May 31st, June 1st and 2nd, 2013, Tulalip Resort
Category: Top Story
Senators Confirm Sally Jewell to Lead Interior; Predict She Will be Good for Indian Country
By Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network
Senators are speaking out after confirming Sally Jewell April 10 by a vote of 87 – 11 to become the next secretary of the United States Department of the Interior, saying she will be strong on American Indian issues as she encounters them in her new position—a position that includes oversight of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Jewell, 57, was most recently the CEO of an outdoor gear and clothing company called Recreational Equipment Inc., and she is a former commercial banker and oil company engineer, as well as a longtime advocate for conservation and outdoor recreation.
In her previous positions, Jewell hasn’t done a lot of specific work on Indian-related issues, which she admitted during her confirmation hearing, yet some Indian leaders say she has done enough to know that she will be a positive advocate. For instance, she was part of the Board of Regents at the University of Washington, which approved the construction of the university’s new $5.8 million longhouse.
Billy Frank, a Native American environmental advocate, has issued his strong support, as have Fawn Sharp, Chris Stearns, and other Indian leaders.
Several senators also say they believe Jewell will be good for Indian country.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, has met with Jewell multiple times and has discussed a number of issues important to Indian country, according to the senator’s staff. On March 7, at Jewell’s confirmation hearing, Cantwell asked Jewell for her “comments on the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which will be part of your responsibilities. And whether you would commit to protecting treaty rights and incorporating tribal input into the Interior resource decisions?”
“I’m fully committed to upholding the sacred trust responsibilities that we have to Indian tribes and Indian nations,” Jewell replied. “And building and strengthening the nation-to-nation relationship that we have with tribes. I know this is a very important part of the Department of the Interior. … I’m certainly very interested in becoming more steeped in those issues and it has come up across the board in almost every one of my meetings with senators so far. So I very much look forward to taking this part of the role extremely serious.”
Cantwell further asked Jewell whether she supports energy development on Indian lands.
“Some tribes are blessed with natural resources and I think leaning into those resources to help the tribes economically as well as help the country by finding sources of energy development are really important,” Jewell said. “I know that businesses and tribes want certainty, in terms of the regulations. And I know that there have been issues with the Bureau of Land Management on how the leases occur. And I certainly will look into furthering that development.”
The comments from Jewell were not enough to convince Sen. John Barrasso (D-Wyo.), the vice-chair of SCIA, to vote for her confirmation. He was tough on her ties to conservation groups during her confirmation hearing, and he ended up being one of the 11 Republicans to vote against her confirmation.
Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) office said he is interested in bringing Jewell to Montana to see firsthand the issues involving his state’s tribes. Based on conversations prior to her confirmation, Tester believes she will be a strong advocate for Indians, his spokeswoman said.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, predicted in a press release that Jewell will be an “outstanding” secretary.
“As fellow engineer, I am confident that Ms. Jewell will use science as her guide in addressing the challenges that lie ahead, including managing our nation’s land and water, and expanding safe and responsible energy production,” Heinrich said. “Ms. Jewell shares my commitment to Indian country and to protecting our natural heritage for our children and for generations to come. And she knows firsthand that conservation and growing the Western economy are inextricably linked.”
On the House side, Don Young (R-Alaska), the leader of the Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, has not yet met with Jewell, but he has plenty of thoughts on how she can work to strengthen Indian country.
“One of the most important things she can do as Secretary is reorder the pecking order of the bureaus within the Department to give Indian Affairs equal standing with the others,” Michael Anderson, a spokesman for Young, said. “Additionally, one of the Department’s most solemn obligations is to ensure federal laws and policies dealing with tribes are beneficial to American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Congressman Young looks forward to promoting that message and building a strong relationship with Secretary Jewell in the days and months ahead.”
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii), the ranking member of the Indian-focused subcommittee is also interested in meeting with Jewell as soon as possible, according to the congresswoman’s staff.
President Barack Obama, upon receiving word that the Senate had confirmed Jewell, also mentioned her impending relationship with Indian country in a statement.
“Sally’s commitment to energy and climate issues, her belief in our strong government-to-government relationship with Indian country, and her understanding of the inherent link between conservation and good jobs ensure that she will be an exceptional Secretary of the Interior.”
Jewell was sworn in April 12 in a closed-door ceremony, immediately replacing outgoing Secretary Ken Salazar. She is the 51st Secretary of the Interior.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/04/15/senators-confirm-sally-jewell-lead-interior-predict-she-will-be-good-indian-country
Photographers caught Tulalip culture of early-20th century
A century ago, photographers recorded the tribal culture
By Gale Fiege, The Herald
Everett photographer Norman Edson made this picture of himself with two Tulalip elders in 1905.
TULALIP — There he is.
In 1905, Everett photographer Norman Edson, then 26, jumped into the middle of his shot, knelt on one knee and squeezed his shutter release.
With his newsboy cap, dapper suit and bowtie, Edson’s attire contrasts with the heavy shawls of the Tulalip women at his side. They are weavers, sitting cross-legged on mats on the ground. One smiles, the other concentrates on her work.
Edson was one of several pre-World War I photographers who captured life on the reservation, creating a valuable record of the Tulalip people more than 100 years ago.
Everett Public Library’s resident historian David Dilgard plans to talk about the photographers at a presentation set for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hibulb Cultural Center.
The lecture examines the work of Edson (1879-1968), Marysville-based photographer Ferdinand “Ferd” Brady (1880-1967) and J.A. Juleen (1874-1935) of Everett. In addition, it was at Tulalip that the well-known Seattle photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) began his nationwide quest to photograph all the North American Indian tribes.
“Each of these men left important bodies of photographic work, remarkable images of the Tulalip tribal community a century ago,” Dilgrad said.
Of the three photographers featured in Dilgard’s presentation, Juleen’s work survives most prominently in prints at Hibulb and in the collection of his glass negatives at the Everett library.
Juleen was known for his four-foot panoramas of Northwest landscapes.
J.A. Juleen’s portrait of Tulalip artist and activist William Shelton was taken in 1913.
At Tulalip, Juleen took photos of important events: the celebration at a newly completed longhouse and the dedication of a story pole by artist William Shelton, as well as portraits of Shelton and many others.
“Unlike Curtis, however, Juleen didn’t put people in tepees or pose them with other trappings,” Dilgard said. “He took pictures of people as they were and left us photographs of high quality.”
Edson was a student of Bert Brush, who had a photography studio on Wetmore Avenue. Dilgard calls Edson a renaissance man. He played the violin, studied birds and hand-tinted his black-and-white photos.
Brady was known in Snohomish and Skagit counties for his commercial work and his photo records of industry and development.
“There are wonderful images by Brady of the paper mill at Lowell, full of women employees who wore white blouses and their hair tied up in big bows,” Dilgard said. “Brady is one of the forgotten masters of the craft. He used available light at Tulalip, instinctively shooting photos that would become historically and culturally important.”
Mary Jane Topash, tour specialist at Hibulb Cultural Center, said that most of the photos in the museum from the early part of the 20th century are by the photographers Dilgard plans to talk about.
“It’s great to have the photos of special events such as Treaty Days, canoes landing at Tulalip Bay, important funerals,” Topash said. “They provide a time capsule and offer a wealth of information the tribes would not have without these photos.”
Dilgard said he is pleased to present information about the photographers.
“Hibulb is all about the families, language and culture of the Tulalip people,” he said. “To be invited in as an outsider, as these photographers were, is flattering, as I’m sure it was to Juleen, Brady and Edson.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
Tulalip’s early photographers
A presentation about the photographers who captured life on the Tulalip reservation in the early 1900s is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Hibulb Cultural Center, 6410 23rd Ave. NE, Tulalip.
The program is free with museum admission, which is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $6 for students, $6 for military personnel and veterans and free to members of the Tulalip Tribes.
Coal-export impact study loses steam in Legislature
$150,000 in funding removed from budget to avoid political fray
By BRAD SHANNON — THE OLYMPIA
A House Democratic budget proposal to spend $150,000 to study the larger economic impact of coal-export facilities on Washington state was dying just one day after majority Democrats introduced their proposed $34.5 billion operating budget plan on Wednesday.
Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, had asked to include the money in the budget, saying it “recognizes the need for Washington to thoroughly evaluate the economic impacts of coal exports in our state.” But Thursday evening the money was on its way to being removed at Carlyle’s request.
“We felt it was a gesture to avoid the potential of a political battle that would not be constructive,” he explained in a text as the House Appropriations Committee was starting work on a series of amendments to the budget measure, Senate Bill 5034. Carlyle said it was he who asked to remove the funds.
The proposal had offered Washington a chance to gain additional information on an issue that is intensifying politically, and Carlyle had initially said lawmakers did not want “to let the project proponents and the federal government be the only sources of information on this issue.”
The coal industry’s attempt to restore its flagging fortunes by shipping much more of the fossil fuel to China and India by way of Washington and Oregon is attracting growing objections.
As McClatchy Newspapers reported last week, the industry has dropped proposals for export terminals in Coos Bay, Ore., and Grays Harbor. The surviving four proposals call for coal exports from the Gateway Pacific terminal near Bellingham, the Millennium Bulk Terminals of Longview, the Morrow Pacific Project at Port of Morrow, Ore., and the Port Westward Project at Port of St. Helens, Ore.
The exports could hit 100 million tons of coal a year and increase carbon emissions by some 240 million tons a year.
Gov. Jay Inslee campaigned on a clean-energy platform and has talked a lot about the economic opportunity in moving away from fossil fuels.
Last month, he joined Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber in asking the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality to consider climate-change and air-pollution impacts of exporting coal from federal lands to Asia.
“We cannot seriously take the position in international and national policymaking that we are a leader in controlling greenhouse gas emissions without also examining how we will use and price the world’s largest proven coal reserves,” they said.
The House budget proviso called for the Office of Financial Management to look at the “potential cumulative economic impacts of proposed coal-export projects in the Pacific Northwest.”
It specified that the agency must take into account impacts to transportation infrastructure, economic development opportunities “forgone in favor of coal-export projects,” global carbon emissions, the state’s major economic clusters, and taxpayers.
The Republican-dominated Senate Majority Coalition Caucus was unlikely to go along. It watered down Inslee’s signature bill on climate change, reducing him to the role of non-voting chairman and stripped the legislation of language spelling out Washington’s vulnerability to global warming and acidifying oceans.
Carlyle said that “given Inslee’s deep reluctance” about the coal exports and a regional economic study by Puget Sound Regional Council, that impacts from the export projects will continue to be assessed.
