Tulalip News

Unlikely Alliances: Treaty conflicts and environmental cooperation between Native American and rural White communities

Idle No More and Building Bridges Through Native Sovereignty

By Zoltan Grossman as seen on Unsettling America

“The natural resources we all depend upon must be protected for future generations….to bring us to a place where there is a quality of life, and where Indians and non-Indians are to understand one another and work together.” — Billy Frank, Jr. (Nisqually)

In the 2010s, new “unlikely alliances” of Native peoples and their rural white neighbors are standing strong against fossil fuel and mining projects. In the Great Plains, grassroots coalitions of Native peoples and white ranchers and farmers (including the aptly named “Cowboy and Indian Alliance”) are blocking the Keystone XL oil pipeline and coal mining. In the Pacific Northwest, Native nations are using their treaties against plans for coal and oil terminals, partly because shipping and burning fossil fuels threatens their treaty fishery. In the Great Lakes, Bad River Ojibwe are leading the fight to stop metallic mining, drawing on past anti-mining alliances of Ojibwe and white fishers. In the Maritimes, Mi’kmaq and Maliseet are confronting shale gas fracking, joined by non-Native neighbors.

The Idle No More movement similarly connects First Nations’ sovereignty to the protection of the Earth for all people—Native and non-Native alike. Idle No More co-founder Sylvia McAdam states, “Indigenous sovereignty is all about protecting the land, the water, the animals, and all the environment we share.” Gyasi Ross observes that Idle No More “is about protecting the Earth for all people from the carnivorous and capitalistic spirit that wants to exploit and extract every last bit of resources from the land…. It’s not a Native thing or a white thing, it’s an Indigenous worldview thing. It’s a ‘protect the Earth’ thing.”

A debate around Idle No More discusses how the movement can reach the non-Native public. In any alliance, the same question always arises at the intersection of unity and autonomy. Should the so-called “minority” partners in the alliance set aside their own distinct issues in order to build bridges to the “majority” over common-ground concerns, such as protecting the Earth? Should Native leadership, for example, not as strongly assert treaty rights and tribal sovereignty to avoid alienating potential allies among their white neighbors? Conventional wisdom says that we should all “get along” for the greater good, and that different peoples should only talk about “universalist” similarities that unite them, not “particularist” differences that separate them.

In my both my activism and academic studies, I’ve often wrestled with this question, and spoken with many Native and non-Native activists and scholars who also deal with it. Based on their stories and experiences, I’ve concluded that the conventional wisdom is largely bullshit. Emphasizing unity over diversity can actually be harmful to building deep, lasting alliances between Native and non-Native communities. History shows the opposite to be true: the stronger that Native peoples assert their nationhood, the stronger their alliances with non-Indian neighbors.

Unlikely Alliances

Since the 1970s, unlikely alliances have joined Native communities with their rural white neighbors (some of whom had been their worst enemies) to protect their common lands and waters. These unique convergences have confronted mines, dams, logging, power lines, nuclear waste, military projects, and other threats. My main education has been as an activist in unlikely alliances in South Dakota and Wisconsin. As a geography grad student I later studied them in other states (such as Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) where they took different paths from treaty conflict to environmental cooperation, and had varying degrees of success.

* In South Dakota in the late 1970s, Lakota communities and white ranchers were often at odds over water rights and the tribal claim to the sacred Black Hills. Yet despite the intense Indian-white conflicts, the two groups came together against coal and uranium mining, which would endanger the groundwater. The Native activists and conservative-looking ranchers formed the Black Hills Alliance (where I began my activism 35 years ago) to halt the mining plans, and later formed the Cowboy and Indian Alliance (or CIA), which has since worked to stop a bombing range, coal trains, and oil pipeline.

* In roughly the same era of the 1960s and ‘70s, a fishing rights conflict had torn apart Washington State. The federal courts recognized treaty rights in 1974, and by the 1980s the tribes began to use treaties as a legal tool to protect and restore fish habitat. The result was State-Tribal “co-management,” recognizing that the tribes have a seat at the table on natural resource issues outside the reservations. The Nisqually Tribe, for instance, is today recognized in its watershed as the lead entity in creating salmon habitat management plans for private farm owners, and state and federal agencies. The watershed is healing because the Tribe is beginning to decolonize its historic lands.

* Another treaty confrontation erupted in northern Wisconsin in the late 1980s, when crowds of white sportsmen gathered to protest Ojibwe treaty rights to spear fish. Even as the racist harassment and violence raged, tribes presented their sovereignty as a legal obstacles to mining plans, and formed alliances such as the Midwest Treaty Network. Instead of continuing to argue over the fish, some white fishing groups began to cooperate with tribes to protect the fish, and won victories against the world’s largest mining companies. After witnessing the fishing war, seeing the 2003 defeat of the Crandon mine gave us some real hope.

In each of these cases, Native peoples and their rural white neighbors found common cause to defend their mutual place, and unexpectedly came together to protect their environment and economy from an outside threat, and a common enemy. They knew that if they continued to fight over resources, there may not be any left to fight over. Some rural whites began to see Native treaties and sovereignty as better protectors of common ground than their own governments. Racial prejudice is still alive and well in these regions, but the organized racist groups are weaker because they have lost many of their followers to these alliances.

Cooperation growing from conflict

It would make logical sense that the greatest cooperation would develop in the areas with the least prior conflict. Yet a recurring irony is that cooperation more easily developed in areas where tribes had most strongly asserted their rights, and the white backlash had been the most intense. Treaty claims in the short run caused conflict, but in the long run educated whites about tribal cultures and legal powers, and strengthened the commitment of both communities to value the resources. A common “sense of place” extended beyond the immediate threat, and redefined their idea of “home” to include their neighbors. As Mole Lake Ojibwe elder Frances Van Zile said, “This is my home; when it’s your home you try to take as good care of it as how can, including all the people in it.”

These alliances challenge the idea that “particularism” (such as Native identity) is always in contradiction to “universalism” (such as environmental protection). The assertion of Indigenous political strength does *not* weaken the idea of joining with non-Natives to defend the land, and can even strengthen it. The stories of these alliances may identify ways to weave together the assertion of differences between cultures with the goal of finding common-ground similarities between them. (I’m perhaps drawn to this hope because of my own Hungarian background, with a Jewish father whose family was decimated by genocide, and a Catholic mother whose family valued its cultural identity, and my attempts to navigate between the fear and celebration of ethnic pride.)

Alliances based on “universalist” similarities tend to fail without respecting “particularist” differences. The idea of “why can’t we all just get along” (like “United We Stand”) is often used to suppress marginalized voices, asking them to sideline their demands. This overemphasis on unity makes alliances more vulnerable, since authorities may try to divide them by meeting the demands of the (relatively advantaged) white members. A few alliances (such as against low-level military flights) floundered because the white “allies” declared victory and went home, and did not keep up the fight to also win the demands of their Native neighbors. “Unity” is not enough when it is a unity of unequal partners; Native leadership needs to always be involved in the decision-making process.

But successful alliances can go beyond temporary “alliances of convenience” to building lasting connections. In Washington State, local tribal/non-tribal cooperation to restore salmon habitat provides a template for collaboration in response to climate change. The Tulalip Tribes, for example, are cooperating with dairy farmers to keep cattle waste out of the Snohomish watershed’s salmon streams, by converting it into biogas energy. Farmers who had battled tribes now benefit from tribal sustainable practices. The anthology we recently edited at The Evergreen State College, “Asserting Native Resilience”, tells some of these stories of local and regional collaboration for resilience.

Idle No More and “Occupy”

With the rise of the Idle No More and Occupy movements, we have an unprecedented opportunity to grow this cooperation beyond local and regional levels, to national and global scales. Whether Occupy or Idle No More still draw huge crowds is beside the point, because they both have popularized powerful ideas that were not widely discussed even three years ago. The Occupy movement (despite its unfortunately inappropriate name) questions the concentration of wealth under capitalism, the economic system that has also occupied and exploited Native nations. Although a few protest camps (like in Albuquerque), changed their name to “(un)Occupy” to make this point, other camps rarely extended the discussion beyond class inequalities.

Idle No More deals with the flip side of the coin: how to make an understanding of colonization relevant to the majority struggling to live day-to-day under capitalism. Leanne Simpson* *sees Idle No More as “an opportunity for the environmental movement, for social-justice groups, and for mainstream Canadians to stand with us…. We have a lot of ideas about how to live gently within our territory in a way where we have separate jurisdictions and separate nations but over a shared territory. I think there’s a responsibility on the part of mainstream community and society to figure out a way of living more sustainably and extracting themselves from extractivist thinking.”

While the Occupy movement has questioned the unequal distribution of wealth in Western capitalism, Idle No More confronts the colonization of land and extraction of the resources that are the basis of that wealth. While thinking about fairly distributing the stuff, think about where the stuff comes from in the first place—as the spoils of empire. Idle No More’s seemingly “particularist” message actually advances the universalist goals of the global anti-capitalist movement. Our solutions should not aim for a more egalitarian society that continues to exploit the Earth, nor a more sustainable society that continues to exploit human beings—the world needs both social equality and ecological resilience. And both movements have common historical roots, because the class system and large-scale natural resources extraction both originated in Europe at roughly the same time.

Colonizing Europe

To witness the decolonization of Native lands is to see a small reversal in the process of European colonization that began centuries ago, within Europe itself. In her classic study *The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution*, Carolyn Merchant documents how Western European elites suppressed the remnants of European indigenous knowledge, as a key element of colonizing villagers’ lands and resources in the 17thcentury. Merchant saw links between the mass executions of women healers (who used ancient herbal knowledge), the draining of wetlands, metallic mining, the restriction of villagers’ hunting, fishing, and gathering rights on lands they had held in common, and the division of the Commons into private plots.

This “enclosure of the Commons” sparked peasant rebellions and Robin Hood-style rebel movements. The Irish resisted English settler colonization, which was a testing ground for methods of control later used in Native America, against clan structures, collective lands, knowledge systems, and spiritual beliefs. In the meantime, the European encounter with more egalitarian Indigenous societies convinced some scholars (such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lewis Henry Morgan) that class hierarchy was not the natural order, and they in turn influenced many of the social philosophers and rebels of the 19th century.

The elites’ promise of settling stolen Native land became a “safety valve” to defuse working-class unrest in Europe and the East Coast. But even at the height of the Indian Wars, a small minority of settlers sympathized with Native resistance, or opposed the forced removal of their Indigenous neighbors. Some Europeans and Africans attracted to freer Native societies even became kin to Native families. We never read these stories of Native/non-Native cooperation in history books, because they undercut the myth of colonization as an inevitable “Manifest Destiny.” But there were always better paths not followed.

Non-Native Responsibilities

The continued existence of Native nationhood today, as Audra Simpson points out, undermines the claims of settler colonial states to the land. Unlikely alliances can help chip away at the legitimacy of colonial structures, even among the settlers themselves. To stand in solidarity with Indigenous nations is not just to “support Native rights,” but to strike at the very underpinnings of the Western social order, and begin to free Native and non-Native peoples. As Harsha Walia writes, “I have been encouraged to think of human interconnectedness and kinship in building alliances with Indigenous communities… striving toward decolonization and walking together toward transformation requires us to challenge a dehumanizing social organization that perpetuates our isolation from each other and normalizes a lack of responsibility to one another and the Earth.”

By asserting their treaty rights and sovereignty, Indigenous nations are benefiting not only themselves, but also their treaty partners. Since Europeans in North America are more separated in time and place from their indigenous origins, they need to respectfully ally with Native nations to help find their own path to what it means to be a human being living on the Earth–without appropriating Native cultures. It is not the role of non-Natives to dissect Native cultures, but to study Native/non-Native relations, and white attitudes and policies. The responsibility of non-Natives is to help remove the barriers and obstacles to Native sovereignty in their own governments and communities.

Non-Native neighbors can begin to look to Native nations for models to make their own communities more socially just, more ecologically resilient, and more hopeful. As Red Cliff Ojibwe organizer Walt Bresette once told Wisconsin non-Natives fighting a proposed mine, “You can all love this land as much as we do.”

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Zoltan Grossman is a Professor of Geography and Native Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He is a longtime community organizer, and was a co-founder of the Midwest Treaty Network in Wisconsin. His dissertation explored “Unlikely Alliances: Treaty Conflicts and Environmental Cooperation Between Rural Native and White Communities (University of Wisconsin Department of Geography, 2002). He is co-editor (with Alan Parker) of “Asserting Native Resilience: Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Crisis” (Oregon State University Press, 2012).

Marysville celebrates Strawberry Festival

Courtesy PhotoThe Marysville Strawberry Festival Royalty and float appeared in the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival in May. — Courtesy Photo
The Marysville Strawberry Festival Royalty and float appeared in the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival in May.

Kirk Boxleitner, Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — Before the Marysville Strawberry Festival’s Royalty and float put in appearances at the Saturday night Grand Parade on June 15, they’ll have already put in at least two months of travel time throughout the state of Washington, as well as a trip up north to Canada.

Darren Doty, co-vice president elect of the Maryfest Board of Directors, also serves as one of the parade float’s two main drivers, along with a supplementary third driver, and he estimated that the float crew will have logged approximately 1,000 miles on the road prior to cruising down State Avenue for the Strawberry Festival Grand Parade.

“We started on April 13 with the Daffodil Festival Parade,” Doty said. “What was unique about that day was that we had to participate in four different parades in one day — in Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner and Orting — so rather than transporting our float in the trailer, like we do even when we do the West Seattle and Olympia parades on the same day in July, we were escorted as we drove the float down the highway between towns.”

Tacoma is actually the nearest of the festivals that the Royalty and float crew have attended so far this year, with locations such as Sequim, Wenatchee and New Westminster in Canada representing some of the furthest distances they’ve gone afield.

“Of course, we’ll be hitting Arlington and Tulalip later on,” said Doty, who’s learned to negotiate the challenges of navigating a large truck and trailer, and an even larger float once it’s unloaded and assembled, through some towns with some relatively narrow streets. “Even when I find a parking spot for the truck, I have to make sure I’ve got at least 50 feet behind me to get the float out, and even when I’m driving the float down the street for parades, I could still be sharing the road with other moving or parked cars.”

Without a speedometer, or any feasible side- or rear-view mirrors, Doty relies on spotters who walk alongside the float to guide his path, especially when his clearance on either side of the float has been as little as a few inches. An equally taxing aspect of participating in months of parades, that both Doty and Maryfest Board member Carol Kapua deal with, is the amount of prep time required for each of the Saturdays’ festivals.

“Let’s say a parade starts at the typical time of 11 a.m.,” Doty said. “That means we need to get ready at 4:30 a.m. to leave around 6 a.m., so that we can get to our destination in time for the judging between 8:30-9 a.m. From there, it’s a couple of hours of waiting around. We joke that our schedule is ‘Hurry up and wait,’” he laughed. “Even if the parade starts at 11 a.m., though, that still means we probably won’t start until 11:30 a.m., or possibly even noon if we’re slated to go later in the parade. And yet, it’s always fun.”

The Strawberry Festival Royalty take the time prior to the parades to meet with the Royalty from the organizations hosting them as part of those festivals. Depending on how far away they are from Marysville, they could be accompanied by a skeleton crew of a chaperone, a float driver and a couple of crew members to unpack and repack the float at the more distant festivities, or as many as a couple of dozen folks for parades as near as West Seattle, where the Strawberry Festival crew prepares barbecue meals for their cohorts.

“We keep traveling until the first week in October, when we hit Issaquah,” Kapua said. “Of course, our last parade of the year is Merrysville for the Holidays, after which we’ll tear down this year’s float, but by that point, we’ll already have paperwork started for next year’s Strawberry Festival. It really is a year-round process.”

In spite of her own demanding collateral duty of making sure that everyone has meals packed for parade days to suit their dietary requirements, Kapua still expresses enthusiasm for taking part in nearly a full year of festivities.

“For me, it’s being able to look at the little kids’ faces, as they point to the float and dance along with the music,” Kapua said. “They don’t have any inhibitions in how they react.”

Although the Strawberry Festival’s Talent Show already took place on Tuesday, June 11, its Talent Show kicks off at 6:30 p.m. in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School auditorium on Thursday, June 13. Saturday, June 15, sees the Berry Run at Smokey Point Plant Farm at 8:30 a.m., the Rose-Planting Ceremony at Totem Middle School at 10 a.m., the Kiddies Parade on State Avenue at 6 p.m., the Grand Parade on State Avenue at 7:45 p.m. and the fireworks show at Public Works at 10 p.m.

For a complete listing of activities, go to www.maryfest.org.

Heroin use, deaths up increase in state

Donna Gordon Blankenship, Associated Press

SEATTLE — Heroin use and related deaths have increased significantly across Washington over the past decade, especially among people younger than 30, according to a new study released Wednesday.

Young people are finding it cheaper and easier to get heroin than prescription opiates these days. Both kinds of drugs offer a similar high, and a similar addiction danger, said Caleb Banta-Green, author of the report and a researcher at the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute.

The data from Washington mirrors a national trend, but the most up-to-date national research is a few years behind Washington, according to Tom McLellan, CEO of the nonprofit Treatment Research Institute and President Barack Obama’s former deputy drug czar.

A National Institutes of Health study cites national numbers from 2009 that show a national rise in opiate addiction and overdoses. The authors of that study, which was published in February 2013 in the Public Library of Science journal, predicted heroin use would likely increase as a result.

“The state of Washington has by far the best and the most comprehensive and the most up-to-date statistics, way better than the national government,” McLellan said.

Banta-Green found the largest increases in heroin use and abuse in Washington state were outside of metropolitan areas, where drug treatment and awareness are lowest.

Overdose deaths from heroin or related prescription drugs more than doubled in Cowlitz, Snohomish, Grays Harbor, Chelan, Lewis, Mason, Thurston, Benton and Kitsap counties between 2000 and 2011.

“It’s a big change,” Banta-Green said, adding, however, that he’s not surprised by the data.

He attributed part of the increase to new state rules that make it harder to get pharmaceutical opiates because of better prescription tracking.

Washington is ahead of the nation in that trend, Banta-Green said. He expects other states also may see an increase in heroin use after they tighten their prescription rules.

“This is a state manifestation of the broader national picture,” McLellan agreed.

Since 1997, doctors and pharmacists have done a better job nationally of treating pain, but the unfortunate side effect of that medical improvement was the more prescription pain medication was getting in the wrong hands because of theft or resale, he explained.

The diversion of drugs has led to an increase in overdoses, especially among young people, and has also led to more interest in heroin, McLellan said.

Washington is also setting an example for the nation with new pharmacy rules that allow pharmacists to distribute overdose response kits, including a medical antidote to heroin, naloxone, without a prescription from a doctor. So far, only one pharmacy in Washington is participating in the program, but Banta-Green expects that will change.

“What we are seeing and the pharmacy work is leading the country, for good and bad,” he said.

Banta-Green used three sources of data for his study: police drug evidence testing, treatment statistics and county death certificates. Here’s what he found:

— The number of pieces of police evidence that tested positive for heroin totaled 842 in 2007 and increased statewide to 2,251 in 2012.

— Drug treatment admissions for heroin increased statewide from 2,647 in 2002 to 7,500 in 2012. The majority of 18- to-29-year-olds seeking drug treatment for the first time in 2012 were being treated for heroin use.

— The number of accidental deaths statewide involving heroin and prescribed opiates doubled from an average of 310 a year between 2000 and 2002 and 607 a year from 2009 to 2011. In King County, almost three-quarters of drug-caused deaths involved heroin or a prescription opiate between 1997 and 2012.

Banta-Green believes the pharmacy program and a relatively new 911 overdose Good Samaritan law, along with increased awareness, could turn at least the overdose statistics around.

Washington passed the Samaritan law three years ago to encourage people to seek professional help when someone is overdosing. The law gives the person calling for medical help immunity from prosecution for drug possession charges.

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Online:

Report on opiates: http://bit.ly/1a4rr0w

Stop Overdose: http://www.stopoverdose.org

Muckleshoot Veterans Powwow, June 14-16

June 14, 15 and 16, Muckleshoot Powwow Grounds, Auburn, Washington

HUD Grants $563M To Support Affordable Housing in Native Communities

Indian Country Today Media Network

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $563 million to 353 American Indian and Alaskan Native entities that represent 539 tribes across the U.S. The funds, made available through HUD’s Indian Housing Block Grant Program, are distributed annually to eligible Indian tribes or their tribally designated housing entities for a broad range of affordable housing activities.

“Hardworking American families in tribal communities should be able to live in communities where they have a fair shot to reach their potential,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a press release. “The resources provided today will give these tribal communities the tools to maintain quality housing, prevent overcrowding, improve public safety and provide other basic building blocks of security and success.”

Indian Housing Block Grant funds primarily benefit hardworking families living on reservations or in other Native American communities, who don’t have the financial resources to maintain good homes, schools, or other key contributors to economic security. The amount of each grant is based on a formula that considers local needs and housing units under management by the tribe or designated entity.

Indian communities can use the funding for a variety of housing activities, including building affordable housing; providing assistance to existing housing that was developed under the Indian Housing Program authorized by the U.S. Housing Act of 1937; or other activities that create new approaches to provide more affordable housing for Native Americans. The funding is also used to offer housing services to eligible families and individuals; and establish crime prevention and safety measures. The block grant approach to housing was established by the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act of 1996.

NMAI’s Meet Native America Series Launches June 13

Indian Country Today Media Network

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian will launch its extensive blog site entitled Meet Native America on Thursday, June 13.

The site will feature content to improve working relationships in Indian country as well as educational mechanisms both for Natives and non-Natives about the living indigenous culture of the Western Hemisphere.

The blog site will look to continue NMAI’s strong reputation of reaching out to its Native constituency by engaging tribal people in a respectful and mutual relationship. The site will be used as a national forum for individuals from Indian country to share their personal stories of what is relevant and current in order to reveal diversity, originality and far-sighted objectives in Indian country. It will serve as a counterpart to national narratives that have largely ignored or misinterpreted Native people and issues.

Dennis Zotigh, NMAI’s museum cultural specialist, will be in charge of the site and has compiled a list of tribal leaders along with a list of interesting individuals to interview. Zotigh will post interviews with tribal leaders who are in office first, before approaching interesting individuals – elders first, in respect to age and health considerations.

Zotigh currently has 35 tribal leaders on his list, along with more than 100 interesting individuals.

Zotigh hopes to inspire readers to consider deeper ways of thinking through the words of Native thinkers.

The first post appearing on Thursday before noon is an interview with Navajo Nation president Ben Shelly. Indian Country Today Media Network.

The Fight for Veronica, Part 4

Suzette Brewer, Indian Country Today Media Network

Editor’s Note: The Baby Veronica Case, recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, is one of the most important Indian legal battles of the last generation. It is the story of Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation, who has invoked the Indian Child Welfare Act to prevent Christina Maldonado, the non-Indian mother of his baby daughter, Veronica, from putting their child up for adoption by Matt and Melanie Capobianco of South Carolina.

That bare outline does not begin to describe the convoluted dimensions of the case formally known as Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. Its drama includes an unplanned pregnancy, a broken engagement, charges of bad faith, an adoption agency that did not comply with federal Indian law, a couple who fought to adopt a child who was never legally eligible, and even the intervention of the Cherokee Nation.

For more background, read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Auld Lang Syne

Chrissi Nimmo had taken a few days off. It was New Year’s Eve 2011, and she and her husband were on a camping trip at Cedar Lake in the Quachita National Forest in southeastern Oklahoma. They had been horseback riding that day and were ringing in the New Year around the campfire with his family when her cell phone started ringing.

Nimmo, assistant attorney general for the Cherokee Nation, thought it was strange that she was able to receive calls in a place that is notoriously void of cell service. She didn’t recognize the phone number, but she answered anyway, thinking it may be important. In fact, it was life-changing.

It was a reporter from South Carolina. The very public transfer of custody involving Baby Veronica to her father was happening that very moment in downtown Charleston—did Ms. Nimmo wish to comment on behalf of the Cherokee Nation?

“Of course I wasn’t going to comment,” says Nimmo. “We don’t comment on confidential juvenile matters, which is what this should have been. But the other side was already out there on television with names, facts and identifying information that was clearly under seal by Judge Garfinkel. But there they were, the Capobiancos, their attorney and the guardian ad litem, all parading this child around the streets of Charleston in front of the cameras. It was, to say the very least, unethical and appalling.”

Nimmo hung up and immediately called the tribe’s then-attorney general, Diane Hammons, to give her boss the heads up in the event that any reporters tried to contact the tribe. Based on the Capobianco’s denied attempt at a stay of transfer until they could file another appeal, Nimmo knew that it was just a matter of time before the case would be back in appellate court.

“We knew when the hand-off happened that they were going to appeal [to the South Carolina Supreme Court],” says Nimmo. “So from that point on, we were focused on two things: Upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act and preparing for the South Carolina Supreme Court.”

Two days later, Nimmo went back to work with no time to waste. For the next four months, Nimmo put in 18-hour days gathering records, going through case files, reading case law, reviewing potential arguments, and collaborating with the appellate attorneys for Brown in South Carolina. She also worked around the clock coordinating the legal and media strategy with national Indian organizations, states’ attorneys general and a growing number of Indian tribes, all of whom had been cautiously watching the case, but were now on red alert for the upcoming legal showdown.

One of those observers was Terry Cross, executive director of the Portland, Oregon-based National Indian Child Welfare Association, who monitored the ongoing dispute with growing unease.

“We try to watch cases where we know it may become contentious and we try to help, but this case just spun out of control,” says Cross. “Look, every adoptive family knows that anything could go wrong at any time in the adoptive process and that it could fall through. But after losing in the lower courts, the first thing this family did was hire a PR firm and start talking to the media about things they know they were not supposed to talk about. That does not portend a happy ending.”

Back in South Carolina, John Nichols, a Columbia-based appellate attorney, had been already been working with Shannon Jones on legal strategy for Adoptive Couple for several months. As of January 2012, however, he was now taking the lead on the subsequent state supreme court hearing.

“This case has taken a track like no other case I’ve ever seen in all my years as an attorney,” says Nichols. “This was expedited before the Supreme Court of South Carolina in just four months, which is record time under any circumstance, but especially for one of this nature.”

Operating under new administrative rules established by the South Carolina Supreme Court in cases where parental rights are being terminated, both sides were required to submit all briefs and responses within a mandatory 30-day filing period, with no extensions granted. The court set April 17, 2012 for the hearing.

In the meantime, growing increasingly frustrated by the Capobianco’s continued media presence, Nichols filed a motion to put a stop to their activities. On their behalf, Trio Solutions, had launched an ugly media campaign designed, said Nichols, to eviscerate his client and undermine the rights of all Indian parents under ICWA. In addition to violating the law and codes of ethics, he says, they displayed a stunning lack of regard for the child at the center of the case by denigrating her father in front of the world. Though the court stopped short of issuing a gag order, the justices did issue a warning: Juvenile cases are sealed under South Carolina state statute and are not open to public discourse.

“The Capobiancos, their lawyers and their PR team broke the law,” says Nichols matter-of-factly. “There is no question that the statute is very clear on these matters. But I at least wanted to send a message that we were not going to tolerate them violating the law on a sealed juvenile case that should have been kept confidential.”

Nichols said that the court’s admonition did seem to slow the firehose of media stories—for a short time. But what did not stop was the marketing and selling of the Capobianco’s side of the story, using Veronica’s name and likeness on a variety of social media to seek attention, support and financial donations to pay their legal fees in their fight to terminate Dusten Brown’s parental rights and retain custody of Veronica.

“Save Veronica” became the clarion call of the Capobiancos’ media strategy. Starting with a website and a Facebook page, they posted regular, emotionally-charged status updates and pleas for money via a “donation” link. Additionally, bracelets, perfume, magnets, artwork and various other trinkets were sold to finance their PR firm and legal defense fund—all the while ginning up public outrage bordering on frenzy toward not only Dusten Brown, but the entire foundation of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Meanwhile, Dusten Brown kept quiet and stayed focused on building his life after returning from Iraq. But he did not like the way the Capobianco’s portrayed him in the media, especially after he allowed them to maintain contact with Veronica after the transfer. In particular, as a parent, it was the unauthorized use of his daughter’s name and likeness to build their case against her own father that hurt the most.

“They plastered her name and face all over the Internet asking for handouts,” says Brown evenly. “I never once asked for a penny from anyone, I never said a bad word about them or the birth mother. But I’ve told my lawyers that I want all those websites and Facebook pages shut down. I do not want them using her that way. If they really love her like they say they do, they wouldn’t do that to her.”

From the beginning, the insidious undertones of class and race in their messaging was clear: The Capobiancos are a well-to-do couple who can afford expensive vacations and private schools for Veronica; Dusten Brown is in the Army. The Capobiancos are both highly educated—Melanie Capobianco, in fact, holds a Ph.D in child developmental psychology (more on that later); Dusten Brown went to Vo-tech. The Capobiancos are white; but Dusten Brown, they argued fiercely—is not “Indian enough” for federal law to apply to them in disrupting their adoption plans.

Therein lies the central question hovering over this case. The legal concept of who is an “Indian” and what constitutes tribal membership has plagued and confounded many in Indian Affairs for centuries. But, regardless of countless attempts to reinterpret, circumvent and override tribal sovereignty regarding their membership, the law is unmistakably clear on the matter, according to Richard Guest, staff attorney and director of the Tribal Supreme Court Project for the Native American Rights Fund.

“As a matter of law, tribes determine their own membership,” says Guest. “Membership is based on a number of factors. Some tribes go by the Census, some go by blood quantum, but some, like the Cherokee Nation, base theirs on the Dawes Rolls—and they are within their rights to do so. Many tribes are now confronted with these issues and are changing their requirements to reflect these complexities, because some people may belong to one tribe, but may be full-blood from several different tribes through their grandparents. One person may appear white or black, but have been raised in the community, speaking the language. Others may be from urban areas and have never seen their homeland, but they’re still tribal members. There are also many marriages between people from different tribes, but their children can only be enrolled in one tribe. It’s a very complex process, especially for the courts.”

One thing is clear, says Guest. Though at first glance Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a failed adoption, it carries with it a powerful subterranean threat to the very existence of tribal life in America.

“The Cherokee Nation is a federally-recognized tribe and Dusten Brown is an enrolled member of that tribe. And in the case of Baby Veronica, the terms of the Indian Child Welfare Act are absolutely clear: She is eligible, therefore ICWA applies. To determine otherwise could have far-reaching implications for all Indian matters. The real issue is: Who gets to say who’s an Indian?”

On April 17, 2012, Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl was argued before the South Carolina Supreme Court. By this time, the case has long since blown any semblance of confidentiality and had become high conflict because of the steady diet of media assaults on Dusten Brown, ICWA and Indian tribes in general.

Because of potential security issues, the Court took the unusual step of closing the courthouse to the general public. Only the parties, their attorneys and essential personnel were allowed into the hearing. Both sides were taken into and out of separate entrances and elevators by police escort and were not allowed even to pass each other in the hallways. Relations between the two families had soured to the point where they had to be sequestered in separate chambers before the arguments.

Outside the courthouse, protesters for the Capobiancos had gathered and were going full force with signs and banners beseeching the South Carolina Supreme Court to “Save Veronica.” Several media outlets also covered the hearing, which had by then become national news.

Inside the courthouse, the atmosphere was tense and unyielding as the attorney for the Capobiancos, Robert Hill, argued that Brown was a deadbeat dad who did nothing to contribute to the birth mother or his child during her pregnancy. Under state law, he said, Brown therefore had not established or obtained parental rights. Because he had not established paternity or obtained parental rights, ICWA did not apply under the definitions of the act. Additionally, Hill argued that because Veronica had already been with her adoptive family, removing her from the Capobiancos would psychologically harm her. The court should find “good cause,” he said, to deviate from the Indian adoptive placement preferences outlined in ICWA and return her to the Capobiancos.

John Nichols, appellate attorney for Dusten Brown, defended his client by asserting that all along, the mother and the Capobiancos had conspired and colluded to hide this adoption and obfuscate his Indian heritage, knowing full well that he would object. Nichols pointed out that they had waited until Brown was in lock down at Ft. Sill to serve him the notice of parental termination. Brown’s immediate reaction upon hearing that his child had been adopted without his consent or approval, he said, was to seek custody. But most importantly, Nichols argued that Dusten Brown, as a tribal member, is considered a “parent” under ICWA and that Veronica is therefore by definition is “an Indian child.” These facts alone, he argued, required that the Court rule in favor of Brown.

Chrissi Nimmo, arguing on behalf of the Cherokee Nation, also told the court that they should only consider the time that Veronica was with the pre-adoptive parents from birth to four months, because it was only then that Brown learned of her situation and sought custody. Further, Nimmo asserted that gaining temporary custody of a child in violation of the law and maintaining custody throughout protracted litigation does not entitle the adoptive couple to permanent custody.

Three months later, on July 26, 2012, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued a 78-page ruling affirming the lower court rulings of Judges Garfinkel and Malphrus. In a 3-2 decision affirming Brown’s status as an Indian parent, Veronica’s status as an Indian child, the court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act. In a stunning rebuke of the birth mother and the Capobiancos, the court wrote the following:

“Mother testified that she knew “from the beginning” that Father was a registered member of the Cherokee Nation, and that she deemed this information “important” throughout the adoption process.⁵Further, she testified she knew that if the Cherokee Nation were alerted to Baby Girl’s status as an Indian child, “some things were going to come into effect, but [she] wasn’t for [sic] sure what.” Mother reported Father’s Indian heritage on the Nightlight Agency’s adoption form and testified she made Father’s Indian heritage known to Appellants and every agency involved in the adoption. However, it appears that there were some efforts to conceal his Indian status. In fact, the pre-placement form reflects Mother’s reluctance to share this information:

the birth mother did not wish to identify the father, said she

wanted to keep things low-key as possible for the [Appellants],

because he’s registered in the Cherokee tribe. It was determined that

naming him would be detrimental to the adoption.”

For the first time in several years, Dusten Brown and his legal team breathed a sigh of relief. It was felt that the case had finally reached its conclusion and he and his new wife, Robin, and Veronica, could move on with their lives in Oklahoma.

But it was not to be. On October 1, 2012, the Capobiancos, who now has the estimable Lisa Blatt of the Washington, D.C. firm of Arnold and Porter, as their lead counsel, filed a petition of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court. Three months later, on January 4, 2013, certiorari was granted in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The most important Indian law case in three decades was going before the nation’s highest court.

Retiring Marysville superintendent got schools back on track

Nick Adams / The HeraldMarysville School District Superintendent Larry Nyland and Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller listen to songs by the Tulalip Tribes during a retirement party at the Hibulb Cultural Center on May 30. Both school officials are retiring. — Nick Adams / The Herald
Marysville School District Superintendent Larry Nyland and Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller listen to songs by the Tulalip Tribes during a retirement party at the Hibulb Cultural Center on May 30. Both school officials are retiring.

By Gale Fiege, The Herald

MARYSVILLE — No matter what side they were on in the fall of 2003, most people agree that the divisive 49-day teachers strike in the Marysville School District took a toll on the community.

When he started in the summer of 2004, then-new Superintendent Larry Nyland set out to meet individually with more than 700 people. His first goal, he said, was to “restore relationships.”

Many of those in attendance at Nyland’s retirement reception May 30 at the Hibulb Cultural Center talked at length about Nyland’s work to heal the district and to get results from the school board, the administration, the teachers, the district’s 11,000 students and the people of Marysville and Tulalip.

State Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, said he always appreciated Nyland.

“When Larry got here, it was the right time,” McCoy said. “He was successful at calming things down and getting the district back on an even keel.”

Nick Adams/ The HeraldMarysville School District Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland and Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller listen to songs by the Tulalip Tribes during a retirement party at the Hibulb Cultural Center on May 30. Both school officials are retiring. — Nick Adams/ The Herald
Marysville School District Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland and Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller listen to songs by the Tulalip Tribes during a retirement party at the Hibulb Cultural Center on May 30. Both school officials are retiring.

In his role in the state Legislature, McCoy said he heard frequently from Nyland regarding school funding and other issues.

“Larry had no problem telling me what was on his mind, and I like that,” McCoy said. “I hope our new superintendent is outspoken, too. She can call me anytime.”

Becky Cooke Berg is scheduled to start her new job as superintendent of Marysville schools on July 1. Berg, who has a doctorate in education, is moving here from her job as the superintendent of the Deer Park School District near Spokane. A meeting to give the public a chance to meet Berg is set for 4 to 6 p.m. Monday at the school administration office before the regular school board meeting.

Nyland, who served nine years in Marysville, said his last days with the school district this month are “bittersweet.”

“It’s time to hand the job off,” Nyland said. “It’s been a good nine years.”

Most of the Marysville high school graduations are over for the year. Nyland said he is proud that the graduation rate in the district rose 20 percentage points during his tenure.

“My passion is student learning and I think we’ve had notable achievements in the past nine years,” he said. “It’s not just about better test scores. It’s about the skills students take away when they graduate.”

Nyland began teaching in 1971 in Gig Harbor and served as a superintendent in Alaska and elswhere in Washington before taking the job at Marysville.

Under Nyland, voters began passing school levies again, and in 2006 they approved a $120 million bond package in 2006 that helped build Grove Elementary School and Marysville Getchell High School. In 2007, Nyland was named the state’s superintendent of the year.

Assistant Marysville Superintendent Gail Miller also is retiring at the end of this month after nine years with the district.

“There was no better superintendent to work with and no better place to end my career than with Larry in Marysville,” Miller said. The Tulalip Tribes hosted the reception for Nyland and Miller, and Tribal Chairman Mel Sheldon served as the master of ceremonies.

“Gail and Larry brought to the table compassion and an understanding of the tribes,” Sheldon said. “They were team players, and we are eternally grateful for the relationships that were made.”

Arden Watson, who has served as head of the teachers union in Marysville, said that from the start Nyland had a clear desire to work with teachers and all staff of the district.

“We haven’t always agreed on everything, but we worked collaboratively,” Watson said.

School Board President Chris Nation said Nyland stood by the board and made Marysville a better district.

“At a time of turmoil and mistrust, Dr. Nyland got us back on track,” Nation said. “We aspire to be like Larry.”

Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said the partnerships between the school district, the tribes, the business owners and the city to benefit students were encouraged by Nyland.

“Because there is no bigger priority than our children,” Nehring said.

Congress Members Respond to NFL Commissioner’s Support for ‘Redskins’ Name

ICTMN Staff

June 11, 2013

2013_NFL_Owners_Meetings_Roger_Goodell_Redskins_Cap_Space — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

Two members of Congress, Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) and Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) have issued responses to the June 5 letter sent by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the league’s position on the Washington, D.C. franchise’s use of the name “Redskins.” Goodell wrote in his letter that the term, considered offensive–racist–by many Native Americans, has a “positive meaning.” (Read Goodell’s entire letter here.)

Congressman Faleomavaega responded to the letter with the following statement:

“Mr. Goodell has completely missed the point regarding the Washington franchise’s name. In his recent letter, he acknowledges the NFL’s ‘responsibility to exemplify […] values of diversity and inclusion.’ Yet in the same letter he fails to assume any responsibility for the racism that the Washington franchise’s name continues to promote. You cannot have it both ways. Whether good intentioned or not, the fact of the matter is that the term ‘Redskin’ is a racial slur that disparages Native Americans. It is time for the NFL to stop making excuses for itself and fully embrace its so-called commitment to diversity.”

Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) (MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel) — Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn
(MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel)

Democratic Co-Chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus Congresswoman McCollum issued the following response:

“Unfortunately, NFL Commissioner Goodell’s letter is another attempt to justify a racial slur on behalf of Dan Snyder and other NFL owners who appear to be only concerned with earning ever larger profits, even if it means exploiting a racist stereotype of Native Americans. For the head of a multi-billion dollar sports league to embrace the twisted logic that ‘Redskin’ actually ‘stands for strength, courage, pride, and respect’ is a statement of absurdity.

“Would Roger Goodell and Dan Snyder actually travel to a Native American community and greet a group tribal members by saying, ‘Hey, what’s up redskin?’ I think not. (“Hey, what’s up redskin” is >a quote from materials provided to my office by the NFL, along with the claim that “Redskins” is a “term of endearment” among Native Americans.)

“Indian children, families and elders are Americans, and just like all racial, ethnic, or religious groups, they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, not as a demeaning caricature or mascot. That shouldn’t be too much to ask of the NFL.”

Alternate route to Grand Canyon Skywalk now open

By Lindsey Collom

The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:55 PM

An alternate route to Grand Canyon Skywalk opened Tuesday afternoon, bypassing a portion of the main road to the Hualapai Tribe attraction that was barricaded last week by a dude rancher who said his business was harmed by tourist traffic cutting through his property.

The Hualapai Tribe obtained a permit Tuesday morning from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that allowed crews to complete the final grading of the bypass route on federal land near the dude ranch.

In a statement issued by the tribe, Chairwoman Sherry Counts thanked U.S. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Arizona, and Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, for their influence in fast-tracking the permit process.

“These elected officials took a stand for tourism and for the safety of all visitors to the Grand Canyon,” Counts said. “On behalf of the Hualapai people, and the thousands of tourists who come to this region every day, I’m very grateful for their leadership.”

Grand Canyon Ranch Resort owner Nigel Turner said he will protest the BLM action.

Turner closed Diamond Bar Road to tourist traffic on June 5 to protest what he claims is the federal government’s failure to abide by the terms of a 2007 settlement involving a permanent road now under construction. In May, he asked a federal judge to enforce the terms of the settlement. A ruling is expected later this week.

Scores of tourists over the years have driven the unpaved, winding road through Turner’s ranch. Unless arriving by air or four-wheel drive, visitors have had no other option but to take Diamond Bar Road to reach the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Visitors accessed the road for free until May 25, when Turner began imposing a toll on the one-mile stretch that crosses his property. Armed guards had been enforcing the toll of $20 per person or $500 per tour bus.

Turner contends that he is well within his rights as a private landowner, and that his business has suffered as a result of the traffic and the noise from construction of the new permanent road. The working dude ranch attracts between 400 and 500 visitors a day and accommodates about 40 overnight guests, many from overseas, Turner said.

He was arrested last week on a misdemeanor count of threatening and intimidating. His arrest stemmed from an incident with a construction worker near the roadblock. Turner was released within hours after posting bond.