June 2013 - Page 31 of 31

CSUSB to Aid in Preservation of Serrano Language Through Course Offering

Kenneth Shoji, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – The ancient Native American language of Serrano, which was dying out as fewer and fewer native speakers of the language remained, has received a lifeline through the work of tribal people and academics.

The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians (Yuhaviatam Clan of Serrano) signed a historic agreement with Cal State San Bernardino on Friday, May 24, to have the Serrano language taught at the university by San Manuel linguists and a tribal elder through CSUSB’s world languages and literature department.

“Serrano is a language that came close to extinction,” said CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales. “Now through this agreement, the Serrano language will not only be perpetuated, but also its use will be expanded.”

Under the agreement, San Manuel’s Serrano Language Revitalization Project staff will teach the Serrano language course series – Serrano 101, 102 and 103 – at Cal State San Bernardino for the academic year 2013-2014, in collaboration with Ernest Siva of the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. The course will cover the language, history and culture of the Serrano people. Along with CSUSB students, tribal citizens also will be able to take the Serrano course series through the university’s College of Extended Learning and receive college credit.

And, as part of the agreement, the tribe’s sponsorship in providing the instructors and curriculum for the course will be considered as a donation to the CSUSB Philanthropic Foundation.

“As we increasingly become an academic center that supports and encourages tribal heritage, we want to continue to build our relations with our native partners,” Morales said. “We want the tribal members of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to feel CSUSB is their home. We also want to extend that feeling of welcome to other tribes in our region.”

“It is my belief that our identity as Serrano people is rooted in our land, our culture and our language, each an aspect of the Serrano world connecting us to all that has passed before and all that is yet to come,” said San Manuel Chairperson Carla Rodriguez. “This course will allow Serrano Indian people and Cal State San Bernardino students an opportunity to bring new life to our ancient and sacred language.”

The Serrano Language Revitalization Program, a function of the San Manuel Education Department, conducts regular, ongoing research to develop and publish Serrano resources, including a dictionary and grammar book. This process includes weekly field work with Ernest Siva and is directed by San Manuel Tribal Members, including Education Committee Chairman Paakuma’ Tawinat, who helped lead the tribal effort to establish the Serrano language course series.

“By being involved in the community through our educational outreach, San Manuel has found opportunities and partners to bring new vitality to the Serrano language and culture. On the reservation, we have made great strides to take a traditionally only-spoken language and create a modern written language,” Tawinat said. “The Serrano language is a very important part of our lives, and along with our traditions, it defines who we are as people. It is a great honor to share our language with students, to see it grow and preserve the memory of our ancestors.”

Siva, who has also taught prior courses on culture and language at CSUSB, agreed. “I’m honored to be involved in making the language available to anyone who wants to learn it. It’s kind of like a dream,” he said. “Who’d ever think it would happen?”

Siva grew up on the Morongo Indian Reservation, where he learned the Serrano language and serves as tribal historian and cultural adviser for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. Siva, who has been a strong proponent for the preservation of American Indian culture, founded and serves as president of the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, which saves and shares all Southern California’s American Indian cultures, languages, history, music and other traditional arts.

Siva earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music education and choral music from the University of Southern California and serves as a distinguished guest artist in Native American culture at Cal State San Bernardino. Siva also serves on the board of directors of the California Indian Storytelling Association, the board of trustees of Idyllwild Arts, and the board of the Riverside Arts Council. He also is a member of the CSUSB Philanthropic Board of Directors and recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the university in 2009.

Morales said the university’s courses on cultural resource management, museum studies, geography and archaeology will focus on maintaining Native American cultural identity and protecting tribal autonomy to further cement the university’s commitment to work with American Indian tribes in the region.

The agreement is another part of the university’s ongoing effort to preserve Native American records.

Over the past year, Thomas Long, an associate professor in the CSUSB history department and its coordinator of public history and internships, has had his students digitize and catalogue the Mission Indian Federation records at the National Archives.

Long’s students also have been digitizing and cataloguing the St. Boniface Indian School records at the San Bernardino Roman Catholic Diocese archives. The archiving project will run through the summer and fall quarter of 2013. At its conclusion, a full copy-set of the materials will be delivered to the San Manuel archives.

In addition, Long’s students have been completing their internship work at the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, working on various projects aimed at the Serrano and Cahuilla culture preservation as well as other significant archival projects with tribal elder Ernest and his wife, June Siva.

Visit the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center website at

www.dorothyramon.org for more information, as well as the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians website at http://www.sanmanuel-nsn.gov/.

For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.

First Neighbors, Dedication to Snohomish Peoples

Historic Everett and the Northwest Neighborhood Association will be honoring the earliest inhabitants of the Everett community with the installation of three interpretive signs depicting the early culture and history of the Snohomish Peoples.

Legion Park Bluff, June 5th, 2013 at 5PM

140 Alverson Boulevard, Everett WA

US Government Under Fire at Permanent Forum Ahead of World Conference

Gale Courey Toensing, Indian Country Today Media Network

Indigenous organizations attending the 12^th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) criticized the United States federal government for trying to make an end run around the human rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) and voiced concern that state actions will sideline Indigenous Peoples at the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples scheduled for September 2014. The UNPFII took place at the U.N. in New York from May 20-31.

In a day long discussion on the World Conference during the Permanent Forum on May 28, speakers expressed opposition – and indignation – at a statement made by Laurie Shestack Phipps, advisor for economic and social affairs of the United States Mission to the United Nations, regarding the federal government’s position on the Declaration.

Phipps’ statement, or “intervention” as it is called at the U.N., was presented May 22 in opposition to a suggestion that the Permanent Forum establish a monitoring and complaints mechanism for the Declaration. But most offensive to indigenous organizations was Phipps’ reiteration of parts of the State Department’s white paper of December 16, 2010 – the day President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. was “lending its support” to the Declaration.

“We would like to take this opportunity to note that the Declaration is a non-binding, aspirational document,” Phipps stated. “We would also like to reiterate the U.S. government’s view that self-determination, as expressed in the Declaration, is different from self-determination in international law.”

The statement set off a red alert among North American Indigenous Peoples when it was first announced. “We’ve been involved in these issues for a while now and making sure that the United States doesn’t try to domesticate the international Declaration—that’s going to be the challenge,” Penobscot Indian Nation Chief Kirk Francis said at the time. And the statement outraged people again at this year’s Permanent Forum. (Related story: Next Step: ? Implementation)

“The most objectionable [part of the U.S. statement] was their reiterated position that the rights of self-determination as recognized under international law for ALL PEOPLES is somehow a different right for Indigenous Peoples,” Roberto Borrero (Taino People of Boriken – Puerto Rico), said in an impassioned statement that he read on behalf of the International Indian Treaty Council. “At that time [2010] Indigenous Peoples did not accept this attempt to redefine international law as affirmed in the U.N. Charter and the Covenants, or to diminish the internationally recognized minimum standard of the Declaration. We do not accept it now.”

The IITC statement acknowledged that the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples has the potential to move forward the full and effective implementation of the inherent rights affirmed by the Declaration. But IITC and other indigenous organizations are concerned that some states might use the World Conference “in an attempt to diminish, qualify or redefine the rights affirmed in this hard fought minimum standard, or to limit the intended scope of its implementation,” Borrero said. “We are firmly resolved and will stand united with the Indigenous Peoples of the world to ensure that this will not happen. Discrimination must not be tolerated in any body or process of the United Nations which is based on the fundamental principles of international human rights law and the tenants of the U.N. Charter which include non-discrimination.”

The IITC has asked the Permanent Forum to issue a formal statement expressing its concern and joining with Indigenous Peoples in rejecting discriminatory attempts by the U.S. or any other state to diminish the rights affirmed in the Declaration by the U.N. and at the World Conference. “This is an historic opportunity for full and effective implementation, in good faith and partnership,” Borrero said. “The time for racial discrimination and all doctrines which justify it is the past. Their proper place is in the dustbin of history. “

Indigenous representatives from Africa, Asia, the Arctic, North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and the Pacific as well as the Indigenous Women’s Caucus and the Indigenous Youth Caucus, both of which presented interventions at the Permanent Forum, will attend a preparatory conference in Alta, Norway June 10-12 to consolidate indigenous Peoples’ strategies and positions for the World Conference, which is described as “a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly.”

Kenneth Deer, representative of the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus (NAIPC), said the caucus agreed to take part in the World Conference under certain conditions, including advancing “the rights of Indigenous Peoples as peoples and nations with rights equal to all other peoples, that we have and confirm the inalienable right to self determination as recognized in various international instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … as well as our rights to our lands, territories, resources, treaties, languages and cultures.” He said the Alta Conference outcome document should assert these rights and support the implementation of the Declaration and that the NAIPC will review the document “to determine what positive and negative impacts it could have and also to assess NAIPC’s involvement in the World Conference.”

Steve Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape), an Indian Country Today Media Network columnist, presented an intervention on behalf of the Indigenous Law Institute that began with an acknowledgment that the U.N. building stands on the traditional territory of the Lenape, Munsee and Delaware ancestors. Mincing no words, Newcomb said that the U.S. position for a ‘different” right of self determination for Indigenous Peoples in international law “is racist and predicated on ancient theological-political bigotry” – namely the Doctrine of Discovery that allowed Christian nations to claim as their own land that was not inhabited by Christians and to kill or enslave the indigenous inhabitants or those lands. The World Conference “will not result in positive and fundamental reform for our Nations and Peoples unless it is used as an opportunity to engage in the kinds of moral discussions that took place in the 16^th century … regarding Aristotle’s theory of natural domination or slavery and whether our ancestors were human. The difference today, of course, is that we have our own voice,” Newcomb said.

Tonawanda Seneca Chief Darwin Hill read a statement on behalf of an umbrella group including the National Congress of American Indians, United South and Eastern Tribes, the California Association of Tribal Governments, 72 Indigenous nations and seven Indigenous organizations. Violations against indigenous are actually increasing in some states, Hill said. And the Declaration, which is supposed to protect those rights, cannot be effective without implementing measures and without international monitoring, he said. The group recommended, among other things, creating a new U.N. body to promote and monitor implementation of the Declaration and giving Indigenous Peoples “a dignified and appropriate” permanent status through their constitutional and customary governments to participate in all U.N. activities.

Reardon’s departure will bring changes for county leadership

Aaron Reardon’s departure as county executive doesn’t end a number of investigations.

By Noah Haglund and Scott North, The Herald

EVERETT — Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon left public office about 4 p.m. Friday, ending nearly a decade as the county’s top elected official.

He did not speak with Herald reporters seeking answers about harassing records requests linked to his staff, or how he could explain evidence that he crossed lines intended to keep his political campaigns separate from taxpayers’ money.

A statement attributed to him was posted on the county’s website: “I extend my best wishes to our county officials as they continue their work at the direction of this county’s residents. Finally, and most importantly, I want to sincerely thank the voters of Snohomish County for choosing me on six separate occasions to represent you. It has been a great honor and a sincere privilege to work on your behalf.”

Reardon’s departure cleared the way for other county leaders to focus on hopes that a new executive would bring productive working relationships back to county government.

“I’m very excited about the future,” said County Councilman Brian Sullivan, whose relationship with Reardon, a former ally, soured over the years.

Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe said he’s hopeful that Monday will bring word that Sheriff John Lovick, of Mill Creek, has been chosen to be the next county executive. Other likely nominees are state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, and Everett attorney Todd Nichols, a longtime Democratic Party leader at the state and county level.

Reardon’s departure is a significant step in a story with chapters yet unfolding. They include:

•King County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation — Detectives still are trying to determine whether any laws were broken by Reardon’s staff. The people on the receiving end of public records requests, made anonymously by aides Kevin Hulten and Jon Rudicil, believe they were targets of harassment, surveillance and retaliation for cooperating with a 2012 investigation of Reardon. The State Patrol investigation eventually cleared Reardon of using public funds to carry on a private affair with another county employee.

•Public Disclosure Commission — Two investigations are underway, both focusing on campaign activity in Reardon’s office during his 2011 run for office. One inquiry is examining Reardon’s conduct, including hundreds of calls he made to people who worked on or funded his re-election campaign. The other case is focused on Hulten, and work-day calls he made to state election watchdogs about issues later used to attack Reardon’s opponent, state Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens.

•Political changes — The departure triggers reshuffling among county leaders and likely will mean changes for one or more office holders. If Lovick gets the nod, the council will need to name a new sheriff. New leadership also may mean shifts in county priorities.

•More lawsuits — The county could face litigation over some of the controversies that have swirled around Reardon. Some have been threatening lawsuits for years.

Reardon’s parting statement claimed multiple successes in managing the county.

“Together, we have modernized and transformed Snohomish County government from a silo-based bureaucracy to a more dynamic, network-driven organization focused on outcomes as opposed to processes.”

At the same time, Reardon left office by delivering an unwelcome surprise to his County Council counterparts just before he left.

Reardon’s spokesman informed the council that Reardon had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tulalip tribes regarding land-use planning. That was news to the council. The county’s rules require the executive to first seek the council’s agreement before any intergovernmental agreements are signed. The council planned to take up the issue next week.

Deputy County Executive Gary Haakenson is now the acting county executive until Reardon’s replacement is named.

Because Reardon is a Democrat, it’s up to Snohomish County Democrats to nominate three candidates to take his place. The party plans to convene a special caucus Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Everett Labor Temple’s Warren Rush Hall, 2812 Lombard Ave., Everett. The meeting is public.

The party’s central committee will forward the names to the County Council, which then has 60 days to agree on a successor. The council has scheduled public interviews with the nominees for 8:30 a.m. Monday.

The new regime is sure to usher in sweeping personnel changes.

By last week, some of the closest members of Reardon’s staff already had begun making their way toward the exit doors.

Reardon’s finance chief, Roger Neumaier, is in line to be appointed finance director for the city of Edmonds. He awaits the Edmonds City Council’s confirmation on Tuesday. More staff changes are expected.

Voters first sent Reardon to the Legislature in 1997 and he became the youngest county executive in the nation in 2004, at age 33.

His time as the county’s top elected administrator was marked by public feuds with other county leaders and scandals related to his staff and himself. The investigation into his use of county resources while carrying on the affair began in November 2011. And in February he was back under scrutiny after Hulten and Rudicil were linked to the anonymous public records requests, attack websites and other activities targeting people considered the executive’s political rivals.

A week after the story broke, Reardon announced plans for his resignation.

After spending 15 years as an elected public official, Reardon so far hasn’t discussed what he plans next.

To Sullivan, that was typical of Reardon and part of his undoing.

“He’s not a very open person and it’s hard to be a secret person in a public life,” Sullivan said. “I wish him and his family well.”

On Friday, Roe said he is looking forward to a time when the good work being done by Snohomish County government workers has a chance of attracting more attention than serial scandals.

“For the last couple of years I’ve had to listen to Snohomish County jokes from colleagues and friends and family relations, and I’m ready for that to be over,” Roe said.

Tulalip’s 4th Annual Stickgame Tournament

Saturday-Sunday: Tulalip Tribes Stickgame Tournament. An exciting event with games and vendors. The games are located on 27th Ave, across from the Boom City Swap Meet and there is plenty of parking.

The games will be going on all night and tomorrow. There are 120 teams in the tournament. Stickgames are a long tradtion that has been revived over the years and brought back to Tulalip in order to, “bring families and friends from all tribes together in this long running tradition,” said Tulalip Tribal member Nessie Hatch.

North Tribes in the back playing the south tribes in the pregames before the Tournament.Photo by Monica Brown — North Tribes the playing the south tribes in the pregames before the Tournament.
Photo by Monica Brown

Pow Wow, Games, Shopping and Storyelling at Tulalip this weekend

Saturday-Sunday: 22nd Annual Veterans Pow Wow at the Tulalip Resort Convention area. Also take time to enjoy the vendors and food in the outside tent.

Saturday-Sunday: Tulalip Tribes Stickgame Tournament. An exciting event with games and vendors. The games are located on 27th Ave, across from the Boom City Swap Meet.

Fundraising Sale: Parent Committee of Tulalip Early Head Start Fundraising Gym Sale, Saturday June 2 8am-5pm, Old Tulalip Elementary School Gym

Boom City Swap Meet – Open Saturday and Sunday. www.boomcityswapmeet.com

Storytelling at the Hibulb Cultural Center, Sunday, June 2: Lois Langrebe, Language teacher and artist, in the Longhouse Room, 1pm

DOJ report shows federal prosecutors tackling more criminal cases in Indian Country

The Bismarck Tribune, Tom Stromme/Associated Press - FILE--North Dakota’s U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon speaks during a press conference in Bismarck, N.D., in this May 28, 2013 file photo. — The Bismarck Tribune, Tom Stromme/Associated Press – FILE–North Dakota’s U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon speaks during a press conference in Bismarck, N.D., in this May 28, 2013 file photo.

Source: Washington Post, Associated Press

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — American Indian leaders who have criticized the federal government for years over the way authorities handled major crimes on reservations can mark progress with the release of newly tracked statistics from the U.S. Justice Department.

The number of Indian Country cases charged in federal court has increased by 54 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2012, from 1,091 cases to 1,677 cases, according to a DOJ report released Thursday.

“They’ve taken their responsibility much more seriously than before,” said Brent Leonhard, an attorney with Umatilla tribe in Oregon.

The report marks the first look at government investigations and prosecutions on tribal lands. It comes as a result of the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, which requires the Justice Department to publicly release such figures.

Justice officials acknowledge that their work is far from done, but they say the numbers demonstrate the government’s commitment to combating violent crime on reservations where rates are higher than the national average.

Also, the report shows that prosecutors secured convictions in about two-thirds of nearly 6,000 reservation cases between calendar years 2011 and 2012. Of the 5,985 cases, about one-third were declined for prosecution.

Some others were resolved administratively or sent to another prosecuting authority and didn’t end up in federal court.

The numbers show “that we’re walking the talk at the Department of Justice,” said Tim Purdon, U.S. attorney in North Dakota.

Arizona, home to part of the nation’s largest American Indian reservation, had the highest number of total referrals with more than 2,000, followed by South Dakota with nearly 1,000 and Montana with more than 500.

Purdon leads a subcommittee that reports to Attorney General Eric Holder on American Indian issues. He said federal officials “want to improve public safety” and added that they are working to “remove those most dangerous predators, the most dangerous criminals from Indian Country.”

The federal government and tribes have concurrent jurisdiction in crimes where the suspect and victim are both American Indian, but federal prosecutions carry much stiffer penalties. Among recent U.S. government prosecutions:

— A man was found guilty of sexually abusing a teenager he met while working as a counselor at a summer camp on the Rocky Boy’s reservation in Montana. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

— A woman on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota was convicted of beating her 4-year-old son with a plastic clothes hanger. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.

— A man was sent to prison for 10 years for kicking the woman who was pregnant with his child on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The unborn child died after suffering a skull fracture and other injuries.

Still, nearly 2,000 cases were declined for prosecution over the two-year span, a matter for which the DOJ has been criticized in the past.

“There are cases that are legitimately declined, and that is appropriate and expected,” said Leonhard, of the Umatilla tribe’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Free seminars at Tulalip Cabela’s

Free upcoming seminars at the Tulalip Cabela’s include:

June 1: 11 a.m., Puget Sound Crabbing Essentials; gear, bait, line, and where to go.

June 2, 1 p.m. in the Gun Library: Shotgun Cleaning 101. Keep your firearms in like-new condition.

June 3: 6-7:30 p.m., Advanced Tips and Techniques for Archers; pre-registration suggested by calling 360-474-4880.

June 8: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Family Outdoor Adventure Day; free kids fishing pond, live music by The Bobbers, youth archery shoot, decoy painting, kids calling contest, laser shoot, BB gun shooting, face painting, gold panning and more.

Every Saturday, June 8 to Nov. 9: 11 a.m., Responsible Firearm Ownership.

Every Saturday, June 15 to Aug. 24: 1 p.m., Learn to Fly Fish. Each class will present the basics of fly fishing including techniques, gear, casting, fly selection and more. Pre-registration is suggested by calling 360-474-4880. For a complete schedule of upcoming free classes and events, call that number or go to www.cabelas.com/tulalip.