Drum circle during the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion pow wow at Al Taqaddum Air Base, Iraq, 2004. Photo by Master Sergeant Chuck Boers (Lipan Apache/Oklahoma Cherokee, b. 1964). Gift of Sergeant Debra K. Mooney and members of the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
In 2004, U.S. Army Sergeant Debra Mooney, Choctaw, and the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion staged the first pow wow held in a U.S. combat zone by Native Americans. The Native American Inter-Tribal Pow Wow was held in Al Taqaddum, Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
According to the National Museum of the American Indian, the two-day event, held at the Al Taqaddum Air Base near Fallujah, featured Native regalia, dancing and singing, and traditional games and foods, including genuine frybread. Participants made their pow wow drum from a discarded 55-gallon oil barrel and canvas from a cot. The goal of the pow wow was to bring a piece of home to Native Americans serving in Iraq while sharing their cultural heritage with fellow soldiers, marines, and sailors.
American Indians have served in the U.S. military since the American revolution, before they were allowed U.S. citizenship, and by percentage they serve more than any other ethnic group. The 120th Engineer Combat Battalion has its headquarters in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, also home to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
Lower: Drum, stand, and drumsticks, 2004. Metal, canvas, wood, commercially tanned leather, plastic, nylon cord, adhesive tape, metal nails. Made by members of the U.S. Army’s 120th Engineer Combat Battalion, headquartered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and used during their Al Taqaddum Inter-Tribal Powwow, September 17–18, 2004, in Al Taqaddum, Iraq. Gift of Sergeant Debra K. Mooney and members of the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion. (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian)
US Army (USA) Soldiers of Native American Indian heritage, participate in a game of Native American Indian Stick Ball during the Native American Inter-Tribal Pow Wow held at Al Taqaddum, Iraq, during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. The Pow Wow was held to honor all past, present, and future Native American Veterans, and this events marks the first time that a Pow Wow was held in a Combat Zone by Native Americans (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian)
Native American Indians came from all over Iraq to play a game of Native American Indian Stick Ball during the Native American Inter-Tribal Pow Wow that was held on Al Taqaddum near Fallujah on the 17-18th of September 2004 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Pow Was planned from start to finish in less than five weeks, and all the items from the tomahawks to the drum was hand-made by the Native Americans in Iraq. The Pow Wow was held to honor all past, present, and future Native American Veterans, this was the first time that a Pow Wow was held in a Combat Zone by Native Americans. Photo by SFC Johancharles Van Boers (Apache/Cherokee), 55th Signal Company, Combat Camera, Fort Meade, Maryland. “Released for Public Use”
Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 120th Engineer Combat Battalion (headquartered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma) participating in a tomahawk throwing contest. Man throws a tomahawk at a wooden post while others look on (NMAI object 265139.000) . Photo taken during the powwow events held at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq in 2004. (National Museum of the American Indian)
April 2013 Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Seattle, WA
First Woman. Yellow Cedar. By Luke Marston. Photo by Armstrong Creative.
Seattle – The Burke Museum is pleased to offer a variety of programs featuring the groundbreaking artwork of Coast Salish artists. In April, attend a discussion panel with practicing artists, see art demonstrations and talk to artists about their work, and view Coast Salish art from the Burke Museum collections.
Discussion Panel: Coast Salish Art in the 21st Century Friday, April 5, 2013 • Kane Hall 120, UW Campus • 7 pm
Coast Salish artists are using computer graphics, laser cutters, and glass hot shops, as well as adzes, knives, and looms to bring traditional forms into the 21st century. Join a panel of artists lead by Shaun Peterson as they share the challenges and rewards of transporting the vision of their grandparents into the modern world.
Panelists include artists Heather Johnson-Jock, lessLIE, Luke Marston, and Danielle Morsette.
FREE for all and open to the public. Pre-registration recommended. Reserve your seat today at www.burkemuseum.org/events.
Special Event: Coast Salish Art & Artists Day Saturday, April 6, 2013 • Burke Museum • 10 am – 3 pm
Explore artwork and demonstrations by notable Coast Salish artists in mediums such as weaving, sculpture, and print-making. Attend film screenings, and try your hand at a communal weaving piece on a large loom.
Art demonstrations include:
Coast Salish weaving on tabletop and upright frame looms
Cedar bark basketry weaving
Hand spinning yarn with a spindle whorl
Acrylic on paper pieces
Film screenings of Teachings of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller and Killer Whale and Crocodile
Participating artists include Bill and Fran James, Heather Johnson-Jock, lessLIE, Luke Marston, Danielle Morsette, and Karen Reed.
Included with museum admission; FREE for Burke members.
Coast Salish Art programs are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and 4Culture.
Weekend Activities @ the Burke: Coast Salish Art Saturdays & Sundays in April • Burke Museum • 11 am – 3 pm
Every weekend in April, enjoy Coast Salish art activities at the Burke. See Coast Salish weaving pieces not normally on display, and try your hand at a large weaving loom. Also enjoy guided exhibit tours every Saturday at 1 pm.
Included with museum admission; FREE for Burke members.
The Burke Museum is located on the University of Washington campus, at the corner of NE 45th St. and 17th Ave. NE. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm daily, and until 8 pm on first Thursdays. Admission: $10 general, $8 senior, $7.50 student/ youth. Admission is free to children four and under, Burke members, UW students, faculty, and staff. Admission is free to the public on the first Thursday of each month. Prorated parking fees are $15 and partially refundable upon exit if paid in cash. Call 206-543-5590 or visit www.burkemuseum.org. The Burke Museum is an American Association of Museums accredited museum.
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at: 206.543.6450 (voice), 206.543.6452 (TTY), 206.685.7264 (fax), or email at dso@u.washington.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.
Burke Museum
Sat., Apr. 6, 2013 | 10 am – 3 pm
Included with museum admission; FREE for Burke members
Join the Burke Museum for a special day about Coast Salish art. Explore the incredible artwork of local Native American artists, who are experts in mediums such as weaving, sculpture, print-making, carving, and more. Talk with practicing Coast Salish artists and watch demonstrations of their work. Attend film screenings throughout the day in the Burke Room, and try your hand at a communal weaving piece on a large loom.
Art demonstrations include:
Coast Salish weaving on tabletop and upright frame looms
Cedar bark basketry weaving
Hand spinning yarn with a spindle whorl
Acrylic on paper pieces
Film screenings of Teachings of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller and Killer Whale and Crocodile
Participating artists include Bill and Fran James, Heather Johnson-Jock, lessLIE, Luke Marston, Danielle Morsette, and Karen Reed.
Coast Salish Art programs are supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and 4Culture.
By Rick Kearns, Indian Country Today Media Network
For some indigenous people of Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez was someone they could count on and love and many indigenous Latin Americans expressed those same feelings last week.
Indigenous people in Venezuela and throughout Latin America were among the millions of people mourning the death of President Chavez of Venezuela, a man who helped change the nation’s constitution to protect indigenous rights and who returned more than 4 million acres of land to many tribes among other accomplishments.
Messages of solidarity and condolences came quickly after the news of Chavez death on Wednesday, March 5, after a two-year battle with cancer.
On that same day, the most famous indigenous leader in this hemisphere, his friend and ally, President Evo Morales of Bolivia stated, “It hurts us. We are devastated.”
“My brother in solidarity,” Morales continued in a government press release, “a revolutionary Latin American compatriot who fought for his country, for the big country of Simon Bolivar, a comrade who gave his life for the liberation of the Venezuelan people, of the people of Latin America.”
Indigenous leaders from other countries such as Ecuador and Brazil sent condolences through traditional and social media.
“I feel enormous sadness,” stated Humberto Cholango, President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE in Spanish), the largest indigenous coalition in that country.
“He will live on as an example of the struggle against imperialism,” Cholango added.
Another indigenous Ecuadorean leader, Delia Caguana, President of the Indigenous Movement of Chimborazo, issued a strongly worded press release through Facebook.
“Our deepest feeling of solidarity for his family and the Venezuelan people,” Caguana stated, “for the loss of a valiant leader such as the Comandante Hugo Chavez Frias…his vocation to seek a change for the most vulnerable people of his beloved country, his clear and firm ideas of revolution deeply touched the hearts of Venezuelans, Latin Americans and even the whole world for his confrontations with and questioning of the groups in power that sought their own profits with no concern for the destruction of Pachamama (Mother Earth).”
Marcos Terena, an internationally known indigenous activist from Brazil also posted on Facebook that, “From our hearts, respect and solidarity to the people of Venezuela and the Indigenous Peoples on the death of Chavez.”
While these messages of solidarity and condolence came from various Indigenous Peoples, there were also articles and essays published by indigenous Venezuelans, also through traditional and social media.
Jayariyú Farías Montiel, editor of the award winning indigenous newspaper Wayuunaiki, published a column entitled The Indigenous People Weep for Chavez on Thursday, March 6th, recounting the history of Chavez advocacy for indigenous people starting in 1998.
“During the presidential campaign of 1998, diverse indigenous leaders exposed the situation to him, of the exclusion of the Indigenous Peoples from power, he was very moved by this,” Montiel wrote, “and he was clear in his ideals for justice and promised to change that reality.”
Montiel noted that upon reaching the presidency in 1999, Chavez named an indigenous woman, Atala Uriana, as his Minister of the Environment, “…putting her into his cabinet leaving the entire continent perplexed by this.”
His first act as president was one of inclusion, she continued, but his second act would leave a strong imprint on the country: the creation of a constituent assembly that would go on to create a new Constitution. It was in this new document that indigenous rights were protected. Article 119 of the new constitution for instance, recognizes the social, political, and economic organization of indigenous communities, as well as their cultures, languages, rights, and lands. Specifically, land rights were defined as collective, inalienable, and non-transferable.
Montiel also pointed out that “The political participation was solidified in an immediate way following the new Constitutional precepts and three indigenous representatives…initiated, along with the president a legislative path that opened the way for other laws.”
The new laws also allowed for the granting of land titles, over 12 years, of 4,472,589 acres of land to indigenous communities throughout Venezuela.
But for Kenami Padron, a Jivi member of the National Assembly, Chavez accomplishments had an emotional impact. On Facebook, Padron published a photo of her then 5-year-old cousin being held by Chavez who was wearing indigenous necklaces and smiling (at an event in the Amazonian town of Alto Orinoco in 2003).
When asked for permission to use the photo, Padron said, “yes, but I hope it will be used in a way that shows the work of love that Chavez did for the indigenous people. We will never forget the loyalty of the comandante of the Indigenous Peoples, Father of the country.”
OLYMPIA — Washington voters may get the final say on whether the state expands background checks on gun sales, as proponents said Tuesday a public vote was necessary to move the idea forward.
Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said the referendum proposal was necessary in order to secure enough votes to pass the measure out of his chamber. If the measure is approved in both chambers, Pedersen said he expects the National Rifle Association leads an effort to stop it.
“I feel a pretty good amount of confidence that it works and that we can defend it at the ballot box,” Pedersen said.
Gun buyers currently must undergo a background check when they purchase a weapon from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Pedersen’s proposal, crafted in conjunction with Republican Rep. Mike Hope, would extend background checks to cover private gun transactions.
Under the bill, people who already have proper law enforcement credentials or a valid concealed pistol license would already have the proof needed to complete a private gun purchase. Those who don’t have such documentation could go to a licensed gun dealer or local law enforcement agency, then pay a fee and get a background check.
Hope, a Seattle police officer, has expressed concern that criminals are bypassing the current system of background checks and acquiring guns through private transactions. He said the proposal won’t stop gun violence but would make it harder for criminals to get weapons.
The state House is expected to take up the plan Tuesday afternoon. It would then have to get through the state Senate, including a committee controlled by gun-friendly lawmakers.
On Thursday, March 7, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian announced five new members to its Board of Directors, for a three year term each.
The five are:
Governor Bill Anoatubby, Chickasaw
Margaret L. Brown, Yup’ik
Dr. Brenda Child, Ojibwa
Lance Morgan, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska
Chief Gregory E. Pyle, Choctaw
“We look forward to working with this new group of board members who bring a depth of experience and deep knowledge of working with Native constituents and communities. They will be essential in helping to determine future directions taken by the museum,” said Kevin Gover, Pawnee, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in a museum press release
Governor Bill Anoatubby has been the leader of the Chickasaw Nation, located in Ada, Oklahoma, since 1987. Under his leadership, the Nation has opened the Chickasaw Cultural Center, the Chickasaw Nation Medical Center, the Chickasaw Nation Aviation and Space Academy and several senior citizen centers. The Nation has improved the lives of tribal citizens by focusing on health care, youth programs, education and elder services. Anoatubby has been on several commissions, boards, and councils on the local, state, regional and national level, including the InterTribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, the board of directors for the Ada Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Committee and on the board of trustees for the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in Nation Environmental Policy Foundation, Agencies and Commissions program.
Margaret L. Brown recently retired as the president and chief executive officer of the Cook Inlet Region, Inc., an Alaska Native Corporation located in Anchorage, Alaska. In her position, Brown was responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s corporate strategies, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian programs and policies and procedures. She oversaw all the company’s business operations and was the primary contact with the company’s stakeholders. Brown currently serves on the national board of the Trust for Public Land, the Student Conservation Association and the Alaska Native Heritage Center. She also serves on advisory boards for Alaska Airlines and the University of Alaska Anchorage Honors College. Brown is a 1992 YWCA Woman of Achievement recipient, a 2008 fDi Magazine business personality of the year, a 2009 Alaska Business Hall of Fame laureate and the 2012 Athena Award recipient.
Brenda Child, Ph.D., is a professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She is a well known expert on the American Indian boarding school experience and has written several books on the subject Away From Home: “American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000,” “2000 and Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940, 1998.” She serves on the editorial board of Ethnohistory. She has served as a member of the Native American Council at the Eiteljorg Museum of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana and on the Executive Council of The Minnesota Historical Society.
Lance Morgan is president, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Ho-Chunk, Inc., the award winning economic development corporation owned by the Winnebago Tribe. Ho-Chunk, Inc. aims to promote economic self sufficiency for the Winnebago Tribe and its members by creating jobs through its joint ventures and investments, including hotels, convenience stores, web sites and a temporary labor service provider. The company currently employs over 1,400 workers in ten states and three foreign countries, operates 18 subsidiaries, and has revenues in excess of copy95 million. Ho-Chunk, Inc. also founded and funds a non-profit corporation that provides supplemental capital to individuals and businesses. Morgan is also the managing partner in the law firm of Fredericks, Peebles and Morgan, LLP; he specializes in Indian law and economic development issues.
Chief Gregory Pyle has been the leader of the Choctaw Nation, headquartered in Durant, Oklahoma, since 1997, after serving more than 13 years as assistant chief of the Nation. Under the leadership of Chief Pyle, the Choctaw Nation has put families first, with priorities on education, health and jobs. The Nation’s efforts in economic development have resulted in many profitable tribal businesses such as gaming centers, manufacturing plants and travel plazas, creating numerous jobs and funding tribal programs. Education milestones include the Choctaw Language Program and increasing the scholarship program to serve 5,000 students. Pyle serves on the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, served as the President of the Oklahoma Area Indian Health Board, was a member of SI-435-2008 the National Indian Health Board, and serves on the Board of Directors of Landmark Bank and Durant Chamber of Commerce.
The museum is governed by a 25 member board of trustees, which meets three times a year. Each appointment is three years. The chair of the board is Roberta Leigh Conner, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla, of Pendleton, Oregon. Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough and Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture Richard Kurin are on the board as ex-officio members. Eighteen of the current members are Native American. For more information, go to AmericanIndian.si.edu.
By Alyssa Landry, Indian Country Today Media Network
Dennis wants to photograph people in their home environment, which means he needs a big truck. (Vanishing Cultures Project)
A two-story-high photograph of Joe Yazzie towers over the viewer—every scar, wrinkle and hint of emotion on his face magnified. That face, larger than life, is the very essence of a Navajo man caught between traditional and modern worlds.
Yazzie’s portrait will greet the curious who come to see what promises to be the largest photo exhibit in history—not in terms of the number of photos, but in the size and resolution of those photographs.
Chicago-based photographer Dennis Manarchy is making photographs that dwarf most other prints: at 24 feet tall and with a resolution of 97,000 megapixels, he hopes each portrait will tell the story of one of America’s vanishing cultures.
“We’re going to start the exhibit with my portrait of Joe Yazzie, who is Navajo,” Manarchy says. “When you walk into the exhibit, you’ll see Joe. Your head will be smaller than his pupil. As you approach, you will be engulfed by him.”
That “total cultural immersion” is what Manarchy has in mind for the exhibit, which has been in the works for 12 years. “You’ll remember this for the rest of your life,” he says.
Manarchy plans to unveil his supersize, traveling exhibit, Vanishing Cultures: An American Portrait, by 2014. The exhibit space, which will be about two-thirds the size of a football field, will show America a snapshot of itself, Manarchy claims—a snapshot taken before some of the most precious and endangered cultures in the country deteriorate further.
“Portraits are powerful,” he explains, “but they are so much more powerful with stories. In America, there are essential cultures that are vanishing. The people aren’t vanishing, but the cultural identification is vanishing.”
Take Yazzie, for example. Born near Gallup, New Mexico, he attended boarding schools in which he was forbidden to use his native language. After boarding school, he relocated to Chicago, then was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War. In the process, Yazzie lost much of his Navajo culture. “When you leave your culture, when you’re very young and you move to the city, then when you go home, you don’t fit in,” Yazzie says. “You miss what you were supposed to be, what you were supposed to learn from your parents, your grandparents, the medicine men.”
Yazzie (Dennis Manarchy)
Yazzie married an Italian woman after his wartime service. His two sons had little interest in the Navajo culture, and his 8-year-old grandson has no knowledge of it. “We are losing our tongue, our songs, our culture, our heritage,” he says. “It will not be brought back.
“This project is really about a face that’s going away soon,” Yazzie says. “They’re saying, You better get to know this face because you’ll never see it again. And it’s not just the face, but the story behind it.”
The portrait of Yazzie, 70, a graphic artist in Chicago, represents one of 50 cultures Manarchy hopes to capture on film during a year-long journey that will take him from the Inuit people in Alaska to the Cajun communities in the swamps of Louisiana. The project will include about a dozen American Indian tribes, many of which are experiencing loss of culture and language at alarming rates as the younger generations move to cities.
Manarchy is focusing on cultures that are intact and represent an important chunk of American history. His itinerary includes stops among the Amish of Pennsylvania, railroaders of West Virginia, cowboys of Idaho, motorcyclists of South Dakota and blues women of his hometown of Chicago. Tribes on the itinerary include the Chickasaw and Shawnee in Tennessee, the Comanche Nation in Texas, Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, Hopi in Arizona, Navajo in Utah, Northwest Indians in Washington, Blackfoot in Montana, Cheyenne in Wyoming, the Inuit in Alaska and the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Manarchy and his team plan to stay for a week or two each in 25 to 35 locations, shooting portraits of people representing 50 unique cultures that are being swallowed up or homogenized.
“The purpose of the project is to go to the home environments of different cultures,” project director Chad Tepley says. “Most of these people won’t travel 10 to 15 miles from their homes in their lifetimes, so it’s really important to get the camera to them.”
Manarchy, a commercial photographer with decades of experience, is looking to tell the stories behind every photo, and to preserve cultures with the biggest snapshots he can manage. For that, he insists he needs a big camera. His will fit snugly inside a semi-trailer and produce negatives that are six feet tall.
He also plans to produce documentary films and other educational materials about every culture he encounters. The finished exhibit will include portraits, filmed footage, the negatives and the giant camera itself, which weighs about one ton. “This will be a powerful educational tool,” Tepley says. “It will be a visual social studies class with videos of the cultures. It will be a very powerful way to show children what’s out there.”
The exhibit will be particularly poignant when it comes to teaching children about American Indians, Tepley says. The federal government recognizes 566 American Indian tribes today, though many children grow up believing tribes are the stuff of history or folklore. “They are not aware of the role these people played or the true perspective of how tribes have evolved,” Tepley adds.”
During the planning of the project, Tepley and Manarchy researched tribes to pinpoint the ones whose cultures were most intact. They enlisted help from an advisory committee, including members of several different
Chandra Brown, Gullah Geechee (Dennis Manarchy)
American Indian tribes who are offering cultural advice and will introduce him and his camera to Native communities.
By its nature, the project is bringing various cultures together, says Wendy White Eagle, Ho-Chunk, a project advisor. “I think the conversation today is more important than ever about how everyone is connected,” she says.
Although the exhibit will preserve the cultures as they are being expressed now, the project is not meant to discount future generations who will continue to celebrate tradition. “The world is evolving, not [so] much vanishing,” White Eagle says. “There are people coming behind them, and the expression of the culture might be different, but the core values might not be.”
Opening day of the exhibit still is about two years in the future. He is raising money to pay for the journey, which he estimates will cost more than copy7 million—he and his team hope to embark on the 20,000-mile, cross-country expedition by spring. He will spend a minimum of one year traveling and shooting, then at least six months editing before his exhibit opens in Chicago. Manarchy hopes to have 500 to 600 giant portraits to choose from when setting up the exhibit. He knows that each portrait will tell a story.
“All we really have is our stories,” says Nora Lloyd, Ojibwe, another advisor for the project.
Lloyd, who also posed in front of the camera, praises the project because of its ability to preserve history. She does, however, have some trepidation about seeing a 24-foot-tall reproduction of her face. “Dennis is doing a huge service by preserving things that people otherwise would never hear about, and in an enormously dramatic fashion,” she says. “A face with wrinkles and imperfections makes more interesting subjects. It really does show the essence of someone.”
Courtesy image. Arlington Police recently posted this security camera footage screen-cap on www.CanYouID.me, of a suspect who passed a counterfeit $50 bill at the Union 76 Gas Station at 2513 State Route 530 in Arlington on Jan. 15.
Source: The Marysville Globe
In a modern spin on the “wanted” posters of the Old West, local police departments are using a new website — www.CanYouID.me — to help identify unnamed suspects.
In the wake of the Marysville Police Department’s recent success with the program, the Arlington Police Department has posted a notice of its own on the site — at http://canyouid.me/blog/2013/03/arlington-police-department-case-no-13/apd130130 — asking web surfers if they recognized the suspect in a security camera footage screen-cap who passed a counterfeit $50 bill at the Union 76 Gas Station at 2513 State Route 530 in Arlington on Jan. 15.
The website hosts photos taken via video surveillance cameras in stores and other locations. With purported crimes ranging from credit card theft to robbery, suspects are shown on the website’s main page in the hopes that someone can help put names to their faces.
“The CanYouID.me website now provides a practical tool for law enforcement to partner with the public, to help hold criminals accountable for the crimes that impact our community,” Marysville Police Officer Dan Vinson said.
Marysville Police responded to a report of a shoplifter leaving the Marysville Kmart store with $11,338 in jewelry stolen from a locked display case. Unable to identify the suspect, detectives turned to CanYouID.me for help. Two citizens identified the suspect through the photos posted on the site, and he has since been charged, according to Marysville Police Detective Craig Bartl, who inherited the case from Vinson, who was on detective duty at the time.
CanYouID.me allows anyone who recognizes a suspect in a photo to contact the investigating agency through email with just a simple click. Anonymous tips are also welcome. Since its development by a Lake Forest Park detective in July of 2010, the website has helped identify 20 suspects, with 43 participating agencies and 148 detective signed up with the site. The city of Arlington website will link to its entries on CanYouID.me under its police department link at http://arlingtonwa.gov/index.aspx?page=86.
“The media is very helpful on big cases, but we’ve got tons of lesser crimes that aren’t going to make the evening news, and this is another outlet for that,” Arlington Police Sgt. Jonathan Ventura said. “This goes along with [Arlington Mayor Barbara Tolbert’s] focus on community outreach and embracing social media, because we can’t do this without the public’s help. It’s just a great tool.”
MARYSVILLE — The State Route 529 Ebey Slough Bridge reopened one day early, and opened all four lanes of traffic to the public for the first time at 10:32 a.m. on Sunday, March 10.
While the previously open two lanes on the east side of the bridge were closed on schedule on Friday, March 8, at 8 p.m., the Washington State Department of Transportation had projected keeping the bridge closed until 5 a.m. on Monday, March 11.
The weekend closure allowed bridge traffic to go from one lane in each direction to two lanes each for northbound and southbound traffic, after the concrete barrier separating the west and east lanes of the bridge was removed, and the pavement was re-striped.
Joe Rooney, chief inspector for the project with WSDOT, reported to Kris Olsen of WSDOT Communications that the weekend went well.
“The work went very smoothly,” Olsen said. “We’re very happy with the results, and we hope drivers are as well. The bridge officially reopened to traffic at 10:32 a.m. on Sunday, 18 and a half hours earlier than scheduled. Good weather and a good construction plan played roles in the early completion of the work.”
Besides the removal of the barrier and the re-striping of the highway, crews also installed a stamped concrete sidewalk across SR 529, just south of its intersection with First Street. The red-tinted stamped concrete design was requested by the city of Marysville when WSDOT first began designing the project.
“The look is intended to be a reminder of old-fashioned brick and cobblestone, to fit in with the city’s plans for the waterfront,” said Olsen, who noted that the project has some landscaping left to complete. “We’ll also put down a final layer of asphalt later this spring, in late April or May, since it requires that the ground temperature be 50 degrees or warmer. We’ll need another weekend closure for that.”
Holton family member Randy Reeves shows Elizabeth Guss of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust around a lovely wooded area on the Holton Conservation Easement, which the family placed in the trust. The property, more than 30 acres adjacent to Cama Beach State Park, will now remain wild. Photo: Dan Bates/The Herald
Family donates conservation easement
By Gale Fiege, HeraldNet.com
CAMANO ISLAND — More than 30 acres of forest and wetlands located adjacent to Cama Beach State Park will be preserved forever thanks to a gift from a Camano Island couple.
Joe and Cathy Holton, along with their four sons and seven grandchildren, donated a conservation easement on their property to Whidbey Camano Land Trust, which now ensures that the land remains perpetually protected and free from development.
The Holtons could have made a lot of money selling the property, where theoretically a developer could have built up to 30 houses. At the very least, the family might have sold it for a half-million dollars, said Cathy Holton’s son Randy Reeves, a real estate broker.
“It’s not all altruistic, however,” Reeves said. “My folks have a connection to the land and they happen to have the economic means to preserve it. We have seen our share of misguided, unsustainable development. We believe this is the highest and best use of the property.”
In August 2011, the Holtons attended a community meeting called by the land trust, which was seeking to find potential conservation easements among property owners living near the state parks on Camano.
The Holtons stepped right up, said Elizabeth Guss, development director with the Whidbey Camano Land Trust.
“Their contribution is a beautiful illustration of a family thinking ahead into the future and seeing the big picture,” Guss said. “It’s a way to marry private property rights with the common good.”
Joe and Cathy Holton are known on the island for their generosity and their volunteer work with the Friends of Camano Island Parks. Conservation of some of their property was something they had been considering since they bought it in the 1990s. The Holtons also own a house near the beach as well as a pasture adjacent to the preserved land.
Together, the three generations of the family compared the development opportunities to the conservation values and decided to donate the conservation easement, said Joe Holton, 83.
“The decision was unanimous,” Holton said. “We didn’t want to see a high-density residential development there. We wanted to leave a legacy into the future, for our family and for the community.”
Jeff Wheeler, manager of the Cama Beach State Park said he is pleased with the donation and the buffer it provides for the park.
“I’ve known Joe and Cathy for years and have found them to be wonderful people and great volunteers. With the thoughtful actions of people like Cathy and Joe, this island is a great place for people and the environment to co-exist,” Wheeler said. “(The Holton property) preserves an animal corridor between the two state parks.”
With the donation of the conservation easement, the Holton’s property doesn’t become a public park. It remains in private hands. However, the benefits to the community are numerous, Guss said.
“It’s a significant gift to the larger good, in terms of water sources, wildlife and clean air,” she said.
A public trail that connects Cama Beach and Camano Island Island State Park runs along the east side of the Holton property. On the other side, the property has views of Saratoga Passage.
The 30 acres includes a peat bog, a 10-acre wetland, an upland mature forest that is home to trees estimated to be more than 250 years old.
“My parents didn’t want to see any wildlife move away from here,” Reeves said on Monday as he walked through the property on a deer trail.
The trees on the property include big-leaf maple, vine maple, Western red cedar, Douglas fir, hemlock, madrona and grand fir. The land is covered with sword fern, native nettle, salmonberries and elderberry.
Along with deer, the land is home to other animals and many species of birds.
“We have even seen red-legged frogs, which are not common here, so that’s a good sign that the forest is healthy,” Reeves said. “We have few invasive species here.”
Reeves said trees on the Holton property tell a story.
One can see evidence of a fire that raged across the island in the 1920s along with stumps that are reminders of the logging that took place there in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
“It’s a great example of the regeneration of a forest,” he said.
In his job, Reeves, 52, said he often has real estate clients who aim to pave paradise.
“We want to inspire others to make gifts of conservation easements, which can sometimes mean tax advantages for people,” he said. “Land is a precious resource. It’s about preserving it for future generations.
