OLYMPIA, Wash. — Ballots for the election in Washington must be postmarked by Election Day or placed in a drop box by 8 p.m.
With some ballots still in the mail on election night, results in a close race may not be known for days.
The secretary of state’s office said 29 percent of the ballots had been returned as of Monday afternoon. That’s about 1.1 million ballots of the 3.9 ballots that were mailed.
Counties will certify results by Nov. 24. And Secretary of State Kim Wyman and Gov. Jay Inslee will certify the election on Dec. 2.
By Lorraine Loomis, Chair, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
When the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission was searching for a new director about six years ago, chair Miranda Wecker said they were looking for a director with a strong conservation ethic, sound fiscal-management and leadership skills and expertise in intergovernmental relations.
They got all of that and much, much more when they selected Phil Anderson to lead the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
The treaty Indian tribes in western Washington are both sad and happy to learn that he will be stepping down at the end of the year.
We are sad because we are losing a top-notch director, a champion for fish and wildlife who guided the department through some of the most difficult challenges it has faced. We are glad because Phil will get a chance to rest, hunt, fish, and spend some well-deserved time with his family. We are encouraged to hear him say that after leaving his current position he will look for other opportunities to further contribute to resource conservation and management. We wish Phil and his family all the best for the future.
Phil is an experienced, knowledgeable and talented director. A former charter boat operator, he has played a leading role in fish and wildlife management in Washington and the Pacific Northwest over the past two decades. From serving on the Pacific Fishery Management Council to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and the U.S./Canada Pacific Salmon Commission, Phil has been a tireless advocate for sound fisheries management.
The tribes got to know Phil best through the North of Falcon process. This is the annual forum where state and tribal co-managers develop salmon fishing seasons for marine and freshwater fisheries throughout Puget Sound, the Columbia River and Washington Coast.
Phil is a tough, but fair negotiator. We have not always agreed, but we have always appreciated the integrity, honesty and willingness to work together that Phil brought to the table. Perhaps most importantly, he always comes to meetings looking for solutions.
One of the reasons for Phil’s effectiveness as WDFW director is that he has shown respect for the tribes as co-managers. He understands that tribes are sovereign governments with treaty-reserved fishing, hunting and gathering rights. But for all of his qualities, it is his ability to truly listen and be responsive to concerns being expressed by others that set him apart from many who have occupied the director’s chair.
We hope that the same respect, understanding, responsiveness and ability to truly listen that Phil has shown the treaty tribes will also be among the qualities of whomever the Fish and Wildlife Commission chooses as his replacement.
Tammy Weaver of Marysville was asked to bring her service dog, Gracie, to help comfort students returning to MP high
Hundreds of people cheering, holding candles and flashing heart signs lined the road leading to a shooting-scarred Washington state high school Monday morning, delivering an uplifting welcome to students searching for normalcy.
The buses rolled up to Marysville Pilchuck High School 10 days after freshman Jaylen Fryberg invited friends to sit with him at lunch and then shot five of them — mortally wounding three — before committing suicide.
Three hundred to 400 alumni and 50 to 80 police officers greeted the students in the gymnasium as they came off buses, said Rob Lowry, the school’s co-principal. “The first thing they noticed was there were lines of first responders there,” Lowry said — a decision intended to send a message of security and safety.
And it wasn’t just the students who came together. Residents flocked to the school with signs that read, “We stand with you,” and chanted “Tomahawk!” — the school’s athletic nickname. A U.S. flag was hung over the road from a fire truck, and parents and alumni decorated the outside school walls with signs of welcome.
After days of tearful gatherings and vigils, many students on buses wore smiles as they watched supporters make heart signs with their hands. Some of the teens flashed the same sign back.
“Today was a good day in Marysville,” said Becky Berg, superintendent of the Marysville schools, who said she was “thrilled” that as many as 90 percent of students chose to return to campus Monday. “It’s always a good day when our kids are together.”
There were no classes. Instead, students attended an assembly and then milled around.
“It was a wonderful way to come back to school,” said Miles Holden, 15, a sophomore. “It helped to be in a room full of people who are going through the same thing as you.”
The cafeteria was closed, its eventual fate up to the school district.
“It was eerie looking at the cafeteria but good to come together,” Miles said.
At the end of the day, some of the students stopped to look at a fence that has been turned into a memorial for the victims: Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, Zoe Galasso and Gia Soriano, the 14-year-olds who were killed, and Nate Hatch, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15, who remain hospitalized.
“The hardest thing was to see the fence. It just reminds you that everyone was happy at one point and how many people are struggling,” said Michael Strope, 17, a junior. “It was intimidating to come back. Today was about readjusting. I am not completely better, but it started the healing process. “
Police still haven’t revealed what motivated Fryberg to ambush the teens, two of whom were his cousins. The shooter was popular and had recently been voted the school’s “homecoming prince,” and many students were friends with both him and the victims. Fryberg was a member of the Tulalip Tribes, which said it had been targeted by threats that had some kids fearful to return to school.
Keith Red Elk, whose daughter Jessica is a senior, said he hoped the turnout would help the kids face their fears. “We are here to show them it is OK to come back,” he said.
Deborah Parker, a member of the tribal council whose son is a senior at the school, said: “I drove my son to school, and he seemed to be a little bit nervous, but we worked hard as a family to watch over him.
“Those were his friends. Those were his relatives,” Parker said. “So coming back to school today was a slow-moving process. Once we drove up and saw all of the cheers, it became emotional.”
Afterward, representatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut — where a gunman killed 20 pupils and six staff members in 2012 — passed on to the school district and to the Tulalip Tribes a Native American dreamcatcher plaque that it received from Columbine High School, the scene of a similar massacre in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999.
SOFIA JARAMILLO FOR NBC NEWS
Representativs from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, passed on a memorial Native American dreamcatcher plaque to the Marysville School District on Monday.
Stephanie Hope Smith, a member of the Newtown Rotary Club, said the plaque “is more than just a dreamcatcher. It is made of love, compassion and hope.”
“It is our hope that you should never have to pass it on,” Smith said.
M. Alex Johnson of NBC News contributed to this report.
Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired November 22, 2014 – July 27, 2015
Source: Burke Museum
Seattle— Northwest Native artists create 30 new works inspired by 200 years of history.
Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired features work by artists whose practice has been informed by the objects in the Burke’s collections, demonstrating how today’s artists and art historians learn from past generations. The exhibit will include contemporary works in a variety of media alongside the historic pieces that artists identified as key to their learning. “The objects in the Burke’s collection embody the knowledge of their makers and they can be a catalyst for transferring this knowledge across generations,” explains exhibit curator and assistant director of the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art, Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse.
Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Bill Holm Center, Here & Now explores the dynamic relationship between the Burke Museum and Northwest Native art, artists, and scholars. In the past ten years, over ninety grants have been awarded by the center to researchers, artists, and graduate students. The grant program is unique in its breadth, providing funding for artists to conduct workshops in their own communities, and travel funding to study collections at the Burke Museum or other institutions that hold collections key to an artist or researcher’s interests. These grantees have all contributed to the current dynamism of Northwest Native art.
Here & Now shares the results of the conversations artists have with historical artworks. Celebrate master artists of the past and present and share in the enthusiasm and creativity of today’s emerging artists.
The Kwakwaka’wakw transformation mask that inspired the design of the original Seahawks logo. Photo courtesy of the Hudson Museum
The Mask That Inspired the Seahawks Logo: In the lead up to the 2014 Super Bowl, Dr. Robin K. Wright, Curator of Native American Art and Director of the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art at the Burke Museum and Bill Holm – one of the most knowledgeable experts in the field of Northwest Coast Native art history – tracked down the origins of the Seahawk’s logo. A photo in Robert Bruce Inverarity’s 1950 book, Art of the Northwest Coast Indians depicts a Kwakwaka’wakw transformation mask which depicts an eagle in its closed form with a human face inside (revealed when the mask opens). Further research revealed press articles from 1976 that described this Kwakwaka’wakw mask from Vancouver Island as the source of the logo. It is now part of the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine’s collections.
During Here & Now, the mask will be displayed along with Native artists’ interpretations of the signature Seahawks design and logo. The Burke is currently fundraising through Kickstarter to bring community experts from the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation to the museum to study the mask and for further preservation and mounting before it is put on display. To meet our goal, the museum still needs to raise about $6,000 and we are encouraging fans to donate $12 to the cause.
Meet the artists of Here & Now! On Sunday, November 23, participate in a panel discussion with selected artists whose work is featured in the exhibit, Here & Now: Native Artists Inspired; and join them for in-gallery conversations about their work. See the documentary “Tracing Roots,” which offers a heartfelt glimpse into the world of Haida elder and weaver Delores Churchill, and visit with her daughter and renowned weaver Evelyn Vanderhoop. Get an up close view of tools and techniques as Burke Curator Sven Haakanson demonstrates the process of cleaning and preparing a Kodiak bear intestine for use in clothing and boat-making.
About the Burke Museum: The Burke Museum is located on the University of Washington campus, at the corner of NE 45th St. and 17th Ave. NE. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm daily, and until 8 pm on first Thursdays. Admission: $10 general, $8 senior, $7.50 student/ youth. Admission is free to children four and under, Burke members, UW students, faculty, and staff. Admission is free to the public on the first Thursday of each month. Prorated parking fees are $15 and partially refundable upon exit if paid in cash. Call 206-543-5590 or visit www.burkemuseum.org. The Burke Museum is an American Alliance of Museums-accredited museum and a Smithsonian Affiliate.
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at: 206.543.6450 (voice), 206.543.6452 (TTY), 206.685.7264 (fax), or email at dso@u.washington.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.
Growing populations of wild horses in the inland Northwest are creating headaches for federal land managers. Wild and feral horse herds overrun tribal lands in our region too.
A National Academy of Sciences review of federal wild horse management recommended greater use of birth control injections to control overpopulation. Horse lovers want to see that happen on tribal lands too.
University of Missouri biology professor Lori Eggert, who took part in the National Academy report, said “extensive and consistent” contraception can stabilize a horse population on a range.
“It is not over the short term going to take these horses down population wise,” Eggert said. “It will simply slow the growth. There may have to continue to be some gathers and removals from the range until these populations come down.”
Injecting wild mares with birth control on a regular schedule seemed impractical to the tribal range managers I heard from. Jason Smith of Warm Springs said his tribe does have a castration program. He said it castrates 100-150 wild stallions per year to help with population control.
The question of how to proceed in some ways boils down to different world views. People from animal advocacy groups describe wild horses as intelligent, magnificent creatures, symbols of the West and the embodiment of freedom on the open range. On the reservation, rodeo champion Smith said the horse is a “really respected animal,” but fits another category.
“Warm Springs has always considered the horse as their livestock,” he explained. “It is just like cattle is, livestock. We love our horses. They are our tool. They are our work force.”
Smith said he’s looking forward to the next wild horse inventory on the Warm Springs reservation next spring. He’s hoping to see a major decline in numbers from the 5,700 to 6,000 horses counted by an aerial survey in 2011.
Economics of tribal wild horse management
People with an interest in wild horse management also are keeping an eye on Congress. Members of Congress must soon decide whether to keep a de facto ban on domestic horse slaughter for human consumption. The 2014 federal budget signed by President Obama barred the U.S. Agriculture Department from spending money on necessary inspections of commercial horse slaughterhouses.
The last domestic horse processing facilities closed in 2007 after an earlier Congress withheld funding to provide inspections. That is why horses destined for slaughter are exported to Canada or Mexico.
Last year, the Warm Springs tribe and Yakama Nation joined a lawsuit in federal court in defense of the planned opening of a private slaughterhouse in New Mexico. In written testimony, Yakama Nation biologist James Stephenson described how high transportation costs have undermined the economics of tribal wild horse management.
“Before cessation of horse slaughter in the United States, members of the Yakama Nation could sell horses at a price of approximately $150 to $400 per animal. Now, if you can find a buyer, such horses are often sold for prices of $5 to $20 per head,” Stephenson wrote.
Wild horse advocacy groups are marshaling their arguments to prevent any resumption of domestic horse slaughter. In addition, sympathetic senators and representatives have proposed to go further and ban the transport and export of American horses to foreign slaughterhouses.
However, those measures have not advanced in a gridlocked Congress.
Meanwhile, a Prineville, Oregon-based nonprofit proposes to open a completely different type of facility from a slaughterhouse to take horses removed from tribal lands. Central Oregon Wild Horse Coalition founder Gayle Hunt envisions a “horse gentling” program where prison inmates could break wild horses and train more of them to be suitable for adoption or sale as riding horses.
“Problem offenders within the community are actually rehabilitated at the same time they are rehabilitating the wild horses of Warm Springs,” Hunt said while describing her vision.
She credits the idea to a Nevada Department of Corrections program that uses inmates to saddle-train wild horses gathered by the Bureau of Land Management from public lands in Nevada and Oregon.
SEATTLE (AP) – One of the students wounded in last Friday’s shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School is doing well after undergoing surgery Thursday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The hospital says 14-year-old Nate Hatch had surgery to repair his jaw. He will need more surgeries to repair the damage. Hatch is listed in satisfactory condition.
Two other victims remain in critical condition: 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg is in intensive care at Harborview; 14-year-old Shaylee Chuckulnaskit remains in critical condition at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.
Three students have died: 14-year-old Gia Soriano, 14-year-old Zoe Galasso, and the shooter, 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, who shot himself.
Genna Martin / The Herald Pumpkins with the names of the victims and shooter of the Marysville Pilchuck High School shooting carved into them sit along the south fence of the school, which has become a growing memorial. The shooter, Jaylen Freyberg, and victims Zoe Galasso and Gia Soriano have died. Andrew Freyberg and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit are in critical condition and Nate Hatch is in satisfactory condition.
MARYSVILLE — Eventually, there will be some answers.
Hundreds of pages of investigative records will become public. They will reveal what detectives believe happened in the days and weeks leading up to the burst of violence Friday in a high school cafeteria.
Finding answers could take a year. It could take two.
As emotions and judgments pick up speed following Friday’s deadly shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School, the clock slows down for investigators.
Each witness. Each bullet fragment. Each text message.
The Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team, or SMART, the county-wide cadre of homicide investigators, is in charge of finding the truth.
The team was requested because of the scope and complexity of the investigation. Two Marysville detectives are part of that team.
Detectives owe it to the victims and their families to release only accurate information and to do the investigation the right way, Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Shari Ireton said Wednesday. A large volume of information — unverified and frequently coming from anonymous sources — already is in circulation.
“We only want to release facts that have been verified through the investigative process,” Ireton said. “A tweet is not fact.”
Detectives have reasons for not revealing details before the investigation is complete.
“We have to protect the integrity of the case,” sheriff’s detective Brad Walvatne, a member of SMART, said Wednesday. “We don’t want to poison a witness’ memory. We want to know what they specifically know.”
Investigators are responsible for “weeding through the rumors to get to the actual facts,” he said.
That takes time.
Previous SMART investigations have shown a meticulous level of detail, pulling together witness interviews, footprint analysis, medication prescriptions, dental records, three-dimensional digital maps, ballistics, crime-scene log-in sheets and more.
Forensic test results alone can take months to come back from labs. Victims and witnesses may need to be interviewed more than once. The interviews will have to be transcribed and proofed. Detectives will have to detail how they were able to find evidence on a cellphone or computer.
“We’re not going to rush. We want to be thorough. We want to be fair and impartial,” Walvatne said.
That doesn’t change if a suspect is dead, he said.
“We could still find out why this happened if we can’t speak to the person who did it,” Walvatne said.
The homicide detective has been with the sheriff’s office for 15 years. He has been part of SMART since 2009. He’s been involved in complex investigations, such as the murder of a Monroe corrections officer which required interviewing dozens of inmates and corrections officers. The team also investigated the killing of six people in Skagit County, including a sheriff’s deputy.
Walvatne declined to discuss investigative details of the Marysville school shooting. Instead, he explained that in a complex case multiple detectives are put in charge of various aspects, such as crime scene processing and coordinating witness interviews.
The team has detectives who specialize in three-dimensional mapping, trajectory analysis, computer forensics and witness interviews. They share the workload and brief each other on what they uncover.
“There is nothing more important going on. The detectives need to be given the time and space to do it thoroughly and professionally, which is what they are doing now,” Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe said.
Typically, the team is called in to run investigations into officer-involved shootings or in-custody deaths. Roe reviews the team’s cases.
Roe was part of a meeting Tuesday that involved dozens of investigators. They all are working on their own piece of the case.
“This is time-consuming, painstaking, detailed work,” Roe said. “They need to take the time to get the facts.”
Instant access to information and 24-hour news cycles have created an expectation for detectives to finish their case and make everything public right away, and that’s not possible, said John Turner, a retired police chief who served in Marysville in the late 1980s and early 2000s.
“There’s a reason police don’t disseminate all of the information,” said Turner, who also led departments in Snohomish and Mountlake Terrace. “There are valid, justifiable reasons for not doing it. Facts that are known to the police (but) are not known to the public help the police investigate, whether it’s interviewing, interrogation, polygraphs, all of that.”
In addition, this investigation adds a layer of cultural complexity, Turner said. The shooter and some of the victims are Tulalip tribal members.
Turner was a police chief in Snohomish in 2011 when a troubled 15-year-old student stabbed two Snohomish High School classmates. Both victims survived.
That investigation took months, and was complicated in part because police had to gather psychological reports and account for witness stories that changed over time.
In Seattle, police have had to investigate several mass shootings over the years, including one at Seattle Pacific University in June, said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, department spokesman. The SPU shooting is still an active investigation.
In general, violence in public settings generates more fear and concern, he said. People need answers they can rely upon.
“So there’s this added responsibility for us to really make sure that we take our time and ensure every possible lead is followed up, every last scrap of evidence is collected and gathered, and every last witness is tracked down and interviewed,” he said.
Roe on Wednesday said he hopes people use the time waiting for answers to supporting victims of Friday’s violence.
“This is the time to focus on what we should — the kids, the school, the community,” he said.
As of Wednesday, victims Andrew Fryberg, 15, and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, 14, were in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head. Nate Hatch, 14, who was shot in the jaw, was in satisfactory condition. Both boys are at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Shaylee is at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.
Zoe Raine Galasso and Gia Soriano, both 14, were killed. A family funeral for Zoe is set for this weekend.
She is survived by her parents, Michael and Michelle, and brother, Rayden. Zoe was a loving girl, who “spread her happiness and delight in new experiences everywhere,” her obituary said.
A traditional two-day funeral for shooter Jaylen Fryberg, 15, will conclude with his burial today.
Swinomish stands with Harvard representatives for a group photo after being awarded at the 2014 NCAI Conference in Atlanta, GA. Photo courtesy Brian Cladoosby. #SalishSeaOilFree
CAMBRIDGE, MASS, OCT 29 – From more than 60 applicants, six tribal governance programs have been selected as 2014 Awardees by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development’s Honoring Nations program. The Honoring Nations awards identify, celebrate, and share excellence in American Indian tribal governance. At the heart of Honoring Nations is the principle that tribes themselves hold the key to generating social, political, cultural, and economic prosperity and that self-governance plays a crucial role in building and sustaining strong, healthy Indian nations.
Calling them trailblazers, Chairman of the Honoring Nations Board of Governors Chief Oren Lyons (Onondaga) says, “the 2014 Honoring Nations awardees look down the long road and don’t get lost in the demands of the moment. They are about our future, and the children coming, and the responsibilities of all leaders to their nations.”
Administered by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard Kennedy School, Honoring Nations is a member of a worldwide family of “governmental best practices” awards programs that share a commitment to the core idea that government can be improved through the identification and dissemination of examples of effective solutions to common governmental concerns. At each stage of the selection process, applications are evaluated on the criteria of effectiveness, significance to sovereignty, cultural relevance, transferability, and sustainability. Since its inception in 1998, 118 tribal government programs and three All-Stars programs have been recognized from more than 80 tribal nations.
Honoring Nation’s Program Director Megan Minoka Hill (Oneida Nation WI) states, “Honoring Nations shines a light on success in Indian Country to share valuable lessons that all local governments, Native and non-Native, can learn from to better serve their citizens.”
Presentations and dissemination of the work of the 2014 awardees will include exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution, a web platform through Google Cultural Institutes, written and video reports and case studies, executive education curriculum, and national presentations.
The 2014 Honoring Nations awardees are:
The Lummi Nation’s Wetland and Habitat Mitigation Bank: A bank of tribal wetlands habitat set aside and preserved to sell as “credits” to offset the impact of on- and off-reservation development projects that impact wetlands habitat.
Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s Child Welfare Program: Tribal child welfare services provider that administers Social Security Act programs to provide culturally reflective programs and services and keeps S’Klallam children in S’Klallam homes.
Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo’s Owe’neh Bupingeh Rehabilitation Project: A complex project to rehabilitate and restore homes in the “Pueblo core” of the community, preserving the core’s 700+ year-old structures while modernizing homes for 29 families.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Potawatomi Leadership Program: A six-week summer internship program for college-student Potawatomi citizens to work in the tribal government offices and gain a more thorough knowledge of tribal organization, thereby increasing their capacity as future tribal leaders.
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s Role in the Scott County Association for Leadership and Efficiency (SCALE): A local collaborative association of tribal and municipal governments to increase efficiency and cooperation among agencies and governments in Scott County, Minnesota.
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s Climate Change Initiative: A thorough initiative that incorporates assessment of current and forecast climate change impacts on the tribal community and resources, and a plan with tools for establishing mitigation strategies.
TULALIP – Dana Arviso, Dine’, executive director of the philanthropic Potlatch Fund, made this announcement on October 27 about the upcoming Potlatch Fund gala at the Tulalip Hotel Resort Casino:
“After speaking with representatives from the Tulalip Tribes to offer our profound condolences and words of comfort, Potlatch Fund will move forward with holding our gala on Saturday, November 1. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Tulalip Tribal community, Marysville community, Marysville-Pilchuck High School student body, and all the families impacted by this terrible tragedy.
“We will open the dinner portion of the gala with a moment of silence followed by a healing song to acknowledge the tragedy that has impacted the Tulalip and Marysville communities and offer a space for reflection and healing for all.”
The Tulalip and Marysville communities are grieving after the shooting on October 24 at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. A student, Jaylen Ray Fryberg, 15, of Tulalip shot five classmates in the head before turning the handgun on himself. Fryberg and two other students died; three others — two of them his cousins — are being treated in area hospitals.
Fryberg was generally viewed as a happy and popular student-athlete, but his Twitter messages over the last couple of months indicate he was deeply troubled by personal crises.
Arviso added, “Our hearts go out to everyone affected and even though it’s difficult to hold our event amidst such tragedy, so much of our work that we do at Potlatch Fund is about investing in our Native youth and strengthening our communities.”
The Potlatch Fund raises money to support Native arts, community building, language preservation and education, and the Canoe Journey. In 2014, the Potlatch Fund awarded $242,220 in grants to individuals, organizations and Tribes in the Northwest.
