OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — On Saturday, February 7, eight thousand Californians marched in the largest anti-fracking demonstration in US history. The “March for Real Climate Leadership” was held in downtown Oakland, Gov. Jerry Brown’s home city, in order to focus on the need for Brown to end fracking.”We’re here, marching in Jerry Brown’s hometown, to let him know climate leaders don’t frack,” said Linda Caputo, fracking coordinator for 350.org, an international organization that fights climate change.
The marchers assembled in front of City Hall in downtown Oakland, then traveled nearly two miles to the Lake Merritt Amphitheater where a rally was held. Various marchers held signs proclaiming “Idle No More,” “Our Oceans Are Rising, so we Rise Up,” ” No Keystone Pipeline,” “Save the Delta,” “Save Mother Earth,” among many others.
DESPITE RAIN AND WIND, THE MARCH WOUND ITS WAY THROUGH DOWNTOWN OAKLAND WHILE NATIVE WOMEN SANG THE “WOMEN’S WARRIOR SONG.”
Pacific Islanders sang traditional songs, along with many marchers drumming, singing, and sending a peaceful yet powerful message to Gov. Jerry Brown.
The march was organized by a large coalition of environmental organizations composed of the Indigenous Block to end fracking that included SF Idle No More, led by Pennie Opal Plant, Marshall Islanders, various California tribes, including Ohlone leader, Corrina Gould, Los Angeles Chapter of AIM, AIM West of Northern California, and many Native Americans from the Bay Area and other parts of California. The Indigenous Block led the march. Other organizations included labor unions, local environment justice groups such as 350.org ,Food and Water Watch, national NGO’s, various health activists, community activists, students, and those committed to protecting water and air for generations to come.
“Fracking is hurting our communities. It is sucking our drought ridden state of precious water resources, contaminating our groundwater in a region where 25% of the nation’s food is grown, and contributing to the impending climate crisis. Oil companies have made Californians feel powerless and silenced, because our governor is only listening to their money,” UC Berkeley student Eva Malis said.
Photo Credit: Charles Lopez
Contingents of marchers traveled from San Diego, Los Angeles, Fresno, and the central coast of California. The rally at Lake Merritt amphitheater began with a traditional Pacific Island chant, then a prayer by Bay area Marshall Island community leader Abon-Burch. Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu then introduced a group of Marshall Island youth who sang traditional songs about water and love for their Moana. Dianne Thomas, a community organizer from Carson, California reported that in 2011 Occidental Oil Company wanted to re-open old oil wells and build 200 new wells over a period of ten years.
“As a community, we continued to organize and fight Occidental Oil, even though we only had the support of one council member in our favor. The draft EIR report never got out of the response phase, and eventually Occidental Oil pulled out of Carson. When we all work together, we can prevail,” said Thomas.
On Monday, February 8, organizers of the anti-fracking march and rally will present Gov. Jerry Brown with 200,000 signatures demanding an end to fracking throughout California.
Members of the Lummi Nation protested the proposed coal export terminal at Cherry Point on Sept. 21, 2012, by burning a large check stamped “Non-Negotiable.” On Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, Lummi Chairman Tim Ballew reiterated that stance, saying the tribe’s treaty rights were “not for sale” and the tribe would not negotiate with the company proposing the terminal. PHILIP A. DWYER — THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
Lummi Nation sent another clear message about a proposed coal terminal on Tuesday, Feb. 3: Under no terms will it accept Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point, an area near the Lummi Reservation with cultural and economic value to the tribe.
“I can assure you that we have carefully considered the impacts associated with this project and have concluded that these impacts simply cannot be avoided, minimized, or mitigated,” Ballew wrote in his response to Skip Sahlin, vice president of project development for Pacific International Terminals, an SSA Marine subsidiary created to develop Gateway Pacific Terminal.
“While we appreciate your desire to engage on these issues, we remain steadfastly opposed to this project and do not see the utility in pursuing any further discussion,” Ballew added.
Officials at SSA Marine had no comment.
Ballew sent a letter Jan. 5 on behalf of the Lummi Indian Business Council to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, asking the agency to immediately reject a permit for the coal terminal because it would interfere with the tribe’s fishing grounds. The tribe has a right granted by an 1855 treaty to fish in its customary areas, which include Cherry Point and the shipping lanes that would see more traffic with the opening of Gateway Pacific Terminal.
Plans indicate the terminal could open as early as 2019 and would export up to 48 million metric tons of coal a year overseas.
Corps spokeswoman Patricia Graesser said the agency would give an initial response to the Lummis’ request on Wednesday, Feb. 4, but it wouldn’t be a decision on whether to reject the permit.
As determined in past court cases about disruptions to tribal fishing areas, the Corps needs to decide whether Gateway Pacific Terminal would have impacts that were more than negligible. Lummi Nation in its request to the Corps cites a vessel traffic study, which concluded that the traffic added by the terminal’s operation would increase by 73 percent the disruption of Lummi fishing by vessels.
In reaching out to the Lummis on Friday, Jan. 30, Sahlin mentioned the politics around the coal terminal decision, “and the pressure from many divergent interests to sway decision making.”
SSA Marine officials have accused terminal opponents of getting the facts wrong. Sahlin said in his letter that more productive discussions would result if SSA Marine and Lummi Nation met face to face, as they have previously.
“We would welcome the opportunity to a return to such a fact-based interaction,” Sahlin wrote.
“Negotiation between Lummi and Pacific International Terminals is not an option,” Ballew said in a prepared statement. “Our treaty rights are non-negotiable and not for sale.”
In an interview, Ballew said the Corps in consultations with the tribe could reach a decision on the Lummi request in months rather than years. Graesser said in an email to The Bellingham Herald the Corps’ decision does not have a deadline.
The Corps will continue to draft an environmental impact statement for the terminal, a step that comes before permit approvals.
“I’m of the opinion that this government-to-government consultation (between the Corps and the tribe) puts the EIS process on the back burner,” Ballew said, “and their attention now should be on … making a decision based on the information that we’ve given them.”
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015/02/03/4113940_lummi-nation-rejects-coal-terminal.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
In a dramatic change of policy that is likely to be welcomed by tribes, the White House is seeking to turn the money tribes annually spend on federally mandated health and social services for tribal citizens into a temporary entitlement.
Under the plan, released February 2 as part of the president’s budget request to Congress, a large portion of federal funding for tribal contract support costs (CSC) for three years starting in 2017 will be moved from the “discretionary” to “mandatory non-discretionary” column within the federal budget.
If the idea passes muster with the GOP-controlled Congress, it will mean that the negative impacts of federal budgetary sequestration in recent years on tribes will no longer impact the tribal CSC bottom line, according to members of the Indian Health Service (IHS) CSC Workgroup. Group members believe that stabilizing this funding will better ensure continuity of essential programs and services to tribal citizens.
“On the national scale, the president’s proposal for [the Indian Health Service] alone would make CSC funding reoccurring and mandatory in the amount of $800 million in the first year, $900 million in year two and copy billion annually in year three,” said Aaron Payment, chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and a member of the IHS CSC Workgroup. The Bureau of Indian Affairs would see more modest mandatory CSC appropriations under the plan, but still vast increases over current levels.
Payment, who serves on the Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes and the National Congress of American Indians, added that this CSC funding would not be subject to cuts if tribes do not spend all their funds in a single fiscal cycle.
IHS Acting Director Yvette Roubideaux has told tribal leaders that the plan will not start earlier than 2017 in order to allow for tribal consultation and for the enactment of necessary congressional authorizing legislation.
For years, tribes have been forced to spend tens of millions of dollars on critical health and social services, despite federal law and legal court rulings that have said these costs are supposed to be paid by the federal government due to its constitutionally- and legally-mandated trust responsibility to tribal citizens.
Tribes that could afford to do so have ended up racking up millions of dollars in debt that is supposed to be reimbursed by the federal government, but which has seldom happened. Tribes that could not afford to offer the services did not, and their citizens suffered for it.
In recent years, hundreds of tribes have sued the federal government for reimbursement of unpaid CSC. Legal settlements have been happening more frequently of late after some intense legal negotiations between tribes and the Obama administration throughout 2013-2014. Tens of millions of dollars have been reimbursed in recent months after the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs asked Roubideaux to negotiate in good faith.
A temporary solution to the federal government’s lack of CSC payments was passed by Congress last year after the White House and Congress agreed to pay all CSC for tribes for the current fiscal year. Yet tribes soon found that this promise was a double-edged sword because the full payment of CSC meant that the funds for other services offered by the federal government to tribes, mainly from the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Interior, were cut as budgetary trade-off.
Before that latest quagmire, tribal leaders in 2012-13 had been battling with Obama administration officials, including Roubideaux and the Office of Management and Budget, who offered unpopular plans to dramatically cap CSC payments to tribes–no matter their need and despite Supreme Court rulings that called for full reimbursement. Congress members from both sides of the aisle called out the administration’s actions here, which led to the temporary solution of 2014 that ended up shortchanging other tribal programs in exchange for CSC reimbursement.
Lloyd Miller, a lawyer with Sonosky Chambers who has successfully represented many tribes that have sued the federal government to obtain CSC settlements, says tribal leaders have not let up in demanding that both tribal programming and CSC payments be honored.
“Last year’s reprogramming likely made people [both in the administration and in tribes] realize that the threat to ongoing operations by this mandatory funding obligation is not theoretical, but real, and must be taken seriously,” Miller said.
Geoffrey Strommer, an Indian affairs lawyer with Hobbs Straus, said it is unclear at this point whether the Republican Congress will sign off.
“I don’t know for sure if the Republican Congress will pass legislation implementing this concept,” Strommer said. “This really is the best long-term policy solution to what has been a difficult problem, so I hope they seriously consider it. If the administration can show an offset somewhere else in the budget that should go a long way towards making Republicans comfortable with this initiative.”
Miller is hopeful. “Adding any kind of mandatory funding is swimming uphill in Congress, especially in the face of budget hawks. But then again, this is a Congress that has given pretty bipartisan support for CSC funding,” he said.
A key factor will be how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scores the plan in determining how much it will cost the federal government.
“In my opinion, it should be zero because the contracts by law must be paid, and therefore any funding mechanism, even a ‘mandatory’ mechanism, will not add to outlays from the Treasury,” Miller said. “But the CBO works in mysterious ways.”
Payment said that he and other tribal leaders are preparing to educate the Republican-controlled Congress on why this is a positive solution to a problem that has plagued the federal and tribal governments for decades.
“[We will] urge Congress to uphold their constitutional and trust responsibility in honoring the treaties by permanently enacting this legislation to make CSC funds mandatory,” Payment said. “It looks promising as they insisted on full funding this year and appropriated it.”
Associated Press President Barack Obama poses with Native America dancers during his visit to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation Friday, June 13, 2014, photo in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
Tanya H. Lee, Indian Country Today
President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget request includes $1 billion to transform American Indian education, a $138 million increase from the current funding level.
The transformation would change the Bureau of Indian Education into “an organization that serves as a capacity builder and service provider to support tribes in educating their youth and deliver a world-class and culturally appropriate education across Indian Country.”
The $138 million increase would include $58.7 million for school repairs and replacement; an initial $34.2 million to deliver broadband access to all BIE schools; an additional $20 million for operations and maintenance at Indian school facilities; $75 million (an increase of $12.9 million) to fully fund tribal costs for running their own education programs; an additional $10 million “to incentivize creative solutions to school transformation”; and $2.6 million to improve school administration.
The increased American Indian/Alaska Native education funding request is part of the launch of the president’s Generation Indigenou sinitiative intended to reduce barriers to success for Native American youth. The Gen I initiative also includes a small increase for scholarships and adult education, $3 million to support 60 new tribal youth projects in natural resources, a $15 million increase for the Tiwahe Initiative and $4 million to establish a One-Stop Tribal Support Center. Funding for Native Youth Community Projects would increase by a whopping $50 million (up from $3 million) to improve college and career readiness among Native youth.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell; Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn, Chickasaw; Education Secretary Arne Duncan; and Jodi Gillette, special assistant to the president for Native American affairs, held a teleconference on January 29 to begin to create public support for the education initiatives.
Jewell noted that the president’s recommendations would provide the highest level of funding for AI/AN education since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Duncan said, “The lack of opportunity [for Native American youth] is simply unacceptable… At every level, early childhood, K to 12, higher education, we have a lot of hard work ahead of us… Tribes need to play a meaningful leadership role in the education of their students. We know that tribes are best able to know their own students’ needs and best able to build upon their strengths.”
Asked what chance the AI/AN education proposals had to make it through the Congressional appropriations process, Jewell said, “There is strong bipartisan support for addressing the issues that we talked about and identified here today… There is no question that we are not serving Indian children well and I think there is a sense of appreciation that we are tackling these things head-on and we’re not just kicking the can down the road as has been done by both Democratic and Republican administrations for many years. I am quite optimistic that we will get support for this budget.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, Chickasaw, a Republican representing Oklahoma’s 4th District, said in a statement: “Throughout President Obama’s tenure, Native American issues have proven to be a source of bipartisan cooperation, particularly on the House Appropriations Committee… In the days ahead, as my colleagues in the House and Senate seek to find common ground with the Administration, I remain hopeful that we can make significant progress in Indian country during this session of Congress.” Cole serves as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies and on the House Budget Committee.
Congresswoman Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota, said in a statement: “The Bureau of Indian Education has long been underfunded and meeting our trust and treaty responsibility for educating Native American children will not happen overnight… President Obama and Secretary Jewell have taken a significant action to set us on a path towards ensuring that all children in Indian Country have access to a safe place to learn.” McCollum is the ranking Democratic member on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee and the Democratic co-chair of the Native American Caucus.
In response to a question from ICTMN about whether other AI/AN programs would be cut in order to fund the education initiative, Washburn responded, “We have not made significant compromises” in developing the budget.
Jewell said the president’s commitment to the American Indian community, based in part on his June visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota and December’s White House Tribal Nations Conference, was instrumental in developing the FY16 budget requests for AI/AN education. She noted that the administration would launch a Cabinet Native Youth Listening Tour next week to hear directly from AI/AN kids.
A dead whale in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 2011. As container ships multiply, more whales are being harmed, a study said. Credit Marco De Swart/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A team of scientists, in a groundbreaking analysis of data from hundreds of sources, has concluded that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them.
“We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event,” said Douglas J. McCauley, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an author of the new research, which was published on Thursday in the journal Science.
But there is still time to avert catastrophe, Dr. McCauley and his colleagues also found. Compared with the continents, the oceans are mostly intact, still wild enough to bounce back to ecological health.
“We’re lucky in many ways,” said Malin L. Pinsky, a marine biologist at Rutgers University and another author of the new report. “The impacts are accelerating, but they’re not so bad we can’t reverse them.”
Scientific assessments of the oceans’ health are dogged by uncertainty: It’s much harder for researchers to judge the well-being of a species living underwater, over thousands of miles, than to track the health of a species on land. And changes that scientists observe in particular ocean ecosystems may not reflect trends across the planet.
Transplanted coral off Java Island, Indonesia. Great damage results from the loss of habitats like coral reefs, an analysis found. Credit Aman Rochman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Dr. Pinsky, Dr. McCauley and their colleagues sought a clearer picture of the oceans’ health by pulling together data from an enormous range of sources, from discoveries in the fossil record to statistics on modern container shipping, fish catches and seabed mining. While many of the findings already existed, they had never been juxtaposed in such a way.
A number of experts said the result was a remarkable synthesis, along with a nuanced and encouraging prognosis.
“I see this as a call for action to close the gap between conservation on land and in the sea,” said Loren McClenachan of Colby College, who was not involved in the study.
There are clear signs already that humans are harming the oceans to a remarkable degree, the scientists found. Some ocean species are certainly overharvested, but even greater damage results from large-scale habitat loss, which is likely to accelerate as technology advances the human footprint, the scientists reported.
Coral reefs, for example, have declined by 40 percent worldwide, partly as a result of climate-change-driven warming.
Some fish are migrating to cooler waters already. Black sea bass, once most common off the coast of Virginia, have moved up to New Jersey. Less fortunate species may not be able to find new ranges. At the same time, carbon emissions are altering the chemistry of seawater, making it more acidic.
“If you cranked up the aquarium heater and dumped some acid in the water, your fish would not be very happy,” Dr. Pinsky said. “In effect, that’s what we’re doing to the oceans.”
Fragile ecosystems like mangroves are being replaced by fish farms, which are projected to provide most of the fish we consume within 20 years. Bottom trawlers scraping large nets across the sea floor have already affected 20 million square miles of ocean, turning parts of the continental shelf to rubble. Whales may no longer be widely hunted, the analysis noted, but they are now colliding more often as the number of container ships rises.
Mining operations, too, are poised to transform the ocean. Contracts for seabed mining now cover 460,000 square miles underwater, the researchers found, up from zero in 2000. Seabed mining has the potential to tear up unique ecosystems and introduce pollution into the deep sea.
The oceans are so vast that their ecosystems may seem impervious to change. But Dr. McClenachan warned that the fossil record shows that global disasters have wrecked the seas before. “Marine species are not immune to extinction on a large scale,” she said.
Until now, the seas largely have been spared the carnage visited on terrestrial species, the new analysis also found.
The fossil record indicates that a number of large animal species became extinct as humans arrived on continents and islands. For example, the moa, a giant bird that once lived on New Zealand, was wiped out by arriving Polynesians in the 1300s, probably within a century.
But it was only after 1800, with the Industrial Revolution, that extinctions on land really accelerated.
Humans began to alter the habitat that wildlife depended on, wiping out forests for timber, plowing under prairie for farmland, and laying down roads and railroads across continents.
Species began going extinct at a much faster pace. Over the past five centuries, researchers have recorded 514 animal extinctions on land. But the authors of the new study found that documented extinctions are far rarer in the ocean.
Before 1500, a few species of seabirds are known to have vanished. Since then, scientists have documented only 15 ocean extinctions, including animals such as the Caribbean monk seal and the Steller’s sea cow.
While these figures are likely underestimates, Dr. McCauley said that the difference was nonetheless revealing.
“Fundamentally, we’re a terrestrial predator,” he said. “It’s hard for an ape to drive something in the ocean extinct.”
Many marine species that have become extinct or are endangered depend on land — seabirds that nest on cliffs, for example, or sea turtles that lay eggs on beaches.
Still, there is time for humans to halt the damage, Dr. McCauley said, with effective programs limiting the exploitation of the oceans. The tiger may not be salvageable in the wild — but the tiger shark may well be, he said.
“There are a lot of tools we can use,” he said. “We better pick them up and use them seriously.”
Dr. McCauley and his colleagues argue that limiting the industrialization of the oceans to some regions could allow threatened species to recover in other ones. “I fervently believe that our best partner in saving the ocean is the ocean itself,” said Stephen R. Palumbi of Stanford University, an author of the new study.
The scientists also argued that these reserves had to be designed with climate change in mind, so that species escaping high temperatures or low pH would be able to find refuge.
“It’s creating a hopscotch pattern up and down the coasts to help these species adapt,” Dr. Pinsky said.
Ultimately, Dr. Palumbi warned, slowing extinctions in the oceans will mean cutting back on carbon emissions, not just adapting to them.
“If by the end of the century we’re not off the business-as-usual curve we are now, I honestly feel there’s not much hope for normal ecosystems in the ocean,” he said. “But in the meantime, we do have a chance to do what we can. We have a couple decades more than we thought we had, so let’s please not waste it.”
The, tribes of marijuana is a growing trend in discussions from Washington, D.C. to state government offices and most recently on tribal reservations. In February the subject matter will be placed front and center at a groundbreaking national conference focusing on legalization in Indian country.
The legalization of pot in Indian country came into focus as the federal government announced in 2014 that it would allow tribal nations to legalize marijuana on their reservations.
According to media reports, as of December there were only three tribes showing interest in entering the marijuana business. In a December ICTMN story, it was reported that it is always “a good thing anytime the federal government moves to let Indian nations control their own affairs.” But could marijuana legalization be too much of a good thing? This conference will hopefully help answer that question.
Tribal leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and Native health and social work professionals, and law enforcement personnel will be on hand to examine the legal, political and social policy implications of marijuana legalization in Indian country, as many tribal governments are already addressing the subject matter. The conference will be held February 27 at the Tulalip Resort Casino in Quil Ceda Village, Washington.
Odawi Law PLLC and Harris Moure, PLLC are co-sponsoring the conference to help “leaders in Indian country fully understand the wide-ranging issues associated with embarking on the development of tribal marijuana legislation and considerations of commercial marijuana cultivation, manufacture and distribution in tribal jurisdictions,” according to a press release.
Robert Odawi Porter, conference co-sponsor and organizer, is a leading attorney in tribal sovereignty and treaty rights protections and former president of the Seneca Indian Nation where he witnessed first-hand issues surrounding the selling of another plant based product – cigarettes.
Porter has witnessed a change in social attitudes towards marijuana use which is paving the way for the significant numbers of new legislation in states across the country.
“Given recent developments, we are excited to announce this historic opportunity for tribal leaders to gain a better understanding of the implications of marijuana legalization in their territories,” Porter said. “We are bringing together some of the best, most experienced lawyers and commentators at the intersection of Indian law and marijuana law to share their experience in addressing the evolving issues surrounding recreational and medicinal marijuana usage in Indian country. Our goal is to pursue a balanced discussion of the important legal, business, social, and cultural questions that would inevitably affect Native societies were legalization to occur.”
Medicinal marijuana is legal in 33 states, and legal for persons over the age of 21 in four states. Legalized recreational use, however, is currently in two states: Washington and Colorado. The United States Department of Justice in October of last year issued a “Policy Statement Regarding Marijuana Issues in Indian Country.” Within the statement, the DOJ addressed law enforcement concerns by stating it will continue its enforcement priorities “in the event that sovereign Indian Nations seek to legalize the cultivation or use of marijuana in Indian country.”
The Tribal Marijuana Conference is also co-sponsored and co-organized with on of the foremost legal experts and premier cannabis business attorneys in the country – Hilary Bricken. The cannabis attorney provides a wealth of knowledge and experience with marijuana regulations, including testifying in front of state and federal government panels.
“There exists enormous new market potential for commercial marijuana initiatives on Native lands,” Bricken said. “This conference will extract the regulations and the legal and policy issues that are in place to assist Native leaders as they consider the myriad possibilities before they begin to embark on a path of commerce involving cannabis. This is an unparalleled opportunity for tribes to participate in a growing sector of commerce and diversify their economies, yet there is much to be considered to ensure successful implementation of tribal policy and law.”
Vincent Schilling National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby held up an Iroquois Wampum belt as a gesture of mutual respect between all Indian Nations during his State of Indian Nations address last week.
The National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby (chairman of the Swinomish Nation) delivered the State of Indian Nations Address Thursday in Washington, D.C. at the Newseum Knights television studios to a full house of members of Congress, senior Administration officials, and leaders of tribal nations.
The event, which was livestreamed on the NCAI channel, was viewed all over Indian country with a reported 50 or more ‘viewing parties’ all over the country.
In addition to Cladoosby’s call on Congress and the Obama Administration to act to improve tribal economies, invest in education, and support innovation, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) the new chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, delivered the Congressional response.
In his opening, President Cladoosby optimistically remarked on the growth of Indian country but mentioned that in order to foster continued growth we would need to tear down further barriers. “Indian country is leading. Indian country is innovating. Indian country is growing. And the state of Indian nations grows stronger by the day.”
“Today, I bring a simple message from the tribes of the 21st Century: We must tear down barriers to growth, simplify regulations that are limiting opportunities, and acknowledge that tribes have the capability as governments to oversee our own affairs,” said Cladoosby.
“Congress and the Administration need to find ways to help bring federal agencies out of the 19th Century and into the 21st Century. We need them to be partners for growth and not barriers to growth.”
When Cladoosby remarked on the historic visit by President Obama to the Standing Rock Sioux Nation last year, he mirrored the words of President Obama by extending a personal invitation to Speaker Boehner (R-OH), Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) – as well as every Member of Congress to visit Indian country in 2015.
“Make it a goal to come to Indian country this year,” said Cladoosby.
Before outlining the plan and discussing the top level priorities of the NCAI Cladoosby personally remarked about the appreciation he had for his own father and for the contributions of the recently passed activist and leader Billy Frank Jr.
“As Billy put it, he wasn’t a policy guy, he was a getting arrested guy,” to which Cladoosby made the light hearted comment that though Billy was arrested more than 50 times for exercising treaty rights, Cladoosby would not be able to match the arrest record.
He also remarked on Congress to advance tribal tax reform to enable tribes to raise tax revenue free from overlapping state taxation, and to create incentives for business and jobs.
Other topics of importance introduced by Cladoosby were asking the federal government to partner with the private sector to increase broad band in Indian country, extending access to capital by recognizing the equal status of tribal governments to access tax exempt bonds and ensuring tribal inclusion in the New Markets Tax Credit Program, energy reform and the passage of Indian energy legislation.
Cladoosby also called on Congress and the Obama Administration to ensure that tribal nations should “have a seat at the policymaking table” by consulting with tribes on all policy issues such as the Keystone Pipeline, renewable energy, health care, and education.
Cladoosby emphasized the importance of Education in Indian country and asked Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and should enact legislation that supports Native language programs.
He also expressed thanks to President Obama for introducing that the first two years of Community College should be free.
“I applaud President Obama’s proposal to make the first two years of tribal and community college free. It will finally make k-14 education a reality,” he said.
During the address Cladoosby also called on the Washington Redskins to change their name stating the #Redskin name to be is “the most offensive name to an American Indian. He also later held up an Iroquois Wampum belt as a gesture of mutual respect between all Indian Nations.
After Cladoosby’s address, Senator Barrasso delivered a congressional response to which he outlined his visions on energy and natural resource development, healthcare, juvenile justice, and tribal self-governance.
“The relationship between the United States and Indian tribes has not always been positive – and has not always served the people of Indian country well… As President Cladoosby stated, ‘we are not where we used to be.’
“My main priority is to help the people of Indian country live better lives. There are two tribes in my home state of Wyoming: the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe. The tribal leaders of these two tribes have stated to me over the years how important good jobs, health care and public safety are to their communities,” Barrasso said.
“Addressing these fundamental needs can contribute significantly to improving the lives of Indian people. As Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, my top priorities are jobs, energy and natural resource development, healthcare, juvenile justice, and tribal self-governance,” he remarked.
“The more progress we can make on these issues, the more progress we can make in helping families.”
While funding for Washington’s “basic education” remains a potential budget-buster, some legislators are beginning to worry about a $2.4-billion financial pitfall involving culverts and salmon streams.
Culverts blocking significant habitat are represented by dots on the map of Western Washington.
Washington State Department of Transportation
In 2013, a federal judge ordered Washington state to replace nearly 1,000 culverts that block or impede fish passage along Western Washington streams. The $2.4-billion cost, as estimated by the Washington State Department of Transportation, amounts to about $310 million per biennium until the deadline of 2030.
Nobody has even begun to figure out how to come up with that much money, although the WSDOT has pretty well spelled out the problem for lawmakers.
In the current two-year budget, the state is spending about $36 million to replace fish-passage barriers, according to Paul Wagner, manager of the department’s Biology Branch. That’s not including work on major highway projects.
WSDOT is asking to shift priorities around in its budget to provide $80 million per biennium for fixing culverts.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jay Inslee’s 12-year transportation plan calls for increasing revenues to provide money for various improvements throughout the state, including $360 million for culverts spread over the 12-year period.
BEFORE, a 5-foot round culvert carried Twanoh Falls Creek under Highway 106 into Hood Canal.
Photo: Washington State Department of Transportation
Even if all that funding comes to pass, the state would only make it about halfway to the goal set by the court when the 2030 deadline passes.
Although funding is a serious matter, the effect of fixing the culverts sooner rather than later could boost salmon habitat and help with salmon recovery, transportation officials acknowledge.
AFTER, a 20-foot bottomless culvert allows the stream to flow more naturally.
Photo: Washington State Department of Transportation
As of 2013, the agency had completed 282 fish-passage projects, improving access to nearly 1,000 miles of upstream habitat. Another 10 projects were added in 2014.
Because the lawsuit was brought by 21 Western Washington tribes, the court order applies to 989 Western Washington culverts, of which 825 involve significant habitat. The case is related to the Boldt decision (U.S. v Washington), which determined that tribes have a right to take fish, as defined by the treaties, and that the state must not undermine the resource.
The court adopted a design standard for culverts known as the “stream simulation” model, which requires that the culvert or bridge be wider than the stream under most conditions and be sloped like the natural channel.
In an effort to gear up for culvert work, the Department of Transportation established four design teams to prepare plans for 34 fish-passage projects for the next biennium and scope out another 75 projects. State officials hope that by having teams to focus on culverts and bridges, design work will become more efficient. Agencies also are working together to streamline the permitting process.
In Kitsap County, the Highway 3 culvert over Chico Creek presents a real challenge for the department, Paul Wagner told me. Everyone recognizes the importance of Chico Creek, the most productive salmon stream on the Kitsap Peninsula. But replacing the undersized culvert with a new bridge would cost more than $40 million — more than the entire budget for culverts in the current biennium.
A culvert on Kittyhawk Drive was removed last summer next to the Highway 3 culvert, which continues to affect the flow of Chico Creek.
Kitsap Sun photo by Larry Steagall
“There are a lot of culverts,” Wagner said, “and our challenge is that those on the state highway system are more complicated and involved.”
Not only are the state highways the largest, he said, but they usually cannot be shut down during construction. State highways typically have more complicated utilities and drainage systems, and work may require buying new right of way.
Those are all issues for Chico Creek, which was rerouted when the highway was built in the 1960s. The stream was directed into a new channel parallel to the highway, crossing under the roadway at a 90-degree angle.
The new design would restore the original channel, crossing under the road at a steep angle that makes for a longer bridge. The new route also could involve changing the interchange at Chico Way.
“That project is definitely one we need to get at,” Wagner said, “but it eats up a lot of the money we need for other projects.”
Removal of a county culvert under Kittyhawk Drive has increased interest in removal of the state highway culvert, which lies immediately upstream of the newly opened channel where the county culvert was removed. See Kitsap Sun(subscription), Aug. 26, 2014.
The Legislature will determine how much money will be allocated to culverts and to some extent which ones get replaced first. New taxes could be part of the equation for the entire transportation budget, a major subject of debate this session.
In this Sept. 16, 2014 file photo, President of National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and Chairman of the Swinomish Tribe Brian Cladoosby, joins other native Americans and lawmakers during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Tribes must insist the federal government honor its commitments and create partnerships with them based on deference, not paternalism, Cladoosby said Thursday. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
By FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Tribes must insist the federal government honor its commitments to them and create partnerships with them based on deference, not paternalism, the president of the National Congress of American Indians said Thursday.
Brian Cladoosby said in the annual State of Indian Nations address that too many reservations are plagued with high unemployment and dropout rates, rampant drug and alcohol abuse, and an epidemic of suicides.
Congress needs to update laws and regulations on energy, taxation and education to help tribes overcome those long-standing challenges, but it shouldn’t dictate solutions, he said.
“Honoring its trust responsibility means recognizing Indian Country’s legal authority to control its own destiny,” Cladoosby told a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C. “It means respecting Native peoples for who we are, not who others think we are. And it means modernizing the trust relationship between our nations.”
In the congressional response, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming said the relationship between tribes and the federal government hasn’t always been positive. But as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, he vowed to lead efforts to strengthen it.
“We are equally committed to so much of what you have raised,” Barrasso said.
In exchange for land, the federal government promised things like health care, education, social services and public safety in perpetuity for members of federally recognized tribes. Those vows generally are born out of treaties. The U.S. negotiated more than 400 treaties with tribes, most of which were ratified by the Senate.
Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Nation of Washington state, invited members of Congress to visit Indian Country and see some of its successes: the rehabilitation of centuries-old homes at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico; cavity-free classrooms in Shaktoolik, Alaska, created by a first-of-its-kind dental health therapist program; and the country’s first commercial wetland mitigation bank developed and operated by a tribe in Washington.
But he said federal funding often falls short of what tribes need to provide for their membership.
Congress should build on efforts to improve public safety on reservations, bring culturally appropriate education to Native students and stimulate economic growth, Cladoosby said.
He called on lawmakers to simplify and streamline government regulations that would give tribes the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds, give tax credits to members who live on reservations and adopt children with special needs, and provide tribal law enforcement access to a national crime database.
Cladoosby noted the federal government should do more to expand broadband access in Indian County, which stands at 10 percent. He also said it should study tribes’ technology needs and improve infrastructure and housing.
The responsibility falls on all members of Congress, Cladoosby said, whether their districts include Indian Country or not.
“This trust, it’s not a handout,” he said. “It’s a contract. It’s a commitment. And it’s their duty to honor it.”
Mandel Ngan/AP President Barack Obama delivering his State of the Union address for 2015.
Indian Country Today
Though the State of the Union address focused primarily on the economy, President Barack Obama underscored the importance of continuing to deal with climate change and its attendant issues, calling this the biggest threat that modern life faces.
In his hour-long speech, Obama devoted just over two minutes to the subject of climate change—both reiterating that it is real, and listing the major measures that the White House has taken to alter and adapt to its course.
“No challenge—no challenge—poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change,” Obama said near the end of the address. “2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does—14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.”
Answering critics who have said that Congress cannot make scientific rulings because legislators are not scientists, Obama said he is relying on the know-how of the scientists researching and compiling the data. He highlighted some of the measures that his administration has undertaken, such as the landmark emissions agreement reached recently with China.
“The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we don’t act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, and conflict, and hunger around the globe,” Obama said. “The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.”
