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.
Burke Museum
Sat., Apr. 20, 2013 – Sun., Apr. 28, 2013
11 am – 3 pm
Included with museum admission; FREE for Burke members
Saturdays and Sundays in April, 11 am – 3 pm
Photo (c) Jack Storms/Storms PhotoGraphic.
Every weekend in April, enjoy Coast Salish art activities at the Burke. See Coast Salish artifacts not normally on display, and try your hand at a large weaving loom. Also join us for guided exhibit tours every Saturday at 1 pm.
The Burke Museum offers weekend activities throughout the year with themes changing monthly. Check our events page for updates on other upcoming weekend activities.
By Stephanie Woodard, Indian Country Today Media Network
The decision of U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) not to run in 2014 means that the state’s Native vote could be very important next year. Just as tribal members pulled Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) across the finish line in his neck-and-neck 2012 race, they may decide the upcoming contest, says Blackfeet tribal member Tom Rodgers, of Carlyle Consulting and voting-rights group Four Directions. That, in turn, will help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. “If the 2014 senatorial race is anything like 2012, there may be a two-to-three-point difference between the candidates, and the Native vote can easily make the decision,” Rodgers says.
Native influence will be even greater if an ongoing lawsuit (Mark Wandering Medicine v. Linda McCulloch, now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) to require satellite election offices on Montana reservations succeeds, according to Rodgers. “With satellite registration and voting, Indian turnout will skyrocket—and the only way to get political power is to affect political outcomes.” (Related story: NCAI, DOJ Weigh in on Behalf of Native Voting-Rights Plaintiffs)
Both major parties see the potential of the Native vote. The Montana GOP is talking to the Republican National Committee about funding a staff position to do outreach in tribal communities, according to state party executive director Bowen Greenwood. “When a race is close, every vote counts,” says Greenwood, who argues that Native beliefs in tradition and caring for the land and their desire for economic development match Republican ideals.
The Montana Democratic Party has long had voter-registration, get-out-the-vote and voter-protection efforts in Native communities, spokesperson Chris Saeger says. “Increasing participation in American Indian communities will always be a top priority for us. We are confident that we’ll hold Senator Baucus’s seat, because we have a deep bench [of candidates] and a strong record in statewide elections.” (Related story: Montana Democrats Rebuff Native Voting-Rights Lawsuit)
Baucus will be missed in Indian country. “We are very sad to lose Senator Baucus’s leadership. Federal policy is often imposed on tribes, and we rely on our representatives in Washington to advocate for us,” says Gordon Belcourt, Blackfeet, executive director of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council. “And since both major parties want to reach out to tribes in the race to replace Senator Baucus, they should both support the on-reservation satellite voting offices we’re requesting via the lawsuit.”
Four Directions legal director Greg Lembrich, of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, says his organization wants both parties to embrace the Indian vote. On that front, Belcourt offers some advice to would-be senators, and to the parties as a whole: When they arrive on reservations, they will face pointed questions about their platforms and policies and will need to produce well-thought-out action plans to deal with issues like decades of high unemployment—in the 50 to 80 percent range for the tribes his group represents—and the effect of sequestration on programs that are already severely underfunded, such as the Indian Health Service. “It’s not a question of Democrats v. Republicans for Native people; it’s how the candidates address the issues.” (Related story: Montana Taxpayer Questions High Cost of Battling Against Native Voting Rights)
Belcourt says Baucus was “very receptive” to meeting with tribal leaders, so in the upcoming race for his seat, a record of personal involvement is going to count a lot with the tribes.
Lembrich notes that in 2014 Indian country will also be pivotal in South Dakota, where Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat, has announced his retirement, and in Alaska, where Democratic Senator Mark Begich faces a tough race. “With no presidential race to distract anyone, we’ll see media saturation and lots of feet on the ground registering voters and getting them to the polls.”
Hanging over all this, he adds, is the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming Voting Rights Act decision (Shelby County v. Holder), and a Native voting-rights suit in South Dakota (Chris Brooks v. Jason Gant). “We have some real drama ahead surrounding voting equality for tribal members.”
WASHINGTON, April 25, 2013 – USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service announced today additional funding for the second year of the National Water Quality Initiative.
NRCS will make available nearly $35 million in financial assistance to farmers and ranchers in 164 priority watersheds this year to implement suites of conservation practices intended to improve water quality.
“These are voluntary efforts focused in small watersheds where the implementation of conservation systems can yield results for locally important waters,” said NRCS Acting Chief Jason Weller. “When farmers and ranchers work to improve water quality, they also help provide the nation with clean waterways, safe drinking water and healthy habitat for fish and wildlife.”
During the first year of the initiative in 2012, NRCS provided $34 million in financial assistance to farmers and ranchers in 154 small watersheds, ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 acres in size. This initiative builds on efforts that NRCS already has underway in areas such as the Mississippi River Basin, the Gulf of Mexico, the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes.
The agency worked closely with partners, including state water quality agencies, to refine the eligible priority watersheds this year. These partners assisted in selecting one to 12 priority watersheds in every state where on-farm conservation investments will deliver the greatest water quality improvement benefits. These watershed projects will each address one or more of the following water quality concerns: excess nitrogen, phosphorous, sediment or pathogens.
Eligible producers will receive assistance under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program for installing conservation systems that may include practices such as nutrient management, cover crops, conservation cropping systems, filter strips, terraces, and in some cases, edge-of-field water quality monitoring.
Through this water quality initiative, NRCS is also piloting its new Water Quality Index for Agricultural Runoff. The tool will help landowners determine how alternative conservation systems they are considering will impact water quality improvement. Additionally, state water quality agencies and other partners will do in-stream and watershed-level monitoring to track water quality improvements in many of the project watersheds.
“The quality of our nation’s water affects so much. Across the country farmers, ranchers and foresters are actively and voluntarily using conservation systems to improve water quality,” said Weller.
NRCS accepts applications for financial assistance on a continuous basis throughout the year. Check with your local NRCS office to see if you are located in a selected watershed.
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.
“Access to clean drinking water, clean air, and healthy fish and game are inherent human rights that no lawmaker can give away.”
By Lacey McCormick, National Wildlife Federation
For more than a century, American Indian tribes and Alaska Natives have suffered the impacts of hardrock mining while enjoying few of its benefits.
A new National Wildlife Federation report,Honoring the River: How Hardrock Mining Impacts Tribal Communities tells the story of hardrock mining and tribes, from the checkered history of federal legislation allowing mining companies to lease minerals on tribal lands—often without tribal consent—to the many new mines being proposed near tribal communities.
“Access to clean drinking water, clean air, and healthy fish and game are inherent human rights that no lawmaker can give away,” said Mike Wiggins, chairman of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, whose land has been threatened by Gogebic Taconite’s proposed open-pit iron mine. “Some of the environmental impacts, like acid mine drainage, will last into perpetuity.”
The report was endorsed by the following tribes and tribal organizations impacted by hardrock mining: Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Sokaogon Chippewa Community.
Two loopholes in the regulations implementing the Clean Water Act have allowed mines to treat rivers, lakes and wetlands as waste dumps for toxic, acid-producing tailings. According to the report, the metals mining industry has already contaminated an estimated 40 percent of the headwaters in western watersheds.
That figure doesn’t surprise Rich Janssen, head of the Department of Natural Resources at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in northern Montana. These tribes have been working to help threatened bull trout recover from 100-year old mining and smelting operations. The tribes now find themselves fighting two proposed silver mines adjacent to the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.
“Our tribes do not oppose all mining but we do take our stewardship commitment seriously,” said Janssen. “Nobody should be permitted to store untreated mining waste in rivers or streams. We strongly support closing the mining loopholes in the Clean Water Act.”
“The indigenous view on water is that it is a sacred and spiritual entity,” said Jessica Koski, mining technical assistant of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, which has been affected by Rio Tinto’s Eagle Mine operation. “Our communities have a historically intimate connection to water and we are especially sensitive to the impacts of mining on our sacred places and the waters that feed Lake Superior.”
Honoring the River discusses one of the nation’s worst mining disasters, the Zortman-Landusky gold mine near the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north-central Montana. The mine is infamous for its cyanide spills and acid mine drainage—and the responsible company ultimately filed for bankruptcy, leaving the Fort Belknap tribes and taxpayers to pay millions in clean-up costs.
“A lot of people made money from the Zortman-Landusky mine, but we were not among them,” said Tracy King, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community. “We were left with degraded cultural sites, smaller fish and wildlife populations, and a huge price tag for reclamation and water treatment. Tribal communities should be wary of the economic promises made by mining companies.”
The report also focuses on the controversial Pebble copper and gold mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The Pebble mine would be the largest open pit mine in North America and would be in the headwaters of the greatest remaining wild sockeye salmon fishery on earth. The Bristol Bay watershed sustains more than two dozen Alaska Native communities that have practiced a salmon-based culture for millennia.
“Tribes have been disproportionately harmed by hardrock mining and the pollution caused by mining waste,” said Tony Turrini, senior attorney for National Wildlife Federation and one of the report’s authors. “We’re calling on the Obama Administration to close Clean Water Act loopholes that allow mines to store untreated waste in natural waters. Closing these loopholes won’t stop hardrock mining, but it would help protect tribal communities from the chemicals, heavy metals, and acid drainage produced by modern mines.”
“National Wildlife Federation has worked with tribes for more than 20 years to protect wildlife,” explains Garrit Voggesser, national director of Tribal Partnerships for NWF. “Our current efforts to minimize the threats of hardrock mining exemplify how tribes and NWF can make a difference in our shared values for the protection of environmental and cultural resources.”
LONGMONT, Colo., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — It’s called “Minor’s Trust,” “Big Money” or “18 Money,” and for a number of Native American youth, it represents a blessing and a curse. However, a new interactive web tool can help Native youth do big things with their minor’s trust.
A small number of tribes pay out dividends from tribal businesses, or per capita payments, to their members. Payments for tribal members who are age 17 or younger are usually held in a financial trust until the youth turns 18. At age 18 (although sometimes later) youth receive a substantial payment and are faced with the responsibility of managing their “Big Money” at a young age.
With funding from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) is launching the My Green campaign this month to help Native youth learn to manage their money. The main feature of the campaign is the My Green website at www.mybigmoney.org. It features four spokespeople — Native youth ages 17-23 — who present their stories about how they managed their Big Money. They share their lessons learned in several videos, and serve as guides throughout the different components of the website. The site contains several money tools that Native youth can use to learn how to better manage their payments, including a Big Money simulation game that mirrors real-life spending decisions one must make.
First Nations created the campaign and website in response to the growing demand to provide financial education to Native youth who are receiving a large lump sum of money. Studies have shown that Native youth have very low rates of financial literacy and are more likely to be “underbanked,” and Native youth who receive a large Minor’s Trust payment (sometimes $50,000 or more) are especially vulnerable to making poor financial decisions.
“Receiving a large minor’s trust payment at age 18 can be exciting but also very stressful for Native youth,” said Shawn Spruce, program consultant at First Nations. “We are confident the My Green website will offer these kids valuable tools to explore how to invest in their future.”
First Nations will continue to unveil and promote the website at several conferences including the Native American Finance Officers Association conference held April 18-19, the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque April 26-27, and The National Indian Education Association conference Oct. 29 — Nov. 3.
To learn more, visit www.mybigmoney.org, “like” the campaign on Facebook at MyGreenFNDI, or follow the effort on Twitter @mygreenfndi.
Contacts: Sarah Dewees (540) 907-6247 or sdewees@firstnations.org and/or Randy Blauvelt (303) 774-7836 or rblauvelt@firstnations.org
By Kevin Taylor, Indian Country Today Media Network
He had a name, not that we will ever know it.
He also had wounds—a spear point embedded deep in his hip that suggests battle; a half-dozen broken ribs, several dents in his head and a chipped-off piece of bone in his right shoulder socket that indicated he had been battered in a rough world.
But he was tough. Strong.
The shoulder injury alone is considered a career-ender when it happens today to fireballing relief pitchers, but the ancient hunter probably didn’t have retirement as an option. Then there’s the knapped-rock spear point, which, had it pierced his body an inch higher, would have killed him.
“He was a very robust and very large man. Well-muscled, especially in his right arm and left leg—he was a javelin thrower, more than likely an atlatl user. He was absolutely a hunter and he was tough as nails in his world. He had to keep moving to eat.”
This portrayal of a sturdy spear-hunter from around 9,500 years ago comes from Doug Owsley, an esteemed forensic anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution. Owsley was sharing these observations in a richly detailed three-hour presentation, delivered without notes, in central Washington state last fall. There was a spillover crowd drawn to the tiny, Columbia River village of Wanapum—people hungry for the first real news in nearly a decade about the controversial skeleton known as Kennewick Man, or the Ancient One.
Owsley believes Kennewick Man was a visitor to these lands, not a resident. (AP)
There is still an open sore with Kennewick Man. It’s the chafe between science and spirituality, between people who say the remains have so much to tell us about the ancient human past that they should remain available for research, versus people who feel a kinship with the ancient bones and say they should be reburied to show proper reverence for the dead.
It has been almost 17 years since two young men trying to sneak into the annual hydroplane races in Kennewick, Washington, stumbled (literally) across a skeleton in the shallows of the Columbia River; the Ancient One has been caught in limbo ever since. He is in the custody of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the waterways behind a series of federal dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers. The Ancient One is stored in a secured vault at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum in Seattle.
Owsley and seven other scientists sued the corps to keep the bones from being turned over to a coalition of area tribes for reburial, and the court battle has gone as high as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but is not yet settled. The Ninth Circuit, in February 2004, upheld a ruling that there’s no evidence Kennewick Man is related to any of the present-day Plateau Tribes.
It’s a common interpretation that the federal courts are saying Kennewick Man is not an Indian. Not so. The ruling is both more nuanced and less. More, because it says that a single skeleton as ancient as this one, found outside any context of community—village or ancient burial ground—doesn’t provide enough evidence to connect it, culturally or genetically, to a present-day Native group. Less, because the ruling came during an administrative hearing in which local Plateau tribes were not allowed to introduce evidence—oral tradition, ancient settlements—that could have connected the Ancient One to where he was found.
The real outcome, however, is that the Ancient One is likely to remain in his unmarked vault at the Burke for a long time.
What further chafes the Five Claimant Tribes, as they are known in court documents, is that human remains roughly as ancient as, or even older than, those of the Ancient One have been repatriated without any controversy via the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). I had the rare privilege of witnessing one such repatriation.
Going Home for Some
Not far from where Kennewick Man was found, there is a butte turned sepia with late autumn—dried weeds and tanned grasses and the brown of exposed basalt—a high, lonely overlook above the joining of the Palouse and Snake rivers. Two weeks after Owsley’s talk, Rex Buck Jr., a spiritual leader of the Wanapum, stands alongside a square, open grave. He removes a brass hand-bell from a pouch on his belt and raises it to a sky threatening rain.
The stillness here, the sense of remoteness is astonishing. It’s remarkable that this is now such an empty quadrant of Washington—somnolent Starbuck [population 129] and the Lyons Ferry Marina, with its pizza oven and fragrant coffee pot are the scant evidence of settlement on the far side of the Snake. The 15 of us atop the butte are seemingly the only humans around for miles.
It wasn’t always so. At the confluence below is the site of the ancient village of Palus, sunken now under the reservoir formed by Lower Monumental Dam. More than two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the explorer David Thompson and assorted other roamers and traders—Indian and white alike—stopped off at Palus and noted its importance as a well-established crossroads for commerce and travel from the coast to the plains.
It was also the main settlement of the Palus Indians, who lived in villages strung along the lower Snake River.
Palouse Falls (Flickr/Craig Goodwin)
The undulating top of the butte tells an even longer story. Over there, beyond Rex Buck’s left shoulder, a wide, dark bracket in the basalt rock face marks the opening to a cave. It’s Marmes, the Marmes Rockshelter—a potential world-class archaeological site that shows evidence of an estimated 14,000 years of continuous human occupation. It must be described as a “potential” world-class site because Marmes, just as it was beginning to be excavated, was flooded by the construction of Lower Monumental Dam, which is one of four federal dams built in the 1960s and 1970s to make the Snake River navigable to Lewiston, Idaho, some 465 miles from the sea. This was when the movement of wheat via barge was deemed more important than the migration of once-robust wild salmon that sustained Native cultures for thousands of years.
The remains being re-interred on this Tuesday morning are the third and perhaps final group of people who had once lived at Marmes that were located and repatriated under NAGPRA, and they are estimated to be in the range of 10,000 years old. People were roaming this area well before Kennewick Man. These ancient remains were among those rescued from the encroaching floodwaters of the Lower Monumental reservoir in the mid-to-late 1960s and stored at Washington State University for the past half-century.
So how is it these paleo remains are being repatriated under NAGPRA and Kennewick Man is not? Partly, it has to do with the “accidental” discovery of Kennewick Man’s remains and partly to caution over not igniting another fight with tribes.
Mary Collins, associate director of the Museum of Anthropology at Washington State University, says, “Because of the [controversy over the] Kennewick decision, it took awhile to build an argument for reburying the older ones.… In a nutshell, the difference between Kennewick and the Marmes was in fact that Kennewick was an inadvertent discovery.”
The important difference, Collins notes, is that Kennewick Man was found alone, while the remains of Marmes inhabitants were found in an organized dig that also revealed evidence of community and continuous human occupation at the site for millennia. “And that was the basis for arguing that they were appropriately repatriated as American Indians,” Collins says.
Jennifer Richman, senior assistant district counsel for the Corps of Engineers, Portland District, clarifies that the decision does not say the Marmes people are Palus people. “By just saying it’s more likely than not [the remains are] culturally affiliated with the tribes, we’re not then definitively saying that yes the Marmes remains are Palus, just that there’s a preponderance of evidence to show a connection there and a cultural affiliation,” Richman adds.
To some tribal people, the difference between the way NAGPRA treats Kennewick Man and the Marmes people is just semantics, or at best a bureaucratic distinction. Among Owsley’s findings since 2005 is evidence that confirms earlier reports from scientists working for the Corps of Engineers that the Ancient One was deliberately buried. Tribal people say this shows Kennewick Man was not a loner wandering in an empty world, but was loved enough by others to be buried after his death.
And after thousands of years in the earth, his erosion-caused reappearance must be corrected by reburial, they say. “He died in our land, and we have taken care of him for 10,000 years. Is he a man of this area? I believe so,” says Jackie Cook, repatriation specialist of the Colville Confederated Tribes.
The Wandering One
Owsley disagrees with that assertion. He says analysis of radioactive isotopes in the bones indicate Kennewick Man drank glacier-fed water, not necessarily Columbia River water, and that he ate a heavy marine diet, more likely to include seals rather than just salmon. Kennewick Man, Owsley concludes, was a coastal resident who traveled inland.
The reburial party contingent at the Marmes Rockshelter site (Kevin Taylor)
Members of the Five Claimant Tribes disagree, citing for instance that sea lions still chase migrating salmon as far upriver as the Bonneville Dam, some 146 miles from the ocean, and that there is archaeological evidence that shows sea lions came much farther inland before dams were built.
But this only shows there is need for more study, Owsley contends. “There are, to my mind, some collections that I think are so fundamental that they should be preserved for another generation of scientists with different questions—totally different questions—and better methods,” he says by telephone from his office at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. “I mean, you look at my 35-plus years of doing this and the way I analyze a skeleton today is totally different from what I did back then. What we can learn today are things I wasn’t even thinking about. And I have to feel Kennewick Man absolutely falls in that category.”
At Wanapum last fall, Owsley ended his presentation by describing two more tests he would like to conduct on Kennewick Man—one that examines dental enamel to ascertain Kennewick Man’s childhood diet, which could be a telling clue as to where he grew up; the other to use advancements in scanning technology to re-examine the spear point, which could determine precisely where it was quarried.
Owsley says he has made these proposals to the Army corps but has received no permissions. Richman, the corps’ lawyer dealing with Kennewick Man, says the agency has denied earlier proposals from Owsley that were deemed too destructive to the bones, and has not yet received formal proposals from Owsley on less-invasive procedures. Still, one asks, will Owsley do the two more tests and then return the Ancient One to the tribes for reburial?
“I don’t think that’s going to be my decision,” he says, noting that the corps still holds the remains. “My goal here is to really set a standard to explain what we know right now and also point to what we don’t know. Some of that can be answered with this man and some of that will, hopefully, be answered with other discoveries but I can tell you they are few and far between, they are exceedingly rare.”
Even some tribal members, such as Jackie Cook of the Colville, appreciate the glimpse science offers into the distant past, because that story is her story. But the scientists never seem to acknowledge that they are asking a lot of Native people whose “shared history” comes from having skeletons of their relatives and ancestors kidnapped from graves and kept in boxes or on shelves in museums and universities or private living rooms.
This is driven home by Armand Minthorn, a spiritual and political leader of the Umatilla and the first Indian to demand the return of Kennewick Man, just days after the bones were found. “When you suggest you can get so much information from these remains, that may be the case, however they’re ours. And they are sacred. Period. End of discussion,” Minthorn says.
Collins, of Washington State University, sees one good change that’s come from the bitter fight over Kennewick Man. “As a teacher looking at the next generation of scientists, their understanding of the need to address multiple interests and multiple perspectives is day-and-night difference than a generation ago…they are much more sensitive to the context of addressing other peoples’ concerns and not assuming that your concerns have greater value than theirs.”
‘He Wants to Go Home’
Cook is one of four tribal women who prepared the Marmes remains for reburial—with smudging, prayer, song and muslin. She would love to experience a similar moment with Kennewick Man. “It’s on my bucket list.”
She then tells the following story: “Several years ago we [several Plateau tribes] were doing a joint claim with the Burke Museum and it was very convoluted. We spent a full week there.”
Throughout the week, Cook and others could only move around with an escort from museum repatriation officers. “And we would say, ‘Is that the door? Is that one the door?’ He had his own vault and at that time they were keeping his location secret. And the repatriation officer would just smile and wouldn’t answer us.
“And so the week went on and we were all working together and at one point I said, ‘Well I don’t care. I am just old enough not to care if they put me in jail. If I could get him out I would take him with us and we would rebury him.’ It was very light-hearted and jovial but on the last day we were loading up and the alarms went off and everybody turned around and asked, ‘Where’s Jackie?’ I was in the back of the room and we were laughing and I said, ‘See? See? Listen to your heart, he wants to come.’”
Some months later, Cook was meeting with Burke staffers, when they told her the alarm that day was from the Ancient One’s vault. “He has his own alarm and it was his alarm,” she says.
The museum staff didn’t know what set it off that day, Cook says. Burke collections manager Laura Phillips confirms the anecdote, and adds that she doesn’t know what set off Kennewick Man’s alarm.
Cook has a good guess: “He wants to go home.”
Birdsong and Pizza
Back atop the butte, Cook and other women stand in a line at the foot of the open grave, men stand to one side. The women wrap themselves in shawls. Buck, who is latest in a long line of Wanapum spiritual leaders, slices the hand-bell down from overhead and rings out a rhythm. He begins to sing in the old language—sonorous and pure. All the Indians join, the men’s voices deep, the women lilting. It was a gray day, high cloudy, but as younger men carried the boxes of remains from an SUV—bones wrapped in muslin and prayer, remains separated by sex, bones placed in the ground on fresh-woven tule mats—as these bones were going in the ground and people were singing, the sun broke out, and over the singing there was heard birdsong.
It seems there is often such a moment as this, when good words are said aloud and good songs are sung in the old language and it seems as if the world responds. After, we all went for pizza at the Lyons Ferry marina across the Snake. “You can tell people you were at a traditional Indian feast. We like pizza!”
There were jokes and good humor up and down the long table. After all, people were in a fine mood after returning the remains of the Marmes people to some very ground that, quite likely, they had stood upon. As the pizzas arrived, there was also serious discussion of how much work is left. As universities and museums become aware of NAGPRA and comply with the law this is the easy part. What’s tougher will be tracking down remains taken by artifact traders and private collectors—grave robbers to some.
When we’re leaving, I mention the sun break to the Umatilla guy with the long, thin braids ending at his breastbone, and he smiles. Coincidence or Creator it don’t matter, Tuesday morning people came home. From 10,000 years ago they came home. And the Earth smiled to see them again, the birds sang.
It would be wonderful to offer this grace to Kennewick Man as well. Because it’s possible the Earth has heard his name and remembers it, even if we do not.
Indian Affairs Hearing Examines Obama FY2014 Budget’s Impact on Indian Country
Source: United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-WA) encouraged the Administration to continue to invest in key programs for Indian Country, during a Committee oversight hearing on the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposal.
During today’s hearing, Cantwell applauded the Administration’s support for Indian health programs, energy development and public safety programs for Tribal governments. Cantwell also expressed concerns about proposed budget cuts to Tribal economic development programs. Eight of the ten poorest counties in the United States can be found in Indian Country and unemployment rates can be as high as 80 percent. Cantwell also expressed concern about the Administration’s budget proposal to zero out investments for new school construction in Indian Country, even though half of the schools in the Bureau of Indian Education system are considered to be in poor or fair condition.
“For Tribal communities to thrive now and into the future there must be economic development opportunities and workforce opportunities,” said Cantwell at today’s hearing. “This year’s budget request contains a decrease in economic development funding for Indian Country, despite a moderate increase in overall education funding, and it contains no funding for school construction.”
The Committee heard testimony from U.S. Department of the Interior and Department of Health and Human Services officials, president of the National Congress of American Indians, chair of the National Indian Health Board, and a representative of the National Tribal Contract Support Cost Coalition. Click here for a full list of witnesses.
Today’s witnesses also described the severe impact sequestration is having on their Tribal communities. Sequestration, which took effect on March 1, 2013, required across-the-board cuts at federal agencies. Tribal programs are being reduced at the Department of the Interior by $120 million and at the Indian Health Service by $220 million. These cuts will lead to decreased staff at Tribal schools, reduced health care at Indian Health facilities, and cuts to the general assistance program which provides food rent and clothing to those most in need.
Witnesses at the hearing also emphasized the need for the federal government to honor the unique legal obligations the federal government has towards Indian Tribes. The government-to-government relationship is grounded in the United States Constitution, treaties, federal statutes and Supreme Court decisions.
The Committee also heard from John Sirois, Chairman of the Business Council of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation of Nespelem, Washington: “In the current budget climate, we believe that existing resources for economic development can be leveraged and maximized with more formal coordination between federal agencies,” Sirois said. “Businesses are often hesitant to locate their operations on Indian lands because of the administrative burdens, both real and perceived, that accompany federal approval requirements applicable to many activities on Indian land.”
