Tulalip, Washington – Tulalip Resort Casino is gearing up for a weekend of revelry to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Taste of Tulalip, its coveted award-winning food and wine aficionado event. Scheduled for November 8 and 9, 2013, this year’s line-up of top talent, to be announced within the next month, will include many familiar names as well as some stars on the rise. Past culinary celeb appearances have included ABC TV’s “The Chew” host Carla Hall, Bravo’s Top Chef Master and author Marcus Samuelsson, wine legend Marc Mondavi, “Thirsty Girl” Leslie Sbrocco and others. Executive Chef Perry Mascitti and Sommelier Tommy Thompson are putting together a dazzling roster of food, wine and tradition show-stoppers that have been a year in the planning. Taste 2013 will feature honorary winemaker Bob Betz of Betz Family Winery.
The two-day gathering, with a focus on food, wine and tradition, begins with a Friday night wine and passed hors d’oeuvres reception, followed by the aptly named Celebration Dinner. The multi-course repast will focus on Native American and traditional recipe inspired dishes, paired with a global offering of rare, top wines. It is priced at $175. Tickets are limited and this event is always a sell-out.
The weekend’s highlight is always the Grand Taste, spanning four hours and featuring lavish food stations as well as over 100 wines from Washington State, California and Oregon, and craft beer. It is priced at $95 and includes a Rock –n- Roll Cooking Challenge done “Iron Chef” style with celebrity judges looking for the best from both regional and Tulalip chefs, and sommelier teams. Special guest Emilio Lopez of El Salvador (a sixth generation specialty coffee producer), will be appearing at the Dillanos Coffee Roasters espresso bar, where guests will be able to sample a special TOT 5th Anniversary Blend.
All of the weekend’s wine offerings will be available in limited quantities for purchase in the Taste of Tulalip retail wine shop. There will also be book and bottle signings for those looking to personalize their purchases.
ISABELLA INDIAN RESERVATION – The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s Environmental Department is pleased to announce the release of a book entitled, “Manoomini-miikaans –The Wild Rice Road.”
The informative book was created in a way that provides respect for natural resources, such as wild rice and a connection to Mother Earth through the Anishinaabe language.
The book is filled with fun games and activities for all ages and tells of two children on their way to an annual traditional rice camp on the Saginaw Bay.
Funding for the book came from the US Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Water Act, Section 106 and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Funding. The Tribe’s Environmental team collaborated with other departments such as Anishinaabe Language Revitalization, Tribal Observer Graphic Designer, students and teachers from the Saginaw Chippewa Academy and Ziibwing’s Center for cultural and language correctness.
“I’m very proud of our internal departments who came together to produce the book. Wild rice as always been one of our traditional foods and is making a big comeback to the Saganing Bay area with the help our Environmental Team,”
stated Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Chief Dennis Kequom, Sr.
The Tribe will be distributing 10,000 copies of the book to local schools as a supplement to language curriculums, as well as libraries, conservation groups and educational organizations. If you would like to request copies, please call the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s Environmental Department at 989.775.4014.
The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan is based on the Isabella Indian Reservation in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
Flooding an area with a new reservoir to produce hydropower would seldom, if ever, be a popular idea with environmentalists. But what about the thousands of existing reservoirs that serve other purposes in America — the ones that control floods, entertain boaters, and store drinking water?
Funneling water from those reservoirs over newly installed turbines could be a relatively benign way of boosting zero-carbon hydroelectric power supplies.
The AP reports that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued 25 hydropower operating permits last year — the most since 2005. And it issued 125 preliminary permits last year, up from 95 the year before. There are 60,000 megawatts worth of preliminary permits and projects awaiting approval nationwide.
“I’ve never seen those kinds of numbers before,” said Linda Church Ciocci, executive director of the National Hydropower Association. “We’re seeing a significant change in attitude.” From the AP article:
The Department of Energy concluded last year that the U.S. could boost its hydropower capability by 15 percent by fitting nearly 600 existing dams with generators.
Most of the potential is concentrated in 100 dams largely owned by the federal government and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. Many are navigation locks on the Ohio, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas rivers or their major tributaries.
The state with the most hydropower potential is Illinois, followed by Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. Rounding out the top 10 are Texas, Missouri, Indiana, and Iowa, the study concluded.
The AP reports that it costs more to build a hydropower plant than a natural gas-fired facility, but unlike natural gas, the kinetic energy in the flowing water that fuels a hydropower plant is basically free.
Much of the battle over transgenic crops has occurred in the realm of science fiction. There, entirely hypothetical health risks square off against visions of wondrous but imaginary benefits. This isn’t nearly as ridiculous as it sounds: To decide which technologies to pursue and which to avoid, modern Jules Vernes need to dream up best and worst-case scenarios.
The problem is, the debate tends to get stuck in the future. We’ve had transgenic plants for nearly two decades, which is enough time to fairly ask, who has actually benefited from genetically modified crops? We’ve had these plants long enough now that we don’t have to look to fantastic visions of the future; we can simply look at the reality.
In search of reality, I began emailing economists, lawyers, and advocates to ask them this question. The first to answer was Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. Kimbrell said the companies that bet on GM technology have been its greatest beneficiaries. “The chemical companies, right? The big five: Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Bayer, and Syngenta … No. 2 would be farmers, specifically big farmers, because it makes their herbicide application a lot easier.”
Farmers pay more to buy the GM seed, and more for the herbicides to treat herbicide-resistant crops, but they save on labor costs. Rather than meticulously spritzing individual weeds by hand to avoid killing the crop, farmers can quickly spray an entire field when using herbicide-resistant plants, Kimbrell said.
Beneficiary No. 3? There is none, according to Kimbrell. “These companies have completely failed, in over 30 years, to come up with a trait that benefits a consumer. Nobody gets up in the morning wanting to buy a genetically engineered food.”
I could think of exceptions: Papaya genetically engineered to resist ringspot virus is more appealing to many consumers than diseased fruit. But these are exceptions that prove the rule; the vast majority of transgenic plants are designed to make farmers, rather than eaters, happy.
What about price? I asked Kimbrell. Do we eaters see lower prices because of genetic modification?
“No. There are no lower prices. GMOs have not lowered prices at all. They have massively increased prices for seed.”
Indeed, seed prices bumped up with the introduction of genetically modified varieties.
What about GM crops lifting small farmers out of poverty? Kimbrell scoffed at that. “Smallholders can’t afford to buy [the herbicides] RoundUp and 2,4-D,” he said.
Ask people on opposite sides of this issue if genetic modification benefits the poor and you’ll hear wildly different claims. Kimbrell’s point is that GM crops are designed to save farmers time and money if they are involved in high-tech agriculture. Vandana Shiva, an environmental activist and longtime critic of industrial agriculture, has pointed to cases in which small farmers in India have killed themselves when the debt they’ve taken on to buy seed, fertilizer, and pesticides grows too crushing.
On the other hand, biotech industry consultant Clive James maintains that GM crops are a ladder to prosperity. James has calculated that in 2012, for the first time, farmers in the developing world planted more GM seed than farmers in industrialized nations. These farmers must have a reason for seeking out transgenics.
As usual in this debate, I find myself stranded between irreconcilable claims. But fortunately, it turns out there’s a large body of economic analyses that have asked precisely the same question I have: Who has benefited?
One of the people I’d emailed, UC Berkeley agricultural economist David Zilberman, sent me a short note from the Ivory Coast suggesting that the benefits of GE food are widespread:
“The seed companies captured less than 50 percent of the economic gains in most studies (frequently less than 30 percent),” he wrote. “The rest [is] distributed between farmers and consumers.”
The studies Zilberman consulted on this question have found that the biotech industry captures between 10 and 70 percent of the money generated by their transgenic seeds. The rest of the benefit (30 to 90 percent) is shared by U.S. farmers, U.S. eaters, and the rest of the world. That’s a huge range, but it’s interesting that every study examining this issue has found that consumers do benefit from food prices. It may not be much — less than 2 percent is the estimate at the lower end — but the average Joe and Jane are probably getting some extra change thanks to GMOs.
During the first decade of their use by smallholder farmers in developing economies, peer-reviewed research has indicated that, on average, transgenic crops do provide economic advantages for adopting farmers.
Makhathini Flats.
But hold on: That average hides all sorts of highs and lows. I love this review, done by the International Food Policy Research Institute, because the authors carefully noted the problems with each analysis. For instance one study, following the introduction of GM cotton to the Makhathini Flats in South Africa, found that small farmers were major beneficiaries of the technology. But another, more thorough, analysis suggested something more complex: Small farmers had made a little more money with the transgenic cotton, but only because the Vunisa Cotton company had set them up for success.
Vunisa pitched the transgenic seed to farmers; supplied them with pesticides, fertilizer, loans, and advisors; and then bought up all their cotton. Farmers are vulnerable when they can only buy from, and sell to, one company. That company can ratchet up the cost of seed, while ratcheting down the amount it pays for cotton. So in the Makhathini Flats, farmers were making a little more money — at least for the first few years — but they were also in a much more precarious position.
And this example is part of a theme. In general, GM crops do seem to give small farmers an economic boost, but the studies rarely look at the bigger political and economic tradeoffs those farmers are making. Those tradeoffs do sometimes have dire consequences — like farmer suicide.
But it doesn’t look like the introduction of GM crops is responsible for a large percentage of those deaths. Check out this graph from Nature:
The sad fact is that a lot of farmers kill themselves in India. The numbers didn’t budge significantly with the introduction of GM plants. There are, however, many well-documented cases in which debt — in part from the purchase of GM seeds — drove farmers to suicide. That’s absolutely true. It’s more accurate to say that suicides are caused by the bigger economic monster: The system that requires farmers to take on extravagant debt to compete.
A small farmer who owns his land and saves his seeds each year is relatively independent. A farmer who must take out loans to buy GM seeds, fertilizer, irrigation equipment, and pesticides is beholden and making a riskier (though also potentially more lucrative) bet. For each technological innovation, farmers trade some of their independence for a shot at greater profit. Perhaps it’s fair to say GM seeds are a synecdoche — a part that represents the whole — for the larger system that’s causing farmer suicide in India, especially in those areas where the only seed available to farmers is genetically modified.
So who has made money from GM technology? Seed and chemical companies, for sure. Big farmers, too. Little farmers have gained less, and have had to trade away more privileges. And the rest of us probably pay a little less for GMO food (industrial meat, for example). And all of this is a little fuzzy, because economics is an inexact science, and the studies are still coming in.
The question of who benefits goes beyond money, of course. We also need to look at the environment: Some see GM crops as an environmental savior, while other say they are a disaster. I’m going to make my usual kamikaze run into this minefield to see if there’s any way to reconcile the evidence each side presents.
Before I do that, though, I’m going to talk to some farmers and learn what the pluses and minuses look like from their perspective. Do farmers feel they are trading away intangibles for each new technological advancement?
On Friday, ICTMN published an essay, “Fun Racism Quiz: Would NFL Have a Team Called Washington Blackskins?”, and provocative image by Gerard Miller that he had published some time ago, as a college undergraduate. Miller, an African American, said that the piece had convinced some of his fellow students — ones who didn’t care about the controversy over the Redskins football team name — that it was an issue they should care about.
The image is a strong one, and it inspired strong reactions from many of our Facebook followers, as well as debate in a comment thread that has now stretched to over 500 entries. There are many insightful comments in the thread—and many that aren’t insightful.
Wayde Sid McCloud contributed one of the first responses, and to some extent hit the nail on the head: “When the African American cries racism, America has your back 100%. When Native Americans talk about racism towards them, it’s ignored!”
He may be exaggerating with “has your back 100%” but it’s safe to say that America has developed pretty good radar when it comes to racist images and words directed at African Americans. The Blackskins image is obviously racist. Nobody could argue that it is a “tribute” to African Americans. Through perseverance, the black community has largely succeeded in educating the rest of America about what images and words are disrespectful and harmful—but, unfortunately, Native Americans haven’t gotten to that stage. When Natives call out an image as racist, they are often challenged. Everything from “It’s a tribute” to “You’re just being politically correct” to “It’s a tradition—get over it.” Would anyone advance those same arguments to a black person who was (rightfully) offended by the Blackskins image?
Some commenters (and there is no telling, on Facebook, whether the people chiming in have read the article) saw the Blackskins image as a “cheap shot” directed at African Americans, and wondered why American Indians would “attack” another group that also faces discrimination but isn’t involved in the Redskins mascot discussions. The Blackskins image was not an attack on African Americans.
Look how far we have come—from a country that allowed slavery 150 years ago to one in which the Blackskins image would not be tolerated for a second. Every thinking American sees that it is racist, and that’s laudable progress. And “Blackskins” isn’t even a racial slur anyone uses.
Unfortunately, take the same image, substitute a 19th-century conception of a noble Indian and print the word “Redskins—which is a slur according to any dictionary—beneath it, and America goes blind to the racism. So blind that it’s considered suitable for t-shirts, bumper stickers, and baby attire. And that’s the point. American Indians have seen black Americans make great strides in reclaiming human dignity after brutal historic oppression. Black Americans in the year 2013 have made progress toward that mountaintop, and as a black man, Gerard Miller knows that. He also knows that American Indians would like to catch up.
This Date in Native History: History.com says the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620, but is that accurate? According to Wampanoag history, the Mayflower sailed with 102 passengers 10 days earlier—on September 6, 1620—after two failed attempts to leave England.
Accounts vary of the voyage that forever changed America for its first inhabitants.
History.com says the Mayflower completed its 66-day journey across the Atlantic Ocean on November 21, 1620. Other sources, including experts at Plimoth Plantation, a nonprofit living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, say the journey ended November 11, 1620, when colonists disembarked at Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the tip of Cape Cod.
The Mayflower, which weighed 180 tons and was about 100 feet long and 20 feet wide, departed with another ship, the Speedwell, twice in August 1620. Both ships returned to dock when the Speedwell was found to be unseaworthy, according to the written history of William Bradford, a separatist, leader of the voyage to the New World and first governor of the settlement. The Mayflower then made the journey on its own.
Bradford’s history states that the successful voyage began September 6 when the colonists “put to sea.” They landed in Provincetown on November 11, Bradford wrote. It was a Monday.
The ship was headed for Virginia, where colonists were authorized by the British crown to settle. Some of the colonists sought religious freedom while many others were dissatisfied with economic opportunities. Stormy weather and navigation errors forced the Mayflower 500 miles off course and colonists landed on Cape Cod.
Upon landing, Bradford wrote this: “Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean.”
By December, the colonists had moved across the bay to Plymouth, establishing the first permanent white settlement in America.
For thousands of years before that, however, the Wampanoag village of Patuxet had flourished on the same land, said Darius Coombs, associate director of the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation.
“At the time, that was a Wampanoag community,” said Coombs, who is one of about 25 Wampanoag people who work at Plimoth Plantation’s Wampanoag Homesite. “We had trade ships coming for 100 years before that, but the ships, the people, didn’t stay. So this wasn’t our first encounter with outsiders.”
When settlers arrived in Plymouth, they found cleared fields and fresh water. Despite this, colonial leaders like Bradford claimed the land was “unpeopled.” According to English tradition, lands without clear title were available to the first people to permanently inhabit it.
But the Wampanoag had simply moved to their winter homes away from the coast, having buried their food supply in Patuxet to store it, Coombs said.
“When the early settlers came, it was winter, so they came after we left the summer homes for the season,” he said. “They found Native burial grounds, which were disturbed, and they dug up our buried food.”
According to Coombs, the settlers actually were lucky that they arrived in 1620 instead of five years before that. A plague, most likely carried by Europeans, spread across New England from 1616 to 1618, wiping out as many as 70 to 90 percent of the tribe’s population.
“There were more than 70 Wampanoag communities at one time,” he said. “The Mayflower changed history for our people.”
Coombs for the last 25 years has worked at the Wampanoag Homesite, where tribal members live present-day culture and tell the truth about history. That history includes loss of land, slavery, rape and genocide, he said.
“This is present-day Wampanoag, but I’ll tell you, not everyone can do this,” he said. “Not everyone can talk about what happened because it still hurts down to the core.”
Regardless of the exact dates the Mayflower sailed, the voyage was a game-changer for American Indians. Activist and author Vine Deloria Jr., in his famous book Custer Died for your Sins, commentated on the Mayflower and the Pilgrims.
“Many Indians, of course, believe it would have been better if Plymouth Rock had landed on the Pilgrims than the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock,” he wrote. “Nothing was more destructive of man than the early settlements on this continent.”
WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA – Since Monday, nearly 50 chapters have called for assistance in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Chinle was hardest hit by the floods as 22 people had to be evacuated from their homes. The floods continued downstream to Many Farms and Rock Point where another 40 people were either evacuated or rescued. In Tonalea, Arizona, officials reported that 20 homes were damaged due to flooding.
Most of the flash flooding happens after short bursts of intense rain.
“I want our people to know we are working with several different agencies to ensure that our people are safe and their basic needs are met,”
Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly said, In an attempt to calm concerns.
“Though we are thankful for the rain we have received, I want our people to know that the Navajo Nation programs and departments are responding to calls regarding flash flooding. Please be careful and don’t drive or cross flooded roadways. We want everyone to make through the rains safely,”
President Shelly said.
President Shelly has been getting regular updates about flooded communities throughout the week.
“We need everyone to exercise caution and be alert to their surroundings. Though it might not be raining in your area, it can be raining in areas upstream,”
said Navajo Department of Emergency Management Director Rose Whitehair.
Whitehair added that it is difficult to predict what areas would experience flash flooding since most of the flooding happens after short bursts of intense rain.
“And with the long term drought, the ground is hard so there is nowhere for the water to go,”
Whitehair said.
County and state emergency departments have all been coordinating efforts with the Navajo Department of Emergency Management along with the Red Cross, the Hopi Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“I want to thank all the first responders and agencies for working together. I know you are all working hard but remember the work you are doing is for the good of all the people in need. We are a strong nation and we will endure through these difficult times,”
President Shelly said.
Since July nearly 60 chapters have reported to the Navajo Department of Emergency seeking assistance for damages occurred as a result of flooding. Issues have been from road washouts, road closures, rescue operations, shelter for flood victims and road clearing.
President Shelly signed a declaration of emergency in August regarding the flooding and plans are to update the declaration for recent flood events.
Navajo Department of Emergency Management and chapters are working according to a declaration of emergency that President Shelly signed in August.
For those unfamiliar with the Navajo Nation, a chapter is a unit of local government most similar to townships found in most midwestern and northeastern states of the US and Canadian provinces.
BURLINGTON, Wash. — After nearly four long months, the Skagit River Bridge reopened to cheers.
It was a welcome sight for an area weary of the detours and congestion while I-5 was cut off. And, says Burlington Mayor Steve Sexton, there was the feared collapse of the local economy.
“We made it through,” said Sexton. “But it was a tough go.”
The decades-old bridge and two vehicles tumbled on May 23into the Skagit River when an oversized truckload hit some overhead crossbeams. Everyone survived.
It took 27 days to put in a temporary bridge.
As today’s appointed hour to open the new permanent bridge came and went, traffic on the surface streets kept building.
“Oh, it’s crazy,” Shannon Parrish of Burlington said of the traffic. “Not very fun. It takes about 45 minutes to get home just from here.” It’s a trip that she said normally takes seven minutes.
The bridge still hadn’t opened even when the governor arrived. The delay was blamed on the extra time needed to cut some big steel plates. But Gov. Jay Inslee was in no mood to criticize.
“No one in the United States of America thought we could get this job done in three and a half months,” he said, his voice rising. “This was a tremendous feat.”
The mayor of Mount Vernon said she’ll drink to that.
“I think I’ll go home and maybe have a glass of wine tonight,” said Jill Boudreau, laughing. “Toast the DOT and the governor.”
The traffic over the bridge will remain at 40 mph for the time being.
There will be more overnight closures. The crossbeams are being raised to try to prevent them from being hit again. That work will last until mid-November.
Once the work is done, the bridge will be named for Washington State Trooper Sean O’Connell. O’Connell was killed while helping detour traffic a week after the bridge collapsed.
Courtesy Xiuhezcatl Martinez Xiuhezcatl Martinez a 13-year-old indigenous youth with Mother Earth’s wellbeing on his mind
By Vincent Schilling, Indian Country Today Media Network
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, (his first name pronounced ‘Shoe-Tez-Caht’) is a 13-year-old indigenous environmental activist, rapper and public speaker from Boulder, Colorado. He is also the youth director of Earth Guardians, a youth based environmental non-profit organization that is committed to protecting the water, air, earth, and atmosphere.
At the early age of six, Xiuhtezcatl began speaking to crowds at rallies and demonstrations and has spoken at such events as the United States iMatter March in Denver in 2010, which was attended by more than 2,000 youths and other events. He has also worked with Boulder City council members to change city policy and has traveled to several countries and cities to include Rio De Janeiro and Washington D.C. about environmental concerns for Mother Earth.
This year, he has been invited to speak at the United Nations. He is also the youngest member of the 2013 Presidential Youth Council.
A piano composer whose music was used in a documentary that featured him and was filmed by Peter Gabriel’s organization – Witness, recently did an interview on Native Trailblazers radio. During the interview the young Earth Guardian shared his message of strength and hope and how he hopes to remain an inspiration for others.
How did you get started doing what you are doing?
That is a great question. I have been doing activism since I have been six years old. Also we’ve been organizing rallies and educating kids at schools. Kids can be inspired to become activists, leaders and change makers in their community.
Tell me about you as a hip-hop singer with impressive videos.
We have a performance group and we write positive rap songs with lyrics to educate and inspire kids. Kids these days, teenagers these days, everyone is listening to music. That is a huge part of our culture in general. There is a huge hip-hop culture, including slam poetry and break dancing. There are all of these different branches off of hip-hop culture.
Can you talk about your song “Be the Change?”
We got this idea to write a song that was a little bit different and outside the box. We want to make the song uplifting and empowering so that when people hear it, they will say, ‘Dang, I want to do something about fracking, about climate change or about the next generation’s future.’
The song is based on Mahatma Gandhi’s theory and most famous quotes, ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” He is a huge role model of mine.
It is a really cool inspiring song and I hope everyone likes it.
Can you explain your Earth Guardian movement?
The Earth Guardian movement is a gateway and a portal to act for people of any age. No matter whom they are or where they are in the world. It doesn’t matter what your status is in society – none of this matters, we can all be Earth Guardians.
This movement is growing globally. People can see young people standing up in their communities and they are changing things that are not working, so that their world is a better place.
When people see this, they say, “I want to do something similar to that.’ people tell me they have a 12-year-old son who wants to get involved, we get such e-mails all the time. It is very hard to keep track of everything. Right now we have 30 requests to set up Earth Guardian groups. Right now there are places in Canada, Germany, France in other places around the world are requesting these Earth Guardian groups. There are groups going now in Australia, Brazil, India and Africa.
You are also a public speaker in a lot of places aren’t you?
There is a large rally in Washington D.C. called Powershift. Out of the thousands of requests they receive each year, this year they accepted my application to deliver a presentation. I will be giving a presentation on the global effects of fracking. We are currently working on fundraising for that.
In New York there will be a huge U.N. conference at the end of September. It is about the global water crisis and what people are doing about it around the world. If you think about it, water is the most basic necessity of life. If we do not have access to clean sustainable water supply, we do not have life. This is a human rights issue.
Just today in my fifth period science class we were talking about the characteristics of living things. One of the characteristics of living things is that they all require H2O. It is not a living thing if it does not require water. That stuck out to me. There is a huge global issue with our water supply – This is what the United Nations conference will be about.
The Pope is going to stream in, the Dalai Lama is going to stream in about the water, so it is a huge deal. Young people and activists from all over the world have been asked to come in and talk. They invited myself and representatives from the other Earth Guardian groups in Australia and Africa and others.
All of these leaders will be tuning into this conference. Never before in history, have we had the opportunity to stay connected with social media. All of these things are keeping our world connected. This is how movements are starting to spread all over the world.
Ultimately we are all working together toward the same thing, to create a better future for the next generation. Whether it is working on the water crisis, hunger – we are working on creating a better world for people.
Can you tell us about your song – “Live as if our Future Matters?”
We cannot wait for our government to change the world, before power, before money, before greed – their purpose is to protect people. In my eyes they have failed us at that, so now it is time for the people to stand up for themselves and to be part of this global movement that is going to change the fundamental beliefs of our entire society.
Who is the other young guy in your video?
That is my younger brother. He is an amazing rapper who has a great stage presence. He is so adorable and everyone loves him. He comes out with his black pants and black leather jacket like Michael Jackson everyone goes crazy, he doesn’t like to speak.
He is so great to have around. We’ve gone to Australia, Oregon, and Rio de Janeiro. In Brazil we had a four-hour bus drive; we spent the whole time laughing. That was great, if I didn’t have him with me on my side, I don’t know that I could do it.
What can kids do?
I go to school and I have advanced classes so I have a lot of extra work but I still play soccer – someone cannot force you to do this you have to ask yourself is this something that is important enough to take time out of my everyday life to do something like this. Kids don’t understand this really is not a joke. You know it’s not about polar bears and icecaps you have to turn this into something that affects us in our own backyard. Nature is not a separate being from us.
When we can realize the problems of the Arctic and Alaska and Africa and the Amazon rain forest they are our problems too – we come from the same planet and as soon as we recognize that, then they will be willing to make a change.
Do your teachers get nervous when you raise your hand in class?
(Laughs) In general I’m a very talkative person. My teachers don’t want to call on me because I talk forever.
Do you have any last words?
My school is giving the award for all the work that I’ve been doing, and that is very exciting to be recognized. To all the young people and adults, to anyone of any color no matter where you are from. Please think that we as humans, the greatest, have the most amazing opportunity in the entire world. Our generation with the elders, adults and youth on this planet – this generation now has the greatest opportunity of any generation.
We have opportunity to change our fundamental beliefs, and we can take the next step in our evolution from this consumption of greed, we have the opportunity to evolve and grow and prosper from that. This generation, this is what we are meant to do – to bring forth a new revolution in a new mindset to this world.
If we work together we can do it. Please everyone get involved, because we need you all out there.
Oh and yes, I truly could not do anything without my mom. I could not have done any of this in the past six or seven years of my life without her so I give a huge shout out to her. I could not have grown into who I am without her she is a huge part of what I’ve done. I love her so much.
fowl Classic is set to be celebrated at the hunting, fishing and outdoor gear retailer’s Tulalip location on Sept. 14-15.
The store will feature sales, guest appearances, seminars, family activities and more, on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Activities and seminars taking place on Sept. 14 include topics such as choosing the right waterfowl camouflage, the science of duck and goose calling with Zink Calls’ Pro Staff Chad Nelson, proper decoy placement in variable terrain, goose and duck sausage and jerky secrets, kids duck calling contest and camouflage face painting challenge and duck blind breakfast ideas. Attendees have the opportunity to participate in a meet and greet with local conservation partners.
On Sunday, the store will host the following seminars — Waterfowl University, Waterfowl Shooting Essentials, After the Shot: Processing the Bird, Rigging Your Decoys for Success and more.
More information about Cabela’s Waterfowl Classic sales and weekend activities can be found online at www.cabelas.com/tulalip.
