Author: Kim Kalliber

Skokomish Tribe sues state over hunting rights

Christopher Dunagan | Kitsap Sun  – February 20, 2013

SKOKOMISH — A federal lawsuit involving the rights of Indian tribes to hunt game on “open and unclaimed lands” has been filed by the Skokomish Tribe against the state of Washington.

The lawsuit claims that actions by state agencies and officials have denied tribal members access to their legitimate hunting areas. Furthermore, state officials have imposed civil and criminal sanctions on tribal members and promoted a “discriminatory scheme” of hunting regulations that favor non-Indians, the suit says.

The Skokomish Tribe’s lawsuit could open the door to long-awaited litigation that could define the extent of treaty rights related to hunting animals and gathering roots and berries by Native Americans across Washington state.

Listed as defendants in the case are state officials who oversee the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Fish and Wildlife and Attorney General’s Office. Also listed are the county prosecutors in Mason, Kitsap, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, Clallam and Thurston counties, who are charged with prosecuting hunting violations.

The lawsuit asks the federal court to define the extent of the tribe’s hunting and gathering rights, identify the territory where the tribe may operate, confirm the tribe’s “exclusive and co-concurrent management authority” and declare a tribal allocation for game, roots and berries.

The tribe also seeks an injunction to prevent state officials from interfering with tribal rights to hunt and gather roots and berries.

Assistant Attorney General Joe Shorin, assigned as lead attorney for the state, said he and his colleagues are evaluating the tribe’s legal complaint and will file an answer with U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

“It is too early to say what, if any, precedent this case will have,” Shorin said. “There has not been a lot of litigation regarding these hunting and gathering issues. Part of that may be that the parties have been working together fairly effectively.”

In response to questions, Joseph Pavel, vice chairman of the Skokomish Tribal Council, said tribal officials are preparing a written statement.

A landmark 1974 ruling by U.S. District Judge George Boldt and following court decisions held that treaties signed in the 1850s guaranteed tribes the right to take half the harvestable fish and shellfish, with some exceptions. Tribal fishing areas have been approved by the courts, though some areas are still in litigation.

As a result of those rulings, Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted a policy in 1988 calling for negotiations with various tribes to resolve hunting issues. Tribes typically set hunting rules for their own members and coordinate with state officials on management plans for specific populations, including six identified elk herds. But the courts have never delved into hunting rights to the extent they have for fish and shellfish.

The 1855 Treaty of Point No Point preserves the “privilege of hunting and gathering roots and berries on open and unclaimed lands.” That treaty — signed by representatives of the Skokomish, S’Klallam and Chimakum people — ceded to the United States tribal lands around Hood Canal and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

In its lawsuit, the Skokomish Tribe contests state maps that purport to identify those ceded lands, as well as a Washington State Supreme Court ruling that limits “open and unclaimed lands” to those not in private ownership.

The lawsuit argues that state Supreme Court cases fail to define the extent of the hunting and gathering rights of the Skokomish Tribe. That lack of definition has caused state officials to “unlawfully interfere with plaintiff Skokomish Tribe’s privilege of hunting and gathering on open and unclaimed lands as guaranteed by Article 4 of the Treaty of Point No Point …

“This unlawful interference … resulted and continues to result in denial of lawful access to plaintiff Skokomish Indian Tribe’s territory and use of resources located thereon.”

The tribe’s lawsuit lays out an extensive history of hunting before the treaties were signed. The Skokomish Tribe, which includes the successor of the Twana people, ranged throughout the Hood Canal region and lived in nine communities, mostly at the mouths of rivers.

Tribal members took sea mammals, including porpoises, seals, sea lions and whales; waterfowl, including geese, brant and duck; and land game, including elk, bear, deer, beaver, mountain beaver and muskrat, according to the lawsuit. Tribal people also gathered plants, including the roots of ferns and other plants, as well as a wide variety of berries.

 

PUD’s studies support proposed mini-dam on Skykomish

By Bill Sheets, Herald writer

INDEX — Building a mini-dam on a scenic stretch of the Skykomish River would not cause flooding or reduce water flow, according to preliminary studies by the Snohomish County Public Utility District.

These findings are among the results of studies done recently by the PUD in determining whether to pursue the project.

The utility is looking at building an inflatable mini-dam, or weir, on the river just above Sunset Falls near Index. The PUD believes the project could generate enough power for nearly 10,000 homes. Its cost is estimated at between $110 million and $170 million.

The utility has scheduled open houses for Wednesday in Everett and Thursday in Sultan to discuss its findings with the public.

The meetings will be informal. Visitors may circulate, look at photos and graphics and discuss the idea with officials.

“We heard a lot of concerns from the local residents,” said Kim Moore, an assistant general manager for the PUD. “We’ve been trying to address those concerns.”

Some neighbors and environmental groups oppose any consideration of a dam on the stretch of river.

Jeff Smith, who lives about 50 yards from where the mini-dam would be installed, said the new information makes no difference to him.

“This is not an issue about engineering details,” he said. “This is an issue about a protected natural resource. It’s like negotiating the terms of surrender before the battle starts.”

The south fork of the Skykomish is part of the state’s Scenic Rivers System. Under this designation, development is discouraged but not prohibited.

The river has been listed since 1988 as a protected river by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a Portland-based, power-supply planning group.

This designation also does not prevent development, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is required to consider the tag in deciding whether to issue a permit for a dam.

Last year, American Rivers, a national environmental group, listed the stretch of river as the seventh most endangered river in the nation. The designation was prompted by the possible PUD project, said Brett Swift, regional director for the group’s northwest office in Portland.

In the project, water would be diverted from the pooled water behind the weir, above Sunset Falls, through a pipeline downstream to a powerhouse below the falls.

The dam would be inflated only during winter months when the flow is highest, PUD officials have said.

The PUD has a federal permit to study the project but has yet to apply for a license to build. If that occurs, it likely won’t be for three or four more years, Moore said.

Concerns about the project include flooding above the dam and reduced water flow below it; glare from lights; noise and traffic during construction, and the effect on the scenery.

In addition to the findings on flooding and water flow, the PUD also has artist’s conceptions showing the weir would have a minimal effect on the appearance of the river.

Officials have drawn up routes to minimize noise and traffic during construction, Moore said. An electrical switchyard for the power could be hidden behind the powerhouse to keep it invisible from across the river, PUD spokesman Neil Neroutsos said.

Other issues, such as the project’s potential effect on fish, will have to be studied in greater detail, Moore said.

All the information so far is preliminary and will have to be fleshed out further if the utility decides to go ahead with the project, Moore said.

“We have not found, as of yet, a fatal flaw with respect to this project.”

The PUD buys about 90 percent of its power in the form of hydroelectric energy from the Bonneville Power Administration and is looking to diversify.

In 2011, the PUD opened a $29 million mini-dam on Youngs Creek near Sultan. In 2008, the PUD bought a tiny, 6-foot-tall dam and powerhouse on Woods Creek near Monroe from a private utility company for $1.1 million.

The PUD also owns and operates the Jackson Hydroelectric Project on the Sultan River, which includes Culmback Dam on Spada Lake.

Lower Elwha Klallam tribe celebrates, works to help river recover

Lower Elwha Klallam elder Adeline Smith talks about growing up on the Elwha, where the salmon were once so numerous she had to push them out of the way with her hands as she swam in the river's cold waters as a child. Photo: STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Lower Elwha Klallam elder Adeline Smith talks about growing up on the Elwha, where the salmon were once so numerous she had to push them out of the way with her hands as she swam in the river’s cold waters as a child. Photo: STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

For the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the Elwha River’s restoration also is a cultural renewal

By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times staff reporter

Swimming in pools of the Elwha River as a child, Adeline Smith pushed salmon out of the way, so thick were the fish in the lower river. “It was nothing to see them everywhere when us kids were in the water, especially in the deep holes. We would scare them away.”

Elwha Dam was finished just four years before she was born in 1918. It quickly began killing fish.

Smith, one of the oldest living members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, whose homeland included villages up and down the river, remembers as a kid running from pool to pool with her niece, the late Bea Charles, scooping up the silvery baby salmon stranded in puddles by operation of the dam. “They were just dying. We felt sorry for them,” she said of the gasping fish. The dam walled adult fish off from 93 percent of their habitat upriver. With so little spawning ground left, the fish declined. Today the river’s chinook, steelhead and bulltrout are listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The tribe intervened in 1986 in licensing proceedings to demand the dams be taken out, and worked with environmental organizations to force the settlement that became the 1992 Elwha restoration act.

With 989 members today, the tribe lost the most with the destruction of the fish runs — and was the slowest to reap the benefits of economic development from the dams. Power poles carried electricity to only parts of the tribal community as late as the 1930s, and the reservation didn’t even have indoor plumbing until 1968.

Smith, now 93, has outlived three children and two husbands. Over the course of her life she welded submarines, worked as a riveter at Boeing, eviscerated chickens at a meatpacking plant, sewed jackets at a Seattle garment factory, and picked salal in the woods for 17 cents a bunch. She’s seen and done a lot in her life. But the dams coming out?

“I never thought I would see the day,” Smith said. “It’s a great thing, even if a percentage of the fish come back.”

Some things, though, may be gone forever.

As a child, she remembers her father telling her about Thunderbird’s Cave — the place where a rainbow jumped back and forth in the river’s mist as it crashed through a tight canyon.

There, Thunderbird, who could make the salmon come upriver just by flashing his eyes, dwelled in the upper reaches of the watershed, where only the biggest fish could go.

She fears the cave, and the tribe’s creation site near where Elwha Dam is today, may be gone because of the dynamiting of the river channel when the dams were built.

But restoration of the river will continue a cultural revival for the tribe, which in 2007 published a book on the Elwha River and its people for use in its tribal community and in public schools. And the tribe is playing a lead role in the recovery of the Elwha ecosystem, from restoring habitat in the river to replanting native plants in the mud flats that will be exposed when the dams come out.

“It’s a lot of change,” Smith said. “And we are going to have the fish back.”

Federal court dismisses suit against Elwha hatchery; tribe drops nonnative steelhead stocking plan

The new Elwha Tribal fish hatchery on the Elwha reservation is to be used to supplement populations of fish that naturally recolonize the river as habitat becomes available. Photo: Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times, 2011
The new Elwha Tribal fish hatchery on the Elwha reservation is to be used to supplement populations of fish that naturally recolonize the river as habitat becomes available. Photo: Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times, 2011

A federal judge has dismissed a suit against the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s hatchery plan as moot, and the tribe has terminated its plan to stock the Elwha with nonnative steelhead.

By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times staff reporter

A federal judge has thrown out a suit against the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s hatchery plan, and the tribe has backed away from stocking the Elwha River with nonnative steelhead.

The Elwha is at the center of the region’s long-running debate on hatcheries and their role in salmon recovery. A $325 million federal recovery project for the river is now under way, with one dam out of the river and another soon gone in the largest dam-removal project in history. With so much at stake, hatchery plans for the fish-recovery effort drew fire early.

Litigation was flying before the first chunks of concrete even came out. Advocates for wild fish filed notice of intent to sue in September 2011 over the new $16 million hatchery built as part of the recovery project. But portions of the lawsuit, filed in March against the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, were thrown out last week by Benjamin Settle, U.S. District Court judge for the Western District in Tacoma.

Settle found that the suit was moot because, since the suit was filed, the tribe had obtained permits from federal fisheries officials to carry out programs at its hatchery, leaving no question to settle.

“It speaks for itself,” said the tribe’s lawyer, Steven Suagee. “The initial complaint had been that the tribe didn’t have the approvals for these hatchery programs, and now we do.“

The new hatchery is to be used to supplement populations of fish that naturally recolonize the river as habitat becomes available. Ultimately, taking two dams out of the river will reopen 70 miles of habitat in the Elwha to salmon and steelhead spawning. But dam removal also is letting loose huge amounts of sediment, trapped behind the dams for a century. As the water gets muddy, the hatchery also is intended to provide a safe-harbor gene bank for four populations of fish listed for protection in the river, including steelhead.

The tribe backed away from one of the programs it sought to run at its hatchery: stocking Chambers Creek steelhead, which, while not native to the Elwha, have provided a fishing opportunity for tribal fishermen for years as native stocks in the Elwha declined because of the dams.

With the dams coming out, however, wild-fish advocates no longer wanted the nonnative fish stocked in the river. The tribe, while not conceding that the fish cause harm to wild stocks, announced in December to federal officials that it has ended its Chambers Creek program and will not be reviving it.

Instead, tribal members will mop up the fish returning from its last release from the hatchery in 2011 until no more of the nonnative fish come back. That will serve the needs both to avoid crossbreeding of the nonnative fish with fragile, rebuilding native runs and to provide a small fishing opportunity for the tribe.

A moratorium is in effect on fishing in the river for five years while populations rebuild. The tribe is negotiating with federal fisheries officials to be able to fish native Elwha steelhead after the moratorium even if those fish are still listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act, if doing so does not set back recovery.

Suagee said that those talks are still ongoing and that nothing is final.

Kurt Beardslee, of the Wild Fish Conservancy, said the nonprofit, which took the lead in the suit, intends to appeal.

Meanwhile, dam removal is on hold until repairs are made to a water-treatment plant built as part of the recovery project that clogged with leaves, sticks and mud during the first fall rains. The plant has not been providing the level of water quality expected nor functioning as planned.

Repairs are expected to put off resumption of work until at least April.

State could lose millions if feds don’t reach budget deal

Washington state would see federal funding cut for everything for teacher’s aides for disabled kids to immunizations if Congress can’t reach a budget agreement.

By Lynda V. Mapes and Sanjay Bhatt, Seattle Times staff  reporters

From fewer immunizations to classrooms without teachers aides for children with disabilities, Washington state could feel the reduction of millions of dollars of federal aid if Congress can’t reach a budget compromise, a White House report released Sunday says.

Unless Congress acts by Friday, a series of automatic budget cuts, called sequestration in D.C. budget-speak, will take effect, adding up to $85 billion nationally over the course of the remaining fiscal year, through September.

The Senate is to consider bills this week that would avoid the cuts. Meanwhile, the White House on Sunday released the list of potential budget reductions, state by state, as part of its stepped-up campaign to prod Congress to act.

Some state agencies that rely heavily on federal funding would be particularly hard hit.

“My budget is 53 percent federal, and the amount of state and local dollars has also declined,” Mary Selecky, secretary of the state Department of Health, said Sunday.

The cuts would mean a more than 8 percent reduction in her agency’s funding, or $22 million in a department that has already seen a 38 percent cut in state money over the past six years, Selecky said.

Under an analysis prepared by her agency, about half of the new round of federal cuts would come out of food and nutrition programs for infants and pregnant women.

Cuts in federal immunization funding could also mean that 4,451 fewer kids receive vaccinations. Other core services, from breast- and cervical-cancer screening to inspections of health-care facilities and drinking-water protection, would be reduced.

Selecky said public-health budgets are already so tight that further reductions would put people’s health at risk. “Bugs don’t know boundaries, and they don’t know political parties, or that our budget is tight,” she said.

Other reductions in Washington state outlined by the White House include:

• $11.6 million for primary and secondary education, putting 160 teacher and aide jobs at risk. An $11.3 million reduction would jeopardize the jobs of 140 teachers, aides and staff working with children with disabilities.

In addition, around 440 fewer low-income students would receive aid to help them finance the costs of college, and about 1,000 children would be cut from Head Start and Early Head Start services.

• $3.3 million to help ensure clean water and air, and to prevent pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste. In addition, Washington could lose $924,000 in grants for fish and wildlife protection.

• Furloughs for 29,000 civilian Department of Defense workers that would reduce gross pay by
$173.4 million. Army base operation funding would be cut $124 million.

• About $271,000 in grants that support law enforcement, courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and crime victim and witness initiatives.

• $661,000 for job-search assistance, referral and placement. Up to 800 disadvantaged and poor children could lose access to child care, and $1 million could be lost for meals to seniors.

Not mentioned by the White House was money to clean up the Hanford nuclear reservation, where last week six tanks holding radioactive material were found to be leaking. The budget cuts could lead to up to 1,000 cleanup workers facing furloughs of up to six weeks, the state says.

“Our concern is anything that slows down cleanup,” said Dieter Bohrmann, spokesman for the nuclear-waste program at the state Department of Ecology. “We need to keep progressing and avoid further delays, especially with the news of additional leaking tanks.”

The list from the White House includes other possible cuts nationally, including reductions for health research through the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as cuts in aviation safety, air traffic control and security. The White House did not say how those cuts would affect the state.

The looming cuts are the result of failed attempts by Congress and President Obama to tame the federal budget deficit, beginning back in 2011. The automatic cuts now facing the country are just the start of more than $1 trillion in across-the-board reductions that would be imposed on domestic and military spending over the next 10 years.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week” that the worst of the cuts could be alleviated with some flexibility. “We can get all through this,” he said. “The best way to do it is just allow flexibility.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney has insisted for weeks that the agencies have no flexibility. Administration officials did not respond to questions Sunday about whether they would support a change in law to gain flexibility.

Some analysts outside government said they are optimistic a compromise budget solution would be reached before long, mitigating or at least redirecting the cuts.

“My suspicion is this is a game of poker. People in Congress will step up to the plate,” Anthony Chan, chief economist for JPMorgan Chase’s wealth-management service, said in an interview Friday.

He’s not worried if Congress can’t reach a deal right away. “It’s not the end of the world if it takes a couple weeks, a couple months,” he said.

The combination of sequestration, higher payroll taxes and the “fiscal-cliff” deal reached by Congress late last year will shave
1.5 percentage point off the U.S. economy’s growth in 2013, Chan said, but that’s not reason for panic.

The important thing, he said, is for Congress to reach a deal that will eliminate the pall of uncertainty looming over American businesses and holding back their decisions to invest and hire.

Even if the spending cuts produce short-term job losses, the Seattle metro area is outperforming the national average in job growth, Chan said. The area saw 2.9 percent annual job growth in 2012, compared with
1.6 percent nationally.

Construction, manufacturing and the leisure-and-hospitality industries were responsible for a huge part of the area’s job growth. Chan said those numbers, along with a rebound in housing values here and nationally, indicate the nation’s economy is coming back.

Come support the Washington Stealth lacrosse team this Saturday night in Everett

On February 23, the Stealth plays host to the Calgary Roughnecks at Comcast Arena. 6:45pm

www.comcastarenaeverett.com

COMCAST ARENA DOORS OPEN AT 5:15pm. Come early to take part in pre-game activities, featuring Coors Light drink specials, face-painting, poster-making station and much more!

Hang around after the game for an autograph session with Stealth players.

“The Living Breath of Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ: Indigenous Ways of Knowing Cultural Food Practices and Ecological Knowledge”

May 1, 2013 at 9:00am until May 2 at 5:00pm

Walker Ames Room, Kane Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195

SAVE THE DATE! The University of Washington’s American Indian Studies Department invites you to a two-day symposium to be held May 1-2, 2013 in Seattle, Washington.

“The Living Breath of Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ: Indigenous Ways of Knowing Cultural Food Practices and Ecological Knowledge,” will bring together primarily Northwest Coast and regional Native leaders, elders, and scholars who will share their knowledge and expertise on topics such as tribal food sovereignty initiatives, food justice and security, traditional foods and health, global climate change’s impact on coastal indigenous food systems, treaties and reserved water rights, and treaty fishing rights and habitat protection.

Indigenous peoples in the Northwest have maintained a sustainable way of life through a cultural, spiritual, and reciprocal relationship with their environment. Presently we face serious disruptions to this relationship from policies, environmental threats, and global climate change. Thus, our traditional ecological knowledge is of paramount importance as we strive to sustain our cultural food practices and preserve this healthy relationship to the land, water, and all living things.

This symposium will be the inaugural event to honor UW’s future longhouse-style community building, Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (a Lushootseed word meaning Intellectual House), that will open its doors in 2014. This event symbolizes the spirit of Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ and embodies the essence of the work we envision doing in this cultural and intellectual space.

Registration details are forthcoming.

Coordinators:
Dr. Charlotte Coté, Clarita Lefthand-Begay, Dr. Dian Million, and Elissa Washuta.

Charlotte Coté (Nuu-chah-nulth) Ph.D., Associate Professor, UW’s Department of American Indian Studies; Affiliated Faculty, Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies; Chair, UW’s Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House) Planning and Advisory Committee.

Clarita Lefthand-Begay (Diné) MS, Ph.D. candidate, UW’s School of Public Health, Graduate Student Representative, Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House) Working Committee Member, 2012 First Stewards Witness.

Dian Million (Athabaskan) Ph.D., Assistant Professor, UW’s Department of American Indian Studies.

Elissa Washuta (Cowlitz) MFA, Academic Counselor and Lecturer, UW’s Department of American Indian Studies.

Winona LaDuke, “Economics of Change: Building Sustainable Communities”

Thursday, February 28, 3013   7:00pm

Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium, 901 12th Ave, Seattle

Acclaimed author, environmentalist and activist Winona LaDuke, White Earth Ojibway, Minnesota, shares her experiences, insights, and philosophies about how to build sustainable communities using traditional indigenous ecological knowledge and caring for the land. Learn what we can do individually and collectively to make the changes necessary to live in balanced ways for ourselves, our families and communities, and honoring the web of life.

With special guests Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theater Arts.

Tickets $15 general admission, $5 students with ID.
www.brownpapertickets.com

Links to a few good videos of Winona speaking:
http://vimeo.com/52350943
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNlel72eQc

Obama promises ‘big push’ for pre-K proposal

President Barack Obama is promising a “big push” for his proposal to provide pre-K for all 4-year-olds.

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is promising a “big push” for his proposal to provide pre-K for all 4-year-olds.

Obama says having the world’s best education system will help create jobs and boost the middle class, but it starts with early childhood education.

He said studies show that pre-kindergarten kids do better in school, are less likely to become teen parents and are more likely to attend college, have a job and form stable families.

Obama announced the proposal in his State of the Union address last week. Republicans have questioned the cost, which the White House has yet to reveal.

In an interview broadcast Friday with radio host Yolanda Adams, Obama says, quote, “we’re going to make a big push on that.”