Get ideas:The Everett Home & Garden Show is Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Comcast Arena. You’ll find lots of displays, speakers, vendors and other fun stuff, such as a wine tasting. Find all the details in our storyhere.
Watch birds: Hike along with other birders and Pilchuck Audubon Society members on a free day-long adventure on Sunday. The group will look for shorebirds, waterfowl, passerines and raptors on Camano Island. Meet at 8 a.m. at Quilceda Walmart on the east side of the parking lot near I-5. Carpool to Camano Island and visit English Boom, Iverson Spit and Davis Slough. No elevation gain. Dress warmly and bring rain gear and bird scopes if you have them. The group will stop for lunch along the way. Leader: Terry Nightingale, 206-619-2383, 206-619-2383, tnight@pobox.com. For more information, go to pilchuckaudubon.org.
Was the wolf framed? You’ll have to decide for yourself after seeing this hilarious, live retelling of “The Three Little Pigs.” To hear Alexander T. Wolf’s side of the story, you’ll have to take your family to see the Dallas Children’s Theatre production of “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” on Sunday in Everett. Find all the details here.
Old time: The Cascade Mountain Men present the Muzzleloading Arms and Pioneer Craft Show on Saturday and Sunday at the Evergreen Fairgrounds. More than 300 vendors and exhibitors will be on hand with leather and fur goods, camping gear and period costumes. Demonstrations include blacksmithing, wool spinning and wood carving. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 a day; teens younger than 16 must be accompanied by an adult; kids 12 and younger get in free. Parking is free. For more information, call 425-890-7208 or go to www.cascademountainmen.com.
Musical revue: A good melody is timeless. So says the creator and producer of “In the Mood,” a big-band-inspired 1940s musical revue that’s playing Saturday in Everett. Or make that more than 40 good melodies, which is about how many songs the audience will hear as “In the Mood” re-creates the swing-era experience. Read the details in our story here.
Roof-raising music: They may sing gospel, but a Blind Boys of Alabama concert ain’t nothing like a church service. The Blind Boys’ live shows are roof-raising affairs. The performers make a stop in Edmonds on Saturday. Read more in our story here.
Spring forward: Don’t forget to set your clock ahead an hour on Sunday morning. Unless you want an excuse to be an hour late to everything.
Shop, for a good cause: The Convent of the Meeting of the Lord offers its spring fundraiser at the Quiet Light Candles shop, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at 29206 64th Ave. NW., near Stanwood. The fundraiser features the nuns’ homemade pure beeswax candles and other gifts. The event includes candle-pouring tours, coffee and cookies. For more information, call 360-629-0285 or go to www.quietlightcandles.com.
Free clothing swap: The Great Oak Harbor Giveaway Day is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Oak Harbor Christian School, 675 E. Whidbey Ave. Shop for new-to-you clothing and household items. Free admission. More info: 360-675-2338.
“Dino Day”: Kids can dress up in dino gear, crack open their own fossils, watch scientists prepare a duck-billed dinosaur fossil, and dig for a fossil ichthyosaur in the Dino Dig Pit. Dino Days is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Burke Museum, on the University of Washington campus, at the corner of NE 45th Street and 17th Avenue NE. Call 206-543-5590 or go to www.burkemuseum.org to learn more.
Colville Confederated Tribes Chairman John Sirois, center (holding award plaque), and previous Watershed Hero Award recipient Mary Verner pose with tribal members at Sierra Club award dinner. Colville received the 2013 Watershed Hero Award from the Sierra Club’s Washington chapter. Photo: Jack McNeel.
By Jack McNeel, Indian Country Today Media Network
The Colville Confederated Tribes’ successful effort to hold a British Columbia smelter accountable for dumping pollutants into the Columbia River for a century has caught the attention of the Sierra Club Washington State’s Upper Columbia River Group, which bestowed its 2013 Watershed Hero Award on the tribes.
Colville won a major victory in 2012 when the company, known today as Teck Metals Ltd. (formerly Teck/Cominco), admitted in court to depositing millions of tons of toxic substances into the river, which flows into Lake Roose-velt. Pollutants included 250,000 tons of zinc and lead, as well as 132,000 tons of other hazardous substances such as more than 200 tons of mercury, cadmium and arsenic.
The tribes, having pressed their case for two decades, also made legal history when the court struck down the notion that a foreign company could not be held liable under U.S. law. The victory was marked in high style on February 23 when Sierra Club leaders, including John Osburn, co-chair for Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River group, joined tribal members in Spokane, Washington, for the presentation of its Water-shed Heroes honor at an awards dinner.
“Watershed Heroes are people who act out of love and respect for nature,” said Mary Verner, former director of Upper Columbia United Tribes and the former mayor of Spokane, who won the award last year and presented it this year.
“We’re very grateful for all the sacrifices you have made,” Verner said in introducing Colville Tribes chairman John Sirois and recognizing others from the tribes who had played major roles in the process.
“I’m grateful you relayed the history,” Sirois said. “I’m grateful for you honoring all the work of the past councils that really put in the time and effort. We have such a great legal team. There are countless people who played a role in this. It’s really a validation of who we are as a people. All along the river, those places are named after our people and where we come from: Okanogan, Chelan, Methow, Eniat, San Poil, Lakes, that is who we are. That is where our people are buried. That is where we’re born.”
Between 1896 and 1995, Teck’s smelter dumped 400 tons of waste a day—derived from the smelting process—into the Columbia River. The smelter is about 10 miles north of the U.S. border.
“It comes as no surprise that after being dumped into the Columbia River, all this toxic material flows downstream. The company tried to deny that,” Verner said. “Some of the most ridiculous arguments one has ever heard from a corporate entity have been raised by Teck/Cominco, now known as Teck Metals Ltd. The Colvilles weren’t having it.”
In the 1990s the tribes asked Canada to tell Teck to stop polluting the river, but Teck did not comply. The U.S. made similar attempts to stop the company but met with the same lack of results. In 2003 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified Lake Roosevelt as a Superfund site and entered into an agreement with Teck to study the problem, making it clear that Teck would not be held responsible for the cleanup. But Teck found that unacceptable.
“In 2004 the tribes decided they could not wait any longer, and they filed a suit,” Verner said. Washington State eventually joined the tribes.
“To say the case of Pakootas v. Teck/Cominco is a landmark case would certainly be an understatement,” Verner said. “What a complex case it was! It has required navigating some incredible intricacies of the law, not even counting the science and politics.”
The tribes also got the court to overrule Teck’s argument that a company in another country cannot deliberately pollute U.S. waters and is not covered by U.S. law.
“The question is not where the polluter is located, but where the pollution is located,” Verner said. “It makes absolute sense, but the Colvilles had to fight for that outcome.”
Last April the court ruled that Teck could not escape liability. In September, Teck admitted it had knowingly and deliberately discharged 10 million tons of slag and toxic pollution into the Columbia. And in late 2012 a federal judge ruled that Teck qualifies as a polluter under the Superfund law.
“Heroes are tenacious,” Verner said of the tribes. “But it’s not over. Teck has appealed the ruling. They are trying to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
As long as the bulk of the pollutants remain in the river or wash up on black beaches, the Colville Tribes will continue the battle. “Our future is about the water, all of us,” said Sirois. “We’re all in this fight together, to protect our environment, to protect our resources.”
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/06/watershed-heroes-colville-confederated-tribes-win-sierra-club-award-battling-british
President Barack Obama this morning signed into law the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act that includes tribal provisions.
“Previously, tribes had no jurisdiction over non-tribal members, even if they are married to Native women or reside on native lands. But as soon as I sign this bill, that ends,” Obama said before the signing.
“This is a landmark bill not only for all women and our future generations but also for Indian tribes. This law, for the first time since 1978, restores the sovereign power of Indian tribes to criminally prosecute non-Indians for sexual assault and domestic violence crimes on Indian reservations,” a statement released by The Seattle Human Rights Commission said.
The signing took place at a ceremony at the Interior Department and included longtime VAWA advocate and vice-chair of the Tulalip Tribes Deborah Parker along with Senators and House members.
Diane Millich, an American Indian domestic abuse survivor introduced Vice President Joe Biden following her personal story about abuse and what the passing of VAWA means to her.
(CBS) – On Thursday afternoon, President Obama signed into law the re-authorized Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The act, originally passed in 1994, provides federal funding for programs and research aimed at preventing and prosecuting domestic and sexual violence.
The new version of the law includes several new measures, including granting Native American tribes jurisdiction to prosecute non-native perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence against native women. Previously, tribes had no jurisdiction over non-tribal members, even if they are married to native women or reside on native lands.
But, said Obama Thursday, “as soon as I sign this bill, that ends.”
According to Tina Olson, co-director of Mending the Sacred Hoop, an advocacy group dedicated to fighting violence against native women, as many as 50 percent of native women marry non-native men. This means that if they become victims of domestic violence, they have little recourse through the tribal justice system.
“It’s not as if native women want something unique,” says Olson. “They just want the justice other women get.”
Olson says she has “high hopes” about how the new law will help tribal women, but is taking a “wait and see” attitude until funds for enforcement – and consequences for failing to enforce – arrive.
In addition to the new provisions aiming to protect Native American women, the re-authorized VAWA allows groups representing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered men and women to apply for grants to prevent sexual violence and care for victims. The new law also includes the SAFER Act, which aims to whittle down the backlog of DNA tests – often known as “rape kits” – in police storage around the country; and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act which provides services to victims of human trafficking.
VAWA expired in September 2011 and stalled in Congress after the House of Representatives balked at some of the new provisions in the version passed by the Senate. House Republicans drafted an alternative bill, but it failed when brought for a vote on Feb. 28. Later that day, the House voted 286 -138 to pass the Senate version.
Ariel Zwang, the CEO of SafeHorizon, a group that provides shelter and services to victims of domestic violence, says that as important as the new protections the reauthorized VAWA provides is the message the passage of the law sends to victims and perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence.
“Before VAWA, society’s response to domestic violence was basically to tell the guy to go walk around the block,” says Zwang. The law, she says, makes a national statement that “this is wrong, it’s a crime, and we’re going to talk about it and prosecute it.”
President Obama agreed, saying Thursday afternoon that the original law “made it possible for us to talk about domestic abuse.” The new law, he said, assists immigrant women whose status may be tied to an abusive spouse and “expanded housing assistance so that no woman has to choose between a violent home and no home at all.”
The signing coincides with a new report by the Department of Justice that shows that after declining between 1995-2005, the rate of sexual assault in the U.S. leveled off between 2005-2010. The new report also shows that fewer women are reporting sexual assault to police: in 2003, 56 percent of sexual assault victims reported to authorities, compared to just 35 percent in 2010.
The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, a move that sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States.
North Koreans attend a rally in support of a statement given on Tuesday by a spokesman for the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army vowing to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War as well as boasting of the North’s ownership of “lighter and smaller nukes” and its ability to execute “surgical strikes” meant to unify the divided Korean Peninsula, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Thursday. Photo: Jon Chol Jin/AP
By Edith M. Lederer and Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS —The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, a move that sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States.
The vote Thursday by the U.N.’s most powerful body on a resolution drafted by North Korea’s closest ally, China, and the United States sends a powerful message to North Korea that the international community condemns its ballistic missile and nuclear tests – and its repeated violation of Security Council resolutions.
The new sanctions are aimed at making it more difficult for North Korea to finance and obtain material for its weapons programs.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
North Korea vowed on Thursday to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric as U.N. diplomats voted on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.
An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for “a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors” because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.
Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the U.S. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for several crude nuclear devices.
Such inflammatory rhetoric is common from North Korea, and especially so in recent days. North Korea is angry over the possible sanctions and over upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills. At a mass rally in Pyongyang on Thursday, tens of thousands of North Koreans protested the U.S.-South Korean war drills and sanctions.
Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told the crowd that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.
“Intercontinental ballistic missiles and various other missiles, which have already set their striking targets, are now armed with lighter, smaller and diversified nuclear warheads and are placed on a standby status,” Kang said. “When we shell (the missiles), Washington, which is the stronghold of evils, …. will be engulfed in a sea of fire.”
The U.N. Security Council was considering a fourth round of sanctions against Pyongyang in a fresh attempt to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The resolution was drafted by the United States and China, North Korea’s closest ally. The council’s agreement to put the resolution to a vote just 48 hours later signaled that it would almost certainly have the support of all 15 council members.
The statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
It accused the U.S. of leading efforts to slap sanctions on North Korea. The statement said the new sanctions would only advance the timing for North Korea to fulfill previous vows to take “powerful second and third countermeasures” against its enemies. It hasn’t elaborated on those measures.
The statement said North Korea “strongly warns the U.N. Security Council not to make another big blunder like the one in the past when it earned the inveterate grudge of the Korean nation by acting as a war servant for the U.S. in 1950.”
North Korea demanded the U.N. Security Council immediately dismantle the American-led U.N. Command that’s based in Seoul and move to end the state of war that exists on the Korean Peninsula, which continues six decades after fighting stopped because an armistice, not a peace treaty, ended the war.
In anticipation of the resolution’s adoption, North Korea earlier in the week threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.
North Korean threats have become more common as tensions have escalated following a rocket launch by Pyongyang in December and its third nuclear test on Feb. 12. Both acts defied three Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from testing or using nuclear or ballistic missile technology and from importing or exporting material for these programs.
U.S. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the proposed resolution would impose some of the strongest sanctions ever ordered by the United Nations.
The final version of the draft resolution, released Wednesday, identified three individuals, one corporation and one organization that would be added to the U.N. sanctions list if the measure is approved.
The targets include top officials at a company that is the country’s primary arms dealer and main exporter of ballistic missile-related equipment, and a national organization responsible for research and development of missiles and probably nuclear weapons.
The success of a new round of sanctions could depend on enforcement by China, where most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based.
The United States and other nations worry that North Korea’s third nuclear test pushed it closer to its goal of gaining nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S. The international community has condemned the regime’s nuclear and missile efforts as threats to regional security and a drain on the resources that could go to North Korea’s largely destitute people.
The draft resolution condemns the latest nuclear test “in the strongest terms” for violating and flagrantly disregarding council resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests “or any other provocation,” and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It also condemns all of North Korea’s ongoing nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment.
But the proposed resolution stresses the council’s commitment “to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution” and urged a resumption of six-party talks with the aim of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula “in a peaceful manner.”
The proposed resolution would make it significantly harder for North Korea to move around the funds it needs to carry out its illicit programs and strengthen existing sanctions and the inspection of suspect cargo bound to and from the country. It would also ban countries from exporting specific luxury goods to the North, including yachts, luxury automobiles, racing cars, and jewelry with semi-precious and precious stones and precious metals.
According to the draft, all countries would now be required to freeze financial transactions or services that could contribute to North Korea’s nuclear or missile programs.
To get around financial sanctions, North Koreans have been carrying around large suitcases filled with cash to move illicit funds. The draft resolution expresses concern that these bulk cash transfers may be used to evade sanctions. It clarifies that the freeze on financial transactions and services that could violate sanctions applies to all cash transfers as well as the cash couriers.
The proposed resolution also bans all countries from providing public financial support for trade deals, such as granting export credits, guarantees or insurance, if the assistance could contribute to the North’s nuclear or missile programs.
It includes what a senior diplomat called unprecedented new travel sanctions that would require countries to expel agents working for sanctioned North Korean companies.
The draft also requires states to inspect suspect cargo on their territory and prevent any vessel that refuses an inspection from entering their ports. And a new aviation measure calls on states to deny aircraft permission to take off, land or fly over their territory if illicit cargo is suspected to be aboard.
—
Lederer reported from the United Nations. Foster Klug in Seoul contributed to this report.
MARYSVILLE — The ongoing replacement of the State Route 529 Ebey Slough Bridge has seen some significant milestones since this winter, and if the weather permits, March 8-11 will mark yet another key step toward the completion of the nearly three-year construction project.
“We’ve completely demolished the existing bridge structure, well below the ground line, to the point that no remnants are visible,” said Joe Rooney, chief inspector for the project with the Washington State Department of Transportation. “Once that was complete, we were able to build the approach fills on the west side of the new bridge, which put us in place to pave the full width, not including the final overlay we’ll be doing in April.”
According to Rooney, so long as the construction work doesn’t get rained out, SR 529 is set to be closed from First Avenue to Milepost 6, including the Ebey Slough Bridge, starting at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 8, and lasting until 5 a.m. on Monday, March 11.
“We’ll finally be pulling out that temporary barrier to put in temporary striping along where the permanent channels will be,” Rooney said. “The plastic imprinted striping will go in place this spring, but the new bridge will be at full capacity for the first time. With a little bit of landscaping work left, we should be completely out of here by May.”
Rooney noted that the original construction timeline afforded WSDOT and its contractor, Granite Construction, well into the summer months to wrap up their work, so they’re ahead of schedule and well within their budget.
“We’ve just been extremely fortunate,” Rooney said. “There haven’t been any significant change orders or design errors or surprising site conditions, and when you’re working that far under the surface, who knows beforehand what you can find. Granite Construction have been great partners as well.”
The project typically employed between 50-60 personnel on site, between subcontractors and specialists in fields such as pile-driving stone columns into the ground to form the supports for the new bridge.
“We built the new bridge well before we demolished the old one, which allowed us to keep traffic flowing throughout construction,” Rooney said. “We also benefitted from replacing a two-lane bridge with a four-lane bridge, so we were able to set up the two lanes on the west side of the new bridge as a staging area for construction without reducing the existing traffic capacity of the bridge. People had two lanes of traffic on the old bridge, and they’ve had two lanes of traffic on the new bridge, so they haven’t seen much difference yet.”
Rooney acknowledged the challenges of demolishing an old bridge directly over a waterway in an ecologically conscious fashion, so as not to contaminate the surrounding wetlands.
“We couldn’t have any debris at all, which is pretty difficult when you’re taking out a 700-foot-long span,” Rooney said. “To their credit, Granite Construction took this task seriously, and still managed to take out the existing structure to 10 feet below the mud line.”
Rooney reiterated that the scheduled closure of the SR 529 Ebey Slough Bridge from 8 p.m. on Friday, March 8, until 5 a.m. on Monday, March 11, is entirely weather-dependent, so check the WSDOT site at www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/Public_Works/Services/Roads/roadsupfor the latest information.
Wildlife biologists from Stillaguamish, Tulalip and Western Washington University sample DNA from elk scat.
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Wildlife biologists from the Stillaguamish and Tulalip tribes are testing a new way to track the population of the Nooksack elk herd using the animals’ scat.
Tribal biologists have partnered with Western Washington University’s Huxley College of the Environment to determine the most efficient way to collect DNA from elk scat. Genetic material can be found in the intestinal mucus coating the pellets. This winter, biologists sampled fresh scat using toothpicks and cotton swabs, submitting the samples to a genetics lab to determine which method is most effective at providing an animal’s unique genotype.
“This is a non-invasive method that does not require collaring animals or helicopter time to survey them,” said Stillaguamish biologist Jennifer Sevigny.
While the current method of using tracking collars and aerial surveys is expensive, it allows state and tribal wildlife managers to determine the bull-to-cow and cow-to-calf ratios needed to set harvest levels. To fit elk with tracking collars, the animals must be captured and tranquilized.
In the spring, the Stillaguamish and Tulalip tribes plan to coordinate a large population survey, sampling elk scat in the North Cascades Mountains, including forested landscapes that are hard to monitor during aerial surveys.
“Once individual elk are identified by their DNA, a population estimate can be obtained by re-sampling an area and comparing the number of originally identified individuals – the marked animals – to the newly identified animals – the unmarked animals,” said Tulalip wildlife manager Mike Sevigny.
During the past two decades, tribal and state co-managers completed numerous habitat restoration projects to improve forage for the Nooksack herd, which had declined to about 300 animals by 2003. According to 2012 aerial surveys, the herd has rebounded to as many as 1,400 elk.
“Good design can provide the environment that makes people want to stay and play, and the more unique the design the greater the distance people will travel to see it.” —Thalden Boyd Emery Architects
Lee Allen, Indian Country Today Media Network
This may not be the true dawning of a new age, but Indian casinos are poised on the precipice of change —one foot anchored in time-honored methods of success, the other embracing modernity.
The move toward innovation includes a transition to progressive design with contemporary and green aesthetics, as well as finding creative ways to reach a younger audience keen on social media.
Casino owners need to straddle the chasm of traditional ways and new, understanding the social aspects of both segments of the market to keep the current crowd happy while attracting the next generation of gamers.
“We can’t see the future clearly yet, but we know change is inevitable,” said architect Nick Schoenfeldt, vice president at Thalden Boyd Emery Architects. “We need to continue serving today’s gaming public in the existing first generation of gaming facilities built in the late 1980s even as we design and build new attractions for tomorrow.”
Comments by architects, designers, contractors, owners and operators resonated at the 6th annual Native Nation Events Tribal Casino & Hotel Development Conference, February 21-22, at the Pascua Yaqui-owned Casino del Sol Resort Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. The conversational buzz was heightened by a rare occurrence—a snow storm that turned desert cacti into a winter wonderland.
Panel moderator Ronn Lansky, the business development director for the Detroit-based PENTA Building Group, noted that over the past several decades, the design of casino floors hadn’t changed strikingly. Then he cited the current trend of “building landmark buildings that will affect generations to come.”
Other attendees echoed a major voice of the industry, Casino Design magazine, which emphasized in an April 2010 article, The Brave New World of Design and Construction: An Industry Round Table, that casinos need to look “clean, edgy, contemporary”—the predominant visual appeal. The magazine quoted another design and construction expert who said, “We must dazzle the eye and soothe the senses.”
Panelists at the February conference specifically cited the advent of smaller slot banks and wider aisles at newer casinos intended to provide a more intimate sense of gaming—the same aura as that of a lounge.
“Casino floors are evolving to be more social and community-focused and you need to understand your market and design the floor with customer segments in mind,” said Janet Beronio, general manager of Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort.
“We used to have long, long banks of machines—essentially a slot warehouse, but change in machine spacing is now evident,” Beronio said. “We once dedicated 20-to-25-square feet to a bank of eight slots; now we’re seeing 30-square feet in a zone format anchored by carousels and dedicated pathways. The casino floor still has compelling content, but the feeling is now more community and social.”
The cost to create that feeling is not cheap, according to C.J. Graham, general manager of 2,500 employees at the Lincoln, California-based Thunder Valley Casino, which recently underwent a $700 million facelift (while continuing operations with minimal incremental disruption). “At the end of the day, you still need to show a profit,” he said.
Graham has a base demographic of age 50-plus customers, but also a growing following in the 21-to-30-year-old group. “We still have folks who love the old Red, White and Blue reels, but there’s a tech-savvy element coming along that we can ping on their cell phones and make the younger visitor special offers as they come through the door. The generational change won’t happen overnight, it will take decades, but it’s already underway.
“Even with the modern side of technology emerging, we won’t lose the energy that allows casino floors to be successful,” adds Beronio. “Brick and mortar sites still have the energy of community, people cheering for each other, and that will still appeal to multi-tasking tech-savvy youth.”
Other panelists like Osage Nation Chief John Red Eagle know that casino floor designs and technologies are forever adapting and need to stay relevant. Tribes need to capitalize on up-to-date technology like energy-saving geo-thermal capabilities. “We want the best possible development we can produce with the money we have,” he said.
Fellow panelist Jamie Fullmer (Yavapai Apache), chairman and CEO of Blue Stone Strategy Group, which advises tribes in making strategic decisions for financial growth and sustainability, summed up the challenge many tribes will face when desires meet feasibility and financing: “Here’s our dream balanced with a pocketbook reality.”
Those realities range from incorporating complex and still developing technology to making changes like widening aisles and adding more restaurants for a diverse clientele.
“Regardless of the renovation, addition, or new build,” said Graham, “you can’t diminish the guest experience…you can’t just send guests home…so you need to minimize the disruption and adjust on the fly while building a better casino for tomorrow.”
Children are all smiles at the Ida’ina Gathering in 2012. All photos by Becky Pertrovich.
Tish Leizens, Indian Country Today Media Network
What started two years ago in Anchorage, Alaska as a gathering of friends has become a major yearly event for the Tebughna, the Beach People, and it is drawing popular Native entertainers like Redbone and thousands of guests.
The Tebughna Foundation, the sponsor, has set the Ida’ina Gathering for March 29 to 31, at the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center (for details, click here). The three-day family affair is packed with activities and serves as the main attraction, with several events leading up to it.
“We started this gathering in March 2011. Ida’ina means friends—friendship,” said Emil McCord, executive director of the foundation, adding that they invite all tribes from Alaska and those who just want to enjoy the festivities.
The Tebughna Foundation is supported by Anchorage-based defense manufacturing company Tyonek Native Corporation. Tebughna is the name given to the Tyonek people, who live in Anchorage and in the Village of Tyonek, 40 air miles away.
The first pow wow was an immediate hit, said McCord. “The first year, we got lots of feedback after the gathering. They love the entertainment and atmosphere.”
“We attract about 6,000 people in three days. People come from South Dakota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina and Canada,” he said.
“This year, we expect a little more because we have popular groups coming,” said McCord referring to Rebone and the Barrow Dancers, whose members are Inupiaq. In all, he said, there are 40 group dancers performing.
Among the performers on the list are drums featuring Alaska Nativedancers: Tyonek Traditional Dancers, Ida’Ina Dance Group, Cordova Ikumat Aluttiq Dancers and Ahtna Heritage Dance Group.
Drum groups Namawochi Tribe from North Carolina and Braveheart from South Dakota will also perform as well as a hoop dancer still to be determined.
Headlining the Benefit Concert on the second day is Redbone, a Native American rock group that hit the music charts with the single “Come and Get Your Love,” in 1974, and Medicine Dream, an intertribal First Nations group that perform contemporary Native American music.
Chief Lil Wolf, also known as DJ Braun, 17, who set up his own recording studio in his bedroom and writes his own music will also perform live before his home crowd for the first time.
The run-up to the pow wow are crowd pleasers on their own. On February 8 a sponsor mixer was held where the entertainers and sponsors meet and greet in a food and dance gathering.
On March 12 to 16 the first annual Ida’ina basketball tournament will be be held at the Wendler Middle School. Some 18 adult teams are competing in the tournament.
For the teens, the competition to be Miss Ida’ina ends on March 15, the deadline for Alaska Natives, ages 16 to 25, to write an essay on how they’ve helped their communities and why they should be the next Miss Ida’Ina. The winner gets a $500 scholarship.
Returning this year is the Native Style Runway, where talented artists are given a chance at the Gathering to show their individually designed regalias.
McCord said there is an effort to bring the dates closer. “We started the basketball tournament this year, but the city of Anchorage did not have gym space available close in time to the Gathering. Next year, we want to have it leading up to the Gathering so that visiting teams can attend the Gathering if they chose to.”
Keith Harper. Courtesy Flickr/Center for American Progress Action Fund/Ralph Alswang
Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network
Keith Harper, one of the principal lawyers who negotiated the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement with the Obama administration, has been listed by the Obama-Biden campaign as one of the top voluntary campaign finance bundlers for the president’s successful re-election in 2012.
Harper is part of a list of what the Center for Responsive Politics calls “758 elites” who directed “at least copy80,100,000 for Obama’s re-election efforts—money that has gone into the coffers of his campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee,” according to opensecrets.org.
Harper is listed as a bundler of “$500,000 or more.” The donations he collected are largely believed to have come from wealthy tribal donors, as he oversaw multiple Indian donor events during the 2012 election season, while also working for Indian interests in the Cobell settlement with the federal government, which was first announced in December 2009 and became final after appeals from four Indians drew to a close late last year.
Harper’s bundling effort matched the contributions of such notables as actor Will Smith, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, actress Eva Longoria, filmmaker Tyler Perry, singer Gwen Stefani, and producer Harvey Weinstein.
The Center for Responsive Politics also indicates that Harper personally contributed $2,500.
Obama’s re-election campaign voluntarily released its latest batch of bundler data in early March. The campaign for failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has not disclosed its complete list of bundlers, and has not said it will.
Harper is a partner with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. Beyond the Cobell case, the firm has also represented several tribes in separate multi-million dollar trust settlements with the Obama administration.
The Cherokee lawyer has been a principal in the ongoing Cobell litigation since he worked for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in the 1990s. Harper left NARF in 2006 to work for Kilpatrick Stockton.
As the Cobell settlement payment process to individual Indians continues to take place over this year, lawyers with NARF are currently battling Kilpatrick Stockton and other lawyers involved in the case for a share of the approximately copy00 million designated for lawyers involved with the litigation. A hearing on the lawyers’ fees is scheduled to take place March 18 in Judge Thomas Hogan’s U.S. district courtroom in Washington, D.C.
March 1 was the deadline for Indian class members to have submitted their applications to receive the second payments of the Cobell settlement, the trust administration class payments. Most Indian beneficiaries in the case will receive less than $2,000.
