Tulalip News

A healthy frybread option

Staff enjoyed a morning treat of warm frybread.Photo by Brandy N. Monteuil — Staff enjoyed a morning treat of warm whole wheat frybread.
Photo by Brandi N. Monteuil

By Monica Brown, Tulalip News Writer

TULALIP, Wash.-There’s something about frybread, maybe it’s that you can smell it a mile away and that scent brings back so many memories. This recipe was received as a request to test and it was surprisingly good. Since it contains mostly whole wheat flour it offers more filling fiber, which also helps to lower the net carbs of this tasty snack. The recipe indicates that it will make eight small frybread but I was able to make just over ten.

Since it is important to having slightly fluffy frybread, be sure that your baking powder is fresh. Test it by placing a tsp. into a small cup of warm or hot water, if it bubbles up immediately then it is still fresh. If not you will either need to buy more or make your own by combining, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsps cream of tartar and 1 tsp of corn starch (optional). Baking soda can be tested for freshness in the same manner but by placing a tsp in a small amount of vinegar.

This recipe can be found at www.diabetes.ihs.gov in the printed materials section. If you have a recipe that you would like to share please send it in to mbrown@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov. Recipe adapted from What’s cooking, Healthy in Warm Springs, Sara Lee Thomas, MS, RD and Edison Yazzie

Whole wheat Frybread

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

3 tablespoons powdered milk

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 ½ cups warm water

Canola oil

Preparation:

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and gradually add water to make dough. Knead the dough until it forms a ball and comes clean from the edge of bowl. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 30 minutes.

Pour about ¾ inch of canola oil into a deep frying pan and heat on medium. Test the temperature of the oil by putting a small pinch of dough into it. If the oil is ready, the will rise immediately to the top.

Divide the dough and knead into 8 round balls. Pat and stretch or roll dough out into flat circles until the dough is ¼ to ½ inch thick. With a fork, poke a few holes in the flattened circles of dough.

Carefully slide a flattened dough round into the hot oil to avoid splashes. Slightly lift frybread to check the bottom, when it is begins to brown turn it over. When both sides are done remove from oil, drain excess oil and place on baking sheet lined with paper towels.

Nutrition Information Makes 8 frybread

240 calories, 10g Total fat, 1g Saturated fat, 220-510mg Sodium, 35g Carbohydrate, 4g fiber, 6g Protein

whole wheat frybread with homemade jam.Photo by Brandi N. Montreuil — whole wheat frybread with homemade jam.
Photo by Brandi N. Montreuil

Republicans Back Down, Ending Crisis Over Shutdown and Debt Limit

Doug Mills/The New York TimesSpeaker John A. Boehner before voting Wednesday night. He told his members to hold their heads high, go home and regroup. — Doug Mills/The New York Times
Speaker John A. Boehner before voting Wednesday night. He told his members to hold their heads high, go home and regroup.

By Jonathan Weisman and Ashley Parker, New York Times

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans conceded defeat on Wednesday in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law as the House and Senate approved last-minute legislation ending a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and extending federal borrowing power to avert a financial default with potentially worldwide economic repercussions.

With the Treasury Department warning that it could run out of money to pay national obligations within a day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday evening, 81 to 18, to approve a proposal hammered out by the chamber’s Republican and Democratic leaders after the House on Tuesday was unable to move forward with any resolution. The House followed suit a few hours later, voting 285 to 144 to approve the Senate plan, which would fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the debt limit through Feb. 7.

Mr. Obama signed the bill about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

Most House Republicans opposed the bill, but 87 voted to support it. The breakdown showed that Republican leaders were willing to violate their informal rule against advancing bills that do not have majority Republican support in order to end the shutdown. All 198 Democrats voting supported the measure.

Mr. Obama, speaking shortly after the Senate vote, praised Congress, but he said he hoped the damaging standoff would not be repeated.

“We’ve got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis,” said Mr. Obama, who urged Congress to proceed not only with new budget negotiations, but with immigration changes and a farm bill as well. “We could get all these things done even this year, if everybody comes together in a spirit of, how are we going to move this country forward and put the last three weeks behind us?”

After the House vote, officials announced that the federal government would reopen on Thursday and that federal employees should return to work.

The result of the impasse that threatened the nation’s credit rating was a near total defeat for Republican conservatives, who had engineered the budget impasse as a way to strip the new health care law of funding even as registration for benefits opened Oct. 1 or, failing that, to win delays in putting the program into place.

The shutdown sent Republican poll ratings plunging, cost the government billions of dollars and damaged the nation’s international credibility. Mr. Obama refused to compromise, leaving Republican leaders to beg him to talk, and to fulminate when he refused. For all that, Republicans got a slight tightening of income verification rules for Americans accessing new health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act.

“We fought the good fight,” said Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, who has struggled to control the conservative faction in the House, in an interview with a Cincinnati radio station. “We just didn’t win.”

In a brief closed session with his Republican rank and file, Mr. Boehner told members to hold their heads high, go home, get some rest and think about how they could work better as a team.

Two weeks of relative cohesion broke down into near chaos on Tuesday when Republican leaders failed twice to unite their troops behind a last-gasp effort to prevent a default on their own terms. By Wednesday, House conservatives were accusing more moderate Republicans of undercutting their position. Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, a leading Republican voice for ending the fight, said Congress should have passed a bill to fund the government without policy strings attached weeks ago.

“That’s essentially what we’re doing now,” Mr. Dent said. “People can blame me all they want, but I was correct in my analysis and I’d say a lot of those folks were not correct in theirs.”

Under the agreement to reopen the government, the House and Senate are directed to hold talks and reach accord by Dec. 13 on a long-term blueprint for tax and spending policies over the next decade. Mr. Obama said consistently through the standoff that he was willing to have a wide-ranging budget negotiation once the government was reopened and the debt limit raised.

Mr. Boehner and his leadership team had long felt that they needed to allow their restive conference to pitch a battle over the president’s health care law, a fight that had been brewing almost since the law was passed in 2010. Now, they hope the fever has broken, and they can negotiate on issues where they think they have the upper hand, like spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs.

But there were no guarantees that Congress would not be at loggerheads again by mid-January, and there is deep skepticism in both parties that Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who will lead the budget negotiations, can bridge the chasm between them.

“This moves us into the next phase of the same debate,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat. “Our hope is now that Speaker Boehner and his caucus have played out their scenario with a tragic outcome, perhaps they’ll be willing to be more constructive.”

As Republican lawmakers left the closed meeting Wednesday, some were already thinking of the next fight.

“I’ll vote against it,” said Representative John C. Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, referring to the Senate plan. “But that will get us into Round 2. See, we’re going to start this all over again.”

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader who was instrumental in ending the crisis, stressed that under the deal he had negotiated with the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the across-the-board budget cuts extracted in the 2011 fiscal showdown remained in place over the objections of some Democrats, a slim reed that not even he claimed as a significant victory.

The deal, Mr. McConnell said, “is far less than many of us hoped for, quite frankly, but it’s far better than what some had sought.”

“Now it’s time for Republicans to unite behind other crucial goals,” he added.

Chastened Senate Republicans said they hoped the outcome would be a learning experience for the lawmakers in the House and the Senate who shut down the government in hopes of gutting the health law, Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement. Instead of using the twin issues of government funding and borrowing authority to address the drivers of the federal deficit, conservatives focused on a law they could never undo as long as Mr. Obama is president, several lawmakers said.

“Goose egg, nothing, we got nothing,” said Representative Thomas H. Massie, Republican of Kentucky.

Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina took a swipe at his fellow Republican senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, as well as House members who linked government financing to defunding the health care law, which is financed by its own designated revenues and spending cuts.

“Let’s just say sometimes learning what can’t be accomplished is an important long-term thing,” Mr. Burr said, “and hopefully for some of the members they’ve learned it’s impossible to defund mandatory programs by shutting down the federal government.”

While Mr. Cruz conceded defeat, he did not express contrition.

“Unfortunately, the Washington establishment is failing to listen to the American people,” he said as he emerged from a meeting of Senate Republicans called to ratify the agreement.

For hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country furloughed from their jobs, the legislative deal meant an abrupt end to their forced vacation as the government comes back to life beginning Thursday.

In a statement late Wednesday, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, made the reopening official.

“Employees should expect to return to work in the morning,” she said, adding they should check news reports and the Office of Personnel Management’s Web site for updates.

For Mr. Boehner, who had failed to unite his conference around a workable plan, Wednesday’s decision to take up the Senate bill proved surprisingly free of conflict. Hard-line Republican lawmakers largely rallied around the speaker.

Representative Raúl R. Labrador of Idaho, said he was “really proud” of how Mr. Boehner had handled the situation. “I’m more upset with my Republican conference, to be honest with you,” he said.

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

Cotton Candy and Atomic Fireball flavored electronic cigarettes are forging a new pathway to addiction, death and disease

By: Ross P. Lanzafame, American Lung Association National Board Chair
Harold Wimmer, American Lung Association National President and CEO

E-cigarette use among middle school children has doubled in just one year. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that e-cigarette use also doubled among high school students in one year, and that 1 in 10 high school students have used an e-cigarette. Altogether, 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide use e-cigarettes. Yet, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still is not regulating e-cigarettes. The absence of regulatory oversight means the tobacco industry is free to promote Atomic Fireball or cotton candy-flavored e-cigarettes to our children. Clearly, the aggressive marketing and promotion of e-cigarettes is reaching our children with alarming success.

It is well known that nicotine is a highly addictive substance, whether delivered in a conventional cigarette or an e-cigarette. The use of sweet flavors is an old tobacco industry trick to entice and addict young children to tobacco products, and the entrance of the nation’s largest tobacco companies into this market clearly is having an impact. Why does Big Tobacco care about e-cigarettes? Tobacco use kills more than 400,000 people each year and thousands more successfully quit. To maintain its consumer ranks and enormous profits, the tobacco industry needs to attract and addict thousands of children each day, as well as keep adults dependent. Big Tobacco is happy to hook children with a gummy bear-flavored e-cigarette, a grape flavored cigar or a Marlboro, so long as they become addicted. We share the CDC’s concern that children who begin by using e-cigarettes may be condemned to a lifelong addiction to nicotine and cigarettes.

In addition, the American Lung Association is very concerned about the potential safety and health consequences of electronic cigarettes, as well as claims that they can be used to help smokers quit. With no government oversight of these products, there is no way for the public health and medical community or consumers to know what chemicals are contained in an e-cigarette or what the short and long term health implications might be. That’s why the American Lung Association is calling on the FDA to propose meaningful regulation of these products to protect to the public health.

The FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as a safe or effective method to help smokers quit. When smokers are ready to quit, they should call 1-800-QUIT NOW or talk with their doctors about using one of the seven FDA-approved medications proven to be safe and effective in helping smokers quit.

According to recent estimates, there are 250 different e-cigarette brands for sale in the U.S. today. With that many brands, there is likely to be wide variation in the chemicals that each contain. In initial lab tests conducted by the FDA in 2009, detectable levels of toxic cancer-causing chemicals were found — including an ingredient used in anti-freeze — in two leading brands of e-cigarettes and 18 various e-cigarette cartridges. That is why it is so urgent for FDA to begin its regulatory oversight of e-cigarettes, which must include ingredient disclosure by e-cigarette manufacturers to the FDA.

Also unknown is what the potential harm may be to people exposed to secondhand emissions from e-cigarettes. Two initial studies have found formaldehyde, benzene and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (a well-known carcinogen) coming from those secondhand emissions. While there is a great deal more to learn about these products, it is clear that there is much to be concerned about, especially in the absence of FDA oversight.

University of Montana breaks ground on Elouise Cobell institute

Source: Indianz.com

The University of Montana began construction on a new facility that’s dedicated to the legacy of Elouise Cobell, who was the lead plaintiff in the Indian trust fund lawsuit.

The Elouise Cobell Land and Culture Institute will be located on the lower level of the Payne Family Native American Center. It will help students research land and cultural issues.

Construction will be complete in spring 2014.

Get the Story:
Construction set to begin on UM Cobell Center (KPAX 10/15)

October 16, 2013 syəcəb

SYS 10162013 Oct 16 2013 Download

Indian Country Anxious to See Federal Government Reopen

Shutdown Deal is Struck in Senate

BY Levi Rickert, Native News Network

WASHINGTON – The US Senate announced just after noon today, the sides have reached a deal that will lift the debt ceiling and reopen the federal government which was shutdown on October 1.

The measure still needs the approval of the US House of Representatives and then sent to the White House for approval by President Barack Obama.

With the federal government shutdown lasting over 15 days, the impact on Indian country has been devastating to American Indian tribes and is at crisis state for many impacted because of the lack of federal assistance.

On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the Oglala Sioux Tribe is based, some 340 of the 850 employees – or 40 percent – have been directly impacted by the federal government shutdown. While most have had hours reduced, some 87 tribal employees have been laid off.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe at this time employs 850 people. Of this number, 340 will be directly affected.

Most seriously affected will be 87 tribal employees who are being laid off from their jobs.

Meanwhile, the Chippewa Cree Tribe, located in central Montana, declared a financial disaster yesterday because of lack of federal dollars during the shutdown. Many programs will be stopped completely if the federal government is not reopened by tomorrow, according to tribal spokesperson Wade Colliflower.

Congresswoman McCollum issued the following statement:

“I intend to vote today for the bipartisan Senate plan that puts federal employees back to work, protects American families from the catastrophic economic consequences of a default, and keeps ObamaCare intact. The end of this manufactured crisis, that has hurt so many people, is a victory for common-sense Democrats and Republicans who are willing to put our country ahead of political party. I commend President Obama, Senator Reid, and Leader Pelosi for their steadfast resolve and determination to carry out their constitutional responsibilities in the face of unprecedented congressional recklessness.”

Congresswoman Betty McCollum is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and serves as the Democratic Co-Chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus.

At press time, there still has not been a reaction from the US House.

Bay Area American Indians Demand Removal of Columbus Statue

Source: Native News Network

SAN FRANCISCO – American Indians and other Indigenous Peoples from the San Francisco Bay Area marched from Washington Square one-quarter mile to near Coit Tower where a statue of Christopher Columbus stands in San Francisco. This after being denied access to Alcatraz Island for the first time in decades.

Owned and operated by the National Park Service, Alcatraz Island is the victim of federal government shutdown, along with other national parks throughout the United States.

On the day others celebrate Christopher Columbus, the San Francisco Bay Area Native community has held Indigenous Peoples Day celebration on Alcatraz Island as an alternative means to draw attention to Indigenous causes.

Yesterday, the protesters marched to the statue to demand that a process begins to have the statute permanently removed.

”Honoring Columbus with a statute is equal to erecting a statue of Hitler in Europe where he left so many victims,”

according to a statement released by AIM-West, one of the organizations that held yesterday’s event.

”Let the healing begin …and celebrate 521 years of Indigenous People’s resistance to colonization throughout the Americas! October 12, also known as Dia De La Raza for millions of Spanish speaking Indigenous people’s of Central and South America, sacred Turtle Island, Abya Yala, declare this day together by shouting, ‘We are still here!’”

reads another portion of AIM-West’s statement.

“It was determined that a process will be initiated to bring to the attention of San Francisco Board of Supervisors to find a resolution that will effectively remove sculptures and symbols that represent and glorify individuals at the expense of indigenous lives and culture,” said Tony Gonzales, director of AIM-West.

8 Tribes That Are Way Ahead of the Climate-Adaptation Curve

By Terri Hansen, ICTMN

Much has been made of the need to develop climate-change-adaptation plans, especially in light of increasingly alarming findings about how swiftly the environment that sustains life as we know it is deteriorating, and how the changes compound one another to quicken the pace overall. Studies, and numerous climate models, and the re-analysis of said studies and climate models, all point to humankind as the main driver of these changes. In all these dire pronouncements and warnings there is one bright spot: It may not be too late to turn the tide and pull Mother Earth back from the brink.

None of this is new to the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island. Besides already understanding much about environmental issues via millennia of historical perspective, Natives are at the forefront of these changes and have been forced to adapt. Combining their preexisting knowledge with their still-keen ability to read environmental signs, these tribes are way ahead of the curve, with climate-change plans either in the making or already in effect.

RELATED: Adapt to Climate Change, Now

1. Swinomish Tribe: From Proclamation to Action

On the southeastern peninsula of Fidalgo Island in Washington State, the Swinomish were the first tribal nation to pass a Climate Change proclamation, which they did in 2007. Since then they have implemented a concrete action plan.

The catalyst came in 2006, when a strong storm surge pushed tides several feet above normal, flooding and damaging reservation property. Heightening awareness of climate change in general, it became the tribe’s impetus for determining appropriate responses. The tribe began a two-year project in 2008, issued an impact report in 2009 and an action plan in 2010, said project coordinator and senior planner Ed Knight. The plan identified a number of proposed “next step” implementation projects, several of them now under way: coastal protection measures, code changes, community health assessment and wildfire protection, among others.

The tribe won funding through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the Administration for Native Americans to support the $400,000 Swinomish Climate Change Initiative, of which the tribe funded 20 percent. When work began in 2008, most estimates for sea level rise by the end of the century were in the range of one to one-and-a-half feet, with temperature changes ranging from three to five degrees Fahrenheit, said Knight. But those estimates did not take into account major melting in the Arctic, Antarctica and Greenland, he said.

“Now, the latest reports reflect accelerated rates” of sea level rise and temperature increases, Knight said. Those are three to four feet or more, and six to nine degrees Fahrenheit, respectively, by 2100. “We are currently passing 400 ppm of CO2, on track for [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] worst-case scenarios.”

Since the Swinomish started work on climate issues, many tribes across the country have become active on these issues as they also realize the potential impacts to their communities and resources. The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) has been funded over the last few years to conduct climate adaptation training, Knight said, “and probably more than 100 tribes have now received training on this.”

2. Jamestown S’Klallam: Rising Sea Levels and Ocean Acidification

Jamestown S’Klallam tribal citizens live in an ecosystem that has sustained them for thousands of years, on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. Over the past two centuries they have successfully navigated societal changes, all while maintaining a connection to the resource-rich ecosystem of the region. Though they have also adapted to past climate variations, the magnitude and rapid rate of current and projected climate change prompted them to step it up. That became apparent when tribal members noticed ocean acidification in the failure of oyster and shellfish larvae.

The Jamestown S’Klallam are dealing with rising sea levels and ocean acidification. (Photo: ClimateAdaptation.org)

“Everyone who was part of the advisory group all had their personal testimony as to the changes they’d seen,” said Hansi Hals, the tribe’s environmental planning program manager, describing a meeting of a sideline group. “Everybody had something to say.”

Tribal members brought their concerns to the attention of the Natural Resources committee and tribal council three years ago, Hals said. This past summer they released their climate vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan, which identified key tribal resources, outlined the expected impacts from climate change and created adaptation strategies for each resource. It included sea-level-rise maps are for three time frames, near (low), mid-century (medium) and end of century (high).

3. Mescalero Apache: Bolstering Tribal Resilience

Tribal lands of the Mescalero Apache in southwestern New Mexico flank the Sacramento Mountains and border Lincoln National Forest, where increased frequency and intensity of wildfires is due to drought-compromised woodlands. Mike Montoya, director of the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s Fisheries Department, executive director of the Southwest Tribal Fisheries Commission and project leader for the Sovereign Nations Service Corps, a Mescalero-based AmeriCorps program, has observed climate-driven changes to the landscape in his years in natural resource management.

Mescalero Apache Tribe’s holding pond can contain 500,000 gallons of water and nourishes the community garden. (Photo courtesy Mescalero Apache Tribe)

The tribe has undertaken innovative environmental initiatives to help bolster tribal resilience to climate change impacts, Montoya said. One example is a pond constructed for alternative water supply to the fish hatchery in the event of a catastrophic flood event. It holds 500,000 gallons of water from a river 3,600 feet away.

“It’s all gravity fed,” Montoya said. “Now, with the aid of solar powered water pumps, we are able to supply water to our community garden.”

4. Karuk Tribe: Defending the Klamath River

With lands within and around the Klamath River and Six Rivers National Forests in northern California, the Klamath Tribe is implementing parts of its Eco-Cultural Resources Management Draft Plan released in 2010. The plan synthesizes the best available science, locally relevant observations and Traditional Ecological Knowledge to help the Karuk create an integrated approach to addressing natural resource management and confront the potential impacts of climate change.

5. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes: Strategic Planning

Fire management planning on Salish and Kootenai tribal lands in Montana. (Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

These tribes, who live in what is today known as Montana, issued a climate change proclamation in November 2012 and adopted a Climate Change Strategic Plan in 2013. The Tribal Science Council identified climate change and traditional ecological knowledge as the top two priorities for tribes across the nation in June 2011, according to Michael Durglo, the tribe’s division of environmental protection manager and climate change planning coordinator, as well as the National Tribal Science Council’s Region 8 representative.

So did the Inter-Tribal Timber Council, which his brother, Jim Durglo, is involved with. In fall 2012 the confederated tribes received financial support through groups affiliated with the Kresge foundation and from the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative to develop plans, Michael Durglo said. A year later, in September 2013, the tribes’ Climate Change Strategic Plan was completed and approved by the Tribal Council. Next the tribes will establish a Climate Change Oversight Committee.

“This committee will monitor progress, coordinate funding requests, continue research of [Traditional Ecological Knowledge], incorporate the strategic planning results into other guiding documents such as the Flathead Reservation Comprehensive Resource Management Plan and others, and update the plan on a regular basis based on updated science,” said Michael Durglo.

6. Nez Perce: Preservation Via Carbon Sequestration

More than a decade ago the Nez Perce Tribe, of the Columbia River Plateau in northern Idaho, recognized carbon sequestration on forested lands as a means of preserving natural resources and generating jobs and income, while reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. In the mid to late 1990s the Nez Perce Forestry & Fire Management Division developed a carbon offset strategy to market carbon sequestration credits. The purpose of the afforestation project, about 400 acres in size, was to establish marketable carbon offsets, develop an understanding of potential carbon markets and cover the costs of project implementation and administration.

Nez Perce project before and after. (Photo: NAU ITEP)

As carbon markets soften and actual project development slows, the tribe cites the increased awareness and education of other tribes of the carbon sales process and opportunities for more carbon sequestration projects in Indian country as its biggest accomplishment of the last two years.

Photo: NAU ITEP

7. Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians: Attacking Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This tribe in southern California has taken numerous steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address the impacts of climate change on tribal peoples, land and resources. In 1998 the tribe formed the Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office.

“We are also looking into opening a public compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station, replacing our fleet with CNG vehicles, are installing EV charging stations, implementing an innovative home, and building upgrade training program through an EPA Climate Showcase Communities grant,” said Santa Ynez environmental director Joshua Simmons.

SYCEO’s projects are numerous and have had impressive results, including major reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. An example is the Chumash Casino’s implementation of a shuttle bus program that eliminated 800,000 car trips in 2009, replacing them with 66,000 bus trips. The casino is reducing its energy consumption, chemical waste and use of one-use materials. It also has an extensive rainwater and gray water collection and treatment system. Many of these initiatives have economic benefits and provide a model and economic incentive for tribal and non-tribal businesses to implement similar changes.

8. Newtok Village: Ultimate Adaptation Plan—Evacuation

This Native village on the western coast of Alaska is home to some of the U.S.’s first climate refugees. They leapfrogged over mere adaptation-mitigation as sea and river cut through and then eroded the permafrost beneath their village and a 1983 assessment found that the community would be endangered within 25 to 30 years. In 1994 Newtok began work on what then seemed the ultimate adaptation plan: relocation.

The Native Alaskan village of Newtok had to relocate as its shoreline was washed away because of melting permafrost. (Photo: Newtok Planning Group)

They selected Mertarvik nine miles to the south as the relocation site in 1996. Their efforts intensified when a study by the Army Corps of Engineers found that the highest point in the village would be below sea level by 2017. The Newtok community, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations formed the Newtok Planning Group in 2006, but as Newtok’s administrator Stanley Tom searched for funding he struck little pay dirt. Mostly, he hit walls. Now Tom is calling for evacuation, exposing it as the true ultimate in adaptation.

“It’s really happening right now,” He told the Guardian last May. “The village is sinking and flooding and eroding.”

Tom told the British newspaper that he was moving his own belongings to the new, still very sparse village site over the summer–and advised fellow villagers to start doing the same.

The Government Shutdown Hits Indian Country Hard, On Many Fronts

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The government shutdown continues into its third week as funds are drying up for many agencies struggling to remain open. Even with an end potentially in sight, the crisis has proven to be good for some areas of Indian country but has been very bad news for most of it.

The shutdown of non-essential government entities like national parks around the country has helped the tourism business for the Hualapai and Navajo Nation. Both tribes offer attractive alternatives to the Grand Canyon, which is closed. As NPR reports, the Hualapai who owns Grand Canyon West, offers a Plexiglas horseshoe walkway tour of the Canyon. The Navajos offer tours of Antelope Canyon – the often-neglected stepchild of the Grand Canyon.

“Tourism is the backbone of the tribe,” Matthew Putesoy, Havasupai vice chairman told NPR. “We really don’t have any other economic development.”

The lack of economic development is a situation that hurts many tribes. “One of the real casualties is our economic development projects,” Kevin Washburn, Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, said in a phone interview with Indian Country Today Media Network. “We are working only on matters posing an imminent risk to life and property. I had a tribe that came in and was ready to close on a loan. The loan just needs a review and signature and we’re not able to do that, so that loan is not being funded yet.”

Washburn also mentioned a tribe waiting for a coal mine project review, and another waiting for a renewable energy project approval. “Everything has come to a screeching halt,” he said.

While the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education are running for the most part, social services are operating at minimal staff, according to Washburn. Social services and tribal assistance for heating are two areas of grave concern in Indian country as the harsh winter season approaches.

A New York Times article on October 13 followed Audrey Costa, a Native in Montana who is wondering where the money for the heat will come from. Costa, a mother of three, “relies on lease payments from the Bureau of Indian Affairs” and has yet to see a check since the shutdown.

Costa lives on the Crow Reservation, one of many impoverished Indian tribes that rely heavily on federal dollars according to The Times. The Crow tribe has continued to operate with a skeleton crew.

Skeleton crews are also operating in South Dakota, particularly the Pine Ridge Reservation, which was just hit with an unexpected blizzard. The storm brought 70-mile-per-hour winds and blinding snow, and trapped at least 60,000 cattle throughout Nebraska, Wyoming and South Dakota. The exact number of cattle lost on the Pine Ridge Reservation is unknown, as the slim crew continues to search the almost 3,500 square mile reservation. This job was made even tougher by power outages caused by the storm.

On October 11, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) shared stories of tribal families in North Dakota being put in difficult situations during her speech on the Senate floor. North Dakota was also pounded by the recent snowstorm that hit the plains. “The stories that I heard I want to share with this body today, Mr. President, because they are telling stories about how foolish – how foolish and how dangerous – this government shutdown is to many, many, very, very vulnerable families, particularly vulnerable Native American families.” (Most of the tribes in North Dakota are direct service tribes which rely on the BIA for much of the assistance.)

“Because of the shutdown, BIA Law Enforcement at the Spirit Lake Nation is limited to one officer per shift, in charge of patrolling the 252,000 acre reservation,” Heitkamp said. “And because of the shutdown, when the Sisseton-Wahpeton community recently lost a three month old baby, the mother now has been turned away for burial assistance for her child.”

According to a press release from Heitkamp’s office, the majority of the BIA offices – which provide services to more than 1.7 million American Indians and Alaska Natives from more than 500 recognized tribes – is now shuttered. This means funding has been cut off for foster care payments, nutrition programs, and financial assistance for struggling Native families.

According to Washburn, the BIA has roughly 1,600 employees still working while another 2,500 are furloughed. “Everyone of those 2,500 furloughed employees has an important job serving Indian tribes and they aren’t able to do that right now,” Washburn said.

For the Oglala Sioux and its Pine Ridge Reservation, this shuttering will result in the release of prisoners, hundreds of tribal employees furloughed and a suspension in the heating assistance to elderly tribal members according to The Rapid City Journal.

“It is a devastating situation, not a political debate,” Oglala Sioux President Bryan Brewer said in the statement via The Journal. “Our people suffer the worst poverty in the country. It is unthinkable to have to close programs, stop services and turn people out of their jobs. In an area with 80 percent unemployment, furloughs are a humanitarian disaster.”

Like Brewer, Darrin Old Coyote, Crow tribal chairman, does not agree with the way the shutdown is being handled. “They don’t have a clue what’s going on out here,” Coyote said in The Times of politicians in Washington. He was speaking from his office in Crow Agency, which sits in the shadow of the Little Bighorn battlefield, itself closed because of the shutdown. “It is hurting a lot of people.”

“[The shutdown is] going to be more and more damaging the longer it goes,” Washburn told ICTMN. “And the longer and longer it goes on it will be harder for us to ramp back up…

“We are feeling for everyone out there in Indian country.”

Ballots and local voters’ pamphlets scheduled to be mailed for November 5 General Election.

Source: Snohomish County Auditor’s office

EVERETT – Snohomish County Elections will mail ballots tomorrow to over 412,000 voters for the November 5 General Election. The Snohomish County local voters’ pamphlets will be mailed today one per household. Voters will also receive a pamphlet from the Secretary of State covering statewide ballot measures and advisory votes.

This year’s general election features two statewide initiatives, five advisory votes, three county council positions as well as a number of city, school district, fire district, sewer district and other local district positions. Ballot measures in the City of Lynnwood, the Stanwood-Camano School District and Public Hospital District 1 are also up for voter consideration.

Voters are encouraged to be an informed voter by learning about the races and issues on their ballot, reading and following the ballot instructions, using the write-in line for serious office seekers only, signing their ballot envelope and returning their ballot as soon as practical. These steps will ensure that their ballot can be counted without issue or delay.

First time voters wanting to vote in this election may register in person at the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office through Monday, October 28. In order to register to vote in the state of Washington, a person must:

· be a citizen of the United States;

· have lived in Washington State for at least 30 days;

· be at least 18 years old by Election Day;

· not disqualified due to a court order; and

· not currently under Department of Corrections supervision for a felony conviction.

Snohomish County conducts all of its elections entirely by mail. All eligible voters will be mailed a ballot to their current residential or mailing address beginning October 17.

Voters choosing to return their voted ballot through the mail must ensure that it is postmarked no later than November 5. Voters may return their voted ballot postage free to any one of eleven 24-hour ballot drop box locations in Snohomish County. Ballots can be deposited at these locations any time until 8:00 pm on Election Day, though voters are encouraged to return their ballot as soon as practical to avoid wait times at drop boxes on Election Day.

The eleven 24-hour ballot drop boxes locations are:

Arlington (near library)

135 N Washington Ave, Arlington

Edmonds (near library)

650 Main St, Edmonds

Everett (Courthouse Campus)

Rockefeller Ave and Wall St, Everett

Everett (at McCollum Park)

600 128^th St SE, Everett

Lake Stevens (near the city boat launch)

1800 Main St, Lake Stevens

Lynnwood (in front of City Hall)

19100 44^th Ave, Lynnwood

Marysville (behind Municipal Court)

1015 State Ave, Marysville

Monroe (near Library)

1070 Village Way, Monroe

Mukilteo (near library)

4675 Harbour Pointe Blvd, Mukilteo

Snohomish (near library)

311 Maple Ave, Snohomish

Stanwood (near library)

9701 271^st St NW, Stanwood

More information is listed on the insert delivered with each ballot and can also be found online at www.snoco.org/elections.

Snohomish County Elections will have accessible voting equipment designed for voters with disabilities available in the Auditor’s Office beginning October 16 through November 5 and at the Lynnwood Sno-Isle Library on Monday, November 4 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Election Day, Tuesday, November 5 from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The Lynnwood Sno-Isle Library is located at 19200 44^th Ave, Lynnwood.

The Snohomish County Auditor’s Office is located on the first floor of the Snohomish County Administration Building, 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett. Voters may drop their voted ballots at the Auditor’s Office Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The office will have extended hours on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5 from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Snohomish County Elections may be reached at 425-388-3444.