Staff enjoyed a morning treat of warm whole wheat frybread. Photo by Brandi N. Monteuil
By Monica Brown, Tulalip News Writer
TULALIP, Wash.-There’s something about frybread, maybe it’s that you can smell it a mile away and that scent brings back so many memories. This recipe was received as a request to test and it was surprisingly good. Since it contains mostly whole wheat flour it offers more filling fiber, which also helps to lower the net carbs of this tasty snack. The recipe indicates that it will make eight small frybread but I was able to make just over ten.
Since it is important to having slightly fluffy frybread, be sure that your baking powder is fresh. Test it by placing a tsp. into a small cup of warm or hot water, if it bubbles up immediately then it is still fresh. If not you will either need to buy more or make your own by combining, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsps cream of tartar and 1 tsp of corn starch (optional). Baking soda can be tested for freshness in the same manner but by placing a tsp in a small amount of vinegar.
This recipe can be found at www.diabetes.ihs.gov in the printed materials section. If you have a recipe that you would like to share please send it in to mbrown@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov. Recipe adapted from What’s cooking, Healthy in Warm Springs, Sara Lee Thomas, MS, RD and Edison Yazzie
Whole wheat Frybread
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
3 tablespoons powdered milk
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 ½ cups warm water
Canola oil
Preparation:
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and gradually add water to make dough. Knead the dough until it forms a ball and comes clean from the edge of bowl. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 30 minutes.
Pour about ¾ inch of canola oil into a deep frying pan and heat on medium. Test the temperature of the oil by putting a small pinch of dough into it. If the oil is ready, the will rise immediately to the top.
Divide the dough and knead into 8 round balls. Pat and stretch or roll dough out into flat circles until the dough is ¼ to ½ inch thick. With a fork, poke a few holes in the flattened circles of dough.
Carefully slide a flattened dough round into the hot oil to avoid splashes. Slightly lift frybread to check the bottom, when it is begins to brown turn it over. When both sides are done remove from oil, drain excess oil and place on baking sheet lined with paper towels.
Nutrition Information Makes 8 frybread
240 calories, 10g Total fat, 1g Saturated fat, 220-510mg Sodium, 35g Carbohydrate, 4g fiber, 6g Protein
whole wheat frybread with homemade jam. Photo by Brandi N. Montreuil
Rich Addicks for The New York Times Audrey Costa at home on the Crow reservation in Montana with her grandson Benjamin Costa and her daughter, Beth Dawes, right. Ms. Costa has not received her federal lease payment.
CROW AGENCY, Mont. — Worlds away from Washington, Audrey Costa wondered aloud about keeping her family warm. A mother of three, she relies on lease payments from the Bureau of Indian Affairs on land owned by her family, which can run up to a few hundred dollars a year, to pay for food and electricity. But since the partial shutdown of the federal government began on Oct. 1, Ms. Costa, 41, has not received a check.
“We’re having such a hard time,” she said outside her tattered clapboard home in this poor prairie town deep in the heart of the Crow reservation. “I don’t know what I’ll do. Just tough it out, I guess.”
Like other largely impoverished Indian tribes that lean heavily on federal dollars, the Crow have been battered by the shutdown.
Some 364 Crow members, more than a third of the tribe’s work force, have been furloughed. A bus service, the only way some Crow are able to travel across their 2.3-million-acre reservation, has been shuttered. A home health care program for sick tribal members has been suspended.
Though the tribe has enough money to keep a skeleton government operating for now, it is running out.
“They don’t have a clue what’s going on out here,” the tribal chairman, Darrin Old Coyote, said of politicians in Washington from his office in Crow Agency, which sits in the shadows of the Little Bighorn battlefield, itself closed because of the shutdown. “It is hurting a lot of people.”
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which provides a vast sweep of services for more than 1.7 million American Indians and Alaska Natives, has kept essential programs, like federal police and firefighting services, running. But it has stopped financing tribal governments and the patchwork of programs and grants that form the thin blanket of support for reservations racked by poverty and other ills.
“You’re already looking at a good number of tribes who are considered the poorest of our nation’s people,” said Jacqueline Pata, the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians. “When you are dealing with cutting off food supply programs and even nominal payments to tribal members, it creates a dangerous impact immediately.”
The Yurok tribe in Northern California, for example, relies almost solely on federal financing to operate. Its reservation, which spans parts of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, already has an 80 percent unemployment rate, said Susan Masten, the tribal vice chairwoman. With money suddenly unavailable, the tribe has furloughed 60 of its 310 employees, closed its child-care center and halted emergency financial assistance for low-income and older members.
Financing for an environmental program that ensures clean drinking water on the reservation is running low. A second round of furloughs could affect tribal police officers, Ms. Masten said.
“The saddest thing about this is that the federal government has an obligation to the tribes,” she said. “In times like this, where it’s already extremely difficult, any further damage to our budget would be devastating.”
On the reservation of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians in northern Minnesota, all nonemergency medical procedures have been placed on hold, said Dave Conner, a tribal official who helps manage the Red Lake’s government services.
The Red Lake were supposed to have received about $1 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs this month to help operate their government, but the money was not released before the shutdown, Mr. Conner said.
The tribe has budgeted enough money to keep the most critical services running until the end of the month.
“This is a poor, rural, isolated reservation,” Mr. Conner said. “A lot of people rely on our services, so there’s a lot of fear right now.”
For some tribes, the pain of the shutdown has been sharpened by federal budget restrictions this year, known as sequestration, that imposed 5 percent cuts to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service.
Aaron Payment, the chairman of the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan, said his tribe had already shut down its H.I.V. prevention program and furloughed employees for its Head Start program for a month because of sequestration.
Now, with nearly $1 million in federal money lost since the shutdown, the tribe is scrambling to shift casino revenue from other programs to keep its government afloat.
“We’re in turmoil right now,” Mr. Payment said. “The impact here is going to be felt by the people who need the services the most.”
Kevin Washburn, assistant secretary for Indian affairs, said the shutdown could have long-term effects on tribes and tribal members. Financial deals and economic programs have been suspended. Environmental reviews of tribal projects will be delayed. And the impact on the thousands of Bureau of Indian Affairs employees who have been furloughed is compounded because many support poor relatives, he said.
“The cushion that tribes might have had to help them get through tough times is gone because of sequestration,” Mr. Washburn said.
In Hardin, Mont., a gritty reservation border town, Presina Grant has been caring for her sister, who broke both of her wrists in a fall. Until recently, Ms. Grant, who is Crow, had been reimbursed $8 an hour as part of the tribe’s health care program.
But after the program was suspended because of the shutdown, Ms. Grant, 43, found herself in a long line of other tribal members applying for food stamps. Her daughter is a high school cross-country runner and craves nutrition. But with money tight, she often must feed her three children frozen food.
“Everyone was just sad — you could just feel it,” Ms. Grant said, recalling the day this month when she collected her final paycheck from the tribe. “People are worried. We’re praying every day.”
Seattle banned those thin, plastic grocery bags. So did Shoreline, Bellingham and Edmonds. But at least one city could be going the other direction. (File photo)
Seattle banned those thin, plastic grocery bags. So did Shoreline, Bellingham and Edmonds. Olympia is just the latest Washington city to consider a similar restriction. But at least one city could be going the other direction.
In 2012, following the lead of Seattle, the Issaquah City Council voted 5-2 to ban the plastic carry-out bags. The ban took effect last March and former Issaquah city councilmember Mark Mullet says the drop in plastic bag use has been dramatic.
“It’s in the millions, not in the thousands, and that’s just in the city of Issaquah. What happened is people are bringing bags from home and when people buy one or two items from the store, they just carry them out with them.”
Now a state Senator, Mullet said this is a purely environmental issue.
“These bags, they take hundreds of years to decompose so the goal is: don’t use something for 30 seconds and have it sit around for 500 years,” he said. Seattleite Craig Keller called that lazy environmentalism. “The only environment that they’re saving is in their minds. The same plastic lids on the top of their Starbucks cups that they suck constantly are also the same problem.”
Keller is co-founder of Save Our Choice. His answering machine describes the purpose of his campaign this way: “Taking a stand against those on council, hell bent to quote: ‘modify your behavior.'”
Keller and his supporters gathered enough signatures to force the city council to reconsider the plastic bag ban. King County Elections issued a Certificate of Sufficiency for a petition to the Issaquah City Council, which can either adopt the petition and repeal the ban or send the issue to the ballot in the form on an initiative.
The city council has not indicated a time frame for considering the options. The council has until Dec. 27 to notify the county elections office if it wants to put the measure on the February ballot.
“There’s broad support for restoration of consumer and merchant choice,” said Keller. But Mullet thinks the people of Issaquah favor the ban. “We actually held a special city council meeting devoted to one topic and that was plastic bags because we wanted to be sure that the city of Issaquah could give as much input as they wanted and we heard support from the community for supporting the ban.”
Mullet welcomes a vote of the people and thinks it could be an interesting campaign with plastics manufacturers paying special attention.
“I think there’s going to be an industry here that’s going to view this as sort of a battleground and they’re going to put resources in because if they can get it overturned in this city, maybe they feel it will prevent other cities from going down the same path,” reasoned Mullet.
The vote on plastic bags could be the first citizens initiative to make it to the ballot in Issaquah.
In this Oct. 8, 2013 photo provided by the North Dakota Health Department, a vacuum trucks cleans up oil in near Tioga, N.D. The North Dakota Health Department says more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil have spewed out of a Tesoro Corp. oil pipeline in a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota. Officials say the 20,600-barrel spill, among the largest recorded in the state, was discovered on Sept. 29 by a farmer harvesting wheat about nine miles south of Tioga. NORTH DAKOTA HEALTH DEPARTMENT — AP Photo
October 10, 2013
By JAMES MacPHERSON — Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota farmer who discovered an oil spill the size of seven football fields while out harvesting wheat says that when he found it, crude was bubbling up out of the ground.
Farmer Steve Jensen says he smelled the crude for days before the tires on his combines were coated in it. At the apparent break in the Tesoro Corp.’s underground pipeline, the oil was “spewing and bubbling 6 inches high,” he said in a telephone interview Thursday.
What Jensen had found on Sept. 29 turned out it was one of the largest spills recorded in the state. At 20,600 barrels it was four times the size of a pipeline rupture in late March that forced the evacuation of more than 20 homes in Arkansas.
But it was 12 days after Jensen reported the spill before state officials told the public what had happened, raising questions about how North Dakota, which is in the midst of an oil boom, reports such incidents.
The spill happened in a remote area in the northwest corner of the state. The nearest home is a half-mile away, and Tesoro says no water sources were contaminated, no wildlife was hurt and no one was injured.
The release of oil has been stopped, state environment geologist Kris Roberts said Thursday. And the spill — spread out over 7.3 acres, or about the size of seven football fields, — has been contained.
Jacob Wiedmer, who was helping Jensen harvest his wheat crop, likened the Sept. 29 discovery to the theme song from “The Beverly Hillbillies” television show.
“It was just like Jed Clampett shooting at some food …” he said of the oil coming from the ground. “Except we weren’t hunting, we were harvesting.”
Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who says he wasn’t even told about what happened until Wednesday night, said the state is now investigating its procedures for reporting spills.
“There are many questions to be answered on how it occurred and how it was detected and if there was anything that could have been done that could have made a difference,” Dalrymple said Thursday, when questioned at a news conference on a separate topic.
“Initially, it was felt that the spill was not overly large,” Dalrymple said. “When they realized it was a fairly sizable spill, they began to contact more people about it.”
Jensen said he had harvested most of his wheat before the spill, but the land is no longer usable for planting.
“We expect not to be able to farm that ground for several years,” he said.
Tesoro Logistics, a subsidiary of the San Antonio, Texas-based company that owns and operates parts of Tesoro’s oil infrastructure, said in a statement that the affected portion of the pipeline has been shut down.
“Protection and care of the environment are fundamental to our core values, and we deeply regret any impact to the landowner,” Tesoro CEO Greg Goff said in a statement. “We will continue to work tirelessly to fully remediate the release area.”
Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for the Sierra Club, said the spill is an example of the lack of oversight in a state that has exploded with oil development in recent years.
“We need more inspectors and more transparency,” Schafer said. “Not only is the public not informed, but agencies don’t appear to be aware of what’s going on and that’s not good.”
Eric Haugstad, Tesoro’s director of contingency planning and emergency response, said the hole in the 20-year-old pipeline was a quarter-inch in diameter. Tesoro officials were investigating what caused the hole in the 6-inch-diameter steel pipeline that runs underground about 35 miles from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border.
Roberts said state and federal regulators are monitoring the cleanup, and Tesoro estimated it would cost $4 million.
A natural layer of clay more than 40 feet thick underlies the spill site and has “held the oil up” so that it does not spread to underground water sources, Roberts said.
“It is completely contained and under control,” Roberts said Thursday. “They got very lucky.”
Follow James MacPherson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/macphersonja
Michael Sean Stanley photos from Edmonton Police Service Click image to read more
October 10, 2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BLAINE — Canadian police say a violent, high-risk sex offender who has been missing for more than a week has been located in the United States, but he can’t be arrested because he’s not wanted on any charges in the U.S.
Edmonton, Alberta, Detective Chris Hayduk said U.S. border officials were warned that Michael Sean Stanley might try to cross into their country, but Stanley still managed to make it through at Blaine on Monday night, Oct. 7.
“We have no authority to go get him,” Hayduk said Thursday. “We are investigating his crossing, taking a look at the details of his crossing, into the United States. … For us, it would have been the best outcome to have caught him prior to that, so for him to be in the States is a concern that those agencies are going to follow up for sure.”
The Canada Border Services Agency referred calls on the matter to U.S. officials. The Washington-based spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was not returning phone messages because of the federal government shutdown and an email seeking comment wasn’t immediately answered.
Stanley has a long history of sexual offenses against women and children and has been missing since Oct. 1, when the electronic monitoring bracelet he was wearing was cut off and found in Lloydminster, on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary.
Last week, schools in several west-central Saskatchewan communities locked their doors and kept children inside after police got multiple, unconfirmed sightings of the Edmonton man.
He’s wanted in Canada on charges of breach of recognizance and mischief and driving offenses, but he isn’t wanted in the United States, so Hayduk said police have no authority to arrest him.
“The extradition process — we are still exploring those options,” he said.
Hayduk said officers know Stanley’s specific whereabouts, but he wouldn’t release those details.
“We can take some comfort that police know where he is and will be taking the appropriate steps to ensure the communities remain safe.”
Hayduk said there is no evidence that Stanley has reoffended while he has remained elusive. “At this point it looks like he was just fleeing from us,” he said.
Stanley was released from jail in April 2011 after completing a 32-month sentence for assault and forcible confinement.
Stanley was being monitored by police under a peace bond, which authorities can get to impose conditions on individuals in the community. His peace bond has 20 conditions, including one ordering him to stay away from children.
The graphic you see here may look like something out of The Onion, but it is dead serious. The National Congress of American Indians has produced an image putting the racially-charged stereotypes of sports organizations into a pretty simple context.
No one would ever think to call a New York sports franchise “The Jews” and make its logo a giant smiling face of a man with dark hair and wearing a kippah. The same goes for a “Chinamen” team in San Francisco.
So why is it alright for the Major League baseball team in Cleveland to call itself the “Indians?”
Further, the red-skinned, big-toothed logo of an American Indian is not an imaginary, satirical illustration like the “Jew” and the “Chinaman.” Rather, it is actually the Indians’ team logo.
But it looks quite a bit like the first two, doesn’t it?
LONGMONT, Colo., Oct. 9, 2013 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) today announced the selection of 23 American Indian and Alaska Native organizations to receive grants through its Native Youth and Culture Fund for the 2013-2014 funding cycle. The grants total $400,000.
The Native Youth and Culture Fund, underwritten by the Kalliopeia Foundation with other contributions from foundations and tribal, corporate and individual supporters, is part of First Nations’ effort to strengthen Native American nonprofit organizations, and is a key component of First Nations’ overall mission of revitalizing American Indian economies and communities. The fund was launched in 2002 by First Nations to partner with tribes, Native nonprofit organizations and Native community groups working in Indian communities with the intent to preserve, strengthen, and/or renew American Indian culture and tradition among tribal youth. Since 2002, through this program, 223 grants have been awarded to Native youth programs throughout the U.S., totaling $3.7 million.
The grants support the projects and provide capacity-building and training to the organizations’ staff members. First Nations believes Native youth are key to the future of Indian Country, and that youth-development efforts significantly enhance First Nations’ work to strengthen tribal economies. All of the funded projects demonstrate creative and innovative approaches, whether through traditional knowledge, art, language or a program or business enterprise.
The 2013 Native Youth and Culture Fund grantees are:
Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, Lame Deer, Montana, $15,000 – This project seeks to bridge the generational gap between tribal elders and youth by establishing a community garden that will encourage tribal elders to teach youth how to plant and harvest traditional foods using traditional Northern Cheyenne practices and teachings. This project is intended to help revitalize Northern Cheyenne culture and language.
Cochiti Youth Experience, Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico, $20,000 – This mentorship program pairs tribal elders with tribal youth to ensure that traditional pueblo farming methods are passed down from one generation to the next. The purpose of this project is to teach tribal youth the pueblo values of compassion, kindness, patience, and co-existence.
Dakota Indian Foundation, Chamberlain, South Dakota, $20,000 – This summer camp is intended to teach 100 tribal youth from reservations throughout South Dakota about Dakotah culture and language. Tribal youth will participate in traditional rite-of-passage ceremonies as well as a commemorative horseback ride and other traditional activities.
Euchee (Yuchi) Language Project, Inc., Sapulpa, Oklahoma, $20,000 – The purpose of this after-school program is to teach Euchee youth their traditional language and farming practices. After school, four tribal elders will teach 40 tribal youth the Euchee language as well as how to plant and harvest heirloom crops that they can use to host a traditional meal for the community.
Friends of Akwesasne Freedom School, Roosevelt Town, New York, $18,000 – This language-immersion program seeks to revitalize the Mohawk language by introducing culture-based curriculum to both middle and high school students. In addition to learning the Mohawk language, students will also learn how to hunt, fish, trap and use traditional medicines.
Grand Ronde Canoe Family, Grand Ronde, Oregon, $20,000 – This wellness program teaches high-risk tribal youth how to canoe. During the summer, 25 youth will paddle and train 20 hours per week, while also learning traditional Quinault songs and dances.
Hawkeye Indian Cultural Center, Inc., Red Springs, North Carolina, $20,000 – This project seeks to preserve traditional Lumbee knowledge and language. Tribal youth will help preserve this knowledge by interviewing and recording tribal elders for the benefit of future generations. Additionally, tribal elders will share their knowledge and wisdom with tribal youth in a classroom setting.
Hunkpati Investments, Fort Thompson, South Dakota, $15,875 – This program seeks to incorporate the Dakota culture into their existing programs, particularly their tribal youth programs such as their community garden project. They intend to teach 100 tribal youth how to plant and harvest traditional Dakota foods.
Keres Children Learning Center, Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico $15,875 – This language-immersion program seeks to revitalize the Keres language in a preschool setting serving children, ages 3-6.
The Leadership Academy at Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe, New Mexico, $15,875 – This leadership program seeks to empower young women by teaching them to realize their value and build confidence and trust through hand-on projects. This project will serve young women, age 15-18.
Lummi Youth Wellness Center, Bellingham, Washington, $20,000 – This wellness program seeks to establish a traditional healing garden in the Lummi community. The Lummi garden will be planted and harvested by tribal youth under the guidance and supervision of tribal elders.
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Keshena, Wisconsin, $12,530 – This summer camp is designed to teach tribal youth about Menominee culture and language. Tribal youth will learn traditional stories, songs and ceremonies as well as participate in a drug and alcohol prevention program.
Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, St. Paul, Minnesota, $20,000 – The purpose of this program is to end sexual violence in Indian Country by teaching tribal youth traditional Native lifeways. Activities planned throughout the duration of this program include a powwow, arts and craft show, community garden and horse camp, among others.
Miss Navajo Council Incorporated, Window Rock Arizona, $20,000 – This mentorship program seeks to pair former Miss Navajo winners with at-risk tribal youth to teach tribal youth leadership skills. In addition to strengthening leadership skills, this program will also help teach tribal youth traditional Diné values and practices.
Native Women’s Society of the Great Plains, Timber Lake, South Dakota, $20,000 – This program seeks to revitalize a traditional Lakota /Dakota ceremony – the Isna Ti. The Isna Ti is a female rite of passage that instills young girls with the virtues and beliefs they need to succeed in life.
Nez Perce Tribe, Lapwai, Idaho, $20,000 – This language-immersion program seeks to revitalize the Niimiipuu language with both after-school and weekend classes. Additionally, this program seeks to create electronic resources (i.e., computer software, visual and audio recording, etc.) to document these efforts and teach the language to future generations.
The Notah Begay III Foundation, Inc., Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, $20,000 – This program encourages tribal youth to celebrate their culture and become modern storytellers through the use of technology. Tribal youth under the guidance of tribal elders will record and relay health-related stories.
Ogallala Commons, Nazareth, Texas,$6,000 – Support for high school, undergraduate and graduate internships for Native American students at non-profits in Colorado and New Mexico.
Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, Kingston, Washington, $15,000 – This leadership program seeks to empower tribal youth through an experiential learning initiative. Tribal elders will lead tribal youth along guided tours across traditional lands and waterways. They will recount traditional stories and teach tribal youth traditional practices such as weaving, carving and harvesting.
Quinault Indian Nation, Taholah, Washington, $20,000 – This program seeks funding to increase youth participation in the 2013 Annual Canoe Journey. Tribal youth will be directly involved in the local design, planning and hosting of the event. This program is intended to increase youth leadership and lay the groundwork for future youth programs in the Quinault community.
Santo Domingo Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, NM, $15,875 – This language-immersion project seeks to actively engage tribal youth in traditional activities such as oral storytelling and dancing as well as traditional farming and cooking methods. The purpose of this project is to increase self-confidence and strengthen cultural identity.
XKKF (Xaadas Kil Kuyaas Foundation), Hydaburg, Alaska, $10,000 – This apprenticeship program seeks to revitalize Haida culture and language with activities such as canoe-making and totem-pole carving. The purpose of this program is to preserve, strengthen and renew these traditions for future generations.
The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project, Zuni, New Mexico, $19,970 – This program seeks to design and implement culture-based curriculum for Zuni students in the seventh grade. This program will focus upon cultural learning, academic success and leadership development.
The projects cover a variety of areas, including youth-elder intergenerational programs, cultivating responsibility and leadership, language programs, traditional foods and farming, wellness, history and cultural documentation.
Besides direct project funding, First Nations also will send a representative from each organization to the 18th Annual First Nations L.E.A.D. Institute Conference, which will be held October 3-4, 2013, at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minnesota. The conference is a key part of the L.E.A.D. Institute (Leadership and Entrepreneurial Apprenticeship Development program), and is an intensive learning, mentoring and networking event for emerging and existing leaders and staff members of Native nonprofits, and philanthropic professionals.
About First Nations Development Institute For more than 30 years, using a three-pronged strategy of educating grassroots practitioners, advocating for systemic change, and capitalizing Indian communities, First Nations has been working to restore Native American control and culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own – be they land, human potential, cultural heritage, or natural resources – and to establish new assets for ensuring the long-term vitality of Native American communities. First Nations serves Native American communities throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.firstnations.org.
PROGRAM CONTACT: Marsha Whiting, First Nations Senior Program Officer (303) 774-7836 or mwhiting@firstnations.org
MEDIA CONTACT: Randy Blauvelt, First Nations Senior Communications Officer (303) 774-7836 or rblauvelt@firstnations.org
SOURCE First Nations Development Institute
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/09/5807603/first-nations-development-institute.html#storylink=cpy
The partial government shutdown will force the Oglala Sioux to release prisoners, furlough hundreds of tribal employees and suspend heating assistance to elderly tribal members still struggling after Friday’s blizzard, the tribe warned Thursday.
While the Oglala Sioux has already said the shutdown would severely impact its members on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the statement is the first time the tribe has officially criticized Congress and fully described the shutdown’s impact.
“It is a devastating situation, not a political debate,” President Bryan Brewer said in the statement. “Our people suffer the worst poverty in the country. It is unthinkable to have to close programs, stop services and turn people out of their jobs. In an area with 80 percent unemployment, furloughs are a humanitarian disaster.”
The shutdown was caused after House Republicans, including U.S. Rep Kristi Noem, R-S.D., declined to pass a resolution to fund the government unless Democrats weakened or delayed parts of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Democrats have refused to make concessions over the law.
The tribe’s statement warned that more than half of the tribe’s programs are affected by the shutdown: a USDA food distribution program would be terminated, a suicide prevention program would be cut, emergency programs for homeless veterans and homeless youths would be suspended and a lack of funding from the Department of Corrections would force the tribe to release prisoners.
In addition, the tribe added, an energy assistance program for low-income people has been cut, which will imperil some of the tribe’s most elderly and vulnerable members who are still recovering from Friday’s blizzard.
The statement said, lastly, that Brewer and other tribal members are in Washington this week to press Congress to reopen the government.
“We need Congress to do its job,” Brewer said. “Fund the government.”
At present there is no clear sign when that might happen. House Republicans have passed a series of bills to reopen certain services, like national parks, but Senate Democrats have rejected those bills, arguing that Republicans should reopen the entirety of the government.
South Dakota’s Republican delegates, Noem and U.S. Sen John Thune, have issued repeated statements this week that those House bills show that Republicans are trying to end the shutdown.
Democrats, including U.S. Sen Tim Johnson, argue that the easiest way to end the shutdown would be for House Republicans to pass a resolution, with no extra policy provisions, that would fully fund the government.
Herald staff
October 8, 2013
Hot Shop glass blowing at Everett Schack Art Center Photo from Schack.org
EVERETT — The open studio nights for teens returns this week to the Schack Art Center with the first one happening from 6-8 p.m. Thursday.
The free, after-hours events at the center at 2921 Hoyt Ave. include up to four different hands-on art projects where teens get to meet and work with local artists, as well as refreshments and glassblowing demonstrations.
Projects at this week’s event include “Neon Oil Pastel Leaves” with Colleen Temple, “Bird Masks” with Anna Mastronardi Novak and printmaking with Bonnie AuBuchon.
Schack Teen Nights started in fall 2011 as a way for local teens to learn about the Schack Art Center’s programs and classes. The studio nights with hands-on, take-away projects have been popular in the past.
The Schack Art Center is an admission free, visual arts center in downtown Everett featuring art exhibits from locally and internationally known professional artists, as well as emerging young talents. It features a state-of the-art glass blowing studio that allows the public to watch local artists work.
Current and former UO students from tribes throughout Oregon are showing their artwork in the 2013 Native American Art Show, on display through the month of October at the Many Nations Longhouse, 1630 Columbia St.
A public reception to meet the artists will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Shayleen Macy, a Wasco member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, is a current UO student working on a bachelor of fine arts degree in printmaking. In addition to her formal art education, she continues to practice traditional/tribal arts and, since coming to the UO, has taken up an interest in business and Indian languages.
Through her art, Macy explores identity as a contemporary Indian woman facing social, environmental and cultural issues. She also incorporates traditional Wasco stories into some of her pieces, such as “The Elk, the Hunter, and His Greedy Father,” and “Coyote Frees the Fish.” Her art sometimes evokes the stories’ traditional meanings and at other times, she uses the story as a metaphor for contemporary issues.
In “Mecca” (shown above), Macy explores the place on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation on the Deschutes River where she grew up and lived with her grandparents and extended family.
“The piece is a contemporary version of a traditional native art form of bead applique on hand-stitched buckskin purses, which women carry at gatherings as a part of our traditional regalia,” she says.
Beyond college, Macy plans to pursue a career as an advocate for the arts and languages of the Warm Springs Tribes, as well as continue a relationship with the community that is based on education and service.
“I hope to be able to be involved with opportunities within my community that promote the languages and arts,” she says.
Macy and other artists will be at the reception for the 2013 Native American Art Show, at the Many Nations Longhouse.
October 9, 2013
