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$10M sought for EvCC University Center expansion

The University Center is expected to outgrow its home at EvCC by 2021 because of rising enrollment.

By Jerry Cornfield, The Herald

OLYMPIA — Washington State University is inciting the kind of concern in Everett that community leaders have dreamed about for years: too many college students, not enough classroom space.

A consortium of universities led by WSU thinks it will nearly triple its enrollment at Everett Community College this decade and need a new home for its students by the next.

WSU and its partners at the University Center predict the number of full-time students they serve will rise from 465 this school year to 1,179 by the spring of 2021.

By then the center will “outgrow currently available facilities on the EvCC campus and will need significantly more physical capacity,” according to a report delivered to the Legislature in December.

Area lawmakers are citing that prediction in their efforts to secure $10 million in state funding to buy land and erect a new building near the community college.

“It is a necessary next step if we are going to continue to meet the growing need for those four-year degrees,” said Sen. Nick Harper, D-Everett, who first submitted a request for funds to the writers of the Senate capital budget in February. Around the same time, Reps. Mike Sells of Everett and John McCoy of Tulalip approached the chief capital budget writer in the House, Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish.

Dunshee, long a central figure in efforts to land a university branch campus in the county, gave no hints on how he’ll respond.

“I have a lot of requests,” he said. “I have to consider all the statewide interests.”

Today the University Center is managed by Everett Community College and operates out of allotted space in Gray Wolf Hall. Its participating colleges include Western Washington University, Central Washington University, University of Washington-Bothell and WSU.

A state law passed in 2011 prescribes a path for WSU to take over management by July 1, 2014. That same law required that before the changeover the Pullman-based research university had to begin offering undergraduate degrees at the center and write a long-term plan for running the operation.

WSU launched its mechanical engineering degree program at Everett Community College in August and quickly filled its 60 slots.

It is seeking $2 million in the next state budget to start baccalaureate degree programs in electrical engineering, communication and hospitality business management. WSU also wants to add certificate programs in education. All told, these could push WSU enrollment to 450 students by 2021.

Western Washington and Central Washington also want to add generously to their respective enrollments at the University Center in the next few years.

Crowding is already a concern at the community college, where the number of full-time students was 7,842 in the 2011-12 school year. Enrollment is climbing, in part among students interested in taking lower-division classes that prepare them for WSU’s engineering courses.

“They understand what our needs are,” said EvCC President David Beyer. “We’re going to be supportive (of the funding request) because these programs at the center are very important to us, as well.”

Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson is also deeply involved in trying to snare money to establish what could become a beachhead for a branch campus.

“What you’re beginning to see is the next evolution of the University Center,” he said.

There is no specific project tied to the money as of now.

However, officials of the city, WSU and EvCC are talking about constructing a 95,000-square-foot building on the parking lot of the former College Plaza shopping center, which is owned by the community college.

WSU would use the requested state funds to buy nearby properties and convert them into parking lots to offset those spaces displaced by the new building.

In recent days, the hunt for money gained a bit more steam in the Legislature.

In a rare show of unanimity, six of the seven senators representing Snohomish County on March 7 sent a letter supporting the requested dollars to Senate budget writers.

Signing the letter were Democrats Harper, Paull Shin of Edmonds, Maralyn Chase of Shoreline, Rosemary McAuliffe of Bothell and Steve Hobbs of Lake Stevens, along with Republican Kirk Pearson of Monroe.

“If we’re not serious about this, we’ll never get the branch campus we need,” Hobbs said.

Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, who is a member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee that writes the budgets, did not sign.

“I felt it was inappropriate for me to do so since I sit on the (budget) committee” she said. “I need to try to stay neutral.”

Feds say Native Mob gang dented but work remains

Federal prosecutors say they’ve weakened a violent American Indian gang known for terrorizing people in the Upper Midwest now that an alleged leader and two members have been convicted in one of the largest gang cases to come out of Indian Country.

By Steve Karnowski, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — Federal prosecutors say they’ve weakened a violent American Indian gang known for terrorizing people in the Upper Midwest now that an alleged leader and two members have been convicted in one of the largest gang cases to come out of Indian Country.

But investigators acknowledge their work isn’t done in Minnesota or other states where the Native Mob is active, noting that the gang has been around for a long time.

“We have some conservative confidence that we did put a dent (in the gang) but we’re also very realistic and know that law enforcement will continue to pursue gang activity including the Native Mob,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Winter said after jurors handed down convictions Tuesday on an array of racketeering and other charges.

“The verdicts reflect the seriousness of the crimes that were being committed by the Native Mob, which includes not only drug trafficking, but discharging of firearms at innocent people, and trafficking firearms, and basically wreaking havoc through communities throughout the state of Minnesota,” he said.

A federal jury in Minneapolis convicted the alleged Native Mob leader, 34-year-old Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, on drug and weapons charges – but also on a charge of racketeering conspiracy, which is often used to target organized crime.

Two of the gang’s alleged “soldiers” – Anthony Francis Cree, 26, and William Earl Morris, 25 – also were convicted of multiple charges including attempted murder in aid of racketeering. The latter charge stemmed from the shooting of another man that prosecutors alleged McArthur ordered, though his attorneys disputed the claim and McArthur was acquitted on that charge. But only Morris was acquitted on the top racketeering charge.

Defense attorneys said the government’s case was overblown, arguing that while gang members may have committed individual crimes, there was no evidence to support racketeering charges alleging the trio was part of a large, organized criminal group.

The three men were the only defendants who rejected plea deals after 25 people were indicted in the case last year. Several of those individuals testified during the trial, which Winter said should give other gang members pause knowing they can’t trust their co-conspirators.

A sentencing date has not yet been set, but all three men face between 20 years and life in prison, prosecutors said.

“The Native Mob has been a real detriment to native American communities throughout the state of Minnesota,” fellow prosecutor Steve Schliecher said. “Their game plan is to promote fear, and that’s the base of their power, and I think their power is diminished by this jury’s verdict. It’s going to allow people to have the rights to not live in fear, to continue on their peaceful lives.”

McArthur’s attorney, Frederick Goetz, said his client’s acquittal for attempted murder indicates the jury recognized the three defendants’ culpabilities varied.

“It was a mixed result for a mixed verdict,” Goetz said, adding that he would likely appeal.

Cree’s attorney, John Brink, said the verdicts were inconsistent, giving them an issue to use in their appeal.

Morris’ attorney, Tom Shiah, cited the same issue about inconsistent verdicts. He said he was glad Morris was acquitted of the racketeering charge but acknowledged his client was still “looking at a boatload of time.”

Federal authorities say they’ve been investigating the Native Mob, though not these three defendants, since 2004, and have now secured 30 convictions since 2007.

In the latest case, investigators said they were targeting a criminal enterprise that used intimidation and violence to maintain power. Prosecutors said the case was important not only because of its size, but because the racketeering charge is rarely used against gangs.

The 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment called the Native Mob one of the largest and most violent American Indian gangs in the U.S., most active in Minnesota and Wisconsin but also in Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota. It is made up of mostly American Indian men and boys, and started in Minneapolis in the 1990s as members fought for turf to deal drugs. The Native Mob is also active in prison.

The Native Mob had about 200 members, with a structure that included monthly meetings where members were encouraged to assault or kill enemies, or anyone who showed disrespect, according to the indictment. Authorities said McArthur would direct other members to carry out beatings, shootings and other violent acts to intimidate rivals.

The trial, which began in January, included nearly 1,000 exhibits and 180 witnesses.

—

Associated Press writer Amy Forliti contributed to this story.

Mitch Albom: ‘Vietnam Vet Deserves a Friendlier Farewell’

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

On Sunday, March 24, Mitch Albom, the award-winning Detroit Free Press columnist and best-selling author of Tuesdays With Morrie, wrote about a Vietnam veteran who recently passed away, alone and homeless. The vet, who served with honor as a Marine in Vietnam, was living on the mean streets of downtown Detroit, struggling with alcohol and poverty and confined to a wheelchair. As Albom asks, “Does this sound familiar?”

For too many vets, it does. This is especially true for Native vets. As ICTMN has reported, the 2010 Veteran Homelessness supplemental assessment report to Congress indicated a disturbing statistic that showed that American Indian and Alaska Native veterans who are poor are two times more likely to be homeless than American Indian and Alaska Native non-veterans who are poor

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that more than 300,000 vets are homeless on any given night. Here are excepts from Albom’s poignant column on one of these men; read the full article here.

If you knew Sanderious Crocker, please read this.

He died.

He was 67. Folks called him Sam. He was living in poverty in downtown Detroit. A Vietnam veteran who was seriously wounded, he’d been homeless for a while. He struggled with alcohol. Maybe you know this. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you lost touch. Maybe you wanted to.

Whatever the case, you should know that Sam’s body had been sitting at a Detroit morgue for a week before a friend called me and asked whether there was a way to find his family — any family — because a soldier shouldn’t die alone and neglected.

He left behind his papers. I am looking at his discharge form now. It says he served four years in the Marine Corps, in 1964-68. It says he earned badges for pistol and rifle marksmanship. It says he won several medals.

Under “Character of Service” is one word:

“Honorable.”

…

Maybe you knew Sam. Maybe you didn’t. Maybe you feel bad for his ending. Maybe you don’t. I can’t sit here and tell you Sam was a great man or even a good one. But I do know he served when his country called, and he paid a price, and the military sent him off with the word “honorable.”

Maybe we should do the same.

Both sides of gun debate make public appeals

By Michelle Salcedo, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Two of the loudest voices in the gun debate say it’s up to voters now to make their position known to Congress.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and National Rifle Associate Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre claim their opposing views on guns have the support of the overwhelming number of Americans. They are looking at the next two weeks as critical to the debate, when lawmakers head home to hear from constituents ahead of next month’s anticipated Senate vote on gun control.

Bloomberg, a former Republican-turned-independent, has just sunk $12 million for Mayors Against Illegal Guns to run television ads and phone banks in 13 states urging voters to tell their senators to pass legislation requiring universal background checks for gun buyers.

“We demanded a plan and then we demanded a vote. We’ve got the plan, we’re going to get the vote. And now it’s incumbent on us to make our voices heard,” said Bloomberg.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that legislation would likely be debated in his chamber next month that will include expanded federal background checks, tougher laws and stiffer sentences for gun trafficking and increased school safety grants. A ban on assault-style weapons was dropped from the bill, fearing it would sink the broader bill. But Reid has said that he would allow the ban to be voted on separately as an amendment. President Barack Obama called for a vote on the assault weapons ban in his radio and Internet address Saturday.

Recalling the horrific shooting three months ago at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school that left 20 first graders and six school administrators dead, Bloomberg said it would be a great tragedy if Congress, through inaction, lost the moment to make the country safer from gun violence. Bloomberg said that 90 percent of Americans and 80 percent of NRA members support universal background checks for gun purchases.

“I don’t think there’s ever been an issue where the public has spoken so clearly, where Congress hasn’t eventually understood and done the right thing,” Bloomberg said.

But the NRA’s LaPierre counters that universal background checks are “a dishonest premise.” For example, mental health records are exempt from databases and criminals won’t submit to the checks. Background checks, he said, are a “speed bump” in the system that “slows down the law-abiding and does nothing for anybody else.”

“The shooters in Tucson, in Aurora, in Newtown, they’re not going to be checked. They’re unrecognizable,” LaPierre said. He was referring to the 2011 shooting in a Tucson shopping center that killed six and wounded 13, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and the July assault in a suburban Denver movie theater that killed 12 and injured 70. In both instances, as well as in the Newtown killings, the alleged shooters used military-style assault rifles with high-capacity ammunition magazines.

LaPierre slammed Bloomberg for the ad buy.

“He’s going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people. And he can’t spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public,” LaPierre said, adding, “He can’t buy America.”

“Millions of people” from across the country are sending the NRA “$5, $10, $15, $20 checks, saying stand up to this guy,” LaPierre said, referring to Bloomberg.

LaPierre said the NRA supports a bill to get the records of those adjudicated mentally incompetent and dangerous into the background check system for gun dealers, better enforcement of federal gun laws and beefed up penalties for illegal third-party purchases and gun trafficking. Shortly after the Newtown shooting, LaPierre called for armed security guards in schools as well.

LaPierre would like to see Congress pass a law that “updates the system and targets those mentally incompetent adjudicated into the system” and forces the administration to enforce the federal gun laws.

“It won’t happen until the national media gets on the administration and calls them out for their incredible lack of enforcement of these laws,” LaPierre said.

In Colorado, a state with a pioneer tradition of gun ownership and self-reliance, Gov. John Hickenlooper just signed bills requiring background checks for private and online gun sales. The legislation also would ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

“After the shootings last summer in the movie theater, we really focused on mental health first then universal background checks,” Hickenlooper said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think the feeling right now around assault weapons, at least in Colorado, is that they’re so hard to define what an assault weapon is.”

Hickenlooper said he met with a group of protesters against the bills in Grand Junction, Colo., were “very worried about government keeping a centralized database, which I assured them wasn’t going to happen.” The protesters, he added, view the background checks as “just the first step in trying to take guns away.”

As casinos struggle, tribes seek more federal aid

Once the envy of Indian Country for its billion-dollar casino empire, the tribe that owns the Foxwoods Resort Casino has been struggling through a financial crisis and pursuing more revenue from an unlikely source: U.S. government grants.

By Michael Melia, Associated Press

LEDYARD, Conn. — Once the envy of Indian Country for its billion-dollar casino empire, the tribe that owns the Foxwoods Resort Casino has been struggling through a financial crisis and pursuing more revenue from an unlikely source: U.S. government grants.

The money provided annually to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation through the Interior Department and the Department of Health and Human Services has risen over the last five years to more than $4.5 million, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. One former tribal employee says department leaders were encouraged to offset dwindling resources by seeking more federal grants.

The Pequots, who once distributed stipends exceeding $100,000 annually to adult members, are not alone among gaming tribes seeking more federal aid. Several, including the owner of Foxwoods’ rival Connecticut casino, the Mohegan Sun, say they have been pursuing more grants – a trend that critics find galling because the law that gave rise to Indian casinos was intended to help tribes become financially self-sufficient.

“The whole purpose of the 1988 law which authorized Indian casinos was to help federally-recognized tribes raise money to run their governments by building casinos on their reservations,” said Robert Steele, a former Congressman from Connecticut. “I would argue strongly that federal money was meant for struggling tribes. Certainly the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans couldn’t under any circumstances be put in that category.”

As long as they have federal recognition, casino-owning tribes are eligible for the same grant programs as the larger tribes based on large, poverty-stricken reservations in the American West. The grants, which don’t need to be paid back, support tribal governments by paying for programs such as health screenings, road maintenance and environmental preservation.

“The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is proud of the work they do with the use of federal funds when it comes to assisting the region and fellow Native Americans,” said Bill Satti, a tribal spokesman, who said the grants have supported the tribe’s medical clinic and repair work on local roadways.

Thomas Weissmuller, who was chief judge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court until 2011, said that near the end of his tenure the tribal council said they had distributed too much money to members and urged department leaders to pursue more federal grants. He said there was resistance from some council members, who raised questions about the effects on sovereignty, but he was personally encouraged to pursue grants by officials including the tribal chairman, Rodney Butler.

Weissmuller said he was not comfortable seeking such assistance for the tribal court system because most of the issues it dealt with were related to the casino, which is essentially a commercial enterprise.

“A billion-dollar gaming enterprise should fully fund the tribal government,” said Weissmuller, who said that he was forced out of the job by tribal officials who told him he did not appear to have the tribe’s interests at heart on other matters.

The reversal of fortunes for the Pequots began around 2008, when Foxwoods completed a major, costly expansion with the 30-story MGM Grand hotel and casino just as the recession began to show its teeth. The following year the tribe defaulted on debt exceeding $2 billion.

Since then, the tribe of some 900 people in rural southeastern Connecticut has ended its member stipends. The Pequots have kept some other benefits in place, covering payments for members pursuing higher education and offering supplemental pay for tribal members taking entry-level jobs at the casino.

The federal grants provided to the Pequots through the Interior Department and its Bureau of Indian Affairs, meanwhile, rose from $1 million in 2008 to $2.7 million in 2011, with partial records for 2012 showing $1.7 million in grants for the year. Grants provided to the Pequots through the Indian Health Service, a division of Health and Human Services, increased gradually from $1.7 million in 2008 to $1.9 million in 2012. That money is to support health care services such as community health, nutrition, substance abuse treatment and pharmacy services.

The federal money opened the door to scrutiny by the FBI, whose investigation of tribal finances led to the January indictments of the tribe’s treasurer, Steven Thomas, and his brother Michael Thomas, a former tribal chairman. The two are accused of stealing a combined $800,000 in tribal money and federal grants. The tribal council has expressed full confidence in its treasurer.

Mohegan Tribe officials said they took pride in refusing federal grants for years, in acknowledgment that there were needier tribes. But tribal officials said they had relaxed that position as their Mohegan Sun casino, like Foxwoods, has faced growing gambling competition from neighboring states.

“It’s a sign of the times. Everybody is” seeking grants, Mohegan Chairman Bruce “Two Dogs” Bozsum said. “There’s some that we qualify for and it helps us to keep everybody healthy and working. At the end of the day, why shouldn’t we apply for it? If we get approved, it’s always for a good cause, usually health or jobs created.”

Tribal officials said they receive modest grants to contribute to the cost of health care for their 2,000 members.

The tribe that owns the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Michigan, one of the country’s largest Indian casinos outside of Connecticut, has been aggressively pursuing grants in areas including environmental protection and health services as it struggles with the weak economy, according to Sylvia Murray, grants and contracts manager for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

Sam Deloria, director of the American Indian Graduate Center in Albuquerque, N.M., said he has no issue with tribes pursuing grants for which they are eligible. It’s no different, he said, from the state of Alaska participating in federal programs despite the annual payouts to residents from the state’s oil savings account.

As the federal money reflects financial distress for gaming tribes, however, he does worry that their struggles ultimately could have a ripple effect throughout Indian Country and affect the ability of tribes to participate in the marketplace.

“It has got to raise a set of issues that either in the courts, or in the Congress, or in the marketplace, eventually it will get people looking at tribal participation in business in a different light,” he said.

Marysville names three finalists for school superintendent

Linda Shaw, The Seattle Times, March 23, 2013

The Marysville School Board has named three finalists to replace Superintendent Larry Nyland, who will retire at the end of this school year.

All three are from Washington state school districts: Becky Berg from Deer Park, Carl Bruner from Mount Vernon, and Tony Byrd from Edmonds.

Board members interviewed five semifinalists in sessions that were open to the public. Observers were asked to provide written comments and score the candidates based on a number of criteria.

The finalists are scheduled to visit the district next week, and the district is holding public forums so that parents, students, staff and other community members can meet them. The schedule is posted on the district’s website at: http://www.msvl.k12.wa.us/

See gray whales in Puget Sound now

A few whales found good feeding grounds in the ’80s and they apparently spread the word.

Mike Benbow, The Herald

Mike Benbow / For The HeraldA gray whale surfaces in the Port Gardner bay area near Mission Beach recently. Gray whales migrate between Mexico and Alaska every year. From March through May, they're headed north. About a dozen whales venture into Possession Sound, Port Gardner and Port Susan to stop and feed. — Mike Benbow / For The Herald
A gray whale surfaces in the Port Gardner bay area near Mission Beach recently. Gray whales migrate between Mexico and Alaska every year. From March through May, they’re headed north. About a dozen whales venture into Possession Sound, Port Gardner and Port Susan to stop and feed.

Residents of the Puget Sound area have their own special group of gray whales, and they have the lowly ghost shrimp to thank for it.

Ghost shrimp, also called sand shrimp, live in the sandy flats of bays along the Pacific Coast from Baja to Alaska. That, coincidentally, is the range for migrating gray whales, who have their young in the warmer, saltier waters of Baja, Mexico, and then swim some 5,000 to 6,000 miles to feed in the rich waters of the Arctic.

The migration of some 22,000 whales is under way and a number of them have been reported in the Sound and in the straits of Washington and British Columbia, according to the Pacific Whale Watch Association.

For a growing number of the whales, the Sound is a reliable pit stop where they can refuel while en route from Baja to the Bering and Chukchi seas.

In Baja, the whales fast for three to five months while giving birth to their young, and that’s where the Sound comes in.

Sometime in the late 1980s a whale or two started coming into Puget Sound regularly and found plenty of sand shrimp around the bays along Whidbey and Camano islands and along Mission Beach and Kayak Point in Snohomish County.

“They couldn’t make it through their (blubber) reserve, and they came into Puget Sound searching for food,” said John Calambokidis, a co-founder of Cascadia Research in Olympia, who has been studying gray whales in Washington state since 1990.

He said the local trip may have been promoted by a poor feeding season in Alaska, followed by a fasting period in Mexico that left them emaciated. “They needed to feed on something to help them pull the motor,” Calambokidis said.

His nonprofit group mostly does research for state and federal agencies. Whales are a big part of its work, and one thing Cascadia does is provide photo identification of specific whales.

Calambokidis said there isn’t a huge amount known about gray whales. For example, scientists don’t know old they get.

“The aging techniques aren’t very good at measuring maximum age,” he said.

The whales had been expected to live “30 to 40 to 60 years,” he said. But he noted that some bowhead whales were recently found with ancient harpoon points inside them that haven’t been used for more than 100 years.

So grays could last a lot longer than people thought.

That’s important because the feeding whales in the Sound are apparently teaching others, certainly their young, to stop here for a snack on their way north.

Calambokidis said that from one or two grays, the group feeding around Whidbey has expanded to six whales that come every year in February and March and leave in May or June. The first of this year’s group was spotted in February off Mission Beach on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

“Eleven or 12 different individuals” were sighted in the Sound (last year),” Calambokidis said. “Of those, 10 animals we know and one or two were new.”

The Puget Sound whales are a little different from other grays that migrate along the Pacific Coast each year, Calambokidis said. He said what’s called the Pacific Coast feeding group moves up from Washington’s coast to Vancouver Island to feed.

But not the Puget Sound whales. “When they leave, (the Sound) you don’t encounter them,” he said. “They move out of the area. I suspect they move up to traditional feeding areas in Alaska.”

While some whales have been found stranded and have died in Washington, grays in general have made a remarkable comeback. He noted that before whaling days, there were an estimated 15,000 gray whales.

During whaling, they were hunted to near extinction. “Now this population has completely recovered and exceeds the numbers prior to whaling,” Calambokidis said.

He noted that the Puget Sound whales seem to have a high survival rate. “Feeding a month or so before migration has kept them in good health for the last 20 years,” he said.

A gray whale found dead off Whidbey last year was not part of the group identified as a regular feeder in the Sound, he said.

Whales feeding on ghost shrimp during higher tides come surprisingly close to shore. The whales, which grow to 40 or 50 feet in length and can weigh 60,000 to 80,000 pounds, sometimes swim along Mission Beach about a body’s length away from the beachfront homes.

Parts of their tails and fins come out of the water as they roll in the sand, using their snouts to stir up a slurry of sand, water and ghost shrimp. They eject the water and sand through baleen filter plates in their upper jaw, swallowing the shrimp.

The whales leave behind holes in the sand that at low tide make the beach look like a golf course filled with divots.

But homeowners don’t mind.

The whales are welcome visitors, and word spreads quickly each year when they’re first sighted.

Jerry Solie, whose family has had a home on Mission Beach since 1937, first noticed the whales in 1989.

“They kept us awake all night,” he said, referring to feeding whales spouting water in the air below his bedroom window.

Solie said he looks forward to the annual visit.

“They come so close, and they’re so big,” he said. “It makes it hard to get any work done because if they’re there, you have to watch them.”

He said the giant mammals are unusually friendly to the point where you wonder who’s watching who.

“Twice I’ve had them come up right along my boat and look at me,” he said. “They’re watching me too.

Whale tours

Island Adventures, Everett: www.island-adventures.com/. Call 800-465-4604.

Deception Pass Tours, Oak Harbor: www.deceptionpasstours.com/. Call 888-909-8687.

Mystic Sea Charters, Langley: www.mysticseacharters.com/. Call 800-308-9387.

WSU Island County Beach Watchers: Fund-raising tour departs at 4 p.m. April 6 from Langley Marina. Call 360-331-1030 or signup online at beachwatchers.net/events/whales. The three-hour cruise includes appetizers, beverages and onboard naturalists for $75 a person.

20-Year Ban on New Uranium-Mining Claims in Grand Canyon Holds Up in Court

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The Havasupai Tribe, and the Grand Canyon watershed, won in U.S. District Court this week when a judge denied the uranium industry’s motion to overturn a 20-year federal ban on uranium mining on 1 million acres in the ecologically sensitive landmark and haven of sacred places to many tribes. Still under contention, though, are previously existing claims that are held still valid.

The March 20 move upheld a ban signed by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in January 2012, when he prohibited new uranium-mining claims, as well as development on certain old claims whose rights may have expired, for 20 years on 1 million acres surrounding the canyon. In response the National Mining Association, Nuclear Energy Institute, Northwest Mining Association and other groups filed four lawsuits challenging both the ban and the federal government’s authority to enact it. The Havasupai Tribe was among those who stepped in to combat the industry.

“It’s a great day for the Grand Canyon, and for rivers, wildlife, and communities across the West,” said Ted Zukoski of Earthjustice, one the attorneys representing conservation groups and the Havasupai tribe in the case, in a statement from the Center for Biological Diversity. “The uranium industry was hoping to cripple the Interior Department’s ability to temporarily protect lands from destructive mining. Today’s opinion upholds the Interior Department’s authority to take such protective measures.”

Salazar had enacted a two-year block on new mining claims for those million acres in 2009 to give the department time to study whether to institute a more permanent or longer ban. In March 2011 the state of Arizona’s environmental protection department granted permits to Denison Mines Corp. of Canada to reopen three mines near the canyon, even as the U.S. government was gathering information on whether to extend the ban. In January 2012 the Interior Department announced the 20-year ban, which was then challenged in court.

Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon threatens sacred sites of the Havasupai, Hualapai, Kaibab Paiute, Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo peoples. Tribal health is also at risk, with radioactive material posing a danger to Navajo citizens, said Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly in a statement when the ban was announced in January 2012.

Not covered in the ban protected by the March 20, 2013, court ruling is the question of previously approved mining and new projects on claim sites with existing rights, the Interior Department said in its statement announcing the ban last year. The Bureau of Land Management estimates that as many as 11 uranium mines could be developed under existing rights. On March 7 the Havasupai tribe and three conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for allowing Energy Fuels Resources Inc. to start up a uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park, citing a lack of formal tribal consultation and the company’s failure to update the federal environmental review it had conducted in 1986.

“We regret that the Forest Service is not protecting our sacred site in the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property from destruction by uranium mining,” said Havasupai tribe chairman Don Watahomigie in a March 7 statement from the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Havasupai are returning to the federal courts to protect our people, our religion and our water.”

In addition the four uranium-industry lawsuits that were covered by the March 20 ruling could still raise arguments on other legal grounds, the Center for Biological Diversity said, adding that court proceedings will continue to unfold this spring.

Chile’s Crimson Shore Under Investigation

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Thousands of dead sea creatures blanket the southern shores of Chile. photo: AP

Thousands of dead prawns washed ashore along with hundreds of dead crabs, blanketing the beaches of southern Chile in crimson.

These massive mounds of dead sea creatures on the shores of Coronel Bay are extremely disturbing to all, but the cause of death is still unknown and under investigation.

Chilean fishermen are accusing local thermoelectric plants for heating the waters while using it as a cooling agent for their generators. In an article by the Associated Press, Chilean prosecutor Ana Maria Aldana, told state television, “We’re going to be collecting as much evidence as possible to determine if this is an environmental crime.”

However, others believe this may have been caused by El Niño, a weather phenomenon that occasionally warms the Pacific Ocean, according to BBC News.

Endesa Chile, the country’s largest electric utility company, is rejecting any blame. The company said studies indicate these deaths are “due to the flow of deep waters coming from the continental platform, induced by currents of wind on the ocean,” the Associated Press reported. Experts are testing the water’s temperature and oxygen levels in search of an explanation.

Whether it’s due to a natural phenomenon or man-made pollution, local fishermen are worried about the future of their livelihood.

“The way everything is being destroyed here, come the high season in November, we’re already thinking we won’t have anything to take from the sea,” Marisol Ortega, a spokeswoman for the fishermen, told BBC News.

This is reminiscent of some of the bizarre, massive sea creature die-offs in Indian Country, such as the millions of lifeless sardines that floated into the Redondo Beach Harbor of southern California in 2011 and last year’s colossal fish kill on the Canadian shores of Lake Erie.

Historic Federal Lawsuit Dealing with Removal of Indian Children Filed on Behalf of Lakota

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents, http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA – Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union Thursday filed a lawsuit on behalf of three American Indian parents, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Rosebud Sioux Tribe for the illegal removal of Indian children from American Indian families in the US District Court in Rapid City, South Dakota.

ACLU and Tribal Leaders at Court House

The 39 page lawsuit pertains to the lack of adequate hearings when American Indian children are removed from their familial home.

In one case cited in the lawsuit, one custodial hearing lasted a mere 60 seconds. American Indian parents were not even allowed or permitted to see the court papers. The judge signed the documents to remove the children within in seconds.

The case has been in the making for months as American Civil Liberties Union attorneys reviewed the circumstances surrounding the procedures used in the Pennington Court system.

“This case is not about numbers, this case is about the procedural fairness,”

stated Stephen Pevar, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney.

“This lawsuit seeks to put an end to disgraceful and unlawful practices that unfortunately have been standard practice in Pennington County, South Dakota, for a long time.”

Signs say it all

Outside of the Andrew W. Bogue Federal Building in Rapid City, American Indians began to gather to protest shortly before 9:00 am. Facing brisk temperatures on the second day of spring that were in the low 20s, some 100 tribal members stood outside the federal building as the attorneys and Oglala Sioux Tribe President Bryan V. Brewer, Sr. went inside to file the lawsuit.

“This is the first step. Our children have been abused for far too long,”

stated President Brewer outside before he went into the federal building to file the lawsuit with American Civil Liberties Union attorneys.

“ This has to stop, we will not tolerate this any longer. Today is a historic day.”

People carried signs that read: “Protect our children from the state” and “No more exploitation of Indian children.”

Several tribal members were visibly upset as they took the microphone to tell their stories of how children were removed from their homes without due process by county or state of South Dakota officials.

Mary Black Bonnet, 38, a tribal citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, spoke about being removed from her family when she was only 18 months old and adopted by a non-Indian family and ended up in Niles, Michigan.

“I fought for 22 years to get back to my people. I kept telling myself, “I have to get away from these crazy people.” I wanted to get back to my people,”

referring to her natural, American Indian family. As she spoke, her daughter clung to her.

Mary Black Bonnet – Rosebud Sioux

Some of the attendees discussed how the state of South Dakota and Pennington County officials have ignored the Indian Child Welfare Act, ICWA, that was passed by Congress in 1978 in response to the large number of American Indian children who removed from their homes in at disproportionate rates.

“This hits the heart of our tribe. With this lawsuit we want to see our rights that ICWA should guarantee to us. Pennington County is violating our rights,”

stated Juanita Scherich, ICWA director for the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

“I had to witness the actual filing of this lawsuit. This is so historic,”

said Sheris Red Feather, whose son, Patrick, committed suicide while in the custody of the State of South Dakota when he was 15.

She went upstairs of the federal building to watch the filing of the lawsuit at the federal court by the lawyers and President Brewer.

Tribal Councilors Robin LaBeau and Robert Walters of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe attended the event to demonstrate the support of their Tribe to the lawsuit.

“We are here to support this lawsuit 100 percent. It comes down to our support of all Lakota children,”