Kirk Boxleitner Tulalip Tribal Chair Mel Sheldon Jr. speculated that the economy might be on its way back during this year’s State of the Tribes address to the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce on April 26.
By Kirk Boxleitner, The Marysville Globe
TULALIP — Tulalip Tribal Chair Mel Sheldon Jr. expressed optimism for the future, both in the short term and the long run, as he delivered this year’s State of the Tribes address to the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce on April 26.
“This was one of the strongest economic regions of the pre-Columbian era, and it can be so once again,” said Sheldon, citing the Native American tribes’ commerce in this area, even well before white settlers had ever arrived. “We offer gaming, retail and entertainment to visitors.”
Sheldon summed up the results of the recent Tulalip Tribal Board of Directors election by noting that he, Vice Chair Deborah Parker, Treasurer Chuck James and Board members Glen Gobin and Marlin Fryberg Jr. had all been reelected, while Marie Zackuse was elected back onto the Board as secretary, and Theresa Sheldon was elected to her first term on the Board.
“Deborah Parker has really led the charge on the Violence Against Women Act,” Sheldon said. “It’s a monumental achievement on behalf of Indian Country and all women.”
Sheldon also praised Ken Kettler, president and chief operating officer of the Tulalip Resort Hotel and Casino, for the roles that he and his staff have played in the Tulalip Resort’s host of awards over the past year, including being named “Best Casino of the Year” by KING-5.
“This place is a destination,” said Sheldon, who cited the number of organizations that take advantage of the hotel’s conference rooms. “We’re 100 percent occupied during the weekend and 80 percent occupied during the week. You can build something like the Taj Mahal casino, that people will visit once and then never again, or you can do what we did.”
While the Tulalip Resort is set to add Asian fusion cuisine and sports bar restaurants this summer, the Quil Ceda Creek Casino is due for $15 million worth of remodeling.
“There’s been rumors for a while that we might be adding a new hotel wing, and the truth is that we’re always having conversations about it,” Sheldon said. “If we’re at 80 percent of our total occupancy during the week, we could probably stand to expand.”
Although Sheldon praised the Tulalip Amphitheatre as an intimate outdoor venue for entertainment and various community events, he acknowledged that the Board has asked itself whether there should be a larger capacity events center as well. And with the Tribes meeting their budget projections, Sheldon speculated that the economy might be on its way back.
“Tulalip dollars stretch a long way,” Sheldon said. “Seventy percent of our work force lives off the reservation. We pay out $120 million in annual wages, and most of that money stays in the local economy. Last year, Quil Ceda Village paid $40 million in state sales tax.”
Sheldon touted the past year’s openings of Cabela’s and the Olive Garden, and anticipated the impending completion of 90,000 additional square feet to the Seattle Premium Outlets. At the same time, Sheldon was quick to share credit for the Tribes’ successes with its partners in the cities of Marysville and Everett, Snohomish County and beyond.
“Marysville’s got a great mayor whose work will benefit this community even long after he’s gone,” said Sheldon, who mentioned Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring’s lobbying against the traffic impacts of increased coal trains as but one example, before he directed his comments to outgoing Marysville School District Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland. “From our hearts, we thank you. We’ve always trusted you. We’re blessed with great leaders all around. If we want a strong economy, we need to keep working together.”
Mark Mulligan / The Herald File, 2011 Hank Gobin, museum director at the Hibulb Cultural Center, listens at the grand opening of the center in Tulalip.
By Bill Sheets, The Hreald
TULALIP — Hank Gobin lived to see his dream come true: the creation of a museum to serve as the focal point of local tribal history and culture.
Gobin, 71, cultural resources director for the Tulalip Tribes, passed away Thursday — a little more than 1½ years after the Hibulb Cultural Center was dedicated in August 2011.
While the museum may be the most tangible testament to his legacy, his role in preserving tribal culture runs much deeper, tribal members say.
“Our community mourns the loss of a truly great man,” Tulalip Chairman Mel Sheldon said in a written statement.
“He was a prolific artist, activist and traditional scholar, who worked in the areas of art, education, language revitalization, museum studies and traditional foods research.”
Gobin was a force in starting the tribes’ cultural resources program in the early 1990s. This included a program to teach Lushootseed, the Puget Sound tribes’ unwritten native language, to help save it from extinction.
“He was one of the key advocates who pushed for the creation of the Lushootseed program,” said Natosha Gobin, a language teacher for the Tulalips.
“He’s always been a huge advocate for cultural preservation and bringing it all together,” Natosha Gobin said.
Her father, the late Bernie Gobin, was Hank Gobin’s first cousin.
“It was a hard loss,” she said of Hank’s passing.
Henry Delano Gobin was born in 1941 and raised on the Tulalip reservation. He left at age 21 to pursue an education and studied art at several colleges in the West, including the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. and the San Francisco Art Institute. He received a master’s degree in painting at Sacramento State University and later taught art and ethnic studies.
Gobin returned to Tulalip in 1989 and quickly began working on preserving tribal culture, including pushing for the museum. Finally, after a long haul, the tribal board in 2005 approved the building, which opened in 2011.
Gobin used his artistic talent and education to closely supervise the design of the cultural center. The day the $19 million building opened, Gobin recalled a conversation he’d had years earlier with the architects.
“One of the things I want you to do,” he told them, “is to capture the light.”
The 23,000-square-foot building’s main corridor is equipped with skylights. The museum houses traditional tribal cedar baskets, tools, clothing, canoes, totem poles and other items, some of them hundreds of years old. Many of the items had sat stored away in people’s homes on the reservation. Lectures and other programs are held at the cultural center as well.
“I think it’s an exciting time for the Tulalip Tribes and Tulalip people,” Gobin said shortly before the museum’s opening.
Gobin also was instrumental in reviving the annual tribal family canoe journey and setting the traditional protocol for the event, according to an obituary issued by the tribes.
“His spiritual beliefs were a prominent aspect of who he was; and it was this spiritual way of life that enabled him to carry out his responsibilities to protect his people’s cultural and environmental interests,” the obituary read.
“Everything about Hank was genuine and his magnetic personality touched the lives of all those who he crossed paths.”
Gobin is survived by his wife, Inez Bill-Gobin; two sisters and three sons. Services were held Monday.
EVERETT, Wash. – “Keeping Our Traditions Alive” is the theme of the 21st annual Hibulb Powwow May 11 at the Everett Community College Fitness Center, 2206 Tower St. in Everett.
“The powwow honors cultural survival and the perseverance needed to celebrate and maintain Native identity into the 21st century,” said Paula Three Stars, EvCC’s 1st Nations Club advisor.
The Hibulb (pronounced hee bulb) Powwow features traditional Native American dancing, drumming, singing, arts and crafts. Grand entries are at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. The Powwow is free and open to the public.
The event will honor the foster care program “Our Shared Children and their Caretakers,” Native American children who are in the foster program and cared for by non-Native families.
“It’s our hope and the hope of the state Department of Social and Health Services employee Lisa Powers that we keep our shared children in touch with their tribal affiliations and encourage them to participate in cultural activities,” Three Stars said.
This year’s head dancers are Reuben Twin Jr. and EvCC student Christine Warner. The master of ceremonies will be Arnold Little Head. Tony Bluehorse will serve as the arena director. The host drums are Young Society and Eagle Warrior.
The Hibulb Powwow was founded in 1990 to honor Native ancestors who once lived near the mouth of the Snohomish River. Hibulb was of the stronghold of the Snohomish peoples that thrived in the site just below Legion Park in Everett. Hibulb had an estimated population of 1,200 and was once the largest trading center in the Pacific Northwest.
Descendants of the people of Hibulb live today in the neighboring community of Tulalip as well as other nearby tribal reservations representing many different tribal bands.
For more information, contact Paula Three Stars at 425-388-9281 or Matt Remle at 360-657-0940.
Gale Courey Toensing, Indian Country Today Media Network
In late February, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued a provisional emergency regulation denying indigenous prisoners access to items used in religious ceremony – sacred medicines like kinnikinnick, copal, and osha root; sacred pipes and pipe bags; drums and other instruments; water dippers; cloth for prayer ties; beads and beading supplies; animal hides and other objects.
The draconian restrictions have given rise to a backlash of protest and now a tribal organization is spearheading an effort both within the United States and in the international arena to stop California and other states from depriving American Indian and Alaska Native prisoners of their right to practice their traditional indigenous religions.
Time is of the essence, Huy Chairman Gabriel S. Galanda said. All written comments must be received by the close of the public comment period May 7, 2013, at 5:00 p.m. Also, a public hearing will be held on May 7, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in Sacramento, specifically in the Kern room, located at 151 S Street, North Building, 95811. “The CDCR will then consider comments, evaluate proposed alternatives, and issue a final rule. We urge your timely written and public comment in opposition to the State of California’s unlawful effort to unduly restrict American indigenous prisoners’ freedom to believe, express and exercise traditional indigenous religion,” Galanda said. Galanda is a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, a lawyer with Galanda Broadman in Seattle, and director of the National Native Bar Association.
Huy explains the new CDCR restrictions in a blog posting on Galanda Broadman’s website. A prison order from Soledad Prison in California from May 9, 2011 shows the variety of items inmates were allowed to possess under the “Authorized Personal Property Schedule” back then. The items included but were not limited to sacred herbs, including sage, sweet grass, cedar, kinnikinnick, copal, bitter root and osha root; prayer fans; beaded items such as wristbands, headbands, bandannas; cloth to be used for prayer ties, beads and beading supplies including needles, looms, and thread; pipes and pipe bags; hand drums, flutes, rattles, and clap stick; gourd water dippers; soft leather from a variety of animals; and coyote and bear teeth.
By contrast, the new emergency regulations includes a “Religious Property Matrix” that prohibits kinnikinnick, copal, and osha root, cloth for prayer ties, beads or beading supplies, pipes or pipe bags, drums or other instruments, water dippers, leather, teeth, or other items. “The new Matrix should not affect the use of tobacco in ceremonies. Prisoners were not previously allowed to possess tobacco personally, though they were allowed to use it for religious purposes. … Thankfully, the regulations regarding tobacco have not been amended,” Huy’s blog entry says.
Equally as drastic as these prohibitions is the CDCR’s curtailment of indigenous prisoners’ sweat lodge ceremonies – a restriction that presents a potentially disastrous impediment to indigenous prisoners’ spiritual rehabilitation, said Kristen Eriksen, a criminal defense lawyer with a former client in Soledad with whom she has kept in touch. In addition to speaking with him on the phone, Eriksen has sent her former client “spiritual packages” of items used in ceremony several times a year for around three years. She asked that his name be withheld.
Eriksen said she doesn’t know why the CDCR imposed the new restrictions. “I haven’t looked into the limitations on other groups but from what my client has said they don’t have those same limitations,” she said. Reporting on a recent conversation with her former client, she said, “The Native Americans used to have every weekend for sweat lodge and there are 70 of them and there are two yards so they’d have eight sweat lodges a month – now they’re down to one, sometimes two a month. They’re really being ignored and really to their detriment. The sweat lodge is very rehabilitative for them and it’s been something that’s really bound them together and helped them to develop their own spirituality, their connection to their culture, to each other, to themselves – everything, you know? – and I just can’t believe that anything positive can come from limiting that,” Eriksen said. “And it’s not as if there’s been any kind of problem. There’s been nothing,” she added.
Eriksen’s former client has filed a complaint seeking administrative review of the new restrictions “because it’s really quite severe in terms of taking away so many privileges and so many items that they previously had,” Eriksen said. “He’s in contact with the Imam of the Muslims who agreed to talk to the board with him, but the Imam said none of the other spiritual advisors would assist,” she said.
In addition to her legal work, Eriksen is in charge of her school district’s Native American Parents Advisory Committee. “We have these ceremonies a couple times a year and [my former client] has been really cool about making jewelry and medallions and things that we’ve been able to utilize to give to kids in our school. It’s been really nice. He’s gotten a lot of joy from beading and it’s been really good for him to be able to be creative and he’s improved a ton and it’s been beneficial to us too. Now they’re no longer allowed to bead,” Eriksen said. “It’s so wrong. There’s no reason for it and I truly believe it’s partly because they don’t have an advocate.”
Although Huy, which means “See you again/we never say goodbye” in the coastal Salish language, is focused on the CDCR’s immediate lawmaking effort, the organization has reached far to draw attention to abuses of indigenous prisoners’ religious rights across the country.
On April 19 Huy wrote to U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples seeking “an investigation into the pervasive pattern in the United States of increasing restrictions on the religious freedoms of Indigenous Peoples who have been deprived of their liberty, particularly by American state corrections agencies and officers.” The letter notes that Peoples in the U.S., have the highest incarceration rate of any racial or ethnic group – 38-percent the national rate.
The letter charges the U.S. with “failing to fulfill its duty to protect the religious freedoms of American indigenous prisoners” in violation of both domestic and international law, citing the U.N Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Although the letter to Anaya did not mention the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its protection of religious freedom, Galanda told Indian Country Today Media Network that the restrictions on indigenous religious practice clearly violate international human rights law. “The pervasive pattern of state violations of American indigenous religious liberty that we are seeing not only impinges upon international indigenous rights and American constitutional and civil rights but also universal human rights,” Galanda said.
Huy has also gained the support of NNABA, which passed resolution that Galanda proposed at its annual meeting April 10 in support of religious freedom for incarcerated American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. On April 24 the NNABA wrote to the American Association of State Correctional Administrators, the American Correctional Association, the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, the American Association of State Correctional Administrators, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and the National Congress of American Indians asking for their official support for American indigenous prisoners’ freedom to believe, express and exercise traditional indigenous religion; to condemn any unduly burdensome or patently illegal federal or state restrictions on the Indigenous Peoples’ religious liberty; and to help explore how federal, state and American indigenous governments can jointly develop and advance shared goals concerning American indigenous prisoners.
A more accurate state fish consumption rate should be in place by next year, Maia Bellon, director of the state Department of Ecology, told tribal leaders and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials at a meeting Thursday.
The fish consumption rate is part of a human health criteria used by state government to determine how much pollution is allowed to be put in our waters. The rate is supposed to protect Washington residents from more than 100 toxins that can cause illness or death.
“We don’t need more debate. We have the science and we have had all of the discussions,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. “Time is running out and we must move forward. We need the governor to work with us to make this happen,” he said.
“This is a public health issue for everyone who lives here,” said Brian Cladoosby, chair of the Swinomish Tribe. “We have worked hard with the state for the past eight years to revise our state’s fish consumption rate and water quality standards. We did not expect this issue to be kicked down the road, but that’s what happened. Now the debate is over and we need to move toward implementing a new rate, but we need a firm commitment from Gov. Inslee that he will help make that happen.”
Tribal, state and federal leaders agree that current rate is not accurate and that actual fish consumption is much higher. Tribes suggest a rate of at least 175 grams per day – the same standard recently adopted by Oregon – as a starting point for discussions.
The state’s current fish consumption rate of 6.5 grams per day – about one 8-ounce seafood meal per month – is one of the lowest in the nation, despite the fact that Washington has one of the highest populations of seafood consumers. That rate has been in place for more than 20 years and is not protective of most residents, especially tribal members and others who consume large amounts of seafood. Furthermore, tribal treaty rights depend on fish and shellfish being safe to eat.
The tribes and state Department of Ecology had been working to increase the rate when the effort was stalled last summer by business interests who complained to state government that a rate change would be too costly for them to implement. Since then tribes have been working with Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to get the process back on track.
“This is not a choice between a healthy environment and a healthy economy. Both of those things can go hand in hand,” said Russ Hepfer, vice chair of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
By Ciji Taylor, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
With the help of a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service grant, the American Indian Inter Tribal Buffalo Council is working to make tribal lands more resilient to drought.
The Conservation Innovation Grant will give $640,000 to the council to help bridge the knowledge between 58 tribes spanning over one million acres in 19 states with a collect heard of more than 15,000 buffalo.
“The council’s mission is to restore bison to tribal land, which is subject to the whims of the land like fire, drought and carrying capacity,” Jim Stone, ITBC executive director, said.
To tribes, buffalo represent a way of life and are a critical part of the ecosystem, making their survival through drought a deep cultural significance, he added.
“American Indians were our nation’s first conservationists. This (grant) project will help make sure tribes have the resources and knowledge to improve and conserve land for their future generations,” Dr. Carol Crouch, NRCS National American Indian Special Emphasis Program manager, said.
The first step of the project will be an assessment of the impacts of drought across member tribes, their response to drought, and the effectiveness of the responses. The findings will be used to create regional trainings and adoption of best management practices
“Often, our members don’t know where to get information or resources for drought. Our goal is to build a one-stop shop for tribes where they can easily access the most up-to-date information,” Stone said.
An online database will be created for tribes to find drought resources. It will include links to drought forecasts, drought funding assistance, management practices, and the data needed to fill out forms and grants for assistance.
“This is a big project to tackle, and we currently only have six staff members,” said Stone.
The grant allows the council to hire additional staff to help do drought assessments, trainings, the online database, and bring in other partners to help educate the tribes.
Overall, it’s a chance to protect the land, the buffalo, and a way of life, he added.
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service helps America’s farmers and ranchers conserve the Nation’s soil, water, air and other natural resources. All programs are voluntary and offer science-based solutions that benefit both the landowner and the environment.
Follow NRCS on Twitter. Checkout other conservation-related stories on USDA Blog. Watch videos on NRCS’ YouTube channel.
Two billboards in which images of Native Americans are used to make a gun rights argument are causing a stir with some residents who say the image is offensive and insensitive.
Source: The Associated Press
GREELEY, Colo. — Two billboards in which images of Native Americans are used to make a gun rights argument are causing a stir with some residents who say the image is offensive and insensitive.
The billboards in this northern Colorado city show three men dressed in traditional Native American attire and the words “Turn in your arms. The government will take care of you.”
Matt Wells, an account executive with Lamar Advertising in Denver, said Monday a group of local residents purchased the space.
“They have asked to remain anonymous,” he said.
He also refused to disclose the cost, but said the billboards are only appearing in the Greeley area. Wells said he has not received any complaints so far.
“I think it’s a little bit extreme, of course, but I think people are really worried about their gun rights and what liberties are going to be taken away,” Wells told the Greeley Tribune (http://tinyurl.com/cdtkgj2).
Greeley resident Kerri Salazar, who is of Native American descent, said she was livid when she learned about it. She said she doesn’t have a problem with the gun rights message, but she’s offended the Native American people were singled out, apparently without their consent.
“I think we all get that (Second Amendment) message. What I don’t understand is how an organization can post something like that and not think about the ripple effect that it’s gonna have through the community,” she said.
Irene Vernon, a Colorado State University professor and chairwoman of the ethnic studies department, said the message on the billboard is taking a narrow view of a much more complicated history of the Native American plight. She said it’s not as if Native Americans just gave up their guns and wound up on reservations.
“It wasn’t just about our guns,” said Vernon, a Native American.
Greeley resident Maureen Brucker, who has worked with Native American organizations and who frequents the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota as an honorary family member, said she thinks the billboards are making light of atrocities the federal government committed against Native Americans.
She said the billboard brings to her mind one of the most horrendous examples of that, the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1890. Historical accounts say the 7th Cavalry had detained a band of Native Americans and asked them to give up their weapons. Troops began firing after a shot rang out. Death toll estimates of Native American men, women and children range from 150 to 300.
Brucker said she thinks those who put up the billboards should come forward and to discuss their viewpoints.
“I thought it was pretty cowardly that someone would put something like that up and spend the money for a billboard but didn’t have the courage to put their name on it,” she said.
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Information from: Greeley Daily Tribune, http://greeleytribune.com
More than seven of 10 Indians and Alaska Natives now live in a metropolitan area, according to Census Bureau data released this year, compared with 45 percent in 1970 and 8 percent in 1940.
NICOLE BENGIVENO / The New York Times A mural painted by children at the Little Earth of United Tribes housing complex in Minneapolis. More than 7 in 10 Native Americans now live in metropolitan areas, and many are finding urban life difficult.
By Timothy Williams, The New York Times
MINNEAPOLIS — Nothing in her upbringing on a remote Indian reservation in northern Minnesota prepared Jean Howard for her introduction to city life during a visit here eight years ago: an outbreak of gunfire, followed by the sight of people scattering.
She watched, confused, before realizing that she should run, too. “I said: ‘I’m not living here. This is crazy,’” she recalled.
Not long afterward, however, Howard did return, and found a home in Minneapolis. She is part of a continuing and largely unnoticed mass migration of American Indians, whose move to urban centers over the past several decades has fundamentally changed both reservations and cities.
Though they are widely associated with rural life, more than seven of 10 Indians and Alaska Natives now live in a metropolitan area, according to Census Bureau data released this year, compared with 45 percent in 1970 and 8 percent in 1940.
The trend mirrors the pattern of millions of African Americans who left the rural South during the Great Migration of the 20th century and moved to cities in the North and West. But while many black migrants found jobs in meatpacking plants, stockyards and automobile factories, American Indians have not had similar success finding work.
“When you look at it as a percentage, the black migration was nothing in comparison to the percentage of Native Americans who have come to urban areas,” said Dr. Philip R. Lee, an assistant secretary for health during the Clinton administration and an emeritus professor of social medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Recent budget figures show that federal money has not followed the migration, with only about 1 percent of spending by the Indian Health Service going to urban programs. Cities, with their own budget problems, are also failing to meet their needs.
One effect of the move toward cities has been a proliferation of Native American street gangs, which mimic and sometimes form partnerships with more well-established African-American and Latino gangs, according to the FBI and local law enforcement reports.
The migration goes to the heart of the question of whether the more than 300 reservations in the United States are an imperative or a hindrance to Native Americans, a debate that dates to the 19th century, when the reservation system was created by the federal government.
Citing generational poverty and other shortcomings on reservations, a federal policy from the 1950s to the 1970s pressured Indian populations to move to cities. Though unpopular on reservations, the effort helped prompt the migration, according to those who have moved to cities in recent years and academics who have studied the trend.
Regardless of where they live, a greater proportion of Indians live in poverty than any other group, at a rate that is nearly double the national average. Census data show that 27 percent of all Native Americans live in poverty, compared with 25.8 percent of African Americans, who are the next highest group, and 14.3 percent of Americans overall.
Moreover, data show that, in a number of metropolitan areas, American Indians have levels of impoverishment that rival some of the nation’s poorest reservations. Denver, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., for instance, have poverty rates for Indians approaching 30 percent. In Chicago, Oklahoma City, Houston and New York — where more Indians live than any other city — about 25 percent live in poverty.
Even worse off are those living in Rapid City, S.D., where the poverty level stands at more than 50 percent, and in Minneapolis, where more than 45 percent live in poverty.
“Our population has dealt with all these problems in the past,” said Jay Bad Heart Bull, the president and chief operating officer of the Native American Community Development Institute, a social-services agency in Minneapolis. “But it’s easier to get lost in the city. It’s easier to disappear.”
Despite the rampant poverty, many view Minneapolis as a symbol of progress. The city’s Indian population, about 2 percent of the total, is more integrated than in most other metropolitan areas, and there are social services and legal- and job-training programs specifically focused on them.
The city has a Native American City Council member, Robert Lilligren; a Native American state representative, Susan Allen; and a police chief, Janee Harteau, who is part Indian. But city life has brought with it familiar social ills like alcoholism and high unemployment, along with less familiar problems, including racism, heroin use and aggressive street gangs.
At the heart of one experiment to halt the cycle of poverty here is Little Earth of United Tribes, a sprawling 212-apartment complex, the nation’s only public-housing project that gives American Indians preference. It offers a wide array of social services, from empowerment counselors and bike rentals to couples’ therapy and a teen center that offers homework help, computers and board games. Houses are being built next to the complex to promote homeownership.
The typical resident is a single mother with children. The unemployment rate, more than 65 percent, is only marginally better than at impoverished reservations like Pine Ridge in South Dakota.
Bill Ziegler, the housing project’s president and chief executive officer, said he came to Minneapolis from the Lower Brule reservation in South Dakota in 2004 with a wife and five children. In the first six months, he said, there were five gang homicides, and from 2005 to 2007 only three students graduated from high school, a rate of about 5 percent.
Ziegler said the board was moving toward requiring that every resident have a job, be enrolled in school, or serve as a volunteer.
By Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network
If a politician’s commitment to Indian country can be measured by the amount of money he’s directed to it, then retiring Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) has been among the most committed in recent memory.
According to the senator’s website, at least copy0 billion has been designated for Native American programs and tribes during his tenure as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, a title he has held since 2001. But his contributions aren’t limited to cash. Baucus supported urban Indian health and anti-diabetes measures, and worked to get increased resources for the Indian Health Service. Ken Salazar, the recently departed Secretary of the Interior, has said Baucus was a key player in passing the Crow Water Settlement Act of 2010, which resolved a 30-plus-year dispute. He also played a role in other tribal water settlements, and in getting the Indian Health Care Improvement Act passed in 2010.
Now that Baucus and a handful of other Indian-friendly senators have announced their retirements, many Indians are thinking of ways to educate a new batch of Congressional leaders—a never-ending job, but one that takes on increased importance when those with institutionalized tribal knowledge and experience move on. “We’ve lost Senator Inouye, and Senators Akaka, Lautenberg, and Johnson announced their retirements. Now my old boss, Senator Baucus, is moving back to Bozeman [Montana],” says Tom Rogers, a lobbyist with Carlyle Consulting who worked as a congressional staffer for Baucus for 25 years before forming his own lobbying firm. “We are losing and have lost some mighty oak trees.”
Baucus, 71, announced on April 23 that he would leave Congress at the completion of his current term, which ends in December 2014. The news stunned many in Washington, including some members on his staff. He has been building a ranch in Bozeman, and he recently got married (for the third time), so many have speculated that he is ready to settle down and relax.
Baucus explained his decision in an op-ed published by The Great Falls Tribune. “It whispered to me among the elk resting in a meadow east of the Bridger Mountains,” he wrote. “I heard it as thousands of snow geese flew over the Rocky Mountain Front. The pull came up from my soul like the ducks that rose in clouds from the winter wheat fields of Teton County at dusk.”
He also said he is happier than he’s ever been, while vowing to focus on meaningful tax reform during his remaining months in the Senate—something that seems feasible, since leading Republicans and Democrats, as well President Barack Obama, all have said they want to make progress in that area.
Baucus told Indian Country Today Media Network he has been honored to work on behalf of tribes. “Serving the people of Montana, including our reservation communities, has been the greatest honor of my life,” he said. “You don’t become the longest-serving Senator in Montana history without a lot of help from a lot of people—and I owe much of my success to the tremendous support from folks in Indian country. Montana is so lucky to enjoy the rich culture and history our tribes bring to the state.
“I have worked hard over the years to represent all Montanans and giving a voice to Indian country is very important to me. Together we’ve accomplished a lot, from the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to the Cobell settlement to funding for infrastructure and education. But we still have a lot of work ahead of us to support good-paying jobs in Indian country. Over the next year and a half, I’ll be just as dedicated to working for our Montana reservation communities, including pushing my bill to fully fund water projects and making sure Indian country plays an important role in my Economic Development Summit.”
“My overall sense is that his retirement could give a shot in the arm to comprehensive tax code reform, including key tribal provisions,” says Paul Moorehead, an Indian affairs lawyer with Drinker Biddle who is a former Senate staffer. “His counterpart on the House side, Representative Camp, is term-limited… So what we have is two men who after 2014 will be gone from the helms of the House and Senate tax-writing committees, and a re-elected president who is interested in tax reform as a way to strengthen the economy.”
Indian country, especially Montana tribes, have learned that Baucus is largely respectful of tribal sovereign nations, and he aided Native America through financial programs he created and controlled as the Finance Committee chair, such as the Tribal Economic Development (TED) Bond program that launched in 2009 under the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The program has since been expanded by the Internal Revenue Service, and is believed to be aiding an increasing number of tribes by exempting their borrowing on many more projects than they were able to before the law passed. Using TED bonds, tribes can finance almost anything that state governments are able to finance through tax-exempt bonds.
Rogers was disappointed some Democrats said they are glad to see Baucus retire, because he is not progressive on issues like gun control. “They have to remember the state he comes from. And Indian issues don’t need to be politicized, so the fact that he could work with Republicans on our issues often benefitted Indian country.” On that point, Chris Stearns, an Indian affairs lawyer with Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker who was previously a House staffer adds, “Like past Indian country champions in the Senate from North and South Dakota, he showed that you don’t have to be a senator from a liberal or so-called progressive state to get things done for Native Americans. You just have to have courage, strong convictions, and the support of Indian people.”
There’s no doubt his departure will leave a hole for tribes in the Senate, says Stearns, but he adds that it is not as dire a picture as some worriers might paint. “Leaders always emerge, but more importantly, we need to remember that Indian country’s champions are already there,” Stearns says. “Leaders like Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, Jon Tester and Al Franken have already proven themselves.”
Sen. Tester, who will become the senior senator from Montana once Baucus departs, says he is sad to see his colleague and mentor go, but has vowed to continue his advocacy for Indian country. Andrea Helling, a spokeswoman for Tester, says Sen. Tester and his staff “will continue to work closely with Montana reservations on economic development projects and the quality of life issues that support economic development, like the permanent reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the SAVE the Native Women Act, the HEARTH Act, and the Tribal Law and Order Act.”
Despite that promise, Stearns says Indian country needs to continue to foster its relationship with him and other members of Congress. “One of the key points to remember when you look back at the storied careers of Senators like Dan Inouye, Byron Dorgan, Tom Daschle or Max Baucus is that it is just as important for them to win elections so they could enjoy the lengthy careers that really paid off for Indian tribes and Indian people. Indian country will have no trouble rebounding, but Indian country can never afford to take its foot off the pedal when it comes to exercising the power of the Native vote, so we can keep our champions in office.”
Rogers agrees that Native Americans need to get increasingly involved with U.S. elections. “It’s critically important for Indian country to realize that its power emanates from voting,” he says.
Rogers is one of the few who sees a silver-lining in Baucus’s announcement, pointing out that he will soon be able to advocate for tribes from outside the Senate, whether through lobbying or a non-profit program.
Others are less sanguine. “Max has given decades of service and he deserves to spend time enjoying life instead of leading the life of a senator, which is hectic and stressful… so from Max’s perspective, this is a good thing,” says George Waters, President of George Waters Consulting Service. “However, from Montana’s perspective and the perspective of Montana’s tribes, and tribes across the country, this is definitely not a good thing. Max has tremendous power and has used it to benefit his constituents, including the tribes of his state… To lose someone with that power, seniority, staff and history will hurt, there is no other way to put it. However, the tribes are resilient and we’ve had great advocates from Montana in the past like Lee Metcalf, Mike Mansfield and Pat Williams. When they left the Congress, the void, at the time, seemed insurmountable, but they have been replaced by highly regarded members. Life will go on.”
Some are speculating that former Democratic Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will run for the seat Baucus is vacating. The popular governor has said he strongly supports tribal sovereignty, and he has a record of supporting tribal bison and cultural issues. Still, Rogers would like to see more concrete tribal economic development and anti-poverty ideas emerge from Schweitzer if he does become a senatorial candidate.
But for now, the focus is on Baucus, and Rogers, who has known him since 1978, says he is happy for the retiring senator. “I consider him my friend, and he is very much at peace—that is a good thing to see and to want for a friend. I am smiling for what comes next for him.”
Dan Bates / The Herald Eastbound Marysville traffic, coming off I-5 from both northbound and southbound ramps, jams up at the Fourth Street train crossing April 9.
MARYSVILLE — When it comes to traffic backups from more coal trains, Marysville is Snohomish County’s ground zero.
Of 33 street crossings on BNSF Railway’s north-south line in the county, 16 — nearly half — are in Marysville.
Many of them already are congested.
Even now, at Fourth Street downtown, trains cause drivers to wait through the equivalent of three or four red lights, according to one traffic study.
Adding trains would make it that much harder for people who live in the city to get in and out, would delay access to businesses and cause serious problems for fire, ambulance and police service, Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said.
The proposed $650 million Gateway Pacific terminal would serve as a place to send coal, grain, potash and scrap wood for biofuels to Asia. Trains would bring coal from Montana and Wyoming across Washington state to Seattle and north to Bellingham. Supporters point to the jobs that would be generated by the new business.
The terminal also is expected to generate up to 18 more train trips through Snohomish County per day, nine full and nine empty.
This would roughly double the number of trains that currently travel between Everett and Bellingham each day.
Other cities that could be affected by delays from more trains are Edmonds and Stanwood. In Mukilteo and in Everett, the tracks run through underpasses or tunnels at major arterials.
Marysville is in a unique position because the city is long and skinny north and south. The tracks run its entire length, right between Marysville’s two busiest north-south routes, I-5 and State Avenue.
In the case of State, at some crossings, the tracks are right next to the arterial. And State Avenue and I-5 are only about a half-mile apart through much of the city.
How much money will be needed for bridges, underpasses and rail improvements — and who would pay — is a long way from being determined.
Railroads are obligated by federal law to pay only a maximum of 5 percent of the cost of new bridges or tunnels deemed necessary to offset delays from added train traffic, according to Courtney Wallace, a spokeswoman for BNSF Railway in Seattle. The railroad owns the tracks from Seattle to the Canadian border.
“We would work with city officials to identify funding and work with them to see where the funding could come from, whether it’s federal dollars, state dollars or local dollars,” she said.
Wallace said she didn’t know if the company proposing the plan, SSA Marine of Seattle, would pitch in to cover any of the costs. Craig Cole, a spokesman for SSA Marine, declined to comment on the topic.
Even if money is available for road fixes, Marysville’s choices are limited.
Because of the closeness of the tracks to State Avenue and I-5, building overpasses is not even an option, city public works director Kevin Nielsen said.
Officials with Marysville and the state Department of Transportation — to name just a couple of agencies that submitted letters during last fall’s comment period on the plan — asked that potential improvements and costs be addressed in upcoming environmental studies.
From September through January, about 14,000 people registered comments in hearings and in writing with the three agencies reviewing the plan — the state Department of Ecology, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Whatcom County.
It’s too early to tell exactly what subjects the studies will include, said Larry Altose, a spokesman for the ecology department. It will likely be at least a few months before the topics for study are determined and a year before the first draft of the study is done, Altose said.
This would be followed by another comment period and the final study, which would likely take at least another year.
Many environmental groups, local governments and individuals have come out against the plan. Their concerns, in addition to traffic at crossings, include pollution from coal dust and climate change.
One of the rail crossings is at 271st Street NW in the heart of Stanwood. Mayor Dianne White, however, doesn’t believe the extra trains would cause major problems.
“I don’t see it messing it up that much. They don’t stop, they keep going,” she said.
She added, however, that “I really feel for Marysville. It could completely block the whole city.”
Other crossings in the Silvana area and north of Stanwood could face some rush-hour delays but traffic is lighter there than in Marysville.
On the positive side, the plan is projected to create 4,400 temporary, construction related jobs and 1,200 long-term positions, according to SSA Marine.
“If they don’t build that Cherry Point terminal, (the trains) are going to keep going into Canada like they are now and we don’t get 2,000 jobs,” White said.
Rep. Rick Larsen, whose district includes Marysville as well as Bellingham where the project is planned, came under fire in his re-election campaign last year for backing the coal terminal. At the time, he called it a difficult decision, but said he supported the terminal because of the thousands of unemployed people who live in Whatcom County.
He said in a statement on Friday that “potentially negative outcomes” should be determined in the environmental review.
“If the (study) identifies traffic impacts, the project sponsor would and should be responsible for paying for improvements to mitigate those problems,” he said.
In Edmonds, the city has only two crossings, but one of them sits at the entrance to the ferry dock at the foot of Main Street. The other, at Dayton Street, controls access to much of the waterfront, including the Port of Edmonds marina.
State transportation officials, in written comments on the Gateway Pacific plan last fall, said two of 25 sailings per day were recently eliminated from the Edmonds-Kingston run because waits for trains were causing the boats to run behind schedule.
A plan proposed long ago, but shelved by a lack of funding, called for building a new ferry terminal at the south end of Edmonds where a bridge could be built over the tracks to carry ferry traffic.
The transportation department, in its letter, asked that this plan be re-examined in the environmental study, as well as the possibility of a bridge or tunnel at the Main Street crossing, and restricting train traffic during busy travel periods.
More than twice as many trains run per day on weekdays in south county than from Everett north — 49 compared to 19. Very few of the roads north of Everett, however, have bridges or underpasses at the train tracks.
Of the trains running in both directions between Everett and Seattle, about 35 are freight trains, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said. Amtrak Cascades and Empire Builder trains add another six every day, while Sounder commuter trains add another eight on weekdays. Mudslides have canceled an increasing number of these trains in recent years.
Adding 18 trains per day would bring the Monday-Friday total to 67.
About 15 freight trains run per day between Everett and Bellingham, Melonas said. Amtrak Cascades trains add four more for a total of 19 each day.
Adding 18 to this total would bring the total to 37.
Currently, up to four trains per day already carry coal on tracks between Seattle and Canada, Melonas said. Several terminals in British Columbia already ship coal, according to the Coal Association of Canada.
Trains are restricted to 30 mph in Marysville for safety reasons, meaning the barriers are down for six to eight minutes — the equivalent of three or four stoplight cycles — for the longer trains, according to the Gibson study.
The study was done for a group of business owners and residents in Whatcom County, said Tom Ehrlichman, an attorney for Salish Law of Bellingham, the group’s law firm at the time.
In downtown Marysville, the crossing at Fourth Street is less than a quarter-mile from I-5 — too close for an overpass, which would take up four blocks, Nielsen said.
Engineers have looked at tunneling under the tracks, but the dip would have to be steep because of the proximity to the freeway. Also, high ground water at that location would make the underpass susceptible to flooding, he said.
At 88th Street NE, the tracks are just a few feet from State Avenue.
“We could go over it, but you would end up way over on the other side of State Avenue in a neighborhood somewhere, and you’d have to have loop-back ramps over people’s houses to get back to State,” Nielsen said.
Because the tracks at 88th and 116th Street NE are so close to I-5, sometimes, when a long train goes through, traffic backs up onto the freeway, according to the Gibson study.
In fact, the extra trains could negate the benefits of the city’s $2 million widening of 116th completed a few years ago, the study says.
The study shows the street having carried 20,000 automobiles per day in 2011. For 88th Street NE and Fourth Street, the numbers are 30,000 each. Of this 80,000 total, about 7,000 of those were in the evening rush hour.
Because of the problems with building overpasses, city officials feel the best solution is to build an off-ramp from northbound I-5 directly to Highway 529 and the new Ebey Slough Bridge. This ramp would carry northbound drivers over the tracks as they exit the freeway, dropping them directly into the city and keeping them from having to sit at crossings at Fourth, 88th or 116th.
This project would cost about $1.8 million, said state Sen. Nick Harper, D-Everett.
So far in this year’s session of the Legislature, no money has been included for the ramp. Nehring said the project could potentially be included in a package to be sent to voters.
