FARMINGTON — TBA, a Los Angeles-based network, is hosting a casting call today and Saturday for a reality TV “docuseries” about a subculture of Native American youth.
The studio is looking for people between 18 and 28 years old who are interested in a medical career, environmentalism, leadership or similar programs. The people must be outgoing and not camera shy.
Auditions are from 4 to 8 p.m. today and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Comfort Inn Suites, 1951 Cortland Drive in Farmington.
The show will focus on young Native Americans who leave the reservations, tribes, cultures and ways of life to pursue life in a city.
The studio is looking for a few people who are willing to leave everything behind to pursue their “big dream.”
According to a press release, the show will look at how their leaving might cause disruption to their communities and what they are willing to endure to achieve a dream bigger than themselves. If they succeed, their work will help many others including their tribe.
TBA is comparing the new series to Breaking Amish.
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The Iroquois Nationals weathered the storm, and took it to the Sharks.
After a two-hour weather delay on Monday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Lyle Thompson and company scored four straight goals out of the break to take control of what was a tie game when the teams headed for shelter, and the Iroquois beat Australia 12-10 in a Blue Division pool play tilt that ended ten minutes short of midnight.
Lyle Thompson scored four goals, including one after the delay to put the Nationals up 10-8 after Jeremy Thompson broke the knotted affair in the waning seconds of the third quarter.
Severe weather delayed the game with 2:37 left in the third quarter and the score tied at 8. Heavy rain, wind and lightening arrived around 9:25 p.m. local time and didn’t leave for more than 90 minutes, after which the teams had a brief warmup and went off and running before a small, but vocal crowd.
The Iroquois went up 12-8, and Australian attackman Nathan Stiglich scored two straight to cut into the lead with less than two minutes left. But the Nationals won the ensuing faceoff on a violation and ran out the rest of the clock.
Iroquois faceoff man Vaughn Harris won 11-of-17 faceoffs, and Jeremy Thompson went 5-for-7 while Australia goalie Tom Vickery finished with 13 saves.
Pool play concludes Tuesday. The Iroquois, who improved to 3-1 in the Blue Division, plays the United States (4-0) at 5 p.m. local time, and Australia (2-2) takes on Canada (3-1) in the final Blue Division tilt before elimination games begin. The top two teams in the division earn byes to the semifinal round, held Thursday.
Jump in volume of potentially hazardous materials being transported through our area cause for concern
By Andrew Gobin,
Increased rail traffic carries many issues with it. For local residents, the trains that pass through the Marysville Tulalip area cut the region in half, blocking Marysville residents’ east of the railway access to Interstate 5, creating major traffic jams which extend onto the freeway ramps west of the railway. With the major rail incidents of North Dakota and Quebec of last year, the fear of similar catastrophic events is high.
Rail transports traveling through the area carry coal, crude, and hazmat cargo, as they have for years. With the increase in rail traffic, the traffic issues will be magnified exponentially, and the risk of accidents skyrockets. With the proposed oil terminals in Grays Harbor and Vancouver Washington, and the proposed coal terminal at Cherry Point, rail traffic could increase to more than 30 trains a day from the 18 running currently.
Officials from Everett Fire Department and Everett Emergency Management will be presenting to the public on July 22 on the procedures of responding to incidents, as well as answering safety concerns. Public participation is encouraged as future strategies are being developed.
The meeting on July 22 will be held at the Everett Public Library, 2702 Hoyt Ave, in the Activity Room from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. For more information contact Steven Liedlich at (425) 876-1633.
Tulare brush fire last September, caused by fireworks. Photo/ Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News
From Tulalip Forestry:
Due to increased fire danger due to hot weather there is now a fire danger burn ban in effect for Tulalip reservation. All outdoor burning is banned with the exception of cultural fires and recreational fires that are in approved fire pits. Discharge of fireworks are also prohibited.
Washington D.C. (KELO AM) – U.S. Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD), James Inhofe (R-OK), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today introduced the Tribal Adoption Parity Act. The legislation ensures parents adopting American Indian and Alaskan Native children through tribal courts are treated fairly under our nation’s tax code by making it easier for adoptive parents across Indian Country to claim the full adoption tax credit for “special needs” children.
“The Tribal Adoption Parity Act will provide financial relief for families in South Dakota by making it easier for adoptive parents in Indian Country to claim the full adoption tax credit,” Johnson said. “It is unacceptable that parents who adopt an Indian child through a tribal court are prevented from accessing the financial relief that is provided to adoptive families in non-tribal areas. This bill addresses an oversight in our tax code by ensuring that adoptive parents throughout Indian Country receive fair tax treatment.”
Under current law, parents adopting a child who has been determined by a State as “special needs” can claim the full adoption tax credit regardless of their qualified adoption expenses. Congress created the “special needs” determination to provide an added incentive for parents adopting children who might otherwise be difficult to place in adoptive homes. In Fiscal Year 2011, 84 percent of the nearly 50,000 children adopted through public agencies were designated as having “special needs.” Parents adopting children through tribal courts, however, are currently ineligible for the special needs adoption tax credit. This unfortunately results in parents and children throughout Indian Country unfairly missing out on an important tax credit that would make a significant difference in their day-to-day lives. Becoming eligible for the special needs adoption tax credit would help further reduce the financial costs associated with adoption and lessen administrative burdens.
In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act that gives Indian tribes exclusive jurisdiction over custody proceedings involving Indian children within a reservation. The special needs adoption tax credit currently fails to recognize the authority that tribal governments have over adoption proceedings of Indian children. The Tribal Adoption Parity Act would amend the Internal Revenue Code to provide fair tax treatment to parents adopting Indian children through tribal courts. As a result, a tribal government would be permitted to designate an adoptive Indian child as having “special needs.” This legislation would ensure that families in Indian Country are treated fairly by providing the same financial relief that adoptive families currently receive across the nation.
The bill has been endorsed by organizations such as the National Indian Child Welfare Association, the Child Welfare League of America, Voice for Adoption, the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, the Donaldson Adoption Institute, and the Joint Council for International Children’s Services.
In 1996, Congress created the adoption tax credit to ease the initial financial burden for adoptive parents. The adoption tax credit provides a tax credit of up to $10,000 and is adjusted for inflation. The credit was $12,970 for tax year 2013. Since 2003, families adopting children with “special needs” are allowed to claim the full adoption tax credit regardless of their qualified adoption expenses. The definition of “special needs” varies from state to state. Examples of factors that can qualify a child for the “special needs” determination include: age; membership in a minority or sibling group; ethnic background; medical condition; or physical, mental, and emotional handicaps.
The National Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service, recommended the adoption tax credit be amended to recognize tribal governments in its 2012 Annual Report to Congress, which can be accessed here.
The American Indian Cancer Foundation holds a Powwow for Hope each year to raise money for cancer education, including smoking prevention efforts, on Saturday, May 3, 2014 at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis. Jennifer Simonson/MPR News
Minneapolis – Inside the cavernous Base Camp facility at Fort Snelling, a long line of cancer survivors made a slow procession around the perimeter of the former cavalry drill hall where a century ago Army troops trained their horses. Their presence at a gathering of American Indians is solemn, supportive and startling.
“A lot of survivors,” an MC announced over a drumbeat. “So survivors come on out.”
Cancer has devastated Minnesota’s American Indian population, stripping families of breadwinners and robbing children of their parents and grandparents.
Nowhere is the scale of the problem more evident than the annual spring Powwow for Hope, where dancers dressed in vibrant traditional costumes escorted the survivors until their line morphed into a vast circle.
Overhead a projector cycled through dozens of photographs and names of American Indians who have lost their cancer battles in the past year. The tribute also included stories of hope and cancer remission.
Among the cancer survivors whose picture flashed on the screen was Robert DesJarlait, a 67-year-old member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. Ten months earlier, doctors removed a cancerous tumor from his colon.
“It’s kind of ironic that I was at this powwow last year and didn’t know for sure that I officially had cancer,” he said.
When it comes to cancer — Minnesota’s number one cause of death — American Indians are almost always on the wrong end of the state’s data on the health disparity that exists between whites and minorities.
Their risk of dying from lung cancer is more than two times higher than it is among non-Hispanic whites. Their rates of cervical and larynx cancer are four times higher.
American Indians also have the state’s highest rates of colorectal, kidney and oral cancers.
While the statistics are grim, they are not immutable. Striking new research has revealed that more than half of the state’s American Indians smoke. Their smoking rate is so high it likely explains much of their excess cancer burden.
The stark data are making it easier for some native people to question their community’s complicated relationship with tobacco. The research is also providing much-needed direction on where native people can most effectively focus their cancer-fighting efforts.
DesJarlait, a visual artist, is among those who have changed their lifestyles.
During a break in the program DesJarlait said he considers himself fortunate. His cancer was detected at an early stage and his treatment has been successful. After being weakened by the disease and treatment, he felt strong enough to dance at this year’s powwow.
One of the biggest lifestyle changes he made was quitting tobacco. He switched to electronic cigarettes after his doctor warned him that his cancer could return, if he didn’t quit his two-pack-a-day smoking habit.
“And I said, ‘You mean smoking caused the tumor in my colon?’ And she said, ‘Yes, well it’s one of the factors.'”
While there are many potential causes of cancer — from genetics to poor diet and lack of exercise — tobacco use is strongly related to the cancers that most affect Minnesota’s native people.
“We can’t talk about cancer in American Indian communities without addressing the high rates of tobacco and the rates of second-hand smoke exposure in our communities,” said Kris Rhodes, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and executive director of the American Indian Cancer Foundation. The non-profit organization sponsors the Powwow for Hope and is one of the community’s biggest voices in urging Indian people to quit smoking.
A recent tribal tobacco use survey found that 59 percent of Minnesota’s native people smoke. Nearly 3,000 people completed the questionnaire, making it the largest tobacco survey ever conducted among American Indians in Minnesota.
Jean Forster, co-author of a report on the survey, said a 59 percent smoking rate is “an unbelievable number” because it is nearly four times higher than Minnesota’s overall adult smoking rate of 16 percent.
“Fifty-nine percent means that most people smoke, most adults smoke. Most kids see that most adults smoke,” she said. “It’s a normative behavior for those communities.”
The survey wasn’t designed to reveal why the smoking rate is so high in American Indian communities.
But Forster, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, said it’s obvious that Minnesota’s anti-smoking campaigns have either failed to reach native people, or have had little effect on them.
“What we’re doing for the population just is not working,” she said. “This is the same smoking rate that the population as a whole experienced at its peak in the ’60s.”
By that measure, Forster said, it could take decades for American Indians to change their minds about smoking.
A few days before Mother’s Day, 24-year-old Ricki LaMorie of Hayward, Wis., grabbed her pack of cigarettes and headed toward the back porch of her grandmother’s Minneapolis home.
“I’m gonna go smoke my cigarette,” she said. “That sounds bad.”
Ricki LaMorie, of Hayward, Wis., smokes a cigarette outside her grandmother Margie LaMorie’s home while visiting during Mother’s Day weekend Thursday, May 8, 2014 in Minneapolis. LaMorie said she knows that smoking is bad for her health and tries not to do it often. Jennifer Simonson/MPR News
Her grandmother, Margie LaMorie, objects to her smoking habit, but understands how hard it is to quit. LaMorrie, 75, has been a smoker for over six decades. She started smoking before she was even in her teens.
“My grandma bought me my first pack of cigarettes when I was 11,” she said. “So I had to go to the neighbor kids to teach me how, because she thought I was sneaking, and I wasn’t sneaking.”
LaMorie’s grandmother did ask her to follow a few smoking rules. But they were designed to prevent the 11-year-old from burning down her family’s outhouse, or possibly even their home, on the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin.
“There was no smoking before breakfast in the morning,” she recalled. “There was no smoking after dinner. There was no smoking upstairs. There was no smoking by oneself without someone paying attention.”
LaMorie said no one in her community knew anything about smoking’s link to cancer back then. It was just something that everyone seemed to be doing and it made her feel grown-up and glamorous.
She still smokes and is not sure why she hasn’t quit. Even her colon cancer diagnosis a few years ago wasn’t enough of an incentive.
Still, LaMorie believes anyone can quit — if they want to.
“Some days I can go without any until someone will come along and, ‘Oh I’m gonna go sit out. Oh, I’ll go join you,'” she said. “For me it’s a social thing.”
Jackie Dionne, the American Indian Health director at the Minnesota Department of Health, has heard that many times before.
“It’s just so commonly accepted, that it’s, ‘Yeah, I know these are going to kill me, but I’m going to smoke anyway,'” said Dionne, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe and a former smoker. “It’s just that ’cause everybody else is smoking.
“We have to really go through a social change like the state did in the mid-’80s when people stopped smoking and then didn’t want to be around people who did smoke,” she said. “And so then it becomes socially unacceptable.”
Dionne said anti-tobacco advocates don’t fully understand the reasons why native people smoke. In part, she said, that explains why anti-tobacco strategies that have worked well in the general population have not been particularly effective in the American Indian community.
A Health Department report released in February attributed health disparities in American Indian communities to government efforts to uproot them from their land and destroy their way of life. The report concluded that the displacement has led to high rates of unemployment, poverty and high-risk behaviors among native people.
Smoking, Dionne said, is a coping mechanism for many American Indians.
“You have trauma that is generational, you know, my grandma, my mom and then me,” she said. “Highly traumatized people and populations tend to report higher levels of depression and anxiety. And when you’re reporting higher levels of depression and anxiety in a population, nicotine is one of those drugs that will relieve it almost immediately.”
The use of ceremonial tobacco may be another factor that has influenced American Indian smoking rates.
Tobacco is considered a sacred medicine given by the Creator, said Rhodes, of the American Indian Cancer Foundation. Tobacco is used regularly in ceremonies, but it also is common for American Indians to use leaves from other plants. On occasion, herbs are burned in a vessel.
However, she said there has been some debate within the community about whether it is appropriate to translate that spiritual meaning to smoking commercial tobacco.
Rhodes said it has also been challenging to send a strong message about the ills of commercial tobacco when it affects the livelihoods of so many people. In the age of the Indian casino, cigarette sales are an important part of the tribal economy. They have helped impoverished tribes build new roads and schools.
“Those of us that work in tobacco control in tribal communities know that the economics associated with tobacco in our tribal communities are really sensitive issues,” she said.
To a certain degree, American Indians already know what they need to do to reduce the terrible toll that cancer has taken on their communities. Better data has revealed that reducing the smoking rate is an obvious start. But it will be a complicated journey.
Some native leaders acknowledge feeling a bit overwhelmed by the task.
But in the same breath, they’re optimistic — they’ve noticed many more people talking about the link between smoking and cancer in the months since the tobacco use report was released. That, they say, is a good start.
PASCAGOULA — A group of hundreds of Choctaw descendants, most of them living in the Vancleave area, made a great leap toward federal help Wednesday when the Chancery Court in Jackson County recognized them as an official Native American tribe.
“This is a huge hurdle to get past,” said Dustin Thomas, attorney for a portion of the descendants. He said it should speed the process of getting recognition by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Chancery Judge D. Neil Harris made the ruling after two factions within the group healed their differences and agreed on a constitution and bylaws for the Vancleave Live Oak Choctaw tribe.
The court directed Thomas to file an application and documents with the Interior Department for federal recognition of the tribe.
“… this agreement is in the best interest of the parties and all minor children affiliated,” the court ruled.
The factions set up a provisional council to handle matters under the ruling.
Thomas said the biggest benefit to federal recognition may be health care.
“They really need this,” Thomas said of the tribe. “They are so poor.”
He said the group can trace its ancestry to four women and a French trader in the 1700s. The tribe numbers about 1,500, most living in South Mississippi.
The group also is associated with a school established in Vancleave in the early 1900s called the Indian Creole School.
“We’re just so proud today that a court recognizes them,” Thomas said. “These people are so happy.”
Jackson County Supervisor Troy Ross said Wednesday the acknowledgement of this tribe likely would have no effect on the issue of casinos in Jackson County. Those who oppose casinos in the county long have expressed concerns one might be allowed on Indian land.
To do that would require going through the DOI, Ross said, and the governor would have “tremendous input.”
“The governor knows we’ve voted not to have casinos here,” Ross said Wednesday.
Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2014/07/09/5691046/chancery-court-acknowledges-choctaw.html?sp=/99/184/201/#storylink=cpy
Hualapai Chairwoman Sherry Counts told a Senate committee that the northwestern Arizona tribe supports a bill that would formalize two water-rights agreements between it, Freeport Minerals Corp. and the government. Photo by Julianne DeFilippis
WASHINGTON – Tribal and state lawmakers urged a Senate panel Wednesday to approve a water-rights agreement between the Hualapai tribe and Freeport Minerals Corp., saying time is fast running out on a deal.
Witnesses told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that the Bill Williams River Water Rights Settlement Act of 2014, which would guarantee the tribe certain levels of water use in the area, has been years in the making. But statutory limits on Freeport’s water rights mean it could all be undone if Congress does not act this year, the bill’s supporters said.
“We need to have this done before that deadline or the whole thing goes away,” Hualapai Chairwoman Sherry Counts said at the hearing.
The bill is sponsored by Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, while a companion measure in the House has been co-sponsored by all nine members of the state’s House delegation.
“It’s rare to find a piece of legislation that can garner bipartisan and bicameral support from the entire state congressional delegation,” said Flake, who called the bill an important piece of legislation for the whole state, not just the tribe.
But not everyone supports the bill.
Flake said officials in Mohave and La Paz counties have raised questions about the deal. And Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Michael Black testified Wednesday that while his agency supports the goals of the bill, it has “significant concerns” about provisions that waive sovereign immunity.
Black said those concerns “must be resolved before the administration can support the bill,” and assured the committee that the bureau is working to find a solution.
But Flake said a waiver of immunity is not unprecedented in such agreements and that parties in the deal “must have the ability to enforce the terms of the agreement.” The waiver “must be expressed and unequivocal,” he said.
Besides having the backing of the entire congressional delegation, Flake introduced letters of support from Gov. Jan Brewer, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Freeport Minerals and the Nature Conservancy.
In addition to guaranteeing water-rights for the tribe, the deal calls on Freeport to give the tribe $1 million toward a water infrastructure study, to transfer land to the state for a conservation program and to stop pumping water near a spring that is sacred to the tribe, among other provisions.
“We’ve been on the Colorado River since time immemorial and we have no water rights,” said Counts, who said securing those rights is a key goal for tribe.
But she also noted that water rights are also critical for any economic development plans the tribe has, for building resort facilities for tourists or housing for tribal members.
McCain said he and Flake are willing to work with anyone who has concerns about the proposal. But a bill needs to be approved to protect water rights for everyone, he said.
“We have to conclude our native water-rights settlements if we are going to have a predictable supply of water for Indians and non-Indians alike,” McCain said.
Honored for his work to protect the environment while serving many diverse interests
Senator John McCoy (D) of Tulalip honored with the E# award for Diversity in Action. McCoy was one of three tribal recipients in Washington State honored for his work in employing diversity to reach a more sustainable future. Photo courtesy of E3
By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News
Senator John McCoy received the Diversity in Action-Individual E3 Washington Green Apple Award on June 26 for his work in environmental education. He has in mind education for the environment to be incorporated throughout all levels of learning, including post-secondary education programs. While protecting the environment is mutually beneficial, it is often a sensitive subject with specific community concerns attached. McCoy, a member of the Tulalip Tribes, is diligent in making sure that each diverse community is represented in every issue, working to set attainable goals for sustainability on that everyone can agree on.
Steve Robinson, an Olympia based businessman who nominated McCoy, said, “Senator McCoy has been a tireless leader in many capacities which have served environmental education, multiculturalism and diversity well. His presence on ‘the hill’ in Olympia has provided an immeasurable amount of benefit to both tribal and non-tribal people and governments. He has sponsored phenomenal, far-reaching legislation, ranging from bills to integrate Indian culture and history into the classroom to a bill to establish Indian Heritage Day. Senator McCoy is one of the hardest working legislators in Olympia and he is committed to the protection and restoration of a healthy, vibrant environment for all.”
In addition to advocating for culturally sensitive environmental education, McCoy is tenacious and steadfast in his opposition of bills that would be potentially harmful to the environment, working to block them as much as possible.
“Last year, I successfully blocked legislation that would have allowed for water to be repurposed without regulation. This prevented water allocated for personal or agricultural purposes from being repurposed and used commercially, which would have created a loophole in current regulations,” said McCoy.
The work McCoy does to contribute to education for the environment, in addition to the work to prevent detrimental legislation, represent the magnitude of his career. According to the E3 statement, the Washington Green Apple award for Diversity in Action, “recognizes an individual, organization, tribe or program that demonstrates cultural awareness and encourages a multicultural approach to environmental and sustainability education programs while exemplifying the Lead Green goal.”
McCoy said, “I am honored to receive this award, and thankful for the recognition of the magnitude of work I have been involved with.”
While recognized for his work in environmental education, McCoy’s career has centered on water issues. He is also a strong proponent in Washington of legislation promoting the research and use of alternative energy, working to pass i937 last year, which deals with the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio and standards on greenhouse gasses.
Andrew Gobin is a staff reporter with the Tulalip News See-Yaht-Sub, a publication of the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department. Email: agobin@tulalipnews.com Phone: (360) 716.4188
Members of the Nisqually Tribe participate in a paddle dance during protocol, a time of cultural sharing, June 19 in the Port Gamble S’Klallam House of Knowledge longhouse. Image Credit: Richard Walker/ Staff Photo
On July 13, thousands will see the end of an epic journey.
While that sounds like the start of a blockbuster movie, it’s not (but could be…). It’s a decades-old event that celebrates a timeless tradition of Northwest Coast indigenous peoples.
The 2014 Canoe Journey/Paddle to Bella Bella will bring hundreds of canoes and thousands of people to the Heiltsuk Nation in British Columbia. The procession of canoes and pullers move from host tribe to host tribe, asking permission to come ashore at each stop. After a night of good food and hospitality, they carry on, arms pumping endlessly, gliding through the water to their next destination. All of the canoes are expected to arrive in British Columbia on July 13 and will stay as guests of the Heiltsuk Nation until July 19.
This year’s Canoe Journey is significant because it represents the first time it has returned to Bella Bella since 1993, when Canoe Journey became an annual celebration. The first journey — Paddle to Seattle — was in 1989 with only nine participating canoes, one of which was from the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe.
The Canoe Journey is an experience like few others. As PGST Canoe Skipper Laura Price was quoted in our history book, “The Strong People”:
“That thirteen-day canoe journey to Bella Bella (in 1993) changed my life. It opened the doorway for me being S’Klallam. The experience helped build the foundation, passion and commitment in me to preserve, perpetuate, and celebrate our rich cultural heritage for our present and future generations.
“I admire and deeply respect our ancestors who by their resiliency and strength we owe all this amazing rich culture to. Canoe journeys happen every year now. They bring strength to our people by giving us a way to connect to our culture. We gain confidence, pride, respect and identity. We know where we belong and are given an opportunity to learn and grow.”
Canoes are a prime connection between the old world and the new. In pre-treaty times, the type of multi-day and week trips that seem so ambitious for the Canoe Journey were just a way of life. Tribes in this area used canoes to travel all over for trading, to connect with family and friends, and to move with the seasons. They were experts of the water and the weather, understanding the tides and currents.
Occasionally, white settlers would hire S’Klallams for this expertise. For example, Edwin Eells, an Indian agent at Skokomish, hired a S’Klallam crew to take him through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was winter and on the way back, they hit a fierce storm and, as recounted in “The Strong People,” “Ells was sure he would perish. The S’Klallams, he reported, kept up a wild chant as they maneuvered the canoe skillfully through the storm, and guided him to safe water. He was very grateful, for he was sure he was going to die that day.”
While canoes are no longer a main source of transportation, they still play an important role in the celebration of our culture. Canoe Journey is a reflection of this.
I want to leave you with this — the “Ten Rules of the Canoe.” They show, I think, how canoeing can reflect the principles of life:
1.) Every stroke we take is one less we have to make. Keep going!
2.) There is to be no abuse of self or others. Respect and trust cannot exist in anger. It has to be thrown overboard, so the sea can cleanse it.
3.) Be flexible. The adaptable animal survives.
4.) The gift of each enriches us all. Every story is important. The bow, the stern, the skipper, the power puller in the middle — everyone is part of the movement.
5.) We all pull and support each other. Nothing occurs in isolation.
6.) A hungry person has no charity. Always nourish yourself. The bitter person, thinking that sacrifice means self-destruction, shares mostly anger.
7.) Experiences are not enhanced through criticism. Who we are, how we are, what we do, why we continue flourish with tolerance.
8.) The journey is what we enjoy. Being part of the journey requires great preparation; being done with a journey requires great awareness; being on the journey, we are much more than ourselves.
9.) A good teacher allows the students to learn. We can berate each other, try to force each other to understand, or we can allow each paddler to gain awareness through the ongoing journey.
10.) When given any choice at all, be a worker bee — make honey!
— Jeromy Sullivan is chairman of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. Contact him at jeromys@pgst.nsn.us.
