TULALIP, Wa – Tulalip’s Hibulb Cultural Center, on occasion, feature film screenings of films that star, are filmed by or are written by Native Americans, yet all tell one facet of the Native American life. Thursday, Oct 24th’s featured screenings were of Jeff Boice’s work with the Tulalip Tribes. Jeff Boice, a videographer/editor, has been working with the Tulalip Tribes since 1990, has also done video shootings for large media companies such as The Discovery Channel and CNN.
The evenings screening were many short segments of the Walking Tour II with Ray Moses, History Minutes and a Williams Shelton’s segment. The Walking Tour follows Tulalip tribal member Ray Moses as he tells stories about significant locations on the Tulalip reservation. “He’s quite a historian. It was great working with Ray,” commented Boice.
History Minutes are under a few minutes, are produced for the museum and focus on one particular aspect of tribal life such as boarding school life or construction of summer homes that were used in the old days.
The William Shelton segment centered on the portion of William’s life when he carved the Sklaletut pole, a culturally important piece of artwork. Boice has a genuine interest in documenting the past of the Tulalip Tribes and states, “Our hopes are that this video will help generate enough interest to be able to do a longer documentary [on William Shelton] but not just that but to generate interest in preserving the Sklaletut pole.”
Most screenings events at the Hibulb are relatively intimate, are under a few hours and include a Q and A afterwards. For more about future film screenings at the Hibulb please visit their website or call 360-716-2600. To view the works of Jeff Boice, visit Boicetv.com.
Just like our Native American culture is not a Halloween costume or a sports mascot, we are also not a cute construction paper project for Thanksgiving. You are not doing our rich culture any justice when you make brown paper bag vests or paper feather headbands.
Hopefully you’ve read some of the articles recently posted on PowWows.com to know that what we typically learned about Thanksgiving was a romanticized myth. How I wish we could sugar coat history, and make it easier for our children to understand, but we can not and should not. Instead I think the focus at Thanksgiving time, should shift away from reenacting the myth of the First Thanksgiving and decorating the classroom with Pilgrims and Indians. We should instead focus on things the children can be thankful for in their own lives. Teaching about Native Americans only at Thanksgiving from a historical perspective will reinforce the idea that they only existed in the past.
Since thanks and giving are in the name of the holiday, it only makes sense to teach the children the meaning of thankfulness and gratitude. Here are several projects that can help them be grateful.
Multicultural Thanksgiving Wreath : This would be great if you want to incorporate some Native American words into the tree such as the Navajo word for Thank You = Ahéhee’
There are many cultures around the world that celebrate autumn harvest. Why not focus on the season for a craft?
Corn Husk Dolls – On the Native Tech website there is a great story that goes along with the doll instruction if you would like to incorporate some Native American culture.
Hopefully I’ve provided you with some fun activities you can do with your children this season. However you choose to celebrate I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Lummi Gateway Presents 3rd Annual Coast Salish Winter Festival Arts and Crafts Market
Fridays 12:00-6:00 and Saturdays 10:00-4:00
November 29-30
December 6-7
December 13-14
December 29-21
Find exclusive and unique hand crafted gifts, traditional art work, sold by Lummi Community members. These events are open to the public, everyone is so very welcomed.
Chinook salmon returned to the Elwha River this fall in numbers not seen in many decades.
Other creatures have followed the salmon in returning to the Olympic Peninsula valley after an 8-mile stretch of the river was reconnected to saltwater when the Elwha Dam was removed.
A Burke Museum exhibit that opens Saturday tells the story of a river, the people who have depended on it, the scientists who study it, and the changes wrought first by the construction of two dams and now by the biggest dam-removal project in U.S. history.
“Elwha: A River Reborn,” based on the book of the same name by Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes and photographer Steve Ringman, runs through March 9.
Mapes will speak, and members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe will talk and perform at the opening of the exhibit, which combines photographs, artifacts from an ancient Klallam village, a million-year-old salmon fossil and hands-on activities.
Children can play the part of a scientist or a journalist in “Camp Elwha,” an interactive exhibit inside a tent.
At the heart of the exhibit is the river, where salmon, steelhead and lampreys lost 70 miles of spawning grounds when dams blocked their passage more than a century ago.
It is also the story of the regeneration that has taken place since the Elwha Dam was removed in 2011 and will continue after demolition of the upstream Glines Canyon Dam is completed next year.
Mapes and Ringman followed the story, first in the pages of this newspaper and then in their 2013 book copublished by Mountaineers Books and The Seattle Times.
“This is a profoundly hopeful story,” said Mapes, who is currently a fellow in the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT.
“It shows that in the right place and with the right conditions, you really do have a chance to start over. You can take a place that’s been used for industrial development, even for a very long time, and have nature come booming back. “
An iconic image for her was a water ouzel in a restored tributary delicately holding a coho salmon egg in its beak “as if it were a glass of fine cabernet.”
George Pess, a NOAA fisheries biologist and a source for Mapes’ reporting, said that as salmon have returned, otters, bears, lampreys and many other animals have come back.
“Everybody kind of got the signal, whether it’s smell or sight, everybody knew something was happening that hadn’t happened in a long time that was important to the ecosystem,” Pess said.
Restoring the salmon to something resembling their once-legendary glory will take years, Pess said.
Bringing back towering trees where lake silt has replaced the humus-rich soil of a long-gone forest, Mapes said, will take much longer.
Although that won’t happen quickly, she said, “One of the things that struck me is how ephemeral the works of man are and how incredibly resilient nature is.”
The exhibit was created by the Burke Museum in collaboration with The Seattle Times, Mountaineers Books and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
Taste of Cabela’s, Saturday and Sunday, November 30th – December 1st, 11 AM
Taste of Cabela’s is the perfect chance to taste all of our holiday treats and unique foodie gifts for the holiday season. Stop by the Home and Cabin Department to taste a variety of dip, soups and our famous fudge. The Eagles Nest Deli will be sampling Elk, Boar and Bison meats and other goodies sure to peak your interest. Our Camping department will be sampling a wide variety of tasty marinades and spices along with other treats that Cabela’s has to offer.
Don’t miss this day of munching on delicious food and kicking off the holiday season in Cabela’s style.
Pictures with Santa, Saturday-Sunday, December 7-8 11:00am-6pm, by the Fishing Department
Santa and his elves will be visiting our store! Come for a chance to whisper your Christmas wish lists and to take a commemorative photograph of the occasion. We’ll send you home with a free Cabela’s keepsake frame and photograph with Santa.
She sleeps on couches, dines with strangers and lives out of her car. Still, Matika Wilbur does it for the art and for the people.
Wilbur is Native American. Invariably strapped to her arm is a camera, and other than a few provisions and clothing, she owns little else. Last year she sold everything in her Seattle apartment, packed a few essentials into her car and then hit the road.
Since then, she’s been embarking on her most recent project, “Project 562.”
The plan is to photograph citizens of each federally recognized tribe, Wilbur said. Sometimes she’ll journey to an isolated reservation, other times she’ll meet some of the 70 percent of Native Americans living in urban settings. Yet she hopes that when her project is complete it will serve to educate the nation and “shift the collective conscious” toward recognizing its indigenous communities.
To date, Wilbur has photographed citizens of 159 tribes.
In 2010, when Wilbur first conceptualized the campaign, there were 562 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., hence the name. Since then, the U.S. government has added four more nations to the list.
Courtesy Matika WilburNative American activist and poet John Trudell, left, and Son Coup of the Santee Sioux Nation pose for a photo in San Francisco, Calif., in July.
The project all began three years ago when Wilbur photographed her elders from both of her tribes, the Swinomish and Tulalip. She soon decided it was not enough to photograph only her people. After raising $35,000 through Kickstarter.com, an online funding platform, she had enough to realize her project and zip across the country capturing the faces of this nation’s first peoples.
Wilbur said her project is aimed toward debunking the bevy of erroneous stereotypes surrounding Native American culture and society and to reiterate the continual presence of Native Americans.
“We are still here,” she said. “We remain.”
One of those stereotypes is the image of Indians clad in feathers, nearly naked running across the prairie, whooping it up like what’s oft portrayed in western cinema. Also the caricature image of Indians as mascots.
With that in mind, Wilbur said the project is meant to drive conversations about the ubiquitous appropriation of Native American culture and to discuss how U.S. citizens can evolve beyond the co-opting of indigenous images and traditions.
“I hope to educate these audiences that it’s not OK to dress up like an Indian on Halloween,” she said. “I’m not a Halloween costume. I hope to encourage a new conversation of sharing and to help us move beyond the stereotypes.”
Wilbur added that she hopes her photos — her craft — will display the “beauty of (Native) people and to introduce some of our leaders to a massive audience.”
Wilbur, 29, operates on a modest budget and relies heavily on the “generosity and kindness” of the people she meets when travelling throughout Indian country. Many of her photo subjects will host her overnight and provide her with meals.
Courtesy Matika WilburAnna Cook of the Swinomish and Hualapai tribes poses for a photo in Swinomish, Wash., earlier this month.
“I come in a good way. I bring gifts. I interact with their children well. I behave myself. I walk the red road,” she said. “People believe in my project because they, too, have been affected by the stereotypical image and they want to see it change.”
In between shoots, or maybe over dinner, Wilbur will tape record her subjects as they impart their wisdom and life stories. She plans to transfer the files to an application, which will coincide the corresponding photos in a future exhibition.
In the last year, Wilbur has slept in her two-seater Honda only once or twice but, following a new fundraiser in January, she hopes to get a van to sleep in on those long nights out on the open road.
Wilbur said that the fact that there are newly recognized tribes is indicative of the progress Native Americans are making today and that she plans to photograph the four tribes as well as various others who haven’t been recognized by the federal government.
Currently, Native Americans make up 1.6 percent of the entire U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census.
On Oct. 31, President Barack Obama proclaimed November 2013 as Native American Heritage Month and designated Nov. 29, 2013 as Native American Heritage Day.
Wilbur’s previous work has been showcased across the U.S. and internationally at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada and the Fine Arts Museum of Nantes in France.
In May 2014, the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington will host an exhibition of Wilbur’s collection of photos. In the meantime, she says she’ll continue her project and “let it flow as the spirit moves it.”
TULALIP, Wa- Tulalip’s annual Native Bazaar is happening this weekend, Nov 23rd and 24th, and December 7th and 8th. The bazaar is a great place to buy handmade gifts for friends and family and offers everything from cedar woven items art, carvings and drums, to jewelry, clothing and food.
The bazaar is open 9:00am – 4:00pm and is located at the Don Hatch Jr Youth Center, 6700 Totem Beach Rd, Tulalip. I-5 exit 199, follow the signs.
Among the many native themed crafts is a line of clothing that has been tailored to show off native America designs.
Courtesy Matika WilburNative American activist and poet John Trudell, left, and Son Coup of the Santee Sioux Nation pose for a photo in San Francisco, Calif., in July.
Courtesy Matika WilburAnna Cook of the Swinomish and Hualapai tribes poses for a photo in Swinomish, Wash., earlier this month.
