Category: Tulalip News

Bringing the tree back to life

"Coast Salish Canoes," opened at the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve on June 27, with over 80 guests in attendance.
“Coast Salish Canoes,” opened at the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve on June 27, with over 80 guests in attendance.

New Hibulb exhibit gives an in-depth look at Tulalip’s canoe culture

By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

TULALIP- “Imagine you are at the shore of the Salish Sea where a grand ocean-going family canoe floats patiently, waiting for you and others to begin your journey. The rivers, lakes and seas are our earth’s arteries, carrying its life force of water. For thousands of years they functioned as our ancestors’ highways, connecting our people together,” reads the opening display panel in the new interactive temporary Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve’s exhibit, “A Journey with our Ancestors: Coast Salish Canoes.”

The new exhibit, on display through June 2015, explores canoe culture in Tulalip and in Coast Salish tribes. A soft opening for the exhibit was held on Friday, June 27, with over 80 guests in attendance. This interactive exhibit features over 70 items that guests can explore canoe culture through, such as videos on carving canoes, maps, display panels, paddles and tools used to carve canoes with, and a large canoe that guests can sit in.

Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

“We hope guests learn the importance of canoes and how they were tied to all aspects of our life,” explains Mary Jane Topash the center’s tour specialist, about what guests can expect from the new exhibit. “We hope to educate people on the types of canoes, anatomy, tools, what it takes to build one, and how they are still used to this day. This exhibit will encompass all aspects of the teachings, history, lifestyle, and how their importance hasn’t changed a whole lot over the years.”

Coast Salish Canoes highlights the roots of the Canoe Journey and the important role that canoes played in its revitalization during the 1989 Paddle to Seattle.

“It was a big learning process for us. It didn’t just happen in 1989,” explained Tulalip carver Joe Gobin, about the preparation involved in the Paddle to Seattle. “Frank Brown and Ray Fryberg Sr. got our [Tulalip] Board involved and the Board saw how this was something missing in our culture. They sent us to different reservations to learn, to Lummi and Makah, because none of us knew how to carve a canoe. We all talked about it and the tools we needed, and how when we were making the canoe we were bringing the tree back to life. And it did come back to life on the reservations, and it brought back so many things in our culture that were forgotten. I am glad to see this exhibit here.”

Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

Lena Jones, the center’s curator of education, says guests will leave knowing the importance of canoes in Coast Salish culture. “Our ancestors helped keep a rich environment with superb art. We hope the exhibit will help people appreciate the social gatherings of the Coast Salish people and help our young people recognize their community’s role in revitalizing important Coast Salish traditions that can, and do, help the region.”

For more information on “Coast Salish Canoes,” please visit the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve’s website at www.hibulbculturalcenter.org.

 

 

Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402: bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com

The heart of a cedar

CedarPulling6-27-14A from Brandi Montreuil on Vimeo.

Sisters continue tradition of cedar harvesting

By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

Tulalip tribal member Chelsea Craig separates the inner bark from the outer bark on a strip of red cedar she harvested during an annual cedar harvesting event organized by Tulalip Forestry on June 27-28.Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
Tulalip tribal member Chelsea Craig separates the inner bark from the outer bark on a strip of red cedar she harvested during an annual cedar harvesting event organized by Tulalip Forestry on June 27-28.
Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News

Leaning over a long strip of red cedar placed on her lap, Tulalip tribal member Cerissa “Pipud” Gobin, asked her 4-year-old daughter, Emmy “Pipud” Ramsey, if she knew what was in the center of the cedar tree.

“What is in the center of you? That is right; it is your heart. So in the center of the cedar tree is a heart,” said Gobin, as she continued her methodical rhythm of peeling inner bark from the outer bark on a strip of cedar that was recently cut from a nearby group of trees.

“When I first started pulling I had no idea what I was doing,” said Gobin.  “I learned as I went along. I learned to get the little pieces of bark left on the inside off before you leave, otherwise you are going to spend a lot of time trying to get it off later,” she continued, occasionally looking up from the long strip on her lap to watch her son, Coen, pull another strip of bark off a tall red cedar.

Clustered around Gobin and her sister, Chelsea Craig, also a Tulalip tribal member, were long strips of cedar waiting to have their inner bark stripped, which will be used to make cultural items. Outer bark is left for the forest to reclaim. Both women are educators who plan to use the cedar for in-class projects next year.

Gobin, a high school art educator at Heritage High School, uses the cedar to teach students how to make traditional headbands or bracelets, some of which are later used during graduation ceremonies. Craig, a teacher at Quil Ceda & Tulalip Elementary, uses the cedar to teach youth to make baskets, hats, and pins for potlatch giveaways. Although they teach students how to weave different items, together they weave a cultural foundation for Tulalip youth.

These women are part of a large group of Tulalip tribal members participating in a cedar harvest organized by Tulalip Forestry

Cerissa 'Pipud' Gobin harvested nearly 3 dozen bundles of cedar during the harvesting event organized by Tulalip Forestry on June 27-28.
Cerissa ‘Pipud’ Gobin harvested nearly 3 dozen bundles of cedar during the harvesting event organized by Tulalip Forestry on June 27-28.

Department on June 27-28. The event, and others like it, is made possible by a growing partnership between the Tulalip Tribes and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The land is owned by DNR, with Sierra Pacific owning the timber. Department of Natural Resources notifies Tulalip Forestry when an area is scheduled to be cleared. This season, 83 acres were available for harvesting cedar.

“Tulalip Forestry worked in conjunction with both agencies’ representatives to coordinate the event and establish ground rules regarding allowable and non-allowable trees to be pulled,” explained Ross Fenton with the Tribe’s forestry department. “The relations Tulalip Forestry has established over the years for cultural cedar bark gathering has gone exceptionally well. Some tribal members base their sole incomes on products they make from cedar bark, so it’s very important we continue to maintain these positive relations.”

“Traditionally we would come out to harvest when the sap would run. That makes it easy to pull it off the tree. This stuff peels so nicely, I am loving it,” said Craig, pausing for a moment to survey the large expanse of trees swaying in the afternoon wind. “It is amazing to sit here and think about how our people used to do this. How they would all come together with their families and gather cedar. Of course they didn’t use the same tools we are using today, but they came out and gathered and made things, some of which we still have today.”

Many Tulalip youth participated in the two-day cedar-harvesting event, gathering strips for elders and learning techniques of separating the smooth inner bark from the rough outer bark. For many, this was their first trip gathering cedar.

“Do you know how the cedar is related to us?” asked Craig to her nephew and nieces, who were struggling to bring the long cedar strips up the steep incline. “She is our grandmother and she is giving us this gift of cedar and we need to thank her.”

“I love being out here,” said Gobin, as she tightly wound her cedar into a bundle tying it off with a scrap of thin cedar. “It is really addicting to be out here stripping the cedar, it is one of my favorite things to do.”

“Yes, grandpa would be proud of us,” remarked Craig.

For more information regarding future cedar harvesting events, please contact Tulalip Forestry at 360-716-4000.

 

Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unintentional state waiver lets FERC pre-empt state Coastal Zone rules

 

The Hydro Review

WASHINGTON, D.C.

06/26/2014

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a declaratory order that FERC hydropower licensing under the Federal Power Act pre-empts state regulation under the Coastal Zone Management Act in an instance in which the state of Washington unintentionally waived its CZMA permit authority.

The June 19 ruling blocks a state-imposed stay of construction and allows work to begin on the 600-kW Admiralty Inlet Pilot tidal project (No. 12690) to be installed in Washington’s Puget Sound. FERC issued a hydrokinetic pilot project license to Admiralty Inlet on March 20. FERC and the state of Washington agreed in 2009 to coordinate procedures and schedules for reviewing hydrokinetic energy projects in state waters of Washington.

As a pre-requisite for FERC licensing, a state agency has six months from application in which to issue a shoreline management permit under the Coastal Zone Management Act.

While license applicant Snohomish County Public Utility District No. 1 filed a CZMA application with the Washington Department of Ecology in March 2012, Snohomish and Ecology advised FERC by joint letter in September 2012 that they had agreed to extend the state’s review period. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which administers the CZMA, found extension of the review period did not comply with federal regulations and, as a result, Ecology waived its CZMA authority.

In May 2014, Ecology issued a shoreline permit for Admiralty Inlet incorporating conditions set by Island County, Wash., under state CZMA regulations including a requirement that project construction be delayed until appeals of the permit are concluded.

“The district argues that this stay would prevent it from implementing the terms of its license, which authorizes immediate construction of the project after the commission grants the necessary pre-construction approvals,” FERC said. “Because Article 410 of the license and biological opinion require that construction can only occur during a work window of July 16 to October 14, the district argues that it could miss this work window and construction could be delayed by one to two years.”

FERC agreed to Snohomish PUD’s request for a declaratory order upholding Federal Power Act pre-emption of state regulation.

“Because Ecology waived its consistency certification under the CZMA, a Shoreline Permit under Washington’s Shoreline Act is no longer required as a matter of federal law,” the commission said. “Therefore, we grant the district’s petition and declare that the FPA pre-empts any supplementary or inconsistent state or local requirements under Washington’s Shoreline Act. The district need not comply with the state-imposed stay provision of condition 23 of its Shoreline Permit. To hold otherwise would be inconsistent with the FPA, because it would allow the state permit to stay a commission hydroelectric license.”

FERC noted that Snohomish has informed Ecology and Island County that it intends to comply voluntarily with all provisions of the shoreline permit except the stay of construction.

“As a general matter, the commission encourages licensees to comply with state and local requirements to the extent that they do not conflict with the commission’s requirements or frustrate the purposes of the FPA,” FERC said. “We recognize, however, that under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, federal law pre-empts state and local laws when Congress occupies the field by enacting comprehensive legislation that leaves no room for supplemental state or local regulation.”

“This is significant for licensees who attempt to implement license obligations but are barred or delayed by state and local regulatory authorities with standards that conflict with the license,” said Mike Swiger of law firm Van Ness Feldman, which represented Snohomish.

Subsea cable operator challenge pending

FERC said it would address in a subsequent order a challenge by Pacific Crossing, owner of PC-1, a subsea telecommunications cable linking the United States and Japan, to the licensing of Admiralty Inlet.

Pacific Crossing unit PC Landing Corp. previously requested rehearing of the licensing order, saying the project would pose a risk to its nearby fiber-optic cable in Washington’s Puget Sound.

FERC also denied a requested stay but said it would address a rehearing request by the Tulalip Tribes of Washington who contend the project would affect access to its fishing grounds.

 

Army Corps of Engineers Colonel visits Qwuloolt Estuary

 

Members of the Army Corp of Engineers, Seattle division, meet with Tulalip Tribal members to tour the Qwuloolt Estuary. Photo/Andrew Gobin
Members of the Army Corp of Engineers, Seattle division, meet with Tulalip Tribal members to tour the Qwuloolt Estuary. Photo/Andrew Gobin

 

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

The Army Corps of Engineers toured the Qwuloolt Estuary, located in Marysville, on Wednesday, June 25, as part of a transitional period. Colonel Bruce Estok is stepping down from his position with the corps, and is introducing his successor, Colonel John Buck, to some of the communities and projects the corps is involved with. The Qwuloolt Estuary project is an example of successful collaboration between the corps and local communities with specific interests.

Col. Buck said, “The corps’ primary focus is Puget Sound. This is a great example of the corps and the tribe coming together to tackle a hard problem, which is to restore the Puget Sound ecosystem. This project is 20 years in the making, and it’s exciting to see the work happening.”

The Qwuloolt Estuary was chosen as a project site tour for a few reasons, mainly the unique relationship the corps has with Tulalip, and the importance of the project in reaching the goal of restoring the waters of Puget Sound.

“The estuary has been deemed a crucial habitat for salmon for a long time.  It is crucial to any watershed. It is the place where life happens, where the land meets the sea,” said Kurt Nelson, Environmental Division Manager for the Tulalip Natural Resources Department.

“This project, the way it was organized and designed, it didn’t quite fit the corps’ normal procedures. This is a unique project,” Nelson added. “What we need for the future is a way to make procedures more flexible for unique situations, like this one.”

Col. Estok explained that the corps projects are not really part of the president’s budget, mostly due to a lack of feasibility plan. Because of that, funding is often uncertain, so the projects remain uncertain right up until the first day work actually begins.

“Tulalip Tribes is our unofficial sponsor,” said Col. Estok.

He and Nelson explained that the funding for Qwuloolt largely comes from 21 grants the tribe secured to cover project costs. Grant funding often has time constraints, which means the funds might not be available by the time the Army Corps of Engineers process is complete. That is one major obstacle that had to be overcome for Qwuloolt.

Tulalip Tribes Vice Chairman Les Parks, who represented the council at the site tour, said, “We appreciate that you guys came out, especially Colonel Buck, taking the helm now. The health of Puget Sound is faltering, and projects like this will help to restore it.”

Col. Estok noted that this is not the first collaborative effort between the corps and the Tulalip Tribes.

“We have the first in-lieu fee mitigation plan with a tribe. That’s a good relationship, one that we want to keep building on,” he said.

For more information about the Qwuloolt Estuary, visit www.qwuloolt.org.

 

TERO Construction Training Center first of its kind: First graduating class to receive state pre-apprenticeship credentials

Graduates of the Tulalip TERO Construction Training Center.
Graduates of the Tulalip TERO Construction Training Center.

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

TULALIP – Tulalip TERO celebrated the first graduating class of the new TERO Construction Training Center June 12. Students graduating at the TCTC celebratory lunch showcased their final projects. Tribal leaders, program staff, former staff, and students shared words about what the day meant.

“What you’re doing here is building a foundation for your careers,” began Tim Wilson, a program manager for the Department of Labor and Industry. “There is nothing in this world you can’t do if you put your mind to it. This foundation you’ve built will help in that.”

Wilson congratulated the students, and honored them and staff for the work to make the TCTC program a successful reality.

“I was on the phone the other day, talking to someone back in D.C., and we were discussing national issues and apprenticeship. I was able to say, ‘Well guess what. I’ve got the first tribal pre-apprenticeship program,’ and there was silence on the line,” he said.

Tulalip’s new TCTC program is the first state recognized pre-apprenticeship program fully operated by a tribal entity. Washington State Labor Board categorized it as a “pre-apprentice” program , whose graduates are qualified to join various trade unions and their respective apprenticeship programs.  Upon completion of the coursework students are ready to safely enter the construction work environment.

“This program is a learning opportunity for our members and other Native Americans.  It gives our people a chance to learn a trade and contribute to the building of our community.  Many of the program’s graduates go on to full employment with our tribal construction department, or with one of the many construction companies in the region,” said Tulalip Tribes Chairman Herman Williams.  “We’re very proud of those who have completed the first year of our newly recognized pre-apprentice program.”

The Tulalip Construction Training program has been in existence for over a decade and over the years has been managed by both the Tulalip College Center and The Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) and has also been funded by different grants. This past year it reverted to TERO management and with the change has come a shift in emphasis from simply providing the vocational training program to advocating and helping with job placement after students complete the program and exposuring students to the various trades through speakers from trade unions and representatives from certification programs.  If students choose to stick with the trades as a career pathway they can expect to make a good living.

The Tulalip Tribes operates the TCTC in partnership with Edmonds Community College, offering training in the construction trades to its members, as well as other Native Americans, in order to help them obtain the necessary skills to enter the job market

“Edmonds Community College is proud to be a partner with the Tulalip Tribes in providing this opportunity for students to acquire job-ready skills in the Construction Industry Training program,” said Andy Williams from the Edmonds Community College business program.  “Many of the graduates earn employment in the construction trades upon graduation, earning good wages and contributing to the economy and the community. This is a great educational model initiated by the Tulalip Tribes, and Edmonds Community College is honored to participate.”

TERO program staff, past and present, could not be more proud of their students, honoring the work they were able to accomplish.

The ten week course provides students instruction in the basics of the construction trade.  Students are also awarded a flagging certification, First AID/CPR, and an OSHA 10 Hour Safety Card. In addition to these necessary construction skills, at the Tulalip TCTC students learn a set of values to guide and drive them towards successful careers.

Mark Newland speaks to his graduates during the Tulalip TERO Construction Training Center Graduation luncheon.Photo: Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News
Mark Newland speaks to his graduates during the Tulalip TERO Construction Training Center Graduation luncheon.
Photo: Andrew Gobin/Tulalip News

Mark Newland one of the instructors for the program, has worked with TERO for many years, formerly with the NACTEP program, offered some final words of guidance to his students. “I don’t worry about my reputation, I worry about my character. Because if you take care of your character, your reputation will take care of itself.”

Newland was praised for his dedication to the program, called  “the soul of this organization, and a great role model.”

He talked about the pride the students should feel not only about the work they’ve done for themselves, but what it means for years to come, saying, “One of the great things about being a carpenter is, for the next 20 years, you will drive by a project and be able to say to yourself, ‘Hey…I did that.’ That is something to be proud of.”

 

 

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