Native American Mascot Issue Stirs Strong Debate In West Hartford

By Suzanna Carlson, The Hartford Courant

hartfordWEST HARTFORD — The high schools’ Warrior and Chieftain mascots were described alternately as proud and respectful or racist and offensive by speakers at a community forum on Thursday night.

About 300 people attended the board of education forum, and about 50 spoke. No decision was made.

Dozens of students from Conard High School wore shirts emblazoned with “Save the Chieftain,” but students, teachers and parents from both Conard and Hall high schools expressed widely opposing views.

Those who support the mascots described them as symbols of pride and said they honored Native American culture. Many of the speakers pointed to the fact that leaders of the local Mohegan tribe, in consultation with students, have said they support the mascots’ use. Some cited a recent poll at Conard showing that 80 percent of students and 60 percent of teachers want to keep the symbol.

But others argued that the mascots are antiquated, racist caricatures that should be eliminated. Several said they have consulted with other Native American groups across the country who vehemently oppose the use of Native American imagery as sports mascots.

Quyen Truong said she attended Conard about 10 years ago and was asked to create the Conard Chieftain logo of a native man in a headdress.

“I genuinely thought at that time that I was honoring the Chieftains,” Truong said.

In college, Truong said, she met Native Americans for the first time and learned how historically marginalized cultures are denigrated by such imagery. She said she realized her work was “deeply offensive” to “a whole group of people that I didn’t really know and understand, and I became very conflicted about what I had done in high school. … My perspective has shifted and I really want to strongly advocate to retire the chieftain.”

Many of those opposed referred to decisions by groups such as the American Psychological Association, the National Education Association and the National Congress of American Indians to reject the use of Native American mascots and imagery, and urged the board of education to end up on “the right side of history.”

Arguing to keep the mascots, Tom Midney said the names are “meant to bestow pride, honor, and respect. … Don’t disrespect that tradition over such folly. That would be truly offensive.”

Parent Ted Mancini said he’s “sick and tired of listening” to what he described as a “PC witch hunt,” and said the majority’s opinion should dictate that the mascots remain intact.

The issue is not only the mascots, but the schools’ cheering sections, The Reservation and The Tribe, as well as the name of the Conard newspaper, “The Powwow.”

School Superintendent Tom Moore said the cost to change the schools’ logos would be around $50,000, and could total $100,000 if the logos and names were all changed.

“This has been both a challenging and invigorating process,” board of education Chairman Mark Overmyer-Velazquez said. “It’s not always been an easy one, it’s not always been entirely graceful … but it’s been a profound example of the democratic process that we have here and our students have learned a lot from it.”

The board of education is expected to meet soon to discuss the issue and decide whether the mascots should be changed.

Northern Arapaho tribe’s ACA suit advances in federal court

By Trevor Graff, Casper Star-Tribune Communications

A federal court in Casper considered blocking an Internal Revenue Service rule that Northern Arapaho officials say could cause Native Americans to pay more for insurance or lose health care benefits.

Tribal leaders say the proposed IRS interpretation of a mandate for large employers to provide health care coverage would unlawfully exempt tribal members who work for the Northern Arapaho from receiving tax credits and cost-sharing benefits granted Native Americans in the Affordable Care Act.

Kelly Rudd, the Northern Arapaho attorney, said the agency’s interpretation could subject the tribe to more than $1.5 million in tax penalties if its business entities, including Wind River Casino, do not offer employer-sponsored insurance.

“They proposed a one-size-fits-all, large-employer mandate that doesn’t fit Congress’ purpose of bringing health care to working-class Native Americans,” Rudd said.

He said the tribe insures employees with plans from the federal health insurance marketplace and pays 80 percent of the premium costs.

Those policies provide better coverage than the tribe could purchase independently, Rudd said.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services say the rule-making is based on Congress’ intent to promote employer-sponsored health coverage under the ACA.

Jacek Pruski, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney, told the court that the IRS rule-making is in compliance with the purpose of the ACA.

He said the court should reject the motion to block enforcement of the rule because the tribe did not establish the strength of its case based on prior case law.

Rudd said the U.S. Department of the Interior is charged with overseeing tribal health care programs. He said the IRS did not communicate with the Interior Department while drafting the rule.

“Basically what we have is a left-hand-right-hand problem in communication among agencies,” Rudd said.

U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl said he would need more time to deliberate on the suit because of the complicated nature of the Affordable Care Act.

“This is the statute that cast a thousand lawsuits,” he said.

Skavdahl said he would release his decision in the coming weeks.

State, tribal leaders seek to expand Insure Oklahoma program to about 40,000 tribal members

By SEAN MURPHY,  Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — While state leaders remain steadfastly opposed to a Medicaid expansion offered under the federal health care law, some of Oklahoma’s 39 federally recognized Native American tribes are exploring opportunities for a federal waiver that could mean health insurance for about 40,000 low-income uninsured tribal members.

Oklahoma Health Care Authority CEO Nico Gomez said talks are underway about seeking an expansion of the state’s Insure Oklahoma program to include some of the estimated 80,000 Native Americans in Oklahoma without health insurance. Gomez estimated as many as half of those tribal citizens could qualify for the program, depending on where the income threshold is set.

Although still conceptual, Gomez said the idea would involve the tribal citizen paying a portion of the health insurance premium, the tribe paying a portion, and the federal government paying the largest part.

“We’re not looking at tapping into any state revenue, not now or in the future,” Gomez said. “Frankly, if it required any state revenue, I’m not sure we’d even be having this conversation.”

Gomez said the proposal was initially discussed last week with tribal representatives, and that he plans to brief members of the Health Care Authority’s governing board during its regular meeting on Thursday. Some of the state’s largest tribes, including the Chickasaw and Cherokee nations, are involved in discussions, Gomez said.

Insure Oklahoma provides health coverage to about 18,000 low-income Oklahoma residents, mostly through a program in which the cost of premiums are shared by the state (60 percent), the employer (25 percent) and the employee (15 percent). The state portion of the program is funded through a tax on tobacco sales, but a federal waiver that allows the program to operate has only been approved through the end of the year.

Gomez said expanding the program to include a tribal option could help ensure the federal waiver continues.

Billy James, a 31-year-old University of Oklahoma student and a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, said he wants to have health insurance but can’t afford the premiums.

“I’m trying to hold out as long as I can,” said James, who is finishing his master’s degree and currently unemployed. “I’m kind of scared about not having insurance, but I’ve got to tough it out a little while longer.”

A spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin, a staunch supporter of the Insure Oklahoma program, said the governor is excited about the potential of a tribal expansion.

“We’re particularly excited about the fact that it would not cost the state any tax dollars, which is important as we deal with our current shortfall,” Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz said.

Currently, there are about 130,000 Native Americans in the state’s Medicaid program, which is about 16 percent of the overall Medicaid population in Oklahoma.

NRCS California Accepting Applications for Tribal Initiative

SOURCE USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service

DAVIS, Calif., Feb. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California is again partnering with California’s tribal nations to make financial assistance available to help tribal farmers, ranchers and non-industrial private forest operators put additional conservation on the ground.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Tribal Initiative provides financial and technical assistance to Tribes and tribal producers who voluntarily agree to NRCS guidelines for installation of approved conservation practices that address program priorities related to addressing soil, water, air quality, domestic livestock, wildlife habitat, surface and groundwater conservation, energy conservation, and related natural resource concerns.

While applications are taken continuously throughout the year, eligible farmers and ranchers are encouraged to submit their applications as soon as possible. Applications will be screened and ranked in four batching periods (February 20, April 17, June 19 and July 17).

Eligible applications will be considered based on the following priorities:

Five landscape resource priorities are aimed at improving and managing forest health and reducing wildfire threats, as well as rangeland health and water quality. The five priorities areas are:

  • Northern Coastal Tribal Forestland in Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, western Shasta, western Siskiyou, Sonoma and Trinity
  • Northern Coastal Tribal Rangeland in Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, western Shasta, western Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma and Trinity counties
  • Inter Mountain/Central Sierra Forestland in Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, eastern Shasta, Sierra, eastern Siskiyou, Tulare and Tuolumne Counties.
  • Inter Mountain/Central Sierra Rangeland in Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Kings, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, eastern Shasta, Sierra, eastern Siskiyou, Tulare and Tuolumne Counties.
  • South Coast and Desert Tribal Forests and Rangeland in Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Mono, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

Two statewide resource priorities are aimed at reducing soil erosion, improving irrigation water efficiency, water quality, restoring and managing native plants for traditional Native American food and fiber production. The two statewide priorities are:

  • Statewide Tribal Poly-farms: small, biologically diverse farms and medium size agricultural operations for subsistence, intra-tribal and external commerce.
  • Native Plants Restoration: culturally important tribal plants for food and fiber.

There are 109 federally recognized American Indian tribes in California. There are at least 69 non-federally recognized tribes in California petitioning for federal recognition. The federally recognized tribes have jurisdiction over 635,739 acres of Tribal trust land in California.

NRCS has provided leadership in a partnership effort to help America’s private land owners and managers conserve their soil, water and other natural resources since 1935. For more information on NRCS, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov.

 

Proposed 2016 budget for Indian Health Services outlined

Noel Lyn Smith, The Daily Times

FARMINGTON — The acting head of the Indian Health Service has highlighted the federal agency’s proposed 2016 funding to provide health care services to Native Americans.

During a teleconference on Thursday, Acting IHS Director Yvette Roubideaux outlined the proposed budget for the agency, which is included in the proposed $4 trillion federal budget announced this week by President Barack Obama.

The IHS is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It provides health care services to approximately 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives through more than 650 hospitals, clinics and health stations on or near reservation lands.

The proposed budget for the IHS would total $5.1 billion, which is an increase of $461 million from the fiscal year 2015 budget, Roubideaux reported.

Among the funding proposals Roubideaux mentioned is $718 million for contract support costs. She noted that the budget proposes mandatory appropriation for contract support costs starting in 2017.

The budget proposes a $70 million increase to the Purchased/Referred Care Program, which pays for health care services obtained from the private sector or for services not available by the IHS.

A total of $185 million has been requested to provide funding for construction projects listed under the Health Care Facilities Construction Priority List.

Under the proposal, about $20.5 million would be used for the facility design and to start construction of the Dilkon Alternative Rural Health Center in Dilkon, Ariz.

Funding would also be used to complete construction of the Gila River Southeast Health Center in Chandler, Ariz., and to start the construction of the Salt River Northeast Health Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the Rapid City Health Center in Rapid City, S.D.

The budget proposes that $115 million be allocated for the Division of Sanitation Facilities Construction, which supplies water, sewage disposal and solid waste disposal facilities to homes.

The budget proposes an annual appropriation of $150 million for the next three years for the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, which started in 1997 and provides diabetes prevention, awareness, education and care programs to IHS, tribal and urban facilities.

Joining Roubideaux for the teleconference was Jodi Gillette, special assistant to the president for Native American Affairs, who said the president’s approach to funding the programs and services that address Indian Country were outlined during the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference.

She noted that last year, the president and first lady Michelle Obama visited the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation in North Dakota.

During their visit, they heard from young tribal members who shared stories about dealing with social issues like alcoholism, poverty and suicide.

In response to that visit, a new initiative focusing on Native American young people — Generation Indigenous — was launched, Gillette said.

Investments to start Generation Indigenous were included in the proposed IHS budget, including $25 million to expand the Methamphetamine and Suicide Prevention Initiative.

That funding would go toward increasing the number of child and adolescent behavioral health professionals working to provide direct services to Native youth.

Another $50 million has been requested within the Health and Human Services Department to start the Tribal Behavioral Health Initiative for Native Youth.

Noel Lyn Smith covers the Navajo Nation for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4636 and nsmith@daily-times.com. Follow her @nsmithdt on Twitter.

——

©2015 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.)

Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Native Americans Say Facebook Is Accusing Them of Using Fake Names

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By Aura Bogado, Color Lines

Dana Lone Hill tried logging on to Facebook last Monday only to be locked out because the social media giant believed that she was using a fake name. In an essay over at Last Real Indians, Dana, who’s Lakota and has been using Facebook since 2007, explains that she’s presented a photo ID, library card and one piece of mail to the company in an attempt to restore her account. The day after Lone Hill’s account was suspended she was able to access it briefly but she was then booted a second time.

In her essay Lone Hill says that this has happened to other Native users she knows:

I had a little bit of paranoia at first regarding issues I had been posting about until I realized I wasn’t the only Native American this happened to. One friend was forced to change his name from his Cherokee alphabet to English. Another was forced to include her full name, and a few were forced to either smash the two word last names together or omit one of the two words in the last name. Oglala Lakota Lance Brown Eyes was bootd from facebook and when he turned in his proof of identification they changed his name to Lance Brown. After contacting the Better Business Bureau and threatening Facebook with a class action lawsuit, they sent him an apology and let him use his given name again.

To reestablish a Facebook account after being accused of using a fake name, users must submit one government-issued ID such as a birth certificate, passport or voter identification card or two other forms of identification such as library card and a yearbook photo. The company appears to have been questioning certain Native users since at least 2009, when it deactivated Parmelee Kills The Enemy’s account. More recently, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Facebook deleted a number of Native accounts. In one case, the company asked users Shane and Jacqui Creepingbear for identification to prove that they weren’t using fake names. Shane took to Twitter to express his disappointment:

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Via Facebook messenger, Shane says that the couple’s ordeal came to a swift end when he had some friends who work in the tech industry contact Facebook directly. Shane, who’s part of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, says that he and Jacqui have “administrative shields” on their Facebook accounts and that their names will no longer be questioned.

“It’s a problem when someone decides they are the arbiter of names,” says Shane. “It can come off a tad racist.”

Facebook’s 10-year-old real-name policy stipulates that users “provide the name they use in real life.” However, the social network doesn’t require people to use their legal names, according to an open letter the company’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, posted last October. In the letter Cox apologizes to ”drag queens, drag kings, transgender [people], and [to the] extensive community of our friends, neighbors and members of the LGBT community” whose accounts had been shut down after a user reported hundreds of them as fake. At press time no such apology has been issued to Natives.

In a statement to Colorlines, a Facebook spokesperson wrote:

“Over the last several months, we’ve made some significant improvements in the implementation of this standard, including enhancing the overall experience and expanding the options available for verifying an authentic name. We have more work to do, and our teams will continue to prioritize these improvements so everyone can be their authentic self on Facebook.”

The spokesperson also told Colorlines that any idenitification provided by users is reviewed and verified by a single Facebook employee and then immediately destroyed—which may calm some privacy concerns.

Lone Hill, who went by Lone Elk until she found her birth certificate last summer, tells Colorlines that she submitted her documents to the company last Tuesday only to receive an automated e-mail asking for even more documents—“credit cards, Social Security numbers, stuff I’m not comfortable sending.” Lone Hill says she misses having access to her nearly 2,000 Facebook friends and doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to recover photos of her four children that she stored in her account.

A petition demanding Facebook change its policy toward Native names, started about four months ago, has garnered more than 9,000 signatures.

Update, 4:14p ET
Dane Lone Hill’s account was restored by Facebook today after being suspended for the better part of a week. Lone Hill had posted about her ordeal on Last Real Indians on Friday, which Colorlines picked up and published a post about Monday. In an email addressed to Lone Hill at 2:58p ET and forwarded to Colorlines, Facebook explained:

Hi Dana,

It looks like your account was suspended by mistake. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience. You should now be able to log in. If you have any issues getting back into your account, please let me know.

View updates from your support dashboard: [REDACTED]

Thanks,

Harvey
Community Operations
Facebook

USET Endorses Legislation to Revoke Trademarks of Washington NFL Team’s Racist Name

Source: USET Media Release

The prominent inter-tribal organization is supporting a bill that was introduced in the House of Representatives this week by Congressman Mike Honda

The United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) today strongly endorsed a bill that would remove all trademark protections of the Washington NFL team as long as the franchise retains the R-word racial slur as its team name.

Congressman Mike Honda introduced the legislation, entitled The Non-Disparagement of Native American Persons or Peoples in Trademark Registration Act, this week in the U.S. House of Representative. The bill, which already has 26 co-sponsors, seeks to prevent any sports team from using a derogatory slur for Native Americans as its mascot and nickname.

“Congressman Honda has taken a bold stand against racism, discrimination and the continued denigration of Native Americans by introducing this legislation, which USET strongly supports,” said USET President Brian Patterson.  “If the NFL’s Washington’s franchise is unwilling to change the offensive mascot then steps should be taken, wherever possible, to eliminate public funding and trademark protections for a league that persists in offending and insulting Native peoples.”

The new House bill would retroactively cancel any existing federal trademarks and prohibit the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) from issuing new trademarks that use the term “r-dskins” in reference to Native Americans. It will also formally declare the word “r-dskins” a disparaging term when used in reference to Native Americans and therefore cannot be trademarked.

USET will hold its Welcome Reception Monday night, February 9th at 6PM.  The reception will feature Congressman Honda and USET leadership, who will reaffirm USET’s strong opposition to the continued use of the R-word and other negative imagery and stereotypes.  USET wishes to express support to Rep. Honda’s legislation that would remove the Washington football team of its name trademark protections. He will be provided podium time to make remarks.  The reception will be held in Salon four at the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, Virginia.

USET is a nationally recognized, non-profit, inter-tribal organization that collectively represents 26 member Tribes at the regional and national level. As a top organization addressing the issues facing Native Americans, USET has for years taken a leading role in demanding an end to the use of the racist R-word. Over the past two NFL seasons, USET and the national grassroots Change the Mascot campaign have garnered support from a diverse cross section of Americans including civil rights leaders, religious and human rights organizations, sports icons, political leaders from both parties and the President of the United States.

This week, USET will hold its annual Impact Week Meeting in Washington, D.C.  The four-day event including meetings with Members of Congress and various government organizations about top issues facing Indian Country, as well as a variety of cultural activities and celebrations.

Researchers help guard sunken tribe artifacts from turbines

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT, Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – University of Rhode Island researchers are working with Native Americans to ensure that energy companies hoping to erect massive wind turbines off New England don’t inadvertently disturb the tribes’ ceremonial sites and burial grounds, now submerged under hundreds of feet of water.

Providence-based Deepwater Wind is planning what could be the nation’s first offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Block Island. But federal regulators and Native Americans worry that wind turbines could inadvertently be parked on top of the sunken lands where Native Americans lived thousands of years ago.

Narragansett Indian Tribe oral history holds that they lived on land that is now off Rhode Island’s shore more than 15,000 years ago until their villages were inundated by water and they had to evacuate. Sea level was about 400 feet lower globally during the last Ice Age and what is now covered by water was once dry land.

With the help of the tribe, researchers are trying to figure out the best way of searching the ocean floor to identify ancient archaeological sites so they aren’t disturbed.

If one was ruined, “It would not only be a loss to the Narragansetts, it would be a loss to the world,” said John Brown, the tribe’s historic preservation officer.

When offshore wind developers began focusing on southern New England, Native Americans said they were concerned about their sacred sites. And federal regulators realized they didn’t know how to find the sites to avoid affecting them, said Brian Jordan, the federal preservation officer at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“That was a pretty big awakening for our bureau,” Jordan said.

The oceans bureau gave URI $2 million for a four-year study in 2012, with the hope that the bureau could use the study’s recommendations for identifying potential sites to update its guidelines nationally, Jordan said. Energy companies must do site surveys now as part of the permitting process, and federal agencies require them to avoid harming historical and archaeological sites at sea, when possible.

The project’s principal investigator, URI professor John King, and his team collected samples of submerged sediments in Greenwich Bay in Warwick with a machine that vibrates through the top layers of sand and mud. They analyze the sediment for signs of human activity, such as seeds from plants grown by people or flakes from arrowhead-making, to decipher what the landscape looked like thousands of years ago.

The five-turbine Block Island proposal is one of several offshore wind farm projects in the works along the Eastern seaboard. Construction is slated to begin later this year so the wind farm can begin operating in 2016.

Deepwater Wind has also been granted a lease to build a wind farm of at least 200 turbines between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard. Cape Wind is planning for a 130-turbine wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, though the future of that project is in doubt. The federal government has said areas off New Jersey, Virginia and Maine are suitable for offshore wind development, too.

“This study is forward-thinking,” Jordan said. “A lot of projects are still in the planning phase, and hopefully it will inform a lot of those.”

Deepwater Wind hired marine archaeologists to scan the area around the Block Island wind farm using sonar and other instruments, said CEO Jeffrey Grybowski. They did not find any cultural artifacts, but the company is moving its transmission cable slightly on land because what appeared to be stone tools were in its path.

“The offshore wind industry would very much like to see some standardization in the process over time and best practices,” Grybowski said. “To the extent that our survey techniques can improve, I think the industry would embrace that.”

King said the method he’s testing could be used to further investigate anything that appears interesting during the ocean surveys. He said it’s important to develop a technique that is less destructive than conventional archaeological digging out of respect for tribal cultures.

The Narragansett Indians helped Deepwater Wind, and they’re sharing their oral history and local knowledge with the URI team. Doug Harris, the deputy tribal historic preservation officer, said the tribe’s ancestors had a close relationship with life.

“There was always a respectful, reciprocal relationship,” he said. “If we humans are going into their territory, we should tread softly and cautiously and respectfully. We’re trying to bring that dimension to this process.”

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

CELEBRATE VALENTINE’S DAY: A MODERN DAY LOVE AFFAIR FROM ROMANCE TO ROCK

Tulalip Resort Casino Offers Sweethearts Multi-Sensual Dining Combined with Mesmerizing Music

Source: Tulalip Resort Casino
imageTulalip, Washington – Tulalip Resort Casino knows how to evoke the sensation of love.  On Saturday, February 14th they will be joining forces to create a modern day romance of multi-sensual dining combined with mesmerizing music.  Valentine‘s Day rock party includes a concert of tribute bands (“Heart by Heart” and “Rumors”) featuring music from legendary greats Heart and Fleetwood Mac. From 7-8:30pm in the Orca Ballroom, guests can savor a buffet dinner offering a selection of three salads, chicken or beef entrees, assorted desserts and coffee/tea.  Admirers and their main squeeze can rock the night away to love pounding sounds starting at 9 pm.

This event for those 21 and over, offers a no-host bar and festival seating.  Dinner and concert tickets must be purchased in advance and are priced at $60 per person or $100 per couple, including tax and gratuity.  For those who wish to linger longer, show ticket packages (overnight deluxe accommodations, tickets for dinner and dessert, concert and breakfast at Eagles Buffet) are available starting at $350.  To purchase Valentine’s Day “Rock Ballad Ball” tickets call (360) 716-6888 or for show packages, please contact reservations at 866-716-7162. Additional details can be found at Rock Ballad Ball.

Lady Hawks take loss in game against rival Lummi Nation, 36-42

By Tulalip News staff

LUMMI –  Tulalip Heritage Lady Hawks played a hard game against rival Lummi Nation Lady Blackhawks on Thursday, January 29, at Lummi  High School. The Lady Hawks trailed at halftime 17-23, and could not take the lead to end the game 36-42. Lady Hawk Michelle Iukes led all scorers with 20 points.

Lady Hawks play Skykomish Rockets next on February 2, at Skykomish High School.

Lady-Hawks-vs-Lummi_1-29-15