Tulalip News

Why Indigenous arts and Hawaii artists matter

2014-01-08-CrabHulabyPatrickMakuakanecopy-thumb — Crab Hula by Patrick Makuakane

01/09/13

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) President and CEO T. Lulani Arquette is visibly moved as she describes how the audience responded to the innovative work of Christopher Kaui Morgan at the 2013 Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement Conference. “There was a palpable thrill in the room, a sense that we were witnessing something new and exciting. This is the kind of work we want to encourage,” she says. Not yet four years since it began funding, NACF has made significant investments to nurture native artistic expression, celebrate culture and engage communities. These investments help keep tradition alive — but also help indigenous artists push past old forms and break new ground.

That clearly is what makes the work of NACF so significant. This isn’t just about feeding struggling artists. Underlying everything NACF does is the conviction that native artists and culture-bearers play a vital role in enlivening the community. Through its mission and its outreach, its grants and the platforms it provides for creative expression and collaboration, NACF attests to the importance of the artist as both voice and conscience, healing and keeping alive the hope of a better, more just world.

Native artists cannot always turn swords into plowshares. But they at least give us the beauty of art in place of the brokenness that we see all around us. Native artists, like artists everywhere, give so generously to us all simply through their creativity. We owe it to them — and to ourselves — to give back in some measure what they have given us in priceless cultural treasure. –Arquette

NACF hopes that those who wish to put their wealth to work will see in the work of the Foundation the prospect of a return on investment that is more significant than what the market can offer. Founding NACF Board Member Elizabeth A. Woody (Navajo/Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama) explains: “The act of giving was part of the ‘gifting economy’ of the Northwest where one’s wealth was measured by generosity, good work and a good heart.” That’s not unlike the spirit that moves those who engage in philanthropy. Thanks to that spirit of giving, donors across the country have allowed NACF to help 85 Native artists and organizations across 22 states. Awardees were part of over 300 events and activities, creating opportunities for 46,000 participants and taking the beauty and power of Native arts and cultures to nearly 850,000 people.

Individual Fellowships
Individual grants of up to $20,000 each help native artists continue to practice what has been handed down to them while also moving beyond to open up new ways of seeing the world. Time-honored ways of defining our shared humanity are preserved while new prisms are created through which to see and understand. Powerful voices are amplified in visual arts, music, dance, literature, film and traditional arts.

Community-Based Initiatives
People are not generally aware of the urgent need to map and secure ancestral arts and practices before they are lost forever. Nearly $380,000 has been given to grantees, some tied to universities, for this purpose. Apprenticeships, teaching, participation in youth programs and festivals also help ensure the transmittal of traditional skills to the next generation. This support seeds the ground for ongoing collaborations and exchanges, such as residencies, arts conferences and dialogue across native art disciplines.

Capacity-Building Initiatives
NACF creates partnerships between artists, tribal entities and nonprofit organizations. The spirit behind these partnerships is the recognition that the work of the artist is a lens through which to help the community understand and engage collaboratively in addressing issues vital to the well-being of the community.

Proven leadership in offering broad-based arts services including arts grants, professional development for artists, and market opportunities for Native artists has led NACF to make an investment of nearly $300,000 in organizations positioned to help artists in these ways. In Hawai`i, the Pa`i Foundation received a NACF grant to support their work as part of a group dedicated to recovering the language, cultural traditions, healing practices, voyaging, and agricultural practices of the Native Hawaiians, now a minority in their ancestral land.

Arquette is particularly proud to see artists in her native Hawai`i recognized, and is gearing up to announce new initiatives in 2014.

“Our grants go towards helping artists address issues such as cultural equity, land and water rights, food sovereignty, and Native knowledge,” she said. NACF artists received a Bessie Award for Outstanding Dance Production, had an exhibit at the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia, and are taking their film to the national festival circuit and PBS. “This kind of recognition inspires others to help keep the arts alive through their own artistic endeavors — or through their financial support,” she added.

The NACF website offers several examples of the work of artists NACF has supported. “We need the voices of our Native artists and culture-makers. They help make us wiser and more compassionate towards each other, ” said Arquette.

Toxic Waters: Consumption Advisories on Life-Giving Year-Round Fish Threaten Health

Terri Hansen ICTMN

The iconic Chinook salmon, for millennia a cornerstone of Pacific Northwest diet, spirituality, ceremony and even the tribes’ economy, is fast becoming toxic in Washington State.

And rather than focus on cleaning up the waterways that year-round salmon reside in, Washington state agencies have issued fish-consumption advisories. The less fish consumed, at the lower limits, the higher concentration of contaminants is deemed acceptable.

But salmon are not just a way of life. They are life. And, Northwest tribes say, the cavalier attitude toward their contamination not only risks health but also guts treaty rights and the very way of life of the land’s original peoples.

Studies of adult salmon indicate that Puget Sound Chinook salmon have higher concentrations of legacy contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), than salmon from other parts of the Northwest. The state’s solution? Limit consumption to one Puget Sound Chinook fillet a week, and two Puget Sound resident Chinook (blackmouth) fillets a month.

Tribal peoples in Western Washington who eat their usual intake of fish and seafood–indeed, the traditional foods they have eaten for millennia–must do so now at risk of disease due to the toxins that lurk in their waters, not to mention in their state politics. People who eat fish more than once a month are not protected by Washington State water quality standards.

Fish, with their high levels of precious proteins and rich omega-3 fatty acids, are touted as improving health and extending life. But fish from polluted waters can expose unborn babies, infants, children and adults to mercury, lead, arsenic, PCBs and other toxins that can compromise immune function, cause cancer and adversely affect reproduction, development and endocrine functions.

Washington State’s Department of Health recommends that residents eat no more than two fish fillets a week, in concert with very strict selection, preparation and cooking criteria, to avoid toxicity. Compare that with Washington State’s Department of Ecology’s fish consumption rate (FCR) determination of an eight-ounce fish fillet a month, or 6.5 grams a day.

“Washington uses one of the lowest FCRs in the nation to regulate pollution in our waters,” said Billy Frank Jr., (Nisqually), chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

The less fish consumed by residents, said Frank, the more pollutants that can be dumped into waterways. The higher the fish consumption rate, the cleaner that Washington waterways will need to be. Establishing a higher consumption rate will force polluters to reduce the amount of new contaminants they dump into the water, keeping salmon and other seafood clean.

Studies reveal that Washingtonians are among the highest fish-consuming populations in the nation. That’s not surprising given that 29 federally recognized tribal nations exist within a state bound by the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia River and the Salish Sea, with the state itself wrapped around Puget Sound and interlaced with numerous rivers.

“State government admits that the current rate does not protect most Washington citizens from toxics in our waters that can cause illness or death,” said Frank. Washington’s rate should be at least as protective as Oregon’s rate of 175 grams per day, equivalent to about 24 eight-ounce fillets per month, Frank said.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission’s (CRITFC) 1994 fish consumption survey revealed that the average Columbia River tribal member consumed 58.7 grams of fish per day, and also found that they typically ate the whole fish. The survey prompted Oregon to revise its FCR in 1994, which Oregon updated in 2011 in line with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommendations. But industry in Washington, led by Boeing, say that Oregon’s standard is impossible.

Frank said the effort to adopt a more accurate FCR is one of the biggest public policy battles in the country, pitting human health against the economy.

“Industry leaders such as Boeing are digging in their heels to delay or kill rule-making on a more accurate rate because they say it will increase their cost of doing business,” he said.

“Tribal leaders were very disappointed when [Washington] failed to adopt fish consumption standards in 2012,” Ann Seiter, the FCR coordinator for the NWIFC, told ICTMN in reference to InvestigateWest’s five-part series on the issue in 2012.

InvestigateWest’s insightful five-part-plus series describes how former Governor Christine Gregoire was divided between acting for the tribes, powerful supporters who wanted stricter water pollution rules, and her supporters in the aerospace industry, like Boeing, which were against tightening FCR rules, in 2011–2012. Ecology stopped work on changes to water pollution rules in June 2012 with a delay to at least 2014, after which Gregoire would no longer be governor, the team reported.

“The tale of how Boeing and its allies beat back … Ecology’s attempt to change a fish consumption rate that pretty much everyone involved acknowledges is too low provides a fascinating look at how the levers of power are pulled in Olympia,” InvestigateWest said.

The tribes are upset with the continuing delays.

“They’ve taken their concerns to the EPA regarding their Trust responsibilities, as well as their obligations under the Clean Water Act,” Seiter said.

Under the federal Clean Water Act, river water should be clean enough so that people can eat the fish. Environment and fisheries organizations sued the EPA in October 2013 for non-compliance under the Clean Water Act for allegedly failing to protect Washingtonians from toxic pollution entering Puget Sound, the Columbia River, the Spokane River and other waterways.

In a letter to Ecology last June, the new Governor Inslee announced that he would organize an informal group of advisers from local governments, Indian tribes and businesses, according to InvestigateWest. Inslee’s letter to Ecology Director Maia Bellon, released last June 7, called for the agency to help educate Inslee’s advisory group, “including real-world scenarios illustrating how new criteria would be applied and how new implementation and compliance tools would work in the permitting context,” they reported. Ecology officials had already said the “implementation and compliance tools” could include giving businesses up to 40 years to cut pollution levels to the amount that presumably would be required once accurate fish-consumption rates are in place.

Tribal leaders responded by taking their concerns directly to Inslee, Seiter said.

In December China banned shellfish from the West Coast, citing, among other factors, high levels of inorganic arsenic in geoduck clams harvested by the Puyallup Tribe in the Redondo area of Puget Sound, according to Earthfix.opb.org. The ban underscored the direct negative economic impact of pollution on tribes.

“The tribes are not only interested in protecting all the species of fish they eat, but they’re also concerned about protecting their economic interests,” said Seiter.

Washington business associations, cities and counties together hired an engineering firm to prepare a report, released on December 4, 2013, that evaluated technologies potentially capable of meeting Ecology’s effluent discharge limits for revised human health water quality criteria for arsenic, benzo(a)pyrene (BAP), mercury, and PCBs. The report coincided with the public rollout and comment period for Ecology’s proposed rule changes to the state’s water quality standards in early 2014, including human health criteria involving the FCR.

“Currently there are no known facilities that treat to the [health water quality criteria] and anticipated effluent limits that are under consideration,” the report stated. It also reported limitations in proven technologies capable of compliance with the revised health water quality criteria.

One tribal official who spoke on condition of anonymity said tribal leaders are sticking close to these issues.

“As we discussed this ongoing environmental catastrophe, we decided we wouldn’t go to jail anymore like we did in the fish wars,” the leader told ICTMN. “But we are ready to go to war [to] protect the water.”

Retired educator hit it out of the park

By Julie Muhlstein, The Herald

In 1945, a pro baseball relief pitcher who also played first base earned $29 a month — if that player was a woman.

“I made money to go to college,” Dorothy Roth said. “I was the youngest one on the team.”

At 86, Roth now lives at Grandview Village, a Marysville retirement community. On Wednesday, she shared long-ago memories of her one season with the National Girls Baseball League. She also has a fun new memory.

On a whirlwind trip to Olympia Tuesday, Roth met Gov. Jay Inslee, and even sat in the governor’s chair. During a surprise presentation, she was awarded the Washington Health Care Association’s first-ever Silver Spotlight Award. The agency is an advocacy group for the state’s assisted-living facilities.

She was Dorothy Wright, fresh out of high school, when in 1945 she joined a team called the Bloomer Girls. Emery Parichy, co-founder of the National Girls Baseball League, bought the Boston Bloomer Girls in the 1930s and built Parichy Stadium in the Chicago suburb of Forest Park, Ill. That’s where Roth played.

“We wore big satin bloomers, and satin shirts,” she said Wednesday. “It was hot, standing out in that field.”

Presenting the award, Inslee noted Roth’s “outstanding contributions as an athlete and as an educator for 30 years in public schools.”

“You look to me like you’ve still got game,” Inslee told Roth, a retired schoolteacher. After Roth autographed a bat Inslee had once used in a congressional baseball game, the governor quipped that “the value of this bat just went up 100 times.”

Inslee proclaimed Jan. 7, 2014, to be “Dorothy Roth Day.”

“The award was a surprise. It was awesome,” Roth said at Grandview Village, where on Wednesday state Sen. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, stopped by to congratulate her.

“It’s great that the state is recognizing our elders,” McCoy said. “I enjoyed the movie ‘A League of Their Own.’ When Dorothy came into baseball, those girls were ahead of their time. They began paving the way for Title IX.

It was Title IX, part of the Education Amendment of 1972, that opened doors for girls to have equal opportunities in school sports programs. “A League of Their Own,” the 1992 movie about women’s baseball teams during World War II, depicts the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a league similar to Roth’s.

Herald readers were introduced to Roth in July. Andrea Brown’s article in the Vitality section featured the former ballplayer. It told how Grandview Village residents, wearing “Team Dorothy” shirts, were going to see Roth throw out a ceremonial first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game.

Did she get it over the plate? “Close to it,” Roth said Wednesday.

In her long life, baseball was just one season. Roth did spend her baseball earnings on college. She attended Cornell College, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Northern Illinois University. She earned a master’s degree and met her future husband, Al Roth. He would go on to be a city manager in Crystal Lake, Ill., and North Bend, Ore. Roth, who was widowed about three years ago, has a daughter and a son.

Her daughter, Holly Leach, is superintendent of Northshore Christian Academy in south Everett. Leach joked Wednesday that her parents were the first reality TV stars. They were married Sept. 1, 1952, on a TV show in New York called “Bride and Groom.” They applied out of financial need, and were amazed to be chosen, Roth said. Prizes included a free wedding and a honeymoon in the Pocono Mountains.

Brenda Orffer, the Washington Health Care Association’s senior director of member services, said the organization will give Silver Spotlight awards monthly through 2014. The agency represents 450 assisted-living facilities around Washington.

The new award program is aimed at honoring seniors who have made contributions in many walks of life. It’s also meant to highlight positive aspects of long-term care. “How many other elders are out there like Dorothy?” McCoy asked.

Is Roth still a baseball fan?

“I used to root for the Chicago Cubs,” she said. “I’m into the Seahawks now.”

Washington Initiative Promoter Files Measure To Resurrect Anti-Tax Rule

Washington initiative promoter Tim Eyman kicked off the New Year with a new ballot proposal.

Jan 6, 2014 NWNewsNetwork

By Austin Jenkins

Credit Austin Jenkins / Northwest News NetworkInitiative promoter Tim Eyman has a plan to resurrect the two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases in Washington — Credit Austin Jenkins / Northwest News Network
Initiative promoter Tim Eyman has a plan to resurrect the two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases in Washington

It’s designed to resurrect the requirement that tax hikes get a two-thirds majority in the legislature or be referred to the people. This time Eyman has designed a hammer to get the legislature to act.

Last year, the Washington Supreme Court tossed out Eyman’s two-thirds requirement for tax increases as unconstitutional – something Washington voters had repeatedly approved. Now Eyman’s back with a creative proposal: he would cut the state sales tax by one cent if the legislature doesn’t approve and send to voters a constitutional amendment to bring back the super majority rule.

“Either they let us vote, which costs them nothing, or we get the largest tax cut in Washington state history,” says Eyman.

A one penny cut in the sales tax would amount to about $1 billion a year in lost revenue to the state. Eyman would need to gather nearly 250,000 valid voter signatures to put his measure on this fall’s ballot.

The 2014 initiative season is also underway in Oregon. Measures on same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization and liquor privatization are all expected to qualify for the ballot.

In Idaho, there are proposed ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage and allow medical marijuana.

Indian Education Parent Committee Meeting, January 15

The first Indian Education Parent Committee Meeting of 2014 will be held January 15^th in the Totem Middle School library. Dinner will be at 5pm and the meeting will start at 5:30pm

All parents of Native children in grades K-12th are encouraged to attend!

Some items to be discussed:

– Liaison/Advocate updates

– Current/upcoming youth programs

– Totem Middle School report, Principal Tarra Patrick

– Upcoming Events

– Information on the upcoming IEPC Board Elections that will be held at the next IEPC meeting on April 23, 2014.

Oil-train accidents prod regulators to look at tank-car safety

Four disasters in the past six months have demonstrated the risks of crude-oil trains, which carry 11 percent of the nation’s oil, up 40-fold in five years.

By David Shaffer and Kelly Smith (Minneapolis) Star Tribune

MINNEAPOLIS — Oil-train explosions like the one last week near Casselton, N.D., or the one in Canada late Tuesday have revived longstanding worries that older railroad tank cars aren’t sturdy enough.

Four derailments in the past six months have demonstrated the risks of crude-oil trains, which carry 11 percent of the nation’s oil, up 40-fold in five years, according to the Association of American Railroads.

“There is an increased interest … to look at tank cars and whether we can do more to remove the risk,” said Thomas Simpson, president of the Railway Supply Institute, a trade group for tank-car builders and owners.

North Dakota, lacking sufficient pipelines, sends more than two-thirds of its crude down the tracks, typically on 100-car unit trains. Many travel on BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific tracks through Minnesota. Minnesota’s 20 ethanol plants also rely heavily on tank cars because current pipelines are unsuitable for that fuel.

Yet most of the nation’s 94,000 rail tankers carrying oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids don’t meet puncture-resistance and other standards that apply to new tank cars. Railcar and shipping-industry officials say it could take a decade and cost billions to retrofit up to 64,000 older tankers that carry flammable liquids.

Federal regulators are considering whether to require it.

“It is a challenge, but it is doable,” said Larry Mann, a Washington-based rail-safety attorney.

In 2011, railroads and shippers voluntarily established tougher standards for new tank cars, and more than 14,000 are on the rails today. That’s about 15 percent of the tankers carrying oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids. Most of the remainder are older models with a record of tank failures in accidents since 1991, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The safety of railcars, among other things, is playing a role in the continuing debate about the proposal to build more oil terminals in Washington state.

Railroad groups said in November they support upgrading the old tanker fleet, but the cost would fall on shippers because they own or lease the tank cars. Oil and ethanol shippers haven’t warmed to that idea, and say railroads need to do more to prevent derailments.

“The ethanol industry takes safety very seriously, but we don’t re-engineer vehicles already on the road with new, expensive suspension systems to combat any potential damage from hitting a pothole on the interstate. No, we fix the pothole. The same should be true with rail transportation,” Bob Dinneen, chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol-trade group, said via email.

The American Petroleum Institute, an oil-industry trade group, told regulators in December that the retrofits only would be costly and take years, and would add weight to trains. It urged regulators to study the costs and benefits before imposing a regulation and to order railroads to improve tracks and take other steps to reduce derailments.

BNSF Railway, whose train crashed Dec. 30 in North Dakota, declined to comment for this article. Canadian Pacific, a crude-oil hauler whose U.S. headquarters is in Minneapolis, said it is always working with federal regulators and others to promote safety, but would not comment in detail.

Bruce Crummy / The Associated Press, 2013A train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in Casselton, N.D., on Dec. 30 and sent a great fireball and plumes of black smoke skyward. The fire continued to burn the next day. — Bruce Crummy / The Associated Press, 2013
A train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in Casselton, N.D., on Dec. 30 and sent a great fireball and plumes of black smoke skyward. The fire continued to burn the next day.

Logistics of retrofitting

Even if federal regulators order tank-car upgrades or other measures, the new rules likely wouldn’t take effect for at least a year. “It is just a complicated issue that has taken time,” said Gordon Delcambre Jr., a spokesman for the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is considering new regulations.

Train-car repair shops probably would need 10 years to retrofit every tank car. “There’s a finite number of facilities that can do the work,” said Simpson, of the Railway Supply Institute, which supports improving older tank cars, but questions whether all proposed modifications are feasible.

Some tank cars might be retired or shifted to carry nonflammable products. So the potential cost of upgrading the nation’s tanker fleet could range from $1.7 billion to more than $5 billion.

After the recent oil-train wrecks, more people are demanding action in the United States and Canada.

In July, 47 people died in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, in the first disaster involving a North Dakota oil train. Four months later, in Aliceville, Ala., another oil train exploded and burned, but nobody was hurt. In 2009, a deadly ethanol-train derailment and fire in Cherry Valley, Ill., prompted the NTSB to issue specific recommendations to upgrade the nation’s tanker fleet.

Mann, who represents unions and others on rail-safety issues, said all the recent oil-train explosions involved tank cars built before 2011, a model known in the industry as the DOT-111.

In Coon Rapids, Minn., which is crossed by two rail lines, city leaders in December petitioned federal regulators to get started on the tank-car upgrades. The city’s resolution stemmed from a National League of Cities conference last year in which cities, especially Chicago suburbs, discussed railcar safety.

“The concern is the integrity of the tank cars — are they inspected and structurally sound?” said Coon Rapids City Manager Steve Gatlin.

The older DOT-111 cars have a steel shell that is too thin to resist punctures in accidents, and the ends of the car are vulnerable to ruptures. Valves used for unloading and other exposed fittings on the tops of the tankers can also break during rollovers, the NTSB said.

Tank cars built since Oct. 1, 2011, are required to comply with tougher standards, including shells with thicker steel.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for retrofitting the nation’s tanker fleet. In Minnesota, Rep. Tim Walz, a member of the House Transportation Committee, said he hopes the committee will examine the issue.

“It was incredibly lucky that no one was harmed in the accident in Casselton,” Walz said in an email. “It is clear there is still more we can and should do to enhance safety when shipping hazardous materials to market.”

Emergency measures

A Web-based petition last fall by the progressive group Credo Action collected 58,000 supporters of banning the “dangerous DOT-111 tanker cars in our communities.”

“They are basically bombs running through the middle of cities,” said Elijah Zarlin, of the San Francisco-based group. “Each one of these accidents … shows that this isn’t just a potential threat, it is an actual, real threat.”

Railroad towns are re-examining emergency plans. Last summer, the Minnesota hazmat teams got extra training on crude oil.

Soon after the Quebec disaster, Canadian and U.S. regulators ordered rail carriers not to leave trains unattended, a key factor in that accident. Regulators in both countries also have told North Dakota shippers to accurately classify their crude oil’s hazard level, which partly hinges on the amount of potentially explosive dissolved gas it contains.

U.S. agencies announced a “Bakken blitz” to test crude-oil shipments in August. Based on preliminary results of that effort, regulators warned shippers last week that light crude from that region may be more flammable than heavy oil. But regulators stopped short of saying that Bakken crude poses a special danger and said sample testing is still under way.

Mark Winfield, an associate professor at York University in Toronto, has called on Canadian authorities to begin a judicial inquiry into regulatory lapses before the Lac-Mégantic disaster. Among the questions to arise after the disaster is whether Bakken oil is more explosive.

“It is hard to believe that nobody on the inside, among the regulators, didn’t realize there was a potential problem here,” Winfield said.

In Perham, Minn., which is also on the BNSF line and has witnessed two minor derailments in the past 21 years, Mayor Tim Meehl questions whether regulators can limit the number of oil tankers going through towns or make rail cars safer.

“I guess we just pray it doesn’t happen in our town,” he said. “It’s a very scary situation.”

Material from the Chicago Tribune is included in this report.

‘Komplex Kai’ performs at Tulalip Resort

Tulalip rapper ‘Komplex Kai’ is set to perform with a live band at the Tulalip Resort Casino’s Canoes Cabaret Room on Jan. 15.— image credit: Courtesy photo. — Tulalip rapper ‘Komplex Kai’ is set to perform with a live band at the Tulalip Resort Casino’s Canoes Cabaret Room on Jan. 15.
— image credit: Courtesy photo.

By Kirk Boxleitner, The Marysville Globe

TULALIP — Kisar Jones-Fryberg’s musical alter ego has been largely dormant since the passing of his aunt in 2010, but on Wednesday, Jan. 15, “Komplex Kai” will take another step toward his revival at the Tulalip Resort Casino’s Canoes Cabaret Room, where he’s slated to perform a free show with a half-dozen-member live band from 10 p.m. to midnight.

“I started producing albums when I was 15, but I was already writing lyrics and putting them to beats when I was 10 or 11,” said Kai, a Tulalip rap artist who’s produced six albums over the course of the past decade. “I’m an MC, but my work is drawn from a Native perspective. I’m guided by Native traditions, but they’ve been modernized, because between the resettlement and the segregation of our people, we lost so much.”

This complex dichotomy between the history of his people’s culture and the world in which he now lives drives much of Kai’s output, as does his desire to leave behind a worthy legacy.

“Every album is something that my great-grandkids will be able to look back on and say that I did,” said Kai, who has four children already, with one more on the way. “I don’t want to downplay the importance of our traditions, but by the same token, my culture is rooted in the present day, and what it means to be Native here and now. This is my way of expressing my own existence in 2014, and it doesn’t make me any less Native or Tulalip.”

Kai recalled an exchange with an older man, who had asserted that he shouldn’t be proud of having grown up on a reservation, and explained his own mixed feelings in response.

“He pointed out that our people had been placed in reservations as prisons, and I understand that, but that’s still where we come from,” Kai said. “You can’t downplay or dismiss where we’ve come from, or what we’ve lived. It’s where tradition meets experience. I’ve got to be proud of where I’m from.”

To that end, the Komplex Kai band will be playing a mix of original songs and covers, following an 8-10 p.m. comedy show in the Canoes Cabaret Room, and those who are interested in checking out his music need look no further than Facebook and iTunes under “Komplex Kai” to find all of his albums and songs online.

“My grandma was my first manager,” Kai said. “I wasn’t even going to pursue music as a career, but now, I’m all for positivity and creating opportunity.”

Statement from Quinault Nation concerning high winds

The Quinault Indian Nation is cooperating with the U.S. Corps of Engineers, which has placed more than 800 tons of rock since 8 a.m. this morning, creating a secondary seawall in preparation for heavy rains and high winds, with gusts anticipated as high as 65-70 m.p.h. over the weekend. The seawall has already been breached in several locations, jeopardizing homes on the Reservation. Swells of 20-35 feet are anticipated. Dump trucks have lined up to dump their loads all day, building a four foot berm so far, all along the sea wall, and work is expected to continue through the night, according to John Preston, Quinault Tribal Emergency Services Coordinator.

“Our first priority is the safety of our people, their property and our natural resources. We will do all in our power to support this project and see that this work gets done,” said Fawn Sharp, Quinault Tribal President.

Tulalip man struck by car improving at hospital

Herald staff

SEATTLE — A Tulalip man has been upgraded to serious condition after being hit by a car on Tuesday night. Joseph Harvey, 35, remains in intensive care at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to his family and hospital officials. His condition was considered critical until Friday.

Harvey is a tribal member and attended Arlington High School.

He was struck about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday along 35th Avenue NE, just west of I-5, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

Police say they don’t expect to seek criminal charges against the driver.

Emergency responders initially reported that Harvey was riding a bicycle at the time of the crash. Detectives did not find a bicycle and believe he was walking, not riding, according to investigators.

Tribes Receive $2.2M in Historic Preservation Grants

More than 100 tribal nations will share $2.2 million in federal grants for historic preservation.

Gale Courey Toensing

1/9/14 ICTMN.com

The National Park Service announced Thursday that the annual Tribal Historic Preservation Office fund will distribute partial grant awards to 135 tribes.

“Tribal historic preservation offices are the fastest growing preservation partnerships within the national historic preservation program, showing the value that tribes place on preserving historic places and protecting tribal cultural traditions,” National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said in a statement. “These grants allow tribes to focus on what they are most concerned with protecting – Native language, oral history, plant and animal species important in traditions, sacred and historic places, and the establishment of tribal historic preservation offices.”

The grants range from around copy3,000 to $22,000. Tribes need to submit applications for this part of their grant and then apply again for the final portion of the award when that amount has been determined.

The annual appropriations were established in 1992 when Congress amended the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The amendment put Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPO) on par with State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPO) with respect to tribal land, including conducting Section 106 reviews of federal agency projects on tribal lands. Tribes can use the grants to fund projects such as nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, preservation education, architectural planning, community preservation plans, and bricks-and-mortar repair to buildings. Examples of recent projects funded by Historic Preservation Fund grants include:

— historic preservation surveys of approximately 195,982 acres of tribal land resulting in 7,043 archeological sites and 1,307 historic properties being added to tribal inventories. Additionally, tribal historic preservation offices prepared nominations of 64 sites for the National Register of Historic Places;

— a summer cultural forum hosted by the tribal historic preservation office of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. “Reawakening Traditional Science – Exploring the Ways of our Great Basin Culture,” brought community and tribal members of all ages together for presentations on local rock art and archeology, ancient traditional art forms such as basketry and tule duck making, tribal language, oral history, and the use and care of traditional plants. The forum showed how knowledge based both on tribal traditions and contemporary science can complement each other.

John Brown, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Narragansett Indian Tribe said the grant goes into his office’s operating budget and is used to fund all programs.

Revenue for the Historic Preservation Fund comes from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf. The grants act as catalysts for private and other non-federal investment in historic preservation efforts nationwide. The National Park Service administers the fund and distributes annual matching grants to state and tribal historic preservation officers from money made available in Congressional appropriations.