President Barack Obama honored civilians with the second-highest civilian honor—the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal—on Friday, February 15 and the list of 13 includes Indian country’s own Billy Mills.
“It is my distinguished honor to award these individuals the 2012 Citizens Medal for their commitment to public service,” Obama said in a White House press release. “Their selflessness and courage inspire us all to look for opportunities to better serve our communities and our country.”
Mills along with the other 12 honorees were among a group of 6,000 nominations.
The Oglala Lakota citizen, is remembered for his unexpected gold medal in the 10,000 meter run during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – and remains the only American to win the event. Mills served as a First lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, and was made a warrior following his Olympic performance. In 1986 he co-founded Running Strong for American Indian Youth with Eugene Krizek, president of Christian Relief Services, “an organization that supports cultural programs and provides health and housing assistance for Native American communities,” according to the release.
In 1969 the Citizens Medal was established to honor “American citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” the release states.
By Rob Capriccioso, source: Indian Country Today Media Network
The much scrutinized fiscal decision-making of the U.S. Congress today kept the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA) from meeting for its first business session of the year.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., had planned to chair her first business meeting on February 14 of the tribally focused committee she was appointed by Senate leadership to oversee in January.
But the Senate Rules Committee, the committee in charge of handling committee budgets, has not sent Cantwell an operating budget, so her plans were upended, and she was forced to postpone the meeting to a yet unscheduled date in the future.
“The purpose of today’s organizing meeting was for the members of the committee to approve the committee budget,” said Emily Deimel, a spokeswoman for Cantwell. “However, the Senate has yet to provide any of the committees with an operating budget, so we had to postpone today’s meeting until we know what our overall budget will look like.”
In response to a question on when operating budgets are usually handed out, Deimel said, “We should have received them already and at this point do not have a firm timeline.”
SCIA should be able to proceed soon with other types of meetings, including legislative and oversight ones, even with the budget in limbo, Deimel added—a good thing for Indian country, since some Senate staffers have been told that there might not be any finalized committee budgets until Congress decides what it is going to do before the March 1 sequestration deadline. If no deal is worked out between the House and Senate before then, dramatic spending cuts across the board would automatically hit all federal government sectors, including many programs that provide financial support to tribes and Indians.
Carolyn Moses (left) and Judge Theresa Pouley acted as witnesses during a healing event called “Lifting Our Sisters Up” held at the Hibulb Cultural Center longhouse in Tulalip on Wednesday. More than 50 women gathered to discuss violence against native women, share personal accounts of struggle and give support to each other. Photo: Genna Martin / The Herald
Courageously she stood, a blanket around her shoulders. Roxanne Chinook wasn’t alone in the Tulalip Tribes‘ Hibulb Cultural Center Longhouse.
More than 50 women and girls, elders to middle schoolers, crowded together on plank seats. For their ancestors, a longhouse was a place to hear stories. At Wednesday’s gathering, called “Lifting Our Sisters Up,” they listened and shared.
“The blankets are to cover you for protection,” said Deborah Parker, vice chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes.
Then Chinook told her harrowing story, an account of being raped — by a non-Indian — on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon.
“I am a survivor of 13 rapes,” said Chinook, who works for the Tulalips’ Legacy of Healing, a victims’ advocacy program. Years ago, she tried hiding her pain in a fog of substance abuse. “Why did I make myself so vulnerable? Many women you see in Indian country who are hard-drinking, those are women carrying that kind of pain,” Chinook said.
It was a piercing, personal memory. And a camera was rolling.
A French film crew was in the longhouse Wednesday working on a documentary that will air on the Canal Plus network. “It’s like the HBO of France,” said Sabrina Van Tassel, the filmmaker visiting Tulalip with camerman Cyril Thomas. Van Tassel said the short film will air on a French show called “Butterfly Effect,” which examines issues in other countries.
The film’s subject is the Violence Against Women Act, which U.S. senators voted Tuesday to reauthorize. It’s legislation first passed in 1994. The law includes money for prosecution of violent crimes against women.
Last year, House Republicans did not support its renewal. One big reason the House rejected the measure was a new provision that would allow tribal police and courts to pursue and try non-Indians who attack women on tribal land. Federal law enforcement has jurisdiction in such cases, but access is limited at the very least by distance.
Legislation passed Tuesday by the Senate includes the tribal provisions. The House is now expected to take up the Violence Against Women Act, and Parker is pushing for equal treatment of crimes that happen on Indian reservations.
Last April, the Tulalips’ vice chairwoman was in Washington, D.C., where she spoke at a press conference with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in support of the law, which died in 2012 without a House vote. Interviewed in December by Herald writer Rikki King, Murray said Parker has become “the voice and face” of the issue. “I know it’s taken a lot of courage on her part, and I know it’s making a difference,” Murray said.
As she did in the nation’s capital, Parker shared her own nightmarish stories in the longhouse Wednesday.
“My aunt was being abused when I was baby-sitting her children. She was brutally raped,” Parker said. All she could do, she said, was protect the children by hiding with them in a closet. Parker also remembers being raped as a small child. “I was the size of a couch cushion,” she said. “I was choked and I was raped. I tell my story so that others can receive healing,” she said.
Parker stood beside her teenage daughter, Kayah George, and said “I can place one more woman beside me, and one of us will be raped.”
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., quoted by The New York Times on Sunday, cited statistics showing that tribal women are two and a half times more likely than other American women to be raped, with 1 in 3 Indian women becoming victims of sexual assault.
The French film crew has also done interviews on the Rosebud and Yankton Sioux reservations in South Dakota. “A lot of people ask why, why would French people want to know about this?” said Van Tassel. “Why wouldn’t they?”
Among four honored witnesses to Wednesday’s gathering, which included traditional songs and prayers, was the Tulalip Tribal Court’s Chief Judge Theresa Pouley. The court is part of the Northwest Intertribal Court System, established in 1979.
Pouley is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. “Let tribal court judges take care of crime on reservations. This isn’t about tribal court judges. This is about protecting our women,” Pouley said.
“I’m a Washington State Bar Association member. I should have to prove I’m competent or capable? Really? It’s time to stop having that conversation,” the judge said. “I never want to say to my granddaughter, ‘There’s a 1 in 3 chance you’ll be raped, sweetie.'”
Out of several thousand applicants for the Blue Ribbon Small Business Award, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has bestowed the honor on Native American-owned security firm Personnel Security Consultants, Inc. (PSC) as one of 100 winners representing the best small businesses in America.
The award recognizes small firms with fewer than 250 employees and gross revenues of less than $20 million for its customer service, community involvement, staff training and motivation, a press release states. The award, sponsored by Sam’s Club, also recognizes business strategies and goals. PSC was the only Blue Ribbon winner in New Mexico and one of two Native American small businesses selected in the U.S.
“It’s exciting to know that a small business started in my home is being recognized alongside bigger businesses with dozens of employees,” PSC President & CEO Michele Justice (Navajo) said in the release. “It’s recognition for the hard work, determination and sacrifice. It’s assurance that we’re doing the right thing even through all the struggles. And it’s a big dream that we’ve really worked to make a reality.”
An investigative firm specializing in personnel security and employment suitability with a staff of 18, PSC serves more than 280 tribes and tribal programs, in addition the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, temp screening services and casinos.
The firm, created in 2004, focuses on personnel security training, adjudications and tailored employee background investigations. PSC continues to be the only authorized liaison between the BIA and the FBI to aid tribes in obtaining employee fingerprints for a FBI criminal history record search to meet the requirements of the 1990 Indian Child Protection and Violence Protection.
Blue Ribbon winners will be honored at America’s Small Business Summit 2013 on April 29 – May 1 in Washington, D.C. On Friday, February 15, the U.S. Chamber will announce seven award finalists. One of the seven will be named the DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year during the summit. The winner will be presented with a copy0,000 cash prize courtesy of the U.S. Chamber.
“The Blue Ribbon Award winners show that, even facing uncertainty and economic challenges, small businesses can grow and succeed,” U.S. Chamber president and CEO Thomas J. Donohue said in the press release. “They are America’s economic engine, driving growth and job creation all across this country.”
Blue Ribbon awardees are also eligible for the Community Excellence Award, an online contest that allows people to support their favorite Blue Ribbon winner and celebrate the business’ commitment to their community. The Community Excellence Award winner will receive a free, two-night hotel stay during the business summit. Deadline to vote is 5 p.m. EST February 22. To vote for PSC, go to https://dreambigaward.wufoo.com/forms/community-excellence-award-2013/.
Photo Courtesy of Running Strong for American Indian Youth website
By Monica Brown, Tulalip Writer
President Barack Obama will be honoring civilians today with the second-highest civilian honor—the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal— in 1969 the Citizens Medal was established to honor American citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.
Among the list of 13 selected is Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota. Mills co-founded and serves as the spokesman for Running Strong for American Indian Youth, an organization that supports cultural programs and provides health and housing assistance for Native American communities.
“I am humbled and honored to be recognized by the President in this extraordinary way,” said Billy on the Running Strong for American Indian Youth website. “The most powerful thing you can give to a child is a dream. I hope every child in Indian Country knows what is possible if you follow your dream.”
Mills is most remembered for his unexpected Gold Medal win in the 10,000 meter run during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Today, he remains the only American to ever win this event it is is frequently referred to as the greatest Olympic distance race of all time. Afterwards Mills received his Lakota name, “Makoce Te’hila” which means “Loves His Country” or more traditionally “Respects the Earth”.
Today Billy travels over 300 days every year. He visits American Indian communities throughout the U.S. and speaks to American Indian youth about healthy lifestyles and taking pride in their heritage, states the website for running Strong.
Mills along with the other 12 honorees were among a group of 6,000 nominations.
A meteor streaked across the early-morning sky in Russia and exploded into a fireball on Friday over the industrial city of Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains.
The shockwave injured 500 people, most of whom were hit by shattered glass from blown-out windows, media reports said. Chelyabinsk is 950 miles east of Moscow, according to Reuters.
The meteor’s white contrail was visible up to 125 miles away in Yekaterinburg, Reuters reported. The 10-ton space rock set off car alarms and disrupted mobile phone networks as it broke upon entering the atmosphere at 33,000 miles per hour, faster than a bullet.
Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences said the meteor exploded 20 or 30 miles above Earth, according to a statement quoted by The New York Times. Reuters said 112 people were hospitalized and 297 buildings were damaged.
The meteor strike bears eerie parallels to one that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and has been invoked often over the past several days in comparison to the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14, which will happen today at around 2:30 p.m. That one will pass 17,200 miles from Earth, which is within the orbit of communications and weather satellites (which are 22,000 miles up) but does not pose a threat.
MUKILTEO — Snohomish County Business Watch plans to offer training this spring for business professionals about what to do in case of a mass-shooting.
The training costs $5 and is planned for 11:30 a.m. April 16 at Mukilteo City Hall,11930 Cyrus Way.
“The training is geared toward businesses but has an overall common theme that is applicable to everyone,” Mukilteo crime prevention officer Cheol Kang said.
Speakers are set to include Everett police officer Eddie Golden and Stillaguamish tribal police officer Matt Nelson.
People interested in attending should RSVP to rsvp@thescbw.org or via the group[‘]s Facebook page. Lunch is included.
Additional training is planned later this year regarding disaster preparedness and preventing cybercrime and identity theft.
Some neighbors have used barges and boats to remove salvaged materials from their houses at Mission Beach. The residents have to remove their homes and be off the Tulalip Tribes property by the end of March. Photo: Dan Bates / The Herald
TULALIP — For 50 years, Jaime Erickson’s family has been spending summers and weekends at their cabin on scenic Mission Beach.
Bruce Agnew’s family has had a cabin on the beach since 1925.
Mike Carey’s in-laws have had a place there for 90 years.
None of them own the beachfront property on which their cabins sit, however. They’ve been leasing the land from the Tulalip Tribes, and the tribes want it back.
The 24 tenants had to be out by the end of December and the cabins have to be gone by the end of March. The buildings — some basic, some funky, some quaint — are being taken apart and torn down, one by one.
“We’re all real sad. It’s a lot of memories,” said Erickson, 55, whose full-time home is in Everett.
The quarter-mile section of beach is located southeast of Tulalip Bay, below 59th Street NW, also called Mission Beach Heights Road.
The cabins are built right on the beach, up against a steep slope. Most of the bank has been eroding for years and slides have been an issue, Tulalip spokeswoman Francesca Hillery said.
The tenants, most of them on long-term leases of up to 30 years, were given notice in 2005 that they had to be out by the end of 2012 — more than seven years ahead of time, Hillery said. They were sent reminder notices again in June, she said.
The leases stipulated that any structures on the property be removed at the renters’ expense when the lease expires, Hillery said. The leases also were intentionally timed to end simultaneously, she said.
The tribes haven’t yet decided what to do with the beach but the most likely choice is to restore it to a natural state, Hillery said.
“The likelihood of doing anything other than restoring the beach doesn’t look good because of the instability of the slopes” and because of salmon recovery efforts, she said.
Hillery declined to comment on whether the public would have access to the beach if it is restored.
Erickson said the leases had been renewed so many times over the years that few thought they’d actually have to leave.
“Everyone’s in denial,” she said. “I never believed it.”
Residents said there is some anger about the situation, but at the same time, they understand the property isn’t theirs.
“A lease is a lease, unfortunately,” said Carey, who lives in Bellingham. “It is what it is.”
Only a few of the tenants live at the beach full time, Erickson said. For most, the homes are part-time dwellings. Still, the families have spent so much time at their cabins over the years that leaving and tearing them down is difficult.
“The tribe has been working with us very closely but the reality is my family has been there since 1925,” said Agnew, a former Snohomish County Council member. “Tribal members who are very family-oriented can certainly understand the tragedy in losing a place we’ve had since 1925 with irreplaceable family memories.”
The beach has a significant, colorful history.
The beach was named for a Catholic missionary church established nearby in the earliest years of the reservation, in 1858 by the Rev. E.C. Chirouse, according to Snohomish County historian David Dilgard.
In later years, the atmosphere at the beach was anything but pious.
Agnew, who grew up in Everett, said that early in the 20th century, his great-grandfather and others frequented fishing shacks on Mission Beach.
“The mining and fishing barons of Everett would go over and play cards and get away from their families,” he said. “They’d take tugboats out there and drink and gamble and carouse away from the watchful eye of their families on Rucker Hill.”
That tradition did not quite die out, according to Erickson.
The wooden decks on most of the homes ran together.
“It was just one big family. Everybody walked the deck and had cocktails with each other,” she said. “It was a fun, fun beach.”
The strip of sand boasts southwestern exposure with sweeping views of Whidbey Island, Hat Island, Possession Sound and Everett.
“The best time to be out there was with the storms and the connection with nature, the wild storms and tides,” said Agnew, who now lives on Mercer Island. “Where else do you find white sandy beach 45 minutes from downtown Seattle without railroad tracks in front and without a ferry to take? There’s no substitute for it.”
Some of the tenants are paying Carey, who has a construction business, to tear down their cabins with an excavator. He said most are paying him between $9,000 and $11,000.
Friends, relatives, acquaintances and charity groups have been salvaging fixtures and appliances, according to Erickson.
“It’s kind of a free-for-all. Everyone’s just coming out here and taking what they want,” she said.
Some are having their places taken down piece by piece and hauled away by boat.
“I’ve worked down here for 30 years on people’s places that I’m tearing down,” Gary Werner, of Lake Stevens said.
“I’m taking apart stuff I built for people.”
Agnew said it will be easier for tenants to accept their loss if the beach is restored to a natural condition.
“Anything other than that would be really sad,” he said.
Hillery said the tribes understand the families’ emotional connection to the beach. Tribal members also feel a connection, she said.
“It’s ancestral land,” she said. “It’s a very important cultural area to the tribe.”
Indian Country Today Media Network Staff, February 13, 2013
Having mentioned climate change in his inaugural address, President Barack Obama devoted a brief section to the crisis in his State of the Union message on February 12. Though cloaked in talk of energy independence, it did put the issue of Mother Earth’s changing climate squarely on the shoulders of Congress and the presidency.
The news stories are legion by now: melting ice and liquefying glaciers; fierce nor’easters and hurricanes moving farther north than ever before; drought in the southwest and the heartland; dropping water levels in the Great Lakes and major rivers; increased wildfires, with more to come; certain diseases increasing in both humans and animals; rising waters in the Pacific Northwest and in Alaska, and a proliferation of greenhouse gases fueled partly by melting permafrost.
“Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend,” President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union speech on February 12. “But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods—all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it’s too late.”
He exhorted Congress to put partisan politics aside and tackle the issues emerging in this changing environment.
“I urge this Congress to get together—pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago,” Obama said. “But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
Environmentalists lauded the speech and its attention to climate change, citing the decisive nature of the actions that Obama will take if Congress sits by. But it was not lost on them that his speech, by focusing mainly on energy independence, left open the door to approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
“The Sierra Club thanks President Obama for his strong words in his State of the Union address, and we applaud his vow to prioritize innovative climate solutions, including investments in jobs-producing solar and wind energy as well as a focus on energy and fuel efficiency,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement.
“These are critical steps forward in the fight against climate disruption, but that progress would be rolled back by more destructive oil drilling and gas fracking, and the burning of toxic tar sands,” Brune said. “President Obama has the authority to create a robust clean energy economy and lead the world on climate solutions. He also has the executive power to reject the dirty Keystone XL pipeline, stop natural gas exports, reject trade agreements that put our air and water at risk, put an end to destructive Arctic drilling, and hold polluters accountable for their pollution. He has our full support to wield that power, and we will push him every step of the way to ensure a safer future for Americans.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted the way Obama made adapting to and preventing climate change a cornerstone of economic policy. NRDC President Frances Beinecke applauded Obama’s “assertive agenda for reducing dangerous carbon pollution more broadly, promising to lead a national effort to cut energy waste in half by 2030 and advance our use of renewable power,” she said in a statement.
“Unchecked climate change endangers our environment, our communities, our health, and our economy,” Beinecke added. “It demands a comprehensive approach, and President Obama laid out some of the most critical elements of such an approach on Tuesday night.”
All Nations Rising in Indian Country (Save Wiyabi)
Jessica Danforth, February 14, 2013; Source: Indian Country Today Media Network
February 14 has significance for many different people—Valentine’s Day, V-Day (a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls), and now 1 Billion Rising. But in Indian Country for more than 20 years, it’s always been a strategic day to organize, resist and unite in song to demand action.
The year 2013 marks the 22nd annual Women’s Memorial March, started in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver to honor the lives of missing and murdered women. Now with a global reach and ripples of determination to organize that can be felt across Turtle Island, the marches have become critical in ensuring violence from the state, including systemic, structural, and institutional violence, does not go unaccounted for.
Audrey Huntley, one of the founders of No More Silence who have been organizing the memorial marches in Toronto for the last 8 years shared this context on a recent blog for Battered Women’s Support Services: “We choose to come together at police headquarters in order to highlight the impunity that Canada affords killers of poor and marginalized women—women not deemed worthy of state protection and Indigenous women targets of the genocidal policies inherent to a settler state. We do not ask for the state’s permission in doing so and instead honour the sovereignty of the Indigenous peoples that have shared the caretaking responsibilities of this land for thousands of years.”
“Indigenous women remain targets for violence(s) as we have been since the European invasion. For me and for Families of Sisters in Spirit, the focus always starts with and goes back to the voices of Indigenous women and families and what is happening in our everyday lives under colonialism. We are the ones living it, and we are the ones who know what is best for our families, communities and Nations. It is meaningless if our actions are not led by us.” Colleen Cardinal, Plains Cree from Treaty 6, Saddle Lake Alberta, with Families of Sisters in Spirit (FSIS).
As Colleen Cardinal says, it is crucial that events on February 14 realize this historical legacy but also the long legacy of Indigenous women leading, organizing and mobilizing events to rise up against the violence. And with that, 2013 has also seen the creation of “All Nations Rising in Indian Country” started by the Save Wiyabi Project:
“My co-founder; Jessa Rae Growing Thunder, decided we needed to put out a call to action to Indian Country to rise on V-day, because what better way for us as people to stop violence against us than to dance it away. Dancing is how we heal, pray, socialize and tell stories so it’s important for us to include our voice in 1 Billion Rising. All Nations Rising was created so people could find out what events were happening in their community, or post their events for others to see.” Lauren Chief Elk, co-founder of Save Wiyabi Project.
So whether you’ve been marching for the last 22 years or are just beginning to dance this year, may the love, legacy and actions of February 14 be a time to remember that you are not alone. We’re rising with you.
Jessica Danforth is the founder and executive director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network that works across the United States and Canada in the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health by and for Indigenous youth.
