Millions of tax dollars are being spent to temporarily fix then permanently repair an I-5 bridge that collapsed into the Skagit River.
But when the work’s all done, Washington will be left with exactly what it had before: A functionally obsolete, fracture-critical 58-year-old bridge that could come crashing down the next time it gets smacked hard enough in the right place.
“While it’s going to be in the same (classification of bridge), it’s going to be safe to drive on,” said Travis Phelps, a state Department of Transportation spokesman. “We’ll continue to inspect our bridges every two years to make sure they are in good shape.”
Tearing it down and building a brand spanking new bridge might be desired but Washington can’t afford it.
“Right now we don’t have the funding to replace the bridge,” Phelps said.
That means it will retain the same rating it had the evening of May 23 when a southbound semi-truck hauling an oversized load in the right lane struck several of the bridge’s overhead trusses, causing a 160-foot section to tumble into the river. Two vehicles went into the water, but the three occupants survived.
It’s still going to be functionally obsolete because it was not designed to handle today’s traffic volumes, Phelps said. Moreover the trucks traveling on the bridge are taller, wider and heavier then those on the road when this four-lane bridge opened in 1955.
Washington had 1,624 functionally obsolete bridges as of February 2009, according to a tally published by the Federal Highway Administration. The total includes 55 in Skagit County and 104 in Snohomish County.
Absent a complete replacement, the bridge will continue to be deemed fracture critical, which means it is one freak accident away from collapse. There are thousands of bridges in the same condition nationwide.
Phelps said it will be safe to drive on when a temporary span opens as early as this week. A permanent segment will be in place by Oct. 1.
Atkinson Construction of Renton received an emergency $10 million contract to demolish the damaged portion, remove debris from the water and put in a temporary four-lane segment. Acrow Bridge, a New Jersey firm with offices in Washington, is designing the section.
Crews spent the weekend aligning and securing the spans and hoped to begin putting in the bridge deck today, Phelps said. The deck will need to be paved with asphalt and the lanes striped. Once it reopens, traffic will be required to drive much slower than before because the lanes will only be 11-feet wide, roughly a foot narrower than they were before.
Also Monday, bids are due for the contract to provide a permanent bridge replacement. The state estimates it will cost between $3 million and $10 million.
The contract is scheduled to be awarded Wednesday morning.
Federal funds will cover 100 percent of the costs of the temporary fix and 90 percent of the permanent replacement.
Thus far the federal Department of Transportation has committed $16.6 million for the two projects from its Emergency Relief Fund. The federal agency provided $1 million in the days following the collapse and then last week pledged another $15.6 million.
Global Justice Ecology Project, www.climate-connections.org, Friends of the Earth International
Note: Originating from a partnership which included Monsanto, South Carolina-based ArborGen intends to plant millions of genetically engineered eucalyptus trees across the US Southeast, for which they are currently awaiting approval from the US Department of Agriculture. Given the ecological and public health nightmare of GMO crops like Monsanto’s RoundUp-Ready line, it’s not hard to imagine the disasters that would ensue if native forests were allowed to be converted into heavily sprayed monoculture tree plantations.
Take action today by signing Global Justice Ecology Project and the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees’ petition calling for a ban on the release of all genetically engineered trees into the environment here: http://globaljusticeecology.org/petition.php
A farmer sprays the weed killer glyphosate across his cornfield in Auburn, Ill. Photo: Seth Perlman/AP
Friends of the Earth International today urged governments around the world to limit the use of the weed killer glyphosate, after laboratory test results released last week showed that people across 18 European countries have traces of the weed killer in their bodies.
The unprecedented tests carried out by Friends of the Earth Europe revealed that 44% of samples from 182 volunteers in 18 European countries contained traces of the herbicide.
Glyphosate is one of the most widely-used weed killers in the world, used by farmers, local government and gardeners, and is sprayed extensively on genetically modified (GM) crops.
In the United States and Latin America, farmers are using increased amounts of pesticides -including glyphosate- due largely to the heavy adoption of genetically modified crops.
The biggest producer of glyphosate is US biotech giant Monsanto which sells it under the brand name “Roundup”.
Lisa Archer, Food and Technology Program Director of Friends of the Earth US said:
“Discovering traces of glyphosate in Europeans raises serious questions. How did it get there? Why aren’t governments testing for it? And is it also present in Americans citizens? Unlike Europe, the US grows vast amounts of glyphosate-resistant crops, which have resulted in a massive application of herbicides and superweeds.. Some of them are already out of control. Monsanto’s unauthorised genetically modified wheat recently discovered in US fields is the latest alarm bell and confirms the need for stricter controls on agribusiness.”
In May 2013 a strain of genetically-engineered glyphosate-resistant wheat was found on a farm in Oregon, USA. The wheat was developed by Monsanto which tested it between 1998 and 2005. The wheat has never been approved nor marketed. Trading partners have since introduced restrictions or testing of US wheat imports.
Adrian Bebb, spokesman for Friends of the Earth Europe said:
“Agribusinesses that promote GM crops and pesticides like to pretend they have things under control – but finding this weed killer in peoples’ urine suggests we are being exposed to glyphosate in our everyday lives, yet don’t know where it is coming from, how widespread it is in the environment, or what it is doing to our health.”
“Governments around the world need to limit glyphosate use, step up their investigations, and ensure that people and the environment are put before the interests of a few agribusiness corporations,” he added.
According to 2010 figures, 70% of all the corn that was planted in the United States had been genetically modified to be herbicide resistant; as well as 78% of cotton and 93% of all soybeans.
In Europe there has been widespread opposition to GM crops, with only one GM crop grown commercially, although there are 14 applications currently being considered by the EU to grow glyphosate-resistant crops.
In Argentina, 200 million litres of glyphosate-based pesticides are used yearly on soy plantations alone.
Associated Press This artist rendering shows a proposed “Seaport City” neighborhood to be built just south of the Brooklyn Bridge that could act as a buffer against flooding in lower Manhattan.
Climate talk shifts from curbing CO2 to adapting to a new normal
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Efforts to curb global warming have quietly shifted as greenhouse gases inexorably rise.
The conversation is no longer solely about how to save the planet by cutting carbon emissions. It’s becoming more about how to save ourselves from the warming planet’s wild weather.
It was Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement last week of an ambitious plan to stave off New York City’s rising seas with flood gates, levees and more that brought this transition into full focus.
After years of losing the fight against rising global emissions of heat-trapping gases, governments around the world are emphasizing what a U.N. Foundation scientific report calls “managing the unavoidable.”
It’s called adaptation and it’s about as sexy but as necessary as insurance, experts say.
It’s also a message that once was taboo among climate activists such as former Vice President Al Gore.
In his 1992 book “Earth in the Balance,” Gore compared talk of adapting to climate change to laziness that would distract from necessary efforts.
But in his 2013 book “The Future,” Gore writes bluntly: “I was wrong.” He talks about how coping with rising seas and temperatures is just as important as trying to prevent global warming by cutting emissions.
Like Gore, governmental officials across the globe aren’t saying everyone should just give up on efforts to reduce pollution. They’re saying that as they work on curbing carbon, they also have to deal with a reality that’s already here.
In March, President Barack Obama’s science advisers sent him a list of recommendations on climate change. No. 1 on the list: “Focus on national preparedness for climate change.”
“Whether you believe climate change is real or not is beside the point,” New York’s Bloomberg said in announcing his $20 billion adaptation plans. “The bottom line is: We can’t run the risk.”
On Monday, more than three dozen other municipal officials from across the country will go public with a nationwide effort to make their cities more resilient to natural disasters and the effects of man-made global warming.
“It’s an insurance policy, which is investing in the future,” Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacramento, Calif., who is chairing the mayors’ efforts, said in an interview Friday. “This is public safety. It’s the long-term hazards that could impact a community.”
Discussions about global warming are happening more often in mayors’ offices than in Congress. The Obama administration and local governments are coming up with thousands of eye-glazing pages of climate change adaptation plans and talking about zoning, elevation, water system infrastructure, and most of all, risk.
“They can sit up there and not make any policies or changes, but we know we have to,” Broward County, Fla., Mayor Kristin Jacobs said. “We know that we’re going to be that first line of defense.”
University of Michigan professor Rosina Bierbaum is a presidential science adviser who headed the adaptation section of the administration’s new National Climate Assessment. “It’s quite striking how much is going on at the municipal level,” Bierbaum said. “Communities have to operate in real time. Everybody is struggling with a climate that is no longer the climate of the past.”
Still, Bierbaum said, “Many of the other developed countries have gone way ahead of us in preparing for climate change. In many ways, the U.S. may be playing catch-up.”
Hurricanes, smaller storms and floods have been a harsh teacher for South Florida, said Jacobs.
“Each time you get walloped, you stop and scratch your head … and learn from it and make change,” she said. “It helps if you’ve been walloped once or twice. I think it’s easier to take action when everybody sees” the effect of climate change and are willing to talk about being prepared.
What Bloomberg announced for New York is reasonable for a wealthy city with lots of people and lots of expensive property and infrastructure to protect, said S. Jeffress Williams, a University of Hawaii geophysicist who used to be the expert on sea level rise for the U.S. Geological Survey. But for other coasts in the United States and especially elsewhere in the poorer world, he said, “it’s not so easy to adapt.”
Rich nations have pledged, but not yet provided, $100 billion a year to help poor nations adapt to global warming and cut their emissions. But the $20 billion cost for New York City’s efforts shows the money won’t go far in helping poorer cities adapt, said Brandon Wu of the nonprofit ActionAid.
At U.N. climate talks in Germany this past week, Ronald Jumeau, a delegate from the Seychelles, said developing countries have noted the more than $50 billion in relief that U.S. states in the Northeast got for Superstorm Sandy.
That’s a large amount “for one storm in three states. At the same time, the Philippines was hit by its 15th storm in the same year,” Jumeau said. “It puts things in context.”
For poorer cities in the U.S., what makes sense is to buy out property owners, relocate homes and businesses and convert vulnerable sea shores to parks so that when storms hit “it’s not a big deal,” Williams said. “I think we’ll see more and more communities make that decision largely because of the cost involved in trying to adapt to what’s coming.”
Jacobs, the mayor from South Florida, says that either people will move “or they will rehab their homes so that they can have a higher elevation. Already, in the Keys, you see houses that are up on stilts. So is that where we’re going? At some point, we’re going to have to start looking at real changes.”
It’s not just rising seas.
Sacramento has to deal with devastating droughts as well as the threat of flooding. It has a levee system so delicate that only New Orleans has it worse, said Johnson, the California capital’s mayor.
The temperature in Sacramento was 110 this past week. After previous heat waves, cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have come up with cooling centers and green roofs that reduce the urban heat island affect.
Jacobs said cities from Miami to Virginia Beach, Va., are coping with mundane efforts: changes in zoning and building codes, raising the elevation of roads and runways, moving and hardening infrastructure. None of it grabs headlines, but “the sexiness is … in the results,” she said.
For decades, scientists referenced average temperatures when they talked about global warming. Only recently have they focused intensely on extreme and costly weather, encouraged by the insurance industry which has suffered high losses, Bierbaum said.
In 2012, weather disasters — not necessarily all tied to climate change — caused $110 billion in damage to the United States, which was the second highest total since 1980, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last week.
Now officials are merging efforts by emergency managers to prepare for natural disasters with those of officials focused on climate change. That greatly lessens the political debate about human-caused global warming, said University of Colorado science and disaster policy professor Roger Pielke Jr.
It also makes the issue more local than national or international.
“If you keep the discussion focused on impacts … I think it’s pretty easy to get people from all political persuasions,” said Pielke, who often has clashed with environmentalists over global warming. “It’s insurance. The good news is that we know insurance is going to pay off again.”
Describing these measures as resiliency and changing the way people talk about it make it more palatable than calling it climate change, said Hadi Dowlatabadi, a University of British Columbia climate scientist.
“It’s called a no-regrets strategy,” Dowlatabadi said. “It’s all branding.”
All that, experts say, is essentially taking some of the heat out of the global warming debate.
The Tulalip Tribe’s Resort includes the Tulalip Casino, 378 hotel rooms and luxury suites, casual and fine dining restaurants, the Spa, and 30,000 sq. ft. of conference space. Tradeshow exhibitors will be located in the 15,000 sq. ft. Orca Ballroom. Rooms at the Tulalip Resort for the conference are SOLD OUT! Further accomodations are located at the Holiday Inn Express (1-800-939-4249), mention WIGA or the conference for a discounted rate of $129/night.
Our attendees come from the all of the Northwest states, with the largest number from Washington, followed by Oregon, California, Oklahoma, Idaho, and Montana. Save the date!Our show manager this year is Buss Productions and the contact person is Heidi Buss at (651) 917-2301 or FAX (651) 917-3578 or email at hbuss@msn.com.
US domestic surveillance has targeted anti-fracking activists across the country. Photo: Les Stone/REUTERS
Nafeez Ahmed, The Guardian
Top secret US National Security Agency (NSA) documents disclosed by the Guardian have shocked the world with revelations of a comprehensive US-based surveillance system with direct access to Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants. New Zealandcourt records suggest that data harvested by the NSA’s Prism system has been fed into the Five Eyes intelligence alliance whose members also include the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
But why have Western security agencies developed such an unprecedented capacity to spy on their own domestic populations? Since the 2008 economic crash, security agencies have increasingly spied on political activists, especially environmental groups, on behalf of corporate interests. This activity is linked to the last decade of US defence planning, which has been increasingly concerned by the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis – or all three.
Just last month, unilateral changes to US military laws formally granted the Pentagon extraordinary powers to intervene in a domestic “emergency” or “civil disturbance”:
“Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.”
Other documents show that the “extraordinary emergencies” the Pentagon is worried about include a range of environmental and related disasters.
“Environmental destruction, whether caused by human behavior or cataclysmic mega-disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, or tsunamis. Problems of this scope may overwhelm the capacity of local authorities to respond, and may even overtax national militaries, requiring a larger international response.”
Two years later, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Army Modernisation Strategy described the arrival of a new “era of persistent conflict” due to competition for “depleting natural resources and overseas markets” fuelling “future resource wars over water, food and energy.” The report predicted a resurgence of:
“… anti-government and radical ideologies that potentially threaten government stability.”
In the same year, a report by the US Army’s Strategic Studies Institute warned that a series of domestic crises could provoke large-scale civil unrest. The path to “disruptive domestic shock” could include traditional threats such as deployment of WMDs, alongside “catastrophic natural and human disasters” or “pervasive public health emergencies” coinciding with “unforeseen economic collapse.” Such crises could lead to “loss of functioning political and legal order” leading to “purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency…
“DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility. Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.”
That year, the Pentagon had begun developing a 20,000 strong troop force who would be on-hand to respond to “domestic catastrophes” and civil unrest – the programme was reportedly based on a 2005 homeland security strategy which emphasised “preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents.”
The following year, a US Army-funded RAND Corp study called for a US force presence specifically to deal with civil unrest.
Such fears were further solidified in a detailed 2010 study by the US Joint Forces Command – designed to inform “joint concept development and experimentation throughout the Department of Defense” – setting out the US military’s definitive vision for future trends and potential global threats. Climate change, the study said, would lead to increased risk of:
“… tsunamis, typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural catastrophes… Furthermore, if such a catastrophe occurs within the United States itself – particularly when the nation’s economy is in a fragile state or where US military bases or key civilian infrastructure are broadly affected – the damage to US security could be considerable.”
The study also warned of a possible shortfall in global oil output by 2015:
“A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions.”
That year the DoD’s Quadrennial Defense Review seconded such concerns, while recognising that “climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked.”
Also in 2010, the Pentagon ran war games to explore the implications of “large scale economic breakdown” in the US impacting on food supplies and other essential services, as well as how to maintain “domestic order amid civil unrest.”
Speaking about the group’s conclusions at giant US defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton’s conference facility in Virginia, Lt Col. Mark Elfendahl – then chief of the Joint and Army Concepts Division – highlighted homeland operations as a way to legitimise the US military budget:
“An increased focus on domestic activities might be a way of justifying whatever Army force structure the country can still afford.”
Two months earlier, Elfendahl explained in a DoD roundtable that future planning was needed:
“Because technology is changing so rapidly, because there’s so much uncertainty in the world, both economically and politically, and because the threats are so adaptive and networked, because they live within the populations in many cases.”
The 2010 exercises were part of the US Army’s annual Unified Quest programme which more recently, based on expert input from across the Pentagon, has explored the prospect that “ecological disasters and a weak economy” (as the “recovery won’t take root until 2020″) will fuel migration to urban areas, ramping up social tensions in the US homeland as well as within and between “resource-starved nations.”
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was a computer systems administrator for Booz Allen Hamilton, where he directly handled the NSA’s IT systems, including the Prism surveillance system. According toBooz Allen’s 2011 Annual Report, the corporation has overseen Unified Quest “for more than a decade” to help “military and civilian leaders envision the future.”
The latest war games, the report reveals, focused on “detailed, realistic scenarios with hypothetical ‘roads to crisis’”, including “homeland operations” resulting from “a high-magnitude natural disaster” among other scenarios, in the context of:
“… converging global trends [which] may change the current security landscape and future operating environment… At the end of the two-day event, senior leaders were better prepared to understand new required capabilities and force design requirements to make homeland operations more effective.”
It is therefore not surprising that the increasing privatisation of intelligence has coincided with the proliferation of domestic surveillance operations against political activists, particularly those linked to environmental and social justice protest groups.
Department of Homeland Security documents released in April prove a “systematic effort” by the agency “to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations” linked to Occupy Wall Street, according to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).
Similarly, FBI documents confirmed “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector” designed to produce intelligence on behalf of “the corporate security community.” A PCJF spokesperson remarked that the documents show “federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”
In particular, domestic surveillance has systematically targeted peaceful environment activists including anti-fracking activists across the US, such as the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Rising Tide North America, the People’s Oil & Gas Collaborative, and Greenpeace. Similar trends are at play in the UK, where the case of undercover policeman Mark Kennedy revealed the extent of the state’s involvement in monitoring the environmental direct action movement.
A University of Bath study citing the Kennedy case, and based on confidential sources, found that a whole range of corporations – such as McDonald’s, Nestle and the oil major Shell, “use covert methods to gather intelligence on activist groups, counter criticism of their strategies and practices, and evade accountability.”
Indeed, Kennedy’s case was just the tip of the iceberg – internal police documents obtained by the Guardian in 2009 revealed that environment activists had been routinely categorised as “domestic extremists” targeting “national infrastructure” as part of a wider strategy tracking protest groups and protestors.
Superintendent Steve Pearl, then head of the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (Nectu), confirmed at that time how his unit worked with thousands of companies in the private sector. Nectu, according to Pearl, was set up by the Home Office because it was “getting really pressured by big business – pharmaceuticals in particular, and the banks.” He added that environmental protestors were being brought “more on the radar.” The programme continues today, despite police acknowledgements that environmentalists have not been involved in “violent acts.”
The Pentagon knows that environmental, economic and other crises could provoke widespread public anger toward government and corporations in coming years. The revelations on the NSA’s global surveillance programmes are just the latest indication that as business as usual creates instability at home and abroad, and as disillusionment with the status quo escalates, Western publics are being increasingly viewed as potential enemies that must be policed by the state.
As expansion of oil pipelines is reined in, oil trains are rolling out. Since last fall, the volume of oil shipped by rail from the Alberta Tar Sands and the Bakken Fields of North Dakota has increased dramatically. As Cory Morningstar reported in the April 12 edition of Counterpunch, this strategic shift in the delivery system from pipelines to trains heading for fossil fuel refining and export facilities has already made an end run around campaigns to stop new pipelines. The question now is whether British Columbia, Oregon and Washington State — the refining and export terminals destination for many of these oil trains — are capable of dealing with the consequences of suddenly becoming “crude zones”. All the evidence so far suggests they are woefully unprepared.
In the May 15 edition of Bakken Oil News, it was reported that the Bakken Fields alone could bring upwards of 200 million barrels of crude oil by train to Northwest ports and refineries each year. While the first Bakken oil train arrived last September, all five Washington refineries handle or plan to handle oil trains. Five new terminals are proposed for Washington ports.
In 2008, railroads in the US carried 9,500 carloads of crude; in 2012, that number grew to 200,000. Due to the boom in fracking oil from shale, US oil production is projected by 2020 to exceed that of Saudi Arabia. As reported yesterday at Business Week, several big pipeline projects will be finished in the next couple of years, including the southern leg of Keystone XL. In the meantime, oil trains are on a roll.
While Congress outlawed most exports of US crude in the 1970s, oil industry executives are making a case for changing that. Over the last several years, with refined products exempt from export restrictions, motor fuel exports have nearly tripled.
Last fall, Oregon and Washington received just 50 trainloads of oil. If all the proposed oil terminals are built, that figure could climb to 3,000 oil trains a year for oil terminals alone, excluding trains delivering directly to oil refineries. All of that could come on top of the 7,000 coal trains a year to coal terminals proposed on the Columbia River and the Salish Sea.
As reported in the May 20 blog of the Seattle P-I, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) passed a resolution opposing fossil fuel exports in their territories as a threat to their treaty-protected resources like endangered salmon. As reported in the May 18 edition of The Daily World, ATNI member Quinault Indian Nation — along with Audubon Society and Sierra Club — filed an appeal of Washington Department of Ecology’s approval of the first of three proposed oil terminals at Grays Harbor.
As I reported at Intercontinental Cry on June 1, the 57 ATNI Tribes of Oregon, Idaho, Washington, southeast Alaska, Northern California, Nevada and Western Montana are already targeting investors in fossil fuel exports like Goldman Sachs. Whether the Wall Street/Tea Party/AFL-CIO convergence supporting fossil fuel exports will overwhelm the treaty rights of these tribes remains to be seen. Meanwhile, endangered species like the Orca whale and Chinook salmon persist, oblivious to the looming threat.
Sealaska vice-chair Rosita Worl and chair Albert Kookesh look on as STA Council chair Michael Baines signs a management agreement for Redoubt Falls.
Robert Woolsey, KCAW.org
Sealaska and the Sitka Tribe have reached an agreement on the management of Redoubt Lake Falls — when, and if, the property is ever conveyed by the federal government.
Representatives from both organizations met in a signing ceremony Friday afternoon (6-14-13) in Sitka. Listen to iFriendly audio.
Redoubt Falls lies about 17 miles southeast of Sitka. It’s home to the largest subsistence dipnet salmon fishery in the area.
Sealaska selected the few acres around the falls 38 years ago, under rules spelled out in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA.
Former state Sen. Albert Kookesh is chairman of the Sealaska board.
“This is a process set up by the United States government to allow us to get control of our sacred sites. It doesn’t work very well.”
Still, there has been some movement recently on the Redoubt selection. A Bureau of Land Management survey of the property was done in 2011. And the trustees of Sheldon Jackson College filed a color of title claim, saying some of the area had been deeded to the school, following the sale of Alaska from Russia to the United States.
Kookesh regarded the Sitka signing ceremony — which has no effect whatsoever unless the BLM conveys the land to Sealaska — as a demonstration of Sealaska’s intention to keep sacred tribal lands under the control of local tribes — if not in their ownership.
He told the small audience gathered in the Sitka Tribe conference room that corporate ownership was the only tool available to tribes to regain control over traditional lands.
“We really want to make sure that the Sitka Tribe, and other tribes, understand that we don’t want to own it. But by circumstances we have to own it — we’re the only train left at congress that management of sacred sites can come to.”
Sealaska vice-chair Rosita Worl repeated a theme that the corporation has emphasized at public meetings on the issue: ANSCA guidelines on the use of sacred sites are clear.
“It can’t be for any kind of commercial development. It can continue to be used for a subsistence fishery. And we know that the site is really important not only to tribal members, but to the public at large. This agreement recognizes that the public will continue to have access to that site for a subsistence fishery.”
Afterwards, Worl discussed why Redoubt was sacred. She said she’d been down to visit the falls.
“I could feel the essence of that site. I could imagine the long use of it by our ancestors. I’m also aware that it was a site used by the Russians, and so there is that part of history that is there. Although that doesn’t have the kind of sacred dimensions, we do recognize the significance of the Russian occupancy.”
Sitka Tribal chairman Mike Baines said his organization had no immediate plans for Redoubt, if Sealaska were to finally receive the land. But he acknowledged that there were possibilities for cultural education in the area.
For him, signing the management agreement was about fulfilling the mission of his office.
“When we say our oath of office on the council, one of the most important things is that we’ll work to protect the traditional resources of the Tlingit in the area. And Redoubt is one of those resources — so that’s what we plan to do.”
The management agreement will not affect the Forest Service, and the $100,000 taxpayer funded lake fertilization program. Sealaska’s Worl said she hoped the federal government continued to pay for the program.
By a vote of 7-2, the court held that certain provisions of Proposition 200 are pre-empted by federal law. That means the state can’t ask people to prove their U.S. citizenship when they register to vote.
The Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona and the Hopi Tribe were among the plaintiffs that challenged the law. The tribes want to protect the voting rights of members who were born in the U.S. but might lack proper documentation.
The National Voter Registration Act already asks about citizenship, the Supreme Court noted. So the state’s requirement conflicts with federal law.
“We conclude that the fairest reading of the statute is that a state-imposed requirement of evidence of citizenship not required by the federal form is ‘inconsistent with’ the NVRA’s mandate that states ‘accept and use’ the federal form,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.
During the Clinton administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs proposed to recognize the tribe in 2000. The Obama administration, nine years later, reversed course and issued a final determination against the tribe. The tribe asked the Interior Board of Indian Appeals, an administrative review body, to look into the matter. The board, however, said it lacked jurisdiction to order the BIA to reconsider the petition.
“Petitioner’s Exhibits 1 and 2 include allegations that are within the board’s jurisdiction, but we conclude that that petitioner has not met its burden to establish that reconsideration is warranted, and thus we affirm the final determination,” the June 12 decision stated.
But the decision gave some hope to the tribe. The board referred several issues to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who was asked about the issue at a hearing last month, for further review.
WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA – Navajo President Ben Shelly’s office announced the passing of Navajo Code Talker Milton Gishal, who died on June 8 in Farmington, New Mexico. Mr. Gishal was 93.
The Navajo Nation Flag will remain at half staff.
He is the second Navajo Code Talker to die within the past week. Navajo Code Talker King Fowler passed away on June 7. President Shelly ordered the Navajo Nation Flag to be flown at half staff until sundown June 18 to honor the memory of both Navajo heroes.
Born on December 15, 1919 in Jeddito, Arizona, Gishal joined the US Marine Corps during World War II, where he served as a Navajo Code Talker. He took part in the Battle Iwo Jima.
After the war, Gishal became a rancher, farmer, railroad worker, carpenter and even a Navajo Councilman. He was also a medicine man fo the Native American Church.
Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated June 12 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Holbrook.
Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Ruby, 10 children, Pete Gishal, Mary Robertson, Anita Haskie, Stacey Gishal, Juanita Roanhorse, Milton Gishal Jr., Wil Gishal, Alton Bedonie, Marie Bahe and MaryLou Norris, 34 grandchildren; 47 great grandchildren; and one great great grandchild.
“It’s a sad week for our Navajo people knowing that we lost two more of our modern day heroes. The Navajo Nation’s prayers and condolences are with both families. Our Navajo Code Talkers are the sources of great pride for our people. There is a certain pride that our Code Talkers created because they used our language to defeat the Japanese in World War II. We will forever in indebted to the services of our Navajo Code Talkers,”
President Shelly said.
Less than 60 Navajo Code Talkers are estimated to still be living with Code Talker Chester Nez being the only one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers.
Navajo Code Talkers served in the US Marines in World War II in the Pacific Theater. The Navajo language, which some linguist say is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn, was encoded and used to communicate during battle. The Navajo code was used in every major engagement in the Pacific Theater from 1942 through 1945.
“If it wasn’t for our language and our Code Talkers, we might not be here right now. Our people have provided a great service to the people of the United States. We are proud of them,”
