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Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Every year, the Lummi Nation releases a million coho yearlings from its Lummi Bay Hatchery in two batches of 500,000 fish. The fish are spawned at the Lummi Bay Hatchery and reared at the state’s Kendall Creek hatchery until they are yearlings. Then the fish are transported back to Lummi Bay where they are released.
Lummi Bay Hatchery Releases Yearling Coho Salmon from NW Indian Fisheries Commission on Vimeo.
Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
A more accurate state fish consumption rate should be in place by next year, Maia Bellon, director of the state Department of Ecology, told tribal leaders and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials at a meeting Thursday.
The fish consumption rate is part of a human health criteria used by state government to determine how much pollution is allowed to be put in our waters. The rate is supposed to protect Washington residents from more than 100 toxins that can cause illness or death.
“We don’t need more debate. We have the science and we have had all of the discussions,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “Time is running out and we must move forward. We need the governor to work with us to make this happen,” he said.
“This is a public health issue for everyone who lives here,” said Brian Cladoosby, chair of the Swinomish Tribe. “We have worked hard with the state for the past eight years to revise our state’s fish consumption rate and water quality standards. We did not expect this issue to be kicked down the road, but that’s what happened. Now the debate is over and we need to move toward implementing a new rate, but we need a firm commitment from Gov. Inslee that he will help make that happen.”
Tribal, state and federal leaders agree that current rate is not accurate and that actual fish consumption is much higher. Tribes suggest a rate of at least 175 grams per day – the same standard recently adopted by Oregon – as a starting point for discussions.
The state’s current fish consumption rate of 6.5 grams per day – about one 8-ounce seafood meal per month – is one of the lowest in the nation, despite the fact that Washington has one of the highest populations of seafood consumers. That rate has been in place for more than 20 years and is not protective of most residents, especially tribal members and others who consume large amounts of seafood. Furthermore, tribal treaty rights depend on fish and shellfish being safe to eat.
The tribes and state Department of Ecology had been working to increase the rate when the effort was stalled last summer by business interests who complained to state government that a rate change would be too costly for them to implement. Since then tribes have been working with Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to get the process back on track.
“This is not a choice between a healthy environment and a healthy economy. Both of those things can go hand in hand,” said Russ Hepfer, vice chair of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
By Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times
The NBA lowered an emphatic boom Monday on Seattle’s hopes of bringing the Sonics back, as the league’s Relocation Committee unanimously recommended that the Sacramento Kings not be allowed to relocate.
The recommendation of the seven-person committee will be forwarded to the NBA Board of Governors for a vote in the week of May 13. It is expected the board will follow the recommendation of the committee and deny the request of the Kings to move to Seattle.
That puts a halt, for now, to Chris Hansen’s nearly three-year quest to bring the NBA back to town.
But Hansen, who leads a group that reached an agreement in January to buy the Kings from the team’s owners, the Maloof family, released a statement Monday night saying the battle is not over.
“We have a binding transaction to purchase the Kings for what would be a record price for an NBA franchise,” Hansen’s statement read, “have one of the best ownership groups ever assembled to purchase a professional sports team in the U.S., have clearly demonstrated that we have a much more solid Arena plan, have offered a much higher price than the yet to be finalized Sacramento Group, and have placed all of the funds to close the transaction into escrow. As such, we plan to unequivocally state our case for both relocation and our plan to move forward with the transaction to the league and owners at the upcoming Board of Governor’s Meeting in Mid-May.
“When we started this process everyone thought it was impossible. While this represents yet another obstacle to achieving our goal, I just wanted to reassure all of you that we have numerous options at our disposal and have absolutely no plans to give up. Impossible is nothing but a state of mind.’’
Hansen made an aggressive move for the team, offering $357 million for 65 percent of a total valuation of $550 million that was the most ever bid for an NBA franchise.
The sale, and a later request for relocation, needed approval of the NBA Board of Governors to become official, however, and that gave Sacramento time to mount a counteroffer that ultimately kept the Kings where they have played since 1985.
NBA Commissioner David Stern said in an interview on NBA-TV that the Seattle bid was “very strong” but that “there is some benefit that should be given to a city that has supported us for so long and has stepped up to contribute to a new building, as well.”
The new building in Sacramento came as a result of a dogged effort led by Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former three-time NBA All-Star who made it a priority to keep the team there.
“I still think Seattle is deserving of an NBA team,” Johnson said Monday. “Just not ours.”
Stern had also said his preference was to not relocate a team, and his support for Sacramento’s offer was likely a critical part of the team staying.
Stern was seen as helping Sacramento revamp its ownership group — now led by Vivek Ranadive, a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors — to get into position to make a bid that could keep the team.
Johnson numerous times had said a key selling point of Sacramento’s bid was that the local government had “stepped up” every time it had been asked to in recent years, specifically in helping fund arenas. Sacramento’s plan for a $447 million arena includes $258 million in public money.
“I know this doesn’t mollify the anger, but I think this decision was really about Sacramento and not Seattle,” said Michael McCann, a sports legal expert and an on-air analyst for NBA.com. “I think it was an affirmation of Sacramento, and the significance of that, I believe, is that Seattle is still well-positioned for an NBA team.”
While many regarded Monday’s news as pretty much ending the battle over the Kings, USA Today reported that the new Sacramento ownership group has been asked to put 50 percent of the purchase price into escrow by Friday. Also, the Maloof family still has a binding agreement to sell the team to Hansen’s group — which included a $30 million nonrefundable deposit by Hansen — and doesn’t have to sell the team to the Sacramento group.
A Maloof family spokesman said Monday the family has no comment.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, one of the Hansen group’s investors, was quoted by KJR-AM saying he was “horribly, horribly disappointed” at the news.
It’s unclear, though, what happens now with Hansen’s effort to bring back the NBA to Seattle. The city has been without a team since the Sonics left for Oklahoma City after the 2007-08 season.
Stern repeated in his NBA-TV interview his long-held stance that expansion is not an option.
“All I can say is that discussion will have to wait for commissioner (Adam) Silver (who is taking over when Stern retires Feb. 1) to oversee,” Stern said. “Right now, expansion is not on the agenda, but I would never say never. We will see what happens. It doesn’t make a lot of sense unless we know what the new TV deal is.”
The NBA’s national TV contracts expire after the 2015-16 season.
Hansen had targeted the Kings because they were seen as the team that might be the most vulnerable, with an aging and small arena, built in 1988, and an ownership group that had attempted previously to move the team.
McCann said “there’s no obvious other team” available. If there might be one, McCann pointed to the Milwaukee Bucks, whose arena also dates to 1988. However, the team has a lease through 2017, with reports that a new arena plan will be developed by then. And Milwaukee owner Herb Kohl, a former U.S. senator, is a Milwaukee native who is unlikely to sell the team to someone who would move it.
NBA.com, meanwhile, reported that legal action against the league “is a near impossibility, given that the NBA requires prospective owners to sign agreements that prohibit them from taking legal action if their bids are denied.” It further reported that “a source with knowledge of Hansen’s group’s plans said Sunday that the group had never thought about taking any legal action if it lost.”
While there was much celebrating in Sacramento — Johnson scheduled a 5 p.m. rally downtown — there was consternation among Seattle officials who had worked hard to push through the arena deal. Under the terms of the deal with the city of Seattle and King County, Hansen has until Dec. 3, 2017, to secure a team.
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said, “I was disappointed. I was hopeful that today would go well.”
In a brief statement, he said he is proud of Sonics fans and their work to get Seattle a team.
“We’re going to stay focused on our job: making sure Seattle remains in a position to get a team when the opportunity presents itself,” he wrote.
The mayor has perhaps the most at stake politically if an arena deal stalls. Making a deal with the Hansen investment team is one of the most high-profile accomplishments of his first term.
McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine each attended a presentation made by the Seattle group to the NBA Board of Governors in New York on April 3 to state the case for the city.
Constantine said in a statement that he will continue to work to return the NBA.
“I’m disappointed, but undeterred in our quest to bring NBA basketball back to the Pacific Northwest,’’ he said. “Today’s decision doesn’t mean this effort is over. From what I saw at the presentation in New York, Chris Hansen and his team have made the superior offer and the best pure business case for the NBA to return to Seattle.’’
In a twist that surely only deepened the wound for Seattle basketball fans, the chairman of the committee who voted Monday was Clay Bennett, who bought the Sonics in 2006 and two years later moved them to Oklahoma City. The others who voted Monday were Peter Holt (Spurs), Herb Simon (Pacers), Glen Taylor (Timberwolves), Greg Miller (Jazz), Ted Leonsis (Wizards) and Micky Arison (Heat).
The Board of Governors vote had initially been expected to come April 19 in New York. But Stern said then the league needed more time to evaluate the situation. Many speculated that also helped buy Sacramento more time to get its proposal solidified.
“If the vote was two weeks ago, I bet it was not unanimous,” McCann said. “I think the league likes to rally around one vote, and I don’t think the league was ready for that two weeks ago.”
Hansen’s quest to bring the NBA back began roughly three years ago when he began quietly buying up land in the Sodo District. Hansen first let the city of Seattle know about his plans in June 2011, and the first public notice came in December 2011.
Hansen, who grew up in Rainier Valley, has said a seminal moment of his life came in 1979, when he was 11 years old and the Sonics won their only NBA championship. It still is the only championship for a Seattle team in one of the three major pro sports.
Hansen, now a hedge-fund manager who works out of San Francisco, wasn’t in a financial position to make a bid for the Sonics when they were bought in 2006 by Bennett.
Hansen not only put together an ownership group that included Ballmer, but also helped power through an arena deal approved by King County and the city of Seattle. The $490 million project for an arena in Sodo would have included $290 million in private money. Hansen also agreed to make improvements to KeyArena for the team’s stay there.
In observance of National Women’s Health Week, Northwest Indian College will host its 2013 Women’s Wellness Conference on May 8-9 from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Log Building on main campus.
The event brings together women from campus and the community to promote women’s health and wellness, and to provide them with opportunities and tools to improve their physical, mental and emotional health.
Topics at the conference will include:
For a registration form, contact Laura Maudsley at lmaudsley@NWIC.edu or visit www.NWIC.edu/event/2013-womens-wellness-conference. The conference registration fee is $125. Those who would like to attend the conference, but who are unable to pay, can request a fee waiver by contacting Laura.
Northwest Indian College is an accredited, tribally chartered institution headquartered on the Lummi Reservation at 2522 Kwina Road in Bellingham Wash., 98226, and can be reached by phone at (866) 676-2772 or by email at info@nwic.edu.
By Ciji Taylor, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
With the help of a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service grant, the American Indian Inter Tribal Buffalo Council is working to make tribal lands more resilient to drought.
The Conservation Innovation Grant will give $640,000 to the council to help bridge the knowledge between 58 tribes spanning over one million acres in 19 states with a collect heard of more than 15,000 buffalo.
“The council’s mission is to restore bison to tribal land, which is subject to the whims of the land like fire, drought and carrying capacity,” Jim Stone, ITBC executive director, said.
To tribes, buffalo represent a way of life and are a critical part of the ecosystem, making their survival through drought a deep cultural significance, he added.
“American Indians were our nation’s first conservationists. This (grant) project will help make sure tribes have the resources and knowledge to improve and conserve land for their future generations,” Dr. Carol Crouch, NRCS National American Indian Special Emphasis Program manager, said.
The first step of the project will be an assessment of the impacts of drought across member tribes, their response to drought, and the effectiveness of the responses. The findings will be used to create regional trainings and adoption of best management practices
“Often, our members don’t know where to get information or resources for drought. Our goal is to build a one-stop shop for tribes where they can easily access the most up-to-date information,” Stone said.
An online database will be created for tribes to find drought resources. It will include links to drought forecasts, drought funding assistance, management practices, and the data needed to fill out forms and grants for assistance.
“This is a big project to tackle, and we currently only have six staff members,” said Stone.
The grant allows the council to hire additional staff to help do drought assessments, trainings, the online database, and bring in other partners to help educate the tribes.
Overall, it’s a chance to protect the land, the buffalo, and a way of life, he added.
Visit NRCS’s website for more information on drought and CIG grants.
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service helps America’s farmers and ranchers conserve the Nation’s soil, water, air and other natural resources. All programs are voluntary and offer science-based solutions that benefit both the landowner and the environment.
Follow NRCS on Twitter. Checkout other conservation-related stories on USDA Blog. Watch videos on NRCS’ YouTube channel.
Source: Native News Network
ALBUQUERQUE – Kansas Begaye, 24, from Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and member of the Navajo Dine Nation was crowned Miss Indian World at the 30th Annual Gathering of Nations, the most prominent American Indian powwow in the world.
Miss Indian World Kansas Begaye is crowned. (click to enlarge)
Kansas Begaye received the honor out of 16 American Indian women representing their different tribes and traditions who competed in the areas of tribal knowledge, dancing ability, public speaking, and personality assessment. The new Miss Indian World graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2011.
“Miss Indian World is one of the most prestigious honors in the Native American and indigenous world and the winner will serve as a role model for all Native Americans. Begaye will travel the world educating others about tribal and cultural traditions, and bring together native and indigenous people,”
said Melonie Mathews, coordinator of the Miss Indian World Pageant.
Begaye will travel to many native and indigenous communities around the world on behalf of the powwow. She is the daughter of Dorothy and Leonard Begaye. As Miss Indian World, she will represent all native and indigenous people as a cultural goodwill ambassador for one year.
Brittany Clause, 22 years old from Six Nations, Canada, and a member of Cayuga Nation of Iroquois Confederacy was named first runner-up at the pageant. She is currently attending Buffalo State University in Buffalo, New York.
Yonenyakenht Jesse Brant, 25 years old from Six Nations, Canada, and member of the Mohawk and Turtle Clan tribes was named second runner-up. She graduated from George Brown College in Toronto, Canada in 2009.
In the case that Miss Indian World cannot fulfill her responsibilities, the first runner-up will take her place. If the first runner-up is unable to fulfill her duties after having taken over for Miss Indian World, the second runner-up will take her place.
By Steve Mohan, Native News Network
LOS ANGELES – James Proudstar, better known as Warpath is a superhero from the Marvel Universe that grew up on an Apache reservation. “X-Men: Days of the Future Past” director Bryan Singer tweeted out a video(see below) showing that Warpath will be featured in the upcoming movie.
Apache Superhero James Proudstar known as Warpath
The short video shows chairs from the movie set with the character names on them. One of those chairs shows “James Warpath Proudstar” as one of those characters. Although not confirmed it is assumed that Booboo Stewart from the “Twilight” franchise will be taking on the role of Warpath.
In the comics, Warpath plays the younger brother of Thunderbird, a former X-Men who died in the line of duty. Warpath started off as a villain who blamed the X-Men and Charles Xavier for his brother’s death. He eventually becomes a hero and has been a major character in many Marvel titles since then.
In the Marvel Universe, mutants are humans who have evolved and are born with super powers that manifest during puberty. Warpath’s powers include superhuman strength and agility.
It remains to be seen how Warpath will be used in the movie. In the comics, “Days of the Future Past” is a storyline in which Kitty Pryde comes from the future to warn the X-Men of a future where mutants are imprisoned and hunted to the brink of extinction. How much the movie version of this story stays true to the comic is up for debate at this point
One thing is for certain, Marvel has always been at the forefront in Native American heroes and villains with over 40 taking up residence in the Marvel Universe. With Warpath in “X-Men: Days of the Future Past” it might not be long until we see more and more of these characters finding their way to the big screen
Source: Native News Network
WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA – Diné be’ liná, Inc. is one of 817 nonprofits nationwide to receive a National Endowment for the Arts works grant. The amount of the grant is $15,840 to support training for Navajo fiber artists.
Master Navajo weavers will instruct emerging artists in successful weaving methods, procuring materials and promoting their art within and outside of the Navajo Nation.
“Diné be’ iiná is excited to learn of the National Endowment for the Arts’ support for this project, which will provide the skill and knowledge needed to help them gain economic self-sufficiency,”
stated Executive Director TahNibaa Naataanii.
Diné be’ liná is a grassroots nonprofit organization founded in1991. Diné be’ liná’s mission is to restore the balance between Navajo culture, life, and land. While serving all sheep producers, the organization is particularly dedicated to conserving the traditional Navajo-Churro sheep breed as well as to educating the community and the public about the Navajo sheep culture and spirituality.
The organization’s goals are to restore status to sheep herding, wool processing, and fiber arts and to promote the education that is necessary for their pursuit in the modern world. Diné be’ liná’s activities provide leadership, economic development, and support for traditional life ways of Navajo shepherds and fiber artists.
Competition for grants was heavy. The National Endowment for the Arts received 1,547 applications for Art Works grants that totaled $80 million in funding requests. Art Works grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.
Source: The Associated Press
GREELEY, Colo. — Two billboards in which images of Native Americans are used to make a gun rights argument are causing a stir with some residents who say the image is offensive and insensitive.
The billboards in this northern Colorado city show three men dressed in traditional Native American attire and the words “Turn in your arms. The government will take care of you.”
Matt Wells, an account executive with Lamar Advertising in Denver, said Monday a group of local residents purchased the space.
“They have asked to remain anonymous,” he said.
He also refused to disclose the cost, but said the billboards are only appearing in the Greeley area. Wells said he has not received any complaints so far.
“I think it’s a little bit extreme, of course, but I think people are really worried about their gun rights and what liberties are going to be taken away,” Wells told the Greeley Tribune (http://tinyurl.com/cdtkgj2).
Greeley resident Kerri Salazar, who is of Native American descent, said she was livid when she learned about it. She said she doesn’t have a problem with the gun rights message, but she’s offended the Native American people were singled out, apparently without their consent.
“I think we all get that (Second Amendment) message. What I don’t understand is how an organization can post something like that and not think about the ripple effect that it’s gonna have through the community,” she said.
Irene Vernon, a Colorado State University professor and chairwoman of the ethnic studies department, said the message on the billboard is taking a narrow view of a much more complicated history of the Native American plight. She said it’s not as if Native Americans just gave up their guns and wound up on reservations.
“It wasn’t just about our guns,” said Vernon, a Native American.
Greeley resident Maureen Brucker, who has worked with Native American organizations and who frequents the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota as an honorary family member, said she thinks the billboards are making light of atrocities the federal government committed against Native Americans.
She said the billboard brings to her mind one of the most horrendous examples of that, the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1890. Historical accounts say the 7th Cavalry had detained a band of Native Americans and asked them to give up their weapons. Troops began firing after a shot rang out. Death toll estimates of Native American men, women and children range from 150 to 300.
Brucker said she thinks those who put up the billboards should come forward and to discuss their viewpoints.
“I thought it was pretty cowardly that someone would put something like that up and spend the money for a billboard but didn’t have the courage to put their name on it,” she said.
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Information from: Greeley Daily Tribune, http://greeleytribune.com
By Timothy Williams, The New York Times
MINNEAPOLIS — Nothing in her upbringing on a remote Indian reservation in northern Minnesota prepared Jean Howard for her introduction to city life during a visit here eight years ago: an outbreak of gunfire, followed by the sight of people scattering.
She watched, confused, before realizing that she should run, too. “I said: ‘I’m not living here. This is crazy,’” she recalled.
Not long afterward, however, Howard did return, and found a home in Minneapolis. She is part of a continuing and largely unnoticed mass migration of American Indians, whose move to urban centers over the past several decades has fundamentally changed both reservations and cities.
Though they are widely associated with rural life, more than seven of 10 Indians and Alaska Natives now live in a metropolitan area, according to Census Bureau data released this year, compared with 45 percent in 1970 and 8 percent in 1940.
The trend mirrors the pattern of millions of African Americans who left the rural South during the Great Migration of the 20th century and moved to cities in the North and West. But while many black migrants found jobs in meatpacking plants, stockyards and automobile factories, American Indians have not had similar success finding work.
“When you look at it as a percentage, the black migration was nothing in comparison to the percentage of Native Americans who have come to urban areas,” said Dr. Philip R. Lee, an assistant secretary for health during the Clinton administration and an emeritus professor of social medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Recent budget figures show that federal money has not followed the migration, with only about 1 percent of spending by the Indian Health Service going to urban programs. Cities, with their own budget problems, are also failing to meet their needs.
One effect of the move toward cities has been a proliferation of Native American street gangs, which mimic and sometimes form partnerships with more well-established African-American and Latino gangs, according to the FBI and local law enforcement reports.
The migration goes to the heart of the question of whether the more than 300 reservations in the United States are an imperative or a hindrance to Native Americans, a debate that dates to the 19th century, when the reservation system was created by the federal government.
Citing generational poverty and other shortcomings on reservations, a federal policy from the 1950s to the 1970s pressured Indian populations to move to cities. Though unpopular on reservations, the effort helped prompt the migration, according to those who have moved to cities in recent years and academics who have studied the trend.
Regardless of where they live, a greater proportion of Indians live in poverty than any other group, at a rate that is nearly double the national average. Census data show that 27 percent of all Native Americans live in poverty, compared with 25.8 percent of African Americans, who are the next highest group, and 14.3 percent of Americans overall.
Moreover, data show that, in a number of metropolitan areas, American Indians have levels of impoverishment that rival some of the nation’s poorest reservations. Denver, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., for instance, have poverty rates for Indians approaching 30 percent. In Chicago, Oklahoma City, Houston and New York — where more Indians live than any other city — about 25 percent live in poverty.
Even worse off are those living in Rapid City, S.D., where the poverty level stands at more than 50 percent, and in Minneapolis, where more than 45 percent live in poverty.
“Our population has dealt with all these problems in the past,” said Jay Bad Heart Bull, the president and chief operating officer of the Native American Community Development Institute, a social-services agency in Minneapolis. “But it’s easier to get lost in the city. It’s easier to disappear.”
Despite the rampant poverty, many view Minneapolis as a symbol of progress. The city’s Indian population, about 2 percent of the total, is more integrated than in most other metropolitan areas, and there are social services and legal- and job-training programs specifically focused on them.
The city has a Native American City Council member, Robert Lilligren; a Native American state representative, Susan Allen; and a police chief, Janee Harteau, who is part Indian. But city life has brought with it familiar social ills like alcoholism and high unemployment, along with less familiar problems, including racism, heroin use and aggressive street gangs.
At the heart of one experiment to halt the cycle of poverty here is Little Earth of United Tribes, a sprawling 212-apartment complex, the nation’s only public-housing project that gives American Indians preference. It offers a wide array of social services, from empowerment counselors and bike rentals to couples’ therapy and a teen center that offers homework help, computers and board games. Houses are being built next to the complex to promote homeownership.
The typical resident is a single mother with children. The unemployment rate, more than 65 percent, is only marginally better than at impoverished reservations like Pine Ridge in South Dakota.
Bill Ziegler, the housing project’s president and chief executive officer, said he came to Minneapolis from the Lower Brule reservation in South Dakota in 2004 with a wife and five children. In the first six months, he said, there were five gang homicides, and from 2005 to 2007 only three students graduated from high school, a rate of about 5 percent.
Ziegler said the board was moving toward requiring that every resident have a job, be enrolled in school, or serve as a volunteer.
