time and never think about where they came from and how they ended up where they are. In making this film I wanted to humanize the Native homeless population in Tulsa while giving them a voice,” says Director Sterlin. In writing the film Sterlin spent a lot of time among the Native homeless population in order to ensure his story line was an accurate portrayal of their struggle. “While doing my research I was also recruiting them to be in my film. They were very open to the idea and I could tell how excited they were to have someone tell a story about them.
“For those you watch the film, I hope they come to realize that we are all just a few decisions away from ending up on the streets,” adds Sterlin. “Whether it’s through alcohol or drugs or anything else that alienates you from your family, once you lose that support it’s easy to end up on the streets.”
Award winning film and television actor Zahn McClarnon plays the character Bill in Mekko. Photo courtesy of Sterlin Harjo.
Mekko paints the portrait of a homeless Native American parolee in Tulsa. As he struggles to find his way in the outside world after two decades behind bars, the titular Mekko discovers a chaotic yet occasionally profound and beautiful community of impoverished natives which now includes Bunnie, one of his old carousing buddies from his wilder youth. Though Mekko finds some peace in this society that exists on the fringes of our modern world, he also uncovers a darkness that threatens to destroy it from within. After a tragic series of events, Mekko dedicates himself to a quest for revenge which he believes will cleanse the sickness from this collective of marginalized individuals and perhaps atone for the sins that landed him in jail so many years ago.
Making its United States premiere, Before the Streets is a gripping and spiritual film set among the Atikamekw communities of Quebec, Canada. Featuring an indigenous cast speaking in their native tongue, it’s a redemptive story of a young man who returns to his Native traditions after a robbery ends in tragedy.
The lead character, young Shawnouk kills a man during a robbery and flees into the forest. Deciding to return to his Atikamekw village in Quebec, he tries to return to his everyday life, but is haunted by his past. Covering gritty, everyday issues of Native life on reservations from hunger and poverty to less talked about social issues of teen suicide and struggling family dynamics, Shawnouk must overcome his despair and redeem himself using traditional cleansing rituals.
Before the Streets celebrates a revival of the Native culture and its traditions, as embodied by the very actors who participated in the film. The first dramatic feature shot in the native language of Atikamekw, the film boasts a cast composed almost entirely of non-professionals living and working in the villages where the film was shot. The story takes place in Manawan, while a forest fire closes in on the nearby village of Wemotaci.
Director, producer and writer Chloe Leriche set out to highlight First Nations resilience and how it manifests itself. Photo/Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
First-time feature director Chloe Leriche made Before the Streets with the collaboration of Quebec’s three Atikamekw communities, in drawing on all the vitality they embody. By following the pacing of her non-professional actors, she created a distinct style that goes beyond notions of the North American indie genre and recent media reports on the dismal conditions in Canada’s Native communities.
“I was working for Wapikoni Mobile, a project that involved traveling to Native communities in a trailer equipped with video cameras and editing tables. The idea was to encourage young people to express themselves through cinema,” says Director Chloe of how the inspiration for her film came about. “The first time I went to Obedjiwan, an Atikamekw community in northern Mauricie, I met a young man in the street and suggested he make a documentary on whatever subject he wanted. We went to look for two of his friends to hold the camera and record sound. I told his friends to ask him questions, and we filmed in different places around the village. Speaking to the camera, he talked about friends and relatives of his who had taken their own lives. The longer we shot, the longer the list of names grew. It was harrowing. After that, of the different scripts I was developing, Before the Streets forced itself on me like a scream. I felt compelled to make it, it became a necessity. The project grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go.
Lead character Shawnouk undergoes traditional cleansing ceremonies in order to move forward with his life. Image courtesy of Chloe Leriche
I spent a lot of time in different native communities. I visited Obedjiwan several times; in all I must have spent six months there,” continues Chloe. “I took part in many traditional ceremonies and pow wows, I lived with different families and made many friends. I also did research and read about the Native concept of restorative justice. I attended councils of elders, where village elders meet to discuss different issues and question solutions. In my film, the resolution, with the return to tradition, grew out of these exchanges.”
We know that there is a large group of people in America that are going unnoticed and often, unappreciated. Filmmakers like Sterlin and Chloe, bringing Native films to the table, are allowing their audience to be exposed to Native culture and see that the marginalized have something important to say. While installing themselves in a genre often thought reserved only for the rich and upper-class, whether it’s Native filmmakers breaking out onto the circuit or just films in general portraying Native life in today’s modern times, the presentation of Native films is a significant shock to the system. They help to shed an accurate light on so many Native issues, like homelessness and teen suicide on reservations, commonly hidden in the shadows.
TULALIP — The Sept. 18 death of a Tulalip man during a late-night struggle with law officers was a tragic accident and not a crime, Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe has determined.
Cecil D. Lacy Jr., 50, was a member of the Tulalip Tribes who had worked as a commercial fisherman. He collapsed and died in the 6400 block of Marine Drive. An autopsy determined he suffered a heart attack while struggling with two Tulalip Tribal Police officers and a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy.
The officers’ actions that night were legally justified and they will face no criminal charges, Roe said in a Thursday letter.
“Cecil Lacy Jr. was a well-known member of the Tulalip Tribes, with many people who loved him. His death was ruled an accident, and in my opinion, that’s exactly what it was,” Roe wrote to two members of the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team.
The cadre of detectives from around the county investigates officer-involved deaths.
The SMART investigation determined the officers were attempting to help Lacy the night he died.
Motorists called 911 to report a man walking in the darkened roadway that winds through the heart of the reservation. The responding officers found Lacy in an apparent state of intoxication, Roe wrote.
Lacy was told that he wasn’t under arrest, but that police needed to make sure he got out of the road and made it home safe. They offered to take him there in a patrol car, but on the condition that Lacy agreed to be handcuffed, the prosecutor wrote.
Lacy initially rejected that idea, saying that he had an injured shoulder. He then suggested that his hands be cuffed in front of him. Officers agreed, Lacy was cuffed, and the interaction was recorded on the officers’ body cameras, Roe wrote
Lacy “was not confrontational. He never assaulted or appeared to be trying to hurt anyone or escape,” the prosecutor wrote. He walked to one of the patrol cars and climbed into the backseat.
“It looked like the officers had successfully defused the situation and that things were going to be fine,” he added.
Then, as the door was being closed, the situation turned.
Lacy reportedly pushed the door back open and climbed out of the car.
In the struggle alongside the road, officers used an electronic stun gun in an attempt to subdue Lacy.
The man collapsed and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
The county medical examiner, Dr. Daniel Selove, later attributed Lacy’s death to a heart attack due to methamphetamine in the man’s system, as well as several other health-related factors. Those include an enlarged heart, obesity, hypertension and mental health issues.
The medical examiner determined the stun gun played no role in Lacy’s death.
Lacy’s family released this statement Friday through their attorney, Gabriel Galanda of the Seattle law firm Galanda Broadman.
“The family continues to suspend judgment about exactly what happened on September 18, 2015,” he wrote. “But they are troubled that in the very few writings we have thus far seen, both the investigators and prosecutor completely gloss over what happened to Cecil during his ‘short’ and fatal ‘struggle’ with law enforcement.
“Their reports are void of any explanation regarding the most critical seconds and moments before Cecil passed. There is much, much more to be learned about exactly how he passed.
“With very heavy hearts, the family remains intent on discovering the true causes of their loved one’s death,” he added.
The Tulalip Tribes had a busy culture-filled weekend. The Annual Veteran’s Pow Wow, held at the Don Hatch Youth Center, kicked off on Friday June 3 and lasted until late Sunday June 5.
During all three days of the event the gym was over-flowing as dancers and drum circles honored the Veterans of Native America. Boye Ladd held the title of MC for the weekend, and the Arena Director was Randy Vendiola. Outside, the weather reached a high 90 degrees which allowed event-goers a chance to step out and admire the beautiful bay, skate park, new field, and of course the many art, craft, and food vendors that came for the pow wow.
On the last day of the pow wow, as the Veterans stood up for recognition, one Vet asked the gym if anybody made their way down to the Slahal Tournament that was simultaneously happening the same weekend at the Tulalip Amphitheatre. He went on to say that he had dropped by the Stick Game event and was pleasantly surprised with the large turnout.
“It’s beautiful. All these Natives living clean and sober having fun at these drug and alcohol free events, it’s beautiful. Thank you Tulalip!” The Stick Game Tournament had a $63,000 total payout, with multiple games played throughout the weekend.
By Lorraine Loomis, Chair, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
I am glad that the treaty tribes in western Washington were finally able to reach agreement with the state on a package of conservative salmon fisheries for Puget Sound. It took more than a month of overtime negotiations to make it happen, but cooperative co-management showed us the way.
Western Washington is unique because 20 treaty Indian tribes and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife jointly manage the salmon resource and share the harvestable number of fish returning each year.
That job was a lot easier when there were more fish to go around. But salmon populations have been declining steadily for decades because their habitat is disappearing faster than it can be restored. Salmon returns the past couple of years – especially coho – have taken a sharp turn for the worse.
Some say just stop fishing and that will fix the problem. It won’t. From birth to death, habitat is the single most important aspect of a salmon’s life. As the habitat goes, so go the salmon and tribal culture and their treaty fishing rights.
For millions of years, salmon were abundant in western Washington. Their sheer numbers, naturally high productivity and good habitat provided resiliency from the effects of disease, drought and a host of other environmental factors. We must rebuild that resilience.
As salmon populations grow smaller, management becomes increasingly difficult, and the co-managers struggle to divide a steadily shrinking pie. We must make the pie bigger.
The non-stop loss of salmon habitat in western Washington must be halted so that our habitat restoration efforts can successfully increase natural salmon production. In the meantime, we need to rely on hatcheries to provide for harvest and help offset the continuing loss of habitat.
We also must build resiliency in the co-manager relationship created by the 1974 ruling in U.S. v. Washington that upheld tribal treaty-reserved rights and established the tribes as salmon co-managers.
We remember the bad old days of the late ’70s and early ’80s when the tribal and state co-manager relationship was new and mistrust ran deep. We spent a lot of time, money and energy fighting one another in federal court hearings rather than focusing together on the resource.
Things didn’t begin to change until former state Fish and Wildlife director Bill Wilkerson said enough was enough and sat down with the late NWIFC Chairman Billy Frank Jr. The result was the birth of cooperative co-management in 1984 which led to the annual development of agreed fishing plans that allowed the tribes and state to focus on managing the fish instead of fighting each other in court.
This year, for the first time in more than three decades, the tribal and state co-managers failed to reach agreement on a joint package of Puget Sound salmon fisheries within the North of Falcon process timeframe. Instead we developed separate fishing plans for consideration by NOAA Fisheries under their ESA authority.
But in the true spirit of co-management, we kept the door open to further negotiations, and it worked. We weathered the storm together and we are stronger for it.
We know our relationship will be tested again in the years to come. But this year has shown us that we can survive those challenges as long as we keep cooperation at the heart of co-management.
Seattle, WA – On Sunday, June 5, Othello Tiny House Village in the Othello neighborhood is hosting a community celebration to celebrate the hundreds of volunteers, community leaders, organizations, and businesses that have helped make Othello Village possible. The event will include live music by Lady A and the Raging Grannies, tours of the village, and family-friendly volunteer activities including the painting of a community mural and collages hosted by local artists, the painting and tiling of four new tiny houses donated by the Tulalip Tribes, and a community litter pick-up. A program will begin at 2:00 pm that will include public officials and volunteers who contributed to the success of Othello Village. Food and refreshments will be provided. NeighborWorks America is a major sponsor along with the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and Nickelsville.
LIHI Board President Melinda Nichols said, “The quick mobilization to build out Othello Village was amazing. This tiny house village will help transition even more people into stable housing while living in community with others.” These partnerships include a longstanding relationship with the Tulalip Tribes TERO Pre-Apprenticeship training program, which has previously built four houses for the other villages and is now contributing four more houses to Othello Village. Tribal art by Tulalip Tribes door artist Ty Juvenile decorates the doors of the four houses. Please join us:
Sunday, June 5, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Othello Village, 7544 Martin Luther King Jr. Way South
The event is additionally sponsored by the Tulalip Tribes, The City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, The Rainier Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club of Seattle International District, HomeSight, and the Seattle Jaycees.
Since the City of Seattle issued a temporary permit and the village opened March 8, 24 tiny houses have been builtfor homeless families, couples, singles and people with pets, along with two container shelters, tents on platforms, restroom facilities, a security booth, a kitchen/dining tent, and a donation tent. The houses are each 8′ x 12′ and safe, sturdy structures. The village will soon add another eight houses for a total of 32 tiny houses. The village now hosts 51 people including 7 children, and eventually will host up to 80 residents total.
Othello Village provides safe shelter for individuals and families currently experiencing homelessness. Nickelsville is a self-managed community with residents having to abide by a strict code of conduct including no alcohol, no drugs and no weapons. LIHI provides social workers and assistance to move the residents into permanent housing. The village was developed as an innovative crisis response to homelessness by moving people into tiny houses and safe encampments. The City of Seattle is providing operating support.
If you wish for more information, please contact Volunteer and Advocacy Coordinator Josh Castle at (206) 334-0508 or jcastle@lihi.org. To donate to the tiny house village go to www.LIHI.org.
