Category: Top Story

Lifting Our Sisters Up at Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center

By Monica Brown, Tulalip News Writer

 TULALIP, Wash.- “I never want to look at my granddaughter and say, sorry, there’s a one in three chance that you’ll be raped, sweetie,” exclaimed Theresa Pouley during the Lifting Our Sisters Up event held at the Hibulb Cultural Center on Feb 13th.  Theresa Pouley is Chief Judge at Tulalip Tribal Court and a Colville tribal member; she was selected as one of the four witnesses asked to speak at the event.

 It’s a shocking statistic when you realize it and if you turn to count the number of women in your own family; one in three of these women may have reported some type of sexual violence. Keep in mind though, 54 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to police. Until a remedial solution is found, Native woman will remain unprotected through current laws.

 For Native women that are victims forging their way to become survivors, it is an uphill battle with the current laws in place today. The current ruling comes from a 1978 United States Supreme Court case, Oliphant v. Suquamish. The Supreme Court sided with Oliphant, stating that Indian Tribal courts do not have inherent criminal jurisdiction to try and convict non-Indians. The ruling ultimately left a loophole for offenders in which violence involving a non-Indian and an Indian on tribal land will result in the case being moved to federal court and since many cases don’t make it that far, and are unable to be prosecuted in tribal court offenders are able to walk free.

 At the Lifting Our Sisters Up event Native woman gathered to share the painful truth of the peril that Native American woman are facing. Tulalip Vice Chairwoman, Deborah Parker opened the event by speaking encouraging words, “Today we are hoping to lift each other up, as sisters, as mothers, as aunties. Hopefully the words that are said here today will help you with your healing”. 

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 The day of healing was filled with songs, prayers, and many tears. Women from Tulalip and surrounding tribes came forward to recount some of the most painful moments in their lives in order to break the silence and say, violence against Native women is more prevalent than you know, because it happened to them.

 Tulalip Tribal member Carolyn Moses related memories of her youth growing up with domestic violence in her home life. She explained how her mother learned to be strong, and became a single mother who worked two jobs so that she could break the cycle of domestic violence and her children and her grandchildren would not have to endure it in their futures.

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 The Lifting our sisters Up event enabled women to speak out and tell the stories that are rarely shared in order to heal their spirit so that they may grow to be stronger women. The act of sharing personal hardships relieves some of the weight and to let go of the pain that can hold them down.

 “Share your story, if someone can take what happened to you and use that. If someone is reaching out to you, help them, no matter if you get along with them or not,”  urged witness and Tulalip tribal member Courtney Sheldon after recounting the injustices made against herself and her loved ones.  

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In order to overcome this hardship the laws in place need to change, whether it comes through VAWA or other means. Some may say they don’t understand the need for this type of rule adjustment and will even call it unconstitutional for non-Indians to be prosecuted in tribal courts. But, violations against Native women and some cases Native men need to be halted and the violators need to be held accountable for the life they ruin. What chance does a culture have to thrive when it is being torn down?

 “We [Native Women] are an endangered species and what will happen to our tribal nations?” argued witness Cheryl Coan; who is from the Dine’ Nation and works at Tulalip’s Legacy of Healing.

 To help spread the truth Canal Plus was invited to document these stories. Canal Plus, a French premium pay television channel that airs throughout Europe is similar to HBO in the U.S. Featured among many television selections, short documentary segments which focus on stories that are seldom told. Intrigued by the situation, Canal Plus traveled to Tulalip in order to document the stories of Native American women and the accounts of sexual assault and acts of violence which plague Indian Country.

Squaxin Island Tribe partners up to clean Budd Inlet

Daniel Kuntz, biologist with the Squaxin Island Tribe, inspects creosote pilings on the tribe’s tidelands before they’re removed.
Daniel Kuntz, biologist with the Squaxin Island Tribe, inspects creosote pilings on the tribe’s tidelands before they’re removed.

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

From the Department of Natural Resources:

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Squaxin Island Tribe, the Port of Olympia, the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group (SPSSEG), and private landowners are joining together to clear toxic derelict pilings and other structures from much of the southern end of Budd Inlet in Olympia.

The work, which is funded by the 2012 Jobs Now Act, begins this week and continues through March 14. The project is expected to cost roughly $278,000.

The Squaxin Island Tribe’s involvement in the project began when they received three acres of tideland as a donation from a family estate. The tidelands included 224 pilings from a former industrial site.

“We saw this as an opportunity to restore these tidelands by taking out the pilings that are leaching pollutants into Budd Inlet,” said Andy Whitener, Natural Resources Director for the tribe. “There is a lot of work to be done in Budd Inlet to restore its ecological function. Getting these pilings out of here is a great start.”

From the Olympian:

By mid-March some 400 derelict pilings and 7,000 square-feet of abandoned docks and piers that represented the last reminders of a lower Budd Inlet shoreline once lined with lumber and plywood mills will be removed and shipped to the Roosevelt Landfill in Klickitat County.

It marks the latest step in a slow but steady transformation of West Bay Drive in Olympia from an industrial corridor to a collection of parks, office buildings and shoreline property undergoing hazardous waste cleanup and redevelopment.

The piling and dock removal project stretches across 1.2 miles of shoreline in lower Budd Inlet. It is spearheaded by the state Department of Natural Resources and also features four properties owned by the Port of Olympia, West Bay Reliable, the Delta Illahee Limited Partnership and the Squaxin Island Tribe.

 

Tribes, cable groups protest plan for tidal-power project

The tribes are concerned the turbines will interfere with fishing; cable interests say lines in the area could be damaged.

By Bill Sheets, Herald Writer

EVERETT — While a federal study recently gave an environmental OK to the Snohomish County Public Utility District’s plan to try out two tidal power turbines, some don’t agree with the conclusion.

Three Indian tribes, a cable company and a cable trade group all sent letters last week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission opposing the Admiralty Inlet project as it’s proposed.

The tribes, including the Tulalips, say the turbines could interfere with fishing. The cable interests believe the project could damage trans-Pacific cables that run through the inlet.

The letters were sent to meet Thursday’s deadline for commenting on the federal environmental study.

The tribes and others expressed concern earlier in the process as well, but the 215-page draft report concluded that the turbines pose no threat to the cables, wildlife habitat or fishing.

Officials with the PUD have seen the latest responses, said Jeff Kallstrom, an attorney for the utility.

“We’re still looking them over in detail. I don’t think anything that’s said is something that hasn’t been said before,” he said.

A final environmental study could be written this spring or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could simply reference the comments in either issuing or denying a license for the $20 million project, Kallstrom said. Either way, he expects a decision this summer, he said.

The first draft of the study concluded the turbines would not interfere with tribal fishing in part because “the size of the project would be very small relative to the fishing area. There is no current use of the project site as a commercial salmon fishery.”

The Tulalip Tribes, the Suquamish Tribe and the Point No Point Treaty Council, representing the Port Gamble and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes, each sent letters disputing the report’s conclusions.

“Development of this project would force the state and tribe to close this area for all types of fishing due to the safety hazards of fishing gear or anchor lines getting caught in the turbines,” wrote Daryl Williams, environmental liaison for the Tulalip Tribes, in a 35-page letter to the federal agency.

In the PUD’s project, the turbines would be placed in a flat area 200 feet underwater. Each circular turbine resembles a giant fan, sitting about 65 feet high on a triangular platform with dimensions of about 100 feet by 85 feet. The turbines are made by OpenHydro of Ireland.

The turbines would be placed about 575 and 770 feet from fiber-optic cables owned by Pacific Crossing of Danville, Calif. The cables extend a total of more than 13,000 miles in a loop from Harbour Pointe in Mukilteo to Ajigaura and Shima, Japan, and Grover Beach, Calif.

The company and the North American Submarine Cable Association, based in Morristown, N.J., both wrote to dispute the study’s findings.

The proposed distances from the turbines to the cables “significantly depart from industry standards,” said Robert Wargo, president of the cable association, in his letter to the federal agency.

Kurt Johnson, chief financial officer for Pacific Crossing, has said the company is concerned that the cables could be damaged by the placement of the 350-ton turbines or by anchors from boats in the area, he said.

Officials with the PUD earlier submitted to the federal agency a list of precautions that crews would take when operating near the turbines. The most important of these is that boats would stay running when in the area to eliminate the need for dropping an anchor, according to Craig Collar, senior manager for energy resource development for the PUD.

For placing the turbines, OpenHydro officials have told those at the PUD they can get them within 10 feet of their target locations, Collar said.

At peak output, the turbines are expected to generate 600 kilowatts between them, enough to power 450 homes, PUD spokesman Neil Neroutsos said. Most of the time the output will be less, officials said. They emphasized that this would be only a demonstration project intended to determine whether more turbines could be effective in the future.

The project is expected to cost $20 million to $25 million. The PUD has received nearly half that amount in a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Don Hatch receives YMCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Marysville Family YMCA Board honors Tulalip Tribal Board Member Don Hatch with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Marysville Family YMCA Board honors Tulalip Tribes Board Member Don Hatch with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

By Kim Kalliber, Tulalip News staff

MARYSVILLE, Wash.- Tulalip Tribal Board Member Don Hatch Jr. was described as “being the bridge” between the Tulalip and Marysville communities during a ceremony in which the Marysville Family YMCA honored Hatch with a Lifetime Achievement Award on February 19th.

This sentiment was echoed by attending YMCA board members and representatives of the Marysville School District.

“When we first thought about building the Y, Don was on board. His favorite expression over the years has been, ‘it’s all about the kids,’ said Anthony Roon, YMCA board member.

Anthony went on to say that three words he uses to describe Don are respect, compassion and reasonable. “I like to see our country have such a good example of collaborative work.  He is someone who has community in his soul. He always has the betterment of the community in his heart. That’s why we want to make Don a permanent member of our Board.”

Hatch, an original member of the 10th Street YMCA, reminisced about his early years. “In 1971 we got the Board together. It was really tremendous. There were about seven of us, and that was the start of everything.”

Over the years, Hatch has watched the YMCA grow into the thriving institution it is today, and was grateful to receive the award.  “I feel really welcomed here and I feel great with this [award].”

Sheryl Fryberg, Tulalip Tribes General Manager and Ray Fryberg, Executive Director of Cultural & Natural Resources, said a prayer and sang a song in Hatch’s honor.  “Let’s make it happen for the kids, is what Don always says. I lift up my hands to Don for all the good work that he’s done,” said Sheryl.

Sean King, YMCA board chairman and Mary Bredereck, YMCA associate executive, presented Hatch with a jacket and plaque, featuring the thumbprints of young YMCA members, in recognition of his many years serving the community.

This Presidents’ Day, We Highlight the Best Presidents for Indian Country

Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network

This story was originally published on Presidents’ Day 2012.

It’s not easy drawing up a list of the best American presidents on Indian issues when it is the very government that these presidents have led that has committed so many injustices toward the Native population. Still, some presidents have gone against the fray, sometimes in surprising ways, leading on Indian issues when they could have ignored them. These are our nods on this Presidents’ Day 2012:

Richard M. Nixon: He’s the president who’s not usually on anyone’s best list, but for Indian country, he was a champion. Changing course on many of the policies that had driven so many Indians into bleak poverty, Nixon, with the guidance of his Mohawk Indian affairs leader Louis R. Bruce, endorsed a self-determination plan for tribes, ushering in a new era for Natives. “Self-determination. … without the threat of eventual termination,” is how he described the plan to Congress, asking them to repeal the 1953 House Concurrent Resolution which had endorsed Native integration. He effectively ended the policy of forced termination, encouraged the growth of tribal governments, and pledged to honor the federal government’s obligations to tribes. Soon, many laws passed Congress building on Nixon’s plan, chief among them the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act—a major beacon of change that saw tribes begin to be in charge of their own economies. By the time that act became law, Nixon had resigned in disgrace for the bad deeds he had committed while in office. Indians, meanwhile, had a different reason to remember him.

Barack Obama: It’s taken this “One Who Helps People Throughout the Land” – his adopted Crow name – just three years to show that he’s seriously committed to taking action on Indian issues, brokering passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorization, the Tribal Law and Order Act, and the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement. He’s institutionalized an annual White House Tribal Nations summit, while hiring several Indians to posts throughout his administration. One niggling detail casts a shadow on all the good deeds he’s done: Indians continue to wait for a bold Obama plan that will not just atone for the sins of the past, but will help usher in the next bright era. If he is willing to institutionalize some real federal change on Indian policy, the shadow will lift.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: His New Deal will never be forgotten. For Natives, it included the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which ended the sale of tribal lands and restored ownership of unallocated lands to Native American groups. The policy helped reverse the Dawes Act’s infamous privatization of communal holdings of tribes, while returning to tribal self-governance. Congress ultimately altered the original intention of the policy by reducing elements of tribal self-governance and preserving federal Bureau of Indian Affairs oversight, which has led to many of the bureaucratic problems involving Indians land, royalties, and power that exist today.

Bill Clinton: He set a model for Obama, hiring Natives to work in his administration, and holding meetings with tribal leaders at the White House—both areas that the current president has taken the ball and run with. And he made some memorable commitments. His executive order on tribal consultation was a major move toward strengthening the government-to-government relationship that was supposed to always be there between the U.S. and tribal nations. His apology to Native Hawaiians showed his willingness to admit what was wrong, not worrying whether this might make him look weak. On the contrary, it made him look strong. Many Indians of the 49 other states continue to wait for their own apology from another strong president.

Ulysses S. Grant: This blast from the presidential past reminds us that good intentions were sometimes present in American history toward Indians—but that good federal intentions were and are not always the best for tribal interests. In his first inaugural address, Grant called Indians “the original occupants of this land” – few leaders were giving them that credit at the time – and he said that he was committed to rethinking the country’s horrid treatment of them. Under his Peace Policy, he wanted to achieve the ultimate Kumbaya moment by moving Indians closer to white civilization by housing them on reservations and encouraging them to farm. In hindsight, all this relocation was not only bad policy, it was bad for the Indian body and soul. Still, Grant remains interesting because he tried something other than conquering—which can’t be said of many of his historical peers. Worth noting: George H.W. Bush: When he signed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act into law in 1990, it was a pretty progressive move, especially when compared to his son who would later leave most things Indian alone. He also designated the first national Native American heritage month, and proclaimed 1992 the “Year of the American Indian.” It has since come to light that when he served as United Nations ambassador before becoming POTUS, he encouraged the spending of U.S. money to sterilize low-income women, including some Native Americans. John F. Kennedy: JFK and his brothers, Bobby and Teddy, are remembered fondly by many Natives due to their push for Indian education initiatives, as well as Bobby’s campaign visit to Pine Ridge Reservation in 1968 just before his assassination. Kennedy’s brothers were really the ones making waves, but he tends to get lumped in with them as having been a supporter. Jimmy Carter: He signed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act into law in 1979, saying, “It is a fundamental right of every American, as guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution, to worship as he or she pleases.” The law has led to greater support for and awareness of sacred site protection.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/this-presidents-day-we-highlight-the-best-presidents-for-indian-country-98923

Tribal survivors of rape gather to ‘lift our sisters up’

By Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist

Carolyn Moses (left) and Judge Theresa Pouley acted as witnesses during a healing event called "Lifting Our Sisters Up" held at the Hibulb Cultural Center longhouse in Tulalip on Wednesday. More than 50 women gathered to discuss violence against native women, share personal accounts of struggle and give support to each other. Photo: Genna Martin / The Herald
Carolyn Moses (left) and Judge Theresa Pouley acted as witnesses during a healing event called “Lifting Our Sisters Up” held at the Hibulb Cultural Center longhouse in Tulalip on Wednesday. More than 50 women gathered to discuss violence against native women, share personal accounts of struggle and give support to each other. Photo: Genna Martin / The Herald

Courageously she stood, a blanket around her shoulders. Roxanne Chinook wasn’t alone in the Tulalip Tribes‘ Hibulb Cultural Center Longhouse.

More than 50 women and girls, elders to middle schoolers, crowded together on plank seats. For their ancestors, a longhouse was a place to hear stories. At Wednesday’s gathering, called “Lifting Our Sisters Up,” they listened and shared.

“The blankets are to cover you for protection,” said Deborah Parker, vice chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes.

Then Chinook told her harrowing story, an account of being raped — by a non-Indian — on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon.

“I am a survivor of 13 rapes,” said Chinook, who works for the Tulalips’ Legacy of Healing, a victims’ advocacy program. Years ago, she tried hiding her pain in a fog of substance abuse. “Why did I make myself so vulnerable? Many women you see in Indian country who are hard-drinking, those are women carrying that kind of pain,” Chinook said.

It was a piercing, personal memory. And a camera was rolling.

A French film crew was in the longhouse Wednesday working on a documentary that will air on the Canal Plus network. “It’s like the HBO of France,” said Sabrina Van Tassel, the filmmaker visiting Tulalip with camerman Cyril Thomas. Van Tassel said the short film will air on a French show called “Butterfly Effect,” which examines issues in other countries.

The film’s subject is the Violence Against Women Act, which U.S. senators voted Tuesday to reauthorize. It’s legislation first passed in 1994. The law includes money for prosecution of violent crimes against women.

Last year, House Republicans did not support its renewal. One big reason the House rejected the measure was a new provision that would allow tribal police and courts to pursue and try non-Indians who attack women on tribal land. Federal law enforcement has jurisdiction in such cases, but access is limited at the very least by distance.

Legislation passed Tuesday by the Senate includes the tribal provisions. The House is now expected to take up the Violence Against Women Act, and Parker is pushing for equal treatment of crimes that happen on Indian reservations.

Last April, the Tulalips’ vice chairwoman was in Washington, D.C., where she spoke at a press conference with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in support of the law, which died in 2012 without a House vote. Interviewed in December by Herald writer Rikki King, Murray said Parker has become “the voice and face” of the issue. “I know it’s taken a lot of courage on her part, and I know it’s making a difference,” Murray said.

As she did in the nation’s capital, Parker shared her own nightmarish stories in the longhouse Wednesday.

“My aunt was being abused when I was baby-sitting her children. She was brutally raped,” Parker said. All she could do, she said, was protect the children by hiding with them in a closet. Parker also remembers being raped as a small child. “I was the size of a couch cushion,” she said. “I was choked and I was raped. I tell my story so that others can receive healing,” she said.

Parker stood beside her teenage daughter, Kayah George, and said “I can place one more woman beside me, and one of us will be raped.”

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., quoted by The New York Times on Sunday, cited statistics showing that tribal women are two and a half times more likely than other American women to be raped, with 1 in 3 Indian women becoming victims of sexual assault.

The French film crew has also done interviews on the Rosebud and Yankton Sioux reservations in South Dakota. “A lot of people ask why, why would French people want to know about this?” said Van Tassel. “Why wouldn’t they?”

Among four honored witnesses to Wednesday’s gathering, which included traditional songs and prayers, was the Tulalip Tribal Court’s Chief Judge Theresa Pouley. The court is part of the Northwest Intertribal Court System, established in 1979.

Pouley is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. “Let tribal court judges take care of crime on reservations. This isn’t about tribal court judges. This is about protecting our women,” Pouley said.

“I’m a Washington State Bar Association member. I should have to prove I’m competent or capable? Really? It’s time to stop having that conversation,” the judge said. “I never want to say to my granddaughter, ‘There’s a 1 in 3 chance you’ll be raped, sweetie.'”

Meteor Explodes in Fireball Over Ural Mountains, Injuring 500 and Blowing Out Windows in Russian City

Yekaterina Pustynnikova/Chelyabinsk.ru, via Associated Press.Meteor contrail over Ural Mountain city of Chelyabinsk in Russia on February 15, 2013.
Yekaterina Pustynnikova/Chelyabinsk.ru, via Associated Press.Meteor contrail over Ural Mountain city of Chelyabinsk in Russia on February 15, 2013.

Indian Country Today Media Network Staff

A meteor streaked across the early-morning sky in Russia and exploded into a fireball on Friday over the industrial city of Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains.

The shockwave injured 500 people, most of whom were hit by shattered glass from blown-out windows, media reports said. Chelyabinsk is 950 miles east of Moscow, according to Reuters.

The meteor’s white contrail was visible up to 125 miles away in Yekaterinburg, Reuters reported. The 10-ton space rock set off car alarms and disrupted mobile phone networks as it broke upon entering the atmosphere at 33,000 miles per hour, faster than a bullet.

Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences said the meteor exploded 20 or 30 miles above Earth, according to a statement quoted by The New York Times. Reuters said 112 people were hospitalized and 297 buildings were damaged.

The meteor strike bears eerie parallels to one that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and has been invoked often over the past several days in comparison to the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14, which will happen today at around 2:30 p.m. That one will pass 17,200 miles from Earth, which is within the orbit of communications and weather satellites (which are 22,000 miles up) but does not pose a threat.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/15/meteor-explodes-fireball-over-ural-mountains-injuring-500-and-blowing-out-windows-russian

Families tear down cabins as Tulalip leases expire

Some neighbors have used barges and boats to remove salvaged materials from their houses at Mission Beach. The residents have to remove their homes and be off the Tulalip Tribes property by the end of March. Photo: Dan Bates / The Herald
Some neighbors have used barges and boats to remove salvaged materials from their houses at Mission Beach. The residents have to remove their homes and be off the Tulalip Tribes property by the end of March. Photo: Dan Bates / The Herald

By Bill Sheets, Herald Writer

TULALIP — For 50 years, Jaime Erickson’s family has been spending summers and weekends at their cabin on scenic Mission Beach.

Bruce Agnew’s family has had a cabin on the beach since 1925.

Mike Carey’s in-laws have had a place there for 90 years.

None of them own the beachfront property on which their cabins sit, however. They’ve been leasing the land from the Tulalip Tribes, and the tribes want it back.

The 24 tenants had to be out by the end of December and the cabins have to be gone by the end of March. The buildings — some basic, some funky, some quaint — are being taken apart and torn down, one by one.

“We’re all real sad. It’s a lot of memories,” said Erickson, 55, whose full-time home is in Everett.

The quarter-mile section of beach is located southeast of Tulalip Bay, below 59th Street NW, also called Mission Beach Heights Road.

The cabins are built right on the beach, up against a steep slope. Most of the bank has been eroding for years and slides have been an issue, Tulalip spokeswoman Francesca Hillery said.

The tenants, most of them on long-term leases of up to 30 years, were given notice in 2005 that they had to be out by the end of 2012 — more than seven years ahead of time, Hillery said. They were sent reminder notices again in June, she said.

The leases stipulated that any structures on the property be removed at the renters’ expense when the lease expires, Hillery said. The leases also were intentionally timed to end simultaneously, she said.

The tribes haven’t yet decided what to do with the beach but the most likely choice is to restore it to a natural state, Hillery said.

“The likelihood of doing anything other than restoring the beach doesn’t look good because of the instability of the slopes” and because of salmon recovery efforts, she said.

Hillery declined to comment on whether the public would have access to the beach if it is restored.

Erickson said the leases had been renewed so many times over the years that few thought they’d actually have to leave.

“Everyone’s in denial,” she said. “I never believed it.”

Residents said there is some anger about the situation, but at the same time, they understand the property isn’t theirs.

“A lease is a lease, unfortunately,” said Carey, who lives in Bellingham. “It is what it is.”

Only a few of the tenants live at the beach full time, Erickson said. For most, the homes are part-time dwellings. Still, the families have spent so much time at their cabins over the years that leaving and tearing them down is difficult.

“The tribe has been working with us very closely but the reality is my family has been there since 1925,” said Agnew, a former Snohomish County Council member. “Tribal members who are very family-oriented can certainly understand the tragedy in losing a place we’ve had since 1925 with irreplaceable family memories.”

The beach has a significant, colorful history.

The beach was named for a Catholic missionary church established nearby in the earliest years of the reservation, in 1858 by the Rev. E.C. Chirouse, according to Snohomish County historian David Dilgard.

In later years, the atmosphere at the beach was anything but pious.

Agnew, who grew up in Everett, said that early in the 20th century, his great-grandfather and others frequented fishing shacks on Mission Beach.

“The mining and fishing barons of Everett would go over and play cards and get away from their families,” he said. “They’d take tugboats out there and drink and gamble and carouse away from the watchful eye of their families on Rucker Hill.”

That tradition did not quite die out, according to Erickson.

The wooden decks on most of the homes ran together.

“It was just one big family. Everybody walked the deck and had cocktails with each other,” she said. “It was a fun, fun beach.”

The strip of sand boasts southwestern exposure with sweeping views of Whidbey Island, Hat Island, Possession Sound and Everett.

“The best time to be out there was with the storms and the connection with nature, the wild storms and tides,” said Agnew, who now lives on Mercer Island. “Where else do you find white sandy beach 45 minutes from downtown Seattle without railroad tracks in front and without a ferry to take? There’s no substitute for it.”

Some of the tenants are paying Carey, who has a construction business, to tear down their cabins with an excavator. He said most are paying him between $9,000 and $11,000.

Friends, relatives, acquaintances and charity groups have been salvaging fixtures and appliances, according to Erickson.

“It’s kind of a free-for-all. Everyone’s just coming out here and taking what they want,” she said.

Some are having their places taken down piece by piece and hauled away by boat.

“I’ve worked down here for 30 years on people’s places that I’m tearing down,” Gary Werner, of Lake Stevens said.

“I’m taking apart stuff I built for people.”

Agnew said it will be easier for tenants to accept their loss if the beach is restored to a natural condition.

“Anything other than that would be really sad,” he said.

Hillery said the tribes understand the families’ emotional connection to the beach. Tribal members also feel a connection, she said.

“It’s ancestral land,” she said. “It’s a very important cultural area to the tribe.”

Gray whale sighted near Mission Beach

Watch for whales

Source: HeraldNet

A gray whale has been sighted near Mission Beach at Tulalip, about a month before the first of a group of migratory whales usually shows up.

Kathie Roon, who lives at the beach, said she saw a whale offshore Monday morning while walking her dog. Roon saw several spouts and the fluke come out of the water, she said.

Gray whales visit Possession Sound and Port Susan on their annual trip from Mexico to Alaska, usually between March and May, experts say. Normally about a dozen stop over, according to John Calambokidis of Olympia-based Cascadia Research. About six of them are the same whales every year and about six are different, as identified by photos, he said.

Mansion in Mukilteo recalled: The history of Mukilteo’s first mansion is the topic for a meeting of the Mukilteo Historical Society on Thursday.

The home’s current owner, Alan Zugel, is to talk about his house at the meeting, scheduled for 7:15 p.m. in the Fowler Room at the Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave. The house was built in the early 1900s for the manager of the Crown Lumber Co., according to the historical group.

The meeting is open to the public and refreshments are planned.

Alpacas on display: The Alpaca Association of Western Washington plans to hold their second annual Valentine’s weekend Herdsire Review from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, 14405 179th Ave SE, Monroe. Some of the best alpaca herdsires available for breeding in Western Washington will be on display for local alpaca farms to observe and schedule breeding dates for their females.

This year’s event has expanded to include an Alpaca Pen Sale and Fiber Market so that the public can see and buy alpaca products as well as alpacas. Admission is free. For more information, go to www.alpacawa.org or call 206-510-0434.