Hawks Win Tri-District Championship: On to regionals, 1 game away from the State Championships.

By Andrew Gobin

Tulalip Heritage Hawks kept the audience on their toes cheering for the win over Neah Bay Red Devils February 22^nd, taking the Tri-District Title 68-66. Jolene Fryberg, mother of starting senior Shawn Sanchey, said the game was nauseatingly intense, with the outcome uncertain until the final shot.

Hawks play at regionals at Everett Community College on February 28^th. They are one win away from the state championships tournament.

Heritage Hawks 21 15 10 12 —68

Neah Bay Red Devils 14 14 25 14 —66

Shawn Sanchey led the Hawks with 18 points scored, Brandon Jones 8, Bradely fryberg 10, Robert Miles 2, Keanu Hamilton 16, Willy Enick 4, Ayrik Miranda 9.

Examining the needs of early childhood education in indian country

UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT)

For Immediate ReleaseFebruary 26, 2014

Contact: Reid Walker
202-224-0466

U.S. SENATE –Today the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held an oversight hearing on the importance of Early Childhood Development and Education in Indian Country – one of the first in a series of hearings examining the critical state of education in Indian Country.

“As a former educator, I know first-hand the impacts that a quality education can have on young folks throughout their lives, and I believe that improving those opportunities can be a starting point for addressing many of the issues that are too prevalent across Indian Country,” said Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT).

“When we invest in early childhood education, we are investing in not only the child, but the family and community around him or her,” Tester added. “And to me, that is good policy. Another important benefit is the ability of our programs to support Native languages, and help preserve and protect these important connections to Native culture and identity – something I strongly support.”

According to Federal data, in the 2011 school year, the percentage of children and youth served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was highest for American Indians/Alaska Natives. In 2010, approximately 28.4 percent of the AI/AN population lived in poverty compared with approximately 15.3 percent of the total population. In 2010, unemployment on Indian reservations was at approximately 50 percent and 49 percent of AI/AN children lived with parents who lacked secure employment compared to approximately 33 percent of the total U.S. population.

Children in AI/AN families are also more likely to experience violence, substance abuse and neglect. A study of Adverse Childhood Experiences in seven tribes found that approximately 86 percent of participants had one or more adverse experiences and approximately 33 percent had four or more. Approximately 28 percent of AI/AN households with children were food insecure, compared with approximately 16 percent of non-AI/AN households.

“Given these facts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is moving forward through a number of programs to improve the well-being and education of AI/AN children,” said Linda Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Interdepartmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. “Administration for Children and Families has four important programs that serve children prenatally through school entry. These efforts mirror the President’s Early Learning Initiative, which starts with home visiting as the entry point for early childhood services through the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program and also includes: The Child Care and Development Fund; Early Head Start and Head Start Programs; The Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge Program; and The Tribal Early Learning Initiative.”

Smith added, “As with all of our nation’s early learning programs, there is more that could be done to provide more high quality, stable programs for all of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.”

“American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children need quality child care settings to improve lifelong outcomes. Increased risk factors such as poverty, low birth weight, and low educational attainment of mothers contribute to the need for investment in quality child care in Indian country,” said Barbara Fabre, a tribal member from the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, and Chairwoman of the National Indian Child Care Association. “There are many challenges faced by American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children. Tribal child care is a vehicle for intervention and support of quality care and cultural strengths. The Federal government must take into account the needs of tribal communities, which must be determined by tribal communities, and served by tribal programs in order to make meaningful changes to practices. Reduced funding and resources will continue to undermine tribal culture and American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children’s development.”

“Currently over 90 percent of Native American students are in public schools,” saidDanny Wells, Executive Officer for the Division of Education, representing the Chickasaw Nation. “There are too many issues in public schools to expect the teachers or administrative staff to be aware of tribal programs, which results in tribal students being disconnected to services that could help them perform better academically and socially. Tribal representatives should have access to student records (attendance, grades, etc.) so that tribes can become partners with the schools to improve the tribal student’s education or prevent at-risk students from failing or dropping out of school.”

Dr. Elizabeth Costello, professor with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine and Associate Director for Research,

Duke University Center for Child and Family Policy reviewed her 20 year research on the impact of children from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. Her researched showed a substantial impact of a relatively small economic boost to families of the tribe. “Based on these data, we can choose to pay less now or pay more later. Our tax dollars can support poor families while their children are growing and developing. Or we can pay the higher costs of their lack of education, obesity, alcohol abuse, and crime in the health care and criminal justice systems and in loss of economic productivity down the road. Twenty years of research make the choice very clear.”

Historical fish hook draws community together

Makah tribal member Alex Wise works to wrap one of the halibut hooks during a community volunteer session where the hooks were made. He later used them in a test fishing project.

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

A fish hook has tied history, culture and the Makah community together in unexpected ways.

The čibu·d (pronounced “cha bood”), or halibut hook, became the subject of a student project during an internship with Makah Fisheries Management.

“I had a student, Larry Buzzell, come to me wanting to do a project that related to historical fishing methods,” said Jonathan Scordino, marine mammal biologist for the Makah Tribe.

Historically the hooks were made of both wood and bone. As the tribe gained access to new materials, they also made hooks from metal.

“The goal of the project was to test if the čibu·d was more selective for catching halibut than contemporary circle hooks when fished on a longline,” Scordino said.

Setting up the experiment was challenging because the study required 200 čibu·d to be made by hand.

“We decided to put it out to the community to see if they would come in and help us make them,” Scordino said.
The Makah Cultural and Research Center (MCRC) opened its exhibit preparation space for several weeks to allow community members to come in and help make the hooks.

“The response was terrific,” Scordino said. “Several volunteers put in more than 20 hours making čibu·d.”
Through trial and error, the group learned it was better to bend the metal hooks cold rather than heat the metal. The design of the hook more closely mimics Polynesian fishing gear than historical North American fishing gear.

Elder Jesse Ides (Hushta) watched as young people learned to make the hook he used in his youth.
“It’s terrific seeing them show the determination to make it and use it,” Ides said.
He recalled his father hauling canoes out to the halibut grounds to fish. “You’d catch just halibut with that gear, nothing else,” he said.

Makah tribal member Alex Wise discusses his halibut hook project with Jacqueline Laverdure, education specialist for the Olympic Coast Marine Sanctuary prior to receiving a Student Scientist award from the Feiro Marine Life Center.

Alex Wise is finishing the project by writing up how the catch of halibut and bycatch compared between čibu·d and circle hooks during the study. “It was an interesting project. I have always been interested in fisheries and it just seemed like the right choice for me,” said Wise, who won a Art Feiro Science Student of the Year award recently from the Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles for his work on the hooks.

“The čibu·d was known to not only fish selectively for halibut, but not catch too small or too big a halibut,” Scordino said. “From a management perspective, that’s exactly the size you want to catch so the older spawners remain and the young grow to be a harvestable size.”

Tribal member Polly McCarty, who helps prepare exhibits at the MCRC, was thrilled to see the community participation.

“This museum and its contents belong to the village,” McCarty said. “It was wonderful to have them come in and interact with the history.”

A parallel project is to film the creation of wooden čibu·ds. Additionally an exhibit was created in the Makah Fisheries Management building with the kelp line and hooks, and descriptions of the history. A Preserve America and a cooperative National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant helped pay for the projects.

Native American mascot bill gets mixed reaction from Oregon House panel

Rep. John Huffman, left, D-The Dalles, confers with Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, during a House Education committee meeting. A bill allowing some schools to keep Native American mascots drew strong emotions from Gorsek and Huffman Monday. (Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian )

By Christian Gaston | cgaston@oregonian.com
on February 24, 2014 at 6:29 PM, updated February 24, 2014 at 7:28 PM

A bill allowing some Oregon schools to retain their Native American mascots in spite of a statewide ban drew a mixed reaction from lawmakers Monday.

Lawmakers passed a similar bill last year but Gov. John Kitzhaber vetoed it, saying its exemption to a blanket ban adopted by the Oregon Board of Education in 2012 was too broad.

Senate Bill 1509 kicks the issue back to the board, charging it with setting up new rules for acceptable mascots in consultation with Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes.

Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, who sponsored the original bill told members of the House Education Committee the compromise strikes the right balance.

“This is round two and this time we got it right,” Kruse said.

Sam Sachs, a member of the Portland Human Rights Commission, said by passing the bill lawmakers were tacitly approving of race-based mascots which harm Native American students.

“It’s a bad road to go down,” Sachs told lawmakers. “We’ve been on this path for eight years to eliminate the use of Native American mascots. It doesn’t make sense to in five weeks overturn that.”

Sachs said if lawmakers are going to pass the bill, Gov. John Kitzhaber should form a taskforce to study the impacts of Native American mascots on students. Studies reviewed by the Oregon Department of Education showed such mascots left Native American youth with a poor self image.

Rep. Jeff Reardon, D-Portland, said he agonized over the vote. While Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes would be consulted under the bill, he worried about Native American students that didn’t belong to an Oregon tribe losing their voice in the process.

“I want to advance the cause of education for Native Americans but I want to do that for all,” Reardon said. “How do we have any kind of agreement that doesn’t take into account necessarily all of the kids?”

During the meeting Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, raised his voice in response to a lawmaker who suggested not all schools with Native American mascots were hot beds of discrimination.

“It offends me that people don’t pay attention to research,” Gorsek said, waiving a file folder in the air.

The committee advanced the bill to the House floor for a vote. Gorsek and Reardon voted no. The Oregon Senate unanimously approved the bill.

— Christian Gaston

NFL may throw flag on N-word, but what about the ‘R-word’?

By Simon Moya-Smith

updated 6:24 PM EST, Tue February 25, 2014

NFL considers penalty for ‘abusive’ talk

(CNN) — This week, the elite owners of the National Football League are considering instituting a 15-yard penalty for any NFL player caught using the N-word on the field.

Noble gesture? Sure. Clueless? Absolutely.

Why is it bad to demean a player of African descent, but the pejorative “Redskins” is still just fine for use as the name of the Washington football team? Makes no sense.

As a Native American, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and someone who participates in the Native American community and doesn’t just claim to be Native American because I have a picture somewhere of a great-grandma who had high cheekbones, I wonder: Hey NFL, why aren’t you just as pissed about the R-word?

Simon Moya-Smith

I’m not black, and although I find the N-word repugnant and wrong, I’m not here to rage about it. I’m here, in fact, to make a point.

Throughout the last NFL season, Native Americans diligently and consistently worked to remind the conscientious objector (not the bigot — you can’t get much into the brain of a bigot) that Redskin is a racial slur. And we, the descendants of those who survived the Founding Fathers and westward expansion and Christian boarding schools, will not sit idly by as opulent white men tell us that the R-word isn’t an epithet and that it’s part of their tradition.

Don’t mistake me here, folks. Privilege in sports isn’t just white. I encounter African-Americans in Redskins garb and Latinos in Cleveland Indians jerseys.

In fact, this was the case last week on the D train here in New York City when, in a moment, I had enough of it all and encountered a tall black man with headphones on his ears and a Redskins lid on his skull.

He was standing, and I was standing. We faced each other, backs to the sliding doors, and I remember staring and glaring at his hat, then at his eyes, then up again to his cap. It wasn’t long, maybe just one stop, before he ripped his headphones off and asked me if I had a problem.

“With your hat,” I said. “So, yeah, I do.”

He paused for a quick second and seemed a bit perplexed by my response. He probably thought I was a mad fan of a different team — the kind of person who fights in stadium parking lots with beer in his gut and hate in his heart for any insolent denizen who dares don the logo of the visiting team.

“What a privilege,” I continued, “to be able to walk into a subway and not have to see someone wearing a hat with the stereotypical likeness of your people on it and a racist pejorative to accompany the image.”

And it gets better. I was on a Canadian radio show recently discussing the utter vulgarity of the R-word when a caller said to me, “You know, it’s so trivial. It’s just a word. …”

“But isn’t ‘colored’ just a word, too?” I barked. “Would you be so audacious as to make the same argument to an African-American about that word?” I waited for a loathsome rebuttal, but I all I got in return was dead Canadian air.

So, if you’re still curious “what makes the red man red?” (Thanks again, Disney’s “Peter Pan”), all you have to do is go to New York City and see the bevy of Christopher Columbus statues, and then go to Ohio and see the wiggy white men painted in red-face at the Cleveland Indians game and then end up back in Landover, Maryland, where the white and black and brown Washington Redskins taunt you, and then still ask: “What’s the big deal?”

Here’s the big deal. It’s wrong.

I recently asked my Native elder in the West about what he thinks of the term. He said, “I’m not red … I’m pissed.” And so am I — because if you’re not pissed, you’re not paying attention.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Simon Moya-Smith.

Editor’s note: Simon Moya-Smith is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and a writer living in New York City. He has a master’s from the Columbia University School of Journalism. You can follow him on Twitter @Simonmoyasmith.

The Red Road: TV Review

Generations of tension expands dangerously when a young Indian boy is badly injured in a hit-and-run accident that the police are having trouble with

2/25/2014 by Tim Goodman The Hollywood Reporter

Sundance’s ambitious drama has fine acting and a sense of place, but it can’t crack the big leagues when the writing lags.

One of the most difficult challenges of ambitiously trying to make a drama that can play in the big leagues of established series is getting everything – absolutely everything – right. In The Red Road, the new six-part series from Sundance TV, one crucial element comes up lacking.

Television is a writer’s medium and Red Road has enough hiccups there to disrupt what is otherwise a very well-acted, well-shot and intriguing series.

That’s not at all to suggest that Red Road is bad or without merit – it’s just trying to get from start to finish with a pretty important blown spark plug making it more bumpy than it ought to be.

The Bottom Line:

A horrible accident and the need to keep secrets has two men on opposite sides of the law making a deal with consequences. Plus lots of other murky stuff and a woman who hears voices. It’s a series too ambitious for its writing.

Creator and writer Aaron Guzikowski sets up a story with a lot of potential. It focuses on conflict between the small Native American Lanape tribe in the mountains of New Jersey and the Walpole, N.J., police. Generations of tension expands dangerously when a young Indian boy is badly injured in a hit-and-run accident that the police are having trouble with. Witnesses believe it was Jean Jensen (Julianne Nicholson), wife of police officer Harold Jensen (Martin Henderson) and daughter of a state senator.

Jason Momoa in "The Red Road" on Sundance TV — Jason Momoa in “The Red Road” on Sundance TV

That part is true – and the back story of how Jean got up into the mountains on a dark night is initially interesting, but then highlights some of the problems with the Red Road script.

The Jensens, who have two daughters, are having marital problems because of Jean’s drinking. While trying to sober up, she’s having difficulty keeping her emotions in check while dealing with 16-year-old Rachel (Allie Gonino), who is secretly seeing Junior (Kiowa Gordon), a Lanape. This is more than just a race or class issue, we find out, when Jean – prone to flying off the handle at Rachel – discloses that her twin brother drowned when some guy from the Lanape tribe gave him drugs and watched him drown.

Airdate: Thursday, 9 p.m., Sundance TV

Created and written by Aaron Guzikowski

Starring: Jason Momoa, Martin Henderson, Julianne Nicholson, Tom Sizemore

That – and her shaky battle with sobriety – are enough to set up the major hook of Red Road, which involves loving and dutiful husband Harold making the ill-fated decision to help protect his wife (in part to keep his teetering family from splintering). When Jean went off in panic and rage to find missing Rachel – who she rightly suspected was out doing God knows what with Junior — she brought Harold’s service revolver with her and then lost it. The gun is returned to Harold by the menacing (and charismatic) Phillip Kopus (Jason Momoa), an ex-con who has a history both with Jean and Harold (they went to high school together and Phillip dated Jean). In a remote meeting spot, Phillip tells Harold that he can make the issue disappear – promising that none of the witnesses will give a statement implicating his wife, in return for some unknown favor later. This is the “lines will cross” moment that Red Road boasts as its tag-line.

But it’s also part of the trouble. With Momoa and Henderson – and most everyone else – acting the hell out of their material, the story lets them down. While it’s not impossible that a good cop would make a bad decision, it comes too quickly and neatly for maximum believability. And then Red Road veers off by planting the notion that Jean is hearing voices – and seeing things. The voices sometimes control her and the images help viewers see the chaos in her mind – but the tone shift is too drastic and undercuts the gravitas that Red Road was building up.

Beyond that, there a number of instances where characters have dubious motivation changes that don’t seem to suit them. And while Red Road piles on the plot – there are a lot of other plates spinning as Guzikowski unspools the story – it begins to buckle under the weight. For instance, Harold and the rest of the police department are searching for a missing college student in the mountains around the Lanape tribe. They keep coming back to find what they might have missed and yet, in the first three hours, don’t think to check the lake (yep, he’s in there).

Red Road has more ambition than it can keep in check – the story of Phillips drug-dealing, drug-using criminal father (played by Tom Sizemore) doesn’t click and Phillip’s relationship with his mother (played by Tamara Tunie) is also needlessly complicated. While the actors do fine work with what they’re given, those storylines just bog down the movement.

If The Red Road had stronger writing, then the series would have been significantly more compelling. It’s exciting to watch Momoa and Henderson give riveting performances, so it’s not like there’s nothing to recommend here. It’s just that in watching them do it, you wish the story was giving them more fodder and not bogging itself down in side arcs.

E-mail: Tim.Goodman@THR.com
Twitter: @BastardMachine

Indian Affairs Chairman: Education Key For Tribes

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, center, dances around a drum circle with students at the Head Start early education center in Crow Agency, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014. Tester is the new chairman of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee and says he'll use his new role as chairman to target wasteful spending, improve educational opportunities and promote job development on reservations. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown) — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, center, dances around a drum circle with students at the Head Start early education center in Crow Agency, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014. Tester is the new chairman of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee and says he’ll use his new role as chairman to target wasteful spending, improve educational opportunities and promote job development on reservations. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

By Matthew Brown, Associated Press, 2/19/2014

CROW AGENCY, Mont. (AP) — The new chairman of the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee said Wednesday he plans to use the post to target wasteful spending, improve educational opportunities for Native Americans and promote job development on reservations.

Montana Sen. Jon Tester outlined his agenda for the committee that oversees relations with the nation’s 566 recognized tribes during a visit to the Crow Indian Reservation with fellow Democrat Sen. John Walsh.

After a breakfast meeting with tribal leaders, the pair toured a Head Start education center and later danced with preschoolers around a drum circle.

Crow leaders showed the lawmakers cracks in the ceiling at the preschool and took them to the furnace room where a boiler dating to the 1960s was held together with vise grips to keep it running.

Tester said he was determined to address decades of dysfunction in how the government deals with tribes. He said excessive administrative costs incurred by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service and other agencies have drained money from crucial programs including health care and education.

“This is about making sure those dollars that are allocated go to the intended purpose. If there’s waste, eliminate it. And if it means eliminating jobs, then eliminate the jobs,” he said.

Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said problems with the government’s treatment of tribes stem largely from outdated laws and regulations that make Native Americans subservient to federal agencies.

That started to change in recent years — with rules giving tribes more power over their land and property — but further improvements are needed, Cladoosby said.

Tester said too many bureaucratic roadblocks hinder tribes’ attempts to become self-reliant, such as the Crow tribe’s efforts to expand coal mining on the southeastern Montana reservation.

However, Tester added that he would tread carefully to avoid infringing on the sovereignty of West Coast tribes opposed to coal export terminals in Washington and Oregon.

The proposed terminals are key to the coal industry’s aspirations to ship more of the fuel overseas from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming, in part to make up for flagging domestic demand. Tribes on the West Coast have raised concerns about potential environmental impacts of the shipping.

“I cannot go in and tell another tribe that we’re going to respect the Crow’s sovereignty but we’re not going to respect your sovereignty,” Tester said. “That’s a very dangerous position to put yourself in.”

Despite limits on what the senator can deliver for his home state, Crow leaders said they were pleased to have someone familiar with their concerns assume the influential post of committee chairman.

Crow Secretary A.J. Not Afraid said tribes in Montana and elsewhere on the Great Plains have different needs than tribes in other parts of the country that are closer to population centers and able to bring in significant revenue through gambling.

Those opportunities don’t exist for the Crow, Not Afraid said.

Crow Chairman Darrin Old Coyote said Tester understands the differences.

“He gets it,” Old Coyote said. “He understands our plight and what we’re fighting fo

Carbon dioxide pollution just killed 10 million scallops

By John Upton, Grist

Scallops go well with loads of chili and an after-dinner dose of antacid. It’s just too bad we can’t share our post-gluttony medicine with the oceans that produce our mollusk feasts.

A scallops producer on Vancouver Island in British Columbia just lost three years’ worth of product to high acidity levels. The disaster, which cost the company $10 million and could lead to its closure, is the latest vicious reminder of the submarine impacts of our fossil fuel–heavy energy appetites. As carbon dioxide is soaked up by the oceans, it reacts with water to produce bicarbonate and carbonic acid, increasing ocean acidity.

The Parksville Qualicum Beach News has the latest shellfish-shriveling scoop:

“I’m not sure we are going to stay alive and I’m not sure the oyster industry is going to stay alive,” [Island Scallops CEO Rob] Saunders told The NEWS. “It’s that dramatic.”

Saunders said the carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically in the waters of the Georgia Strait, forcing the PH levels to 7.3 from their norm of 8.1 or 8.2. … Saunders said the company has lost all the scallops put in the ocean in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

“(The high acidity level means the scallops) can’t make their shells and they are less robust and they are suseptible to infection,” said Saunders, who also said this level of PH in the water is not something he’s seen in his 35 years of shellfish farming.

The deep and nutrient-rich waters off the Pacific Northwest are among those that are especially vulnerable to ocean acidification, and oyster farms in the region have already lost billions of their mollusks since 2005, threatening the entire industry.

So get your shellfish gluttony on now. Our acid reflux is only going to get worse as rising acidity claims more victims.

Exploding Oil Trains Prompt More Stringent Safety Tests

By Tony Schick, OPB

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued an emergency order requiring crude oil from North Dakota and Montana to be tested before being transported by railroads.

Tuesday’s order follows several fiery derailments involving shipments of crude oil. It is intended to ensure greater safety when the highly flammable liquid is being shipped.

Federal regulators also said Tuesday they are prohibiting shipping oil using the least-protective packing requirements.

The order is a response to derailments of trains carrying oil from the Bakken region in North Dakota that resulted in explosions and fire, including a train that exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, near the U.S. border, in July, killing 47 people.

Jerry Vest, Vice President for Government & Industry Affairs at Genesee & Wyoming railroad, called the order a fundamental step to ensure safety. Genesee & Wyoming owns the Portland & Western rail line carrying Bakken crude to a terminal at Port Westward near Clatskanie, Ore. Last year, 110 unit trains carried Bakken crude to Port Westward, each one carrying about 70,000 barrels.

Vest clarified that the commodity would be tested not by the railroads but by companies using the railroads to ship the oil.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the new rules will help, but won’t eliminate the risks posed by oil-by-rail shipments.

There is far more work to be done on securing the safety of oil trains, but this is one step of many that can be part of a solution,” Wyden said in a written statement.

Shippers already had to classify oil shipments based on their risk for explosion or fire, but federal investigators found that many shipments were being misclassified as less dangerous. The order requires testing for classification before shipment.

Jay Tappan, Chief of Columbia River Fire and Rescue, said his department has been waiting for stricter federal rules to help his responders know how to handle an oil train fire.

“I think we’re all finally starting to understand that the Bakken crude is a little bit more volatile, little more flammable than we had thought before so it’s good that they’re getting a handle on the exact classification of that commodity,” Tappan said.

Better classification of the Bakken crude was one of many issues raised at a January meeting between railroads, first responders and Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley in Portland. Local responders and state spill and emergency planners had previously received little information from railroads and oil companies about shipments of crude oil through their areas.

Tappan’s is one of many fire departments in the Pacific Northwest preparing for the risk of an oil train derailment. A port in Oregon and five refineries in Washington currently accept rail shipments of crude oil. Several other shipping terminals have been proposed in the region.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

2014 Fall Chinook Returns Could Be Biggest On Record

A chinook salmon photographed in the Snake River in 2013. That year's run set records, but 2014 returns are on track to outnumber last year's in the Columbia and Snake rivers. | credit: Aaron Kunz | rollover image for more — A chinook salmon photographed in the Snake River in 2013. That year’s run set records, but 2014 returns are on track to outnumber last year’s in the Columbia and Snake rivers. | credit: Aaron Kunz | rollover image for more

By Courtney Flatt, Northwest Public Radio

The future is looking bright for fall chinook salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers. Predictions are in that this could be another record-breaking year for the fish.

Officials are predicting the largest return on record since 1938. That’s 1.6 million Columbia River fall chinook. Nearly 1 million of those fish will come from salmon near Hanford Reach. These are known as upriver brights, said Stuart Ellis, fisheries biologist with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission.

“One interesting thing about the forecasts is that even though most of the forecasts are big, it is just the two large bright upriver stocks, the upriver brights and The pool upriver brights that we are predicting to be record high runs this year,” Ellis said.

Last year saw a record number of fall chinook salmon returning to the Columbia and Snake rivers since the dams were built. The upriver bright salmon are predicted to reach the same record as the entire returning fall chinook last year.

Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the advocacy group Save Our Wild Salmon, said the strong numbers are due in part to favorable ocean conditions, enough water spilling over dams during migration season and good habitat at Hanford Reach. That’s one of the longest free-flowing areas on the Columbia River.

Columbia River Indian tribes contend hatcheries also play a part in large Snake River fall chinook returns.

Sara Thompson, spokeswoman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said, right now, a record number of salmon are spawning in the Snake River.

“This is the highest number of salmon spawning in the Snake River Basin that we’ve seen since the Lower Granite Dam was constructed,” she said. The dam, one of four on the lower Snake River in southeast Washington, was completed in 1975.

Thompson said more wild fall chinook salmon are expected to return to the Snake River this year.

Bogaard said even though the fall chinook predictions are high, work still needs to be done to protect other endangered salmon runs.

“While the fall chinook run looks like that they’re as strong as they’ve been in quite a few years, we’ve still got a lot of work to do to protect and restore many other runs that provide the benefits to people and ecosystems in the parts of the basin,” Bogaard said.