‘They Caved’: Tribe Claims Win in SD Voting-Rights Suit

Courtesy William Campbell/Four DirectionsSteven Sandven, Sioux Falls lawyer and former Oglala Sioux Tribe attorney general, represented the plaintiffs in Brooks v. Gant; Sandven is shown at far right in this photograph, filing a similar voting-rights lawsuit in Montana.

Courtesy William Campbell/Four Directions
Steven Sandven, Sioux Falls lawyer and former Oglala Sioux Tribe attorney general, represented the plaintiffs in Brooks v. Gant; Sandven is shown at far right in this photograph, filing a similar voting-rights lawsuit in Montana.

Stephanie Woodard, Indian Country Today Media Network

Plaintiffs and defendants both claimed victory on August 6, when U.S. District Court Judge Karen Schreier dismissed the Native voting-rights lawsuit Brooks v. Gant. Oglala Sioux Tribe members had sued South Dakota state and county officials, seeking a satellite early-voting and registration office that would give them elections in their own county and equal to those other South Dakotans enjoy.

Once the lawsuit got underway, the state and county defendants promised to use federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money to give the 25 plaintiffs what they wanted through 2018. According to Judge Schreier, this meant the plaintiffs could no longer show the required “immediate injury,” so she dismissed their claim. However, she noted, her decision was “without prejudice,” meaning that, if necessary, the plaintiffs can sue again.

“They caved,” said OJ Semans, Rosebud Sioux civil rights leader and co-director of voting-advocacy group Four Directions. “The court established what the plaintiffs stood up for and what Four Directions has been fighting for since 2004. Right now, there’s full equality for most of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the largest group of Indian voters in the state.”

The other side was happy, too. “We’re feeling extremely pleased, even though the case wasn’t decided on its merits,” said the counties’ attorney, Sara Frankenstein, of the Rapid City firm Gunderson Palmer. “Shannon County [which overlaps much of the Oglalas’ Pine Ridge Indian Reservation] gets a satellite office, and the Help America Vote Act foots the bill.

At press time, the lead plaintiff, South Dakota’s secretary of state and head elections official Jason Gant, had not replied to a request for a comment.

Payback time

Frankenstein also said that because the case was dismissed, the defendants get to recover costs and perhaps fees from the losing parties. “It is a huge financial burden lifted,” she said.

“That’s breathtaking,” said Bret Healy, Four Directions consultant. “They have the insurance public officials typically hold to cover lawsuits. We all met the plaintiffs via their depositions—single parents, one with an epileptic child, others caring for infirm elders, from one of the poorest counties in the nation. The state of South Dakota and the counties are really going to do this? God have pity on their souls.”

“Won’t happen,” said Semans. “It’s just a way to scare off Natives who might want to ask for equal rights in the future.”

“Granting costs would discourage plaintiffs from bringing suits to enforce the Voting Rights Act and would be contrary to the fundamental purpose of the Act,” agreed Laughlin McDonald, director emeritus of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. He also doubted it would happen.

McDonald, who has litigated Native enfranchisement cases since 1983, explained that a prevailing party in a federal case is ordinarily entitled to recover costs, but not when it comes to voting rights. “Federal courts have denied or severely limited recovery in those cases,” said McDonald.

What about recovering attorney’s fees? “I think such a motion would be filed in bad faith and even subject to sanctions,” said McDonald.

Shaking loose HAVA

Frankenstein said that in negotiations on her side, she persuaded the secretary of state to change what she termed “internal policies” and release South Dakota’s HAVA money for the satellite office in Shannon County, which overlaps much of Pine Ridge. He could do this, she said, because in May 2008, South Dakota had completed HAVA’s initial requirement to modernize elections with up-to-date voting machines and the like.

From then on, Frankenstein said, the state was free to spend its federal HAVA appropriation on additional ways to improve elections, including satellite offices. Brooks v. Gant testimony and court documents confirm this. In Judge Schreier’s opinion, she noted that Shannon County residents had “minimal” early-voting access until Brooks v. Gant was filed.

This all stands in startling contradiction to statements by state and county officials over the past several years. They maintained in many public meetings and national and local press reports that Shannon County simply couldn’t afford the scope of elections found in other parts of South Dakota.

“So, as of 2008, money was no longer an issue—but they kept that quiet,” said Healy.

“This is far from over,” said Semans. “Until Native Americans are able to participate equally in the political process, our social and economic challenges will not change.”

At this moment, though, Native voters should be pleased, said McLaughlin. “They got what they wanted through the next several elections. It’s a victory.”

This article was written with support from the George Polk Center for Investigative Reporting. 

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/08/13/sd-voting-rights-suit-dismissed-native-plaintiffs-targeted-costs-150851

Marine Drive traffic revision within the Tulalip Reservation

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View a larger project location map View a larger ADA map
1.    Traffic revision on Marine Drive, west of I-5 Sidewalk ramps on the north side of Marine Drive at 31st Ave NE and 33rd Ave NE will be upgraded to current ADA* standards. The work continues and will be done by months end.

2. Paving of Marine Drive from I-5 west to the Quilceda Creek Bridge.The schedule is not yet finalized, but work is likely to begin after August 19 and last for approximately three days, weather permitting. All work will take place between the hours of 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. Single lane closures will be in effect. A variable message sign will notify citizens one week before the project begins.
 
Access to businesses will remain open at all times, and construction crews will make every effort to minimize the impacts.

At this time we do not anticipate any changes to Community Transit Route 222 or the bus stop. You can sign up for rider alerts.
 
We regret the inconvenience, and ask for your patience during construction. Thank you!
*The Americans with Disabilities Act. Snohomish County is upgrading sidewalk ramps around the county to meet ADA design standards.
 
Check the Weekly Road Construction Update to see what else is happening on Snohomish County roads.
 

L.A.’s Ron Finley wants to make gardening gangsta

Stephen Zeriglaer for Alternative Apparel
Stephen Zeriglaer for Alternative Apparel

By Andrea Appleton, Grist

In 2010, Ron Finley planted a garden on the 150-foot-long curbside strip outside his house in South Central Los Angeles. The produce — tomatoes, kale, corn, you name it — was free for the taking, and the colorful riot of herbs and flowers and vegetables got a lot of attention. The only unwelcome scrutiny was from the city of Los Angeles, which owns the land. Finley received a citation for growing plants that exceeded height limits, and for failing to purchase a $400 permit. By circulating a petition and bending the ear of a receptive city council member, Finley convinced the city to leave his garden alone. Around the same time, he helped start an organization called L.A. Green Grounds, dedicated to installing free vegetable gardens in curbside medians, vacant lots, and other properties in blighted areas.
Then, in February of this year, the self-described “gangster gardener” — an outgoing straight-talker with a penchant for catchy one-liners — gave a TED Talk. “The drive-throughs are killing more than the drive-bys,” he said, exhorting urban dwellers to get outside and “plant some shit.” The talk instantly rocketed him to green thumb stardom. As of this writing, the talk has attracted more than 1.3 million views, and Finley has appeared on Russell Brand’s late night talk show and been profiled by the New York Times, among many others.

This fashion designer — he’s dressed the likes of Shaquille O’Neal — and collector of black entertainment memorabilia, highlighted in a recent movie poster exhibit — now spends much of his time delivering talks and planning new urban gardening ventures. All the media attention has brought new funding, including support from the Goldhirsh Foundation. (But in Los Angeles, the bureaucratic wheels grind slowly. Planting on curbside medians remains a tricky proposition.)

Finley had just returned from a permaculture workshop in Sonoma County when we spoke. We chatted about fame, sex, and his diabolical plan to take over the world.

Q. It sounds like you’ve suddenly got a lot of people wanting to talk to you.

A. Wanting to talk to me, wanting to see me, driving from Oklahoma to meet me … It’s been a little crazy. It’s pretty miraculous how the words, the ideas, have spread. It’s just amazing to me that growing your own food is so foreign to so many people.

Q. Why do you think your message has been so powerful? Is there something intangible about gardening, beyond growing your own food?

A. It’s connection, period. To me, the garden is no more than a metaphor for life. Everything you experience in life happens in the garden. You learn patience, you learn systems, you learn biology, you learn sex. And you learn the thing we call death may not actually be death. It may just be an energy transfer. That’s what composting is. If I take this dry leaf that’s supposed to be dead and crumbly and I put it with this green leaf, why does it heat up to 200 degrees sometimes? If it was dead, how did it happen? I’m not a scholar or something, I’m as common a man as they come. But to see something like that happen, it makes you look at life differently.

Q. Gardening takes sustained work. How do you keep people motivated to do all the work that comes with creating your own food?

A. Well, you show ‘em the wheelchair or the pill that they’re gonna take for the rest of their life. To me, that’s motivation enough. You keep doing it [eating badly] and this is where you’re gonna wind up. You can’t save everybody, you know. But there’s people who want to be saved, people who want to get off these drugs these doctors are prescribing.

Q. You grew up in South Central. What did you grow up eating?

A. I mean I grew up eating the garbage that was here. You know, convenience foods. Macaroni. I never liked macaroni. Frozen spinach. We had some fresh food but at the time it was when they were changing the whole food system to be “convenient” for us. I ate McDonald’s, Burger King, coming up. All that stuff. You had no idea what this food was made of and that it would make you sick and in some cases kill you.

Q. What made you start eating differently?

A. I saw the light when there was a health food store in L.A. called Aunt Tilly’s, years and years ago. It was at the Pacific Design Center and we used to go there because there were these beautiful women there. [Laughs] So I was exposed to some people around me at an early age. I didn’t know it would have the effect that it did.

Q. How did you begin to garden?

A. I mean a lot of the stuff I do goes all the way back to when I was in elementary school. I still start seeds the way I started them then. You know, in a petri dish with a wet brown paper towel. And you get to watch the sprouts from the seeds pop up. [I started the guerrilla garden because] work was slow or non-existent and I took to the garden to beautify this piece of land. It became my solace. You get addicted.

Q. Tell me about your new project.

A. I’m doing what we’re calling right now the Ron Finley Project, which is the whole containment cafe concept that’s attached to a garden with a training facility. It’s a facility where we train kids how to think, not what to think. I want people trained in everything from aquaponics to woodworking to fashion to art. We want to basically put [these facilities] in what I consider food prisons, which is what a lot of us live in … We’re just trying to show people how to grow their own food, how to take your health back into your own hands. A lot of industries don’t want us to be independent. They don’t really benefit from you growing your own food.

Q. What is your typical day like now that you’re a famous man?

A. My typical day starts with me waking up. From there, I don’t have a typical day. People ask ‘Hey, how are you?’ And I say ‘Hey, I woke up this morning.’ And that’s real to me. I get another shot at this. Sometimes I have appointments, or I’m on the phone all day. Sometimes I’m putting in gardens. I don’t want to do the same thing every day … We all should definitely have different endeavors and different interests. All that does is increase our web, make that oneness tighter. And you realize, damn, there really ain’t no difference. We all need sex and food and sex and some water and sex. You realize that that’s your basic needs. [Laughs]

Q. Any other projects in the works?

A. I’m gonna be working with Alice Waters. Me and Alice are putting together a diabolical plan to take over the world.

Q. Is it secret?

A. It’s a diabolical plan! Of course it’s secret.

First Nations Development Institute Receives $100,000 from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to Bolster the Financial Literacy of Native American Youth

Red Lake Nation News

LONGMONT, Colorado (August 12, 2013) – First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) today announced it has received a grant of $100,000 from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation of Seattle, Washington, to bolster the financial literacy of Native American high school students.

The two-year project will empower up to 75 Native American high school students and their families in Portland, Oregon, by providing culturally appropriate financial education that combines classroom and experiential learning to result in behavioral changes positively affecting management of financial assets. Youth Savings Accounts (YSAs) will be used to help youth to build assets and learn the savings habit, while introducing them to the use of mainstream financial services. First Nations will undertake the project in partnership with the Native American Youth Family Center (NAYA) in Portland.

Activities will include teaching the “Life on Your Terms” course to the students and taking a field trip to a participating bank or credit union to sign up for a YSA account. Those who complete the course with a passing grade will be entered into a drawing to earn an additional $100 to deposit into their account. The students also will participate in a financial simulation fair called “Crazy Cash City” that will help them put the lessons learned in class into practice through experiential learning. By the end of the grant period, an online teacher’s guide for the process will be completed and then made available nationally to teachers of Native American students.

Financial and investor education is one of the five focus areas of First Nations. First Nations and its independent subsidiary – First Nations Oweesta Corporation (a community development financial institution) – work in partnership with Native American tribes and communities throughout the U.S. to assist them in designing and administering financial and investor education programs. These projects range from helping individuals and families understand the basics of financial management – opening and maintaining a bank account and using credit wisely – to helping individuals understand financial markets and a variety of financial instruments for borrowing and saving. The programs result in increased investment levels and economic growth in Native communities.

About First Nations Development Institute

For more than 30 years, using a three-pronged strategy of educating grassroots practitioners, advocating for systemic change, and capitalizing Indian communities, First Nations has been working to restore Native American control and culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own – be they land, human potential, cultural heritage or natural resources – and to establish new assets for ensuring the long-term vitality of Native American communities. First Nations serves Native American communities throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.firstnations.org.

About the Native American Youth Family Center

The Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland, Oregon, works to enrich the lives of Native youth and families through education, community involvement, and culturally specific programming. It has provided educational services, cultural arts programming, and direct support to reduce poverty in the Portland metropolitan area’s American Indian and Alaska Native community for over 30 years. Learn more at www.nayapdx.org.

About The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

Launched by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Jody Allen in 1988, the Allen family’s philanthropy is dedicated to transforming lives and strengthening communities by fostering innovation, creating knowledge and promoting social progress. Since inception, the foundation has awarded over $469 million to more than 1,400 nonprofit groups to support and advance their critical charitable endeavors in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The foundation’s funding programs nurture the arts, engage children in learning, address the needs of vulnerable populations, advance scientific and technological discoveries, and provide economic relief amid the downturn. For more information, go to www.pgafamilyfoundation.org.

Some Disturbing Facts About Baby Veronica’s Birth Mother

Suzette Brewer, ICTMN

It was the end of a long, bizarre week in which the ongoing battle between Dusten Brown and Matt and Melanie Capobianco became even more contentious with accusations of bad faith, court orders and competing media interviews, capped off by the dramatic issuance of a felony arrest warrant. Late Friday night, as word of the warrant began gaining traction, Lori Alvino McGill, attorney for Veronica’s birth mother, went on the Facebook page Standing Our Ground for Veronica Brown to argue with supporters for the Brown family.

In heated exchanges laced with name-calling and bad spelling, Ms. McGill again publicly excoriated Dusten Brown and vociferously defended her client’s actions in turning her infant daughter over to Matt and Melanie Capobianco in September 2009.

“…Y’all should ask Dusten aka Dustin why his name is spelled ‘Dustin Dale Brown’ on a public court order requiring him to pay delinquent child support to yet another woman, for yet another illegimate [sic] child that he spawned,” she wrote. “The fact is that every court to have looked at this case has rejected the idea that Dusten was trying to do the right thing but was misled by his pregnant girlfriend….”

 

“And, FYI, absentee impregnanters [sic] are not entitled,” she later posted, “to information about the childcare plans made by the women whom they have knocked up. This has been the law for decades.”

 

A return to the facts. The only two children Dusten Brown has, according to his ex-wife, Rachel Reichert, is Kelsey Brown, who was born two years after they were married in 2001, and Veronica, whose biological mother was Brown’s ex-fiance. And it is a matter of court record that, in spite of the recent rulings against Dusten Brown, her client, Christy Maldonado, was never found to be credible in any of the court proceedings in South Carolina.

“It is rather unseemly for an officer of the court to be on Facebook at that hour—or any hour—arguing the facts on behalf of her ‘client’ who is not a party in this case,” observed a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who works on Capitol Hill. “The serious practicing attorneys I know would never bother with that kind of thing. It’s just not appropriate. But it is pure comic gold. You can’t make this stuff up.”

Humor aside, the recent emergence of McGill as “a voice” for Veronica’s birth mother, who has never spoken publicly save for a heavily-edited opinion piece for the Washington Post in June to advocate for the Capobiancos, has begun to raise questions about Maldonado herself. Over the years, Brown has never gone on the record about his ex-fiance and has never publicly spoken ill of his daughter’s biological mother.

But a review of court documents in Oklahoma and in interviews with those who knew Maldonado prior to and during her engagement and pregnancy with Dusten Brown, reveal a portrait of a woman with a history of turmoil in her relationships, featuring restraining orders, lawsuits, Court Appointed Special Advocates and ongoing custody and child support disputes with her two older childrens’ father.

“All along, she has been painted by the adoption team as this saintly, Thomas Kinkade-hued single mother who was raising two kids and selflessly gave her child to an infertile couple,” says a former friend. “That’s been the narrative. But the reality is that it’s common knowledge in Bartlesville that Christy Maldonado does not have custody of her two other kids. They are living with their paternal grandmother in Oklahoma. She’s actually the one who pays child support and has visitation.”

Additionally, Indian Country Today Media Network has learned that Maldonado did not, in fact, receive any compensation for birth expenses from the Capobiancos. The birth of Veronica came at the expense of the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma via the state’s Medicaid program, SoonerCare.

In 2008, the year that she became pregnant with Veronica, Maldonado claimed copy,800 a month in income on a child support worksheet and had been working as a cashier at one of the Osage Nation casinos at the time of her pregnancy. As a full-time employee, she would have had access to health insurance through the tribe; or, alternatively, because Dusten Brown is a tribal member, she could also have received maternal health care at one of Oklahoma’s tribal Indian Health Service facilities. Brown even encouraged her to have their baby at a military health facility.

Adoption attorneys also point out that many health plans provide for adoptive couples in covering the medical expenses for the birth mother and child, so the Capobiancos could have also used their own health insurance to help pay some of the costs for prenatal care, labor and delivery.

But, shortly after she became pregnant, Maldonado disappeared and declined any contact with Brown or his parents, all of whom testified in court that they had tried numerous times to reach out to help her, despite her claims to the contrary.

Maldonado had battled her ex-common law husband, Joshua Thompson, in court since their divorce in 2006, which was filed by Thompson as the petitioner. Since that time, the two have fought over custody and child support too many times to count.

In 2008, she reconnected with Dusten Brown though she had stayed with him off and on since her separation from Thompson, according to former friends. Although she was working, Maldonado was behind on her mortgage and other bills; she had been through yet another expensive, bruising legal battle with her ex, and she had been ordered to pay him $252 a month in child support and 63 percent of their children’s medical expenses.

Brown, who had known Maldonado since they were both in high school, offered to help her get out of debt. In an interview last March, Brown told Indian Country Today Media Network that he knew she was stressed about money and said that he had saved about $7,500 and had offered to give all of it to her to pull out of her financial downward spiral. But she refused.

“She told me she ‘had a plan,’” he said at the time. “But I didn’t know that the plan was to put Veronica up for adoption. I offered to give her everything I had, but she didn’t want it.”

Later, in 2009, friends noticed that the old Honda Civic that Maldonado had been driving courtesy of a family member who was making her car payments for her, was suddenly traded in for a large SUV that she began driving around Bartlesville. Additionally, she had mysteriously regained her financial equilibrium and was able to get caught up on her mortgage.

“Christy Maldonado is a piece of work,” said one insider. “Dusten’s life in the military requires a lot of responsibility and time away from families and it comes with a lot of strings. She couldn’t handle that and took it personally, like he was blowing her off. But he was working and she didn’t like the demands of his job. So when she got pregnant, she had no intention of keeping the baby because the reality is that she didn’t want to pay more child support and fight over another kid. And he blindly believed that she would never do something like this. But the irony is that here she is fighting over another kid and would rather seem him go to jail than have custody of Veronica.”

In court testimony, Matt Capobianco admitted on the stand in South Carolina that he and his wife had given Maldonado money, which accounts for the record time in which Maldonado pulled out of her financial chaos. Under Oklahoma law, however, there is a copy,000 limit to what birth mothers can be paid. Any more than that requires court approval, according to an Oklahoma adoption attorney. Those in the adoption industry say the state limit is often ignored when a desperate couple is seeking the assistance and cooperation of a birth mother who may be in financial straights.

The Capobiancos also testified that they paid for Maldonado’s attorney fees and bought Christmas gifts for her and her two other children in 2009, as well as covering her airfare and expenses to travel to and from court hearings in South Carolina for trial. On the stand, Melanie Capobianco said that she and her husband had spent between “$30,000 to $40,000” for Veronica’s adoption. But those expenses are now two years out of date, though no formal audit has ever taken place regarding the expenditures and receivables on either side. It is widely acknowledged, however, that the appellate and Supreme Court practitioners and their staffs worked pro bono for both parties in Adoptive Couple.

Additionally, it is unclear whether Maldonado claimed any of the funds or gifts she received from the Capobiancos or any of their supporters in the last four years as income, which may be taxable under IRS laws.

Last month, Maldonado, with a group of nine other women, filed a federal lawsuit in South Carolina seeking to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act because of its “race-based” placement preferences. The litigation could have profound negative outcomes for Indian tribes across the country, including the Osage, from whom Maldonado has also benefited as an employee.

Officials for the Osage Nation of Oklahoma could not be reached for comment regarding Ms. Maldonado’s extracurricular activities in filing anti-Indian litigation with far-reaching consequences.

For Maldonado, however, there is one bright spot.

McGill, in her midnight chat with Brown’s supporters on Facebook, helpfully pointed out the she is working pro bono on Maldonado’s behalf.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/08/12/selling-christy-maldonado-150831

Redskins Killers: 5 Publications That Won’t Use ‘Redskins’ Name

Source: ICTMN

Last week there was a wave (albeit a small one) of renowned publications to declare they will henceforth no longer run the pejorative ‘Redskins’ whenever they cover anything related to the Washington team – though Mother Jones did state they reserve the right to resurrect the racist epithet if it’s in a quote. Indian Country Today Media Network will provide updates as other publications join the no-more-Redskins chorus.

Photo courtesy Slate.com
Photo courtesy Slate.com

 

Editor David Plotz wrote in an editorial August 8 that Slate will no longer run ‘Redskins’ in prose and decried the name as “dated.” Plotz wrote: “So while the name Redskins is only a bit offensive, it’s extremely tacky and dated—like an old aunt who still talks about ‘colored people’ or limps her wrist to suggest someone’s gay.”

Photo courtesy Motherjones.com
Photo courtesy Motherjones.com

One day after Slate’s announcement to henceforth purge the Redskins name from their magazine, Mother Jones followed suit and declared the name “an absolute embarrassment.” Though Mother Jones journalist Ian Gordon did state that should they cover Redskins owner Dan Snyder, they may have to resurrect the name again: “There is a chance, however, that the term will end up back on our pages,” he wrote. “We certainly won’t strike it from a quote. And if we end up writing a post or two about how Snyder still hasn’t changed the name, despite increasing scrutiny, we reserve the right to use it again—if only to highlight how incredibly out-of-touch and backward the Washington football team’s owner truly is.”

Photo courtesy Newrepublic.com
Photo courtesy Newrepublic.com

These days it’s not uncommon for announcements to come via tweet. Editor of The New Republic Franklin Foer, in admiration of Slate Editor David Plotz’s position against using the Redskins name, tweeted August 8 that The New Republic, likewise, will cease all uses of the name and that they will make it official by changing their publication’s stylebook.

Photo courtesy Washingtoncitypaper.com
Photo courtesy Washingtoncitypaper.com

In early October 2012, the Washington City Paper provided their readers an opportunity to rename the Washington Redskins so as to avoid using the “racist nickname.” Their readers finally voted on a new name: “the Washington Pigskins.”

Photo courtesy Kansascity.com
Photo courtesy Kansascity.com

In response to a reader who declared it a trivial policy for the Kansas City Star not to run ‘Redskins’ in their paper, Public Editor Derek Donovan reiterated the Star’s long-held policy with a blistering public response: “… I see no compelling reason for any publisher to reprint an egregiously offensive term as a casual matter of course.”

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/08/12/these-5-publications-will-no-longer-run-redskins-name-150837

Skateboards?! We’re busy carving totem poles

Tulalip artists tap into the world of skateboard art

Front-boards-hats
Skate decks and trucker hats, by Tulalip tribal member Ty Juvinel.
Photo/Kim Kalliber

By Kim Kalliber, Tulalip News

Growing up on the Tulalip Reservation in the 70s, skateboarding wasn’t a thing. Of course there wasn’t a lot of cement around the rez in those days either. But that time is changing and Native Americans are taking the skateboarding world by storm, with sleek designs and styles that reflect their Native culture.

As a kid, my mother, Tulalip tribal member Sherrill Guydelkon (Williams), made a daily trek in her old VW bug to Bellingham, where she attended college. My brother and I would happily tag along when we could to skate the campus, making use of any small inclines and stairwells that got in our path.

Tracy Nelson, La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians. Founder of Full Blood Skates, 2008.
Exhibit photo of Tracy Nelson, La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians. Founder of Full Blood Skates, 2008.
Photo/Kim Kalliber

As a teen in the 80s I moved to the city and discovered the world of skateboarders. It was the punk scene, and man was it cool. We wore leather jackets, had colored hair, we listened to bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains and skateboards were the mode of transportation. Skaters kept to empty lots and were continuously kicked off city streets. I remember a slew of ‘No Skateboarding Allowed’ signs posted around businesses and sidewalks – followed by a storm of ‘Skateboarding Is Not A Crime’ stickers. Remember those?

I am now in my 40s and my boyfriend and I still have a decent collection of skateboards. One of my best friends has an entire wall in his very “grown-up” house dedicated to skateboards. Skateboarding’s not just a fad, it’s a way of life, something you never outgrow. No longer strictly associated with rebellious youth and kept to empty swimming pools and vacant lots, it’s a mainstream sport, with skate parks sprouting up across the nation.

When you think of skateboarding, it’s not just a board with wheels; it embraces a wide style of art, design, fashion and music. And skaters should be taken seriously. You don’t just pick up a board one day and begin gliding jumps and riding rails. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of devotion. Skateboarding is an art form, a lifestyle and a sport.

Most people are aware that in the 60s skateboarding became huge in California, where boards were used as something to keep surfers moving during down times and flat waters, but what they don’t know is that skateboarding has a history with Indigenous peoples as well. Early skating can be traced to Native Hawaiian surfers, and to this day, Native Americans turn to skateboarding, not only to keep youth engaged in sports and stay fit, but as a means to convey their cultural identity.

The Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center is celebrating this identity with a temporary exhibit. Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America, organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, highlights the exciting world of Native American skateboarding.

The exhibit, on display through October 13th 2013, features vintage and contemporary skate decks, art and photos. You can also view rare video footage of skaters, including James & Richard Tavarez of the famed Zephyr surf team, which led to the Dogtown Z-Boys skate team, and the 4 Wheel Warpony team at the All Nations Skate Competition.

Pretoglyph of a surfer, Halulu Heiau Lana'i, Hawaii, ca. 1921. Experts believe this is one of the earliest depictions of a surfer.
Exhibit photo of a man on a pap holua, Hawaii, 1937. Hawaiians also “surfed” on land using long, narrow papa holua, or sled, made from two wooden runners held together by woven matting or crossbars.
Photo/Kim Kalliber

But it’s the stories that accompany these classic images that really get the blood pumping – you can practically hear the grinding of wheels. From early Hawaiians that “surfed” the land on longboards, to kids in the 80s, skating in their basements and backyard ramps on reservations across the U.S., to modern day concrete warriors, skating and filming in national competitions and operating their own design companies.

Local artist Louie Gong, a Nooksack tribal member, known for his bold designs on shoes and skateboards was in attendance at the exhibit’s opening reception on August 9th, showing his 2010 handmade Dog Deck. Louie uses a utilitarian style, utilizing resources found in the environment to create things that are useful in everyday life, as an art form and educational tool.

“Every design has a story behind it and represents values and personal style. And with every piece, I think, how am I going to use this as a teaching tool?” explained Gong. Keeping this in consideration, Gong created the Dog Deck, which is a rez dog design. “I started thinking about what it means to grow up in a tribal community, and I remembered the rez dogs. These dogs roam around in packs and usually don’t have one particular owner, yet they survive. Generally we think of them in a negative light, but when I really reflected on the rez dogs in my community, after I was an adult, the characteristics they exhibited are actually positive. I try to show kids that rez dogs are cool; they’re resilient. And if it wasn’t for the fact that some of our ancestors displayed that same positive resilience, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to stand here in this room and talk about these things and express our self-determination.”

Tulalip tribal member James Madison, one of eight tribal member artists who contributed to the exhibit, explained what it means for these traditional Coast Salish artists to step outside of their routine and join the ranks of graffiti artists. When Mytyl Hernandez, Marketing, and Tessa Campbell, Curator, from Hibulb, approached the Tulalip team of artists and asked them to design skateboards, James recalls his initial reaction was, “Skateboards?! We’re busy carving totem poles.” But recognizing the value in this work, not just as a means to reach out to native youth, but to show that Tulalip artists continue to evolve and move forward

Artists James Madison, Tulalip, (left) and Louie Gong, Nooksack.
Artists James Madison, Tulalip, (left) and Louie Gong, Nooksack.
Photo/Kim Kalliber

in their craft, they dove right in, creating 10 decks, a handful of trucker hats and a mammoth graffiti wall.

“The artwork that we do, we put our stories in them and we teach our kids, and show who we are as people,” said Madison. “We can go anywhere and people know who Tulalip is; they know because of our art and they know because of our culture.”

Tulalip artists involved in the exhibit are Steve Madison, James Madison, Joe Gobin, Mike Gobin, Mitch Matta, Trudy Particio, Doug Seneca and Ty Juvinel.  And who would have thought that these traditional Native artists would be rattle canning stencils and tagging skulls on graffiti walls? Skating really does bring out the cool kid in everyone.

For more information on the Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center, visit www.hibulbculturalcenter.org.

 

boards
Native boards on display at the exhibit. Left to right: Spirit Feather, by Traci Rabbit, Cherokee Nation, for Native Skates, 2008. Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer, by Joe Yazzie, Navajo, for Native Skates, 2008. Legacy, by Bunky Echo-Hawk, Yakama/Pawnee for Native Skates 2007.
Photo/Kim Kalliber

 

 

Graffiti wall created by Tulalip tribal artists.
Graffiti wall created by Tulalip tribal artists.
Photo/Kim Kalliber

4 Decades on, US starts cleanup of Agent Orange in Vietnam

Against the backdrop of a field contaminated by Agent Orange in Da Nang, Vietnamese military officers attended a ceremony on Thursday to mark the United States’ first big cleanup of war chemicals in Vietnam. Photo: Maika Elan/AP

By Thomas Fuller, NY Times

Forty years after the United States stopped spraying herbicides in the jungles of Southeast Asia in the hopes of denying cover to Vietcong fighters and North Vietnamese troops, an air base here is one of about two dozen former American sites that remain polluted with an especially toxic strain of dioxin, the chemical contaminant in Agent Orange that has been linked to cancers, birth defects and other diseases.

On Thursday, after years of rebuffing Vietnamese requests for assistance in a cleanup, the United States inaugurated its first major effort to address the environmental effects of the long war.

“This morning we celebrate a milestone in our bilateral relationship,” David B. Shear, the American ambassador to Vietnam, said at a ceremony attended by senior officers of the Vietnamese military. “We’re cleaning up this mess.”

The program, which is expected to cost $43 million and take four years, was officially welcomed with smiles and handshakes at the ceremony. But bitterness remains here. Agent Orange is mentioned often in the news media, and victims are commemorated annually on Aug. 10, the day in 1961 when American forces first tested spraying it in Vietnam. The government objected to Olympics sponsorship this year by Dow Chemical, a leading producer of Agent Orange during the war. Many here have not hesitated to call the American program too little — it addresses only the one site — and very late.

 

“It’s a big step,” said Ngo Quang Xuan, a former Vietnamese ambassador to the United Nations. “But in the eyes of those who suffered the consequences, it’s not enough.”

Over a decade of war, the United States sprayed about 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, halting only after scientists commissioned by the Agriculture Department issued a report expressing concerns that dioxin showed “a significant potential to increase birth defects.” By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange and other herbicides had destroyed 2 million hectares, or 5.5 million acres, of forest and cropland, an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

Nguyen Van Rinh, a retired lieutenant general who is now the chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, has vivid memories of hearing American aircraft above the jungles of southern Vietnam and seeing Agent Orange raining down in sheets on him and his troops. Plants and animals exposed to the defoliant were dead within days. Many of his troops later suffered illnesses that he suspects were linked to the repeated exposure to Agent Orange, used in concentrations 20 to 55 times that of normal agricultural use.

“I would like to have one message sent to the American people,” Mr. Rinh said in his office, where a large bust of Ho Chi Minh, the wartime leader and icon, stared down from a shelf behind his desk. “The plight of Agent Orange victims continues. I think the relationship would rise up to new heights if the American government took responsibility and helped their victims and address the consequences.”

Those who have worked on the issue say the American government has been slow to address the issue in part because of concerns about liability. It took years for American soldiers who sprayed the chemicals to secure settlements from the chemical companies that produced them. The United States government, which also lagged in acknowledging the problem, has spent billions of dollars on disability payments and health care for American soldiers who came into contact with Agent Orange.

Mr. Shear, the American ambassador, sidestepped a reporter’s question after the ceremony about whether the United States would take responsibility for the environmental and health effects of Agent Orange.

“There is a disconnect between what America has done for its soldiers and what America has done for Vietnam,” said Charles Bailey, the director of the Agent Orange in Vietnam Program, an effort by the Aspen Institute, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington, to reach common ground between the United States and Vietnam on the issue. “I’m sometimes glad I’m not a U.S. diplomat in trying to square that circle.”

A class-action case against chemical companies filed in the United States on behalf of millions of Vietnamese was dismissed in 2005 on the grounds that supplying the defoliant did not amount to a war crime and that the Vietnamese plaintiffs had not established a clear causal effect between exposure to Agent Orange and their health problems. The United States government is rolling out a modest $11.4 million program to help people with disabilities in Vietnam, but it is not explicitly linked to Agent Orange. The oft-repeated American formulation is “assistance regardless of cause.”

When environmental factors are linked to disease, proof positive is sometimes hard to determine. American military studies have outlined connections between Agent Orange and myriad ailments, while Dow Chemical maintains that the “very substantial body of human evidence on Agent Orange establishes that veterans’ illnesses are not caused by Agent Orange.”

In Vietnam, there are many cases in which links to Agent Orange appear striking.

Nguyen Van Dung, 42, moved to Da Nang in 1996 with his wife and newborn daughter and worked at the former American base, wading through the knee-deep mud of drainage ditches and dredging them with a shovel. During the first 10 years, he, like other employees, harvested fish and eels from the large ponds and canals on the air base grounds, taking them home almost daily. Studies later showed high concentrations of dioxin in the fat tissue and organs of the fish.

The couple’s first daughter is now at the top of her class, but their second child, also a girl, was born in 2000 with a rare blood disease. She died at 7.

Their son Tu was born in 2008, and he was quickly found to have the same blood condition. With regular transfusions, he has defied his doctor’s prediction that he would not live past 3, but he is nearly blind, with bulging eyes that roll wildly, and he speaks in high-pitched tones that only his parents can understand. His chest cavity is so weak that he cannot breathe if he lies on his stomach.

What caused the birth defects, and who is to blame? Detailed medical tests are out of the question for Tu’s parents, whose combined monthly income is the equivalent of $350, much of which goes to medical care.

But Luu Thi Thu, the boy’s mother, does not hesitate to assign blame.

“If there hadn’t been a war and Americans hadn’t sprayed dioxin and chemicals into this area, we wouldn’t be suffering these consequences,” she said.

“What happened to my son is already done, and nothing can change that,” she said. “The American and Vietnamese governments need to clean up the Da Nang airport so that the next generation will not be affected.”

Le Ke Son, a doctor and the most senior Vietnamese official responsible for the government’s programs related to Agent Orange and other chemicals used during the war, said the debates should take a back seat to aid. “We spend a lot of time arguing about the reason why people are disabled,” he said. “One way or another they are victims and suffered from the legacy of the war. We should do something for them.”

Baby Veronica’s Father Accused of ‘Custodial Interference’ Felony

Suzette Brewer, Indian Country Today Media Network

After Dusten Brown was charged last Monday in a Charleston, South Carolina courtroom with failing to appear on Sunday for a scheduled four-hour visitation to begin his daughter Veronica’s transition to the Capobianco’s, he was ordered to “immediately” transfer the child to the couple’s custody. Monday’s order negated the proposed plan and demanded that Veronica be brought to South Carolina with no transition.

But Brown has been in Iowa with his Oklahoma National Guard unit for a mandatory training that had been on the books since January. This was known to all parties in the dispute, including Judge Daniel Martin, who issued the order.

“They absolutely knew where this man was and that he had no physical or legal way of being present for the transition visitation with his daughter,” says a source familiar with the case. “This whole canard that he somehow flouted the law is just absurd. [Monday’s order] was nothing more than posturing and intimidation, because weren’t these the very same people who had originally proposed that they would moved to Oklahoma to ease her transition? What happened to that? How did they go from moving to Oklahoma to demanding that he magically show up in South Carolina within 48 hours of the finalization of the adoption when they know he was not even in Oklahoma? As usual, they painted him with the broad stroke that he broke the law. He did not.”

As rhetoric on both sides heated up throughout the week during appearances on multiple media outlets, it became apparent to those watching the case that the Capobiancos and their legal team were prepared to enforce the judge’s order by any means necessary—even if it meant sending Veronica’s biological father to jail.

Equally, it became apparent that Dusten Brown was prepared to dig in his heels to continue his battle to seek justice in what many are calling an “unethical adoption” in which his infant daughter should never have been taken to South Carolina in the first place.

Friday evening, doubling down on their threat to seek intervention by law enforcement, the Capobiancos pressed criminal charges against Brown in South Carolina for “custodial interference.” The felony warrant carries a five year sentence and fines at the discretion of the court.

Attorneys for the Capobiancos said that the arrest was “necessary to ensure the rule of law.” They also said that officials for the Cherokee Nation and anyone refusing to divulge Veronica’s whereabouts would be “actively assisting in an ongoing felony.”

The Cherokee Nation declined to comment on the Capobiancos’ statement.

Authorities in South Carolina had been working with Polk County, Iowa authorities, who have jurisdiction over the civilian communities surrounding Camp Dodge, to arrest Brown on Sunday morning.

But that didn’t happen.

On Saturday, the Oklahoma National Guard granted Brown emergency leave so that he could attend an emergency hearing in Cherokee Nation Tribal Court on Monday without having to go absent without leave, thereby further endangering his military career. Brown and wife, Robin, then returned to Oklahoma.

“This is a purely civil criminal matter,” Colonel Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said in a brief statement. “Our job was to facilitate communication with the local authorities.”

The exact Oklahoma whereabouts of the Browns, Veronica and their extended family is unknown. The Cherokee Nation had no comment.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/08/11/dusten-brown-returns-oklahoma-evades-south-carolina-150829

‘Hipster Headdress’ Pulled from H&M Stores in Canada

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Swedish retailer H&M has become the latest victim of its own fashion.

The clothing store has pulled an item that had been dubbed the “hipster headdress” off of Canadian shelves after Kim Wheeler, Ojibwe-Mohawk, called out the company in an e-mail after seeing the feathered hair bands in a Vancouver store, CTV News reported on Friday August 9.

“They are a sign of honor and respect and leadership, they’re not a cute accessory to be worn in a nightclub while people are dancing to music,” Wheeler told CTV News, noting that headdresses are sacred items worn by chiefs and that donning them as trifles is anything but a sign of respect. “I appreciate where people are coming from and that they want to say ‘we’re respecting you,’ but it really isn’t. There are other ways that we can respect our culture instead of wearing colorful faux headdresses.”

A spokesperson for H&M in Canada told the Canadian Press that the headbands, which sport bright pink and purple flowers, formed part of the “summer music festival collection” titled “H&M Loves Music,” along with flower-powered ‘Sixties-style wreaths and other items.

“Of course we never want to offend anybody or come off as insensitive,” said the spokeswoman, Emily Scarlett. “We’re always about being there for our customers.”

H&M’s 62 Canada stores had been told to remove the headbands, Scarlett told the Canadian Press. H&M has now joined Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret and a host of other retailers in being educated about the significance of headdresses and other ceremonial garb.

“My first instinct was to buy all of them and throw them in the garbage. It’s not honoring us. It’s not flattering us. It’s making a mockery of our culture. We just don’t think it’s cool,” said the 44-year-old Wheeler, who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “People in my community have kind of been fighting that whole ‘hipster headdressing’ for awhile now.”

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/08/10/hipster-headdress-pulled-hm-stores-canada-150821