Tulalip Coastal Jam honors Indigenous People

“To me, Indigenous means being proud of who you are and where you come from; remembering your ancestry and all that they’ve done to get us to where we are right now; and to educate our youth to be strong as Native People and to love themselves so our culture and traditions stay alive.” 

– Denise Hatch-Anderson, Tulalip tribal member

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News 

For the past four years, the greater Seattle area has been celebrating the beautiful culture of the people who lived off of this land since time immemorial. Every second Monday in Octber, communities throughout western Washington host a variety of events to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which officially replaced Columbus Day back in 2014. Indigenous Peoples’ Day aims to provide Washingtonians with accurate information about the series of events that occurred after Columbus reached our lands in 1492. Many communities nationwide have joined Seattle and now celebrate Indigenous culture every year. 

To start off the second week of Tulalip Unity Month, #KindnessWeek, Youth Services hosted a cultural gathering at the Greg Williams Court on the evening of Indigenous Peoples Day. The gym was packed and the bleachers were filled as people waited in anticipation for the festivities to begin. The youth proudly led Tulalip to the floor with loud drumbeats and booming chants in a song paying respect to the four directions. It didn’t take long for the spectators to become participants as the bleachers emptied and people joined Tulalip on the floor for a large coastal jam. 

“Today I’m happy to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. That whole Christopher Columbus Day, we don’t recognize that,” says Tulalip tribal member and Tulalip Youth Services Activities Coordinator, Josh Fryberg. “The main thing is we want to honor our ancestors and make them proud and continue to set a cultural path, continue on with our treaty rights for the future generations to come. And we want to encourage the youth to continue to learn your culture each and every day and continue to fight for it so that it’s here for the future generations. Tonight, I believe we have Puyallup, Lummi, Swinomish and some from Canada, just a good mix of many tribes. We’re blessed, it shows the unity within all of our tribes and all of our bands.”

Native families created a circle around the gym and took turns performing their traditional songs and dances. A few songs were known to all of the coastal families in which more dancers hit the floor and the words were sung at a much louder volume by the entire crowd, causing that goosebump sensation during a beautiful moment for the culture. The youth ruled the night. Kids of all ages, infants to teens, sang their hearts out and danced all evening. After performing a song, the Tulalip youth put down their drums and rattles and joined the dancers on the floor until it was their turn to sing again, repeating this cycle for over two hours.

“It makes me feel good, it makes my heart warm because this is something that we needed,” says Tulalip tribal member and Marysville School District Native Liaison, Denise Hatch-Anderson. “October is always hard for our youth, not just because of the change in seasons but because of what happened four years ago. October has been a hard transition for our teens ever since. To see our teens here, knowing they’re going to get the healing they need from the songs tonight warms my heart and it’s going to uplift them as well as our tiny ones and our elders.”

Tulalip Youth Services will continue hosting a variety of activities throughout October for Unity Month including many fun autumn themed events that bring attention to issues such as bullying, domestic violence and substance abuse. For more information, please visit the Tulalip Youth Services Facebook page.

 

Coastal Jams keep the cultural fire burning

By Kalvin Valdillez

On the fourth Thursday of every month, traditional drumbeats echo from the Longhouse of the Hibulb Cultural Center between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. And according to a couple of museum employees, the songs can be heard from as far as the intersection of Marine Drive and 27th Ave NE.

Traditional singers, dancers, storytellers and musicians from across the nation gather at the museum to celebrate Indigenous culture during an event known as the Hibulb Cultural Center Coastal Jam. During the most recent Coastal Jam, tribal members from Tlingit, Apache and Swinomish joined Tulalip members in a fun hour of song and dance.

“These Coastal Jams are all about keeping the cultural fire burning,” explains Coastal Jam Host and Tulalip tribal member, Cary Williams. “We’ve been doing this for around five to six months. I’ve been to many different of arenas and many different styles of gathering, so in that way I’ve picked up those tools to run this floor. More and more people show up and more and more drums and songs from all different tribes are shared on this floor. It’s an open floor for traditions and teachings; we also play flute songs as well. We honor our elders and give them time to speak, we also allow the children to participate and pick up those teachings and be exposed to the songs and traditions.”

Many participants from other tribes shared their songs as well as a little bit about themselves and their families during the event.

Traditional Flutist, Paul Nyenhuis, opened and concluded the ceremony, performing beautiful melodies on his handmade flutes. Paul also gifted miniature flutes to the youth in attendance. During one of the songs, a young tribal member was inspired to take to the floor to showcase her traditional dance skills. Soon after, participants began to join the young dancer until nearly every person in the Longhouse was either dancing or singing. One of the first to join the young lady was community member and Apache tribal member, Ayanna Fuentes.

“I think the event is really good,” states Ayanna. “I live in Stanwood-Camano area and so most jams I have to drive out like forever far, so it’s super nice to have a local and safe space in the area. It definitely warms my heart to be able to come and share and sing. I love to dance. I sing and drum a lot but dancing is one of my favorite things about jams so it’s nice to be able to dance on a regular Thursday, it’s beautiful.”

Currently the Coastal Jams are held for only an hour, but Cary explained that as the event grows, so will the duration, expressing he wants each jam to go as long as it can for as long as it needs to.

“It’s an honor to carry these songs,” Cary expresses. “It’s an honor to have them as a part of my life, to share them with the youth of this tribe and to have them out in front of our elders as well. It also heals me along the way when people come and share their songs. Our doors are always open and we invite all drummers and singers to this space to share what they have to offer to their community and families. Also, the outside world that comes and looks at who we are as Indian People, we also have that ground to educate upon and share our ways of life and our ways of viewing the world we all live in. I feel like participation keeps growing, one day soon this Longhouse will be too small for this event.”

For more information, please contact the Hibulb Cultural Center at (360) 716-2600.