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Smoking Rates During Pregnancy Highest Among Native Americans

Debora Cartagena, CDCSmoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and affecting the health of smokers in general, as well as those inhaling “second hand” smoke. — Debora Cartagena, CDC
Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and affecting the health of smokers in general, as well as those inhaling “second hand” smoke.

Native Americans have the highest rates of smoking before, during and after pregnancy than any other ethnic group in the nation. That’s according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control.

According to the CDC, 55 percent of Native American women smoked before pregnancy. During pregnancy, that rate dropped significantly to 26 percent. However, that rate was still the highest of any racial or ethnic group in the nation.

“One out of two American Indian and Alaska Native women were smoking prior to pregnancy,” said Van Tong, an epidemiologist with the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health. “Only half of these women quit smoking by the last trimester of pregnancy.”

Tong says the reasons for these high rates aren’t well understood, but that more outreach needed to be done to get women to stop smoking while pregnant.

Smoking during pregnancy increases risks for complications including lower birth weights and babies more prone to health issues once their born.

Washington’s GMO labeling flop, two weeks later: What it means

By Nathanael Johnson, Grist

Ever since Washington state voters rejected a measure to label genetically engineered food earlier this month, I’ve been trying to understand what the vote meant.

On election night, I stressed the importance of advertising, but people on Twitter and in comments have questioned that emphasis. Political advertising rarely changes opinions; it generally sets people more deeply in their convictions. So perhaps what the Washington vote shows us is that fewer people care about GM food than it seems.

Why the measure lost is also related to the question of who voted. In the end, only 45 percent of registered voters cast their ballots — the lowest turnout in a decade. What does that mean? And what’s the significance of the fact that the race tightened up as officials counted ballots: The measure was losing by 10 percentage points in early tallies, but that margin eventually narrowed to 2 percentage points, with 49 percent voting for, and 51 against.

The answers to these questions have interesting implications for future labeling campaigns. The Washington vote seems to be telling us that concern about GM food is broad and shallow. That is, lots of people are vaguely worried about transgenics, but it’s not a core issue that drives majorities to the polls.

“This was a solution looking for a problem,” said Stuart Elway, president of the Seattle-based polling company Elway Research. “People were not highly agitated about GMO labeling.”

Let’s dig into the evidence that this vote gives us to suggest that conclusion:

Money

With nearly all the votes counted, I stand by my initial impression that money made all the difference in this vote. I did, however, get the precise amounts wrong: I wrote that opponents spent more than $30 per “No” vote, but more ballots came in than I’d estimated. In fact, they spent just under $25 per vote (that’s $22 million over approximately 890,000 votes). Still, that $22 million is a lot of money — more than has ever been spent before in either opposing or promoting a ballot measure in the history of the state [PDF].

And as soon as the money began to flow, Elway saw a shift in his polling numbers: The measure had a huge 45 percent lead in September. Then the ads began to run, and that lead dropped to 4 percent in October.

“There was a 41 point swing in six weeks, which is unprecedented,” he said. “I’ve been tracking politics in this state for 30 years and I’ve never seen such a big swing in such a short amount of time.”

Among the people who had seen the ads, the measure was losing.

“When we asked them why they were voting no, people were reciting the talking points from the ads back to us,” Elway said.

It’s clear that, in this case, advertising swayed public opinion. But at the same time economists have established that it’s hard to change opinion with political spending. So what gives? Well, there’s an exception to the rule. While it’s nearly impossible for advertising to shift core values — like getting a lifelong Democrat to vote Republican or vice versa — it is possible for advertising to change the mind of someone who hasn’t fully committed. When people haven’t encountered the arguments on each side, those arguments tend to work.

One poll found that 93 percent of Americans favor labeling GM food. But half of the people questioned in that poll weren’t aware that GMOs were already widespread in processed foods — in other words, they were concerned, but brand new to the debate. In previous Washington polls Elway conducted on food safety, GMOs had come in sixth out of six potential problems with the food supply. So, while it’s clear that there’s widespread anxiety about GMOs, it doesn’t seem to be deep-seated.

Voter turnout

The low voter turnout is especially remarkable since Washington sends a vote-by-mail ballot to every voter. From one perspective, this means that 55 percent of voters cared so little about GMOs that they ended up throwing out their ballots. Just 22 percent of all registered voters in the state sent in a ballot voting yes on the measure.

But look at it another way: If all the voters in King County, where the measure passed, had turned out, the initiative would probably have passed.

“Low turnout votes do tend to be more conservative,” said David Ammons, communications director for the Washington Secretary of State’s office. And Democrats had shown they were more likely than Republicans to favor the initiative.

In Elway’s October poll, the measure was trailing among people who had voted in all of the last four elections, but it was winning among those who voted less than half the time. All this suggests that a higher voter turnout could have led to the initiative’s passage. Perhaps if more people were motivated to vote by a concurrent presidential election, for instance, they would have checked “Yes” on this initiative a little farther down the ballot.

Perhaps. Or maybe those non-voters would be swayed by the same ads. When California voted on a similar initiative in 2012, during a presidential election, 72 percent [PDF] of registered voters showed up, but the initiative still failed by an infinitesimally wider margin than in Washington.

Either way, it turned out that Washington’s labeling initiative relied on infrequent voters — they favored the proposition 49 to 37 percent, according to Elway — and they couldn’t be bothered to vote this time. GMOs aren’t driving people to the polls. Once again, concern about GM food looks shallow.

Timing

Lots of votes came in late. “We did see a general trend toward people keeping their ballots longer,” Ammons said. “I think a lot of people were still studying the GMO issue. There was a lot of media on this, a lot of explanatory journalism. I think there were a lot of people seriously trying to understand if this was the right answer, weighing it, and holding onto their ballots up until Election Day.”

The later voters were more likely to favor the initiative, but Ammons said, “We don’t have a good working hypothesis on that yet.”

He pointed out that later Seattle-area ballots elected a socialist councilmember while also voting down a minimum wage hike. It’s hard to tell what, if anything, can be learned from the timing of the votes.

What’s the lesson here?

Advocates in Oregon are already preparing a similar initiative for the 2014 election in that state. If the pattern holds, we’ll see widespread support early on (they’ll have no trouble getting the signatures necessary to put it on the ballot). Then the food industry will wade in and begin buying up advertising slots, and sentiment will shift. In the end, the proposition will lose by a couple of points.

Of course, that pattern could break. Businesses could decide they don’t want to be forking over cash every year to defeat propositions. The seed-company Syngenta, for instance, stayed out of the Washington contest after contributing in California.

But if that pattern holds, I have some advice for labeling advocates: It’s not enough to raise the specter of danger. You’ve already got the populist base, so simple, broadly appealing arguments won’t be sufficient. You’ll need more sophisticated arguments that stand up to scrutiny — the kind of arguments that convince newspaper editorial boards (they almost all advised voting no in Washington) and scientific organizations, rather than alienating them.

Panic-free GMOS: See the full story list

Code Talkers From 33 Tribes Receive Congressional Gold Medals

Code Talkers from 33 tribes other than the Navajo Nation receive their Congressional Gold Medals.

By Vincent Schilling, November 20, 2013, ICTMN

This morning at 11 a.m., Native American Code Talkers from 33 tribes were honored at the nations Capitol in Washington D.C. Taking the limelight with such notable historical figures as Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and Astronauts, the Native Code Talkers and their prospective tribes were awarded Congressional Gold Medals.

A plethora of Senatorial and Congressional notables were present at the awards ceremony to include House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH), Tom Cole (R-OK), Ron Kind (D-WI), Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).

Also in attendance were family members and tribal leaders representing the Native Code Talkers as well as 96-year-old Edmond Harjo.

Speaker John Boehner opened the ceremony by applauding the efforts of Harjo who had recognized a fellow soldier’s language in 1944 and was later utilized by the U.S. military as a code talker.

“Edmond and his brothers were at Normandy and Iwo Jima and they mobilized the weapon of language to thwart the fiercest enemy the free people have ever known and made a difference …join me in applauding their perseverance and the deeds that have been relegated to legend and may they now live in memory,” said Boehner.

Native American Congressman Tom Cole then shared his thoughts. “It is an enormous honor for me to get to share this moment with you – no one has fought against an alliance like Native Americans. Native Americans enlist at a higher rate than any ethnicity in this land. Most famous of those warriors are the Navajo code talkers of World War II, but 33 different tribes contributed to the code talkers.”

“From my home state of Oklahoma three are Choctaw, Comanche and Kiowa they saved lives and won battles. They did so by giving the United States the unique battlefield advantage of secure communication,” said Cole.

Similar appreciative sentiments were also given by Kind, Johnson, McConnell and Inhofe who also described ways code talkers were critical to war efforts. Their descriptions included how code talkers could decipher their messages instantly with 100 percent accuracy, while machines took up to 30 minutes to decipher alternative codes. Also, more than 800 battlefield communications were shared in the first 48 hours of Iwo Jima. Several speakers mentioned that code talkers enlisted at a time when they were not even honored as citizens.

Pelosi expressed appreciation for representing California as a state with the highest percentage of Native Americans before thanking the code talkers.

“The code talkers, using their language… committed to the cause of freedom. Their sense of duty was never shaken nor was their resolve. Their patriotism never wavered nor did their courage. Their bonds of brotherhood were never broken nor were their codes. Their heroism and sacrifice and these contributions went unrecognized for too long. It is a privilege for Congress to bestow the Native American code talkers the highest honor we can bestow, the Congressional Gold medal,” said Pelosi.

After Pelosi, Senator Reid delivered a poignantly truthful account of the history of Native people and their contribution to the war efforts of the United Sates.

“According to firsthand accounts from the pilgrims, who arrived to this continent, Native Americans did not farm the land so this wasn’t truly their land. According to the pioneers who pushed past the Mississippi, Native Americans were not civilized, so they didn’t truly own the land. According to the prospectors who rushed for the hills of Nevada, California and even Alaska, Native Americans did not speak English so they did not truly own the land.

“Strangers had forced the Native peoples from their lands slaughtered their game, stifled their religions outlawed their ceremonies and ravaged their communities…in the late 1800s, the United States government forced Native American children to attend English only boarding schools. Native children were torn from their families, taken far from home in boxcars and buggies, given English names, forced to cut their hair short and teachers beat the children with leather straps when they spoke their Native languages. The government told them their language had no value, but the children held onto their language, culture and history at great personal risk.”

“In this nation’s hour of greatest need these same Native American languages proved to have great value in the early years of World War II…Why would Native Americans, who had been robbed of their land and their culture agree to use their precious language to protect the country that had neglected and abused them for centuries? As one Navajo Native American code talker by the name of Chester Nez put it, ‘Somebody has got to defend this country, somebody has to defend freedom,” said Reid.

Watch the video here.

Cherokee Nation Responds to Offensive ‘Trail of Tears’ Banner

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker

Cherokee Nation; Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The Cherokee Nation has responded to an offensive banner displayed at an Alabama high school football game that has drawn national attention. The banner, made by McAdory High School students for a football playoff game, referenced the opposing team’s mascot, the “Indians,” by displaying the message: “Hey Indians, get ready to leave in a Trail of Tears, Round 2.”

In the 1830s, the Cherokee Nation and many other tribes were forcibly removed from their homelands in Alabama and other states in the Southeast, and marched hundreds of miles to Indian Territory, now present-day Oklahoma.  Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker issued the following statement.

“Ironically, the Cherokee Nation is commemorating the 175th anniversary of the start of our Trail of Tears this year. About 16,000 Cherokees began the trek to Oklahoma from our homelands in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky, but only 12,000 lived through the harsh conditions that winter.

“ The Trail of Tears was arguably the most horrific period in the Cherokee Nation’s history and among the worst atrocities ever sanctioned by the United States government.  The legacy of that terrible era has had a profound effect on generations of tribal citizens, and still lingers today.  This unfortunate display shows how much improvement is still needed in the understanding of Native peoples, our triumphs and our challenges, both historical and modern.

“We hope this becomes an opportunity for administrators at McAdory High School, and at schools all across the United States, to teach our young people not only the terrible history behind the Indian removal era, but also the resilience of tribes across the nation.”

November is also Native American Heritage Month. To learn more about observances this month, please visit NativeAmericanHeritageMonth.gov.

24,000-Year-Old Body Is Kin to Both Europeans and American Indians

Niobe ThompsonA view of Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia near where the young boy buried at Mal’ta was discovered. — Niobe Thompson
A view of Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia near where the young boy buried at Mal’ta was discovered.

By Nicholas Wade, The New York Times

The genome of a young boy buried at Mal’ta near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia some 24,000 years ago has turned out to hold two surprises for anthropologists.The first is that the boy’s DNA matches that of Western Europeans, showing that during the last Ice Age people from Europe had reached farther east across Eurasia than previously supposed. Though none of the Mal’ta boy’s skin or hair survive, his genes suggest he would have had brown hair, brown eyes and freckled skin.

The second surprise is that his DNA also matches a large proportion — some 25 percent — of the DNA of living Native Americans. The first people to arrive in the Americas have long been assumed to have descended from Siberian populations related to East Asians. It now seems that they may be a mixture between the Western Europeans who had reached Siberia and an East Asian population.

The Mal’ta boy was aged 3 to 4 and was buried under a stone slab wearing an ivory diadem, a bead necklace and a bird-shaped pendant. Elsewhere at the same site some 30 Venus figurines were found of the kind produced by the Upper Paleolithic cultures of Europe. The remains were excavated by Russian archaeologists over a 20-year period ending in 1958 and stored in museums in St. Petersburg.

There they lay for some 50 years until they were examined by a team led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen. Dr. Willerslev, an expert in analyzing ancient DNA, was seeking to understand the peopling of the Americas by searching for possible source populations in Siberia. He extracted DNA from bone taken from the child’s upper arm, hoping to find ancestry in the East Asian peoples from whom Native Americans are known to be descended.

But the first results were disappointing. The boy’s mitochondrial DNA belonged to the lineage known as U, which is commonly found among the modern humans who first entered Europe some 44,000 years ago. The lineages found among Native Americans are those designated A, B, C, D and X, so the U lineage pointed to contamination of the bone by the archaeologists or museum curators who had handled it, a common problem with ancient DNA projects. “The study was put on low speed for about a year because I thought it was all contamination,” Dr. Willerslev said.

His team proceeded anyway to analyze the nuclear genome, which contains the major part of human inheritance. They were amazed when the nuclear genome also turned out to have partly European ancestry. Examining the genome from a second Siberian grave site, that of an adult who died some 17,000 years ago, they found the same markers of European origin. Together, the two genomes indicate that descendants of the modern humans who entered Europe had spread much farther east across Eurasia than had previously been assumed and occupied Siberia during an extremely cold period starting 20,000 years ago that is known as the Last Glacial Maximum.

The other surprise from the Mal’ta boy’s genome was that it matched to both Europeans and Native Americans but not to East Asians. Dr. Willerslev’s interpretation was that the ancestors of Native Americans had already separated from the East Asian population when they interbred with the people of the Mal’ta culture, and that this admixed population then crossed over the Beringian land bridge that then lay between Siberia and Alaska to become a founding population of Native Americans.

“We estimate that 14 to 38 percent of Native American ancestry may originate through gene flow from this ancient population,” he and colleagues wrote in an article published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

A European contribution to Native American ancestry could explain two longstanding puzzles about the people’s origins. One is that many ancient Native American skulls, including that of the well-known Kennewick man, look very different from those of the present day population. Another is that one of the five mitochondrial DNA lineages found in Native Americans, the lineage known as X, also occurs in Europeans. One explanation is that Europeans managed to cross the Atlantic in small boats some 20,000 years ago and joined the Native Americans from Siberia.

Dr. Willerslev thinks it more likely that European bearers of the X lineage had migrated across Siberia with the ancestors of the Mal’ta culture and joined them in their trek across the Beringian land bridge.

November 20, 2013 syəcəb

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Officials from the Marysville School District hold break out sessions working to improve community schools

Dr. Becky Berg leads a discussion on Marysville schools.
*Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News*

by Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

TULALIP − Coming to the MarysvilleSchool District, Dr. Becky Berg aimed to “hit the ground running,” according to the Marysville Globe. True to her word, Berg wastes no time when it comes to improving community schools. On November 14^th, she and other district officials held a community meeting at the TulalipAdministrationBuilding, the first in a series of meetings, in order to identify concerns and provide information about this year’s levy.

Dr. Becky Berg opens the community meeting November 14th
*Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News*

“We want to hear from you all,” Berg said. “What are the concerns you have about your schools? What are some positive things or what would you like to see continued?”

Two breakout sessions, facilitated by Berg and assistant superintendent Ray Houser, were a forum where the community spoke on a personal level with district officials, discussing their past experiences attending Marysville schools or having children attend Marysville schools, what works in the district, changes that they’ve seen, improvements that need to be made, and programs they’d like to see developed. One major issue raised by parents and teachers at the meeting was the drastic educational gap in the classroom.

“We have high school math classes with students meeting and exceeding their level, mixed with students that are stuck at a 5^th grade level,” said heritage principal Shelly Lacey.

Other topics discussed were programs that have been cut, including evening transportation after extra curricular activities like sports, band, clubs, etc., and problems with the schools’ environment such as bullying, apathetic staff, and teachers uninterested in whether or not students learned.

“We don’t feel welcome. Our kids feel unwelcome at school, and we as parents feel that we can’t approach the teachers,” said Misty Napeahi. She has children in school now, as well as graduates of the MarysvilleSchool District.

Many of these issues were addressed in the levy presentation that followed the discussions, which highlighted specific areas that need improvement. Line items included in the levy are programs for high achieving students, students needing to be brought up to grade level, transportation, teachers and aides, support staff (nurses, counselors, etc.), staff training and development, extra curricular activities, and upgrading district technology, each addressing various academic needs. Each of these items discussed, as well as dollar allocations, emphasized the levy as the means to helping every student to succeed. The support staff and staff development portions are crucial to changing the environment of Marysville schools, which is a constant concern at Tulalip.

Upgrading technology and accessibility may be the most crucial for academic success at the current time.

Jim Baker presented the proposed 2014 Levy, which will be on February ballots
*Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News*

“We spent all the time, money, and effort to put in the fiber-optic network we have now, yet it remains inaccessible because of a lack of hardware,” said Jim Baker, the district’s executive director of finance. “With the proper tools and training, we hope to improve student performance in the classroom, as well as the effectiveness of the teachers.”

District officials stressed the need for the levy to pass in order to provide better resources in the classroom.

“As it stands, there is more advanced technology and capable users at McDonald’s than there is in our schools,” noted Berg.

This levy truly is all encompassing, addressing academic, structural, and environmental needs. If passed, the levy stands to increase funding for these programs by $85 million over the next four years. The issues discussed at this and other community meetings will be deciding factors in how the money is spent, specifically with regards to staff development. The next community meeting and levy presentation is slated for December 4^th of this year, 6:00 pm at the district office. More information is available on the district website, or you may call the district office at (360) 653-7058.

Andrew Gobin: 360-716-4188; agobin@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov

Skateboard artists featured in Native Heritage Month celebration at State Capitol

By Colin Bane Nov. 19 2013 Westword.com

November is American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month — so naturally, the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which oversees the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, is celebrating with a show of skateboard art at the State Capitol. A public reception for the show, curated as part of the Colorado Creative Industries Creative Capitol series, will run from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Capitol’s first floor lobby and Rotunda Gallery. The artwork will be on display through January 30.

Deana Spinuzzi MillerWalt Pourier's "Raven Cry" paintings are on display in the Capitol, along with skateboard graphics by Pourier and other Native American artists — Deana Spinuzzi Miller
Walt Pourier’s “Raven Cry” paintings are on display in the Capitol, along with skateboard graphics by Pourier and other Native American artists

“Skateboarding as a means of expression in itself and the art that so often goes with it have been a huge part of what we’re calling our Live Life Call to Action movement,” says featured artist Walt Pourier, an Oglala Lakota artist based in Denver. His graphics on decks for Wounded Knee Skateboards are featured in the exhibit, alongside the “Raven Cry” series of paintings he completed earlier this year during his artist-in-residence stint at the Denver Art Museum and photographs from this summer’s One Gathering Skate for Life, an annual event at the Denver Skatepark hosted by Pourier’s non-profit organization, the Stronghold Society.

Pourier’s Denver-based graphic design firm, Nakota Designs, produces art for a number of Native American non-profit organizations, and his involvement with skateboarding has taken him all the way to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. His deck graphics for Wounded Knee — including stark portraits of Black Elk, Crazy Horse and the White Buffalo — have won him plenty of fans in the skateboarding world and among young Native skaters, but Pourier says getting local recognition in 2013 has been one of the biggest honors of his career.

“It really means a lot to be getting these opportunities, like the artist-in-residence thing at the Denver Art Museum, the Mayor’s Diversity Award we won last year for our work with the Stronghold Society, and now to have our work hanging in the State Capitol,” Pourier says. “We see Denver as center of Native country here in the United States, with a huge Native urban population, and these kinds of recognitions are really helping us to make Denver our base, a center point we can reach out from to serve this community and also the surrounding states and Native communities around us.”

That work has included getting skateparks built at Pine Ridge in South Dakota and other reservations, and working with young people through other efforts like the Kimimila Age of the Daughters Gathering for young women and Tusweca Tiospaye, an annual Nakota Dakota language summit. “Our young people are learning the value of Native art, language, and culture, and not just preserving it or appreciating the historical value but very much making it a part of their lives now and in the future,” Pourier says. “Nothing gives me greater hope for our Native youth than to overhear a bunch of kids out at the Denver Skatepark or the Wounded Knee 4-Directions skatepark in Pine Ridge, speaking to each other in Lakota or other Native languages.”

38th Annual American Indian Film Festival Awards Ceremony

By Nanette Bradley Deetz 19 Nov 2013

Nativenewsonline.net

SAN FRANCISCO – On Nov. 10, the 38th Annual American Indian Film Festival Awards Ceremony premiered at the San Francisco Jazz Center.

This year marked a change from the usual Palace of Fine Arts to this new, centrally located venue. The Jazz Center provided a state of the art theater on two levels plus a restaurant/bar that served a full dinner menu. The stage and theater design provided an intimate and warm relationship between the performers and audience.

Mike Smith (Dakota), festival director of the American Indian Film Institute welcomed those in attendance by reminding us of the important role the arts have always played in American Indian life; from storytelling, songs and dance, crafts and arts to now include media arts. Many of these arts were traditionally considered medicine. This was also the first year that the film festival was streamed live via the internet. There are plans going forward for the Awards to be broadcast on national television.

The Opening Prayer was offered by Lorraine Laiwa and Pomo singers from Northern California.

Actress Tonantzin Carmelo and actor Michael Spears were the Awards host. This year’s film festival included more feature length films than in any previous year. They were all stunning, and included “The Cherokee Word for Water,” directed by Charlie Soap; “Chasing Shakespeare,” directed by Norry Niven; “Bury My Heart with Tonawanda”, directed by Gary Sundown; “The Activist,” directed by Cyril Moron; “Moose River Crossing,” directed by Shirley Cheechoo; “Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope,” directed by George Lucas, and dubbed entirely in the Navajo language with no English subtitles; “The Lesser Blessed,” directed by Anita Doron; “Winter in the Blood,” directed by Alex and Andrew Smith and “Maina,” directed by Michael Poulette.

“Maina,” starring Roseanne Supernault won the award for Best Feature film. Roseanne Supernault also won an award for Best Actress for her role in this feature film. Chaske Spencer won Best Actor for his role in the feature film, “Winter in the Blood.” Actress Tantoo Cardinal won Best Supporting Actress for her role in ”Maina” and Kiowa Gordon won Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Lesser Blessed.” “Dancing on the Run,” directed by Cowboy Smith and featuring the music of Inez Jasper won the Best Music Video category.

“Standing on Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Tourists” directed by Toby McCloud won for Best Documentary Feature and is a tremendously important film. The film documents indigenous shamans of the Altai Republic in southern Siberia, and the Winnemum Wintu of Northern California, led by tribal Chief Caleen Sisk. These two diverse groups find common ground resisting government mega projects. The issues the Winemum Wintu face are complex and center around federal recognition for the tribe, land and water rights, and protecting sacred sites.

“We have been battling PG&E and water bottling companies because our sacred springs (located on Mt. Shasta) have been dry now for two weeks. This is only the second time, in the entire history of our people that this has occurred. These artisan springs are being drained off. That coupled with the strange snow that contains siridite chemicals from the trails of jets, and poor rainfall in general has been disastrous. If this continues, our sacred springs will never be the same again. This isn’t a good sign at all”, remarked Tribal Chair Sisk.

The evening entertainment began with Swil Kanim playing his virtuoso violin, and his comedic storytelling, poetry and audience interaction. Vaugn Eaglebear, a Lakota/Colville comedian, had the audience laughing until tears flowed with his own brand of dead-pan, rez humor. Lines like, “My goal in life is to move to India and open a convenience store and sell cigarettes, gas…” or “I left my coat hanger in my car. Good thing I’ve got my car keys in my pocket. I left the kids in there too”, or “you know you’re poor when you use coffee filters for toilet paper, and toilet paper for coffee filters”. Cody Sunbear Blackbird (Eastern Band Cherokee/Dakota) flute player and the youngest recipient of the Flutist of the Year Award from the Native American Music Association graced us with his music. He played both the single cedar bird flute and a duet on the drone flute (double style) with Swil Kanim that was exquisite. The audience was also treated to “Twice As Good” the father and son blues duo and their band from the Elem Pomo Indian Colony in Northern Calif., as well as Inez Jasper, pop singer from Canada. “Scatter Their Own,” from Pine Ridge, South Dakota provided alternative Native rock music.

The very prestigious Eagle Spirit Award for excellence in film arts was awarded to Sacheen Littlefeather. This was the highlight of the evening.

“I’m better known for refusing awards than for receiving them,” said Littlefeather. “Even though refusing the Academy Award for Marlon Brando cut short my acting career, I was so lucky to participate and be a part of important Native American events during these past 40 plus years,” she continued.

Some of the events she has been part of include the occupation of Alcatraz Island, the 7 month sacred Indian run across Europe and behind the Iron Curtain, into the Soviet Union to protect Mother Earth and promote peace.

She was a founding member of the Red Earth Indian Theater Company in Seattle, Washington during the 1970s. This was the very first American Indian Theater Company in the United States. Littlefeather worked tirelessly to bring about change and awareness about the misuse of sports mascots. She was also one of the consultants to the San Francisco Ballet Company’s production of “Song for a Dead Warrior” based on the life of Richard Oaks.

“This ballet was performed worldwide and in the United States at the Kennedy Center. It was also featured on KQED’s Great Performances in Dance”, said Sacheen. “I am so very proud of the work I did with Mother Teresa in Aids and Hospice while she was here in San Francisco. From that experience, I became a founding board member of the American Indian Aids Institute, where I continued to work”, remembered Littlefeather.

For the past 25 years, She has pushed for the sainthood of Kateri Tekakiwitha by the Catholic Church. Her dreams came true recently when she traveled with 900 other Natives from the United States and Canada to the Vatican City.

“It was the first time in history that Mohawk was spoken in the Vatican. What a thrill”, recalled Littlefeather. Currently Sacheen Littlefeather is a member of the Marin Indian Alliance, a founding member of “breast friends for life”, a member of SAG (screen actors guild) and AFTRA. “I am so honored and grateful to be a part of the ever growing Bay Area Indian community, our powwows and to witness our growth and our growing pains. I have an acute appreciation for life and beauty and a belief in the stories told from our native point of view. We now have the right to tell our own stories, act in them, direct them, produce them, all of it”, said Littlefeather.

Nisqually Tribe helping drive regional economic recovery

People gather in front of the new, 26,000-square-foot Nisqually Tribal Center, during a dedication ceremony, Friday May 3, 2013, in Olympia. The building, which was built opposite the tribe's previous center, will house most of the governmental services provided to tribal members. Tribal history, tradition and culture are incorporated into the building's design.(Janet Jensen/Staff photographer)JANET JENSEN — Staff photographer — People gather in front of the new, 26,000-square-foot Nisqually Tribal Center, during a dedication ceremony, Friday May 3, 2013, in Olympia. The building, which was built opposite the tribe’s previous center, will house most of the governmental services provided to tribal members. Tribal history, tradition and culture are incorporated into the building’s design.(Janet Jensen/Staff photographer)
JANET JENSEN — Staff photographer

November 9, 2013

The Olympian

A bright light in the regional economic recovery is shining as years of planning, perseverance and investment by the Nisqually Tribe are coming into fruition.

Already one of Thurston County’s largest nonstate agency employers, the tribe is using revenue from our gaming enterprise to prime the broader economy by making investments in nongaming initiatives that benefit everyone.

Recent investments coming on-line include:

• Two new market/gasoline stations — one in Lakewood and another in Nisqually Valley — are open, and a third on Marvin Road will be under construction soon. Total investment is more than $3 million and the outlets will provide more than 50 full- and part-time jobs.

• In partnership with developer Wig Properties, the tribe has acquired the 215-acre Lacey Gateway property, next to and around Cabela’s in Lacey. We expect to site a large-scale phased mixed-use retail development on the property as the market demand grows.

• WHH Nisqually Services is a construction and construction management company launched by the tribe that expects to be providing services to Joint Base Lewis McCord, Navy installations, and other major facilities.

• She-Nah-Nam Seafoods is a new enterprise established to buy, process and sell high-quality, branded seafood. The operation will work in tandem with the shellfish farm the tribe has acquired and is operating on Henderson Inlet.

• The new Public Safety Complex will provide up to 100 new jobs when it is completed later this year. In addition to the 60,000-square-foot building, contractors also extended fresh and wastewater lines and are building a wastewater treatment plant. Future plans call for a new fire station and judicial services facility at the site.

• Private contractors, architects, landscapers and others collaborated on construction of important tribal infrastructure, including the new $10 million Tribal Center and the $7.6 million Youth and Community Center.

Nisqually’s annual payroll is more than $50 million, paid to more than 1,000 employees who live throughout Thurston and Pierce counties – and we’re hiring more people. The tribe spends tens of millions of dollars a year buying goods and services from private companies — and we’re increasing spending each year. We’re generating more taxes for local and state government.

Last year the tribe donated $2.5 million to charitable and local government partners to help keep people safe, to help children succeed, to improve community health, to honor veterans and to protect the environment.

Nisqually’s economic progress, and the contribution the tribe is making to the regional economic recovery, has been made possible with the exceptional support we receive from local governments — especially the cities of Olympia, Lakewood, Lacey, and Thurston and Pierce counties — and from state and federal elected officials and agencies.

At Nisqually, we are just getting started. Our goal is to diversify the tribal economy, provide jobs and opportunities for our members, and create benefits for the entire region.

Cynthia Iyall is chairwoman of the Nisqually Tribal Council.