TULALIP – Dust off your shovels, favorite gardening gloves and garb because it is time for some greenhouse gardening.
A working partnership between the Tulalip Tribes and the Washington State University Snohomish County Master Gardeners Foundation is making available a series of classes for interested gardeners of all levels. Classes will be held at the Tulalip Hilbulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve.
In addition to classes, the crops grown this year will be used to aid local food banks, such as the Tulalip Food Bank, and other Snohomish County master gardener food bank gardens.
Gardening will be done in the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve’s demonstration garden, ‘Gardening Together as Families’. Classes will begin with a two-part series on seedling, followed with a two-part series on transplanting.
Through a hands-on approach, participants will work together to learn the “how-to’s” of greenhouse gardening and grow organic vegetables and herbs that will focus on traditional native food and medicine plants. Participants will also learn the benefits of healthy living through gardening, and how to reduce the impact of invasive species.
Classes are open to the public and there is no fee to attend.
Greenhouse Gardening kicks off February 12, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Seedling class will be held Sunday, February 23, 1 -3 p.m. and again on Wednesday, February 26, 1-3 p.m. Transplanting class will be held Sunday, March 16, 1-3 p.m. and again on Wednesday, March 19, 1-3 p.m.
The WSU Extension Master Gardener Program train volunteers to be effective community educators in gardening and environmental stewardship. They also enhance communities through demonstration gardens and donation of produce to local food banks.
For more information about the classes or the ‘Gardening Together as Families’ program at the Hibulb Cultural Center, please contact Veronica Leahy at 360-716-5642 or vleahy@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov.
Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
The new Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds Project is looking for participants! If you are interested or would like to know more about the project please call (360)716-4896.
Salmon cooked traditionally, Sebastien and Eleanor Williams, Tulalip Bay by the old dining hall, now Tulalip Montessori. Totem Beach, Tulalip c.1960s. Courtesy of Mae Williams.
By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News
It was the first day of my fifth grade year, but I was not going to be in class. At 5:00 a.m. while my classmates slept, waiting to start yet another year of school, I had already had breakfast and bundled up for the opening of the Silver (Coho) Salmon run. We made a beach seine set, right around a school of Silvers. I had never seen so many fish. We had 1500 fish in that set, and one lone chum for good measure. Growing up, this was my life. My summers were spent beach seining and roundhauling as much as I could. Each year, I would miss the first week of school, which always seemed to coincide with the start of the Silver run. And as the fishing seasons continued into November, the weather worsened, and I would beg to go fishing with dad. It is a way of life for my family, for many families, at Tulalip and all along the Puget Sound. For many, it was a living.
Tulalip fisherman Clyde Williams recalls early fishing in the 40s and 50s.
“We moved to the beach the day after school got out. We would buy our shoes at the commissary; everyone had Navy shoes. We were beach seining. We lived on the beach. Next to me was Stan, Bernie, and the Cheers. When we were fishing, if there was something wrong with our net we’d have to stretch it out at low tide and rehang it.
Just about everybody around here had a smoke house, back when we lived down there at the big house. We fished all day to fill the smoke house. That’s when everybody stayed at the big house. All the women would butcher fish all day long, we’d have to go out there as kids and pack wood in for the smokehouse, and we were the ones that had to keep the fire up. They’d always tell us ‘don’t you pile too much wood on you’ll burn the smokehouse down.’ We tended fires all day, we had to go check the fire every hour, make sure it was still burning. Even all night we’d have to go out there. They’d leave it in there for two days, and that was enough.
Fishing really took off. Everybody was catching fish, and then we went further out, changing from seining, to gillnetting, to roundhauling. Wes Charles and Chuck James brought the gillnetting to Tulalip. They were the first ones. A lot of people don’t know that anymore. Roundhauling was really something different. Bernie and Herman were the first ones to go out there; they roundhauled by hand for years before they did it with power. All of those guys used to get two or three hundred kings in a set. There was a state gillnetter that used to shoot at us. Other state boats tried to ram our boats and run up our nets chopping them all up.”
Fishing Kings Lawrence Jones, Penny Jones, and Stan Jones, Spee-Bi-Dah c.1950s. Courtesy of Stan and JoAnn Jones.
Tulalip fisherman Stan Jones remembers fishing growing up in the 40s and 50s, and the struggle that grew through the 60s as the state began enforcing new laws, leading up to the Boldt Decision. Stan stepped away from fishing serving 44 years on Tulalip Tribal Council and was a key player during the Boldt Decision.
“Dad always had a net in the back of the house, in the back room. He hung his nets in there, sewed every mesh out of linen. Once when he was out I went in and tried to sew his net; he came home and cut all my work out and redid it. We just had short nets, dad stayed on shore or up in the river.
When dad was sick, me and my brother Junior, we’d take the boat out and fish. Once up in the river we had about 25 or 30 Kings.
We couldn’t fish during the day, so we fished at night. The state fisheries officer John LaPlant, he used to come by and harass us. ‘If you’re gonna be here, put some lights on your boat,’ he’d say. Then the other rule was we couldn’t be more than 600 hundred feet offshore, so we just had little short nets. They were always coming by to see how far we stretched our nets out. If they thought you were too far, they arrest you right off the boat, and let your boat and net go adrift.”
Growing up, I heard these stories constantly. I almost feel like I was there, like I knew John LaPlant. I grew up in a post war era. Playing in the backyard there were many parts to boats and old fishing equipment, old corks scattered from hanging nets, and there was the old smokehouse. Grandpa used to smoke fish, not like the old days. Fishing and smoking fish though, that’s when the stories came out.
I learned the shores of Tulalip by the fishing landmarks and family grounds. Dad always says things like, “Run this end of the net up there into Roy Henry’s grounds.”
I didn’t know then, but I was learning about who we were, who we are, and the struggle to protect that. Dad would point out places on the shoreline, telling some fish stories. Even if we weren’t fishing, maybe driving around Tacoma or up across Deception Pass, Dad was always telling fishing stories. If grandpa was with us we had twice the stories. Amidst the stories, there was talk about the regulations and the law, and the fish wars. Today, I realize that the life I live fishing, like many others, was hard fought to protect. It is so much more as well. It is our identity, it defined our parents and grandparents, and it is our way of life.
At 32, Deshawn Joseph has already lived the life of an addict, cleaned up and is currently father to three children and founder of In Your TeePee, a small art and apparel business dedicated to giving back.
“In your TeePee is a reflection of what’s in your closet, but not just your closet, your home, your people, where you live and what you represent. I want to follow my culture and bring back pride in the Indian Community through exposure of art, political awareness and philanthropy. I want to give these teachings to the youth, show them that there are bigger and brighter things than just this reservation and your own family. I want to show that our people are resilient, we’re strong, creative and we have passion.
“In Your TeePee isn’t just about pride,” Joseph continued. “It’s about being humble, in a conducive manner for our youth. It’s a group of people working together, all native based and working for a brighter future. I started this with the free promotion of art. I’m not wealthy, I’m a full-time deckhand just trying to make it work, but I want to give back.”
Although Joseph is the founder and provides the vision behind In Your TeePee, the company is run more like a co-operative for artists.
“I know artists out there who are very talented, but may not have the time, money or ability to promote themselves. I’m currently working with five artists at this time, all Native American. I don’t necessarily want to be the front line person. Multiple people have stepped forward to say, ‘I like what you’re doing.’ It’s so exciting. Chad Charlie, a comedian with Rez2Rez, wants to be the face of In Your TeePee. I have four categories: Apparel, Art, Music and Community. We also want to give back to the community through public speaking. We’re against drugs, gangs and want to prevent suicide. This isn’t just for me, this is for our people.”
In Your TeePee has featured artwork by Toni Jo Gobin (Tulalip), Clint Cambell (Ojibwe), Daniel Mayotte (Red Lake Band of Chippewa), and Aaron Hamilton (Yakama).
“I’m not an artist,” Joseph confessed. “I want to say I’m the creative mind behind the art. The people who do my art, I give them an idea and let them do the art their way. I never did art, I’ve tried, but I just don’t have that touch with my hands, but I can image it in my mind.”
Although his only storefronts are Facebook and a booth at tribal gatherings, Joseph has big dreams for expanding the brand.
“I have ideas for Zumies and Pac Sun. These stores aren’t necessarily Native, but they do carry political t-shirts. If I could get a shirt into Zumies, that could really solidify us. For now I’m strictly on-line and doing Native American gatherings.”
Joseph’s dream for In Your TeePee started years ago; he credits his family, especially his children Jaylen (13), Caleb (11) and Tamiah (9), with motivating him to launch.
“Native American’s are just like a star quilt. Each generation is stitched to the next. My grandmother is Loretta James. My mom’s father is Douglas Jefferson from Lummi. My mom is Carmen Burke, she’s always interested me in my art, dancing and fashion. That’s where I started this love of fashion. And just me being a father, I want my children in the best position to succeed. I’ve turned my life around and hopefully my children can see that their father is leading by example.”
For more information about In Your TeePee find it on Facebook or email inyourteepee@gmail.com. If you’d like to share your business with the community, please contact the See-Yaht-Sub at editor@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov.
