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Boozy Native American head on North Dakota college kids’ shirts not a ‘Siouxper’ idea: critics

BY MICHAEL WALSH

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 5:05 PM

The University of North Dakota does not organize the Springfest bash for which the shirts were made, so it’s unclear whether the school will take disciplinary action against the students for the questionable apparel.

A group of college students made T-shirts showing a Native American head drinking from a beer bong that read “Siouxper drunk” for a huge party before finals week.

The University of North Dakota does not organize the Springfest bash, scheduled for Saturday, so it’s unclear whether the school will — or can — take disciplinary action against the students for the questionable apparel.

What is clear is that this is far from the first time people came to a head over the representation of Native Americans on the campus.

“There’s a really long history of fighting over the logo and nickname for the university. These T-shirts are just the latest event that connected to that,” Sebastian Braun, chair of the school’s American Indian Studies Department, told the Daily News.

Several years ago, the NCAA pressured the university to drop its “Fighting Sioux” logo and name, which were deemed offensive.

This T-shirt designed for a big, unsanctioned party near the University of North Dakota is being criticized for the use of an American Indian image. *Photo: Twitter*

University President Robert O. Kelley was appalled that people wore t-shirts that perpetuate derogatory and harmful stereotypes of American Indians.

“The message on the shirts demonstrated an unacceptable lack of sensitivity and a complete lack of respect for American Indians and all members of the community,” he said.

Just last week the Gamma Phi Beta sorority displayed a banner that read, “You can take away our mascot but you can’t take away our pride. Mens 2014 NCAA Frozen Four.” It was quickly removed, the president said in a statement.

Last month, students put up a poster on campus criticizing the old logo and presumably people who are nostalgic for it.

Racist or merely rowdy? ‘Siouxper Drunk’ T-shirts draw smiles, anger at University of North Dakota. Photo: Twitter — Racist or merely rowdy? ‘Siouxper Drunk’ T-shirts draw smiles, anger at University of North Dakota. *Photo: Twitter*

Braun said the upcoming party will be held off-campus but nearby.

“Part of it is in a city park and there’s a business in town with a liquor license. It’s a neighborhood with a lot of student residences,” he said.

Students who are upset about the T-shirts on Friday organized a walk from the American Indian Student Services building to the administrative building.

University spokesman Peter Johnson said the situation was under investigation.

The University of North Dakota Fighing Sioux logo has long been a source of controversy. Photo: University of North Dakota

Canadian Community Blockades Gulf Islands Territory Over Phallic Clams

By Jimmy Thomson

This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.

May 13, 2014 | 5:05 am

The Stz’uminus (Chemainus) First Nation has enacted a blockade that spans its traditional territory in the Gulf Islands of BC. They say they’ve been let down by a recent Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) policy decision to restrict their ability to culture geoducks, a hugely valuable clam species that is already harvested commercially in the area.

“We’re trying to send a message to DFO,” says Ray Gauthier, CEO of the Coast Salish Development Corporation and the man behind the blockade. “If you’re not going to acknowledge our interests… then we’re going to reclaim the area.”

Nobody from DFO was made available speak with VICE, but the agency sent a statement, saying: “Officials are engaged in ongoing discussions with the Stz’uminus to understand their concerns and interest.”

It’s the “ongoing” part that has enraged the First Nation.

Six years ago they applied for permission to conduct a 100-hectare geoduck aquaculture operation in the waters off their reserve near Nanaimo. The undeniably phallic clams grow up to a metre long, and can sell for $50 a kilo to Asian markets.

Band officials saw the lucrative geoduck harvest as a chance to build the local economy and make the reserve more self-sufficient.

“We don’t have our hand out here,” says Gauthier. “We’re not asking for money.”

But the plan stalled. Then, after two years of frustration, the First Nation blockaded commercial operations in Kulleet Bay in 2010, preventing the divers from getting in the water. “The message was, if we can’t have access to the industry, then neither can you,” Gauthier recalls.

They threatened to blockade the bay again the following year, but the commercial geoduck harvesters steered clear. A few weeks ago, the First Nation was given a one-time opportunity to apply to harvest in five hectares. They say it’s not enough. “This new policy that was supposed to address aboriginal interests simply doesn’t,” says Gauthier.

Now they’re blockading much more than just one fishery in just one bay: they’re planning on blocking access to “all vessels including but not limited to commercial fishing vessels, DFO vessels and any non-native civilians and government officials,” within their traditional territory. That territory spans from Active Pass to Gabriola Island, heavily used areas in the Gulf Islands.

Gauthier says the issue is that the government is shirking its duty to consult with First Nations prior to making decisions regarding resources they have the right to use. “It doesn’t mean you have a meeting and it’s all good, he says. “They’re having trouble with the concept.”

That alleged failure to consult has attracted the interest of “10 or 12” other First Nations. Meaning, depending on the outcome, this protest could grow. No confrontations have occurred yet, but Gauthier says the blockade is in full swing.

“In our world it’s already begun,” he said.

Police seek steelhead bandits who released 25,000 fish

by GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News

NWCN.com

Posted on May 13, 2014 at 2:34 PM

Updated yesterday at 5:36 PM

FALL CITY, Wash. — Washington state’s five steelhead hatcheries are on high alert after someone broke into a facility overnight and released approximately 25,000 juvenile fish into the Snoqualmie River.

State Fish and Wildlife Hatchery managers are concerned it was an act of defiance against a new agreement that sharply curtails the state’s steelhead hatchery program. The agreement resulted from a lawsuit filed by a fish protection group, Wild Fish Conservancy, which accused the State of violating the Endangered Species Act. State Fish and Wildlife Managers agreed to stop planting winter steelhead hatchery fish in all but one river.

This set off a wave of criticism by some sport anglers who eagerly await the steelhead runs each year.

It also left the state with huge numbers of steelhead that could not be released into tributaries of Puget Sound. Whoever struck the Tokul Creek facility on the Snoqualmie appeared to know the hatchery was planning to truck its large inventory of steelhead to the east side of the state where they would be released into lakes that would not allow them to migrate to the Sound.

State Fish and Wildlife Enforcement officers and King County Sheriffs deputies are investigating the break in. Hatchery workers say whoever did it cut the lock off a tall chain link fence, entered the hatchery grounds and pulled the screens that prevented the steelhead from entering the creek and Snoqualmie River.

Private security officers have been hired to patrol the other hatcheries until police figure out if this is an isolated case or part of an organized resistance to the settlement.

ATV Protest Rides Through Native American Sacred Sites

AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Trent NelsonRyan Bundy, son of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, rides an ATV into Recapture Canyon north of Blanding, Utah on Saturday, May 10, 2014, in a protest against what demonstrators call the federal government’s overreaching control of public lands. The area has been closed to motorized use since 2007 when an illegal trail was found that cuts through Ancestral Puebloan ruins. The canyon is open to hikers and horseback riders. — AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Trent Nelson
Ryan Bundy, son of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, rides an ATV into Recapture Canyon north of Blanding, Utah on Saturday, May 10, 2014, in a protest against what demonstrators call the federal government’s overreaching control of public lands. The area has been closed to motorized use since 2007 when an illegal trail was found that cuts through Ancestral Puebloan ruins. The canyon is open to hikers and horseback riders.

Indian Country Today

ATVs have not been allowed through Recapture Canyon since 2007, but that didn’t stop a group of protesters on Saturday, May 10 from riding the trail—which is full of Native American sacred sites—anyway.

The Bureau of Land Management closed Recapture Canyon in Blanding, Utah to ATVs in 2007 after enthusiasts were caught trying to construct another trail illegally, and in so doing damaged archaeological sites, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.

Saturday’s ride was a demonstration by residents and San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman that they want control of the lands in public hands, a fight that has been going on for eight years. Only eight percent of San Juan County is not managed by the BLM, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Lyman and others who want the canyon reopened to ATVs argue that their families have been using the land for recreation for years.

“My grandfather called that canyon the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life. It’s important to our family. To see it as the focal point of a conflict is painful,” Lyman said before riding into the canyon on an ATV, to the Los Angeles Times.

People listen to San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman at Centennial Park in Blanding, Utah on Saturday, May 10, 2014. Lyman organized an ATV protest ride into nearby Recapture Canyon to show that the federal agency isn’t the “supreme authority” and local residents have a right to have their opinions heard. The area has been closed to motorized use since 2007 when an illegal trail was found that cuts through Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites. The canyon is open to hikers and horseback riders. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Trent Nelson)

But there are others who have been in the area for far longer than Lyman and his supporters.

“Since well before the state of Nevada, the federal government, and farmers and ranchers occupied the area, tribal nations—including the Las Vegas Band of Paiute, Moapa Band of Paiute, and other tribes in the area—have respected and honored the Utah Canyon as a sacred place,” the National Congress of American Indians said in a statement opposing the ride. “Native peoples believe the canyon contains many markers from their ancestors. An action like this is no more appropriate than a similar activity at a church or other place of worship.”

This April 9, 2011 photo shows an Anasazi ruin in the cliff close to “Lem’s Trail” in Recapture Canyon, near Blanding, Utah. A San Juan County commissioner tired of waiting for the Bureau of Land Management led an ATV ride into the canyon May 10, 2014. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Scott Sommerdorf)

A number of other groups have also spoken out against the ride.

“We believe the [Bureau of Land Management] should be providing more law enforcement to protect and preserve the cultural and natural resources for which it is the nation’s caretaker, and not providing more motorized access to areas containing cultural and natural resources that it has demonstrated that it is unable to protect,” Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma, preservation director for the Hopi, wrote in a May 1 letter to the BLM.

“It is sad that irreplaceable treasures of importance to all Americans would be sacrificed on the altar of anti-government fervor,” Jerry Spangler, executive director of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, said in a statement. “It is worse that protesters would be so blinded to their own insensitivity as to what others consider to be sacred treasures of their past.”

Willie Grayeyes, chair of a nonprofit that lobbies to protect Navajo land, was offended not only by the lack of sensitivity of the riders for Native culture, but also because a veterans retreat had to be relocated because of the protest.

“This opportunity for healing, to help these men and women has been postponed due to the threats of illegal activities by San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman on behalf of those who desire to drive their ATV toys over the sacred ruins of others,” wrote Grayeyes in a letter to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Many are comparing this recent protest to the exploits of private rancher Cliven Bundy in Nevada, whose cattle graze for free on U.S. government land.

Large Crowd Attends Memorial For Billy Frank Jr.

File photo of Billy Frank Jr. in 2011 at a ceremony for the removal of dams on Washington state's Elwha River. The well known fishing rights activist died Monday at the age of 83. | credit: Katie Campbell / Earthfix — File photo of Billy Frank Jr. in 2011 at a ceremony for the removal of dams on Washington state’s Elwha River. The well known fishing rights activist died Monday at the age of 83. | credit: Katie Campbell / Earthfix

Associated Press

SHELTON, Wash. (AP) — Thousands of people attended a funeral service for Billy Frank Jr., the Nisqually tribal elder who fought for Indian fishing rights in Washington state and was an advocate for salmon habitat.

Frank died May 5. He was 83.

Frank figured prominently in Northwest fish-in demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s that eventually led to sweeping changes in how Washington manages salmon and other fish.

Among those at the service Sunday at the Little Creek Casino Resort’s Event Center were Gov. Jay Inslee and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. Inslee said Frank was a state and national leader and that when he spoke, “people listened.”

About 6,000 people attended the service, said Little Creek spokesman Greg Fritz. Crowds also watched the service on jumbo screens from a large tent and other areas of the resort.

The service featured traditional Indian Shaker Church prayers, a presentation of a folded U.S. flag for the family — Frank had served in the Marine Corps — and remarks from more than 20 tribal leaders and elected officials.

“I often said that no one cared more about salmon and the planet Earth than our friend Billy,” said former U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks.

Cantwell described him as “a legend that has walked among us,” comparing his legacy to those of Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

Frank was arrested more than 50 times for “illegal fishing” during the protests that came to be known as the fish wars. Patterned after the sit-ins of the civil rights movement, the campaign was part of larger nationwide movement in the 1960s for American Indian rights.

In 1992, Frank was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, whose winners include former President Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu.

Swinomish tribal chairman Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, described Frank as a forceful teacher and a truth teller.

“Billy treated everyone with respect, even when we failed to live up to his expectations,” Cladoosby said.

Climate Disruptions Hitting More and More Tribal Nations

Associated PressKivalina, Alaska is one of several Native villages that are compromised by rising waters. — Associated Press
Kivalina, Alaska is one of several Native villages that are compromised by rising waters.

Terri Hansen, Indian Country Today

Native Americans have long had a close relationship with their lands and waters—sacred places and resources that define their lives. The disruptions wrought by a warming climate are forcing abrupt cultural changes on peoples with a long reliance on a once stable ecosystem.

Among the special issues affecting tribes, the 2013 Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwestern United States (SWCA) cited “cultural and religious impacts, impacts to sustainable livelihoods, population emigration, and threats to the feasibility of living conditions.”

The Hoh, Quinault, Quileute and Makah nations inhabit low-lying land along the west coast of Washington State, and face similar threats as rising sea levels and the other impacts of climate disruptions endanger their villages.

”The area is relatively vulnerable,” Patty Glick, senior global warming specialist and author of a 2007 National Wildlife Federation report, ”Sea Level Rise and Coastal Habitats in the Pacific Northwest,” told Indian Country Today Media Network in 2008. Higher wave action, wave force and destructive storm surges will increase in the coming decade, Glick said, and destructive storms such as the hurricanes will become more frequent.

The Hoh road to the beach has washed out, and the ocean has destroyed the homes that once lined their beach. In Quinault, a passing storm tossed gigantic logs onto the school grounds. These events intensified both tribes’ agenda to get higher ground returned from the Olympic National Park beyond their tiny reservation boundaries.

The Makah and the Quinault nations have large reservations, but their seaside villages are at risk, as evidenced by the recent state of emergency at Quinault headquarters in Taholah, which faced an increasingly dangerous situation with sea level rise and intensified storms, which breached a sea wall causing serious damage.

According to Climate Central, which uses data from NOAA and the USGS, there is a greater than one in six chance that sea level rise, plus storm surge, plus tides, will raise sea levels by more than one foot before 2020 along the coastline and in the Puget Sound region, where another eight tribes are situated. The Shoalwater Bay sits nearly out to sea in southwest Washington.

Rising sea levels will affect Washington’s shoreline habitat for vegetation, animals, birds and fish, according to Glick’s report. Marshes, swamps and tidal flats will be significantly affected, and salmon and shellfish habitat are expected to be significantly affected, Glick reported.

Along Alaska’s northwestern coast, melting sea ice has reduced natural coastal protection. Increased coastal erosion is causing some shorelines to retreat at rates averaging tens of feet per year. In Shishmaref and Kivalina, Alaska, severe erosion has caused homes to collapse into the sea, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, forcing these Alaska Native Village populations to relocate in order to protect lives and property.

Moving inland, “Climate change is slowly tipping the balance in favor of more frequent, longer lasting, and more intense droughts,” states the SWCA. The Navajo Nation is experiencing annual average temperatures warmer than the 1904-2011 average, cites a climate report released in March 2014. Latest figures show their drought continuing beyond 2010 studies into July 2013, indicating the drought continues.

Perhaps among the worst of those impacts are the runaway sand dunes it has unleashed, which extend over one-third the 27,000-square-mile reservation. During the 1996-2009 drought period the extent of dune fields increased by some 70%. These dunes are moving at rates of approximately 35 meters per year, covering houses, burying cars and snarling traffic, degrading grazing and agricultural lands, contributing to the loss of rare and endangered native plants, and when they occur contributing to poor air quality, a serious health concern for many of the reservation’s 173,667 residents.

Intertribal organizations around the U.S. are recognizing climate change and variability as a significant factor that can impact tribal resources, livelihoods, and cultures, cites the latest tribal climate report. The National Tribal Air Association notes that “perhaps no other community of people has experienced the adverse impacts of climate change more than the nation’s Indian tribes.”

The struggle will soon come to more tribes. Sea level rise projections do not bode well and may already be a cause of concern for the tribes along Louisiana’s Gulf of Mexico—the United Houma Nation, the Atakapa-Ishak Nation, Pointe-au-Chien Tribe, and the Biloxi-Chitimacha’s Isle de Jean Charles Band, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band and Bayou Lafourche Band. In Florida—the Miccosukee, and some locations of the Seminole Indian Reservations. Ocean residing tribal nations in California include the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla, Cahto, Chumash, Hoopa, Karok, Kumeyaay, Luiseño Bands of Indians, Maidu, Miwok, and some bands of the Pomo Nation. Some are more at risk than others.

Inslee Predicts Washington Will Adopt Controversial Fuel Standard

File photo) Washington Gov. Jay Inslee looking at ways to enact a low-carbon fuel standard without legislative approval. | credit: TVW

Austin Jenkins, NW News Network

Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee says Washington will likely adopt a California-style pollution limit on gasoline and other transportation fuels.

Inslee recently ordered a feasibility and cost study of a low-carbon fuel standard.

For months now, Washington Republicans have been predicting that Inslee will use his executive powers to enact a low-carbon fuel standard. Inslee acknowledges he’s looking at ways to do this without legislative approval. Either way he thinks Washington is poised to move forward.

“I think it’s a probability that we will be able to fashion a low-carbon fuel standard that will be effective for the state of Washington, both for carbon pollution and from a cost-containment standpoint,” Inslee said during an appearance on Seattle Channel’s “Civic Cocktail” program. “From what I know today, I think it’s a likelihood we will succeed in fashioning that, but I want reiterate we’re going to have a very sophisticated, thorough evaluation of that before I make that ultimate decision.”

A low-carbon fuel standard is basically a requirement that vehicle fuels be blended with less carbon-intensive alternative fuels. For instance, California’s standard requires a 10 percent reduction in carbon intensity of gas and diesel over 10 years.

Inslee has promised a “deliberative, public process” as he pursues carbon pollution reduction measures in Washington. Legislative Republicans oppose a fuel standard and say it could drive up the cost of gasoline.

This was first reported for the Northwest News Network.

Amid Furor, Auction House Stops Sale of Bloody Native Child’s Tunic

source: Waddington's, via theglobeandmail.comLot 22 - 'Northern Plains Indian Child's Tunic, early 19th century fringed and with beaded collar, showing signs of central bullet trauma.' — source: Waddington’s, via theglobeandmail.com
Lot 22 – ‘Northern Plains Indian Child’s Tunic, early 19th century fringed and with beaded collar, showing signs of central bullet trauma.’

Vincent Schilling, ICTMN

When the Toronto-based Waddington’s auction house held a pre-show viewing of items to be sold during its auction of the late William Jamieson’s collection, a blood-stained “Northern Plains Indian Child’s Tunic,” complete with a bullet hole, was among the items. An outpouring of anger ensued, and Waddington’s soon pulled the item from the listing.

Responding to the outcry, Waddington’s President Duncan McLean told the Globe and Mail, “We don’t want to upset anybody, so are withdrawing the item and returning it to the consignor.”

Though Waddington’s responded by removing the item to be auctioned, several more native artifacts were auctioned from April 29th to May 1st, including a Pair of Lakota moccasins said to have been owned by Sitting Bull, which sold for $9,000, a Sioux Saddle blanket and pouch, which sold for $3,120, an Iroquois False Face Society Mask, which sold for $2,640, and more.

The child’s tunic was of interest to Jamieson because the garment had a bullet hole in the center of the chest and visible blood stains. Jamieson was known in the rare-item collectors world as the “Master of the Macabre” — a label backed up by his collection of items on auction at Waddington’s. In addition to the Native artifacts, other items listed at Waddington’s included an electric chair, a bone model of a guillotine, a medieval wrought-iron ‘Shame’ mask and more.

The items on sale at Waddington’s also caused an outcry from First Nations communities in Canada. In particular, the Haudenosaunee Council forbids the sale or exhibition of medicine masks.

Hayden King, a member of Beausoleil First Nation who teaches history and native politics at Ryerson University, told the Globe and Mail, “I’m generally of the belief that they should be returned. Some government agencies and museums agree, but the market includes many players who do not.”

“It all reflects this apparently endemic belief that native people are extinct, so we can do whatever we want with their stuff,” said King.

Sean Quinn, Waddington’s decorative arts specialist who appraised the tunic to be worth $2,000 to $3,000 told the Globe and Mail, “It was very, very difficult for me to catalogue [the tunic], because of its relation to a terrible period of history, the death of any child is horrific.”

When Jamieson died in 2011, his fiancée Jessica Phillips took to selling his collection, which also included authentic shrunken heads and necklaces made of human teeth. Though she says she agrees the tunic is a piece of history, it is up to the executors to decide where it ends up.

Billy Frank Jr., the foremost champion for Treaty Indian fishing, dies at 83

Nisqually elder Billy Frank Jr., a lifelong fisherman who led the battle for Treaty Indian fishing, speaks to an audience of tribal leaders past and present, activists, but most of all friends, remembering the Boldt Decision with stories. Photos of “The Old Swede,” as Billy called Judge Boldt, hung as a backdrop in memory of his momentous decision. — Nisqually elder Billy Frank Jr., a lifelong fisherman who led the battle for Treaty Indian fishing, speaks to an audience of tribal leaders past and present, activists, but most of all friends, remembering the Boldt Decision with stories this last February. Photos of “The Old Swede,” as Billy called Judge Boldt, hung as a backdrop in memory of his momentous decision. *Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News*

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

In the early hours of May 5, after a lifetime dedicated to protecting treaty rights of northwest tribes, Billy Frank of Nisqually dies at age 83. He is known for championing the battle for Treaty Indian fishing in the 1960s and 1970s, which culminated with the momentous Boldt Decision. He remained ceaseless in his work as chairman at the Northwest Indian Fish Commission (NWIFC) to protect and preserve the salmon resource in all aspects, continuing his work until his final day. The nation mourns the loss of a great man.

In a White House press release, President Barack Obama said this, “I was saddened to learn of the passing of Billy Frank Jr. Today, thanks to his courage and determined effort, our resources are better protected, and more tribes are able to enjoy the rights preserved for them more than a century ago. His passion on the issue of climate change should serve as an inspiration to us all. I extend my deepest sympathies to the Nisqually Indian Tribe, and to Billy’s family, and to his many friends who so greatly admired him.”

Tulalip Tribal Chairman Herman Williams Sr. said, “He’s always been that symbol of our relationship with the state and federal government. He’s the one out in front, leading the fight.”

As serious and determined as he was, Billy was exceedingly humble. He was a man of the people. Wherever he went, he seemed to know everyone, and was always thrilled to see his friends and relatives. He spoke frankly, and was never afraid to speak his mind and say what he knew to be right.

Terry Williams, who worked closely with Frank through the Tulalip Natural Resources Department, said, “Billy had a saying I just loved. He’d say, ‘You have got to tell the truth and recognize the truth.’ That’s what we have faced all our lives.”

Billy Frank spoke from the heart with passion and tenacity. He was revered for his words and what they accomplished.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, who sits on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, told the Everett Herald, “Billy Frank was a legend among men. Today, America lost a civil rights leader whose impact will be felt for generations to come.”

His death comes in the middle of a crucial discussion in Washington State that will change the way salmon are protected. The Fish Consumption Rate and the pollution rate are issues to be decided this year. If he were here, his words would be to stay the course. The battle doesn’t stop with the rights, it continues for the survival of the resource.

February 12 of this year marked 40 years since the Boldt Decision. At a celebration at the Squaxin Island resort remembering the battle for Treaty Indian fishing, Frank highlighted how the future of tribes is intertwined with the future of the environment. He said, “We have to protect the salmon. Look at California. The tribes there have the first water right, but there is no water. We have a right to the salmon, but if there are none, what kind of right we got?”

Tulalip Chairman Williams agrees that the fight must continue, but people have to pick up where the old leaders have left off.

“Where will the next Billy Frank rise from?” he said.

Andrew Gobin is a reporter with the See-Yaht-Sub, a publication of the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department.
Email: agobin@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
Phone: (360) 716.4188

9 Tribal Nations Taking a Direct Hit From Climate Change

Rich Pedroncelli/Associated PressThe dried-out bed of Lake Mendocino, California, in February 2014. The state is gripped in its worst drought in recorded history, and a new study has found that climate change is to blame. — Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
The dried-out bed of Lake Mendocino, California, in February 2014. The state is gripped in its worst drought in recorded history, and a new study has found that climate change is to blame.

Terri Hansen, ICTMN

It is no secret that American Indian communities are at the forefront of climate change. From low-lying nations facing sea-level rise, to villages located on melting permafrost, to drought-plagued lands, these are some of the more dramatic examples of American Indian tribes that are taking a direct hit from extreme weather events likely linked to climate change. Although several tribes, including some on this list, are already adapting or laying out plans for the inevitable, this list highlights those that are seeing dramatic, tangible changes.

1. Hoh Tribe

The Hoh road to the beach has washed out, and the ocean has destroyed the homes that once lined their beach. In 2009, Hog tribal officials told a U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., that they face constant threats from floods and the Hoh River.

2. Quinault Indian Nation

Seaside villages up and down the Pacific coast are at risk, from rising sea levels. Some stark evidence of this came with the recent state of emergency declared by the Quinault Indian Nation. Earlier this year, its headquarters in Taholah faced an increasingly dangerous situation with sea level rise and intensified storms. The situation came to a head with the breach of a sea wall that caused serious damage.

Quinault Nation President Fawn Sharp has since traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for more flood protection.

Climate Change Is Real, Let’s Fight It Together

3. Quileute Tribe

The Quileute are squeezed on a sliver of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Olympic National Forest. Rising sea levels and a river’s changing course through the reservation has exacerbated not only fears of flooding, but also of what could happen if an earthquake occurred powerful enough to wreak the damage that was seen in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. Just a couple of years ago a tribal school attended by 80 children was just a foot above sea level. A powerful storm surge threw car-sized wood trunks into their schoolyard. But now the Quileute are relocating an entire village.

Quileute Is Moving to Higher Ground

4. Alaska Native Villages

Galena, Alaska Struggles to Rebuild After Yukon River Ice Jam Causes Devastating Flood

5. Navajo Nation

“Climate change is slowly tipping the balance in favor of more frequent, longer lasting, and more intense droughts,” states the 2013 Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwestern United States (SWCA). The Navajo Nation is a prime example, with a drought that pre-dates the one that has crippled parts of California. From runaway sand dunes, to dying horses, the Navajo Nation is suffering from a lack of water.

Navajo President Ben Shelly Signs $3 Million Drought Relief Bill

Drought Hits Navajo Nation Ranchers Hard

6. Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla

The Agua Caliente, hit last year by wildfires, got the double whammy after the charred remains of its Indian Canyons became prone to flash flooding, forcing their closure for several months.

7. Biloxi-Chitimacha Tribe

Sea level rise is washing away the land of this small tribe in Louisiana. The Biloxi-Chitimacha moved to the Isle de Jean Charles on the Gulf Coast in the 1840s and made a way of life there. The island—along with the rest of Louisiana’s coastline—is disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico at a speed almost visible to the eye, reported Truthout in April.

“There was land on both sides of the bayou,” tribal member Chris Chaisson told Truthout. “Now, it’s just open sea.”

While the tribe faces a multitude of problems, sea level rise remains at the root of the tribe’s most pressing.

8. Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation

An April 2014 study by scientists at the Utah State University has linked this year’s California drought to global warming, the Associated Press reported. That brings us to two tribal nations that issued drought state of emergencies. The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation declared a drought emergency in April, calling upon its members to cut their water use by 20 percent.

Tribal chairman Marshall McKay put out a statement that said, “The drought threatens how we eat and drink everyday, how we manage our businesses, how we protect our environment and how we plan for our families’ futures.”

9. Hoopa Valley Tribe

The Hoopa Valley Tribe had declared a drought state of emergency two months before the Yocha Dehe, in February. The Hoopa began formulating a drought mitigation plan that would plan out water use for three to five years, with measures such as storing water from the mountains that is currently not being tapped, beefing up fire prevention initiatives and shoring up backup water systems.