Volunteers make necklaces for Boys & Girls Club auction
Photo/Tulalip Boys & Girls Club
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
On Monday March 23, Tulalip employees from all entities, Tulalip Resort Casino (TRC), Quil Ceda Village and Tulalip Admin, came together to make necklaces in support of Tulalip’s upcoming Boys & Girls Club auction. The necklace making event was held in the upstairs conference room of the TRC’s administration building from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The goal is to create 250 hand-made necklaces that will be sold as keepsakes for those attending the 17th Annual Tulalip Boys & Girls Club Auction held on Saturday, May 9 at the TRC.
“This is our 17th annual Boys & Girls Club auction for Tulalip. All the funds raised from the necklace keepsakes go into our restricted account and are used strictly for Tulalip Boys & Girls Club,” explains Diane Prouty, Program Director for Tulalip’s Boys & Girls Club. “In the past the funds have been used for building improvements, remodels, a new roof, and whatever needs to be done in that form.
“The necklaces we are making sell for $100 apiece. The kids help put them in the bags so they have had their hands on them, but they are too intricate to have the kids make them. We have volunteers from the Resort Casino and all other entities to help come in and make these necklaces. Its wonderful people want to come in on their lunch and help. It’s great because it’s all for the kids.”
Every year the Boys & Girls Club annual auction has a theme and this year’s is a Seahawks theme. The hand-made necklaces consist of Seahawks colored beads (blue and green) and bone carved beads, including an orca tail center ornament.
Volunteers from the Boys & Girls Club and Tulalip Resort Casino making keepsake necklaces. Photo/Micheal Rios
When the necklace making concluded for the day the volunteers had made about 60 necklaces. They have many more to make at the next necklace making session on Monday, March 30from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the upstairs conference room located behind the Casino, accessible through the Casino Administration entrance. No experience is necessary to help make these necklaces and support our Tulalip youth. As an added incentive the TRC provides a complimentary catered lunch for all volunteers.
“We made about 60 necklaces for the Boys & Girls Club Auction. These necklaces are part of the fundraising we will be doing during the auction,” says Anita Rutherford, Administrative Assistant to the President & EVP at Tulalip Resort Casino. “If you can come and help us next Monday, March 30 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. we appreciate your support for the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club.
“Diane Prouty will be here with all the beads and wire. No experience is necessary! We will meet again in the Upstairs Conference Room located behind the Casino (go to the Administration Entrance). Lunch will be at noon. Call 6-1111 if you need directions. Thank you, I hope to see everyone next Monday. We can get this done for the kids!”
State officials may increase the average amount of fish, such as this sockeye salmon, each person eats per day. Raising that number would mean more stringent controls on pollution, because if people are eating more fish, they could be consuming more toxins. THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
BELLINGHAM — Bellingham City Council is considering asking the state for tighter pollution rules protecting water and the fish people eat.
On Monday, March 23, the council will discuss signing a letter to the Department of Ecology that would request tighter water quality standards than what the department is currently proposing as part of a years-long update process.
That would go against the grain of many other cities around the state that support the plan from Ecology and Gov. Jay Inslee as a compromise on health standards and strict pollution guidelines that affect wastewater treatment plants.
Ecology is looking at increasing the average amount of fish that state rules assume each person eats from 6.5 grams per day, about one 7-ounce meal per month, to 175 grams per day, about 6 ounces per day, to closer match the amount of fish folks in the Pacific Northwest actually eat.
Raising that number would mean more stringent controls on pollution, because if people are eating more fish, they could be consuming more toxins.
Under the proposal, Ecology also would lower the acceptable risk of getting cancer from the current rate of one in 1 million if someone were to eat the average amount every day for 70 years, to one in 100,000 for many of the toxins.
Those two measures fall under the umbrella of what are called human health criteria, which dictate exactly how much pollution is allowed into the state’s waterways. The current levels were set in a 1992 federal rule applying to 14 states that had failed to meet the requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act.
For some, including Bellingham City Council members Roxanne Murphy and Michael Lilliquist, lowering the cancer risk rate seems like taking a step backwards.
“Primarily my concern is that Native Americans and Asian communities, for example, can often consume 10 times the amount of seafood that other communities might take in,” Murphy said. “I really want to bring light to how a higher cancer risk will affect everybody. I don’t think it’s the right approach for everybody’s well being.”
Lilliquist said the state shouldn’t downsize the cancer guidelines currently in place, even though it might cost more.
“There’s been some resistance to tighten the rules from city governments,” Lilliquist said. “No one’s against clean water, but if we have to redo all of our stormwater drains, prevent more water pollution, it would be quite expensive. My hope is that state officials will see that strong water quality standards are not up for debate.”
Even with lowering the cancer risk tenfold, the new standards would be more protective for about 70 percent of toxins, and in cases where it would be less protective, the state will maintain the stricter standard, as explained in a policy brief from the governor’s office.
Still, increasing the acceptable risk rate above the current one in 1 million is shocking to Dr. Frank James, medical officer for the Nooksack Indian Tribe, health officer for San Juan County and an assistant professor of public health at University of Washington.
“I think if the public understood, maybe they wouldn’t agree that that’s a good idea,” James said. “It’s the most common standard in federal regulation and in all state regulation. Us varying from that is a very odd thing.”
Council will consider signing its letter and submitting it on the last day Ecology is taking public comment on the proposed rule.
A draft of the letter states that the council is in support of the governor’s comprehensive approach to improving water quality, but there are concerns about loosening the allowable cancer risk rate.
The letter also states that Bellingham council is aware that stronger standards will make it harder for the city to comply with pollution and stormwater controls, and that serious conversations about financial assistance are needed at the state level.
Those concerns are part of the reason the Association of Washington Cities, a nonprofit that lobbies for Washington cities and towns at the state level, supports the compromise presented by the governor.
Carl Schroeder, government relations advocate for the association, said it has looked at the issue and worked with the governor’s office and Ecology to set achievable goals.
The concern for some toxins is that changing the standards to a rate lower than what is already found in the waters of the state would mean that anyone discharging into that water, such as a municipal wastewater treatment plant, would need to meet the “ultra low standard right at the end of the pipe,” Schroeder said. The technology doesn’t exist to meet some of those low rates, he said.
“If you put a new standard out there that ratchets it down, and there’s no technology to do it, you drive a bunch of expense and utility rates go through the roof to put on the newest technology that doesn’t even meet the standard,” Schroeder said. “That’s been addressed largely on this risk rate discussion, which does increase the protections for 70 percent of the toxins. It doesn’t roll anything back, it just moderates the stringency.”
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015/03/21/4197262_bellingham-council-could-weigh.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
OLYMPIA…The state Medal of Merit and Medal of Valor will be presented during a joint session of the Legislature Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the House Chambers in the state Capitol. Gov. Jay Inslee will award the medals.
The Medal of Merit will be presented to Gretchen Schodde and posthumously to Billy Frank Jr.
Schodde, of Union, Mason County, is receiving the award in honor of her work as founder of Harmony Hill Retreat Center in Union, which focuses on wellness and renewal for individuals and families affected by a cancer diagnosis.
Frank, a longtime Olympia area resident who died last May, is being honored for his tireless work as a Nisqually tribal leader and dedication to the plight of Northwest salmon, the environment and peace between diverse cultures. Frank’s sons, Willie and Tobin Frank, will accept the medal on his behalf.
The Medal of Valor will be given to the communities Oso, Darrington, Arlington and Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe for their recovery and relief efforts following the Oso landslide tragedy last March.
The Office of Secretary of State oversees the Medal of Merit and Medal of Valor program.
The Lummi Nation’s shellfish hatchery is adding an all-night feeding system to its algae-growing operation.
For years, the hatchery has grown its own algae to feed growing manila clam, geoduck and oyster larvae. The new system installed this winter consists of 60 algae-filled bags in glowing Gatorade shades that pump directly into the raceways.
One of the hatchery’s three geoduck systems consists of 11 raceways that hold about 6 million geoduck seeds, which can go through 30,000 liters of algae a day.
“The new algae bag system will operate 24-7,” said Flavian Point, Lummi shellfish hatchery manager. “Overnight, it can produce an amount of algae that is equivalent to one of the hatchery’s 15,000-liter algae tanks.”
The geoduck operation has a total of 20 raceways when all three systems are online, having expanded from five raceways since 2010.
The expansion has provided new job opportunities. In addition to eight full-time staff, AmeriCorps provides five employees for 20 hours each week, and two tribal members have been hired through the Dislocated Fishers Program, which helps fishermen earn a living between fishing seasons.
The shellfish hatchery used to support itself through seed sales until the Lummi Nation took over operating costs in exchange for manila clam and oyster seed to enhance the reservation tidelands for tribal harvest. Only the geoduck seed is sold commercially.
Concerned about increasing water temperatures as a result of climate change, some of the geoduck seed customers, which include the Squaxin Island Tribe, have started seeding their beds earlier, which required the hatchery to spawn geoducks a month earlier.
“The goal is to get the seed planted before the water temperatures get too warm,” Point said. “The seed is looking good and the larvae on schedule to be ready in April.”
Tulalip Police officers during the department’s awards banquet, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015, at the Tulalip Resort Casino. (Photo courtesy Theresa Sheldon)
By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
TULALIP – “Honoring one honors us all” was the theme of the 2015 Tulalip Police Department Awards Banquet, held Wednesday, February 11, at the Tulalip Resort Casino. The banquet was held in recognition for officers and staff who have demonstrated exceptional professionalism and leadership within their positions as Tulalip Police officers or Tulalip Police staff members.
This year three officers, one staff member and a community member were highlighted for their outstanding work in the department and with the Tulalip community. While all officers and staff put 100 percent into serving the Tulalip community, Tulalip Chief of Police Carlos Echevarria said, “these officers’ and staff members’ work stood out.”
“With such a large staff it’s hard to choose just a select few. They all do such a great job throughout the year,” said Chief Echevarria.
Fish and Wildlife officer Clayton Horne was named Fish and Wildlife Officer of the Year for his service with the police department, while Lorelei Ranney was named Employee of the Year for her outstanding work and dedication in assisting officers and other department staff. The Chief’s Award was presented to Senior Officer Jeremy Mooring for his leadership, integrity, and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty.
Tulalip Chief of Police Carlos Echevarria presents the “Officer of the Year” award to K9 officer M.C. Engen and his canine partner Wolfy, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015, at the Tulalip Police Department awards banquet held at the Tulalip Resort Casino. (Photo courtesy Theresa Sheldon)
When presenting the award, Chief Echevarria had this to say about officer Mooring, “You have consistently performed your duties in an exemplary and professional manner.” Echevarria commended officer Mooring’s can-do attitude and praised his willingness to assist officers by taking on additional shifts when needed and helping to make safer road conditions for travelers in Tulalip.
The prestigious Officer of the Year award was presented to K-9 Officer Wolfy, whose watch ended on January 2, when she lost her battle with cancer. Wolfy’s handler and partner, officer M.C. Engen, received the award in Wolfy’s honor.
“Throughout their partnership, they have assisted in cases with the Tulalip PD Drug Task Force, FBI, DEA, and ATF agencies. We would like to commend you and your partner with the Officer of the Year award for the dedication and commitment you have provided to the department. Your devotion to the community, professionalism and commitment to duty reflected great credit upon yourself, the Tulalip Police Department and the Tulalip Tribes,” said Echevarria to officer Engen.
The department recognized community member Nate Hatch for their Honoring Our Own award, an annual award that is presented to community members who exhibit a commitment to leadership, trust, respect and service above self within the community.
Tulalip Police officer Sherman Pruitt shakes Nate Hatch’s hand, Wednesday, Feb 11, 2015, during the Tulalip Police Awards Banquet held at the Tulalip Resort Casino. Hatch was presented the department’s “Honoring Our Own” award for his bravery during and after the Oct. 24, 2014 shooting at Marysville High School. He is the only survivor who was shot that day. (Photo courtesy Theresa Sheldon)
“Nate Hatch, you have shown strong character, a can-do positive attitude, brilliant smile, sense of humor and most importantly, you have been an inspiration to the entire world following the events that occurred on October 24, 2014. Your bravery is second to none and we applaud you,” said Echevarria.
“Our year was cut short. As a tribal member, community member and chief of police it felt as though our year started on January 1 and ended on October 24. I literally cannot tell you what I did from October 24, until the end of the year; it is one large blur. As I look back, I can’t think of a better group of individuals in this police department and as a team that showed great courage, leadership, professionalism and the willingness to go above and beyond for the community, as I did in this group, that I would want to serve with,” said Chief Echevarria.
Wrapping up the banquet, all Tulalip officers and TPD staff members were presented a commemorative coin specially designed for them. Each coin symbolizes the dedication and commitment staff and officers have to keeping the Tulalip community safe.
Tulalip Police Officer Jim Williams. Photo Courtesy Theresa Sheldon
Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com
Recently built home at Tulalip Bay. Photos courtesy Tom Eadie, Tulalip Housing Authority Administration Manager.
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
The Tulalip Brand
When non-tribals think of the Tulalip Reservation, what do they think of? Surely some of the first things that would come to their minds are the Four Diamond rated Tulalip Resort Casino, the award winning fine dining restaurants therein, and the luxurious sanctuary that is the T Spa. For the upscale, fashion conscious individuals, they would assuredly think of the Seattle Premium Outlets that brings together the finest brands and cost-savings every day. Then there are those who would think of the essential shopping experiences provided by Quil Ceda Village stores, like Cabela’s and Home Depot.
It’s easy to understand why non-tribals, whether they be locals, visitors, long distance travelers or simply Washington State residents, would think of the exclusive experiences and premium services available to them on the Tulalip Reservation. First and foremost, the Tulalip Tribes has invested vast amounts of resources (money, time, manpower, more money) into creating the present-day image of Tulalip as a destination. From the early days of establishing the original Tulalip Casino in 1992, since rebranded as Quil Ceda Creek Casino in 2004, to the construction of the new Tulalip Bingo in 1999, to the inception of the ever expanding Quil Ceda Village in 2001, to the building of Tulalip Resort Casino in 2003 and followed by its accompanying hotel in 2008, the Tulalip Tribes has gone to great lengths and overcome many obstacles to create, develop, and brand itself as a tribal business leader.
Without question the planning, construction, and continued development of the Tulalip Tribes businesses and gaming enterprise has been first-rate. But those efforts, in large part, were aimed at crafting an enhanced image of the Tulalip Tribes from the outsider’s perspective and to create the market place for building a strong, loyal customer base that yields plenty of return business. Turn inward and we, the Tulalip tribal membership, can see that while the reservation along the I-5 corridor is unrecognizable compared to what it was fifteen to twenty years ago, the heart of the reservation remains relatively underdeveloped and deficient of the exclusive qualities that the Tribes is associated with externally. However, like the memories of the brush and forest that once occupied Quil Ceda Village, that will soon be a distant memory. The entire Tulalip Bay area is about to receive a major upgrade in image.
Creating change by building neighborhoods
The Tulalip Bay Work Force Housing Program, created by the Tulalip Housing department and approved by the Board of Directors, will makeover the heart of the reservation in the same way Quil Ceda Village changed the exterior boundaries of the reservation.
The Tulalip Bay Work Force Housing Program was implemented in early 2014. It is a three step process that will drastically change rural Tulalip, for the better. The first step of the process is taking back the land, that has for far too long been accommodating to non-Tulalips. More specifically, the land within the 1.7 square mile residential area around Tulalip Bay. Piggy-backing off the ideals that led to all the houses being demolished and removed from Mission Beach in 2013, all the non-Tulalip owned homes in the Tulalip Bay area are going to be removed in order to return the land to where it belongs, to Tulalip.
As the land leases expire, one by one each non-Tulalip house will be demolished, either by the residing home owner or by the Tulalip Tribes for a fee.
“New tribal mandates state that those folks living in the Tulalip Bay houses do not have the option to renew their lease because the Tulalip Tribes has made it its mission to take back the land,” says Tom Eadie, Tulalip Housing Authority Administration Manager. “Current Tulalip Bay tenants were told that back around 2003. The owner of the home, when their lease expires, has 90 days to remove their home. If they haven’t removed their home within the 90 days, then we remove their home and charge them the removal costs. At Mission Beach they removed their homes themselves. For Tulalip Bay, the opportunity to restore the beach-front would be available, potentially. We could have a several mile beach walk. It will be amazing, what we can do out there will be phenomenal.”
The second step of the Tulalip Bay Work Force Program is to build first-rate homes complete with top of the line appliances, immaculate fenced yards, and a house alarm. These will be beautiful homes, as evidenced by the first few that have been built already. Each featuring a multi-million dollar view overlooking stunning Tulalip Bay.
The second step also mandates that after the construction of the houses they will then be made available to Tulalip tribal members only, as either part of a home ownership program or as a rental. While most of the houses will be designated for home ownership, a fair share will be designated as rentals for those who are not in a position to buy a home. These newly built houses will become the homes of many Tulalip tribal members who would not otherwise have the opportunity to live on their reservation, and will help supplement the depleted housing market for our growing tribal membership.
“Everyone benefits from it in the long run. We can do a mix of rentals and home-ownership because we understand not everyone wants to own a home. Some people want to come and rent for a while and experience their reservation where their family is, and this gives them that opportunity,” explains Eadie. “You’re not going to find a 1,600-1,700 square feet house, especially on the water or near the water, anywhere else for the low prices we will be offering.
“You get to raise your kids in the heart of your reservation, and we’ll be continuing to develop that area: new sidewalks, light posts, we’re putting in a park, a really nice basketball court park right at Tulalip Bay. We’ll be selling these gorgeous houses within the $220ish price range. The prices are incredibly low when you look at comparable markets. There is no place in the state of Washington with that view and so close to a beach-front that even comes close to what we are selling them for. You’d double that price elsewhere, easy.”
The third and final step of the Tulalip Bay Work Force Housing Program involves the collaboration of both the Tulalip Housing department and the inherent responsibility of Tulalip tribal members. As the brand new houses are nearing completion and put on the market one by one, Tulalip tribal members, whether it’s for home ownership or to rent, must make themselves candidates in order to call a Tulalip Bay house their home. To have suitable, qualified Tulalip citizens and families stake their claim on the Tulalip Bay houses being built for them this means doing the necessities when it comes to preparing to buy or rent a new home on the Tulalip Reservation. Ways to be ready include meeting with a Housing department representative to discuss the qualifying considerations, and meeting with a 184 loan specialist and applying for a 184 loan if you want to become a Tulalip Bay home owner. Eadie explained that the standard operating procedures protect both you and the Tribes’ interests.
Remember that the Tulalip Bay Work Force Housing Program is still in the beginning stages of implementation and houses will be built and made available over the next several years. This means that if you don’t qualify to rent or purchase a Tulalip Bay home right now, that will not prevent you from renting or purchasing one of the many Tulalip Bay homes coming in the near future. Start on the path to becoming a qualified Tulalip Bay home owner or renter now. Start rebuilding your credit now. Start saving money for down payments and first/last month’s rent now. If you want to become a member of what will surely become a thriving Tulalip Bay neighborhood, then now is the time to start investing in that future.
Contact Micheal Rios at mrios@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
Farming interests in Skagit County often seem at odds with salmon habitat restoration, but an ongoing project by the Swinomish Tribe aims to show that it doesn’t have to be that way.
The tribe owns the land known as the Smokehouse tidelands along the Swinomish Channel south of the Swinomish Casino and Lodge. Historically, the land was part of a system of channels that served as estuarine rearing habitat for Skagit River salmon. When the Skagit Valley was settled, the tidelands were diked and drained for agricultural use.
Since 2005, the tribe has restored tidal flow and improved fish passage to the channels by replacing four traditional flap gates with self-regulating tide gates. In addition, three culverts have been replaced by bridges, and several have been removed.
“The big advantage is for fish, but the tide gates also have improved drainage capacity,” said Todd Mitchell, Swinomish environmental director. “As more water comes in, more water goes out. We don’t have the ponds of standing water that you see on other farmland after heavy rain.”
Fifty-foot buffers have been planted between the channels and the farmland. Some of the land will remain in agricultural use, with the tribe leasing it to farmers and monitoring for saltwater intrusion.
“Continued farming provides income for the Swinomish Tribe,” said Steve Hinton, restoration director for the Skagit River System Cooperative, the natural resources extension of the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes. “The goal is to see that agriculture and salmon can not only survive, but thrive in the same space.”
The long-term plan is for riparian corridors, tidally connected channels and estuarine wetlands to exist alongside agricultural production.
“Resolving the differences between these competing uses of the resource are essential to significant and meaningful restoration of chinook rearing habitat across the Skagit delta,” Hinton said.
Hibulb’s Rediscovery Program offers new gardening class to connect Tulalip’s ancestors
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
The Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve’s Rediscovery Program is offering Tulalip tribal members an exciting new class to reconnect with their traditional culture. The class is part of a series of classes entitled ‘Native Plants and Medicinal Herbs’ that will be ongoing during the traditional harvesting season, early spring to late fall. The series of classes will focus on teaching tribal members how to collect, garden, harvest, and process native plants and herbs that are indigenous to the Tulalip region. The first of a full series of native plant gardening classes will take place Sunday, March 15, starting promptly at 9:00 a.m. and ending at 4:00 p.m., at the Center’s facility classroom.
“Our plants are our medicine. They nourish our bodies and feed our spirit,” says Inez Bill, Rediscovery Coordinator. “We want to see our people gardening and harvesting the plants and herbs that our people have used historically. So we are starting this brand new series of classes that will help pass on the values and teachings of our ancestors. Hopefully, by taking the classes, our people will begin to use these plants at their homes and grow them in their gardens for their own use.”
Over the past four years, the Rediscovery Program has hosted its ‘Gardening Together as Families’ classes that emphasized teaching our tribal membership how to grow their own organic vegetable gardens. The Rediscovery Program staff think that the time is right to shift from a general theme of organic vegetables to one that specifically tailors to the traditional gardening customs of our Tulalip ancestors. By reintroducing the Tulalip people to native plants and herbs that were once used by our ancestors for generations.
“We’ve been doing the ‘Gardening Together as Families’ classes for four years now. That was an opportunity for people to come get hands-on experience growing their own organic vegetables. Now, we are able to shift the theme of our gardening classes to accommodate the needs of our people,” explains Rediscovery staff member Virginia Jones. “We want to give the people an opportunity to learn about the uses of Tulalip native plants and to grow them at their own homes.”
Throughout this new series of native plant gardening classes, there will be a primary focus of working with and getting familiar with the many uses of five major native plants; the stinging nettle, fireweed, giant horsetail, the Nootka Rose, and mountain huckleberry. There will be other native plants worked with as well, to supplement the uses and knowledge that come from working with the five major native plants.
“These plants we will be working with are all traditional food sources. They are something that are ancestors would have had, and so we are really fortunate to have them still available to us,” says Jones. “Today these foods are no longer a part of our everyday diets. We are trying to reintroduce these native plants back into the diets of our people. We want to reach our people on that level because these plants were used as foods that healed us and kept our bodies full of all different types of nutrients that our bodies needed.”
To participate in the first class in this new series, to be held March 15, the Rediscovery Program staff ask that you please RSVP ahead of time by calling Virginia Jones at (360) 716-2635 and leave a brief message with your name and how many family members will be attending with you. The initial class will be accepting 20 tribal member participants, so RSVP your spot as soon as possible.
Also, all those who will be participating in the native plant gardening class should remember to bring garden gloves and paper bags.
“Working with native plants is our culture,” says Bill. “It’s a delicate balance of going out and being with nature, gathering plants in prayer and working with them in a respectful way. We are one with nature at this time.”
ICTMN file photo The Quinault hosted the 2013 Canoe Journey Aug. 1-6, 2013 in Quinault, Washington.
The 2015 Canoe Journey will consist of several regional canoe journeys. When no indigenous nation stepped forward and offered to host in 2015 after the 2014 Canoe Journey/Paddle to Bella Bella, the annual gathering of Northwest canoe cultures appeared to be headed for a hiatus. But canoe skippers wanted to see the journey continue, and so a new approach emerged: Instead of one large Canoe Journey, there will be several journeys hosted in various regions of the Salish Sea.
At a Canoe Journey skippers meeting on Jan. 24, in the Suquamish Tribe’s House of Awakened Culture, the plans for this summer’s gathering – or gatherings – started to take shape.
Dates aren’t set yet – the Canoe Journey usually takes place in July — but it appears there will be a journey hosted this summer by the Ahousaht First Nation, on the west coast of Vancouver Island; the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, near Port Angeles; the Sliammon First Nation at Campbell River, B.C.; and the Semiahmoo First Nation in Surrey, B.C.
Bennie Armstrong of Suquamish’s Tana Stobs Canoe Family told ICTMN he’s filed permits, and is in talks with Seattle’s parks department regarding use of Genesee Park for a hosting in Seattle, the ancestral land of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples. He said there would be a couple of days of protocols – songs, dances and cultural sharing – but canoe families would be responsible for their own meals.
The Canoe Journey is a considerable logistical and financial undertaking. Planning and fundraising takes at least a year, and some host nations have installed roads, developed camping areas and parks, and built buildings to accommodate the festivities and thousands of guests. The host nation also hosts breakfast and dinner each day for all guests, and closes that year’s Canoe Journey with a potlatch.
Based on past fundraising goals, host nations usually expect to spend at least copy million.
Canoe families – those in the canoes, as well as support crew and family members – travel, sometimes up to three weeks, from their territories to the host territory, visiting indigenous nations along the way to participate in traditional protocols and share languages, songs, dances, and traditional foods. Once all canoes arrive at the final destination, a weeklong celebration follows.
The series of regional journeys will help keep costs down for everyone while “keeping the spirit of tribal journeys alive in 2015,” Armstrong said.
The Nisqually Tribe is scheduled to host the 2016 Canoe Journey. The Sliammon First Nation is scheduled to host in 2017.
By Lorraine Loomis, Chair, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
As we begin our third decade of the annual state and tribal salmon co-managers’ salmon season setting process called North of Falcon, it’s a good time to look at how far we’ve come and talk about our hopes for the future.
There were some tough days in the decade following the 1974 ruling by Judge George Boldt in U.S. v Washington, which upheld tribal treaty-reserved fishing rights and established the tribes as co-managers of the salmon resource with the state of Washington.
At first the state refused to implement the ruling under the mistaken idea that the Boldt decision would be overturned on appeal. There was chaos on the water. It got so bad that Judge Boldt suspended the state’s authority to manage salmon for several months and turned the state’s management authority over to the federal government.
It took time, but gradually the state and tribes learned to trust one another and work together. We realized the value of working cooperatively together to manage the resource rather than spending our time and money on attorneys fighting each other in court.
Out of that need for trust and cooperation, the North of Falcon process was born. It is named after the cape on the Oregon Coast that marks the southern boundary of the management area for fisheries harvesting Washington salmon and it extends north to the Canadian border.
While North of Falcon negotiations begin in earnest this month, the state and tribal co-managers have been hard at work for weeks developing pre-season forecasts, conservation goals and estimates of impacts to specific salmon stock at various levels of fishing effort.
This year the process has a new participant in Jim Unsworth, who recently replaced Phil Anderson as director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. We look forward to working with him to develop management plans and fishing seasons that will address our salmon recovery goals while providing some fishing opportunity. We will also work with Mr. Unsworth to protect and restore salmon habitat and to properly manage our fish hatcheries that we need to support fishing opportunity.
We have a lot of work to do together in the years ahead to recover salmon and address the many conservation challenges we face. But we know that our communities – and our shared natural resources – are stronger when the co-managers work together.
After all, we have much in common. With the current condition of the degraded habitat in our rivers and marine waters, we all need hatcheries to provide salmon for harvest. We also need good habitat for our fish. Whether hatchery or wild, salmon need plenty of clean, cold water, access to and from the ocean, and good in-stream and nearshore marine habitat where they can feed, rest and grow.
It is the amount and quality of salmon habitat – more than any other factor – that determines the health of the salmon resource. We must carefully manage the habitat, the hatcheries and the fisheries if we are to return salmon to abundant and sustainable levels. Successful salmon recovery depends on it.
