Prehistoric art, Lewis and Clark Trail in path of federal power project

A Bonneville Power Administration transmission-tower construction project has been on hold for more than a year as a landowner tries to defend ancient Indian archaeological sites and stops on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

By Lynda V. Mapes

July 15, 2013

Seattle Times staff reporter

 

The BPA wants to finish a project near an ancient-village site on land that runs past this bridge and around the bend on the Columbia River.STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
The BPA wants to finish a project near an ancient-village site on land that runs past this bridge and around the bend on the Columbia River.
STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

WISHRAM, Klickitat County —

All he was looking for was a little retirement property. But Robert Zornes, a Forks RV-park owner, wound up with quite a lot more.

“I kept seeing this property, 122 acres on more than a mile of the Columbia River for a quarter-million dollars, then it’s lowered to $100,000. And I am thinking, ‘This has to be a practical joke,’ ” Zornes said. So he bought it, right off a real-estate website, without ever talking to the property owner.

Then came the big surprise: He had purchased one of the most historically and archaeologically sensitive pieces of property in the state.

Home to a campsite and portage route on the Lewis and Clark Trail. A cave, with prehistoric Indian rock art. Indian burials, petroglyphs and story stones. And some of the last upland vestiges of an important Indian village near Celilo Falls, once one of the greatest Indian salmon fisheries, gathering grounds and trading areas in North America.

“I wanted a pig, a horse and a cow, or maybe a dog,” Zornes said. “I wasn’t looking for a historical property. I just wanted some place to retire.”

But since he purchased the property in 2011, Zornes often can be found in what he calls his war room: a study in his double-wide by the river, packed with historic photos and books — and documents from two years of frustrating correspondence with the Bonneville Power Administration.

2021400527The federal agency — which sells power from the dams on the Columbia and Lower Snake rivers — is in the middle of construction of a 28-mile, more than $200 million transmission line. Construction started right about when Zornes bought the property — and he soon received a letter from the agency informing him the BPA was about to cross the river and replace a tower near the cave. The new tower would be taller, wider and require blasting to construct — which he feared would destroy the cave and its ancient art.

And Zornes, as it turns out, is a history buff. As he put two and two together, he came to understand just how special the landscape he had purchased was. “BPA starts talking about a bulldozer and we kind of freaked out.”

BPA informed him in a 2012 letter that if he didn’t grant access across his property, the agency would dynamite an alternative access road, doing potentially more damage. The fight was on.

Zornes denied access across the easement on his property, saying it was granted to a different federal agency for another purpose, and since expired. He filed trespass claims. He invited the Yakama Indian Nation to revisit sacred lands on his property. He cold-called the lead preservation officer for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail in Omaha and invited him to come have a look.

Zornes’ efforts so far have helped shut down construction of the project on his property at a cost of $2 million and counting. The agency contends its easement is valid, and that it can and will proceed with the project. Zornes is just as adamant in his opposition.

“You think the government is your friend,” Zornes said. “But they are more like the kid that beat you up for your lunch money.

“I’m not a senator, I am not a congressman. Here we are, two uneducated, lower- middle-class people in Forks,” he said, speaking of himself and his wife. “We have held them up more than a year. I think that’s significant.”

Bonneville officials say the agency has wanted to listen to all sides to reach agreements in the dispute, and stopped construction in order to do so.

“It’s a sensitive site, and we are trying to be extra careful,” said Lorri Bodi, BPA’s vice president for environment, fish and wildlife. She acknowledged there have been “bumps in the road.”

“We have discovered additional things, and certainly we have made some mistakes along the way,” she said. Those include a BPA contractor mistakenly bulldozing and destroying a prehistoric relic documented as a burial cairn on Yakama lands, despite promises to protect it.

Bodi contended the agency has made up for those mistakes and is working hard to minimize the damage by the project.

Preservation concerns

State records show a continuing pattern of frustration in getting the right answers from Bonneville, or any at all.

When the contractor bulldozed the cairn, the agency did not seem to appreciate the seriousness of the matter, state assistant attorney general Sandra Adix wrote Bonneville last summer.

Repeated attempts by the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation to gain specific information about the agency’s construction and its ongoing and potential effect on archaeological resources “seem to have fallen into a black hole,” Adix wrote in other correspondence.

The agency also has not included the National Lewis and Clark Historic Trail as a full partner in the consultation process, said Dan Wiley, chief of stewardship. “We have gotten short shrift and have continuously tried to bring to the table the recognition that this a unique site, a special site, and it deserves protection from further negative impacts.

“I don’t know if it is too late or not. That is really up to BPA and whether or not they have real concern about cultural resources, and protection of cultural resources.”

Wiley would like to see the transmission line located miles to the east. As planned, it will be in view from Columbia Hills State Park, with its petroglyphs, as well as the Lewis and Clark Historic Trail, and from across the river at the Confluence Project art installation planned at Celilo Village by internationally known artist Maya Lin.

It also will further clutter views of the Columbia River Gorge, but BPA already has obtained a promise from the Friends of the Columbia River Gorge not to sue in return for a payment of $1.8 million. The BPA also in December paid a more than $2 million settlement to the Yakama Indian Nation to allow the project to continue despite impacts to its culturally sensitive lands.

Conflict still unsolved

At Bonneville, there’s not at present a willingness to consider another alignment, top officials say. Because there is already a utility line across the river, landing on a tower dating to the 1950s near the cave. That alignment, chosen through a lengthy public review process as part of an environmental-impact statement, is preferred by BPA.

“It’s much like repaving an old highway; are you better off moving it, or leaving in the same place?” said Larry Bekkedahl, senior vice president for transmission services at BPA. “In this case we have chosen using the existing line, because it had lesser impacts than trying to find other routes that would move the line on both sides and have a new river crossing, as well as time delays. So the bottom line is we would reuse the existing line and not relocate it to another location.”

But what Bonneville has in mind is nothing like the impact of what is already there today, historic preservationists say.

“This is not just repaving,” said Allyson Brooks, Washington’s State Historic Preservation Officer. “It is the equivalent of taking a two-lane road and making it a superhighway. It is not the same thing. Maybe in essence, but in size and impact, it is greater.

“One of the reasons these are public processes is so people get to say what the impact is, it is not a unilateral decision. That is democracy.”

2021400534Bonneville has committed to moving the tower 20 feet farther north of the cave with its prehistoric rock art. But it will be a bigger, higher tower — 243 feet tall, compared with the 190-foot-tall tower near the cave today, with 22 lines instead of three. The new tower also has a much larger and taller footing, and requires controlled blasting to set it in the basalt cliffs above the river.

BPA assures the blasting won’t destroy the cave. But that’s still under review — and the agency’s credibility has been dented by historic sites and archaeology overlooked and even destroyed as construction got under way.

“We are still working on damage assessment for the cairn, and the impacts for the Lewis and Clark Trail are unresolved,” Brooks said. “If we could lessen the direct and visual impacts, we would certainly prefer that happening. It’s been difficult. It feels rushed, and in the rush the time hasn’t been taken to really balance things the way they should be balanced.”

To Zornes, the fact that one transmission line is there today doesn’t justify building another, it argues for backing off a place that already has been altered by industrialization. First came the railroad. Then the inundation of Celilo Falls to build the Dalles Dam in 1957. Then the transmission towers built that exist today — to be superseded now by even larger towers, with more lines.

“Our preference is no new towers,” Zornes said. “Two wrongs don’t make a right. The first tower should not have ever been placed on this historic and culturally rich and highly scenic bluff.”

Bonneville has since written Wiley to state the agency doesn’t believe the trail merits listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which would afford it more protection — a decision blasted by Washington’s Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, and Johnson Meninick, Yakama Indian Nation cultural resources program manager.

The conflict remains unresolved.

“What is left is intact”

Wiley said it wasn’t until he came here in person that he understood just how significant this place is.

“You can only see so much from your desktop,” he said.

Once on the site, he walked the same sands that bedeviled Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery as they portaged around the roaring falls at Celilo, one of the greatest fisheries in the aboriginal world.

Just above on the cliffs is the very spot where William Clark likely stood to draw the famous Codex H map of what he called “the Great Falls of the Columbia” — Celilo Falls, with Indian lodges and fish-drying racks along the banks.

“It is a highly significant location for the two cultures of the Pacific Northwest and their intersection,” Wiley said. “What is left is intact. The palisades that are above the water are described in the journals. The walkway that Lewis and Clark took on the north bank, that is pretty much intact, and there is no other place on the planet that the events of Oct. 22 and 23 and 24, 1805, could have taken place.”

Just above Lewis and Clark’s portage route is the cave, used for tribal vision quests and other religious and spiritual rites for centuries untold. Inside, the light is soft, and drawn figures with outstretched arms keep an enigmatic vigil on the cool rock walls.

Through its narrow opening, the cave looks to a view not seen in all the centuries people have stood here: the transmission towers Bonne-­ ville already has built in its chosen alignment, just across the river.

STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMESPrehistoric Indian art on a cave on Robert Zornes’ property.
STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Prehistoric Indian art on a cave on Robert Zornes’ property.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com

Native American tribes’ lawsuit could decide who controls Senate in 2015

By Jordy Yager – 07/16/13

THE HILL
A high-profile lawsuit on the voting rights of Native Americans could help determine control of the Senate in the next Congress.

A group of 16 Native Americans, nine of whom are military veterans, is waging a protracted legal battle against Montana’s Democratic secretary of State and county administrators, arguing for improved access to voter registration sites.

The case will be significant for Democrats in 2014 as they vie to keep control of the upper chamber by holding retiring Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) seat. Republicans need to pick up six seats to win back control of the Senate.

The litigation is moving forward at the same time as a recent Supreme Court decision that no longer requires a number of jurisdictions to get advance federal permission in order to make changes to their election laws.

The three Montana counties now being sued have historically lost Section 2 Voting Rights Act cases. However, for the state’s overwhelmingly poor and geographically isolated Native Americans — who vote predominantly for Democrats — the Montana fight is deeply personal. Tribal leaders say it is an issue of fundamental fairness.

Image from Think Progress
Image from Think Progress

An estimated 50,000 Native Americans are eligible to vote in Montana. Many of them live on reservations throughout the sprawling 550-mile-wide state, which means driving more than 100 miles for some to reach polling sites established long before Native Americans got the right to vote.

It’s the distance equivalent of voters in Washington, D.C., having to drive to Gettysburg, Pa. and back to complete their late registration forms or cast early in-person absentee ballots.

If the state allowed more voting stations, known as satellite offices, on reservations, more Native Americans would have the ability to vote by a factor of 250 percent, a group supporting the lawsuit argues.

This group, which is providing strategic and financial support to the plaintiffs, includes Four Directions, a nationally known voting rights organization, and Tom Rodgers, the Native American lobbyist who blew the whistle on former lobbyist Jack Abramoff for charging Native American tribes exorbitant fees on lobbying.

Together, they have spent about $335,000 waging the legal battle, which began in the months leading up to the 2012 election. They have also offered to pay the cost of establishing the satellite offices, which could run up to $8,000 apiece for each location.

The Department of Justice, Montana tribal leaders, the ACLU and the National Congress of American Indians have all backed the plaintiffs in the legal dispute.

The origin of the lawsuit began when Rodgers, a member of Montana’s Blackfeet tribe, received a phone call that U.S. Army Spc. Antonio Burnside, a fellow Blackfeet member whose tribal name was Many Hides, was killed last year in combat on Good Friday in Afghanistan.

In late April 2012, after raising the money to help celebrate the soldier’s life, Rodgers said a feeling of rage overcame him.

He noted that Native Americans have the highest percentage of military enlistees of any ethnic group.

“Some of the poorest of the poor can fight a war and die for you on a hellish moonscaped mountainside and then when they return home in a flag-draped coffin, you seek to diminish their native brothers’ and sisters’ ability to vote. Young dead soldiers do not speak. They leave us their deaths. It is us who must give them meaning by remembering them,” Rodgers said. “We got tired of the dark lies in rooms of white marble. Now the plaintiff warriors will take their faith in justice by acting with justice to other rooms of white marble: the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and Congress.”

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who won reelection last year, said that poverty and unemployment levels on reservations are higher than in the rest of the state, and that many Native Americans don’t have access to transportation or can’t take time off from work.

“Native Americans are about 6 percent of the population, so it’s absolutely significant,” said Tester.

“Everybody who’s entitled to vote, we ought to give them every opportunity to vote,” Tester said. “We shouldn’t be limiting participation, we should be encouraging it.”

The suit might have an impact beyond Montana as well. If it goes as far as the Supreme Court, major Native American populations in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, California, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon and Alaska could see their voting rights greatly expanded or restricted.

Democrats are facing challenging elections in four of those states next year.

Native Americans have played a crucial role in electing Democratic senators, including Tester and Sens. Tim Johnson (S.D.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Al Franken (Minn.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Mark Begich (Alaska.). All have won elections by fewer than 4,000 votes.

But for now, Montana — where Democrats are scrambling to find a candidate following ex-Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s surprise decision not to run — is the central battleground.

Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch (D) says she supports the Native Americans’ demands, but that the lawsuit is misdirected.

At a video-recorded meeting with the tribes earlier this year, tensions between the two sides were palpable as they failed to negotiate a compromise after a nearly hour-long discussion.

“I care that the people at this table have equal access, and what is in my power as secretary of State to do, I can do,” said McCulloch. “What I do not have the authority over is establishing county clerk offices. That authority belongs to the county governing body, the county commissioners.

“We will support and assist any county whose governing body has made a decision to open a second county clerk election office that can offer services such as registering voters and issuing absentee ballots. You have my unwavering commitment to that.”

A spokeswoman for McCulloch, citing the ongoing litigation, declined to comment for this article.

The plaintiffs and tribal leaders rejected McCulloch’s remarks. They said Montana’s secretary of State should join the tribes by officially standing with the plaintiffs and leading the county commissioners to create the satellite offices.

J. Gerry Hebert, who worked on voting rights issues for more than 20 years in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, doesn’t agree with McCulloch’s assessment either, saying that this type of case falls directly within her office’s jurisdiction.

“The secretary of State is the chief election officer and as such has the overall responsibility to ensure that all the state laws are complied with,” said Hebert, now the executive director of the Campaign Legal Center. “And in this case, which is typically the case, a plaintiff will file a lawsuit and bring it against both local and state election officials, because it is both of their responsibilities.”

Although the issue has been in the local press for nearly a year, the Montana Democratic Party has not weighed in on the lawsuit, saying only that it supports greater access to polling sites and will continue aggressive “get out the vote” efforts.

“Increasing access to the ballot box on reservations and throughout Montana has always been a priority,” said Chris Saeger, a spokesman for the state’s party. “We would welcome any improvements that make it easier for Montanans to have their say in elections.”

“The Democratic Party of Montana has said we have done what we could,” Rodgers said. “But hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger, for the way things are, and courage, to make a difference.”

Carole Goldberg, a professor and vice chancellor at UCLA’s School of Law who has dealt extensively with Native American legal rights, said discrimination is widespread in many states with Native populations.

“There are persistent patterns where states have criminal jurisdiction on reservations and the counties that exercise this jurisdiction locate their facilities and services in a place convenient for the non-Native population and not the Native populations,” said Goldberg, who has donated to multiple Democratic candidates.

Barring a settlement, oral arguments are expected to begin this fall.

Tanks move in around Earth’s most threatened tribe

Brazil's military has moved in to stop illegal logging around the land of Earth's most threatened tribe.

Brazil’s military has moved in to stop illegal logging around the land of Earth’s most threatened tribe.
© Exército Brasileiro

Source: Survival International

Survival International has received reports that Brazil’s military has launched a major ground operation against illegal logging around the land of the Awá, Earth’s most threatened tribe.

Hundreds of soldiers, police officers and Environment Ministry special agents have flooded the area, backed up with tanks, helicopters and close to a hundred other vehicles, to halt the illegal deforestation which has already destroyed more than 30% of one of the Awá’s indigenous territories.

Since the operation reportedly started at the end of June, 2013, at least eight saw mills have been closed and other machinery has been confiscated and destroyed.

Little Butterfly, an Awá girl. The Awá have pleaded for all illegal invaders to be evicted from their forest.

Little Butterfly, an Awá girl. The Awá have pleaded for all illegal invaders to be evicted from their forest.
© Sarah Shenker/Survival

 

The operation comes at a critical time for the Awá, one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in the Brazilian Amazon, who are at risk of extinction if the destruction of their forest is not stopped as a matter of urgency.

But while the operation is making it more difficult for loggers to enter Awá territory and remove the valuable timber, the forces have not moved onto the Awá’s land itself – where illegal logging is taking place at an alarming rate and where quick action is crucial.

Amiri Awá told Survival, ‘The invaders must be made to leave our forest. We don’t want our forest to disappear. The loggers have already destroyed many areas.’

Tanks, helicopters and close to a hundred vehicles have been deployed to protect the forest.

Tanks, helicopters and close to a hundred vehicles have been deployed to protect the forest.
© Maycon Alves

 

Tens of thousands of people worldwide, including many celebrities, have joined Survival International’s campaign urging the Brazilian government to send forces into the Awá’s territories to evict the illegal invaders, stop the destruction of the Awá’s forest, prosecute the illegal loggers and prevent them from re-entering the area.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Brazil has taken a promising first step towards saving the world’s most threatened tribe, and it’s thanks to the many thousands of Awá supporters worldwide. This is proof that public opinion can effect change. However, the battle is not yet won: the authorities must not stop until all illegal invaders are gone.’

Sacred object handed back to Hopi tribe after ‘shameful’ Paris auction

Source: Survival International

The katsina was handed over to Hopi chairman and religious leaders by lawyer Pierre Servan-Schreiber and Survival International's Jean Patrick Razon (no photography was allowed during the handover itself).© Survival
The katsina was handed over to Hopi chairman and religious leaders by lawyer Pierre Servan-Schreiber and Survival International’s Jean Patrick Razon (no photography was allowed during the handover itself).
© Survival

In a historic handover ceremony, an object sacred to the Hopi people has been returned to Hopi after dozens of katsinam (‘friends’) were sold at a Paris auction house in April 2013 despite repeated requests and litigation.

Representatives of tribal rights organization Survival International and lawyer Pierre Servan-Schreiber returned the katsina to Hopi.

The katsinam are of cultural and religious significance to the Hopi, who were vehemently opposed to the auction and asked the Paris auction house Neret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou to cancel the sale on the grounds that the objects are considered sacred to Hopi.

After the auction house ignored the Hopi’s request, attorney Pierre Servan-Schreiber of the firm Skadden Arps (Paris) filed legal papers on behalf of Survival International and the Hopi, asking for the sale of the katsinam to be halted until the lawfulness of the collection was established.

However the Paris Court rejected all attempts to stop the auction and the sale of dozens of sacred objects went ahead on April 12, 2013, in what Hopi tribal chairman LeRoy N. Shingoitewa called a ‘shameful saga’.

Mr. Shingoitewa added, ‘We are deeply saddened and disheartened by this ruling … It is sad to think that the French will allow the Hopi Tribe to suffer through the same cultural and religious thefts, denigrations and exploitations they experienced in the 1940s. Would there be outrage if Holocaust artifacts, Papal heirlooms or Quranic manuscripts were going up for sale … to the highest bidder? I think so.’

After the katsina handover, Hopi and the delegation exchanged gifts.

After the katsina handover, Hopi and the delegation exchanged gifts.
© Survival

 

M. Servan-Schreiber then bought one katsina at the auction to return it to the Hopi. He said, ‘It is my way of telling the Hopi that we only lost a battle and not the war. I am convinced that in the future, those who believe that not everything should be up for sale will prevail. In the meantime, the Hopi will not have lost everything since two of these sacred objects* have been saved from being sold.’

Hollywood actor Robert Redford had also pleaded for the auction to be halted. He said, ‘To auction these would be, in my opinion, a sacrilege – a criminal gesture that contains grave moral repercussions.’

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, said, ‘The sale of Hopi katsinam would never have happened in the USA – thankfully US law recognizes the importance of these ceremonial objects. It is a great shame that French law falls so far behind. We’re delighted that at least two of the katsinam have been saved, and can be returned to their rightful owners.’

A Village Invents a Language All Its Own

Linguist Carmel O'Shannessy, back left, with Gracie White Napaljarri, who is a Warlpiri speaker but children in her extended family speak both Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri. Photo: Noressa White via The New York Times
Linguist Carmel O’Shannessy, back left, with Gracie White Napaljarri, who is a Warlpiri speaker but children in her extended family speak both Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri. Photo: Noressa White via The New York Times
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times

There are many dying languages in the world. But at least one has recently been born, created by children living in a remote village in northern Australia.

Carmel O’Shannessy, a linguist at the University of Michigan, has been studying the young people’s speech for more than a decade and has concluded that they speak neither a dialect nor the mixture of languages called a creole, but a new language with unique grammatical rules.

The language, called Warlpiri rampaku, or Light Warlpiri, is spoken only by people under 35 in Lajamanu, an isolated village of about 700 people in Australia’s Northern Territory. In all, about 350 people speak the language as their native tongue. Dr. O’Shannessy has published several studies of Light Warlpiri, the most recent in the June issue of Language.

“Many of the first speakers of this language are still alive,” said Mary Laughren, a research fellow in linguistics at the University of Queensland in Australia, who was not involved in the studies. One reason Dr. O’Shannessy’s research is so significant, she said, “is that she has been able to record and document a ‘new’ language in the very early period of its existence.”

Everyone in Lajamanu also speaks “strong” Warlpiri, an aboriginal language unrelated to English and shared with about 4,000 people in several Australian villages. Many also speak Kriol, an English-based creole developed in the late 19th century and widely spoken in northern Australia among aboriginal people of many different native languages.

Lajamanu parents are happy to have their children learn English for use in the wider world, but eager to preserve Warlpiri as the language of their culture.

Lajamanu’s isolation may have something to do with the creation of a new way of speaking. The village is about 550 miles south of Darwin, and the nearest commercial center is Katherine, about 340 miles north. There are no completely paved roads.

An airplane, one of seven owned by Lajamanu Air, a community-managed airline, lands on the village’s dirt airstrip twice a week carrying mail from Katherine, and once a week a truck brings food and supplies sold in the village’s only store. A diesel generator and a solar energy plant supply electricity.

The village was established by the Australian government in 1948, without the consent of the people who would inhabit it. The native affairs branch of the federal government, concerned about overcrowding and drought in Yuendumu, forcibly removed 550 people from there to what would become Lajamanu. At least twice, the group walked all the way back to Yuendumu, only to be retransported when they arrived.

Contact with English is quite recent. “These people were hunters and gatherers, roaming over a territory,” said Dr. O’Shannessy. “But then along came white people, cattle stations, mines, and so on. People were kind of forced to stop hunting and gathering.”

By the 1970s, villagers had resigned themselves to their new home, and the Lajamanu Council had been set up as a self-governing community authority, the first in the Northern Territory. In the 2006 census, almost half the population was under 20, and the Australian government estimates that by 2026 the number of indigenous people 15 to 64 will increase to 650 from about 440 today.

Dr. O’Shannessy, who started investigating the language in 2002, spends three to eight weeks a year in Lajamanu. She speaks and understands both Warlpiri and Light Warlpiri, but is not fluent.

People in Lajamanu often engage in what linguists call code-switching, mixing languages together or changing from one to another as they speak. And many words in Light Warlpiri are derived from English or Kriol.

But Light Warlpiri is not simply a combination of words from different languages. Peter Bakker, an associate professor of linguistics at Aarhus University in Denmark who has published widely on language development, says Light Warlpiri cannot be a pidgin, because a pidgin has no native speakers. Nor can it be a creole, because a creole is a new language that combines two separate tongues.

“These young people have developed something entirely new,” he said. “Light Warlpiri is clearly a mother tongue.”

Dr. O’Shannessy offers this example, spoken by a 4-year-old: Nganimpa-ng gen wi-m si-m worm mai aus-ria. (We also saw worms at my house.)

It is easy enough to see several nouns derived from English. But the -ria ending on “aus” (house) means “in” or “at,” and it comes from Warlpiri. The -m ending on the verb “si” (see) indicates that the event is either happening now or has already happened, a “present or past but not future” tense that does not exist in English or Warlpiri. This is a way of talking so different from either Walpiri or Kriol that it constitutes a new language.

The development of the language, Dr. O’Shannessy says, was a two-step process. It began with parents using baby talk with their children in a combination of the three languages. But then the children took that language as their native tongue by adding radical innovations to the syntax, especially in the use of verb structures, that are not present in any of the source languages.

Why a new language developed at this time and in this place is not entirely clear. It was not a case of people needing to communicate when they have no common language, a situation that can give rise to pidgin or creole.

Dr. Bakker says that new languages are discovered from time to time, but until now no one has been there at the beginning to see a language develop from children’s speech.

Dr. O’Shannessy suggests that subtle forces may be at work. “I think that identity plays a role,” she said. “After children created the new system, it has since become a marker of their identity as being young Warlpiri from the Lajamanu Community.”

The language is now so well established among young people that there is some question about the survival of strong Warlpiri. “How long the kids will keep multilingualism, I don’t know,” Dr. O’Shannessy said. “The elders would like to preserve Warlpiri, but I’m not sure it will be. Light Warlpiri seems quite robust.”

Good news for penguins: World’s largest marine reserve could be established around Antarctica

John Upton, Grist

Antarctica’s penguins could benefit from proposals to create huge international marine preserves in their ‘hood.
Antarctica’s penguins could benefit from proposals to create huge international marine preserves in their ‘hood.

Plans to protect more than 1.5 million square miles of ocean around Antarctica are getting serious consideration this week — and that could be a big benefit for whales, seals, birds, fish, krill, and other wildlife in the region.

The idea is akin to creating a vast national park, except that it would be an international park. And it would be larger than most nations. And it would be entirely soggy.

From USA Today:

On July 16, the members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) — 24 nations and the European Union — will vote on two proposals for marine reserves, each one bigger in size than the state of Alaska. A U.S.-New Zealand one would set aside roughly 876,000 square miles in and around the frozen Ross Sea, a home for penguin nurseries and source of nutrients throughout the Pacific Ocean. A second European and Australian one would set aside a more than 700,000-square-mile string of protected marine reserves around Eastern Antarctica.

NPR has more, including a comparison to another big U.S. state:

“The total size of the marine protected area we are proposing is roughly 3 1/2 times the size of Texas,” says Ambassador Mike Moore, the former prime minister of New Zealand, who was talking up the joint U.S.-New Zealand proposal in Washington this spring. “So to misquote the vice president of the United States, ‘this is a big deal.’” …

But because these two areas are in international waters, creating marine preserves will require consensus from all of the nations in the pact known as CCAMLR …

When the group met to discuss the issue last fall, it couldn’t reach agreement. Russia, China and Ukraine were concerned about losing fishing rights in these seas. But they agreed to [a] meeting in Germany to try again.

That meeting is happening today and tomorrow in Bremerhaven, Germany.

The New York Times weighed in with an editorial over the weekend, urging the commission members to support the conservation proposals:

The biggest obstacle is Russia, which has expressed resistance to these reserves. It is joined by Ukraine, China, Japan and South Korea. Their hope is to manage fishing in the Antarctic much as it is managed elsewhere, with limits and restrictions. But the state of fisheries around the globe makes it clear that the most effective antidote to declining fish populations is the creation of totally protected marine reserves.

The Obama administration has expressed strong support for the idea of such protections in Antarctica, and many delegates to the Bremerhaven meeting are hopeful that sooner or later the Russians and other opponents can be brought on board. But when it comes to protecting ecosystems, sooner or later often means later, which often means too late. The time to protect the Antarctic Ocean is now.

Here’s hoping that these five reluctant countries, all of which are located in the Northern Hemisphere, don’t continue to pour cold water over proposals that could help stabilize the world’s fish stocks — and protect one of the world’s last big wild areas.

Meth nearly kills 10-month-old boy

Eric Stevick, The Herald

EVERETT — Exposure to methamphetamine nearly cost a 10-month-old Marysville boy his life.

The toddler overdosed on the drug in December and was taken to a Seattle hospital, according to a Marysville Police Department report.

Doctors had to insert tubes down the child’s airway after he stopped breathing on his own,

Police on Friday arrested a man who lived at the home in the 6400 block of 105th Street NE where the baby became deathly ill. The suspect, 26, was arrested for investigation of endangerment with a controlled substance and was booked into the Snohomish County Jail.

The suspect allegedly told a detective, “This is my fault. I almost killed (the boy.)”

The baby first was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. A nurse there told a Marysville officer that the boy had been admitted to the emergency room for an amphetamine overdose. She said his health was quickly deteriorating.

Police said the man had custody of the boy and shared a room with him at the time. The nature of his connection to the child was not clear in redacted police documents.

A search warrant of the suspect’s bedroom turned up the baby’s crib as well as a marijuana pipe beneath the man’s pillow. A meth pipe was found wrapped in a black bandana in a sunglass case in the bottom drawer of a night stand.

The suspect allegedly acknowledged using meth in a garage that was about 12 feet from the living area where the baby was crawling Dec. 27.

Police believe a meth pipe was loaded with meth within six feet of the bedroom where the baby was sleeping.

The suspect allegedly knew that the baby “was in the stage of crawling around the house, picking up things on the floor and putting the items in his mouth,” police wrote.

The man reportedly was well aware of the risks of doing drugs around young children.

An acquaintance told police that the man had a rule of not picking up or touching the baby when he was high.

Yakama Nation celebrate sockeye return to Cle Elum Lake for the first time in 100 years

By Thomas Boyd, The Oregonian

Yakama Nation biologists have released thousands of sockeye salmon into a Central Washington lake over the past four summers. The work, according to The Associated Press, is to restore fish runs that were decimated with the damming of area rivers and streams. Each fall, the just-released fish swam up the Cle Elum River to spawn and die. Their babies, meanwhile, spent a year in the lake before swimming to the ocean to grow into adulthood. Now, four years after the first release in 2009, those adult fish are returning to their birthplace to spawn, and tribal members are celebrating what they hope is the resurrection of a revered species to its native habitat. “You are part of a sacred ceremony to celebrate the return of an important ingredient to our body, our hearts, our life,” Yakama elder Russell Jim told the crowd gathered on the shore of Cle Elum Lake.

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - Tribal Council Member Gerald Lewis conduct a blessing ceremony before releasing sockeye salmon into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – Tribal Council Member Gerald Lewis conduct a blessing ceremony before releasing sockeye salmon into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - Tribal elder Russell Jim, left, and Tribal Council Member Gerald Lewis conduct a blessing ceremony before releasing sockeye salmon into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – Tribal elder Russell Jim, left, and Tribal Council Member Gerald Lewis conduct a blessing ceremony before releasing sockeye salmon into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - Tribal elder Russell Jim is helped in to the bed of the truck to release sockeye salmon into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – Tribal elder Russell Jim is helped in to the bed of the truck to release sockeye salmon into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - Tribal elder Russell Jim smiles after releasing pulling the lever that released sockeye salmon into the lake during a ceremony Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – Tribal elder Russell Jim smiles after releasing pulling the lever that released sockeye salmon into the lake during a ceremony Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - Sockeye salmon were released into the lake in a ceremony Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – Sockeye salmon were released into the lake in a ceremony Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - “We need all the help we can get to restore our environment. Everything has life,” tribal member Virginia Beavert told the crowd attending the ceremony. “We need to take care of it.” Sockeye salmon were released into the lake in a ceremony Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – “We need all the help we can get to restore our environment. Everything has life,” tribal member Virginia Beavert told the crowd attending the ceremony. “We need to take care of it.” Sockeye salmon were released into the lake in a ceremony Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - Tribal dancers Vivian Delarosa, Nia Peters and Katrina Blackwolf, left to right, sign the Lord's prayer before the meal after sockeye salmon were released into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – Tribal dancers Vivian Delarosa, Nia Peters and Katrina Blackwolf, left to right, sign the Lord’s prayer before the meal after sockeye salmon were released into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON - Jun. 13, 2013 - Media and bystanders watch as sockeye salmon were released into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian
LAKE CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON – Jun. 13, 2013 – Media and bystanders watch as sockeye salmon were released into the lake, Wednesday, July 10, 2013, to mark the first return of sockeye salmon to Lake Cle Elum in 100 years. Sockeye salmon were reintroduced to the lake in 2009 by the Yakama Nation and the fish released today are the first of those salmon to return to the lake. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

 

Journalists for Human Rights launches training program in northern Ontario

John Ahni Schertow, Intercontinental Cry

At long last, Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) has launched its training program in northern Ontario aiming to increase the presence of Indigenous voices in Canadian media.

“Our hope is to train stringers who can report from their northern Ontario communities where currently mainstream media doesn’t have local correspondents,” said Rachel Pulfer, executive director of JHR. “They will be able to add the context that a reporter who is just flying in for a couple of days won’t have … ultimately it’s about giving ownership on their stories to the communities that live there.”

As reported by the Canadian Journalism Project, JHR will send two trainers to a total of six remote communities over the course of nine months to train anyone interested in relaying local news to a wider Canadian audience. Fort Severn, Weagomow, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Attawapiskat, Moose Cree and Constance Lake have agreed to take part in the project.

Ultimately, JHR is hoping to see a 20 per cent increase in the number of news stories in mainstream media, such as CBC, Shaw Thunder Bay and Magic FM; who agreed to take content — as long as it meets their standards — from the stringers.

A field coordinator in Thunder Bay will also train local journalists in mainstream media on how to approach indigenous communities on the protocol before and while on reserve.

The Surprising Cause of Most ‘Spider Bites’

By Douglas Main, Staff Writer LiveScience.com

Date: 05 July 2013 Time: 09:01 AM ET

If the thought of spiders makes your skin crawl, you might find it reassuring that the chances of being bitten by a spider are smaller than you imagine, recent research shows.

Most so-called “spider bites” are not actually spider bites, according to researchers and several recent studies. Instead, “spider bites” are more likely to be bites or stings from other arthropods such as fleas, skin reactions to chemicals or infections, said Chris Buddle, an arachnologist at McGill University in Montreal.

“I’ve been handling spiders for almost 20 years, and I’ve never been bitten,” Buddle told LiveScience. “You really have to work to get bitten by a spider, because they don’t want to bite you.”

For one thing, spiders tend to avoid people, and have no reason to bite humans because they aren’t bloodsuckers and don’t feed on humans, Buddle said. “They are far more afraid of us than we are of them,” he said. “They’re not offensive.”

Not very scary

When spider bites do happen, they tend to occur because the eight-legged beasts are surprised — for example when a person reaches into a glove, shoe or nook that they are occupying at the moment, Buddle said.

Even then, however, the majority of spiders are not toxic to humans. Spiders prey on small invertebrates such as insects, so their venom is not geared toward large animals such as humans.

Many spiders aren’t even capable of piercing human flesh. Buddle said he has observed spiders “moving their fangs back and forth against his skin,” all to no avail. [Creepy, Crawly & Incredible: Photos of Spiders]

Only about a dozen of the approximately 40,000 spider species worldwide can cause serious harm to the average healthy adult human. In North America, there are only two groups of spiders that are medically important: the widow group (which includes black widows) and the recluse group (brown recluses). These spiders do bite people, and if they live in your area, you should know what they look like, Buddle said. But still, records show bites from these spiders are very infrequent.

The bite of widow spiders like the black widow is one of the only well-recognized spider bites in North America, with obvious, unmistakable symptoms, said Rick Vetter, a retired arachnologist at the University of California at Riverside. Signs can include intense pain and muscle contractions, which occur because the bite interferes with nerves in muscles.

Nowadays, deaths from the bite are rare thanks to widow spider antivenom. Before this was developed, however, treatments for black widow bites included whiskey, cocaine and nitroglycerine, according to a review Vetter published this month in the journal Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America.

Misidentified ‘bites’

Often, black widow and brown recluse spiders are misidentified, and reported in regions where they are extremely unlikely to actually live, Vetter said. For example, In South Carolina, 940 physicians responding to a survey reported a total of 478 brown recluse spider bites in the state — but only one brown recluse bite has ever been definitively confirmed in the state. Recluses are mainly found in the central and southern United States, according to Vetter’s study.

“I’ve had 100 recluse spiders running up my arm, and I’ve never been bitten by one,” Vetter told LiveScience.

The vast majority of “spider bites” are caused by something else, research shows. One study Vetter cited found that of 182 Southern California patients seeking treatment for spider bites, only 3.8 percent had actual spider bites, while 85.7 percent had infections.

And a national study found that nearly 30 percent of people with skin lesions who said they had a spider bite actually had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Other things that can cause symptoms that mimic spider bites include biting fleas or bedbugs, allergies, poison oak and poison ivy, besides various viral and bacterial infections, Vetter said.

In recent years, doctors have become better at identifying true spider bites, Vetter writes.

But spiders are still widely regarded as dangerous to humans, which is generally not the case, Buddle said.

Spiders are good at killing “nuisance insects,” which may be more likely to bite humans than spiders, Buddle added. “In the vast majority of cases, spiders are our friends.”

Email Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook orGoogle+. Article originally on LiveScience.com