Tulalip News

Worlds apart: Indigenous leaders abandon faith in UN to find climate solution

By Douglas Fischer, IC Magazine

Thousands of delegates are gathered in Warsaw for another round of climate talks. On the other side of the globe, indigenous leaders say they’re done with the UN talks.

I have nothing to say to them. They are orators of the highest quality, but the time for excuses has gone.
– Uncle, Eskimo runner

GHOST RANCH, N.M. – As United Nations delegates gather in Warsaw in the 19th annual effort to craft a global climate treaty, indigenous leaders from across North America met half a world away and offered a prophecy: The solution to climate change will never come via the UN talks.

Tribal elders from the United States, Greenland and Mexico spoke of the need for individual action rather than government edicts, and of the difficulty – and urgency – of replacing economic questions with moral ones.

They spoke of grandfathers and grandmothers, of battles with alcoholism and disenfranchisement, of a world that’s changing around them and a need to do something for their grandchildren. Most of all, though, they talked of a need for a new direction in an increasingly unsustainable world.

Organized by the Bozeman, Mont.- based American Indian Institute, the gathering drew about 65 people from across North America.

Different palette
Here amid the hills and mesas that painter Georgia O’Keeffe made famous, these elders presented a different palette with which to look at environmental woes. They placed little faith in the weighty United Nations process that opened Monday and will draw thousands of people to Warsaw over the next two weeks to try to find a way to stem emissions of greenhouse gases.

“I have nothing to say to them,” said Angaangaq, an Inuk known here as Uncle and who since 1975 has been “runner” for his elders in Greenland, spreading their words worldwide. “Not one of those United Nations people responsible has ever changed.”

“They are orators of the highest quality, but … the time for excuses has gone long ago.”

The dismissal of the UN was all the more striking given that it came from those who, in the 1970s, spearheaded the quest to have the world body recognize indigenous rights.

Forty years later, they have moved on.

Faithkeeper
Oren Lyons is faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation in the Haudenosaunee, formerly the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. In the late 1970s he saw the UN as a “beacon” that would finally begin to address and restore indigenous rights. No longer.

He spent years traveling to and talking before various global forums. At a summit in Davos, Switzerland, a few years ago he realized he had a “guaranteed prophecy” to offer. It still applies today:

“You will meet again next year, and nothing will have changed.”

Of course, Native elders are not the only ones feeling disenfranchised by the UN talks. Occasionally a “people’s summit” sprouts near the official one, offering space and a platform to artists, activists and others frustrated by lack of action on social and environmental justice issues at the UN proceedings.

Even at the UN talks, hope has been tempered: No breakthroughs are expected this year. Delegates and observers say the best they can hope for is progress toward a more ambitious agreement in Paris in 2015.

But for the elders gathered here in New Mexico, time is up. Change, they said repeatedly, must come from a far more personal level.

Seven generations
“The work that we have is for all of us to do,” said Vickie Downey, a clan mother at the Tesuque Pueblo in New Mexico. “We do this for our grandchildren.”

Many at the three-day forum referenced the ancient Haudenosaunee tradition of thinking seven generations into the future.

“We’re a small group, the indigenous peoples of the Earth, but we’re very old,” Lyons said.

And Lyons, who is getting old, too, senses a return to the “old values:” Respect, concern for the future, sharing.

“How do you instruct 7 billion people as to their relationship to the Earth?” he asked. “It’s very difficult – when you’re struggling to protect your people and you’re hanging by a thread – to instruct other people.”

Uncle brought a pair of drums from Greenland. He spoke of Nanoq, the polar bear, and of the 78 new species of fish swimming in Greenland’s waters – “I grew up knowing every single fish in the world of my home. Now I have 78 new ones to learn” because of dramatic changes in the environment.

Not just beautiful words
He spoke, too, of his reluctance to join the circle of elders and be a runner. But as a runner – as “the world’s most-traveled Eskimo,” as he said – he’s seen a universal message coming from tribes:

Change, he said, “is going to come from you.”

“Many, many Native people have the same sayings: It is you, not your city, not your state, not your government, not the UN.”

“These people are not just talking beautiful words,” he added. “These people are talking wisdom if only you and I are able to listen.”

Photos, from top: Oren Lyons (left) talks with Tewa Dancer Andrew Martinez after an Eagle Dance at Ghost Ranch. Tewa Dancers perform the Buffalo dance. Both by Douglas Fischer. Photo of Uncle courtesy Oona Soleil.

Douglas Fischer is editor of The Daily Climate, a news service covering energy, the environment and climate change. Find us on Twitter @TheDailyClimate or email Douglas Fischer at dfischer@DailyClimate.org

Cherry Point Update

By Jay Taber, Intercontinental Cry Magazine

Earlier this year, IC reported on the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance/Tea Party anti-Indian conference in Washington State, USA. Key to launching the CERA anti-Indian hate campaign in the Pacific Northwest, we noted, was the support of Tea Party radio host Kris Halterman.

As Ashley Ahearn reports at EarthFix, voters in Whatcom County have rejected Wall Street/Tea Party candidates in local elections this week. While Tea Party activist Kris Halterman bemoans seeing her PACs efforts go down in flames, she and Ahearn neglect to mention Halterman’s persistent promotion of anti-Indian bigotry on her KGMI Radio program. Seeing how Lummi Nation joined environmental activists and local Democrats in urging voters to support Halterman’s opponents, that might yet prove newsworthy as upcoming federal decisions on tribal treaty rights potentially challenge Wall Street’s plans to build the largest coal export terminal in North America on Lummi Indian burial grounds at Cherry Point.

13 Cabinet Comments From Tribal Nations Conference Morning Session

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network, November 14, 2013

Tribal Leaders from many of the 566 federally recognized tribes were present for the fifth annual White House Tribal Nations Conference held at the Department of the Interior on November 13.

The all day conference that has been a staple of President Barack Obama’s administration and its hopes to improve the government-to-government relations began at 9 a.m. with Cabinet members speaking on behalf of their respective departments.

The speakers addressing the tribal leaders, who were able to voice their concerns later in the day, were: Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Energy Secretary Ernest Monitz, and the Department of Justice Attorney General Eric Holder.

Each speaker addressed progress in working with Indian country over the past year as well as announced key programs in front of the Native leaders.

Below are 13 clips from the morning session as the Cabinet members addressed the gathering:

Holder: “[C]ountless tribal leaders – both in and beyond this room – have stepped to the forefront of our efforts to preserve cultural values, to enforce treaty obligations, and to secure the rights and benefits to which all American Indians and Alaska Natives must always be entitled. Together, through many generations, you and your predecessors have faced down tremendous adversity – standing up to those who once sought to terminate the federal government’s relationships with tribes. You’ve galvanized support for the rights of American Indians to maintain tribal governments – and to have a seat at the table before major reforms are enacted. You’ve mobilized tribal nations to win passage of long-overdue laws not simply to regulate tribal affairs, but to allow all Native peoples to fulfill their own promise and chart their own paths.”

Shinseki: “I cannot change the records of injustice in our history, and they are many or the lack of trust about the government and this department, but I intend to make things better and I need your help.”

Sebelius: “Our research shows that nearly one in three American Indians and Alaskan Natives don’t have health insurance, one in three. That compares to 62 percent of all non-elderly Americans who are covered with insurance. But in Alaskan Native and American Indian communities only six percent are covered – here the challenges they face are real.”

Foxx: “The department of transportation’s position is clear. Residents of our tribal nation need and deserve safe roads and bridges and access to reliable public transportation. You well know, as well as I do, that transportation is a life-blood to communities, families. When we deliver on the promise of connecting every person on these shores to 21st-century opportunities, that includes tribal communities all across America.”

Moniz: “We want to work closely with tribal leaders to develop renewable resources on tribal lands, in particular. Today, we are very pleased to announce that nine tribes have been selected to receive over $7 million to further deploy clean energy projects.”

Jewell: “I came in at an interesting time as far as the budget. It was with my predecessors and some of the things they faced. We think long-term. We think the future of the culture that you represent, of the land you represent, we think by generations forward, as do I. And yet we are all faced with a crazy budget situation, continuing resolutions, no budget since 2012. Sequestration has hit Indian country harder than any other part of the federal government through the sequestration period we have been enduring since I started in the job seven months ago.”

Holder: “Today, we declare that we must never forget. We must never deny the injustice that – for decades upon decades – was inflicted on Native peoples. And we affirm that this painful past has informed, and given rise to, a sustained period of cooperation and self-determination – a period that began in a moment of national challenge, when the nation confronted a New Frontier.”

Jewell: “I know that when I speak to individual members of Congress they care about Indian country, and your voices to them are really, really important. But when it comes down to actually getting a budget done, they aren’t delivering. We need to hold them accountable to that and we will certainly be your partners in that effort.”

Sebelius: “Before President Obama took the oath of office, there was a steady decline in the number of children in Head Start who spoke a tribal language at home. Today we are using the Head Start new performance standards to integrate tribal language and culture into classrooms and curriculum. That is a big step forward for the next generation.”

Moniz: “This department has a major challenge in terms of cleaning up – there is no nice way to say it – the cold war mess. Much of this has an impact on traditional tribal lands. When it came to establishing our programs, I have to say, tribes in the affected areas, they have been fantastic partners in making us focus on the long-term cleanup to a level where sufficient activities could be removed. That has been a tremendous help as we structure the programs.”

Shinseki: “President Obama and I are committed to providing equal access to all veterans. If you understand the spread and the difference in the landscape, you will appreciate that the commitment means that whether or not you are living in an urban area or are a rural veteran, you are in the most remote of locations, like the outer banks of Alaska, or maybe even Guam, seven miles beyond Honolulu. Our commitment is to provide as best we can equal access to every veteran, no matter the condition, and that includes veterans on tribal lands. With the support of the congress, the president has increased the budget request for V.A. by over 50 percent since 2009. Rural, urban, remote, Native American all in the same benefits.”

Foxx: “We know and you know that a rebuilt road or a new transit system can be the difference between a child getting to school on time or the difference between an elder going to the doctor or not. No one knows better than the American tribal leaders that safe, reliable transportation is a key to accessing good jobs. It is why last year the federal transit administration awarded more than copy5 million from our tribal transit program to help 72 tribal governments provide the critical transportation services that thousands depend on every day.”

Holder: “We must recommit ourselves to collaboration on an unprecedented scale – no matter the obstacles we face. And we must declare – together – that, despite everything that’s been achieved, we will not rest as long as crime rates in so many tribal communities continue to exceed the national average.

“We will not accept the shameful fact that American Indians are disproportionately likely to become victims of crime and violence.”

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Statement on the UN Climate Conference in Warsaw by Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network

By Global Justice Ecology Project, Source: Climate Connections

The United Nations climate meetings involve the big powers of the United States and other industrialized “developed” countries. Lurking in the background are the financial sectors and investors of capital often having meetings in 4-5 star hotels.

Everything I have seen from the industrialized countries (including G20 countries) is false solutions towards addressing climate change. They have been playing a game of chess with climate.

As articulated at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the root cause of climate change is capitalism. IEN had a delegation in Cochabamba actively involved in the outcome documents. The problem is countries will continue to drill, dig, and burn up every drop of oil, gas, and coal; no matter how expensive it is, till it runs out globally.

After fossil fuel resources are depleted, the world will move into a global bio-energy and bio-economy (plants, energy crops, trees, algae, etc.). To do this, they need full access to land (and water), with no restrictions – worldwide. Everyone’s rights to land and water will be diminished.

The issues of access to and political power games over Energy and Water will be the battleground for our next generation. It will be over the Privatization of Nature – of Mother Earth. We will witness more deregulation of corporate activity, more privatization and commodification of the natural “commons”. They have given themselves rights to have Dominion over Nature.

What will it take to turn this around?

Many are grappling with this question. But, I believe a mass movement globally is needed to resist this insanity. But, it also involves a spiritual awakening. As I have said many times, the people of the world must re-evaluate what their relationship is to the sacredness of Mother Earth.

As Indigenous Peoples, those that follow our teachings, we know what our responsibilities are to the Natural Laws of Mother Earth. But the industrialized man, industrialized societies do not know this. IEN has spoken to this for over 22 years!

The modern world of capitalism and its world of corporate schizophrenia are already co-opting our Indigenous leadership with false solutions via benefit-sharing scenarios, or to be nice “Indians” and just share our traditional knowledge for adaptation to climate change; rather than our participation demanding real change and action.

Real binding commitments and real actions to reduce emissions at source must be the major path in these negotiations. But, this is not the agenda in Warsaw at this time. This is why the tar sands in Canada is ground zero in Turtle Island – North America to fighting for climate justice; for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and for a new colonial paradigm (not ours, but their system) that moves away from a Property Rights regime, towards a system that recognizes Earth Jurisprudence.

–Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network and member of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, the Indigenous caucus within the UNFCCC

Victory! First Nations request for federal delay on approval for Shell’s tar sands Project granted

By Global Justice Ecology Project, November 13, 2013; Source: Climate Connection

November 6, 2013, Fort McMurray, AB – Earlier this week the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) announced that a federal decision on Shell Oil’s Jackpine Mine Expansion, a 100,000 barrel per day open pit tar sands mine expansion, would be delayed an additional 35 days. At the heart of this decision is the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation who has been speaking out against the project since day one citing a variety of concerns relating to treaty and aboriginal rights as well as direct and cumulative environmental impacts.

In July 2013 the Joint Review Panel appointed to review the Jackpine Mine Expansion project granted a conditional approval laying out 88 non-binding recommendations. However, the Panel also made some remarkable findings including the following:

… the Project would likely have significant adverse environmental effects on wetlands, traditional plant potential areas, wetland-reliant species at risk, migratory birds that are wetland-reliant or species at risk, and biodiversity… in combination with other existing, approved, and planned projects, would likely have significant adverse cumulative environmental effects on wetlands; traditional plant potential area; old-growth forest; wetland-reliant species at risk and migratory birds; old-growth forest reliant species at risk and migratory birds; caribou; biodiversity; and Aboriginal traditional land use (TLU), rights, and culture.[i]

Many of the findings of the panel give way to serious concerns of breach of federal legislation including Treaty and Aboriginal Rights, and the protection of species at risk. Many groups, including the First Nation, were surprised the Panel justified the Project on the grounds that it would be in an area ‘in which the government of Alberta has identified bitumen extraction as a priority use’.[ii]

“We’re glad an extension was provided. It is clear that there is a lot of work to do before this project can meet the federal requirements for approval. However, we are disappointed the Minister only granted 35 day and not the full 90 days allowed. The amount of work that needs to be done to mitigate and accommodate impacts to our Nation seems almost impossible in only 35 calendar days. But we will make best efforts and hope that Canada does the same.”” said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

The ACFN raised concerns about the Project early on citing adverse impacts on Treaty and Aboriginal rights and title and difficulties with consultation and accommodation with the oil giant Shell.[iii] The hearings for the Project became one of the longest hearings seen for a tar sands project and included over 60,000 letters of support for ACFN position against the project. .

“The ACFN is taking a big risk challenging the status quo of project approvals and development in the region,” stated Crystal Lameman, Climate and Energy Campaigner of Sierra Club Prairie Chapter. “We support their arguments that are strongly rooted in the governments’ failure to protect species at risk and the biodiversity of the region and the Treaty and Aboriginal rights of the Nation,”

Many of the ACFN’s concerns were echoed and supported in the Panel Report itself, and most recently by the report of the Commissioner on Environmental and Sustainable development which, criticized Canada’s failure to meets legislative requirements under the Species at Risk Act stating “’the findings are cause for concern.’ The report also noted that a new collaborative approach rooted in using sound management practices, transparency and strong engagement is necessary to achieve the results necessary to fulfill federal commitments and responsibilities.[iv]

ACFN’s requests that Canada take concrete, immediate steps to address impacts, rather than commit to future action, are supported by the Commissioner’s observation of “the wide and persistent gap between what the government commits to do and what it is achieving”.

Since the Panel Report we have repeatedly requested meetings with the Federal Ministers to address the extensive list of outstanding issues we have with Shell Oil’s application to develop this recognizably devastating project in our traditional land use areas. The Nation states their request for meetings with high level ministers have been denied and they have only had opportunities to reiterate their concerns and position to technicians with little or no authority to make the necessary decisions to move their concerns forward.

“We need real action and a game plan created in partnership that addresses our concerns,” asserts Adam . “At present we don’t feel that our issues are being taken seriously and the consequences for this governments inaction will be the annihilation of critical habitat for species at risk and other traditional resources, and the degradation of the Muskeg River and the Athabasca Delta, in our traditional homelands.”

The ACFN maintain their position that they are challenging these projects in the public interest and for the interest of all Canadians.

“The Muskeg and Athabasca Rivers drain into the Athabasca Delta, which remains one of the last remaining fresh water delta’s in the world and vital carbon sink that helps maintain atmospheric stability for the entire planet. As Denesuline people we are the stewards of this region and we will do what is necessary to ensure that it remains here for all future generations,” concluded Chief Adam.

‘Inside Out’ shows how various substances affect human organs

Jessica Talevich inspects a healthy brain with organ lady, Shawneri Guzman.Photo: Andrew Gobin, Tulaip News — Jessica Talevich inspects a healthy brain with organ lady, Shawneri Guzman.
Photo: Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News Reporter

Tulalip − The unsettling foreign smell of formaldehyde and isopropyl alcohol wafted from a table at the front of the room, lined with bottles, cans, jars of waste and toxins, and trays of human organs. Those who attended the CEDAR group meeting November 7^th were disgustingly captivated by the uncanny presentation. Inside Out tells the gruesome truths of substance abuse, dispelling the misconceptions and myths society has about substances. Thursday’s show was unique, highlighting the effects of specific drugs.

Commonly referred to as the Organ Lady show, Inside Out begins with a glass of vodka and a raw egg. Shawneri Guzman, one of five Organ Ladies, cracks the egg into the glass for all to see, then sets it aside. From behind jars of tar and phlegm, Guzman picks up a set of human lungs, kicking the show into high gear as the audience leans in for a better look. She describes the different parts and facts about these lungs, which are grey and small, but they are healthy. Next she shows the lungs of a tobacco smoker, a marijuana smoker, and a heroin smoker, each looking progressively larger, shredded, and more black.

Bonnie and Bryce Juneau looking at a heart with a Gortex valve. Valve damage was due to heroin use.Photo: Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News — Bonnie and Bryce Juneau looking at a heart with a Gortex valve. Valve damage was due to heroin use.
Photo: Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

“The goal is to show healthy organs in comparison to damaged organs in order to help people understand what their choices are leading to, and hopefully help them make a change in their life,” said Guzman, an ER nurse at Providence Medical Center who sees people with these conditions on a daily basis.

The show continues with the heart, kidneys, liver, a tongue, and brains. Each specimen comes with a story, which Guzman tells while weaving in facts about drugs and how they are different and more dangerous today than they were ten, twenty, thirty years ago.

“The heroin on the street today is 60% to 70% pure, thirty years ago it was more like 20%. This means you can become addicted the first time, you can overdose the first time, you can die the first time. Today, heroin is commonly cut with horse tranquilizers, which is why so many people that use heroin look like zombies, they are essentially numbing their brain,” Guzman explained.

She continued to unveil brains, picking up slices that resembled Swiss cheese. Brains riddled with holes from heroin, meth, and marijuana, coupled with neural scans showing severe cognitive impairment illustrate a sobering reality. The damage shown in these brains is irreversible.

Guzman pointed out the misconceptions of drug use, such as smoking heroin is less addictive and less harmful than injection. If anything, smoking heroin is more harmful because of the drastic effect on the lungs.

It is important to know that second and third-hand marijuana exposure can cause you to test positive for THC, the chemical that comes from marijuana. Guzman referred to her experience in the ER, how many people come in after having tested positive for THC, and not knowing why it happened.

Bonnie Juneau hold up a pair of lungs ravaged by marijuana smoke. This 19 year old boy and had smoked everyday for five years.Photo: Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News — Bonnie Juneau hold up a pair of lungs ravaged by marijuana smoke. This 19 year old boy and had smoked everyday for five years.
Photo: Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

She explained, “We don’t realize how much our immediate environment affects us on a daily basis. Exposure to smoke is one example of how your surroundings affect your life. Even though you aren’t smoking, your body still feels the effects and it will show up on a test.” She noted that, “due to fertilizer and pesticides, marijuana today has more THC than what our parents would have smoked, meaning the effects and damage are both more drastic, and we are seeing more people test positive having only been exposed to third-hand smoke, which is the residue left on clothes, hair, furniture, and inside the car.”

As the show came to an end, Guzman picked up the egg floating in a glass of vodka. The vodka cooked the egg white in less than 90 minutes.

“Our brains do not stop maturing until we are about 25,” explained Guzman. “The egg white is immature protein, similar to a teen’s brain and other organs.”

She pointed out a liver from a 17 year-old girl that had drank since she was 13. It was hard and looked like a sponge in the middle.

Afterwards, people could put on gloves and examine the organs themselves, making the effects of substance abuse a tangible experience. Guzman continued to explain how these symptoms of organ damage manifest in living people, describing the signs to look for if you suspect someone is abusing substances. Awareness and understanding are crucial aspects in preventing addiction.

Fawn Sharp: Conference Appreciated but ‘We Need More’

Fawn Sharp, Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The following are comments by Quinault Indian Nation President Fawn Sharp in advance of today’s 2013 White House Tribal Nations Conference, the fifth of its kind since President Barack Obama took office in a way to improve the government-to-government relationship between federally recognized tribes and the United States government.

Today, President Barack Obama and top officials of his administration are meeting with hundreds of elected chairs, presidents and other key leaders from Indian tribes across the country. It is the fifth annual such gathering, an event promised by the president when he first entered the White House, intended to improve federal/tribal government-to-government relations.

We truly appreciate this opportunity to visit President Obama and listen to his thoughts about the various issues affecting Indian country. But we need much more than a listening session. These annual gatherings do comprise a gesture of good will well beyond any ever made by any president. But we need more than gestures. We need more than progress reports and we need more than promises. Our people are suffering and we need a “paradigm shift,” from the way tribes have been treated by this country in the past to the way they must be treated in the future.

I call upon the president to take a stand—a genuine stand—in favor of a true, democratic, nation-to-nation dialogue regarding the pressures and afflictions facing Indian country today. We need to establish a formalized and permanent intergovernmental framework between the tribes and the United States to, among other objectives, establish agreement on revenue restoration and trust reform through amendment of the self-governance compact.

What this means in layman’s terms is that it’s time for America to wake up to the fact that there are still Indian nations in this country. We haven’t gone away, and we’re not about ready to go anywhere. Our people have been ignored, mistreated, lied to and cheated throughout our history with the United States and the time has come for it to stop.

Indian, Alaskan Native and Hawaiian peoples have endured, and are enduring, the worst possible conditions, from extreme poverty to early death. Our children go to the worst schools. We have the worst health care and we are on the front lines facing the very real impacts of climate change and ocean acidification. The glaciers in our mountains are melting. Our lands and waters are being eroded, poisoned with pollution and displaced by careless development.

Too often, federal agencies ignore our rights and our sovereignty. To name just a few examples:

— Three years after 144 countries passed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through the U.N. General Assembly in 2010, President Obama finally decided to sign it—the final country to do so. But even then, the Department of State said the U.S. government didn’t agree with provisions affirming the principle that Indigenous Peoples must directly participate in policies and actions that directly affect their rights and interests. The principle opposed by the U.S. says that indigenous nations have the right to “free, prior and informed consent” before a government’s actions may be carried out. It is a fundamental right of any government. This effectively means the U.S. denies tribes the basic democratic principle that people have a right to know and consent to planned state government policies and actions that affect their livelihood, their social, political, economic and cultural interests and their future survival—a fundamental human right.

— Indians pay as much in taxes as they receive in federal payments under treaties and compacts. So, Indians are paying the U.S. to fulfill its treaty commitments. Also, non-Indian citizens receive approximately 50 times more in return benefit for taxes paid than Indian citizens do. Still, federal appropriations to tribes are being slashed—funds that belong to the tribes and are desperately needed for everything from medical care to education. These are topics for bi-directional dialogue along with implementation of the U.N. Declaration at the World Conference.

We have been supportive of President Obama and his policies, and we hope to continue to do so. But the time has passed when one-sided listening sessions can be counted as true progress in U.S.-tribal affairs. Democratic dialogue between our nations and the U.S. is needed to validate any consent requested of Indians. It’s not happening. Nor will it, until the “intergovernmental framework” to implement the government-to-government policy is formalized.

I challenge President Obama to make his administration a time for real progress for the Indian people—one that will be marked in history as a cornerstone of change, when true intergovernmental dialogue commenced between us and when the tribes finally received some of the respect they deserve.

Audio & Video from White House Tribal Nations Conference

Source: Indianz.com

The White House Tribal Nations Conference began this morning at the Interior Department in Washington, D.C.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell kicked off the session after an introduction by Jodi Gillette, the Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs at the White House. This is Jewell’s first Tribal Nations Conference since joining the Obama administration earlier this year.

Tribal leaders also heard from five more Cabinet secretaries. They were: Secretary Eric Shinseki, Department of Veterans Affairs; Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Department of Health and Human Services; Secretary Anthony Foxx, Department of Transportation; Secretary Ernest Moniz, Department of Energy; and Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Justice, who was introduced by David Gipp, the president of the United Tribes Technical College in North Dakota.

After the morning remarks, tribal leaders went into breakout sessions on a variety of topics. The sessions were not open to press.

The afternoon session will resume at 2pm with remarks from three more Cabinet secretaries, to be followed by a listening session of the new White House Council on Native American Affairs. President Barack Obama created the council by executive order in June.

Obama is expected to deliver final remarks at the conference around 3:30pm. The afternoon session will be webcast at www.doi.gov/news/video/live.cfm.

Video from the morning session can be viewed here

Redefining the Tulalip brand

5^th annual Taste of Tulalip combines traditional foods with daring culinary expression

Taste_web — Bravo’s Top Chef Kristen Kish (Right) shown with an audience member, hosts a cooking demonstration at the Taste of Tulalip.
Photo: Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News Reporter

Tulalip, WA − “I’m surrounded by artists; artist wine makers, artist chefs, artist celebrity chefs. All of whom have such a lust, such passion for food,” said Chef Perry Mascitti at the opening reception for the 5^th annual Taste of Tulalip, November 8^th. The weekend culinary event, which sells out every year, hosted returning celebrity Chef Carla Hall, Bravo’s Top Chef Champion Kristen Kish, and renowned food anthropologist, chef, and Kiowa tribal member, Dr. Lois Frank. This year’s focus was more on the menu in an effort to redefine the event, and the Tulalip brand.

Lisa Severn, director of food and beverage at the resort, said, “It is a culinary event encompassing both food and wine. We want to define Tulalip as a culinary destination, bringing quality and passion to our brand, setting us apart from our competitors.”

The Taste, as it’s called, is so much more than a wine event, a fact that was brought to the forefront in this year’s preparations as Dr. Frank worked with resort cooking staff for more than six months developing menu ideas inspired by the historic foods of this region. Such indigenous foods were incorporated into each dish served at Friday’s six course reception dinner, as well as those offered at the grand tasting on Saturday. The use of indigenous mushrooms, huckleberries, salmon, shellfish, pumpkin and squash, and indigenous red and yellow corn gave each plate a taste that is truly unique to this region. Branching out into Indian country as a whole, even lamb and buffalo were used as Native meats.

Each year, the Taste welcomes mainly Washington wineries to showcase their finest products, for two reasons. First, these wines are specific to this area, similar to the foods, as each grape will taste different depending on the ground it is planted in. You are essentially drinking the flavors of the northwest infused in each wine. The second is that Tulalip Resort believes in buying local and supporting local businesses.

They have the food, they have the drink, but it is really the skill and passion that defines a culinary experience. In order to prove their skill, chefs and sommeliers from around the Pacific Northwest teamed up for the Rock n’ Roll cooking challenge, where they were given a basket of unknown ingredients. They had to create a dish and select a wine to pair it with. A challenge to understand the relationship between food and drink, three teams were judged by the hosting chefs.

In addition to the fanfare, cooking demonstrations and tastings of elite wines and craft beers brought a level of quality to the Taste that puts Tulalips on the map. Kristen Kish held a cooking demonstration, preparing lobster. Kish stressed the fact that you should cook with your hands. For example, a pinch as a measurement should be between your thumb and three fingers, meaning that the amount of ingredients used will be specific to each chef, adding an identity to each dish. Fielding questions by Tulalip’s Chef Perry and celebrity Chef Carla Hall, Kish shared other tricks of the trade along the way.

The effort in defining the Taste as a culinary experience is exceptional, even in philanthropy. The Taste sponsors a charity each year. This year Fare Start was selected, a charity that assists at risk adults with culinary training. Every aspect of the Taste goes towards an emphasis on the culinary experience.

Redefining the Taste, and Tulalip, as a culinary destination also showcases the diverse options Tulalip offers guests on a regular basis. Although the event focuses on Tulalip hospitality, the Taste of Tulalip has remained one of the top ten grossing weekends in terms of casino revenue since the resort opened.

The weekend concluded with what was called a Native American brunch, where Dr. Frank led an expedition into the traditional foods of Native America; a legacy that will continue at the resort.

Severn was very pleased with the event, saying, “It was a successful weekend that defined Tulalip as a culinary destination, hosting the premier culinary event in the Northwest.”

5th annual Taste of Tulalip combines traditional foods with daring culinary expression

5^th annual Taste of Tulalip combines traditional foods with daring culinary expression