The House Bill 1014 passed Wednesday Feb 20th with a vote of 93-4. The bill was sponsored by Tulalip Tribal member and Representative John McCoy along with 26 other representatives. The bill names the state legal holiday on the Friday immediately following Thanksgiving as “Native American Heritage Day.”
The state currently observes 10 legal holidays, most of which are designated for some commemorative distinction and includes the day immediately following Thanksgiving Day, but has no corresponding name or distinction.
“This is a respectful way to acknowledge Native American heritage. The recognition is consistent with the recognition of long-term contributions of tribes, including tribes located outside of Washington with treaty rights and aboriginal land inside the state. It addresses the stigma associated with Thanksgiving Day,” was stated within the bill.
There are 29 federally recognized tribes in the state and many other tribal communities that are not federally recognized as well as individuals who claim Native American ancestry who may or may not be enrolled members of a tribe.
Native American Heritage Day has been recognized as a state holiday in Maryland since 2008. States California, Tennessee and South Dakota also have an American Indian Day or a Native American Day
In 2008 President George W. Bush signed a joint resolution by Congress designating Friday, November 28, 2008, as Native American Heritage Day, and encouraged federal, state, and local governments to observe the date as tribute to the contributions Native Americans have made to the United States. In 2010 President Barack Obama proclaimed November 2010 as Native American Heritage Month, and called upon all Americans to celebrate November 26, 2010, the day after Thanksgiving, as Native American Heritage Day.
Call out to community! Indigenous people, Two Spirits-Idle No More-Allies & everyone concerned about respect for the Earth and the rights of Native people and women. Hosted by Gabriel Teodoros & Storme Webber, this will be a community sharing of conversation & culture.
Elders and children are especially welcomed, as are those Native people who have been sharing at teach-ins and gatherings here in the Seattle area. Allies are welcome!
Community is invited to share songs, poems, words or any creative expressions~
We invite you to bring something for the potluck so we can share a meal &/or snacks.
Admission is free.
Any questions: write us at voicesrising@gmail.com
From the Idle No More website:
“INM has and will continue to help build sovereignty & resurgence of nationhood
INM will continue to pressure government and industry to protect the environment
INM will continue to build allies in order to reframe the nation to nation relationship, this will be done by including grassroots perspectives, issues and concerns”
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20, 2013 – The poverty rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives in Rapid City, S.D. (50.9 percent) was around three times the rate in Anchorage, Alaska (16.6 percent) and about 30 percent or greater in five other cities most populated by this group (Gallup, N.M.; Minneapolis; Rapid City, S.D.; Shiprock, N.M.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Zuni Pueblo, N.M.), according to American Community Survey data collected from 2007 to 2011 by the U.S. Census Bureau. See figure.
Nine states had poverty rates of about 30 percent or more for American Indians and Alaska Natives (Arizona, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah).
“With the American Community Survey, we can look at the poverty rates for even the smallest race and Hispanic-origin groups,” said Suzanne Macartney, an analyst in the Census Bureau’s Poverty Statistics Branch.
These figures come from Poverty Rates for Selected Detailed Race and Hispanic Groups by State and Place: 2007-2011, an American Community Survey brief that presents poverty rates by race and Hispanic origin for the United States, each state and the District of Columbia. For the nation and each state, poverty rates are summarized for the major race groups. For the nation, each state and selected places, poverty rates are summarized for American Indians and Alaska Natives, detailed Asian groups with populations of 750,000 or more, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander groups with populations of 25,000 or more and Hispanic-origin groups with populations of 1 million or more.
Two race groups had poverty rates more than 10 percentage points higher than the national rate of 14.3 percent: American Indian and Alaska Native (27.0 percent) and black or African- American (25.8 percent). Rates were above the overall national average for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders (17.6 percent), while poverty rates for people identified as white (11.6 percent) or Asian (11.7 percent) were lower than the overall poverty rate. Poverty rates for whites and Asians were not statistically different from each other. The Hispanic population had a poverty rate of 23.2 percent, about nine percentage points higher than the overall U.S. rate.
Other highlights:
According to the 2007-2011 American Community Survey, 42.7 million people in the United States, or 14.3 percent, had income below the poverty level.
For the Asian population, poverty rates were higher for Vietnamese (14.7 percent) and Koreans (15.0 percent) and lower for Filipinos (5.8 percent). Poverty rates for Vietnamese and Koreans were not statistically different from each other.
For Asians, nine states had poverty rates below 10 percent (Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina).
Among Hispanics, national poverty rates ranged from a low of 16.2 percent for Cubans to a high of 26.3 percent for Dominicans.
The American Community Survey provides a wide range of important statistics about people and housing for every community across the nation. The results are used by everyone from town and city planners to retailers and homebuilders. The survey is the only source of local estimates for most of the 40 topics it covers, such as education, occupation, language, ancestry and housing costs for even the smallest communities. Ever since Thomas Jefferson directed the first census in 1790, the census has collected detailed characteristics about our nation’s people. Questions about jobs and the economy were added 20 years later under James Madison, who said such information would allow Congress to “adapt the public measures to the particular circumstances of the community,” and over the decades allow America “an opportunity of marking the progress of the society.”
On 08-06-2012 at approximately 4:00 AM, the Tulalip Liquor Store at 8825 Quil Ceda Blvd was burglarized. Suspects entered the store by breaking a rear window. Surveillance Video shows that two male suspects were involved. Once inside the store cash was taken from the safe. The suspect vehicle was parked on the south bound I-5 off ramp at 88th Street.
A black ski type mask and a pair of black gloves were left behind at the scene. Those items have been collected and sent to the crime lab for forensic processing.
The Tulalip Police Department is offering a $1000 reward for any information resulting in the successful arrest and prosecution of the persons responsible for this crime. As always, you can remain anonymous.
TULALIP, Wash.- “I never want to look at my granddaughter and say, sorry, there’s a one in three chance that you’ll be raped, sweetie,” exclaimed Theresa Pouley during the Lifting Our Sisters Up event held at the Hibulb Cultural Center on Feb 13th. Theresa Pouley is Chief Judge at Tulalip Tribal Court and a Colville tribal member; she was selected as one of the four witnesses asked to speak at the event.
It’s a shocking statistic when you realize it and if you turn to count the number of women in your own family; one in three of these women may have reported some type of sexual violence. Keep in mind though, 54 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to police. Until a remedial solution is found, Native woman will remain unprotected through current laws.
For Native women that are victims forging their way to become survivors, it is an uphill battle with the current laws in place today. The current ruling comes from a 1978 United States Supreme Court case, Oliphant v. Suquamish. The Supreme Court sided with Oliphant, stating that Indian Tribal courts do not have inherent criminal jurisdiction to try and convict non-Indians. The ruling ultimately left a loophole for offenders in which violence involving a non-Indian and an Indian on tribal land will result in the case being moved to federal court and since many cases don’t make it that far, and are unable to be prosecuted in tribal court offenders are able to walk free.
At the Lifting Our Sisters Up event Native woman gathered to share the painful truth of the peril that Native American woman are facing. Tulalip Vice Chairwoman, Deborah Parker opened the event by speaking encouraging words, “Today we are hoping to lift each other up, as sisters, as mothers, as aunties. Hopefully the words that are said here today will help you with your healing”.
The day of healing was filled with songs, prayers, and many tears. Women from Tulalip and surrounding tribes came forward to recount some of the most painful moments in their lives in order to break the silence and say, violence against Native women is more prevalent than you know, because it happened to them.
Tulalip Tribal member Carolyn Moses related memories of her youth growing up with domestic violence in her home life. She explained how her mother learned to be strong, and became a single mother who worked two jobs so that she could break the cycle of domestic violence and her children and her grandchildren would not have to endure it in their futures.
The Lifting our sisters Up event enabled women to speak out and tell the stories that are rarely shared in order to heal their spirit so that they may grow to be stronger women. The act of sharing personal hardships relieves some of the weight and to let go of the pain that can hold them down.
“Share your story, if someone can take what happened to you and use that. If someone is reaching out to you, help them, no matter if you get along with them or not,” urged witness and Tulalip tribal member Courtney Sheldon after recounting the injustices made against herself and her loved ones.
In order to overcome this hardship the laws in place need to change, whether it comes through VAWA or other means. Some may say they don’t understand the need for this type of rule adjustment and will even call it unconstitutional for non-Indians to be prosecuted in tribal courts. But, violations against Native women and some cases Native men need to be halted and the violators need to be held accountable for the life they ruin. What chance does a culture have to thrive when it is being torn down?
“We [Native Women] are an endangered species and what will happen to our tribal nations?” argued witness Cheryl Coan; who is from the Dine’ Nation and works at Tulalip’s Legacy of Healing.
To help spread the truth Canal Plus was invited to document these stories. Canal Plus, a French premium pay television channel that airs throughout Europe is similar to HBO in the U.S. Featured among many television selections, short documentary segments which focus on stories that are seldom told. Intrigued by the situation, Canal Plus traveled to Tulalip in order to document the stories of Native American women and the accounts of sexual assault and acts of violence which plague Indian Country.
Federal Emergency Management AgencyU.S. Department of Homeland Security500 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20472
February 20, 2013
NEW ORLEANS – Pottery sherds, animal bones and pieces of clay tobacco pipes are among the items recently discovered by a team of archaeologists under contract to the Federal Emergency Management Agency surveying land near Bayou St. John in New Orleans.
“It was a bit of a surprise to find this,” said FEMA Louisiana Recovery Office Deputy Director of Programs Andre Cadogan, referencing a small, broken pottery fragment. “We clearly discovered pottery from the late Marksville period, which dates to 300-400 A.D. The pottery was nice, easily dateable, and much earlier than we expected. This is exciting news for historians and Tribal communities as it represents some of the only intact prehistoric remains of its kind south of Lake Pontchartrain.”
The Bayou St. John spot holds a prominence in New Orleans’ history, throughout the years serving as the location of a Native American occupation, a French fort, a Spanish fort, an American fort, a resort hotel and then an amusement park. Through a series of shovel tests and methodological excavation, the archaeologists discovered evidence of the early Native Americans, the colonial period and the hotel.
“The historical record tells us that the shell midden (or mound) created by the Native American occupation was destroyed by the French when they built their fort here,” said Cadogan. “However, we’ve discovered, through archaeology, that rather than destroy the midden, the French cut off the top of it and used it as a foundation for their fort.”
FEMA’s work near Bayou St. John is part of an agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office, Indian Tribes and the state to perform archaeological surveys of parks and public land in the city of New Orleans. It falls under FEMA’s Environmental and Historic Preservation program, which evaluates historical and environmental concerns that may arise from projects funded by federal dollars.
FEMA hazard mitigation funding was used for thousands of home elevations and reconstructions throughout Louisiana. Rather than evaluate every property for archaeological remains—a nearly impossible task—FEMA, the State Historic Preservation Office and various consulting parties signed an agreement, which allowed FEMA to conduct alternate studies such as the archaeological surveys.
“The surveys not only offset potential destruction of archaeological resources on private property from the home mitigations but also give us a leg up on any future storms. We are helping the state of Louisiana learn about its history as well as provide information that leads to preparedness for the next event,” said Cadogan.
FEMA, in coordination with the State Historic Preservation Office and Indian Tribes, identified the areas to be surveyed. Once the field studies are completed and all of the artifacts are analyzed and recorded, the State Historic Preservation Office will become stewards of the information.
TUCSON, Ariz. – Feb. 20, 2013 — Lowe’s is continuing its support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Shamrocks program.
Lowe’s started selling Shamrocks in February at its regional distribution centers, offices and more than 1,700 stores throughout the United States; the campaign will continue through March 31.
The home improvement retailer — with help from its employees and loyal customers — is attempting to raise millions to assist MDA in providing critical service programs and accessible summer camp experiences for individuals and families affected by neuromuscular diseases across the country.
Lowe’s teamed up with MDA in 2001 for its Shamrocks program in a number of states and became an MDA national sponsor in 2007. Lowe’s and its customers raised more than $7.7 million in 2012, setting a record for retailers supporting the Shamrocks campaign. To date, Lowe’s has raised nearly $30 million for MDA.
Lowe’s customers can purchase and sign $1 green, $5 gold and $20 platinum Shamrocks mobiles. Many Lowe’s employees decorate their store walls or create and assemble creative and amazing displays with Shamrocks to spotlight customers’ support of MDA.
“Thanks to the hard work of Lowe’s employees and their loyal customers, MDA families have benefited greatly through the years,” said Kevin Moran, MDA executive vice president and chief business development officer. “We’re honored to work with Lowe’s to offer help and hope to those we serve through the simple, yet meaningful, act of buying a Shamrock.”
About Lowe’s
Lowe’s supports the communities it serves through programs that focus on K-12 public education and community improvement projects. The company’s signature education grant program, Lowe’s Toolbox for Education®, has donated more than $34 million to 7,500 K-12 public schools, benefiting more than 4 million schoolchildren. Lowe’s Heroes employee volunteers support local community projects and our national nonprofit partners such as Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Together and the American Red Cross. In 2012, Lowe’s and the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation together contributed more than $30 million to support communities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. To learn more, visit Lowes.com/SocialResponsibility.
About MDA
MDA is the nonprofit health agency dedicated to finding treatments and cures for muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases by funding worldwide research. The Association also provides comprehensive health care and support services, advocacy and education.
In addition to funding more than 250 research projects worldwide, MDA maintains a national network of 200 medical clinics; facilitates hundreds of support groups for families affected by neuromuscular diseases; and provides local summer camp opportunities for thousands of youngsters living with progressive muscle diseases.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Squaxin Island Tribe, the Port of Olympia, the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group (SPSSEG), and private landowners are joining together to clear toxic derelict pilings and other structures from much of the southern end of Budd Inlet in Olympia.
The work, which is funded by the 2012 Jobs Now Act, begins this week and continues through March 14. The project is expected to cost roughly $278,000.
The Squaxin Island Tribe’s involvement in the project began when they received three acres of tideland as a donation from a family estate. The tidelands included 224 pilings from a former industrial site.
“We saw this as an opportunity to restore these tidelands by taking out the pilings that are leaching pollutants into Budd Inlet,” said Andy Whitener, Natural Resources Director for the tribe. “There is a lot of work to be done in Budd Inlet to restore its ecological function. Getting these pilings out of here is a great start.”
By mid-March some 400 derelict pilings and 7,000 square-feet of abandoned docks and piers that represented the last reminders of a lower Budd Inlet shoreline once lined with lumber and plywood mills will be removed and shipped to the Roosevelt Landfill in Klickitat County.
It marks the latest step in a slow but steady transformation of West Bay Drive in Olympia from an industrial corridor to a collection of parks, office buildings and shoreline property undergoing hazardous waste cleanup and redevelopment.
The piling and dock removal project stretches across 1.2 miles of shoreline in lower Budd Inlet. It is spearheaded by the state Department of Natural Resources and also features four properties owned by the Port of Olympia, West Bay Reliable, the Delta Illahee Limited Partnership and the Squaxin Island Tribe.
Eagle Rock, located in the McCloud River canyon in Northern California, is sacred to the Winnemem Wintu and has been desecrated with graffiti and carvings. Photo by Marc Dadigan.
Marc Dadigan, Indian Country Today Media Network
This October, not far from Bishop, California five petroglyphs sacred to tribes in the area including the Paiute, Shoshone and Mono were stolen by vandals using chainsaws and ladders. Government officials compared the crime to cutting holes in the Wailing Wall.
On the other end of the state, about an hour from the Oregon border, the Winnemem Wintu’s sacred Eagle Rock, which is still a ceremonial place in use by the tribe, has long suffered desecrations by vandals carving initials into or spray-painting the rock.
Throughout the state, tribal leaders say sacred sites and burial sites are far too vulnerable to vandalism and destruction via development, and California State Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) agrees.
Gatto recently introduced a “placeholder” for Assembly Bill 52, which states his intent to enact legislation to improve the protection of sacred and cultural sites by requiring developers to consult with the appropriate tribes “prior to project initiation.”
“I think the state of California has not been great custodians of our history,” Gatto said. “After everything we’ve put our Native people through, it would be really wrong and a travesty if we allowed sacred sites to disappear.”
Gatto said he expects his office will spend the next two months consulting with tribes around the state, including federally unrecognized tribes, about what language would make the bill most effective.
He said the bill won’t have to be in final form until August, who added he thinks there is significant pressure to better protect sacred sites after the Bishop petroglyph incident.
Raymond Andrews, the Bishop Paiute Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, said he thinks it’s vital that tribes are brought to the table as a stakeholder at the very start of any development project.
“We told them we don’t just want to be asked to comment after they’ve drawn up all their plans and are already moving forward,” Andrews said. “We want to be right there when they’re planning these projects because they do affect us and our land, and we’re not going to change who we are.”
Gatto agreed that all too often tribes are only consulted well into the planning process when the development has gained significant momentum, which can make it a “fait accompli,” he said.
One possible solution, he said, might be to create a register of sacred sites, some of which would be private to protect the location of sensitive sites. Once a site was listed, it would have enhanced protections, and developers would be required to use the database to check for nearby sacred sites before they even begin planning a project, Gatto said.
“It would put everyone on notice well in advance that there are genuine sacred sites in the area,” Gatto said. “It would limit the criticism that people using laws to protect sacred sites are simply anti-development.”
One limitation of the bill is that it would only apply to state and local agencies, and, thus, would not apply to the many sacred sites located in land currently managed by federal agencies.
“The other stakeholders don’t know the tribes, they don’t know how to come in and be partners,” Andrews said. “They call us a stakeholder with the backpackers and horsemen, but our longevity and subsistence are tied to the land.”
People who are interested in providing input on the bill can contact Gatto’s legislative aide, Katerina Robinson at katerina.robinson@asm.ca.gov.
The crowd at a climate rally in downtown Denver February 17 numbered up to 500 at its height. The rally was in solidarity with a climate event that drew thousands in Washington, D.C. and in at least 15 states and it included a protest against the Keystone XL Pipeline. Photo: Carol Berry.
Carol Berry, Indian Country Today Media Network
The controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, if approved, will be “built through sacred sites, traditional camp grounds and areas full of Native history,” warned a young Native woman whose organization, Idle No More, was one of 30 Colorado groups rallying in Denver February 17 as thousands of activists gathered in the nation’s capital and elsewhere.
Taryn Soncee Waters, 21, Cheyenne/Oglala Lakota/Cherokee, described the danger to Native patrimony to those gathered at a downtown Denver park in balmy weather. Cheyenne Birdshead, 17, Southern Cheyenne/Arapaho, another Idle organizer and speaker, described being arrested “simply for taking part in one of our Native dances.”
Local Idle concerns about damage to Mother Earth and Native culture from the Keystone XL Pipeline meshed with worries about “climate chaos” and other ecological issues raised by various groups at the rally, but the Idle voice was uniquely defiant, learned from generations of those who refused to yield.
People attending the rally in Denver February 17 were asked to wear dark clothing in order to depict an oil spill of the kind described as likely to happen with any pipeline, including the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline. (Carol Berry)
To bring the XL Pipeline issues home graphically, black-clad participants in the #Forward on Climate Solidarity March and Rally depicted an “oil spill”—an occurrence inevitable with pipelines, they said—by lying in a large group, a self-styled blob, on a paved area near Denver’s Civic Center Park.
There were speeches, musical numbers, and the opportunity to sign petitions, one of them urging President Barack Obama not to approve the 1,700-mile Keystone XL Pipeline that would move heavy crude oil from vast Alberta tar sands southeastward, eventually reaching U.S. Gulf-area refineries and ports.
At least one speaker voiced the concern that while Obama did not approve the pipeline’s first application, additional environmental compliance and political factors could lead to his approving the second planned route, which may avoid the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills in Nebraska but not the underlying Ogallala Aquifer, a major source of U.S. water.
Marchers at a 30-organization climate crisis rally in Denver headed toward downtown’s Civic Center Park, with Idle No More leaders Cheyenne Birdshead (left) and Taryn Soncee Waters heading up the line. (Carol Berry)
Rally organizers quoted NASA scientist James Hansen as saying that “burning oil in the Canadian tar sands [source of the Keystone XL Pipeline’s crude oil] could eventually raise the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere to 600 ppm [parts per million], which he said would be ‘game over’ for a safe climate.”
The 350.org, one of the event’s co-sponsors, is named for what many scientists deem the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—350 ppm, organizers said in a press release.
In addition to 350Colorado, rally co-sponsors included Idle, the American Indian Movement of Colorado, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Environment Colorado, Protect Our Colorado, What the Frack?! Arapahoe, Earth Guardians, PLAN-Boulder County, Be the Change, Clean Energy Action, Eco-Justice Ministries, Colorado Move to Amend, Climate Ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, AspenSnowmass, Protect Our Winters, and 14 Colorado GoFossilFree.org Campus Divestment Campaigns.
Although tar sands and climate change protests in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere have produced numbers of celebrity and other arrests, Idle events in the Denver area so far have been arrest-free—except for one in January at a mall in Broomfield, a community north of Denver, where Birdshead was taken into police custody after Round Dancing and where others were also cited for trespassing.
“I myself was arrested simply for taking part in one of our Native dances,” she recalled as she addressed the current rally. “It used to be illegal for our people to do our songs, dances and ceremonies. But we still have them because our ancestors did them even though they faced imprisonment.”
This week the arrestees were to have been charged in court for trespass, but the charges were dropped. Birdshead said they had been willing to go to trial, if necessary, because “doing the right thing isn’t always easy but we do it for the future generations, just like our ancestors did it for us.”
There was no obvious police presence at the Denver rally, although uniformed state parks officials were checking to make sure the Sierra Club-obtained park permit was being used according to regulations—and it was, they said.
Birdshead’s grandmother, 70-plus Virginia Allrunner, Cheyenne, is an inspiring and reliable presence at the Idle events, even though in many ways they’re largely youth-focused: A 12-year-old, Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez, leader of the Earth Guardians youth group, emceed the current rally and Native emphasis generally has targeted the legacy that will be left for children and grandchildren.
“We will not retreat. We will not stop. We will go forward to protect Mother Earth. We are Idle No More,” the young women chanted together as they concluded their presentation before the hundreds at the Denver rally.
