1. He won’t duck the climate implications of Keystone XL, even though he may still end up approving it. Obama declared, “Our national interest will be served only if this pipeline does not significantly exacerbate the climate problem.” That means the administration will be analyzing whether approving the project will generate more greenhouse gas emissions than blocking it would. However in its draft environmental impact assessment, the State Department indicated that even if the president denies a permit to TransCanada to build the project, the oil in Alberta may be shipped to the U.S. by rail, leading to comparable emissions. So Obama’s final decision will largely depend on how his deputies crunch the numbers.
2. Electric utilities will face stricter carbon limits, but we won’t know for a year what they will look like. Obama said when it comes to power plants being able to emit unlimited carbon for free: “That’s not right, that’s not safe, and it needs to stop.” But under the timeline he issued today, the Environmental Protection Agency won’t issue a proposed rule on existing power plants until June 2014, and won’t finalize it for another year after that. As American Electric Power’s president and CEO Nick Akins said in an interview after the speech: “So the devil’s still in the details.”
3. The president is willing to demonize climate skeptics. “We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth society,” the president said, a shot across the bow given the fact that most congressional Republicans question the link between human activity and global warming.
4. The Obama administration will apply the climate test broadly, to decisions ranging from flood insurance to federal road projects. One of the least-trumpted and most significant elements of the new initiative is that the White House will now factor in climate impacts to a host of decisions, including how to construct new projects and rebuild after federal disasters.
5. Obama hopes to secure a few international climate agreements by the end of his second term. It’s not unusual for second-term presidents to focus on foreign policy; Obama made it clear in his speech that it was time for the U.S. “to lead” on climate, by striking a handful of accords on greenhouse gas emissions. That could include a global agreement to phase out hydrofluorcarbons, potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerants and air conditioning, as well as a bilateral climate agreement with China.
From bee-killing companies pretending to love bees to researchers frantically trying to create a disease-resistant superbee, it’s been kind of a rough week for bees, who have already been having a rough couple of years due to dying off left and right. But why should you care? It’s not like bees are delivering your mail or making you dinner or sewing your clothes, Cinderella-style.
But bees DO pollinate a bunch of shit that you probably like to eat. Need a visual? Check out these before and after pics from Whole Foods that illustrate the amount of produce that would vanish if all the bees died off:
One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Yet, major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables.
To raise awareness of just how crucial pollinators are to our food system, the University Heights Whole Foods Market store temporarily removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products – 52 percent of the department’s normal product mix.
Freaky, right? At least we’ll still have chili-cheese Fritos.
Anybody new to Seattle might wonder about the city’s name. It’s not like New York, named after a place in the “old country,” or Madison, named for a dead president.
Seattle is named for a peace-loving Indian chief — a little classier than Chicago, derived from a native word for wild garlic.
When you’ve been here long enough to be settled in and have a favorite coffee order, it’s time to learn more about your hometown’s heritage. Make a ferry-ride pilgrimage to the Kitsap Peninsula, to the winter home and final resting place of the city’s namesake, Chief Seattle.
And now’s a good time to go, because the chief’s tribe, the Suquamish, has opened a handsome new museum where you can learn all about Chief Seattle’s people and their culture.
One surprise: The chief himself gets a conspicuously modest mention.
A Red Hat Society group from Poulsbo learns about a 300-year-old canoe hoisted by sculpted figures of tribal people at the new Suquamish Museum. Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times
The 9,000-square-foot, $6 million tribal museum, which opened in September a few hundred feet from the chief’s grave in the village of Suquamish, replaces a well-respected museum dating to the 1980s.
In part with newfound wealth from its Clearwater Casino, the tribe hired Storyline Studio of Seattle to design new exhibits, and Mithun Architects created a stained-wood building surrounded by native plantings of sword fern, wild currant and cedar.
Inside, it’s a gleaming example of modern museum concepts with a topical “less is more” orientation that doesn’t overwhelm. A single, compact hall showcases artifacts from tribal archives, or even from contemporary tribal members’ attics or family rooms (giving the sense that this is truly “living history”).
In the permanent exhibit, “Ancient Shores — Changing Tides,” simple island-like displays communicate large themes:
• “Teachings of Ancestors” includes a bone sewing needle and a cedar-root basket from the site of Old Man House, the longhouse on a nearby beach where Chief Seattle spent much of his life.
• “Spirit and Vision” has a mystical Tamanowas Stick, a personal-spirit symbol usually buried with a person, and a cedar mask with wild eyebrows and blushing cheeks.
• “Gifts from Land and Water” includes, among other things, a utilitarian clam-digging stick and a mean-looking wooden club used to kill salmon.
• “Shelter, Clothing and Tools” displays old and new, such as a dress astoundingly made of shredded cedar alongside a championship jacket from the 1984 national Indian Slo-Pitch Tournament.
• “Opportunity and Enterprise” are represented by 21 baskets of cedar bark, historically used for gathering clams and berries. (The modern representation of enterprise might be the tribal casino, which collects many “clams” from its patrons.)
• “Wisdom and Understanding” gives a puzzlingly brief nod to Chief Seattle. Context comes from this narrative: “(He) is perhaps the most famous of tribal leaders from the Salish Sea. But for the Suquamish people he was just one of many admired leaders throughout our history, each celebrated for their own unique skills.”
Six other leaders from across the years get the spotlight, with artifacts such as the gavel of Grace Duggan, the tribe’s first judge.
Why not dedicate more space to the leader for whom the big city is named?
“I think that the tribe is consciously trying to move away from (Chief Seattle) being the beginning, middle and end of the tribe,” explained museum director Janet Smoak. “It’s in no way a reflection of less esteem or less respect.”
Exhibits briefly reference Chief Seattle’s famous 1854 speech when he played a key role in treaty negotiations as his people were moved to reservations (see the speech’s full text on the tribe’s website at www.suquamish.nsn.us; search for “speech”). A peaceable man in tune with the Earth, he noted with melancholy that “my people are ebbing away like a fast receding tide that will never flow again.” Yet he also delivered a burning message that his people’s spirits will forever inhabit this land.
Something the museum does well: a historical multimedia production, creatively projected from above onto three child-level platforms, showing happy times — old-time salmon roasts — and less happy, when tribal children forcibly attended military-type schools after Teddy Roosevelt declared America “would make good citizens of all the Indians.”
The museum’s trumping centerpiece is a carved canoe, more than 300 years old, used in the 1989 Paddle to Seattle, the first of a now-annual series of intertribal-canoe journeys around the Salish Sea. Hoisting it are six sculpted figures representing the Suquamish from ancient times to present, including two sea otters “from before the great changer came and made people into people and animals into animals,” Smoak explained, citing the kind of beliefs that defined the tribe.
Closer to the man
If you want to feel closer to the man Seattle, head a short ways down South Street to the cemetery adjacent to St. Peter’s Catholic Mission, circa 1904.
Reflecting varying spellings of both his name and that of his tribe, based on changing interpretations of the native language, a white marble marker is inscribed “Seattle, Chief of the Suguampsh and Allied tribes, died June 7, 1866, The firm friend of the whites, and for him the City of Seattle was named by its founders.” Below that, the other name by which he was commonly known: “Sealth.”
Here you’ll see more plainly how the tribe honors him, in the form of significant improvements made to the gravesite in 2009 with $200,000 plus in grants split between the tribe and the city of Seattle. Flanking the stone are beautifully carved 12-foot cedar “story posts” that highlight moments from the chief’s life, such as his childhood sighting of Capt. George Vancouver’s exploration ships in1792.
Also added was a retaining wall etched in the native Lushootseed language and in English with messages such as “The soil is rich with the life of our kindred.” A wheelchair-friendly path connects to the parking lot, and visitors may rest on benches shaped like Suquamish canoes.
Ending your journey
Walk through the village to see more changes new money has brought to Suquamish, such as the charmingly named House of Awakened Culture, a waterfront community center devoted to such activities as classes in language, weaving and carving.
Browse native art at Rain Bear Studio or grab lunch at Bella Luna Pizzeria, a rub-elbows nine-table eatery perched on pilings over the waterfront.
Better yet, on a sunny day, pack a lunch to Old Man House Park, historic site of the chief’s longhouse, five minutes away. Sit on a log and take in the view that Chief Seattle’s people still love: narrow and scenic Agate Passage on one side, and on the other a panorama of snowy mountains across diamond-glinting waves of the salty sound.
In its day, this beach was where a native leader could take in all of his world, or all of it that mattered.
Brian J. Cantwell: 206-748-5724 or bcantwell@seattletimes.com
If you go
The land of Chief Seattle
Source, ESRI TeleAtlas
Where
From Seattle, take Washington State Ferries from Pier 52 to Bainbridge Island. Follow Highway 305 north toward Poulsbo. After the Agate Passage bridge, take the first right to Suquamish Way. In 1.2 miles, turn left at Division Avenue and then immediately right on South Street to the Suquamish Museum, 6861 N.E. South St. ($3-$5, www.suquamishmuseum.org).
Go a short distance further east on South Street to Chief Seattle’s gravesite. Continue downhill to the village center.
To reach Old Man House Park, from Suquamish Way take Division Avenue south and follow the arterial for .3 mile.
Special event
At 3 p.m. Feb. 23, the museum dedicates a new 40-foot-long wall-mounted timeline of tribal history with a lecture/presentation by Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman and Tribal Archaeologist Dennis Lewarch.
Lodging
Stay at the tribe’s 85-room waterfront hotel, part of Clearwater Casino Resort. Free daily breakfast in lobby with tribal art, fireplace and expansive views. Pool, hot tub, spa. Winter rates: $169 for a view room on a weekend. 15347 Suquamish Way N.E., www.clearwatercasino.com/hotel
Restaurants
The casino has a buffet, cafe and a steakhouse. On Wednesday and Thursday nights, 2-for-1 specials for club members can overcrowd the buffet (the Thursday I visited, there was a 90-minute wait for a buffet table at 6 p.m.). That steered me and my wife to an endearingly corny checkered-tablecloth bistro in old-town Poulsbo, That’s-a-Some Italian Ristorante, 18881 Front St. N.E.; www.thatsasome.com.
For lunch, try the $2.50 slices at Bella Luna Pizzeria, 18408 Angeline Ave. N.E., Suquamish; www.bellalunapizza.com.
Full moon at Tulalip, February 19, 2013 by Mike Bustad.
Jamie Mooney, Coastal Resource Specialist and NOAA PMEL Liaison, Washington Sea Grant
During the next week the full moon associated with the summer solstice will bring extreme high tides called King Tides to our coast. The term ‘King Tide’ is a non-scientific term used to describe naturally occurring, exceptionally high tides that take place when the sun and moon’s gravitational pull align making the oceans “bulge.” While the King Tides during the summer are not as large as winter King Tides, these exceptionally high tides depict what could be the new normal as sea level rise progresses. This June high tide event marks a good opportunity to select your favorite locations to photograph both now and in December to compare!
Photos taken during king tide events document impacts to private property, public infrastructure, and wildlife habitat across the state, highlighting areas most vulnerable to sea level rise. We want to continue capturing what happens during extreme high tides, and we need your help to do it! Be safe! Take extra precautions when you walk on slippery areas or near big waves, and always be aware of your surroundings and the weather conditions.
Please participate in the Washington King Tides initiative by photographing these high tide events and uploading them to Flickr!
Joseph Aleck Sr. was born October 30, 1953 in Snoqualmie, WA to Margaret and Levi Aleck. He passed away at home surrounded by his loving family on June 19, 2013.
He leaves behind his loving wife of 38 years, Leah; children, Heather, Raymona, Joseph Jr., James, Kenneth; grandchildren, Jerry, Leah, Michael, Madeline, Tyrel, Mikylia, Santyna, Kenneth Jr., Juneen; parents,
Margaret and Levi; siblings, Tony, Bev, Christine, Mary and Levi Jr.; and several nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by grandchildren, Markel and Vincent.
Joseph was a loving husband, father, grandfather, son, brother, uncle, and he will be missed by many.
A visitation will be held Monday, June 24, 2013, 1 p.m., at Schaefer-Shipman with an interfaith service following at the Tulalip Tribal Center at 6 p.m. Funeral Services will be held Tuesday June 25, 2013 at 10 a.m., Tulalip Tribal Gym with burial following at Fall City Cemetery.
Little ‘Baby Veronica’ was adopted for more than two years, but an obscure law preventing the breakup of Native American families had forced her return to her father.
Richard Wolf, USA TODAY 1:01 p.m. EDT June 25, 2013
WASHINGTON — A sharply divided Supreme Court delivered a 3-year-old girl back to her adoptive parents from her biological father Tuesday despite her 1% Cherokee blood.
In doing so, the justices expressed skepticism about a 1978 federal law that’s intended to prevent the breakup of Native American families — but in this case may have created one between father and daughter that barely existed originally.
While four justices from both sides of the ideological spectrum found no way to deny dad his rights under the Indian Child Welfare Act, five others — including Chief Justice John Roberts, an adoptive father — noted that the adoptive parents were the consistently reliable adults in “Baby Veronica’s” life.
That the nation’s highest court was playing King Solomon in a child custody dispute was unusual to begin with. It had jurisdiction because Veronica is 3/256th Cherokee, and the law passed by Congress 35 years ago was intended to prevent the involuntary breakup of Native American families and tribes.
In this case, however, the family that got broken up was the adoptive one in South Carolina, led by Melanie and Matt Capobianco. They had raised Veronica for 27 months after her mother put her up for adoption. The father, Dusten Brown of Oklahoma, only objected to the adoption after the fact.
Brown won custody 18 months ago after county and state courts in South Carolina said the unique federal law protecting Native American families was paramount. The Capobiancos’ attorney, Lisa Blatt, had argued in court that the law was racially discriminatory — in effect banning adoptions of American Indian children by anyone who’s not American Indian.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito ruled for the majority that the law’s ban on breaking up Native American families cannot apply if the family didn’t exist in the first place. He noted the father had not supported the mother during pregnancy, texted his willingness to give up parental rights, and only changed his mind much later.
“In that situation, no Indian family is broken up,” Alito said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented along with liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan and conservative Antonin Scalia, said Veronica now will have her life interrupted for a second time.
“The anguish this case has caused will only be compounded by today’s decision,” she said.
Only once before has the law been tested at the nation’s highest court. Nearly a quarter-century ago, the court took Native American twins from their adoptive family and handed them back to a tribal council in a case that Scalia recently said was the toughest in his 26 years on the bench.
Only Scalia and Justice Anthony Kennedy were on the court for that 1989 case, in which the court ruled 6-3 for an Indian tribe’s custody rights. Scalia sided with the majority, while Kennedy joined the dissent. They were in similar positions this time as the court ruled against the law’s intent — Scalia again on the father’s side, Kennedy with the adoptive couple.
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation will celebrate the opening of a $50 million salmon hatchery Thursday on the Columbia River.
The Chief Joseph Hatchery will raise chinook salmon for subsistence tribal fishing and non-native sport fishing in the nearby towns of Bridgeport and Brewster. The hatchery is adjacent to Chief Joseph Dam, which is as far north as salmon can swim up the main stem Columbia.
Each year, the hatchery will release up to 2.9 million salmon smolts, which will swim 500 miles downstream to the ocean. A certain percentage will return as adult fish that can be harvested.
John Sirois, chairman of the Colville Tribes, hailed the hatchery as a testimony to the “meaningful work” that can occur when federal, tribal and state governments cooperate on river restoration. In 2008, federal agencies responsible for salmon in the Columbia Basin signed agreements with the tribes and the states, pledging greater cooperation as well as additional funding for salmon projects over 10 years. The completed hatchery is due in part to that accord.
The hatchery will help mitigate for the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, which was built without fish ladders. When the dam opened in 1941, it cut off salmon runs to the upper third of the Columbia Basin. Grand Coulee also flooded Kettle Falls, where one of the Northwest’s most prolific salmon fisheries had flourished for 10,000 years.
The day’s events are open to the public. The celebration begins with an 8 a.m. first salmon ceremony at the hatchery administration building and concludes at 3 p.m. after tours of the hatchery. The hatchery is located on State Park Golf Course Road east of State Route 17.
Elise Krohn, Northwest Indian College herbalist and educator
Nettles are one of our favorite plants because they are so nutritious and so delicious. Late spring is the perfect time to harvest nettles and dry them for tea. Later in the summer fibrous stems can be made into strong cordage.
Description: Stinging nettle (scientific name Urtica) is a perennial herb with opposite deep green leaves with serrated edges and tiny greenish flowers. Stems are square like mint. Nettle grows 3-7 feet tall. The stalk and underside of leaves are covered with stinging hairs that rise from a gland containing formic acid. Nettle is common in streambeds and disturbed areas with rich wet soil from the coast into the mountains. Do not gather nettles in agricultural or industrial areas because they may absorb inorganic nitrites and heavy metals.
Nettle contains: Formic acid in fresh plant, galacturonic acid, vitamin C, histamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine, choline and acetylcholine, vitamins A and D, iron, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, silica, trace minerals and a good amount of protein (more than beans!).
How to Harvest: Gloves or scissors are usually used to harvest nettles. Nettles are most potent when gathered in early spring before flowering, usually from March-May. To dry nettles, bundle them and hang them upside down in a dark dry place, or place them in a paper bag and rotate them every few days until dry. Strip the leaves off the stem and store away from sunlight. Stems are gathered for fiber when the plant is mature in summer to early fall.
Historic uses
Nettles have been revered worldwide throughout the ages for food, fiber and medicine. Many Northwest Coastal People traditionally ate nettles as a nutritious spring food. They were also used as a dye with shades ranging from yellow to deep green. The fiber makes strong cordage and was used for making strong fishing line and fishnets. Two thousand-year-old nettle clothing was found in China and still remains intact.
A fascinating use for nettles is urtication, or flogging oneself with this stinging plant. Both in the Pacific Northwest and in Europe, people have stung themselves to cure arthritic joints and to stay awake and alert during battle or hunting. Traditional knowledge is now validated by scientific research. Compounds including histamine, acetylcholine and formic acid are injected into tissue causing an awakening of cellular responses, lymph flow, nerve stimulation and capillary stimulation.
Food
Nettles are impressively high in chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals, protein and amino acids. They are often called a “superfood” and are one of the highest plant sources of digestible iron. This can be helpful for anemic conditions, menstruation, pregnancy and lactation. Gather nettles to eat fresh before they flower as old leaves contain cystoliths that may irritate the kidneys. This compound is destroyed when the plant is dried, so gathering nettles after flowering is fine to prepare dried herb tea or powder, although leaves are most potent before flowering. There are many ways to prepare nettles for food including:
Boil – boil nettles for 5-15 minutes. The water can then be drunk as a tea.
Can – follow general instructions for canning spinach.
Freeze – either steam or boil nettles until just cooked, rinse in cold water, let drain and place in freezer bags for later use.
Sauté – Sauté until they look fully cooked, usually about 5 minutes.
Steam – place nettles in a colander and steam for 5-10 minutes.
Cooked nettles can then be used in quiches, casseroles, meat pies, egg scrambles, etc. Dried nettles can also be added to soups and other foods in the same way dried herb and spices would be. They are a delicious addition to clam chowder
Wash nettles, cut finely with scissors and set aside. In a large soup pot, sauté onions and garlic in olive oil or 3-5 minutes. Add water, potatoes, corn and nettles, then bring to a boil. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Blend all ingredients in a blender or a food processor (optional). Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Nettle Pesto
Try tossing this with pasta, potatoes or cooked vegetables. It can also be spread on crackers or fresh vegetables as a snack.
1 small bag (about 6 cups) of young fresh nettles, rinsed
1 bunch basil, stems removed, washed and drained (about 2 cups leaves)
½ cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
1/3 cup walnuts or pine nuts
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
I clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Boil nettles in water (blanch) for one minute to remove the sting. Drain well, let cool and roughly chop. Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place the pesto in a clean jar and pour a little extra olive oil over the top. Cover with a lid. This will keep for 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator.
Green Sesame Salt
1 cup sesame seeds
¼ cup powdered nettles
2 teaspoons salt
Toast sesame seeds over medium heat in a dry pan. They will pop, brown, and when done, will have a toasted aroma and deep golden appearance. Grind with salt in a coffee grinder or blender. Add nettle powder (this can also be ground in a coffee grinder). Blend all ingredients and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator. This condiment can be sprinkled on rice, sautés or soups.
Medicine
Nettles can help bring the body back to a state of balance. If someone is feeling debilitated or generally worn down, nettles are a good remedy. They are tonic to the liver, blood and kidneys. Herbalists consider nettles a reliable diuretic that balances blood pH and filters waste from the body including uric acid. This can be especially useful for arthritis, gout, eczema and skin rashes. Nettles have a solid reputation as a haemostatic, or a remedy to stop bleeding. A strong decoction is traditionally used to treat wounds and hemorrhage. They can help build blood after menstruation, birth or other blood loss.
Many people say that nettles help to alleviate allergies. As a preventative for hay fever, drink 2 cups of nettle tea a day starting early in the spring and continuing into the allergy season. When nettles are fresh, tinctured or freeze-dried they have anti-histamine qualities that may be effective for acute allergic reactions. Nettles are both astringent and anti-inflammatory, which helps with the symptoms of allergies and many other complaints. Rosemary or horsetail with nettle are made into a tea and used as a hair rinse to make the hair glossy and stimulate growth.
Tea: Use 1 tablespoon of dried nettles per cup of boiled water. Steep 15 minutes to several hours. Drink 1-3 cups a day. You can make a large batch of tea and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It is fine to drink the tea hot or cold. Nettle blends well with mint.
Fiber
Nettle fiber is renowned for it’s durability and has been used for making fishnets, ropes, clothing, and even bed linens. Cut stems at the base and strip the leaves from the stem (wear thick gloves). If you are working with fresh nettles, split the stems in half, cutting length-wise with a sharp knife. Take a rolling pin or round stick to flatten the half-stems. You can even beat them with a stick or a flat rock to help separate the outer fiber from the inner woody stem. Carefully separate the outer fibers, trying to keep them long. Let these fibers dry in a basket or a paper bag. If you are working with dry nettle stems you can soak them to make them easier to work with. Continue as above by splitting the stems, flattening them and carefully removing the fiber. The fiber can then be braided or twisted and made into strong cordage.
Stephanie Woodard, Indian Country Today Media Network
The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe’s chairman and casino are boycotting suppliers of goods and services in Chamberlain, South Dakota, following the refusal of the local high school to allow a Sioux honor song at the recent graduation ceremonies. See “Crow Creek Sioux Boycott Border-town Businesses Over Banned Honor Song,” for more on how the embargo got underway. The boycott has thrown a spotlight on the economic relationship of South Dakota tribes, their border towns and the state as a whole.
South Dakota is fourth in the nation for dependence on Washington for its state budget, with federal dollars paying the tab for nearly half of everything from health care to law enforcement. The state is eighth in the nation for receipt of farm subsidies. South Dakota is a place where individuals and government depend—a lot—on other people’s money. That includes Indian money.
We saw in the first article in this series that the dearth of businesses on many reservations means residents looking for anything from groceries to home repair spend their money in border towns. Nick Tilson, of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, in Sharps Corner, South Dakota, calls the border town–reservation symbiosis “a parasite-host” relationship.
Shopping is just the beginning. In his book The Rights of Indians and Tribes, attorney Steven Pevar cites several academic research papers on tribes’ shares of their states’ economies. One study found that from 1979 to 2002 Wyoming received $283 million more in taxes from one Indian nation’s mineral production than it returned in services and other funding. In another paper Pevar describes, economist Steven Peterson determined in 2009 that five Idaho tribes together contributed nearly copy billion in economic activity to the state, while producing nearly $25 million in state and local taxes.
Dr. Malia Villegas, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq and policy research center director of the National Congress of American Indians, noted additional studies revealing that tribes and tribal entities are economic engines in California, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington, among others.
Gaming at casinos, such as the Crow Creek’s Lode Star Casino and many others, is the source of much tribal money. The National Indian Gaming Association has published nationwide figures for 2009: $26 billion in gross revenues; $3.2 billion for associated expenditures such as entertainment and lodging; $9.4 billion in federal taxes and other payments; and $2.4 billion for state taxes and other payments. Indian gaming’s job creation was substantial—628,000 jobs for American Indians and others, said NIGA.
In Connecticut, according to Pevar, a 2005 study calculated that tribal casinos created 65,000 jobs and contributed copy billion to the state budget, while rescuing the deteriorating economy of the southeastern portion of the state.
Casinos are not the only reservation employers; non-Indians as well as Indians work at additional enterprises, tribal departments, nonprofits and schools. The many powwows and other Native events generate even more economic activity. The United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota, reckoned in 2011 that its annual powwow had a direct contribution to the local economy of $4.7 million (excluding taxes and other associated impacts). Also that year, Alaska television station KTVA reported that the Alaska Federation of Natives meeting was Anchorage’s biggest convention, bringing in $7.2 million in spending on hotels and more, according to the city’s convention and visitor’s bureau.
We must not forget leasing, said Native American Rights Fund attorney Brett Lee Shelton, who is Oglala Lakota. He noted that farmers, ranchers, mining operations, oil companies and many more individuals and businesses lease Indian land—benefitting from access to tribal resources, as well as from the bargain-basement prices the Bureau of Indian Affairs sometimes charges.
The United States has a long history of valuing Indian resources at below-market rates when it leases or sells those resources to outsiders, according to Shelton. “This is a huge drain on Indian economies and is essentially a taking of resources that hadn’t yet been taken in the treaty-making process. If you wanted to design a system to keep Indian landowners poor, you would use exactly this sort of trick.”
In 2011, Indian owners of 42,000 acres of allotments on the Fort Berthold Reservation, in North Dakota’s Bakken oil-producing region, sued the U.S. government. The allottees alleged that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is responsible for leasing Indian land in the “best interests” of its owners, approved leases for as little as copy10 per acre. The suit charges that the leases were then “flipped” for as much as copy0,000 per acre. The lawsuit is still before the courts. (Related story: Beckoning the Bakken: Will the oil Boom Reach Montana’s Impoverished Fort Peck Tribes?)
At Crow Creek, Sazue and a forward-thinking tribal council have their eyes on a better economic future for their people. Recently, the group has announced an innovative home-construction program that trains youngsters in building trades while producing homes for tribal members, the development of a business incubator, participation in a wind power deal announced at the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative America, and farmers markets and healthy food initiatives throughout the reservation.
Sazue continues to pursue the idea of an on-reservation bank. He would not provide further details about the talks involved, other than to say a local bank would provide enduring benefits. “With a bank, we would keep as much of our economy here as possible,” he said. “It would be very good for us.”
This article is part of a series appearing this week about Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, the boycott of a South Dakota border town and ways the tribe is addressing its economic issues through innovative business-formation and housing programs.
John F. Banzhaf III, Indian Country Today Media Network
Celebrity chef Paula Deen admits that she used the word nigger “a very long time” ago in strictly private conversations, and she, like so many others, is immediately banned from broadcasting, but team owner Dan Snyder is not only responsible for the repeated use of the word “redskins” on hundreds of radio and TV stations, but is so proud of it that he publicly vows he will “never” change the team’s name. Why? What’s different?
Deen is certainly not alone. Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder was ousted over a few ill-chosen stereotyped remarks about black athletes. Don Imus was suspended for using the racially charged term “nappy.” Pat Buchanan was fired by MSNBC because of ideas – not offensive words – expressed in a book, but not on the air. Juan Williams, a minority himself, was fired by NPR for admitting some trepidation when he saw people in Muslim garb boarding airplanes. An ESPN reporter was fired for using the well known phrase “chink in the armor” in connection with Asian American athlete Jeremy Lin.
In connective with the Lin firing, WRC-TV anchor Jim Vance – a long-time friend and supporter of the football team – said on the air: “What I find curious is how some people I’ve talked to are offended by a derogatory term for Asians, but not by the word redskin. Folks, redskins is not a term of endearment, any more than the N word or any other racial or ethnic slur. From its inception and inclusion in our language, it was meant to be an insult.”
Yet Snyder is proud to continue using a word which three judges found to be “a derogatory term of reference for Native Americans” and tends to bring them “into contempt or disrepute”; which the D.C. Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments condemned as “demeaning and dehumanizing”; which both chairmen of the congressional Native American Caucus, and other members of Congress, blasted as “offensive epithets,” “disparaging to Native Americans,” and “racial slurs”; which several states have found too offensive to be permitted to be used on personalized vehicle license plates; and which has been denounced and condemned as the most racist of all terms relating to Indians – the R-word is to them what the N-word is to Blacks – by dozens of leading organizations representing American Indians.
Recently, the former chairman of the FCC, several former commissioners, and other broadcasting law experts concluded that “Redskins” is an “unequivocal racial slur,” and warned that its deliberate, repeated and unnecessary use by broadcasters may no longer serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” As the public interest law professor who first developed the idea of using broadcasting law as a weapon against this racist word, based upon my earlier success in challenging the racist policies of some major DC-area TV stations, I agree. This could jeopardize the licenses of stations which continue to repeatedly use the term on the air.
The broadcasting law experts likened the use of the term to “obscene pornographic language on live television,” and to broadcasting the names of teams like the “Blackskins” or the “Mandingoes.” They concluded that “[i]t is inappropriate for broadcasters to use racial epithets as part of normal, everyday reporting. Thankfully, one does not hear the ‘n’ word on nightly newscasts.”
Now several media outlets are even asking whether team owner Dan Snyder is paying spin master Frank Luntz “to spin his team’s name,” and predicting that such an attempt “will not end well.” Another asked more bluntly: “Is Dan Snyder Secretly Maneuvering to Change Redskins Name?”
On still another front, some members of Congress are pressing Snyder to change the name of the team or they will revoke his federal trademarks, and the D.C. City Council is preparing a resolution which will reportedly call upon DC-area stations to cease using the racist term on the air. This would make it more difficult for stations to defend themselves against a petition opposing the renewal of their broadcasting licenses, since stations must first assess community concerns and then respond to them.
Some defenders of the name have argued that, while the term “redskins” may be racist and derogatory when addressed to or used to refer to persons of a specific heritage, it is not racist or derogatory – and therefore may properly be used on the air by broadcasters – when it refers to the name of an entity such as a team, group, or organization.
But, for example, the complete and proper name of the former musical group Niggaz Wit Attitudes was never said on the air, even by black stations, and even though the N-word was used here to refer to a group and not in any racial or derogatory sense, and the group was made up of African Americans who freely chose the word “Niggaz” to describe and express themselves. In contrast, Indians are not on Snyder’s football team, and did not choose the name “Redskins” for themselves.
It has also been argued that, if they cannot use the word “Redskins” on the air, radio and TV stations cannot report the news, and that their freedom of speech, and the right of fans to keep up to date about the team, would be unduly restricted. But broadcasters certainly remain free to report all the news and developments about the team and its players by simply using readily-available non-offensive alternative words. For example, one can say “DC beat Dallas 28-0” or “Washington bested Philadelphia” or “Dan Snyder’s team is in trouble with too many injuries,” etc.
Indeed, some broadcasters, as well as some newspapers, have announced that they will no longer use the word “Redskins” in their reporting because it is racially offensive. In this regard, remember that broadcasters had no problems playing the music of, interviewing, or reporting news about the former musical group Niggaz Wit Attitudes, simply by referring to them as NWA, and not by the full and proper name they chose for themselves.
For those who might still doubt that “Redskins” is a derogatory racist term, the Huffington Post published what it termed my “eyebrows-raising challenge”: “walk into a bar frequented by Indians and loudly ask: ‘How are all you redskins doing tonight’.”
John F. Banzhaf III is a law professor at George Washington University Law School and a practitioner of public interest law.
