Tulalip News

Lovick addresses Marysville Tulalip Chamber

Kirk BoxleitnerSnohomish County Executive John Lovick addresses the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce during its Business Before Hours on July 26. — Kirk Boxleitner
Snohomish County Executive John Lovick addresses the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce during its Business Before Hours on July 26.

Kirk Boxleitner, Marysville Globe

TULALIP — “Jobs, jobs, jobs” was how John Lovick described his focus to the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce on Friday, July 26, but during the Chamber’s Business Before Hours meeting that morning, the recently appointed Snohomish County Executive also recalled examples of leadership from his own life, as he told the Chamber members that they were the leaders of their community.

“I never in a million years thought I’d be the County Executive,” said Lovick, who cited the significant legacies that his predecessors have established in that role. “I’m not Willis Tucker, or Bob Drewel, or Aaron Reardon, but I will do my absolute best for you. Snohomish County is a tremendously great place to live, work and play, and it has become home to me. Everything in the world that you could want is right here.”

Rather than referring to the unemployment rate, Lovick noted that the county has an employment rate of 95.3 percent, and while he deemed this a statistic to be proud of, he also pledged to personally promote more jobs for county citizens.

“We have a right to be happy with where we are, but we shouldn’t be pleased until everyone who wants a job in this county has one,” Lovick said. “We should be talking about jobs every single day. We can’t expect others to support us if we don’t do it ourselves.”

After praising Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith during his opening remarks, Lovick went on to commend the dedication and talent of all the city and county officials in Snohomish County, describing its city councils in particular as “the foot-soldiers of democracy.”

Not only did Lovick pledge that the Snohomish County Executive’s Office would operate with integrity, but the former County Sheriff and Washington State Patrol trooper also offered examples of what he saw as demonstrations of integrity from his past, including his run for the Mill Creek City Council in 1993.

“I was only 22 years removed from growing up in segregated Louisiana, and I didn’t see a lot of people here who looked like me,” said Lovick, whose son wanted him to run for office in Mill Creek. “But my son said that he’d never heard me say that he couldn’t do anything he set out to do, which shows that kids actually listen to what you tell them. So I filed for the Mill Creek City Council Position 2 seat, and I went door-to-door to every house in town, five times each. By the fourth time, one man told me that he’d already voted for me and asked me not to come back,” he laughed.

Lovick went on to win 65 percent of the vote in that race, which he deemed pretty good for a man who had never planned to be a politician before then.

“I talk to young people all the time, and tell them to dream beyond what they believe they can do,” Lovick said. “I don’t think most people fail because they set their goals too high.”

After he was honorably discharged from the Coast Guard, Lovick’s next goal was to become a state trooper, which was no mean feat given that, in his estimation, academy classes back then only accepted one black cadet each. However, in the mid-1970s, Lovick beat the odds by being one of three black cadets in his academy class of 35.

“That was one of the best classes in the history of that academy,” Lovick said, touting the number of his fellow cadets who went on to high-profile roles in law enforcement. Their instructor, Jerry Baxter, asked all three black cadets to stand, and defended their worthiness to wear the uniform to their classmates. “Years later, when I asked him about it, he explained his actions with the words ‘integrity’ and ‘cowardice.’ He’d seen previous cadets come and go, and he knew they were qualified, but he’d done nothing when he heard people talking about them. To his mind, someone had to protect the integrity of the process.”

Within his first 53 days as County Executive, Lovick has sought to uphold this standard of integrity by telling his office staff that, “If you see that we’re doing something improperly, or if I ask you to do anything illegal, unethical or immoral, you have my permission to go to the next level to report it.”

Lovick deemed the leadership of the Chamber members in attendance to be at least as important as his own to the well-being of the county as a whole.

“All of you are leaders, or you wouldn’t be in this room,” Lovick said. “And your leadership attracts jobs. We want businesses to want to relocate here and stay here.”

Contact Marysville Globe Reporter Kirk Boxleitner at kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com or 360-659-1300 Ext. 5052.

Track canoes online in the 2013 Canoe Journey/Paddle to Quinault

Richard Walker, Marysville Globe

Some of the traditional Native cedar canoes participating in the 2013 Paddle to Quinault can be tracked online at www.tinyurl.com/K77zryw.

The site, which is updated every 10 minutes, features the progress of canoes from the Heiltsuk and T’Sou-Ke First Nations of Canada; and the Grand Ronde, Lower Elwha, Muckleshoot, Squaxin Island, Swinomish and Warm Springs.

Approximately 100 canoes are expected to arrive at Quinault for traditional welcoming ceremonies on Aug. 1, according to Quinault Nation President Fawn Sharp. Among the participants are canoes from Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and the Suquamish Tribe.

“It has been 24 years since [the] Paddle to Seattle first revitalized this long-held Northwest tribal tradition, and the event has gained momentum throughout the Northwest ever since,” Sharp said in a press release.

“The cedar canoe holds great meaning for tribes throughout the Northwest and western Canada,” she said. “The annual Journey reaches deep into the hearts and souls of our people — both young and old, and helps them fully realize the vitality and spiritual strength of their tribal identity, underscoring our hope for a sustainable and positive future.”

This year’s Journey is expected to draw an estimated 15,000 tribal and non-tribal visitors to the land of the Quinault. The destination is Point Grenville, a Quinault beach near Taholah, approximately 40 miles north of Ocean Shores. Canoes will be escorted by the tall ships Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, recognizing the 225th anniversary of first contact between the Quinault people and the new United States of America.

Dignitaries expected to attend: Sen. Maria Cantwell, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; and Maia Bellon, Mescalero Apache, the director of Washington state’s Department of Ecology. Also in attendance will be tribal and state officials and hereditary chiefs.

“All visitors are welcome, as is our tribal custom,” said Guy Capoeman, Paddle to Quinault coordinator. “The Canoe Journeys have always provided a great opportunity for tribes to get together, share our thoughts, stories, traditional dance and song, and strengthen our bonds of friendship. They are a great means to teach our children about their roots, history and traditional ways. They also provide a good opportunity for non-tribal people to get to know more about us, and strengthen relations between Indian and non-Indian communities.”

This year’s Journey is significant in that it is being hosted by the home nation of Emmett Oliver, who organized the Paddle to Seattle in 1989 as part of the state’s Centennial Celebration, ushering in the modern Canoe Journey.

“The contemporary Canoe Journeys began in 1989,” Capoeman said. “Emmett Oliver, a Quinault tribal elder, organized the Paddle to Seattle as a part of [the] Washington State Centennial ceremony, revitalizing the canoe tradition, which had been lost for many years. We now know this as the Canoe Journey. The Canoe Journey has become [a] symbol of cultural revitalization on a national and even international level. We can expect anywhere from 90 U.S. Tribes, Canadian First Nations, and even New Zealand to join the celebration. In the past, we have seen canoes from Alaska and even Hawaii join in on this event. It truly has become an amazing part of revitalized Northwest culture.”

Sharp, who is also president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and a regional vice president of the National Congress of American Indians, said the Canoe Journey creates opportunities for indigenous people members to re-learn, strengthen and reinforce their canoe traditions. Many cultural values are learned from pulling in a canoe.

“Among these are positive pride, cultural knowledge, respect, and a sense of both personal achievement and teamwork,” she said.

For more information, including site maps and schedule, go to www.PaddletoQuinault.org.

Boy finds wedding ring, hopes to find the owner

Eric Stevick, The Herald

TULALIP —

was rummaging through the rocks and sand looking for creatures when his eyes happened on something shiny earlier this week.

It was one of those wonderfully warm sunny days of summer, idyllic conditions for a 10-year-old boy with plenty of time and curiosity.

Caleb found his spot to explore along the 3,300-foot shoreline that entices beachcombers to Kayak Point Park.

It was low tide, all that much better for poking around for sea critters and Caleb was near some pilings.

“I thought it was a fish hook,” the soon-to-be fifth-grader said of the gleam that caught his eye.

Upon closer inspection, the object was smooth and round.

“He came running to me and said, ‘Look what I found,'” his mother, Jackie Goulet said.

Caleb had recovered not only a ring, but a symbol of love.

He and his mother brought it to the attention of park maintenance workers or WSU Beach Watchers near the ranger station.

The boy and mom were told a man had been looking for a lost ring the day before near the boat launch. He was about to celebrate his 44th wedding anniversary and was hoping to find the ring before the momentous date.

Snohomish County Parks operations supervisor Rich Patton said parks employees have little information about the man who lost his ring, except that he had trouble launching his boat and may have lost the ring at that time.

Now, Caleb is hoping to reunite the man with his ring.

“I was really excited to find the ring and I was really excited he would be happy to get it back,” he said.

How excited is Caleb? On a scale of one to 10, this drama ranks a nine in his book.

Jackie Goulet said there are some distinguishing features to the ring that only the owner would know about.

She has taken out a lost-and-found ad on Craigslist: http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/laf/3957638868.html

It reads:

Found Wedding Ring at Kayak Point

My son was digging for creatures and found a men’s wedding ring. One of the Beach Watchers told me that the owner was looking for it yesterday. If you are the owner, please contact me AND be prepared to describe it. I hope I get it back to the right person.

Join neighbors in night out to fight crime

Source: The Herald

Take back the night Aug. 6 by taking part in the National Night Out Against Crime.

Big cities, towns and neighborhoods all across the country, including Everett, plan evening activities for families.

The Evergreen Library and surrounding neighborhoods join together for an ice cream social from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

The evening’s activities include door prizes, a magician, balloon art, a face painter, craft making, and visits by Everett police and firefighters.

The Evergreen Branch Library is at 9512 Evergreen Way, Everett. For more information call 425-257-8250.

Check the city of Everett website at tinyurl.com/23ph5g6 for an updated list of neighborhoods planning events.

Night Out in Marysville events take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Comeford Park, 514 Delta Ave. Marysville and Tulalip Tribal police and Marysville Fire District officers will be on hand with information about the Neighborhood Watch Program and Marysville Volunteers Program crime prevention and fingerprinting kids.

Go to tinyurl.com/n226uqn for more about Marysville Night Out events.

Learn more about National Night Out at www.natw.org.

For Canada and First Nations, it’s time to end the experiments

Shawn Atleo(Vince Fedoroff/THE CANADIAN PRESS / WHITEHORSE STAR) — Shawn Atleo
(Vince Fedoroff/THE CANADIAN PRESS / WHITEHORSE STAR)

By SHAWN ATLEO

The Globe and Mail | July 25, 2013

Recent reports about the Canadian government’s experiments on hungry, impoverished First Nations children in residential schools have sent a shock wave through the country.

My reaction was deeply personal. My father attended one of the schools where these experiments took place. My family and countless others were treated like lab rats, some even being deprived of necessary nutrition and health care so researchers could establish a “baseline” to measure the effects of food and diet.

First Nations, while condemning the government’s callous disregard for the welfare of children, were perhaps the only ones not completely surprised. The experiments are part of a long, sad pattern of federal policy that stretches through residential schools, forced relocations and the ultimate social experiment, the Indian Act, which overnight tried to displace ways of life that had been in place for generations. All of these experiments are abject failures.

It’s time to end the experiments. Canada must start working with us to honour the promises our ancestors made in treaties and other agreements, to give life to our rights as recognized by Canadian courts and relinquish the chokehold of colonial control over our communities.

As I said on the day this report came to light: Canada, this is your history. We must confront the ugly truths and move forward together. And there is a way forward that requires a dedicated commitment across three key areas: respect, fairness and reconciliation.

Respect requires that Canada work with First Nations to give life to our rights, title and treaties. This requires true partnership. The government must stop making decisions for us and start working with us. First Nations want control over the decisions that affect their lives, to shape their own policies and institutions. They are putting ideas on the table and driving solutions.

We see this clearly in the commitment and clarion call for First Nations control of First Nations education. We reject unilaterally imposed legislation. We will exercise our right to create our own systems that are sustainable, that support our children’s success and value our languages and cultures. This is already happening in Nova Scotia, Alberta, B.C. and elsewhere – First Nations working together and pooling expertise to achieve graduation rates that exceed provincial norms. This is success we must support. It must be not the exception, but our collective expectation and commitment.

Fairness requires that we end the unequal funding that condemns too many of our people to a daily struggle to survive. The experiments on our children did not make us poor. Rather, the government experimented on our children because they were poor, an impoverished population suffering from malnutrition and deprivation. But like so much else, poverty was imposed on us. The research notes that government systematically cut back relief payments to First Nations throughout the Depression era. Non-indigenous Canadians received relief at a rate two and three times higher than First Nations. At the onset of the Second World War, relief was cut again and we were further deprived.

This is still happening. Funding for First Nations – for many of the same things Canadians expect, such as schools and infrastructure – has been capped at a 2-per-cent increase, per year, for 17 years, despite the fact that our population has boomed and inflation outpaces this amount. Provinces enjoy transfers closer to 6 per cent, and these are guaranteed.

Escaping the poverty trap requires fairness, an investment now so we can build stable communities today and stronger nations tomorrow. Research shows that healthy First Nations can contribute hundreds of billions to the economy, while saving more than a $100-billion in costs connected to poverty. Why would we not support this approach?

Finally, the way forward requires reconciliation. This means truth telling, and it requires deliberate and clear action. The government must come forward and disclose all documentation on residential schools to the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The government must be open and transparent in accounting for its spending on First Nations and the billion dollars that is poured into the bureaucracy each year. The government must stop stalling and release all documents related to its unequal funding of First Nations child welfare, the subject of a current complaint before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. It also means action to advance reconciliation through recognizing our inherent rights and responsibilities and clear commitment to honouring and implementing treaties and agreements forged between the Crown and First Nations.

Canadians are rightfully shocked by these revelations. It shakes the core of their belief in Canada as a fair and just nation. It’s time to be honest about our history. We can’t change the past but we must commit to change the present and work together to create a better, brighter and just future.

Feds hear about Indian tribe recognition proposal

Maura Sullivan, secretary for the Central Band of Chumash Nation, speaks about the proposed changes to federal acknowledgment regulations for Native American tribes Thursday in Solvang. — Maura Sullivan, secretary for the Central Band of Chumash Nation, speaks about the proposed changes to federal acknowledgment regulations for Native.American tribes Thursday in Solvang. Daniel Dreifuss/Staff

Federal officials heard testimony Thursday in Solvang on proposed changes to the process for Native American tribes to get recognized, a procedure speakers described as expensive, lengthy and burdensome.

July 26, 2013 LompocRecord.com

Julian J. Ramos/jramos@lompocrecord.com

In June, the Department of the Interior (DOI) released a draft of potential changes to its Part 83 process for acknowledging certain groups as American Indian tribes granted a government-to-government relationship with the United States.

At the moment, the U.S. has 566 federally recognized tribes, of which 17 have been recognized through Part 83. California has 109 federally recognized Indian tribes with between 70 and 80 seeking federal recognition.

The draft proposal, the subject of two sessions Thursday at Hotel Corque, is meant to give tribes and the public an early opportunity to provide input on potential changes to the Part 83 process.

Proposed revisions are intended to improve transparency, timeliness, efficiency, flexibility and integrity in the acknowledgment process, according to the DOI.

However, critics of the proposed rules are calling them the “Patchak patch,” a reference to Supreme Court decision last year in favor of David Patchak, a Michigan man who challenged the way the government takes land into trust for tribes.

They say the proposed rules are meant to drastically limit the uncertainties created by the Patchak decision by adding administrative barriers for potential litigants and rushing fee-to-trust acquisitions, which removes land from local jurisdiction and makes it part of an Indian reservation, under tribal authority.

Larry Roberts, deputy assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, said the presentation during the afternoon public meeting was the same delivered during the morning tribal consultation session.

The public session Thursday afternoon drew between 60 and 70 attendees, including Solvang Mayor Jim Richardson, in the ballroom of the hotel, which is owned by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.

Roberta Cortero of the Central Band of Chumash Nation speaks her concerns about the proposed changes to federal acknowledgment regulations for Native American tribes Thursday In Solvang. Daniel Dreifuss/Staff

Many of the speakers represented California tribes seeking recognition, a process they described as cumbersome, costly and very time consuming, or as Mona Olivas Tucker, tribal chairwoman of the Yak Tityu Tityu Northern Chumash in San Luis Obispo County, put it, something she doesn’t expect to be completed in her lifetime.

Valentin Lopez, tribal chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Coastanoan/Ohlone Indians in the San Juan Bautista area, said the acknowledgment process is getting more and more difficult, is too lengthy, should be moved out of the hands of the DOI Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the burden of proof for recognition should revert to the BIA from tribes.

Michael Cordero, tribal chairman of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, said criteria changes could make it easier to be recognized and tribes, such as his, could benefit from the acknowledgment.

A “Letter of Intent,” which begins the acknowledgment petition process, has been submitted for the tribe, he said.

During a break, Cordero said the session had been helpful in clarifying some issues on the process and requirements.

Across San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation has about 2,500 enrolled members, Cordero said.

Under the proposal, reviews of a petitioner’s community and political authority — criteria for acknowledgment — would “begin with the year 1934 to align with the government’s negation of allotment and assimilation policies and eliminate the requirement that an external entity identify the group as Indian since 1900,” according to the DOI.

No More Slots attorney Jim Marino asked why 1934 is being used in the criteria. He represents several groups against more Indian gaming and land acquisition through the fee-to-trust process, which removes land from local jurisdiction and makes it part of an Indian reservation under tribal authority.

The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act represented a “dramatic” shift in federal policy toward self determination for tribes and the use of that year as a benchmark is meant to reflect that change, Roberts said.

To block attempts to annex property into the Santa Ynez Reservation, opponents of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians have questioned whether it’s legally a tribal government and thus able to take land into trust via the fee-to-trust process.

The battle centers on Chumash efforts to annex almost 7 acres they own across Highway 246 from the tribe’s Santa Ynez casino.

Members of Preservation of Los Olivos (POLO) and Preservation of Santa Ynez (POSY) have presented documentation to the Bureau of Indian Affairs the groups believe prove the Chumash were not under federal jurisdiction in 1934, and do not qualify to take any land into trust.

By contrast, the Chumash tribe logo and flag says “Federally Recognized Tribe since 1901.”

Due to POLO’s continuing litigation, the group has been advised not to comment on the proposed rule change, POLO president Kathy Cleary said.

Other plans by the Chumash to annex property into the reservation, notably 1,400 acres they own about 2 miles east of the casino and an additional 5.8 acres in the casino area along Highway 246, have also been met with opposition.

Sam Cohen, legal and government affairs specialist for the Chumash, said the proposal is not applicable to the local tribe.

“The Department of the Interior has started to initiate the process of reviewing revisions to the federal acknowledgment regulations for Native American tribes that hope to be federally recognized,” he said in a statement. “Since the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians was federally recognized in 1901, the revisions don’t apply to the Santa Ynez Chumash tribe.”

Transcripts from both sessions will be available at www.bia.gov, officials said.

The discussion draft is available for review at www.bia.gov/whoweare/as-ia/consultation.

Interior officials will accept written comments on the draft until Aug. 16 by email to consultation@bia.gov or by mail to Elizabeth Appel, Office of Regulatory Affairs & Collaborative Action, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, MS 4141, Washington, DC 20240.

Amendment makes it easier to process Cobell claims

By Alastair Lee Bitsoi
Navajo Times

FARMINGTON, July 25, 2013

Navajo allottees in New Mexico can now submit their Bureau of Indian Affairs probate document or state-issued small estate affidavit as a way to receive trust settlement claims from the class action suit Cobell vs. Salazar.

On July 16, Richard Levy, who was appointed by Judge Thomas F. Hogan as special master overseeing the Cobell payments, made an amendment to the class action suit, which had been in litigation between Elouise Cobell and the federal government for years.

Cobell (Blackfeet) had filed the largest class action suit against the federal government, on behalf of 500,000 holders of individual Indian trust accounts, for mismanaging and failing to account for billions of dollars in Indian assets it held in trust over the last century.

In 2010, the federal government approved a settlement worth $3.4 billion for the trust case, with the money being divvied up to compensate individual account holders, buy back lands and restore them back to tribal nations, and set up a $60 million scholarship fund.

Levy’s July 16 amendment allows for the BIA probate and small estate affidavit forms to serve as conduits to expedite payments to beneficiaries, both Individual Indian Money class account holders and trust administration class holders of the suit.

“This should help,” said David Smith, attorney with the Cobell class action suit, in a July 18 interview with the Navajo Times at the Farmington Civic Center.

Smith, along with Garden City Group CEO Jennifer Keough and Ervin Chavez, president of the association of Navajo allottees known as Shi Shi Keyah, saw more than 800 people turn out for meetings in Twin Lakes and Farmington last week. The meetings were a chance for Navajo allottees to hear updates on the Cobell case and the status of payments from the Garden City Group, the firm charged with administering settlement claims for the 500,000 Native American allottees.

Initially, the court had only allowed state and tribal probate forms to be used for allotment settlement claims, which only processed about 88 percent of them, Chavez said.

Chavez, who filed a friend of the court brief in the Cobell case on behalf of Navajo allottees, said that Levy’s amendment only helps allottees, most of whom already have the BIA probate documents in hand to process for their claims.

“The judge accepted that amendment to the settlement and that’s going to help a lot of families get money from the settlement,” he said.

With the special master’s amendment, Smith is hoping the 7,409 Navajo people whose whereabouts are unknown to the BIA get processed for payment. It’s also a way for heirs to process through the probate system to acquire payments of their deceased relatives.

One of the 800 people to show up at the GCG meeting on July 18 was 31-year-old Tim Beyale of Nageezi, N.M. He has allotments near Nageezi, N.M and Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Beyale didn’t know if it was worth pursuing his claim through the Garden City Group, mostly because the $1,000 payment from his late father’s allotment would be split among his siblings and a stepmother he learned about at the time of his father’s death. The payment from his own allotment, he said, added up to a “Chiclet” amount.

The Garden City Group was on hand with computer booths and staff helping Navajo allottees like Beyale process their claims. Booths were also set up at the Twin Lakes Chapter meeting on July 17 for allottees from that region of the reservation.

For LaVone Royston, the amendment allows for her to fill out a small estate affidavit to expedite payments from her late mother’s allotments as well as mineral payments from oil companies that drill on the allotments.

“Her estate is still going through the probate process,” Royston said, which is due in part to the original terms of the Cobell settlement.

Royston, who is an accountant, attended the meeting in Farmington to also find out why the documents her mother used to receive from the oil companies ceased coming when she died in 2011.

“Since she passed away, I can’t get anything,” she said.

What Royston did learn, however, from GCG is that she can’t have access to her mom’s financial records because the land acquisition is still in probate and a federal privacy act prevents heirs from accessing that information until they get the probate document.

According to Chavez, the Navajo Area BIA office told allottees in Twin Lakes they were backlogged with probate cases for the next 13 years. Crownpoint District Judge Irene Toledo also attended the meeting in Twin Lakes to get clarity on the settlement and reportedly told Chavez, Smith and GCG officials most of her cases are tribal probate ones.

But with the option of filing a small estate affidavit with a New Mexico county, Royston is hopeful to process through the probate system more quickly.

“I am going to file,” she said. “I can do it a lot faster and don’t have to wait for a BIA hearing.”

The first round of payments was distributed in 2012 to Individual Indian Money Account holders, who held an account from October 25, 1994 to Sept. 30, 2009. These beneficiaries are also known as individuals of the historical accounting portion of the settlement. They each received a $1,000 payment.

Smith anticipates the second round of payments to be released this fall to those allottees who didn’t process through during the first round of payments. These allottees are known as the “trust administration” class, with an open account from 1985 to Sept. 30, 2009. The second round of payments will be no less than $800 for some allotees, Smith said.

Delores Hesuse, on behalf of her late father, Henry Hesuse, who founded the Shi Shi Keyah group, said she was glad that Judge Hogan agreed to the amendment in the suit.

From her experience and what she’s seen with other allottees, they would spend over a month within the legal system to get their land probated with the original terms of the case.

“I finally got what the Garden City Group and Cobell lawyers were saying,” she said. “Everybody was lost within our system. They only knew of the federal probate.”

Information: contact the Garden City Group at 888-404-8013 or visit www.indiantrust.com.

Contact Alastair L. Bitsoi at 928-871-1141 or by email at abitsoi@navajotimes.com.

Cruise to Set Sail to Investigate Ocean Acidification

NOAA Ship Fairweather in the Gulf of Alaska with namesake Mt. Fairweather.Credit: NOAA — NOAA Ship Fairweather in the Gulf of Alaska with namesake Mt. Fairweather.
Credit: NOAA

By Douglas Main, Staff Writer for LiveScience

July 25, 2013 06:01pm ET

The waters off the Pacific Northwest are becoming more acidic, making life more difficult for the animals that live there, especially oysters and the approximately 3,200 people employed in the shellfish industry.

Researchers from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will set sail Monday (July 29) on a monthlong research cruise off the U.S. and Canadian West Coast to see how ocean acidification is affecting the chemistry of the ocean waters and the area’s sea life.

Ocean acidification occurs when greenhouse-gas emissions cause carbon dioxide to accumulate in the atmosphere and become dissolved in sea water, changing the water’s chemistry and making it more difficult for coral, shellfish and other animals to form hard shells. Carbon dioxide creates carbonic acid when dispersed in water. This can dissolve carbonate, the prime component in corals and oysters’ shells.

The world’s oceans are 30 percent more acidic than they were before the Industrial Revolution, scientists estimate.

This cruise follows up on a similar effort in 2007 that supplied “jaw-dropping” data on how much ocean acidification was hurting oysters, said Brad Warren, director of the Global Ocean Health Partnership, at a news conference today (July 25). (The partnership is an alliance of governments, private groups and international organizations.)

That expedition linked more acidic waters to huge declines in oyster hatcheries, where oysters are bred, Warren said. Oyster farms rely ona fresh stock of oysters each year to remain economically viable.

When the data came in from that cruise, it was “a huge wake-up call,” Warren said. “This was almost a mind-bending realization for people in the shellfish industry,” he said.

The new cruise will also look at how acidification is affecting tiny marine snails called pteropods, a huge source of food for many fish species, including salmon, said Nina Bednarsek, a biological oceanographer with NOAA’s Pacific Environmental Marine Laboratory.

The research will take place aboard the NOAA ship Fairweather, which will depart from Seattle before heading north and then looping back south. It will end up in San Diego on Aug. 29. During this time, scientists will collect samples to analyze water chemistry, calibrate existing buoys that continuously measure the ocean’s acidity and survey populations of animals, scientists said.

The researchers will also examine algae along the way. Ocean acidification is expected to worsen harmful algal blooms (like red tide), explosions of toxin-producing cells that can sicken and even kill people who eat oysters tainted with these chemicals, said Vera Trainer, a researcher at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Email Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us@livescience, Facebook or Google+. Article originally on LiveScience.com.

NWIC’s big athletics fundraiser tees off soon

Golfers will have a chance to win Seattle Seahawks tickets with sideline passes

Last year’s Northwest Indian College Big Drive for Education Golf Scramble garnered $19,000 and this year’s goal is to raise $25,000. Photo courtesy of NWIC

Source: NWIC

On Friday September 6, Northwest Indian College (NWIC) Foundation will host the 11^th Annual Big Drive for Education Golf Scramble, the college’s biggest annual athletics fundraiser that supports student athletes and athletic programs.

The scramble will begin with a 1 p.m. shotgun start, in which all golfers tee off at different holes at the same time. The event will take place at the Sudden Valley Golf & Country Club on Lake Whatcom in Bellingham.

Last year’s event garnered more than $19,000 and this year’s goal is to raise $25,000. The Golf Scramble provides financial resources, such as athletic scholarships, for NWIC student athletes, and supports the development of the college’s health and fitness programs.

NWIC sports include: women’s volleyball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, co-ed softball, cross country, canoeing, tennis, and golf.

Registration rates are $800 for teams of four golfers or $200 for individual registrants who would like to be placed on teams. Costs include registration, carts, green fees, range balls, dinner and raffle tickets.

This year’s Golf Scramble will include a silent auction and a raffle with prizes that include Seattle Seahawks tickets with sideline passes. Players will also have an opportunity to win the “hole-in-one” car.

Winning teams will receive the President’s cup trophy and NWIC Golf Scramble jackets. There will be a jackets awarded to the top women’s team as well as medals to the winners of the side games.

Sponsorship opportunities for this year’s Golf Scramble are:

Premiere: $10,000

Reserved table and seating for eight at golf awards banquet
Name listing and logo in promotional literature
Golf registration for two teams of four (eight golfers)
Signage with logo at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Soaring Eagle: $5,000

Reserved table and seating for eight at golf awards banquet
Name listing and logo in promotional literature
Golf registration for two teams of four (eight golfers)
Signage with logo at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Hawk: $2,500

Reserved table and seating for four at golf awards banquet
Name listing in promotional literature
Golf registration for one team (four golfers)
Signage at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Birdie: $1,250

Reserved table and seating for eight at golf awards banquet
Name listing and in promotional literature
Golf registration for on team (four golfers)
Signage at the event
Honorable mention throughout the event

Tee Sponsors

$500: Name listed in promotional materials, signage at tee and green
$250: Signage at tee and green
$150: Signage at tee OR green

For sponsorship and registration information or for questions, email mariahd@nwic.edu or call (360)392-4217.

Teaching Indigenous Solutions to Modern Agricultural Problems

Alex Jacobs, Indian Country Today Media Network

For 18 years, Clayton Brascoupe, director of Traditional Native American Farmers Association, has taught a course called Indigenous Sustainable Communities Design. The stories of how people and communities have been affected are powerful.

• There were the South American students who took back their knowledge and heritage seeds to create gardens and build a new community house. They grew a certain yellow watermelon and when presented to the elders at a fiesta, they began to cry because they hadn’t tasted the fruit since they were children. They were also recognized at the national level for this community work.

• Then there was the phone call Clayton received from the mother of a young man from Arizona. She asked what they had done to her son, because he had completely changed from a game-playing couch potato into an engaged busy gardener.

• Another young man returned home to Los Angeles to start urban gardens, but his story was not quite that simple: As it turned out, he was hard-core gang member who took it upon himself to change his community by providing fresh food.

• On another occasion, the course provided a natural solution when mother nature wreaked havoc: A Mayan group from Belize learned to preserve surplus garden-grown food and marinated chicken. When hurricanes damaged everything, they still had the preserves to feed the community.

Clayton Brascoupe. Photo by Alex Jacobs

Clayton Brascoupe — known around Turtle Island as Clayton or “Scoobie” — is Mohawk and Anishnabe, and was raised in Tuscarora, NY. He married Margaret Vigil from Tesuque Pueblo, NM and they have four daughters, which is also the name of their farm “4 Sisters”. He served an appointed position on the Tesuque Pueblo Tribal Council, and has been involved in community gardens and marketing for years. We travelled together with White Roots of Peace/Akwesasne Notes on the 1973 Wounded Knee trip; Clayton returned to NM to marry Margaret, and our fellow traveler Tom Cook returned to Pine Ridge, SD to marry Loretta Afraid of Bear. I went on to become an editor of Akwesasne Notes, co-founder of Indian Time and Akwekon, Tom is now a respected member of his Lakotah community and participates in the Sun Dance. Clayton’s older brother Simon Brascoupe, was an important artist in the early development of marketing Canadian Native Arts.

Clayton’s course is a two-week hands-on grassroots workshop — it’s also, frequently, a life changing experience. Class size ranges from 20 to 25, with the most ever being 35. Locals from New Mexico, Arizona, and elsewhere in the southwest make up most of the class. There are urban Natives, as well as Natives from Canada, Central and South America. Many students return to become instructors — the staff is 98% indigenous, and many of are women. Recently there’s been a Midwifery component — the thinking being, if we can grow clean food in a non-industrial way, then why not our children?

Traditional foods ready to eat. Image courtesy Clayton Brascoupe.

What Clayton says is important for these students, is it to develop a resource base of knowledge in the affected communities and to become experts in their respective communities. Identify resources, land bases, elders’ knowledge, youthful energy, water sources, urban parks, markets and outlets, recycling discarded resources and discarded people too. Identify problems and solutions and use local resources to fix them, and if there aren’t enough local resources, go out in wider and broader networks to find more. Its base knowledge is agriculture, but it’s not just about planting gardens. Health care is everyone’s biggest issue and expense, but fresh food dramatically changes diet and lifestyle, positively affecting diabetes and heart disease. Food, health, economies, energy, housing, spiritual well-being, elder care, raising children, education — it all becomes inter-related.

Clayton had originally started the course as Permaculture Design but each group had different issues, so the course grew outward and became its own living organism, adapting and changing. Citing examples around Indian country, he talked about ecology and borders and what he terms eco-tones, where two environments come together. These “edges” are where things happen and exchanges are made, where there is more diversity of plants and animals. It’s the difference between a riparian area with a meandering river or a re-created “seaway”, dug out and made straight for industrial traffic. Communities become just like these traffic lanes — dollars don’t stay, they leave immediately like out a pipeline fast, instead of percolating around families. In most communities, dollars are replenished in grants instead of recycling via local diverse economies. Just like a riparian wetland or our own digestive system, there needs to be more meandering, more edges where things meet, interact and exchange, to yield more nutrients, more bang for the buck, rather than having everything of value be extracted by corporations and outside markets.

Growing heirloom seeds. Photo courtesy Clayton Brascoupe.

Although the course is designed for and made up of indigenous peoples, non-Natives have been students and there are usually around 5 spots for non-natives who pay the full course fee. Sometimes Native organizations or benefactors will sponsor individuals to come and learn and then go back to Native communities to teach. Participants can camp nearby, children are allowed but there’s no daycare, and there’s local food catering from San Juan (Ohkay Ohwingeh). The 2013 session of Sustainable Communities Design runs from July 28 through August 9 in Santa Cruz, New Mexico. Those interested should visit tnafanm.org/TNAFA.html for more information.

One final story: An El Salvadoran farmer comes every year driving his cooking-oil fueled pick-up truck. He fills up at restaurants (which usually have to pay to have their oil picked up), the best fuel oils are from Taiwanese, Chinese, and Mexican restaurants. The McDonalds waste cooking-oil clogs his vehicle’s engine, it won’t run; so think about that for awhile.

Alex Jacobs, Mohawk, is a visual artist and poet living in Santa Fe.