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Tulalip Forestry preserves cultural teachings through wood program

Tulalip Forestry technicians Steven Gobin and Philip Solomon deliver wood to Tulalip elders free of cost as part of a special wood program under Tulalip Forestry. (Tulalip Forestry/ Ross Fenton)

Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

TULALIP – Since time immemorial the Snohomish people have used wood as an essential element to survive. Wood was used to cook, stay warm and conduct cultural ceremonies. Today cultural values are being preserved through a wood program run by Tulalip Forestry that supplies seasoned wood to Tulalip elders, 70 years and older, free of cost.

“The program exists to help the elders,” said Philip Solomon a forestry technician with the program. The Elder Wood Program follows the Tulalip cultural teaching of taking care of your elders.

“It is part of our culture to take care of our elders and check on them. These teachings are fulfilled through this program,” explains fellow technician Steven Gobin.

For a little over five years the Tulalip Forestry has supplied this service to elders. Forestry technicians, Solomon and Gobin, both Tulalip citizens, fell the trees selected for the program, cut it to fit into wood stoves and delivered.

“Last year we did 180 cords, but this year they [The Tribal Council] cut back the program so we have done 20 elders and each gets two cords,” said Solomon, who has worked in the program for more than a year.

Many of the elders’ only source of heat is their wood stoves and fireplaces. The program also ensures that elders are not burdened with an extra cost, guaranteeing that elders don’t have to pay the current market price of firewood ranging between $160 to $250 per cord.

Gobin, who has been with the program since it has come under the Tulalip Forestry umbrella, explains that selecting the wood is a science that few consider. “When we deliver to an elder, usually we try to explain to them what type of wood we brought to them. If we bring them Maple, it burns longer for them.”

Maple is optimal for burning in wood stoves. Its dense nature makes it burn slow and hot. Alder is good for cooking and smoking. Douglas Fir is used for ceremonial burning and stove-heat because it burns the hottest due to the high volume of pitch; it also burns with less smoke. Cherry wood is used for cooking and for smoking fish, deer meat and clams. All wood must be dry or there could be issues, such as chimney fires from a build up of creosote in acrid smoke from burning unseasoned wood. Cotton Wood is considered the worst for burning in fireplaces and wood stoves and is on the technicians blacklist of wood not to deliver to elders.

Gobin and Solomon also stack the wood they deliver for elders who have no help. Last year the two received some help of their own through the Tribes’ summer youth work program. James Jimicum, Cody Johnny, Anthony Cooper, Austin Paul, Moy Flores, Kaley Hamilton and Lenora James helped to provide 120 cords of wood to elders.

“They were a big help. We really appreciated them. This year we didn’t have any youth due to the budget cuts. We would work them for four days then on the fifth day we would give them a break. On those days we would talk to them about how important the work they were doing was, and elders would come and talk to them and thank them,” said Solomon.

“When we bring a cord to an elder, what uplifts me is the smile on the elder’s face and their thank you,” said Gobin. “We get a short visit with them. We check on them, ask them how is it going and how are they doing, if they need anything. That is an important part of our culture.”

“We provide a lot for the culture, which is what I really like besides being in the woods and knowing that we are providing good quality wood,” said Solomon, about the laborious work. “It is thinking about the generations ahead of us.”

Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com

Tulalip Healing—Families and Children this Holiday Season

By Kara Briggs Campbell, Tulalip News

TULALIP, Wash – The holidays will be different at the Tulalip Tribes this year.

Gratitude, an important part of any holiday season, is made more important because of the losses that have occurred since the Oct. 24 shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School.

“I hold in my thoughts all the people who have their kids around the table, and the ones that have that empty seat in my thoughts,” said Leila Goldsmith, the director of the Tulalip Tribes’ Legacy of Healing Children’s Advocacy Center. “I hold mine a little closer because I think wouldn’t that mom want us to hold our kids closer.”

For children who seek care or are referred at the center, the recent events are raising questions as big as life and death, and wonders about how we will ever celebrate this holiday season without in a time of trauma and grief.

For families, Gurjeet Sidhu, a child therapist at the center, the most important thing that parents can do now for their children is to listen to them.

“Knowing where your child is can let you know if they are internalizing the tragedy negatively,” Sidhu said.

This could mean that child is wondering if they had prayed harder, of if they had checked on someone more, or could they have been nicer if they had only known this one or that one would be gone.

“Parents remind your kids that they couldn’t have done anything,” Sidhu said. “Tell them that they don’t control the world.”

In this season when every news flash potentially triggers more traumas in our community, the act of listening and hearing even a child’s non-verbal communication will be the best gift that parents and trusted adults can give.

And as children turn their attention to the holidays, the question that arises is, will it be the same this year?

Sidhu recommends, responding with a question, “What do you think?” Then listen.

“I haven’t heard any children say no to the holidays yet,” she said. “But I have heard kids saying I wish that this hadn’t happened.”

For younger kids, who still believe that Santa Claus will come and make everything right, parents need to be stronger and protect the magical thinking while the child still has it because, because, Sidhu said, we will all get to be adults soon enough.

“Personally, if your family has holiday rituals like gathering around the holiday dinner table keep that going so you keep the traumatic memory from attaching to the holiday,” Sidhu said.

The holiday traditions have a rhythm that can help keep everyone in the family engaged in the holiday even in hard times like these. You might not feel like it, but once you start decorating, baking cookies or whatever your tradition, the familiar activities will inspire you and your children.

“In times like these we need to talk with our children about our core values, our spiritual belief, our family traditions,” Sidhu said. “And then if you are a family that has a ritual of gathering at the dinner table, do it even more now.”

At a banquet that the Tulalip Tribes held last month for the first responders to the tragedy, Goldsmith heard people talk about the new normal now that these recent events have entered the history of the Tribes.

The young ones us are asking questions about how can they help the people around them, even as they are experiencing loss in a deeper way than maybe they ever have before.

Some children have shared with Sidhu that they cried two hours straight for everything that ever went bad, while others are feeling things that have happened even recently more deeply.

“My message is it’s OK to cry, totally OK. You aren’t going to stress out the adults around you because you are crying,” Sidhu said. “The children need to know now that, ‘you are loved and you are safe.’”

Oregon, Washington Prison Inmates Enlisted To Rear Threatened Plants & Animals

Inmate Adrianne Crabtree and ODOC Captain Chad Naugle plant violets in a meadow of the Siuslaw National Forest to support recovery of the threatened Oregon Silverspot butterfly. | credit: Larkin Guenther Institute for Applied Ecology

By Tom Banse, Earthfix

In a growing number of Northwest prisons, inmates are rearing endangered plants, butterflies, turtles and frogs for release in the wild.

It started just over a decade ago at a minimum security prison near Olympia. Now inmates at four Washington prisons and three in Oregon are raising dozens of different types of plants, insects and animals to use in restoration, many of them rare or endangered.

Tom Kaye directs the Institute for Applied Ecology, one of the partners in the Oregon Sustainability in Prisons Project. He said the advantages of working in prisons outweigh the security complications.

“The inmates are capable of giving more attention to these organisms than anyone else because they have more time to commit to it,” Kaye said. “They can really nurture and take care of these animals. The same thing is true for these plants.”

In Oregon, inmates at the state prison near Ontario are growing sagebrush to support habitat restoration for the greater sage grouse. Inmates at a correctional center in Salem are rearing threatened golden paintbrush on the prison grounds for seed production. Female inmates at Oregon’s Coffee Creek prison grow the early blue violet, which provides sustenance for rare butterflies when out planted on the Oregon Coast.

Oregon Department of Corrections sustainability coordinator Chad Naugle said, “There is huge interest on the inside” to get these work assignments.

Kaye described gardening as a “calming” activity for inmates, who in addition can acquire vocational skills while they help to rehab the environment. “There are substantial gains on all sides,” said Kaye. “We’re able to get so much more done for ourselves in the mission we are trying to accomplish… it really helps us extend our capacity.”

Prison nurseries in the older program in Washington state have raised 64 different plant species for restoration of South Puget Sound prairies according to Sustainability in Prisons Project program manager Kelli Bush. The Washington program has also partnered with Northwest zoos and state and federal agencies to rear endangered animals as well.

“Since 2009, over 700 federally-threatened, state-endangered Oregon spotted frogs have been reared from eggs to adults at Cedar Creek Corrections Center,” wrote Bush via email from Olympia. “Frogs are released into Pierce County wetlands each fall. To increase the sustainability of this project, crickets are raised as a supplemental food source.”

The minimum security Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women near Belfair raises the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly from larvae for release into the wild.

The Washington prison program was co-founded by The Evergreen State College and Washington State Department of Corrections in 2003. Participating inmates are paid a nominal rate for their labor. Federal and foundation grants cover most of the program costs.

This was first reported for the Northwest News Network.

Art Of The American West Comes To The Tacoma Art Museum

Buffalo At Sunset by John NietoTACOMA ART MUSEUM, HAUB FAMILY COLLECTION — Buffalo At Sunset by John Nieto
TACOMA ART MUSEUM, HAUB FAMILY COLLECTION

By Jennifer Wing, KPLU

Images of the American West line the walls of a brand new addition to the Tacoma Art Museum. The collection, a gift from a German family with ties to the Northwest, is a once-in-a-lifetime acquisition that is raising the museum’s profile.

The transformation of the Tacoma Art Museum over the last two years began with a phone call between the museum’s director and the lawyer for Erivan and Helga Haub. The museum was looking for a donation to help with the redesign of its lobby. But Laura Fry with the museum says the Haubs, through their lawyer, made an incredible and unexpected offer.

“He said, ‘Well, would you be interested in their collection of Western American art?’” Fry said.

That conversation resulted in the new 16,000-square foot addition designed by Tom Kundig. It houses four galleries that contain what is now one of the top collections of Western American art in the world. The collection boasts 295 paintings and bronze sculptures, 130 are currently on view. The Haubs also gave money for the construction of the new wing and set up endowments for 10 new positions, including Fry’s, who is the collection’s curator.

Albert Bierstadt, Departure of an Indian War Party, 1865

CREDIT TACOMA AT MUSEUM, HAUB FAMILY COLLECTION

“This is the biggest donation of artwork in the Tacoma Art Museum’s History,” said Fry. “In 79 years of operating, this is our single biggest gift. So this really does transform the institution.”

By this point, you’re probably wondering: Who are the Haubs?

“Erivan and Helga Haub are from Germany. They also have a home here in Tacoma and a ranch in Wyoming,” said Fry.

The Haubs made billions in the grocery store business. They came to the U.S. after World War II and honeymooned near Tacoma. Because the medical care was better here than in Germany at the time, all three of their children were born at Tacoma General Hospital.

In a video produced by the museum, Erivan Haub says his dream of seeing the American West started when he was young and read books by Karl May. The stories glorified the plains Indians of the American West. They were as popular in Germany at the time as the Harry Potter series is today.

“The story of the west I had learned long before I ever came to the west through Karl May who was a famous German author that made me hungry to get to see this and to get to experience it myself. So we made it to America and never regretted one moment of it,” said Haub.

Cinematic images of the American West dominate the Haub collection. Wide open plains, blue skies hanging over mountains and rivers and Native Americans in formal dress.

Fry points to a painting, two feet tall and three feet wide, of a buffalo grazing on the wide prairie. As real and detailed as a photograph, the image by Nancy Glaizer is called Birds of a Feather. This is the first piece the Haubs bought in 1983. It’s the painting that started the collection.

“It shows a group of bison in Yellowstone park,” said Fry.” Here you have this proud bison bull. He’s rendered in this photographic detail. But you have little birds resting on his back. It shows how he’s part of the whole ecosystem even though he’s this giant bull. These little tiny birds are still benefiting from his presence. It’s showing the whole cycle in Yellowstone.”

The Haubs, who are now in their 80s, both lived through WWII and avoided artworks with images of violence. Helga Haub says the couple never started off with a master plan for their art.

“We did not collect with vision of ever giving it to a museum. We only collected what we liked,” she said.

As artworks filled up the walls and shelves in their homes they started purchasing with more guidance from professional galleries. Some of the standout works include Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington. This is the image printed on the dollar bill. It’s from 1791 and is the oldest piece in the collection.

There is also Piñions with Cedar, the museum’s first painting by Georgia O’Keeffe. Fry says the painting of a bare leafed tree in the desert can be used as a bargaining chip.

Piñions with Cedar by Georgia O’Keeffe, 1956

CREDIT TACOMA ART MUSEUM, HAUB FAMILY COLLECTION

“It will give us a greater ability to borrow from other institutions to bring really wonderful works here,” Fry said.

Images and sculptures depicting Native Americans from the Northwest are absent from the collection. To bring the Native American perspective into the fold, the museum is asking prominent native artists to comment on specific pieces in the collection. Their honest, and sometimes critical, reflections are part of the exhibit.

Marvin Oliver, a Seattle-based premier Native American printmaker and sculptor, is thrilled TAM has this collection, but says many of the paintings aren’t historically accurate. To really know what you are seeing Oliver says you need to read the labels to understand the context in which the pieces were made.

“Some people will say, ‘Gee, you know this is really glorifying the noble savage and the beautiful maiden,’ whatever, you know. But you don’t know what the intention is. it kind of puts it in a stereotypical category. It’s up to the museum to document and identify each and every piece that has the correct labeling. And they’ve done a pretty good job of that,” Oliver said.

Over the years Erivan And Helga Haub have supported other Tacoma institutions. They’ve contributed to the Museum of Glass, the LeMay Car Museum and the University of Washington’s Tacoma campus.

In a Seattle Times article about the Haubs in 1994, Erivan foreshadowed what we see today. He told the reporter, “If I construct anything, there it must be extraordinary, something Tacoma can be proud of.”

Tulalip Native Christmas Bazaar

Native Art Mart – Daybreak Star, Nov 22 and Dec 20

The Native Art Mart is Saturday, November 22, 10am – 4pm
Get your Holiday Gifts at our Art Mart at Daybreak Star in Discovery Park! Nov15th and Nov 22nd and Dec 20th.

Holiday Shopping at the Annual Art Mart at Daybreak Star!

Beautiful work by Native American Artists, Salmon, Fry Bread, Entertainment and Great Music.

Benefit for United Indians Elder Meals and Community Programs.

Buy Local, Buy Authentic

Native American artists will be selling and showcasing handmade authentic arts and crafts. UIATF is in full support of The Indian Arts and Crafts Act. This is a free event open to the public.
http://www.unitedindians.org/arts-culture/indian-art-mart/

Tribal leaders, Commissioner warn of oil train dangers

Washington’s people and environment potentially at risk

Press Release: Washington State Department of Natural Resources

OLYMPIA – Increased oil train traffic on Washington’s aging rail system puts the state’s people and ecosystems at risk, according to an opinion piece by ten tribal leaders and the Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, published today in the Seattle Times.

“Crude By Rail: Too Much, Too Soon” calls for federal regulators to improve safety protocols and equipment standards on Washington rail lines to deal with a forty-fold increase in oil train traffic since 2008. Trains carrying crude oil are highly combustible and, if derailed, present serious threats to public safety and environmental health.

Tim Ballew II, chairman of the Lummi Nation; Jim Boyd, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation; Brian “Spee~Pots” Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community; William B. Iyall, chairman of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe; Maria Lopez, chairwoman of the Hoh Indian Tribe; David Lopeman, chairman of the Squaxin Island Tribe; Fawn Sharp, president of the Quinault Indian Nation; Charles Woodruff, chairman of the Quileute Tribe; Herman Williams Sr., chairman of the Tulalip Tribes; and Gary Burke, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation joined Commissioner Goldmark in urging policymakers to address critical issues around the increase of oil train traffic through the state.

“The Northwest has suffered from a pollution-based economy,” said Cladoosby in a statement. “We are the first peoples of this great region, and it is our responsibility to ensure that our ancestral fishing, hunting and gathering grounds are not reduced to a glorified highway for industry. Our great teacher, Billy Frank, Jr., taught us that we are the voices of the Salish Sea and salmon, and we must speak to protect them. If we cannot restore the health of the region from past and present pollution, how can we possibly think we can restore and pay for the impact of this new and unknown resource?

“We are invested in a healthy economy, but not an economy that will destroy our way of life. We will not profit from this new industry, but rather, we as citizens of the Northwest will pay, one way or another, for the mess it will leave behind in our backyard. We will stand with Commissioner Goldmark and our fellow citizens and do what we need so those who call this great state home will live a healthy, safe and prosperous life,” said Cladoosby.

“Good public policy demands that we make informed decisions using information based on the best science and perspective that must include cultural values and traditional knowledge,” said Quinault President Fawn Sharp. According to her statement, the Quinault Tribe is leading a movement against three oil terminals in Grays Harbor and most recently joined more than 700 Washington state citizens to testify at an October hearing held by the Department of Ecology.

“The Quinault are national leaders of long-standing in natural resources protection and strive to protect the oceans and waterways across the Northwest,” said Sharp.

For Tulalip Chairman Herman Williams, Sr., endangerment of fish runs by oil train pollution is a key concern.

“For generations we have witnessed the destruction of our way of life, our fishing areas, and the resources we hold dear,” said Williams in a statement. “The Boldt decision very clearly interpreted the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott to reserve 50 percent of the salmon and management to the tribes. The federal government must now partner with tribes to protect the 50 percent of what remains of our fishing rights. The Tulalip Tribes will not allow our children’s future to be taken away for a dollar today. Our treaty rights are not for sale,” said Williams.

According to Commissioner Goldmark, tribal leadership on the oil train issue is essential.

“Tribal leaders bring unique perspective and concern about threats to our treasured landscapes,” said Goldmark. “It’s an honor to join them in this important message about the growth of oil train traffic in our state and the threat it poses to public safety, environmental sustainability, and our quality of life.”

Scientists solve mystery of West Coast starfish plague

Researchers analyzed hundreds of sunflower starfish to figure out what’s causing sea star wasting syndrome. Photo courtesy of Cornell University

By Katie Campbell, Earthfix

SEATTLE — After months of research, scientists have identified the pathogen at the heart of the wasting disease that’s been killing starfish by the millions along the Pacific shores of North America, according to research published Monday.
They said it’s a virus that’s different from all other known viruses infecting marine organisms. They’ve dubbed it “sea star associated densovirus.”

Figuring out what brings on marine diseases is rare, especially among invertebrates. And identifying what virus is to blame is particularly difficult because a drop of seawater contains about 10 million viruses.

“Basically we’ve had to sort through to try to find the virus that is responsible for this disease,” Hewson said.

To find the culprit virus, an international team of researchers from more than a dozen universities, aquariums, government agencies and other organizations worked together with the help of the National Science Foundation’s coordination network for marine infectious disease.

Tissue samples of sick and healthy starfish were analyzed for all the possible pathogens associated with diseased starfish. The team then conducted DNA sequencing of the viruses and compared them to all of the other known viruses. Once they had identified a leading candidate, they tested it by injecting the densovirus into healthy starfish in an aquarium. Then they watched to see if the disease took hold.

And sure enough it did.

“When we inoculated them, they died within about a week to 14 days,” Hewson said. “Whereas controls that had received viruses that had been destroyed by heat, did not become sick.”

When researchers tried to figure out where the virus may have come from, they learned that West Coast starfish have been living with the virus for decades. They detected the densovirus in preserved starfish specimens from as far back as the 1940s.
“It’s probably been sort of smoldering at a low level for a very long time,” Hewson said.

Scientists don’t yet know what sparked the seemingly benign virus to transform into the perpetrator of what’s considered the largest marine disease outbreak ever recorded.

What they do know, Hewson said, is that for about a decade before the first signs of sea star wasting syndrome were reported in the Pacific Northwest, starfish populations here were considered to be overabundant. And they think this might be a clue.

Because viruses often spread by physical contact, when host populations mushroom, there’s greater opportunity for viruses to circulate. There’s also a greater chance that a virus can mutate and become more lethal.
“Predators, like this particular virus, play a very important role in population control,” Hewson said.

But densoviruses don’t usually cause their hosts to die. What seems to be happening, Hewson explained, is that the sea star associated densovirus weakens a starfish’s immune system. That makes the starfish more susceptible to bacterial infections, which ultimately lead to the gruesome deaths associated with the syndrome – lesions forming, arms falling off and stars melting into piles of mush.

Hewson said it may be possible to use antibiotics to help starfish fight off those bacterial infections.

“That’s not a great strategy for the entire ocean or even small bays and inlets,” Hewson says. “But it does give us some ability to keep them in captivity and potentially grow up resistant stocks in aquariums.”

Scientists will also be watching to see what happens to the next generation of baby starfish that have sprung up in some areas along the Pacific Coast.

After months of research, scientists have identified the pathogen at the heart of the starfish wasting disease that’s been killing starfish by the millions along the Pacific shores of North America, according to research published Monday. Video by Katie Campbell/Earthfix

“We are interested in the potential for stars to develop resistance to this outbreak,” says Drew Harvell, a marine epidemiologist at Cornell University and the University of Washington who has been coordinating the research. “The only way forward and to have sea stars in the future is for them to develop resistance and having new stars to propagate.”

The research team also plans to continue investigating environmental factors such as warming water and ocean acidification that may have caused starfish to be more susceptible to the viral infection.

This report first appeared on EarthFix’s website. EarthFix is a public media project of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Boise State Public Radio, Idaho Public Television, KCTS 9 Seattle, KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, Northwest Public Radio and Television, Southern Oregon Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

A Feast for the Senses: Sixth Annual Taste of Tulalip pairs more than food and wine

The Tulalip Resort Casino served up a variety of small bites and wines before the six course dinner.

Tulalip – By Niki Cleary

If you’ve been to the Tulalip Resort Casino and wandered through the hotel, you know the beauty of the place. In front of the Orca Ballroom stylized salmon swim through imaginary water overhead and local Native American artwork adorns the walls. On November 14^th, the hall was also filled music, laughter and camaraderie.

In an era where cell phones dominate most dinner parties, the 6^th Annual Taste of Tulalip was a reminder that connecting to the people and experiences in front of us is far more satisfying that connecting to the Wi-Fi.

Before dinner, guests wandered into the hall. Chatting with each other, listening to the live string music being played in front of the Oasis pool, and sampling the wines and delicious appetizers offered by solicitous resort staff.

Then, it got better. The ballroom doors opened, guests wandered into a room engulfed in music. The theme of this year’s Taste revolved around music, because, as the Resort’s Chef Perry Mascitti said, “How can you cook without music?”

Even the menus were in keeping with the theme. The menu was camouflaged as an old fashioned vinyl record bedecked with this year’s artwork created by Tulalip artist Joe Gobin, and tucked inside a sleeve the way an actual LP would be.

While guests trickled in, hostess Kaci Aitchison of Q13 Fox, began ‘dancing’ them to their tables to Megan Trainor’s, All About that Bass. “What’s the best part of tonight?” she asked the crowd. “Everything!”

Dinner included 6 courses inspired by the Chefs’ favorite music.

“I have to say,” said Chef Perry, as he’s affectionately known, “every year, I love this weekend!”

The event, he explained, featured the work of 120 winemakers, 24 beer makers and the creativity of the Tulalip Resort’s eight chefs.

Director of Food and Beverage Lisa Severn followed up by saying the evening was in keeping with the traditions of Tulalip.

“It’s all about celebration, about sitting down, breaking bread and enjoying who you are with.”

She also pointed out that while diners were relishing a delicious night of entertainment, food and spirits, they could also smile, knowing that a portion of their ticket price was supporting a local charity, the Tulalip Foundation http://www.tulalipfoundation.org.

Each table was served by a team of wait staff, who placed the dish upon the table with a choreographed flourish. As the courses arrived, they were accompanied by exclamations of delight, and discussion about the taste and texture of the food, the wine pairing and, at least at my table, each diner’s history and experience with food. Stories emerged about trips to Alaska, the culinary traditions of each person’s home and how the Taste of Tulalip compared to other, similar events.

“This is by far the best,” said Ginger Caldwell a food and wine marketing expert and blogger. She explained that the selection of spirits alone was phenomenal. However it’s the entire package that makes the event, she pointed out the décor and entertainment.

Each of the courses was accompanied by live music. Throughout the dinner, the music transition from rock, to classic instrumental, to pop cover, and even a dash of opera. Chef Perry boldly took a turn on stage, treating diners to a cover of an ACDC song.

When the evening wound to a close with dessert, and tables slowly emptied, I headed to my car thinking, “I am definitely coming back next year!”

Hostess Kaci Aitchison ‘danced’ guests to their tables.

The theme for the evening revolved around music.

The Amuse Bouche by Chef Gerry Schultz was a beet carpaccio ravioli, smoked chicken and fennel mustard vinaigrette paired with Shramsberg Vineyards J. Schram Brut, North Coast California 2004.

Josh Royce was first in the musical line-up.

Salad by Chef John Ponticelli was a seared scallop with green papaya slaw, micro asian mallow, golden edamame shoots with ginger lime vinaigrette and aged balsamic. it was paired with Alleromb Winery Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley, Washington 2012.

From classic piano to rock, music was a centerpiece of the evening.

The sweet sound of strings echoed throughout the ballroom during the six course dinner.

To Sous Vide by Chef David Buchanan was a blackberry sockeye salmon lox popsicle and salmon sous vide over toasted hazelnut pesto. It was paired with Kosta Browne Russian River Pinot Noir, California 2012.

Tulalip artist Joe Gobin holds up one of the menus featuring his artwork.

Intermezzo by Chef John Jadamec was a pomegranate and rose granita.

Entree by Chef Perry Mascitti was a New York Duet: New York strip dry aged 46 days, tarragon beurre blanc and New York strip aged 28 days with wild cranberry demi and a cambazola mascarpoe "twinkie" with buna shimeji micro green sauté . It was paired with a Leonetti Cellar Reserve Blend, Walla Walla, Washington 2011. — Entree by Chef Perry Mascitti was a New York Duet: New York strip dry aged 46 days, tarragon beurre blanc and New York strip aged 28 days with wild cranberry demi and a cambazola mascarpoe “twinkie” with buna shimeji micro green sauté . It was paired with a Leonetti Cellar Reserve Blend, Walla Walla, Washington 2011.

Fresh NW Design has etched the commemorative Taste of Tulalip wine bottle every year. Owner David Olive holds the 2014 commemorative bottle.

Chef Perry Mascitti treats diners to his musical, as well as culinary talents.

Dessert invluded a torched Cherry Rum, Stalichnaya Salted Karamel Vodka, six spice syrup, fresh meyer lemon and Dillanos coffee blend.

Dessert by Chef Nikol Nakamura was a Valrhona carmelized white chocolate cremeux and cake, almond streusel, and osetra caviar.

The parting gift was a Taste of Tulalip 58% chocolate lollipop.

Tribe and district work to help heal the community

A wave of support offered in the wake of the MPHS shooting

By Niki Cleary, Tulalip News

Immediately following the MPHS shooting, crisis management teams from around the nation and local, mobilized. Cheri Lovre, Executive Director of the Crisis Management Institute was one of them. She specializes in helping communities deal with the aftermath of school shootings and similar tragedies. She spoke at a November 5^th, trauma recovery working session between the Tulalip Tribes and the Marysville School District.

November 5^th was the first day students at MPHS got back to a typical class schedule following the October 24^th tragedy in which a Tulalip boy, Jaylen Fryberg, opened fire on his close friends in the cafeteria, killing 4 of them and himself. Lovre acknowledged that while it was the first regular school day, it will be a long time before anyone affected by the tragedy feels “normal.”

“I followed Jaylen’s schedule,” she said, explaining that she attended all of his scheduled classes. “We had kids in classes so they could see where the empty desks were, the rooms where Jaylen’s desk would be empty. That meant there were times during the day where I was a in a class with four empty desks.”

Acknowledging the loss and the range of emotions is important for teachers, students and even the community, Lovre explained. Right now, many people, adults and children, are still processing the event.

“The first day back we acknowledge it. We told the kids that we don’t have to move today. There was only one class that asked for a new seating chart. I’ve seen more chaos in schools where a child simply died in a car accident than we had in this school,” she said.

“They [the kids] need to see everything unchanged,” she described artifacts of the shooter as well as the victims, photos, school projects that might hang on the walls, even name tags that might be posted, “Taking it down is part of a process.”

For the first day back, the District had 30 grief counselors and therapy dogs at MPHS, and two grief counselors in each other district school. Counselors in the schools are just a piece of the total recovery effort, Lovre said. Much of the healing, or lack of healing will happen at home.

“Kids can only recover as much as the adults in their lives,” she pointed out. “We can’t expect our kids to behave in a way that is not modeled. I’ll say it again. Kids can only get as well as the adults around them.”

Providing overall community outreach and opportunities for the community to grieve and express emotions is one way to move forward after tragedy. The district, Lovre said, may look into greater outreach in order to help kids heal as much as possible.

“In other places one of the things we created were one-stop-shops where parents who needed counseling [also had access to other services],” she recalled. “IF a parent had an issue with food stamps, they could talk with someone at the school and deal with that issue at the same time.”

It’s important to provide wraparound services because as stress adds up, people are less able to deal with it. She also illustrated the types of behavior, including suicides, that current trauma might trigger. Trauma can also cause learning disabilities, which for a senior in their final year of high school, can derail their graduation goals.

“About 25% of your students have passing thoughts or have attempted suicide,” Lovre said. “Anytime the world is de-stabilized, it bumps those kids a little closer. You end up with kids sleeping in class because they can’t sleep at night, then they don’t have enough credits to graduate. The biochemistry of trauma leaves us on-edge, irritable and easily provoked.”

Every district deals with these issues differently. Lovre explained that the fact that Marysville School District is having the conversations so early, is a positive sign.

When asked about the mixed emotional reactions, Lovre said there is no right or wrong way to deal with the shooting. Some people will react with anger, some with grief, some will have no reaction at all, or will block out the violent act and focus on what came before. Still others will pass from one emotional reaction to another depending on the day, or even the moment. All are common reactions and none are abnormal.

“We often, particularly with a suicide or murder, get stuck on that moment and forget how that person lived. Part of my message is that we need to acknowledge that we lost someone in the fabric of our community. We need to acknowledge that we loved him. Some of you are conflicted about how you feel about him, you loved him but you cannot fathom the event that he did. It’s important that we say out loud that we have both feelings.”
Lovre continued, “There’s a difference between moving on and moving forward. I think it’s a wonderful thing that no one has vandalized the memorials to Jaylen. We are still in the honeymoon stage [of the crisis response]. But we’ll be tipping over that hill soon. The adults in your community will be moving to less tolerant places.

“We start getting into disillusionment, ‘I thought this was a good community, but I guess it’s not.’ Then we get into real anger, blame, and mistrust. Eventually it starts to come back up but it’s not [a straight line], there are dips. But, eventually, the days get better as a community, a family and for each person.”

Keep reading the See-Yaht-Sub and Tulalip News for updates on crisis relief efforts, where to receive counseling and how to help the Tulalip and Marysville communities move forward from tragedy.