Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) has introduced new federal legislation that would repeal what he calls unfair and arbitrary time limits under the GI Bill, reports the Associated Press. Currently veterans have 10 years to use their Montgomery GI Bill (or 15 years to use their Post-9/11 GI Bill). The so-called delimiting date is determined by the veterans last discharge date.
For veterans to be eligible for training and education benefits in the program, service members must pay copy,200 before leaving the military and must use their benefits within 10 years of separating from the service. Blumenthal said more than 2 million veterans have been denied the benefits despite paying the copy, 200 because they missed the 10-year time limit.
“The G.I. Bill has provided millions of veterans vital educational opportunities to improve their lives and careers, enriching our economy and strengthening communities at the same time. However, millions of veterans are currently denied these opportunities due to restrictive, unfair and arbitrary time limits now in place,” Blumenthal said. “Given the changing nature of today’s job market and economy, many veterans are now choosing to go back to school and receive additional training and expertise more than a decade after separating from the military. These wise decisions should be supported for all veterans. The Veterans Back to School Act provides a simple fix to eliminate the unjust and unfair restrictions, and allows current and future generations of veterans to use these hard-earned benefits whenever it makes best sense for their futures, families and careers,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal announced his new bill May 28 at Capital Community College in Hartford. It would repeal the time limit and restore a Vietnam-era program that helped education institutions provide outreach and support to students who are veterans.
While the bill would not have an immediate effect on Post-9/11 vets, it would restore the GI Bill for many Vietnam, Cold-War, and Gulf-War era veterans who were unable to take advantage of their benefits within the 10 years after discharge, notes Military.com’s Terry Howell.
Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network
Native American observers are hoping that the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s (ACHP) decision to support the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) signals a sea change among federal agencies that will usher in a new relationship with tribes and American Indian citizens beyond the current trust relationship.
The ACHP, an independent federal agency, announced its plan to support UNDRIP in March, saying it wanted to raise awareness about the Declaration – and its goal to improve the treatment of Indigenous Peoples – within the preservation community. The agency also promised to develop guidance on the intersection of the Declaration with the Section 106 process (which requires federal agencies to take into account the impacts of their actions on historic properties, and federal agencies are required to consult with Indian tribes, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian organizations when historic properties of religious and cultural significance to them may be affected).
While lofty, this was the first step a federal agency has taken to support and take action on UNDRIP since President Barack Obama announced in December 2010 his decision to endorse the principles of the Declaration.
The background here is intriguing, as the decision was announced just as Lynne Sebastian, an anthropologist, was sworn in as President Barack Obama’s choice to fill a vacant seat on the council over tribal objections. She was a controversial choice due to past poor relations with some tribes, and ACHP leadership knew that; at the same meeting she was sworn in this spring, the agency announced its UNDRIP plan, perhaps to appease tribal concerns, according to several Indian affairs observers with concerns in the area of tribal historic preservation.
Milford Wayne Donaldson, chairman of the ACHP, offered his own take on the agency’s intent, telling Indian Country Today Media Network that this move “is a long-term commitment, both to raising awareness about the rights it seeks to protect, and to encouraging federal and Native Hawaiian organizations.” Associates who know Donaldson well say he was sensitive about the Sebastian situation, and he generally likes to foster strong Native relations since his agency works with tribes frequently.
Whatever the intent, the direction is promising, says Suzan Shown Harjo, a Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee advocate for Native Americans. “It’s one of those situations where you take the good news and run with it,” she says. “If it’s tied to Lynne Sebastian’s bad actions in the past, fine—and if it signals a new day, then also fine.”
The bigger issue now becomes whether this support will translate into broader adoption of UNDRIP’s principles across the federal government—a goal envisioned by its creators as a way to strengthen Native rights and sovereignty in a way that the current federal-tribal trust relationship has been lacking.
“Now that one federal agency has done it and the republic still stands, I think it will encourage others,” Harjo says with a laugh. “I think it’s very likely.”
Donaldson is also hopeful: “The ACHP indeed believes that other agencies will meaningfully support the Declaration as they become more familiar with it, and as its provisions correspond with their missions and goals. Remember, the ACHP is comprised of members that represent several federal Departments and agencies, as well as key members of the non-federal national historic preservation framework, so our efforts should assist others to become better acquainted with the Declaration and its significance to their work.”
Still, Indians working on real-life preservation issues are not super confident that the support will result in stronger tribal positioning within the ACHP, let alone the whole federal government. “The future escapes us because of the slippery slopes we have to stand on,” says Darrell “Curley” Youpee, a tribal historic preservation officer with the Fort Peck Tribes. “I sought assistance from ACHP regarding what I believed to be violations of my civil and human rights and was told that it was not an area that ACHP involved themselves in and further; they advise me that they could not refer me to another agency because it might bring a lawsuit on the agency. It was pass-the-buck mentality like I never experienced before.”
To date, the ACHP’s support has led to greater promotion of the UNDRIP (through a post on the White House blog, a new web page, and a few newspaper articles), but not much meaningful action, laments Youpee, who says the federal government has a long way to go before real indigenous self-determination and empowerment can be realized.
“[I]t’s now time for them to step up and integrate American Indians into the foundations of freedom, justice and peace by rebuilding policies that nurture American Indian dignity and equal rights in the institutional culture,” says Youpee.
Gale Courey Toensing, Indian Country Today Media Network
Indigenous organizations attending the 12th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) criticized the United States federal government for trying to make an end run around the human rights affirmed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration) and voiced concern that state actions will sideline Indigenous Peoples at the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples scheduled for September 2014. The UNPFII took place at the U.N. in New York from May 20-31.
In a day long discussion on the World Conference during the Permanent Forum on May 28, speakers expressed opposition – and indignation – at a statement made by Laurie Shestack Phipps, advisor for economic and social affairs of the United States Mission to the United Nations, regarding the federal government’s position on the Declaration.
Phipps’ statement, or “intervention” as it is called at the U.N., was presented May 22 in opposition to a suggestion that the Permanent Forum establish a monitoring and complaints mechanism for the Declaration. But most offensive to indigenous organizations was Phipps’ reiteration of parts of the State Department’s white paper of December 16, 2010 – the day President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. was “lending its support” to the Declaration.
“We would like to take this opportunity to note that the Declaration is a non-binding, aspirational document,” Phipps stated. “We would also like to reiterate the U.S. government’s view that self-determination, as expressed in the Declaration, is different from self-determination in international law.”
The statement set off a red alert among North American Indigenous Peoples when it was first announced. “We’ve been involved in these issues for a while now and making sure that the United States doesn’t try to domesticate the international Declaration—that’s going to be the challenge,” Penobscot Indian Nation Chief Kirk Francis said at the time. And the statement outraged people again at this year’s Permanent Forum. (Related story: Next Step: ? Implementation)
“The most objectionable [part of the U.S. statement] was their reiterated position that the rights of self-determination as recognized under international law for ALL PEOPLES is somehow a different right for Indigenous Peoples,” Roberto Borrero (Taino People of Boriken – Puerto Rico), said in an impassioned statement that he read on behalf of the International Indian Treaty Council. “At that time [2010] Indigenous Peoples did not accept this attempt to redefine international law as affirmed in the U.N. Charter and the Covenants, or to diminish the internationally recognized minimum standard of the Declaration. We do not accept it now.”
The IITC statement acknowledged that the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples has the potential to move forward the full and effective implementation of the inherent rights affirmed by the Declaration. But IITC and other indigenous organizations are concerned that some states might use the World Conference “in an attempt to diminish, qualify or redefine the rights affirmed in this hard fought minimum standard, or to limit the intended scope of its implementation,” Borrero said. “We are firmly resolved and will stand united with the Indigenous Peoples of the world to ensure that this will not happen. Discrimination must not be tolerated in any body or process of the United Nations which is based on the fundamental principles of international human rights law and the tenants of the U.N. Charter which include non-discrimination.”
The IITC has asked the Permanent Forum to issue a formal statement expressing its concern and joining with Indigenous Peoples in rejecting discriminatory attempts by the U.S. or any other state to diminish the rights affirmed in the Declaration by the U.N. and at the World Conference. “This is an historic opportunity for full and effective implementation, in good faith and partnership,” Borrero said. “The time for racial discrimination and all doctrines which justify it is the past. Their proper place is in the dustbin of history. “
Indigenous representatives from Africa, Asia, the Arctic, North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and the Pacific as well as the Indigenous Women’s Caucus and the Indigenous Youth Caucus, both of which presented interventions at the Permanent Forum, will attend a preparatory conference in Alta, Norway June 10-12 to consolidate indigenous Peoples’ strategies and positions for the World Conference, which is described as “a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly.”
Kenneth Deer, representative of the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus (NAIPC), said the caucus agreed to take part in the World Conference under certain conditions, including advancing “the rights of Indigenous Peoples as peoples and nations with rights equal to all other peoples, that we have and confirm the inalienable right to self determination as recognized in various international instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … as well as our rights to our lands, territories, resources, treaties, languages and cultures.” He said the Alta Conference outcome document should assert these rights and support the implementation of the Declaration and that the NAIPC will review the document “to determine what positive and negative impacts it could have and also to assess NAIPC’s involvement in the World Conference.”
Steve Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape), an Indian Country Today Media Network columnist, presented an intervention on behalf of the Indigenous Law Institute that began with an acknowledgment that the U.N. building stands on the traditional territory of the Lenape, Munsee and Delaware ancestors. Mincing no words, Newcomb said that the U.S. position for a ‘different” right of self determination for Indigenous Peoples in international law “is racist and predicated on ancient theological-political bigotry” – namely the Doctrine of Discovery that allowed Christian nations to claim as their own land that was not inhabited by Christians and to kill or enslave the indigenous inhabitants or those lands. The World Conference “will not result in positive and fundamental reform for our Nations and Peoples unless it is used as an opportunity to engage in the kinds of moral discussions that took place in the 16th century … regarding Aristotle’s theory of natural domination or slavery and whether our ancestors were human. The difference today, of course, is that we have our own voice,” Newcomb said.
Tonawanda Seneca Chief Darwin Hill read a statement on behalf of an umbrella group including the National Congress of American Indians, United South and Eastern Tribes, the California Association of Tribal Governments, 72 Indigenous nations and seven Indigenous organizations. Violations against indigenous are actually increasing in some states, Hill said. And the Declaration, which is supposed to protect those rights, cannot be effective without implementing measures and without international monitoring, he said. The group recommended, among other things, creating a new U.N. body to promote and monitor implementation of the Declaration and giving Indigenous Peoples “a dignified and appropriate” permanent status through their constitutional and customary governments to participate in all U.N. activities.
Aaron Reardon’s departure as county executive doesn’t end a number of investigations.
By Noah Haglund and Scott North, The Herald
EVERETT — Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon left public office about 4 p.m. Friday, ending nearly a decade as the county’s top elected official.
He did not speak with Herald reporters seeking answers about harassing records requests linked to his staff, or how he could explain evidence that he crossed lines intended to keep his political campaigns separate from taxpayers’ money.
A statement attributed to him was posted on the county’s website: “I extend my best wishes to our county officials as they continue their work at the direction of this county’s residents. Finally, and most importantly, I want to sincerely thank the voters of Snohomish County for choosing me on six separate occasions to represent you. It has been a great honor and a sincere privilege to work on your behalf.”
Reardon’s departure cleared the way for other county leaders to focus on hopes that a new executive would bring productive working relationships back to county government.
“I’m very excited about the future,” said County Councilman Brian Sullivan, whose relationship with Reardon, a former ally, soured over the years.
Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe said he’s hopeful that Monday will bring word that Sheriff John Lovick, of Mill Creek, has been chosen to be the next county executive. Other likely nominees are state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, and Everett attorney Todd Nichols, a longtime Democratic Party leader at the state and county level.
Reardon’s departure is a significant step in a story with chapters yet unfolding. They include:
•King County Sheriff’s Officecriminal investigation — Detectives still are trying to determine whether any laws were broken by Reardon’s staff. The people on the receiving end of public records requests, made anonymously by aides Kevin Hulten and Jon Rudicil, believe they were targets of harassment, surveillance and retaliation for cooperating with a 2012 investigation of Reardon. The State Patrol investigation eventually cleared Reardon of using public funds to carry on a private affair with another county employee.
•Public Disclosure Commission — Two investigations are underway, both focusing on campaign activity in Reardon’s office during his 2011 run for office. One inquiry is examining Reardon’s conduct, including hundreds of calls he made to people who worked on or funded his re-election campaign. The other case is focused on Hulten, and work-day calls he made to state election watchdogs about issues later used to attack Reardon’s opponent, state Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens.
•Political changes — The departure triggers reshuffling among county leaders and likely will mean changes for one or more office holders. If Lovick gets the nod, the council will need to name a new sheriff. New leadership also may mean shifts in county priorities.
•More lawsuits — The county could face litigation over some of the controversies that have swirled around Reardon. Some have been threatening lawsuits for years.
Reardon’s parting statement claimed multiple successes in managing the county.
“Together, we have modernized and transformed Snohomish County government from a silo-based bureaucracy to a more dynamic, network-driven organization focused on outcomes as opposed to processes.”
At the same time, Reardon left office by delivering an unwelcome surprise to his County Council counterparts just before he left.
Reardon’s spokesman informed the council that Reardon had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tulalip tribes regarding land-use planning. That was news to the council. The county’s rules require the executive to first seek the council’s agreement before any intergovernmental agreements are signed. The council planned to take up the issue next week.
Deputy County Executive Gary Haakenson is now the acting county executive until Reardon’s replacement is named.
Because Reardon is a Democrat, it’s up to Snohomish County Democrats to nominate three candidates to take his place. The party plans to convene a special caucus Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Everett Labor Temple’s Warren Rush Hall, 2812 Lombard Ave., Everett. The meeting is public.
The party’s central committee will forward the names to the County Council, which then has 60 days to agree on a successor. The council has scheduled public interviews with the nominees for 8:30 a.m. Monday.
The new regime is sure to usher in sweeping personnel changes.
By last week, some of the closest members of Reardon’s staff already had begun making their way toward the exit doors.
Reardon’s finance chief, Roger Neumaier, is in line to be appointed finance director for the city of Edmonds. He awaits the Edmonds City Council’s confirmation on Tuesday. More staff changes are expected.
Voters first sent Reardon to the Legislature in 1997 and he became the youngest county executive in the nation in 2004, at age 33.
His time as the county’s top elected administrator was marked by public feuds with other county leaders and scandals related to his staff and himself. The investigation into his use of county resources while carrying on the affair began in November 2011. And in February he was back under scrutiny after Hulten and Rudicil were linked to the anonymous public records requests, attack websites and other activities targeting people considered the executive’s political rivals.
After spending 15 years as an elected public official, Reardon so far hasn’t discussed what he plans next.
To Sullivan, that was typical of Reardon and part of his undoing.
“He’s not a very open person and it’s hard to be a secret person in a public life,” Sullivan said. “I wish him and his family well.”
On Friday, Roe said he is looking forward to a time when the good work being done by Snohomish County government workers has a chance of attracting more attention than serial scandals.
“For the last couple of years I’ve had to listen to Snohomish County jokes from colleagues and friends and family relations, and I’m ready for that to be over,” Roe said.
Saturday-Sunday: 22nd Annual Veterans Pow Wow at the Tulalip Resort Convention area. Also take time to enjoy the vendors and food in the outside tent.
Saturday-Sunday: Tulalip Tribes Stickgame Tournament. An exciting event with games and vendors. The games are located on 27th Ave, across from the Boom City Swap Meet.
Fundraising Sale: Parent Committee of Tulalip Early Head Start Fundraising Gym Sale, Saturday June 2 8am-5pm, Old Tulalip Elementary School Gym
Boom City Swap Meet – Open Saturday and Sunday. www.boomcityswapmeet.com
Storytelling at the Hibulb Cultural Center, Sunday, June 2: Lois Langrebe, Language teacher and artist, in the Longhouse Room, 1pm
The Bismarck Tribune, Tom Stromme/Associated Press – FILE–North Dakota’s U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon speaks during a press conference in Bismarck, N.D., in this May 28, 2013 file photo.
Source: Washington Post, Associated Press
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — American Indian leaders who have criticized the federal government for years over the way authorities handled major crimes on reservations can mark progress with the release of newly tracked statistics from the U.S. Justice Department.
The number of Indian Country cases charged in federal court has increased by 54 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2012, from 1,091 cases to 1,677 cases, according to a DOJ report released Thursday.
“They’ve taken their responsibility much more seriously than before,” said Brent Leonhard, an attorney with Umatilla tribe in Oregon.
The report marks the first look at government investigations and prosecutions on tribal lands. It comes as a result of the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, which requires the Justice Department to publicly release such figures.
Justice officials acknowledge that their work is far from done, but they say the numbers demonstrate the government’s commitment to combating violent crime on reservations where rates are higher than the national average.
Also, the report shows that prosecutors secured convictions in about two-thirds of nearly 6,000 reservation cases between calendar years 2011 and 2012. Of the 5,985 cases, about one-third were declined for prosecution.
Some others were resolved administratively or sent to another prosecuting authority and didn’t end up in federal court.
The numbers show “that we’re walking the talk at the Department of Justice,” said Tim Purdon, U.S. attorney in North Dakota.
Arizona, home to part of the nation’s largest American Indian reservation, had the highest number of total referrals with more than 2,000, followed by South Dakota with nearly 1,000 and Montana with more than 500.
Purdon leads a subcommittee that reports to Attorney General Eric Holder on American Indian issues. He said federal officials “want to improve public safety” and added that they are working to “remove those most dangerous predators, the most dangerous criminals from Indian Country.”
The federal government and tribes have concurrent jurisdiction in crimes where the suspect and victim are both American Indian, but federal prosecutions carry much stiffer penalties. Among recent U.S. government prosecutions:
— A man was found guilty of sexually abusing a teenager he met while working as a counselor at a summer camp on the Rocky Boy’s reservation in Montana. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
— A woman on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota was convicted of beating her 4-year-old son with a plastic clothes hanger. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.
— A man was sent to prison for 10 years for kicking the woman who was pregnant with his child on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The unborn child died after suffering a skull fracture and other injuries.
Still, nearly 2,000 cases were declined for prosecution over the two-year span, a matter for which the DOJ has been criticized in the past.
“There are cases that are legitimately declined, and that is appropriate and expected,” said Leonhard, of the Umatilla tribe’s Office of Legal Counsel.
EVERETT — The Aaron Reardon era is expected to end for Snohomish County government at 5 p.m. today.
Reardon, 42, was in the office Thursday, keeping a low profile but speaking with television reporters.
“I’m probably the most thoroughly vetted candidate in the United States of America,” he told King 5. For months Reardon has refused interview requests from The Herald.
In keeping with the county charter, Deputy County Executive Gary Haakenson said he expects to take over after midnight Friday and will serve as acting executive until a new executive is appointed and sworn in. That could happen early next week.
Reardon was 33 when he first took county office in 2004, then the youngest county executive in the nation. He was re-elected to a third and final term in 2011, despite word that he was the focus of a Washington State Patrol investigation into his use of public money in pursuit of an extramarital affair with a county worker.
Reardon emerged from the investigation claiming he’d been exonerated after Island County’s prosecutor determined there was insufficient evidence to bring charges. The probe documented Reardon’s affair and also turned up evidence that Reardon used public resources in his campaign. The state Public Disclosure Commission is investigating.
On Feb. 21, Reardon used his 10th State of the County speech to announce he was stepping down. His prepared remarks were slim on details but full of blame. Reardon claimed political enemies had peppered him for years with what he called “false and scurrilous allegations.” The cost of defending himself from the attacks, he said, had just become too high.
Reardon’s resignation announcement came the day after the County Council voted unanimously to remove his authority over the county’s public records and computer system.
That happened as the council called for an independent investigation into evidence that two people on Reardon’s staff were behind a series of anonymous public records requests, attack websites and other activities targeting people considered the executive’s political rivals.
As The Herald reported Feb. 14, those on the receiving end believed they’d been subjected to attempts at harassment, surveillance and retaliation. A number of those targeted had cooperated with the patrol’s investigation. It is against the law to harass witnesses in criminal cases.
The King County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating whether any laws were broken. Reardon’s legislative aide, Kevin Hulten, and his executive assistant, Jon Rudicil, were placed on administrative leave in March.
At least for now, Rudicil remains on the county payroll. Hulten resigned earlier this month after sexually explicit images, including homemade porn, were found on the hard drive of a county laptop computer he’d been assigned. The device, which was checked as part of the King County investigation, also contained “background check” files on County Council members, records show.
In his television interview, Reardon denied misusing any taxpayer money for campaigns or on an affair. He wasn’t asked to explain bills from his government phone showing hundreds of calls during business hours to his 2011 campaign staff and to people who contributed financially to his re-election effort.
Reardon was coy with the TV reporter about his future plans.
“I’m an elected official today, I’m a private citizen on Saturday,” he said. “I’m going to elect to keep that private.”
Reardon is a Democrat in a partisan elected office. In keeping with the law, Snohomish County Democrats on Saturday were scheduled to pick three nominees to replace him. The special caucus is open to the public, and is set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Everett Labor Temple’s Warren Rush Hall, 2812 Lombard Ave., Everett.
The party’s central committee will forward the names to the County Council, which then has 60 days to agree on a successor. The council has scheduled public interviews with the nominees for 8:30 a.m. Monday.
Whomever is picked to follow Reardon will serve unchallenged at least into November 2014, when results are certified in a special election expected next year.
An election for a full, four-year term is expected in 2015.
The likely nominees are: Sheriff John Lovick of Mill Creek; state Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip; and Everett attorney Todd Nichols, a longtime Democratic Party leader at the state and county level.
Lovick is said to have locked up support from a majority of local Democrats. On Wednesday evening, he was the opening speaker at “Humanity not hatred,” gathering sponsored by the Snohomish County Human Rights Commission. Lovick told the crowd he was asked to stand in for Reardon at the event.
Monday, June 3 will mark the ceremonial blessing and groundbreaking of Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort to kick-off the first phase in a five-year major expansion plan that will ultimately include a convention center, 100 new hotel rooms, a fifth restaurant, and extensive remodeling of the Clearwater Casino. The groundbreaking will initiate construction of a six-level, 690-space parking garage, with a projected completion date of January 21, 2014.
Clearwater Casino CEO Russell Steele and General Manager Rich Purser will start the event at 9 a.m. Suquamish Tribal Council Members, Port Madison Enterprises Board Members, project architect Rice Fergus Miller and KORSMO Construction, the contracted builder and others are anticipated to attend.
“We are pleased to launch this first phase in a highly anticipated Master Plan that will draw businesses and organizations from around the Puget Sound to North Kitsap for conventions and corporate retreats,” says Steele, “and create another 180 jobs at the casino resort over the next 4 years. The casino will remain open for business as usual during construction, with guest parking moved to the existing parking garage.”
In addition to the new garage, Phase 1 will add 10,000 square feet of new meeting space and a 4,500 square foot pre-function area to the casino, additional office space, a new walkway between the resort and the casino, a fine dining restaurant, and the Longhouse Buffet will be remodeled. The projected completion date for Phase 1 is November 2014.
Phase II, set to begin in October 2014, will encompass the construction of a 100-room, five-story hotel adjoining the casino. All rooms will have water views and will be structured to accommodate a potential additional three stories in the future. Phase 11 is projected to be complete by end of March 2015.
Extensive remodeling resulting in a 5,700 square foot expansion of the casino will take place in Phase 111. A new 350-seat lounge, a specialty restaurant and a new bar in the center of the casino floor are part of an updated look that is projected to be completed by November 2016.
Phase IV, the final stage in the 5-year Master Plan, will be construction of the Convention Center. The project will add 15,000 square feet of meeting and entertainment space to the casino with moveable walls, along with 11, 500 square feet of pre-function space and 8,500 feet of support space. Completion is anticipated at a later date.
For more information on the Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort expansion project, please contact Lisa Rodriguez, lisarodriguez@clearwatercasino.com, 360.598.8731.
Richard Walker, Indian Country Today Media Network
SEATTLE – For months, murals depicting Chief Joseph, Chief Seattle, and Natives in regalia and on horseback have been threatened with demolition—but a grassroots effort to save them may yet prove successful.
Supporters say the murals on the outside walls of the Seattle School District’s Wilson-Pacific Building are more than art. They are symbolic of the indigenous presence in the Pacific Northwest’s largest city.
Artist Andrew Morrison, Haida/Apache, painted the murals to honor the area’s Native peoples and historical leaders, such as Chief Si’ahl, the Duwamish-Suquamish leader for whom the City of Seattle is named.
Since 1974, Wilson-Pacific has been the home of American Indian Heritage School, now called American Indian Heritage Middle College High School. The school is located in Seattle’s Licton Springs neighborhood, which takes its name from the Lushootseed word “Liq’tid” (LEEK-teed), for the reddish mud of the springs that are still visible today.
So when the school was threatened with demolition to make way for construction of a new elementary and middle school—and Indian Heritage School students moved to a classroom at a nearby mall—the indigenous community rallied.
As of this writing, it appears their voices are being heard. Construction of a new elementary and middle school will still happen, but there’s a chance the walls containing the murals will be incorporated into the new school buildings. The project architect, Mahlum, has a reputation for engaging communities in the design process and incorporating into the final design those things that are important to the community. Mahlum’s previous Native-community projects include the Puyallup Tribe’s Chief Leschi School.
“The district wants to honor this work and has reached out to have ongoing discussions with the artist on how to preserve the murals,” Seattle School District project manager Eric Becker told ICTMN through the district’s public information office. “It is the district’s intent to honor the murals. Art historians have suggested several ways that this might happen. We will continue to work with the artist, design team and community to determine which option will be selected.”
Regarding how the campus’s role in Native education and racial integration might be represented in the new school buildings (as Wilson-Pacific School, it was one of the first integrated schools in Seattle), Becker said, “The School Design Advisory Team, comprised of district staff, the architect and community members, will meet to discuss all aspects of the new [elementary and middle school].”
Superintendent Jose Banda wrote in a May 10 letter to Indian Heritage School families, “a design team will be formed to look at future uses and design of the campus.” In addition, he invited applicants for a new Native American Advisory Committee to advise the district on implementing Native American education in local schools.
Tracy Rector, a filmmaker and mayor-appointed member of the Seattle Arts Commission, participated in the rallies to save Indian Heritage School and the murals.
“Andrew has rallied and inspired people to come around and support this sacred historical space for Native American families,” said Rector, Seminole/Choctaw. “It’s been powerful. It sounded like the school district was bent on tearing [the school and murals] down. This has changed the game quite a bit.”
Morrison, his brother and sister attended American Indian Heritage School, one of five local schools in which students receive more individualized attention and can take community college courses. In addition, Indian Heritage School offers culturally-based classes, and hosts an annual pow-wow, Native Youth Conference, and Native basketball tournaments. Morrison remembers the school being “the nucleus of the community.”
According to Morrison, “By 1992, the success of Indian Heritage [School] could not be denied. Not only did Indian Heritage graduate every student, but graduates also enrolled in post-secondary or vocational school.” When the school celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1994, it was noted that every student that graduated from Indian Heritage School in the two previous years enrolled in college.
In 2001, after his freshman year of college, Morrison volunteered at the school and painted the first of his 25-foot murals, often enlisting the help of students and community members.
The controversy began last year, after the district proposed a tax levy to replace the 60-year-old Wilson-Pacific buildings with a new middle school and elementary school. The Urban Native Education Alliance and the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation called for the district to renovate Wilson-Pacific, rather than demolish it, in so doing ensuring the Indian Heritage School would continue and the murals would be preserved.
The tax levy was approved by voters. The school district made plans to move Indian Heritage School students to the middle college program at Northgate Mall for the 2013-14 school year, and proposed making digital images of the murals so they could be replicated later. Morrison wouldn’t consent to the replication of his work. On March 6, the school board approved the contract for construction of a new school and recommended only a Native American honoring of Wilson-Pacific prior to its demolition.
On May 15, an Idle No More rally was held at school district offices. At the school board meeting that followed, Urban Native Education Alliance chairwoman Sarah Sense-Wilson, Oglala Lakota, said the district has withdrawn resources and removed Native instructors from Indian Heritage School over the years, “rendering the program a shell of what was once a vibrant, successful, visible program.”
Sense-Wilson said merging Indian Heritage School with the middle college program at the mall would be an act of institutional racism and classism, “assimilating Native learners and further distancing them from their cultural identity, heritage and connection with the Native community, and ultimately a poignant loss of a distinct, unique Native-focused program, which at one time bridged culture, tradition, history, Native perspective and connection with the community.”
She asked that Indian Heritage School be moved to another campus. “We do know there is space at various schools,” she said.
Dr. Carol Simmons, a retired Seattle educator, alluded that destroying a Native school program and Native art on a historically indigenous site would be a continuation of the “historical devastation and destruction of Native culture and the mistreatment of Native students in our schools.”
She said, “These murals must be preserved with dignity and not disrespectfully digitized. This important school must be treasured and not demeaned by placing it in a shopping mall.”
Other speakers included former state Sen. Claudia Kauffman, Nez Perce, who also asked that a permanent home be found for Indian Heritage School. “This is more than just an educational institution. It’s [a place] for the community in which we gather together.”
Banda said he met the day before with concerned residents about Indian Heritage School. He said he will continue to meet with Native American families and a new coalition “to discuss the next steps” regarding the school. “We truly value our relationship with our Native American families and we look forward to working with our families and community members to more effectively support our Native students,” he said.
He referred to the murals as “artifacts” and said the district will work “to ensure we protect those artifacts.”
On May 22, Morrison and Banda had a conversation and made amends; their relationship had been strained by months of protests and press coverage. Morrison is creating a portrait of the late Bob Eaglestaff, principal of Indian Heritage school in the 1980s and ’90s, as a gift to the school district. He’s also offered to paint, at his own expense, mural portraits of Geronimo and Sitting Bull at the current Indian Heritage School campus.
“Chief Seattle, Chief Joseph, Chief Geronimo and Chief Sitting Bull will complete our four directions and this will solidify a commitment between the Seattle Public Schools, the Native American community, my family, and me,” Morrison said.
Artist Andrew Morrison talks to Native Youth Conference participants about the murals he painted at American Indian Heritage Middle College High School. The conference was April 16-18 at the school. The walls with the murals may be incorporated into the new school that is proposed to be built at the site. Photos courtesy Andrew Morrison.
Courtesy Andrew Morrison.
Courtesy Andrew Morrison.
Courtesy Andrew Morrison.
An Idle No More rally was held May 15 at the Seattle School District offices. Photo by Andrew Morrison.
Photo by Andrew Morrison
Students hold signs calling for the Seattle School Board to move American Indian Heritage Middle College High School to another campus. Photo by Andrew Morrison.
