OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee prescribed his plan Thursday for pumping $1.3 billion more into the state’s public school system then challenged lawmakers to buck up and pay for it by ending popular tax breaks and extending taxes set to expire this summer.The first-term governor wants to fund full-day kindergarten in high poverty schools and make preschool available for more children of low-income families.
He also wants to pay for smaller kindergarten and first grade classes, beef up reading intervention and dropout prevention programs and hire 1,400 secondary school teachers in order add courses in middle and high schools.
And he’d pour half of the new money into shouldering a greater share of the bill for school bus service and the purchase of materials and supplies in each school district.
Most of the investment is a first step toward complying with a Supreme Court decision last year that found lawmakers in violation of the state Constitution by not adequately funding public schools.
“To govern, it is said, is to choose,” Inslee said after releasing a broad blueprint of his priorities for the next two-year state budget. “Today, I choose, and I believe we should all choose, education over tax breaks, and to make good on our constitutional and moral duty to quality schools for our children.”
Republicans in the House and Senate didn’t object to how Inslee wants to spend the money only his reliance on taxes to pay for it. They wished he’d looked harder to trim government spending and not put as many dollars into salaries and benefits of state employees.
“I don’t see one on there I can support,” Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler of Ritzville said of the list of tax breaks. “You’re not choosing between kids and tax cuts. You’re choosing between bureaucrats and tax hikes.”
House Democrats said Inslee’s plan spending and tax proposals are on the same scale as the ones in the budget they are writing.
“Overall I think the budget reflected the values of our caucus pretty well,” said House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington.
To pay for his education plan, Inslee wants to generate $565 million by repealing or revising 11 tax exemptions most of which have been a political hit list before and survived.
Among them are ones that could lead to bottled water getting taxed and Oregon residents paying sales taxes.
Time and again Thursday, Inslee said it comes down to preserving those breaks or preparing the next generation of engineers and scientists.
“I challenge anyone, anyone in any part of the state in any industry to argue that any single one of these tax breaks is more important than the STEM education of these students,” he said.
Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, serves on the Senate budget committee that will have to approve any of them.
“I don’t think anything is more important than education other than getting our economy going again,” she said. “Adding more taxes on businesses has a dampening effect on growth.”
Inslee also wants to make permanent a hike in the business and occupation tax paid by doctors, lawyers and accountants and a 50-cent-per-gallon tax on beer. He also wants to expand the beer tax to cover all producers; today it only applies to those making in excess of 60,000 barrels a year.
Inslee hopes to bring in $661 million from these taxes which were enacted in 2010 and are set to expire June 30.
Inslee, who campaigned against raising taxes, said his plan doesn’t backtrack on that. He said he repeatedly pledged to close tax break and not seek a general tax increase.
“I am fulfilling on my commitment to the ‘T’,” he said.
For owners of small breweries the change in the beer tax means they the tax they pay on each 31-gallon barrel produced could rise from $4.78 to $20.28.
“We’re going to pass it through and it will go through to the beer drinker,” said co-owner Phil Bannan, co-owner of Scuttlebutt Brewing Co. in Everett. “Beer is a common man’s drink so this is going to hit the common man in the wallet.”
Kegs, which hold 15.5 gallons and cost around $135 apiece today, could go up in price by about $10, he said.
“I don’t disagree with the priority of education,” he said. “But I disagree with his way of solving it.”
What Inslee released Thursday was his spending priorities for the two-year budget which begins July 1.
With a projected shortfall of $1.3 billion, Inslee is proposing to save $321 million by suspending the cost-of-living raises for teachers required under Initiative 732. He also suggests cutting $29.8 million in funding for alternative learning experience programs which cover costs of online and home school programs.
In other parts of his budget proposal Inslee backs full expansion of the Medicaid program. That move, he said, will reportedly save the state nearly $300 million as the federal government picks up the cost of covering the estimated 255,000 adults who could become eligible.
He wants to hire more child and adult protective services caseworkers, restore the 3 percent pay cuts for state employees and put $23.7 million into state parks.
With release of his proposal, Inslee kicked off the budget debate in Olympia.
The Republican-dominated Senate Majority Coalition expects to release its budget early next week followed by the House Democrats.
The 105-day legislative session is scheduled to end April 28.
Dan Bates / The Herald (From left) Susan Marshall, Tanner Bellows and Karrington Jessup relax on a comfy white leather couch, just above the tide line, while they watch the house moving.
MISSION BEACH — Kippy Murphy brought tissues. Her brother, Mike Dutton, brought beer.
It was a sentimental occasion for the Everett siblings. The two-story gray house on the beach where they’d spent decades of summers was being moved across the Sound to Whidbey Island, where it would have a new family.
“I had to come out and have my last beer at the beach house,” Dutton, 53, said Tuesday as he stood on the flat white shore southeast of Tulalip Bay.
It marks the end of an era for generations of tenants of more than 20 homes on a quarter-mile stretch of beach owned by the Tulalip Tribes. The tenants owned the homes, but not the land, and the tribes want to restore it back to natural beaches for use by members.
Tenants had seven years notice to not only vacate the premises, but to take their homes with them. Most houses were stripped and demolished.
Murphy, 46, didn’t want to destroy her family’s summer getaway — a five-bedroom, 3,000 square-foot home built in 1993 to replace a rustic fishing cabin.
“My dad built it to be barged because he knew that eventually the leases would expire,” she said. “Our parents have passed, so it made us feel good to know that we saved the house.”
Murphy and her brother sold it for $1 through the house moving company, Nickel Bros.
“It’s sad,” she said, “but I’m happy that somebody is going to use it.”
The home’s new owners, an Issaquah couple with two young kids, couldn’t be happier.
“It was the perfect house for us,” said Annie Schinnerer. “I’m excited. I can’t wait.”
It cost about $60,000 to move their $1 vacation home to Mutiny Bay in Freeland, she said. “When it’s all said and done, it will be about $150,000, which is still $50 a square foot and a great deal.”
The two families chatted on the beach Tuesday evening as workers bustled around the jacked-up house for its daunting sprint to the nearby barge.
Spectators brought chairs, blankets, beer, dogs and grandkids to watch the work take over place over several hours Tuesday.
A crew of men in orange coveralls and hardhats put planking over the sand using what looked like giant Tinker Toys.
From there, the boxy home was hoisted onto a flatbed truck that had to pull a tight sharp turn away from a retaining wall. The crunch of wooden planks resounded from the home’s weight, stirring the crowd of onlookers armed with cameras at the ready.
The truck lurched forward, groaning. It slowly carried its oversized cargo up a skinny steel ramp tilted over the shore.
Silence prevailed at the precarious spectacle. Would the house topple?
A few people stepped back, just in case.
A cheer erupted when the house rolled onto the barge deck intact.
But it wasn’t smooth sailing from there. The barge got stuck in the sand and couldn’t leave until Wednesday morning.
Duwamish Chairwoman Cecile Hansen has been fighting for federal recognition for her tribe for 36 years. On March 22, a federal district judge ruled the tribe was wrongfully denied federal recognition under the Bush Administration in 2001 giving them another chance.
ICTMN Vincent Schilling
March 28, 2013
Nearly 36 years ago in 1977, the Duwamish Tribe, the people of Chief Seattle, petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs for federal recognition. Originally told their quest to be recognized would probably take only about five years, the Duwamish tribe fell victim to multiple changes in the BIA’s process ultimately ending in denial in 2001. However, the Duwamish now have a second chance at gaining federal recognition.
On Friday March 22, 2013, Seattle federal district court Judge John Coughenour ruled that the Bush Administration’s Bureau of Indian Affairs wrongly denied the Duwamish Tribe of Seattle’s petition for federal recognition in 2001. Citing the denial was “arbitrary and capricious” Judge Coughenour ordered the Bureau of Indian Affairs to re-evaluate the petition.
According to Chris Stearns, (Navajo) Chairman of the Seattle Human Rights Commission and former Attorney for the Federal House Committee on Natural Resources who has followed the progress of the Duwamish, “After a decade-long battle in the courts to get the Bush Administration’s 2001 decision thrown out, Duwamish Tribal Chairwoman Cecile Hansen has won. She didn’t win federal recognition outright, but she now has a shot at least. The Obama Administration will now get a crack at deciding whether the Duwamish should be a federally recognized tribe in Seattle.”
Throughout the entire 36-year quest to be federally acknowledged, the Duwamish have faced several ups, downs and broken promises in the process.
In 1996, Clinton Administration’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Ada Deer, issued a preliminary ruling against the Duwamish. As the Administration was preparing to leave office in January of 2001, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover reversed a preliminary finding of Ada Deer against another Washington tribe, the Chinook. His Deputy, Michael Anderson took over for Gover and on January 19, 2001, the last day of the Clinton Administration, Anderson reversed Deer’s preliminary finding against the Duwamish and ordered them recognized.
Anderson personally called Duwamish Chairwoman Cecile Hansen to tell her the tribe was recognized. However, Anderson did not sign his approval statement and returned three days after the Bush Administration had taken over. While waiting in a car outside the Interior Department, Anderson retroactively signed the approval statement which was dated January 19, 2001.
Unfortunately for the Duwamish tribe the new Bush Administration put a hold on all new regulations and determinations that had not yet been published in the Federal Register. The Duwamish approval was held, never made it to the Federal Register, and thus never took effect.
On September 25, 2001, the Bush Administration’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Neal McCaleb, reversed the Anderson approval and formally issued a final decision refusing the Duwamish’s bid to be recognized.
Since 2003, Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott has introduced a bill every two years to restore recognition to the Duwamish which has never made it out of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
According to Nedra Darling, Spokeswoman at the Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, when asked about their stance on the issue, she stated ‘It is the Department of the Interior’s policy not to discuss matters that are currently under litigation.”
In an interview with Indian Country Today Media Network, Chairwoman Cecile Hansen shared her thoughts of a nearly 36-year battle in seeking recognition for her tribe.
How did the petition for recognition begin?
We were fighting for fishing rights and we naïvely believed that we were going to get recognized and get our fishing rights given back. That was the whole point of us getting into this process.
HELENA — A woman’s shawl, laid across a chair, told a story almost too painful for words.
Patty McGeshick, the chairperson of the Montana Native Women’s Coalition and a member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes, laid the empty shawl over the back of the chair and began a ceremony during Wednesday’s two-day conclave held at the Red Lion Colonial Hotel. The event concludes late this afternoon.
The event is a listening session that focuses on domestic abuse and sexual assault on Native American reservations.
“What this represents is all the women out there who are,” she began and then stopped as though memories would not let her continue. The silence lengthened before she could continue speaking. Her voice was shaky as she said, “living in violence and who need help.
“The ceremony that we’ve done here is to honor them,” she said.
McGeshick asked that those attending the morning session pray for these women. She said she hoped that someday people would live in a violence-free community and in the safety of their own homes.
“We are still living in a time when women and men are still being hurt, still being battered, and it’s really a shameful thing,” she said.
She called upon Native American men to answer the call for help from women in their communities, to answer it on behalf of their mothers, their grandmothers and great-grandmothers.
According to an online account of an October 2011 hearing by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1 in 3 Native American women will be raped at least once in their lives and 3 out of 5 will be victims of an assault.
McGeshick cited the statistic on the prevalence of rape before beginning the ceremony and said, “We want people to be accountable if they commit these acts” against Native women.
Gov. Steve Bullock, who delivered opening remarks before Richard Opper, the new director of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services, said, “Whether you are a survivor, an advocate or a policymaker, the work you do every single day does not go unnoticed. Your effort, whether individual or collective, is valued — it is needed, and I hope that you will never stop fighting for what is right.
The rate at which violence occurs in Indian Country is much higher than elsewhere in the state, Bullock said.
“I stand with you and do our part to help the victims who survive, to heal, to support them, to share our strength with them and to let them know that they are not alone. Today, victims no longer have to remain silent and or feel any shame.
“The next generation, and all the generations that follow, must learn that the behaviors that lead to violating others are not something to be proud of. Our prevention efforts must be diligent,” the governor said.
Cathy Cichosz, a member of the Gros Ventre tribe who lives in Hays, which is on the Fort Belknap Reservation, is an Army veteran from some 40 years ago. She was asked to attend the conclave to carry the American flag during the opening ceremony. Native singers with drums provided the backdrop.
Waiting for the conclave to begin, she said that since those days in uniform she worked for seven years to put herself through nursing school in San Francisco then eventually returned home to take care of her ailing mother who would live to be 111.
The conclave, she said, “will make people more aware of what’s going on and hopefully how to prevent it.”
Discussing domestic and sexual violence helps bring it out in the open, she said, instead of having its victims “push it under the rug.”
“It used to be such a shame; they were ashamed to talk about it, go to anybody,” Cichosz said. “It will be more preventable this way.”
The goal of the event is explain what is happening to Native American women and children, said Elaine Topsky, an at-large member of the coalition and a member of the Chippewa Cree tribe who lives on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation.
Topsky is the program director for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in her community, which is a federal block grant program that seeks to help move recipients into work and turn welfare into temporary assistance.
Her program works with about 150 families and affects about 1,000 people, she added.
The isolation of living in small communities on reservations means that violence may go unreported, Topsky said.
A Native woman will endure domestic violence at a higher rate before she is willing to leave the home, said Donny Ferguson, a child advocate with the Rocky Boy’s Children Exposed to Violence Project.
“It’s the way we believe, the way we’ve been conditioned,” Ferguson said. “It’s a normal way of life sometimes.”
Topsky’s efforts on behalf of her agency are to try and keep the family together until the environment becomes abusive.
“As Indian women, our families are who we are,” Topsky said.
“They’re the backbone of the family. It’s their responsibility to keep the family intact.”
Her program offers a variety of services aimed at helping families that are experiencing difficulties to make steps toward improvement. Parenting classes can be one of those steps. Making sure the family’s children are attending school each day can be another one.
Advocates appointed by tribal councils, who are called peacemakers, help to intervene using tribal values to assist families reconcile their troubles.
“That’s one of the best things we’ve ever done,” Topsky added.
McGeshick said the coalition wants to improve local, state and federal relationships so there is better communication on issues of Native women and violence.
She said that she doesn’t see Native women as being more vulnerable to violence as there are other dynamics involved in reservation life where communities are smaller. Others said that help for those involved in violence can take a while to arrive and locating other housing to get a woman out of a home where an abusive situation exists can be difficult as there is a housing shortage in some reservation communities.
All women should be treated with respect, McGeshick said, and those living in these communities should have access to the same services such as domestic abuse shelters that are available to women in more urban communities.
“I want to have all the rights for the Native women as all other women in Montana,” McGeshick said. “We want to have the same rights.”
“I don’t want to draw a line between Native and non-Native women. We’re all women,” she said.
Life on a reservation is rich in culture, rich in beliefs. People are truly tied to the land where generations of their families have lived before them, McGeshick said.
“We have to focus more on our successes rather than out problems,” she said.
Steelhead in the Columbia River Basin are threatened. Current populations have dwindled to a fraction of the historic numbers a century ago. That has led two Northwest Indian Tribes to try something new to help this struggling fish survive. Both tribes are learning from each other along the way.
The snow is almost gone in north Idaho. But it’s still cold, almost freezing on this early morning at the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery near Orofino.
That’s Andrew Pierce with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission or “CRITFC.” He and several dozen Nez Perce tribal members pull large fish from tanks of water. The fish are weighed and measured. Then the eggs and what’s called milt – or semen – are removed. This is all part of an artificial spawning program. The eggs and milt will be combined later in plastic tubes. It’s a process that has a higher success than if the fish were to spawn naturally in the river.
Salmon and Steelhead die in the traditional artificial spawning process which involves killing the fish then surgically removing the eggs and milt.
While salmon die naturally after spawning, Steelhead don’t. They return to the ocean and back to Northwest rivers year after year. Scott Everett is a Nez Perce project manager who says his tribe decided that to maximize the natural process, they needed a method of artificial spawning that didn’t kill the fish. That’s what they are doing here.
“Instead of killing the fish, you’re filling the body cavity with air and that essentially forces the eggs out,” Everett says.
The steelhead are then placed in large tanks for a few weeks to recover. Females that spawn repeatedly are known as kelts. That’s how this program got it’s name – Kelt Reconditioning Program. Everett says the goal is to rebuild the once abundant populations of steelhead that northwest tribes have traditionally relied on along with salmon. Overfishing, water quality and hundreds of dams that make passage difficult for the fish have impacted steelhead numbers over the years.
“We’re hopefully getting enough fish alive that we can actually put them in our reconditioning project here and keep them alive for three to six month or longer and get them back out in the river,” Everett says.
Thats where the Yakama Nation tribe comes in. The central Washington tribe has been using the Kelt Reconditioning Program for 14-years.
Iceberg Point Shoreline, Lopez Island. Photo by Tom Reeve.
Source: Indian Country Today Media Network
On March 25, President Obama established the San Juan Islands National Monument by proclamation. The Islands, a stunningly beautiful archipelago off the coast of Washington state and home to abundant wildlife, will now enjoy the benefits of being a National Monument. The Coast Salish peoples, for which the islands are traditional and hereditary lands, are celebrating Obama’s move.
Patos Island (photo by Linda Hudson)
According to the National Park Service, San Juan Island has been a magnet for human habitation. Its location at the crossroads of three great waterways, plus sheltered harbors, open prairie and secluded woodlands, drew people wanting to stake a life, or find rest and relaxation amid an abundant food source.
The ancestors of today’s Northern Straits Coast Salish people began to appear in the wake of the continental ice sheet that started to recede 11,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests that the island supported hunting and gathering between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago. The marine culture encountered by the first Europeans to the area developed about 2,500 years ago, and traces of its once thriving villages remain in the shell middens found along the shoreline of American and English camps and throughout the San Juan Islands.
Patos Island sunset (photo by Linda Hudson
By early historic times, the indigenous people of the San Juan Islands and nearby mainland areas were primarily members of six Central Coast Salish Tribes who spoke the Northern Straits language: Sooke, Saanich, Songhee, Lummi, Samish and Semiahmoo. Another Central Coast Salish tribe that entered the Northern Straits country spoke the closely related Klallam (or Clallam) language.
In addition to sharing these languages, the Central Coast Salish tribes shared a culture and way of life through which they used a wide range of marine, riverine, and terrestrial resources. They followed patterns of seasonal movement between islands and the mainland and from large winter villages to smaller resource collection camps occupied in the other seasons. Because of the exposure to severe winter winds and storms of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, those sites found within the Cattle Point-Mount Finlayson-South Beach were considered to be more likely seasonal subsistence and resource collection and processing camps, rather than permanent settlements.
The Lummi are one of the Coast Salish peoples whose ancestors lived in the San Juan Islands.
Patos Island Lighthouse (photo by Tom Reeve)
The San Juan Islands National Monument will encompass approximately 75 Bureau of Land Management sites totaling about 1,000 acres in San Juan, Whatcom and Skagit counties. Designation as a National Monument removes these lands from possible sale or development by the Bureau and engages the local community in developing and carrying out a management plan for these lands. Under permanent protection will be dozens of small islands in the San Juans, like Indian Island near the town of Eastsound, that provide breeding grounds for birds and safe refuges for everything from harbor seal pups to rare plants.These lands include ancient fishing sites and camas gardens that are important to Native American culture, and historically important lighthouses on Patos Island and Turn Point.
Also to be protected are popular recreation destinations in the islands like Iceberg Point and Watmough Bay on Lopez Island, Patos Island and Cattle Point on San Juan Island.
Watmough Bight (photo by Steve Horn)
Here is the text of Obama’s proclamation, and visit the monument’s website: SanJuanIslandsNca.org.
Presidential Proclamation — San Juan Islands National Monument
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SAN JUAN ISLANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT
– – – – – – –
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Within Washington State’s Puget Sound lies an archipelago of over 450 islands, rocks, and pinnacles known as the San Juan Islands. These islands form an unmatched landscape of contrasts, where forests seem to spring from gray rock and distant, snow-capped peaks provide the backdrop for sandy beaches. Numerous wildlife species can be found here, thriving in the diverse habitats supported by the islands. The presence of archeological sites, historic lighthouses, and a few tight-knit communities testifies that humans have navigated this rugged landscape for thousands of years. These lands are a refuge of scientific and historic treasures and a classroom for generations of Americans.
The islands are part of the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. Native people first used the area near the end of the last glacial period, about 12,000 years ago. However, permanent settlements were relatively uncommon until the last several hundred years. The Coast Salish people often lived in villages of wooden-plank houses and used numerous smaller sites for fishing and harvesting shellfish. In addition to collecting edible plants, and hunting various birds and mammals, native people used fire to maintain meadows of the nutritionally rich great camas. Archaeological remains of the villages, camps, and processing sites are located throughout these lands, including shell middens, reef net locations, and burial sites. Wood-working tools, such as antler wedges, along with bone barbs used for fishing hooks and projectile points, are also found on the islands. Scientists working in the San Juan Islands have uncovered a unique array of fossils and other evidence of long-vanished species. Ancient bison skeletons (10,000-12,000 years old) have been found in several areas, indicating that these islands were an historic mammal dispersal corridor. Butcher marks on some of these bones suggest that the earliest human inhabitants hunted these large animals.
The first Europeans explored the narrows of the San Juan Islands in the late 18th century, and many of their names for the islands are still in use. These early explorers led the way for 19th century European and American traders and trappers. By 1852, American settlers had established homesteads on the San Juan Islands, some of which remain today. In the late 19th century, the Federal Government built several structures to aid in maritime navigation. Two light stations and their associated buildings are located on lands administered by the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM): Patos Island Light Station (National Register of Historic Places, 1977) and Turn Point Light Station (Washington State Register of Historic Places, 1978).
The lands on Patos Island, Stuart Island, Lopez Island, and neighboring islands constitute some of the most scientifically interesting lands in the San Juan Islands. These lands contain a dramatic and unusual diversity of habitats, with forests, woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands intermixed with rocky balds, bluffs, inter-tidal areas, and sandy beaches. The stands of forests and open woodlands, some of which are several hundred years old, include a majestic assemblage of trees, such as Douglas fir, red cedar, western hemlock, Oregon maple, Garry oak, and Pacific madrone. The fire-dependent grasslands, which are also susceptible to invasive species, are home to chick lupine, historically significant great camas, brittle cactus, and the threatened golden paintbrush. Rocky balds and bluffs are home to over 200 species of moss that are extremely sensitive to disturbance and trampling. In an area with limited fresh water, two wetlands on Lopez Island and one on Patos Island are the most significant freshwater habitats in the San Juan Islands.
The diversity of habitats in the San Juan Islands is critical to supporting an equally varied collection of wildlife. Marine mammals, including orcas, seals, and porpoises, attract a regular stream of wildlife watchers. Native, terrestrial mammals include black-tail deer, river otter, mink, several bats, and the Shaw Island vole. Raptors, such as bald eagles and peregrine falcons, are commonly observed soaring above the islands. Varied seabirds and terrestrial birds can also be found here, including the threatened marbled murrelet and the recently reintroduced western bluebird. The island marble butterfly, once thought to be extinct, is currently limited to a small population in the San Juan Islands.
The protection of these lands in the San Juan Islands will maintain their historical and cultural significance and enhance their unique and varied natural and scientific resources, for the benefit of all Americans.
WHEREAS section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431) (the “Antiquities Act”), authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected;
WHEREAS it is in the public interest to preserve the objects of scientific and historic interest on the lands of the San Juan Islands;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Antiquities Act, hereby proclaim the objects identified above that are situated upon lands and interests in
lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be the San Juan Islands National Monument (monument), and, for the purpose of protecting those objects, reserve as a part thereof all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States and administered by the Department of the Interior through the BLM, including all unappropriated or unreserved islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles above mean high tide, within the boundaries described on the accompanying map, which is attached to and forms a part of this proclamation. These reserved Federal lands and interests in lands encompass approximately 970 acres, which is the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.
All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of the monument administered by the Department of the Interior through the BLM are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, sale, leasing, or other disposition under the public land laws, including withdrawal from location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and from disposition under all laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing, other than by exchange that furthers the protective purposes of this proclamation.
The establishment of the monument is subject to valid existing rights. Lands and interests in lands within the monument boundaries not owned or controlled by the Government of the United States shall be reserved as a part of the monument upon acquisition of ownership or control by the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) on behalf of the United States.
The Secretary shall manage the monument through the BLM as a unit of the National Landscape Conservation System, pursuant to applicable legal authorities, to implement the purposes of this proclamation, except that if the Secretary hereafter acquires on behalf of the United States ownership or control of any lands or interests in lands within the monument boundaries not owned or controlled by the United States, the Secretary shall determine whether such lands and interests in lands will be administered by the BLM as a unit of the National Landscape Conservation System or by another component of the Department of the Interior, consistent with applicable legal authorities.
For purposes of protecting and restoring the objects identified above, the Secretary, through the BLM, shall prepare and maintain a management plan for the monument and shall establish an advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) to provide information and advice regarding the development of such plan.
Except for emergency, Federal law enforcement, or authorized administrative purposes, motorized vehicle use in the monument shall be permitted only on designated roads, and non-motorized mechanized vehicle use in the monument shall be permitted only on designated roads and trails.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish the rights of any Indian tribe. The Secretary shall, in consultation with Indian tribes, ensure the protection of religious and cultural sites in the monument and provide access to the sites by members of Indian tribes for traditional cultural and customary uses, consistent with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (42 U.S.C. 1996) and Executive Order 13007 of May 24, 1996 (Indian Sacred Sites).
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish the jurisdiction or authority of the State of Washington or the United States over submerged or other lands within the territorial waters off the coast of Washington.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Washington with respect to fish and wildlife management.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to limit the authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security to engage in search and rescue operations, or to use Patos Island Light Station, Turn Point Light Station, or other aids to navigation for navigational or national security purposes.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the monument shall be the dominant reservation.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to restrict safe and efficient aircraft operations, including activities and exercises of the Armed Forces and the United States Coast Guard, in the vicinity of the monument.
Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature of the monument and not to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.
By Carol Berry, Indian Country Today Media Network
Photo by Carol Berry. Edward Nichols, president and CEO of History Colorado, spoke with Terry Knight, a cultural leader of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, at a meeting March 22 of the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs. The commission has been asked to help foster negotiations between the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and History Colorado in a conflict over consultation for the Sand Creek Massacre exhibit at the History Colorado Center.
When tribes, whose ancestors are the subject of a museum exhibit, are against that exhibit and ask for it to be closed pending further consultation, it’s obvious something is amiss.
Although reluctant in the past to close the exhibit, officials of a Denver museum are now considering it to repair a damaged partnership with the affected tribes.
The controversy focuses on History Colorado Center’s exhibit on the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, when more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, mostly children, women and elders, were killed by U.S. Army volunteers in a southeast Colorado camp where they had been promised safety.
Past meetings with tribal representatives have led museum officials to correct some editorial errors in the exhibit, but that didn’t solve the deeper problem that the officials didn’t consult with tribes as much as they should have.
The Sand Creek Massacre exhibit is a cluster of small chambers with curved walls alight with shifting messages and images that characterize 19th century beliefs about Natives and non-Natives. Throughout the exhibit a recording of the late LaForce Lone Bear singing his ancestor Chief White Antelope’s death song plays. The music is interspersed with muted gunshots and cries. One message in colors shifting from blue to violet on a wall says, “Ve’ho’e is the Cheyenne term for spider as well as for white man. It represents an intelligent mischief-maker or villain.”
The mass killing at Sand Creek is neutrally attributed in the exhibit to a “collision” of cultures, but it was “one of the most heinous crimes committed on the planet,” said David Halaas, former chief historian of the Colorado Historical Society, which preceded History Colorado.
The tribes involved have repeatedly asked—and continue to ask—that the exhibit be closed until they are consulted fully about its content. Although History Colorado officials said recently that a meeting with tribes will be held before the end of March, the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs said it’s waiting to hear from the tribes. The commission has been asked to help negotiate among the government-designated partners overseeing the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site—the National Park Service, the state through History Colorado, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
Although partnered management of the massacre site may not technically extend to the museum exhibit, History Colorado stresses that “partnership with the tribes is what we want to achieve and have enjoyed in the past.”
“They [History Colorado] present quotes that try to tell the story in all its fullness—but this was a massacre,” stressed Halaas, a long-time tribal friend. “They use quotes which seem to explain why the soldiers did what they did—those quotations are unacceptable.” Meetings between the museum and tribes in 2011 and 2012 concerning the exhibit were unsuccessful, he said, and tribal representatives boycotted the center’s opening last April.
Now, closing the exhibit pending tribal consultation and approval is “under consideration,” said Edward Nichols, president and CEO of History Colorado. “We’re as interested in getting to a resolution of their concerns as they are.” He believes not getting the tribes involved sooner is at the heart of the dispute and is anxious for a conversation with them.
There are further complexities to this consultation process. Gordon Yellowman, a principal Cheyenne tribal chief and a Peace Chief on the Cheyenne Council of Forty-Four, said the tribe is governed by a dual traditional/Western-style system. A required federal government-to-government consultation process was established between the National Park Service and elected tribal officials who are, in turn, supposed to bring decisions back to the traditional leaders and headmen to whom they customarily defer, but the process hasn’t run smoothly, he said.
The museum conducts audience surveys to see how the exhibit was received by patrons. But Halaas feels, “they should be more concerned about the reaction of the tribes” both in terms of whether it’s an accurate, non-eurocentric historical account and how well it describes the event’s illegality and its past and present impacts on the tribes.
The most graphic material presented in the exhibit may be in a letter from Capt. Silas Soule, who refused to follow the orders of his commander, Army Col. John Chivington, to fire on the unarmed Indians and who later testified against Chivington for atrocities committed that day. Chivington later resigned his post in disgrace. Soule wrote in a letter to Gen. George Wynkoop, only one copy of which was available to the public at the installation:
“I tell you Ned it was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized… One squaw with her two children, were on their knees, begging for their lives of a dozen soldiers, within ten feet of them all firing—when one succeeded in hitting the squaw in the thigh, when she took a knife and cut the throats of both children and then killed herself.”
“This is an open wound—this is not healed,” Halaas said. “Let’s sit down together, and while we’re doing that, close this thing and reopen it after full consultation—that’s what the tribes want.”
“After all,” he concluded, “it isn’t their [museum officials’] history—but it’s affected every tribal family.”
By Richard Walker, Indian Country Today Media Network
Many of them were 18 or 19 when they enlisted or were drafted. They were trained to fight in a far-off land, to stop communism from spreading into Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, all that is ugly about war – in this case, the Vietnam War – was broadcast into American living rooms for the first time. As the human and financial costs of the war grew, opinions collided – sometimes violently, in the U.S. capital, on college campuses and on city streets.
When U.S. military personnel came home, many with injuries and memories that would still haunt them decades later, there was no welcome.
“They were not treated like heroes as those who returned from Korea and World War II,” said Washington State Rep. Norm Johnson (R-Toppenish). “Instead, they were portrayed as baby killers, warmongers and other things.… That had a traumatic effect on these soldiers that is still painful to these days as many of them refuse to talk about their experiences.”
Now, thirty eight years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the war, Washington state’s Vietnam War veterans will finally be welcomed home.
State House Bill 1319 establishes March 30 of every year as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” in Washington state. The bill, introduced by Johnson and co-sponsored by 38 state House members, was unanimously approved by the House on February 20. On March 25, the state Senate also unanimously passed the measure, sending it to Governor Jay Inslee for his signature.
March 30 would not be a public holiday, but rather a day of public remembrance. However, all public buildings and schools would be required to fly the POW/MIA flag; that flag is also flown on Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, National POW/MIA Recognition Day and Veterans Day.
The observance was proposed to Johnson by Gil Calac of the Yakama Warriors Association, a Native veterans organization with about 190 members who make sure that veterans are not forgotten. Calac, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam from 1969-70, spoke for the bill February 6 and March 14. His compelling testimony moved the Washington legislators to act quickly and affirmatively on this bill.
At the March 14 hearing before the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations, Calac said Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day would help veterans “put away our guilt, the shame, the grief and despair,” and heal from the animosity veterans faced when they returned home.
Calac told of one veteran who returned home from Vietnam and was discharged in Oakland, California. He was spit upon while wearing his uniform. Upset, he went into a bar, where he was spit upon again. Linda McNeely, who joined Calac at the hearing, told the committee a similar story of how her husband was spit upon at the airport when he returned home from the war.
“The scars will always be there forever,” Calac said. “I know we can’t change the past, but we can help our Vietnam War veterans by opening the door and saying, ‘Welcome home.’”
Gil Calac, Yakama Nation, a member of the Yakama Warriors
Calac served in the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry, 165th Signal Company from 1969-70. He served 15 months in Vietnam. He received the Bronze Star, the fifth-highest combat decoration, but won’t speak about the circumstances that led to his receiving the medal.
“Two years ago was the first time I ever talked about getting the Bronze Star,” he said. “I still haven’t taken it out of the case.”
After returning home from Vietnam, he coped with alcohol and drug dependence. His first marriage ended in divorce; he said he almost lost his second marriage and his children as well. He’s now been sober for 28 years, which he credits to his Native religion, Washat, and traditional foods.
Had Vietnam War veterans been welcomed home at the start, closure and healing could have taken place earlier, he said.
“A classmate told me he just started getting treated for PTSD two years ago,” Calac said. “[The trauma] is ingrained in you. You hide it, but it sneaks up on you. It comes out.”
State Rep. John McCoy (D-Tulalip) was a communications operator in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines during the Tet Offensive. He remembers the stack of coffins at the morgue across the street from his work station. His wife, Jeannie, worked as a civilian in the records section of the base hospital, and remembers the injured soldiers on stretchers in the hospital hallways.
“It was pretty hard on her,” McCoy said. “From the time we left the Philippines until 1994, she wouldn’t step into a hospital.”
McCoy was the first co-sponsor of HB 1319. “It’s time,” McCoy said. “A lot of those Vietnam vets are still suffering. That piece of legislation is going to help them heal.”
According to the National Archives, 58,220 Americans–1,047 from Washington state – are known to have died in the Vietnam War. The Library of Congress POW/MIA Databases & Documents website reports that as of November 2001, 1,948 Americans remain unaccounted for in Vietnam.
“In the little town of Toppenish where I grew up and served on the city council and as mayor, 13 men from that community paid the ultimate sacrifice in the Vietnam War,” Rep. Johnson told the state Senate committee. “That’s a per capita death rate eight times that of the nation’s and 12 times that of the state. I also have a cousin who lies in the cemetery at Zillah who came home in a box from Vietnam.”
In a speech he gave at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on Memorial Day 1993, Lt. Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey said the average infantryman in the Vietnam War saw about 240 days of combat in one year – 200 more days than an infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II – thanks to the mobility of the helicopter. One out of every 10 Americans who served in the Vietnam War was a casualty; an estimated 304,000 were wounded and, at the time of McCaffrey’s speech, 75,000 Vietnam War veterans were living with war-related disabilities.
Heidi Audette, communications director for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs, told the committee Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day would help future generations understand the service and sacrifice Vietnam War veterans made on behalf of their state and country.
“We’re also really hopeful that this will continue to encourage Vietnam and other veterans to come forward and seek out the benefits they so richly deserve from their service to our country,” Audette said. “There are so many Vietnam veterans that have yet to connect with the benefits that they earned because of their service, so we’re hopeful this will help in that way as well.”
Calac said several attempts in the U.S. Congress to pass a national Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day have failed; Calac and others are now lobbying to have the observance adopted state by state. (In 2011 and 2012, President Obama signed an executive order proclaiming March 29 of those years as Vietnam Veterans Day.)
The legislatures in several states, California and Texas among them, have established a Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day. Calac said he and others are going to lobby next in Idaho, Arizona and Nevada.
Rep. Johnson has invited the Yakama Warriors to present the colors March 29 at the State Capitol, the day before the new observance. Calac is inviting other Vietnam War veterans to participate. Following a short ceremony, veterans and family members will gather at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Statehouse grounds. There will be a pow wow drum ceremony and a circle of life will be formed by the religious leaders who are on hand. Calac is hoping to have pins and ribbons for all Vietnam Veterans to wear.
For more information, contact Calac at 509-949-0914 or calacg@embarqmail.com. The Yakama Warriors Association website is YakamaWarriors.com and their Facebook page can be found by clicking here.
The website for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs is Dva.wa.gov. If you are a vet or know a vet who needs assistance, contact the Washington State VA at 360-725-2200 or 800-562-0132.
By Grace Marks, Indian Country Today Media Network
When it comes to internal customer service, the most common complaint is negativity in the workplace. Negativity can show up as gossip, complaining, blaming, backstabbing or jealousy affecting morale and productivity.
Words carry tremendous energy. They can generate joy or inflict long-lasting and devastating pain.
Gossip is Bullying
Grace Marks
Gossip is a form of bullying. It is an act of intimidation to have power over another and occurs in all age groups and cultures. The Workplace Bullying Institute estimates that 53.5 million Americans report being bullied at work—that is roughly the combined populations of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. Workplace bullies are insecure, quick to jealousy, and generally unhappy with themselves. By uniting with others to share secrets about someone’s misfortune, they create a false sense of intimacy and feel better about themselves.
Non-verbal messages are a passive way to bully. Consider the rolling of the eyes, scanning someone up and down, sighing, sneering, or being ignored or whispered about. The best move is to stop gossip before it starts. An innocent, Here’s what I heard about … may destroy a reputation. If you find yourself in a gossip situation, change the subject, keep quiet, walk away from the conversation, say you’re uncomfortable gossiping, or share something positive about the person who is the subject of the gossip.
Complain—Get More of the Same
Constant complaining also has negative side effects. Most of us complain all day every day. The average person complains between 15 and 30 times per day. We complain because it makes us feel better (in the short term) and because others can agree about how we feel and how hard we have it. You may temporarily feel better after going on and on about how you have been wronged, victimized, used, manipulated, or disrespected. Despite the initial relief, complaining is like a virus eating away any sort of happiness, responsibility and purpose in your life. Complaining usually leads to greater unhappiness, negative thinking and relationship problems. Since words have energy, complaining usually gets you more of what you are complaining about.
Steps Towards Change
The first step is to increase your awareness of your behavior and words. If you are a gossiper, recognize the power of your words and find the courage to speak up positively. You can be a role model to others. If you are a complainer, direct your conscious focus on what you are grateful for and think of possible solutions. Sometimes you do have to accept a situation as something you cannot change and recognize the destructiveness in complaining about it. If you find yourself saying negative things out of jealousy, focus on your unique qualities and talents.
Putting an end to negatively and bullying begins with each of us—how we think and speak about ourselves and others. Pay closer attention to negative self-talk and judgments. Cancel or delete them in your mind whenever they surface and replace with something positive. Pat yourself on the back more often rather than being self-critical.
Choose More Healing Words
Use more healing words such as thank you, I appreciate you, I’m sorry, good work, or well done. Offer assurance to those who are anxious or troubled. Remind your family and friends they are loved, respected and valued.
Healing words can bring comfort, inner peace, and enhance overall well-being. They can improve your mood which has a positive effect on all those around you.
Grace Marks, MPH, CPC is a certified life coach, motivational speaker and holistic stress management instructor with Native Empowerment: Solutions for Health and Harmony providing customized training programs for tribal organizations and businesses. Visit www.nativeempowerment.com.
