Tulalip News

Indian Affairs Experts Already Jockeying to be President Hillary’s Native Guru

Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network

Many Democratic Indian-focused strategists are betting that Hillary Clinton will choose to run for president in 2016, and some are working feverishly in these summer doldrums – 17 months out from any serious presidential campaigning – to convince her and her associates that they would be best to handle her Native American portfolio.

The former First Lady, New York senator, and Secretary of State has not even said that she plans to run again, but she has signaled anew that she cares about some key American constituencies. Her speech at the American Bar Association’s (ABA) annual meeting in San Francisco on August 12 crystalized her focus.

“We do — let’s admit it — have a long history of shutting people out: African Americans, women, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities,” Clinton said. “And throughout our history, we have found too many ways to divide and exclude people from their ownership of the law and protection from the law.

“Skepticism of authority has been part of our national character since the Pilgrims, and complaining about government is a treasured American pastime,” Clinton added, as part of her overall point of wanting to build confidence in government.

Native Americans and the injustices long served to them were conspicuous in their absence from Clinton’s speech, and now, several American Indian affairs gurus are lining up to ensure she will remember to specifically address Indian country’s economic and social needs in the future, especially if she happens to want to do so from the perch of the White House.

Old and new Native-focused friends of the Clintons are eager to help get out the vote, raise money, and develop sweeping, reservation-changing platforms. As shown in past presidential elections, resoundingly in 2008 and again in 2012, this is an area ripe with votes, and especially with cash, thanks to some wealthy tribes.

Mary Smith, a Cherokee Nation citizen and partner at Schoeman Updike & Kaufman, is one of the early frontrunners. While attending the ABA meeting this year – where she had the connections to score tickets to Clinton’s big speech – she didn’t hesitate to remind lawyers gathered there how much she has done for the Clinton family in the past, having been a member of the D.C. Finance Committee for Hillary Clinton for President until the candidate dropped out in June 2008. Plus, she worked in President Bill Clinton’s administration both as a Justice Department lawyer and in the White House counsel’s office.

President Barack Obama later nominated Smith to lead the Justice Department’s tax division in 2009, but her nomination was blocked by senators who expressed concern about her lack of experience in the tax industry.

Smith, perhaps realizing that her boasts were making the rounds, told Indian Country Today Media Network that she was just there to attend the meeting, as she usually does, but legal officials who met with her said there’s no doubt she’s wired into the Clinton camp again, and she’s more than ready to go to bat for Indian country.

While Smith is off to a solid start, she will face steep competition from other Indian legal eagles who aim to secure a win for Indian country with Clinton.

Kimberly Teehee, also Cherokee and Obama’s former White House Native affairs policy advisor, is widely expected to make a play to lead Native political outreach for Clinton. Now a lobbyist for the Mapetsi tribal policy group, Teehee has been making behind the scenes overtures to those connected to the Clinton camp. Her widespread name visibility in Indian country will be helpful, but some run-ins with tribal leaders on Indian policy issues as a result of working in the Obama White House and as a congressional staffer could haunt her effort. She’s also told friends that she’s enjoying her rest from working for politicians, so only she knows if she’s ready for the Clinton rollercoaster.

Holly Cook Macarro, Red Lake Ojibwe, is another legal ace who is working hard to make sure the Clinton camp knows her name. A former Democratic National Committee staffer and member of the Clinton administration’s White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, she’s now a tribal lobbyist with Ietan Consulting. Married to tribal chairman Mark Macarro, of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, she has many, many friends in Indian country, and her jobs haven’t called for her to get into many squabbles with tribal leaders.

In recent years, Cook Macarro’s firm has developed an alliance with the Holland & Knight law firm, where lawyer Lynn Cutler serves as a senior advisor. Cutler joined the firm in 2001, after serving as senior staff to President Bill Clinton on Intergovernmental Affairs where she was in charge of overseeing advocacy for tribal governments.

Cook Macarro has a strong relationship with Cutler, both from their firms’ current strategic relationship and from having worked under her during the Clinton administration. She knows how important her in with Cutler will be if Clinton does run, and she even includes a note in her official biography to affirm the relationship.

Debora Juarez, meanwhile, a Blackfeet lawyer with Williams Kaster who is based in Washington state is also staking a claim. “I don’t plan on being in [Washington, D.C.] anytime soon…not until My Girl Hillary runs for President!” Juarez recently told ICTMN. “I plan on being there and suffering in the ‘other Washington’ for HRC Campaign.” Juarez was a delegate for Hillary Clinton in 2008, and said she’d love to do it all over again.

All of these strong-minded Indian women will also have sharp-elbowed Indian men to contend with in their efforts to court Hillary.

The tribal affairs crew at Arent Fox law firm have an early in, for instance, having recently facilitated a partnership between the Clinton Global Initiative and six South Dakota tribes in developing a joint wind energy project. And it was Richard Trudell, the Sioux director of the American Indian Lawyer Training Program, and Kevin Gover, the Pawnee director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and former Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs under President Clinton, who previously had the closest Indian ties to the Clintons.

While Gover has long said he’s quite comfortable at the museum, who knows what could entice him back to the political frontlines? He isn’t saying. “I’m totally out of the loop on this sort of thing now,” he said. “I only know what I read in ICT[MN].”

Trudell, too, hasn’t said if he’s trying to get back in the Clinton’s good graces.

Philip Baker-Shenk, a Republican Indian affairs lawyer who battled to help Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in his presidential ambitions, is one who is willing to talk, probably because the stakes for him are low this season. Based on his experiences, he said the circle of friends and former aides are jockeying at their hardest right now, trying to gain attention, favor—anything they can do to be on the winning team.

“It is an often brutal contest over who is more loyal than whom,” Baker-Shenk shared. “The loyalists chat up her chances, organize visible and financial support for her campaign, and arrange her meetings with key people. The competition for a candidate’s time and attention quickly moves to a feverish campaign pace, when every minute on the schedule is the result of negotiated trade-offs and winners and losers.

“With most national candidates, the Indian portfolio has been like the flip side of a hit record – an afterthought, a filler,” he said. “But that doesn’t stop Indian loyalists from trying. Nor should it.”

“Let ‘er go!” Tulalip returns to Spee-Bi-Dah for annual beach seine

Community members work together, hauling in fishing nets. Photo/Niki Cleary

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

“Let ‘er go!” a traditional fisherman’s call was heard from the beach as Glen Gobin sets his seine net at Spee-Bi-Dah, Saturday, August 10^th.

For the eighth year, The Tulalip Tribes hosted the Spee-Bi-Dah community beach seine day. The annual event honors a time when families lived on the beach through the summer months to fish salmon, as well as teaches about traditional fishing methods and maintains Tulalip’s presence in the area. Today, Spee-Bi-Dah remains prime fishing grounds.

Tulalip tribal member Cecilia Gobin using a splash pole, a technique that drives fish into the net. Photo/Andrew Gobin

Gobin made six beach seine sets at Spee-Bi-Dah, along with his crew and those that eagerly jumped on the boat to help set the net. At the end of the day, five kings (Chinook salmon) were caught, ranging from 15lbs up to 24.5lbs. About 20 or so humpies (Pink salmon) were caught as well.

Beach seining is vital in keeping Tulalip’s history alive. Seining was one of many traditional fishing methods used by the tribes that comprise the present day Tulalip Tribes. The Spee-Bi-Dah beach seine event brings the community together, and those that know, teach others who want to learn about seining and our people’s history.

“I haven’t been here in years,” said tribal elder and former tribal fisherman, Phil Contraro, who spent the day watching each set, enjoying the company of old friends. “I really enjoyed the day.”

BS-tony hatc — Tulalip Tribal member Tony Hatch cooks clams on the beach. Salmon and oysters were also on the menu. Photo/Mike Sarich

Many children were interested in the happenings, anxiously waiting to see what each set would bring in. The big-ticket item was getting to ride on the boat while making the set. There were a lot of new kids this year at Spee-Bi-Dah, though there were the regulars that couldn’t wait to get on the boat and try their hand using the splash pole, a technique that drives fish into the net.

The now annual gatherings originally were a three-day youth camp, first organized in 1998 by Don Hatch Jr. through the Tulalip Boys and Girls Club. Kids that attended camped on the beach, learning the history and having fun, but not actually fishing. Beach seining was included in 2003, which drew a greater interest in the camp in 2004.

“I remember camping on the beach, staying all weekend.” said Kyle Cullum, former employee at the Tulalip Boy and Girls Club. “But we didn’t fish until the last few years of camp.”

“I went to check out the camp and Penoke [Don Hatch] says to me, ‘we should have this be a community event,’” recalls former councilman Les Parks, who pushed to make it a community event in 2005. The vision for Tulalip to resume fishing at Spee-Bi-Dah had strong support from the tribal council. Today, he is proud to have championed the first community Spee-Bi-Dah event. “It’s vitally important for our community to come together like that, and just be together. To enjoy each other’s company and work together.

“As a child, I remember community clam bakes down below the long house. I’d like to see us come together at more community events.” said Parks, commenting on the lack of community events in recent years. “We have bingo, and Spee-Bi-Dah. Aside from those, there seems to be few other positive annual community events.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Photo/Mike Sarich

Saturday’s event, along with the fishing, featured a seafood feast. Cy Fryberg Sr. cooked fish over a fire that morning at the beach. Oysters were grilled over the fire, and crab was boiled. Tony Hatch and his sons, Skyler and Drew, fired beach rocks to bake clams.

Every year, the Lushootseed Language Department and Youth Services offer activities to the kids, including face painting, water floaties, and beach toys. Great fun was had by all as people visited with friends and family, reminiscing of ‘the old days.’

Community members enjoyed a fun-filled day of fishing, face painting, playing, eating and visiting with family and friends. Photo/Niki Cleary

‘They Caved’: Tribe Claims Win in SD Voting-Rights Suit

Courtesy William Campbell/Four DirectionsSteven Sandven, Sioux Falls lawyer and former Oglala Sioux Tribe attorney general, represented the plaintiffs in Brooks v. Gant; Sandven is shown at far right in this photograph, filing a similar voting-rights lawsuit in Montana. — Courtesy William Campbell/Four Directions
Steven Sandven, Sioux Falls lawyer and former Oglala Sioux Tribe attorney general, represented the plaintiffs in Brooks v. Gant; Sandven is shown at far right in this photograph, filing a similar voting-rights lawsuit in Montana.

Stephanie Woodard, Indian Country Today Media Network

Plaintiffs and defendants both claimed victory on August 6, when U.S. District Court Judge Karen Schreier dismissed the Native voting-rights lawsuit Brooks v. Gant. Oglala Sioux Tribe members had sued South Dakota state and county officials, seeking a satellite early-voting and registration office that would give them elections in their own county and equal to those other South Dakotans enjoy.

Once the lawsuit got underway, the state and county defendants promised to use federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money to give the 25 plaintiffs what they wanted through 2018. According to Judge Schreier, this meant the plaintiffs could no longer show the required “immediate injury,” so she dismissed their claim. However, she noted, her decision was “without prejudice,” meaning that, if necessary, the plaintiffs can sue again.

“They caved,” said OJ Semans, Rosebud Sioux civil rights leader and co-director of voting-advocacy group Four Directions. “The court established what the plaintiffs stood up for and what Four Directions has been fighting for since 2004. Right now, there’s full equality for most of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the largest group of Indian voters in the state.”

The other side was happy, too. “We’re feeling extremely pleased, even though the case wasn’t decided on its merits,” said the counties’ attorney, Sara Frankenstein, of the Rapid City firm Gunderson Palmer. “Shannon County [which overlaps much of the Oglalas’ Pine Ridge Indian Reservation] gets a satellite office, and the Help America Vote Act foots the bill.

At press time, the lead plaintiff, South Dakota’s secretary of state and head elections official Jason Gant, had not replied to a request for a comment.

Payback time

Frankenstein also said that because the case was dismissed, the defendants get to recover costs and perhaps fees from the losing parties. “It is a huge financial burden lifted,” she said.

“That’s breathtaking,” said Bret Healy, Four Directions consultant. “They have the insurance public officials typically hold to cover lawsuits. We all met the plaintiffs via their depositions—single parents, one with an epileptic child, others caring for infirm elders, from one of the poorest counties in the nation. The state of South Dakota and the counties are really going to do this? God have pity on their souls.”

“Won’t happen,” said Semans. “It’s just a way to scare off Natives who might want to ask for equal rights in the future.”

“Granting costs would discourage plaintiffs from bringing suits to enforce the Voting Rights Act and would be contrary to the fundamental purpose of the Act,” agreed Laughlin McDonald, director emeritus of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. He also doubted it would happen.

McDonald, who has litigated Native enfranchisement cases since 1983, explained that a prevailing party in a federal case is ordinarily entitled to recover costs, but not when it comes to voting rights. “Federal courts have denied or severely limited recovery in those cases,” said McDonald.

What about recovering attorney’s fees? “I think such a motion would be filed in bad faith and even subject to sanctions,” said McDonald.

Shaking loose HAVA

Frankenstein said that in negotiations on her side, she persuaded the secretary of state to change what she termed “internal policies” and release South Dakota’s HAVA money for the satellite office in Shannon County, which overlaps much of Pine Ridge. He could do this, she said, because in May 2008, South Dakota had completed HAVA’s initial requirement to modernize elections with up-to-date voting machines and the like.

From then on, Frankenstein said, the state was free to spend its federal HAVA appropriation on additional ways to improve elections, including satellite offices. Brooks v. Gant testimony and court documents confirm this. In Judge Schreier’s opinion, she noted that Shannon County residents had “minimal” early-voting access until Brooks v. Gant was filed.

This all stands in startling contradiction to statements by state and county officials over the past several years. They maintained in many public meetings and national and local press reports that Shannon County simply couldn’t afford the scope of elections found in other parts of South Dakota.

“So, as of 2008, money was no longer an issue—but they kept that quiet,” said Healy.

“This is far from over,” said Semans. “Until Native Americans are able to participate equally in the political process, our social and economic challenges will not change.”

At this moment, though, Native voters should be pleased, said McLaughlin. “They got what they wanted through the next several elections. It’s a victory.”

This article was written with support from the George Polk Center for Investigative Reporting.

Marine Drive traffic revision within the Tulalip Reservation

View a larger project location map View a larger ADA map

1. Traffic revision on Marine Drive, west of I-5 Sidewalk ramps on the north side of Marine Drive at 31st Ave NE and 33rd Ave NE will be upgraded to current ADA* standards. The work continues and will be done by months end.

2. Paving of Marine Drive from I-5 west to the Quilceda Creek Bridge.The schedule is not yet finalized, but work is likely to begin after August 19 and last for approximately three days, weather permitting. All work will take place between the hours of 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. Single lane closures will be in effect. A variable message sign will notify citizens one week before the project begins.

Access to businesses will remain open at all times, and construction crews will make every effort to minimize the impacts.

At this time we do not anticipate any changes to Community Transit Route 222 or the bus stop. You can sign up for rider alerts.

We regret the inconvenience, and ask for your patience during construction. Thank you!
*The Americans with Disabilities Act. Snohomish County is upgrading sidewalk ramps around the county to meet ADA design standards.

Newsletter – July 2013

Check the Weekly Road Construction Update to see what else is happening on Snohomish County roads.

L.A.’s Ron Finley wants to make gardening gangsta

Stephen Zeriglaer for Alternative Apparel

By Andrea Appleton, Grist

In 2010, Ron Finley planted a garden on the 150-foot-long curbside strip outside his house in South Central Los Angeles. The produce — tomatoes, kale, corn, you name it — was free for the taking, and the colorful riot of herbs and flowers and vegetables got a lot of attention. The only unwelcome scrutiny was from the city of Los Angeles, which owns the land. Finley received a citation for growing plants that exceeded height limits, and for failing to purchase a $400 permit. By circulating a petition and bending the ear of a receptive city council member, Finley convinced the city to leave his garden alone. Around the same time, he helped start an organization called L.A. Green Grounds, dedicated to installing free vegetable gardens in curbside medians, vacant lots, and other properties in blighted areas.
Then, in February of this year, the self-described “gangster gardener” — an outgoing straight-talker with a penchant for catchy one-liners — gave a TED Talk. “The drive-throughs are killing more than the drive-bys,” he said, exhorting urban dwellers to get outside and “plant some shit.” The talk instantly rocketed him to green thumb stardom. As of this writing, the talk has attracted more than 1.3 million views, and Finley has appeared on Russell Brand’s late night talk show and been profiled by the New York Times, among many others.

This fashion designer — he’s dressed the likes of Shaquille O’Neal — and collector of black entertainment memorabilia, highlighted in a recent movie poster exhibit — now spends much of his time delivering talks and planning new urban gardening ventures. All the media attention has brought new funding, including support from the Goldhirsh Foundation. (But in Los Angeles, the bureaucratic wheels grind slowly. Planting on curbside medians remains a tricky proposition.)

Finley had just returned from a permaculture workshop in Sonoma County when we spoke. We chatted about fame, sex, and his diabolical plan to take over the world.

Q. It sounds like you’ve suddenly got a lot of people wanting to talk to you.

A. Wanting to talk to me, wanting to see me, driving from Oklahoma to meet me … It’s been a little crazy. It’s pretty miraculous how the words, the ideas, have spread. It’s just amazing to me that growing your own food is so foreign to so many people.

Q. Why do you think your message has been so powerful? Is there something intangible about gardening, beyond growing your own food?

A. It’s connection, period. To me, the garden is no more than a metaphor for life. Everything you experience in life happens in the garden. You learn patience, you learn systems, you learn biology, you learn sex. And you learn the thing we call death may not actually be death. It may just be an energy transfer. That’s what composting is. If I take this dry leaf that’s supposed to be dead and crumbly and I put it with this green leaf, why does it heat up to 200 degrees sometimes? If it was dead, how did it happen? I’m not a scholar or something, I’m as common a man as they come. But to see something like that happen, it makes you look at life differently.

Q. Gardening takes sustained work. How do you keep people motivated to do all the work that comes with creating your own food?

A. Well, you show ‘em the wheelchair or the pill that they’re gonna take for the rest of their life. To me, that’s motivation enough. You keep doing it [eating badly] and this is where you’re gonna wind up. You can’t save everybody, you know. But there’s people who want to be saved, people who want to get off these drugs these doctors are prescribing.

Q. You grew up in South Central. What did you grow up eating?

A. I mean I grew up eating the garbage that was here. You know, convenience foods. Macaroni. I never liked macaroni. Frozen spinach. We had some fresh food but at the time it was when they were changing the whole food system to be “convenient” for us. I ate McDonald’s, Burger King, coming up. All that stuff. You had no idea what this food was made of and that it would make you sick and in some cases kill you.

Q. What made you start eating differently?

A. I saw the light when there was a health food store in L.A. called Aunt Tilly’s, years and years ago. It was at the Pacific Design Center and we used to go there because there were these beautiful women there. [Laughs] So I was exposed to some people around me at an early age. I didn’t know it would have the effect that it did.

Q. How did you begin to garden?

A. I mean a lot of the stuff I do goes all the way back to when I was in elementary school. I still start seeds the way I started them then. You know, in a petri dish with a wet brown paper towel. And you get to watch the sprouts from the seeds pop up. [I started the guerrilla garden because] work was slow or non-existent and I took to the garden to beautify this piece of land. It became my solace. You get addicted.

Q. Tell me about your new project.

A. I’m doing what we’re calling right now the Ron Finley Project, which is the whole containment cafe concept that’s attached to a garden with a training facility. It’s a facility where we train kids how to think, not what to think. I want people trained in everything from aquaponics to woodworking to fashion to art. We want to basically put [these facilities] in what I consider food prisons, which is what a lot of us live in … We’re just trying to show people how to grow their own food, how to take your health back into your own hands. A lot of industries don’t want us to be independent. They don’t really benefit from you growing your own food.

Q. What is your typical day like now that you’re a famous man?

A. My typical day starts with me waking up. From there, I don’t have a typical day. People ask ‘Hey, how are you?’ And I say ‘Hey, I woke up this morning.’ And that’s real to me. I get another shot at this. Sometimes I have appointments, or I’m on the phone all day. Sometimes I’m putting in gardens. I don’t want to do the same thing every day … We all should definitely have different endeavors and different interests. All that does is increase our web, make that oneness tighter. And you realize, damn, there really ain’t no difference. We all need sex and food and sex and some water and sex. You realize that that’s your basic needs. [Laughs]

Q. Any other projects in the works?

A. I’m gonna be working with Alice Waters. Me and Alice are putting together a diabolical plan to take over the world.

Q. Is it secret?

A. It’s a diabolical plan! Of course it’s secret.

First Nations Development Institute Receives $100,000 from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to Bolster the Financial Literacy of Native American Youth

Red Lake Nation News

LONGMONT, Colorado (August 12, 2013) – First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) today announced it has received a grant of $100,000 from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation of Seattle, Washington, to bolster the financial literacy of Native American high school students.

The two-year project will empower up to 75 Native American high school students and their families in Portland, Oregon, by providing culturally appropriate financial education that combines classroom and experiential learning to result in behavioral changes positively affecting management of financial assets. Youth Savings Accounts (YSAs) will be used to help youth to build assets and learn the savings habit, while introducing them to the use of mainstream financial services. First Nations will undertake the project in partnership with the Native American Youth Family Center (NAYA) in Portland.

Activities will include teaching the “Life on Your Terms” course to the students and taking a field trip to a participating bank or credit union to sign up for a YSA account. Those who complete the course with a passing grade will be entered into a drawing to earn an additional $100 to deposit into their account. The students also will participate in a financial simulation fair called “Crazy Cash City” that will help them put the lessons learned in class into practice through experiential learning. By the end of the grant period, an online teacher’s guide for the process will be completed and then made available nationally to teachers of Native American students.

Financial and investor education is one of the five focus areas of First Nations. First Nations and its independent subsidiary – First Nations Oweesta Corporation (a community development financial institution) – work in partnership with Native American tribes and communities throughout the U.S. to assist them in designing and administering financial and investor education programs. These projects range from helping individuals and families understand the basics of financial management – opening and maintaining a bank account and using credit wisely – to helping individuals understand financial markets and a variety of financial instruments for borrowing and saving. The programs result in increased investment levels and economic growth in Native communities.

About First Nations Development Institute

For more than 30 years, using a three-pronged strategy of educating grassroots practitioners, advocating for systemic change, and capitalizing Indian communities, First Nations has been working to restore Native American control and culturally-compatible stewardship of the assets they own – be they land, human potential, cultural heritage or natural resources – and to establish new assets for ensuring the long-term vitality of Native American communities. First Nations serves Native American communities throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.firstnations.org.

About the Native American Youth Family Center

The Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland, Oregon, works to enrich the lives of Native youth and families through education, community involvement, and culturally specific programming. It has provided educational services, cultural arts programming, and direct support to reduce poverty in the Portland metropolitan area’s American Indian and Alaska Native community for over 30 years. Learn more at www.nayapdx.org.

About The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

Launched by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Jody Allen in 1988, the Allen family’s philanthropy is dedicated to transforming lives and strengthening communities by fostering innovation, creating knowledge and promoting social progress. Since inception, the foundation has awarded over $469 million to more than 1,400 nonprofit groups to support and advance their critical charitable endeavors in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The foundation’s funding programs nurture the arts, engage children in learning, address the needs of vulnerable populations, advance scientific and technological discoveries, and provide economic relief amid the downturn. For more information, go to www.pgafamilyfoundation.org.

AIM-WEST to Protest Baseball Game Against Cleveland Team Friday

Native News Network

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – American Indian Movement West, better known as AIM-WEST, is asking for a support of solidarity to demonstrate at the Oakland Coliseum when the Oakland A’s play the Cleveland baseball team beginning on Friday, August 16 at 7 pm pdt.

AIM-WEST calls for congressional hearings on racism in sports

The purpose for the rally is to demonstrate to the public that the American Indian communities are sick and tired of these discriminatory logos and negative images that serves to demean and disrespect a peoples, a culture, and deeply negatively impacting American Indian youth.

All drummers and dancers welcome, youth, elders, and the general public to come stand in solidarity with Indigenous nations of this Western Hemisphere for their right to dignity and respect.

AIM-WEST will announce a national campaign to launch a petition drive demanding the National Football League (NFL), and the Major League Baseball (MLB) to retire, remove, and or replace these racist images and slurs that are in violation of Indigenous peoples human rights. AIM-WEST calls for congressional hearings on racism in sports, and the removal by legislation of discriminatory logos that depict a people in a negative manner.

The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in September 2007 by the General Assembly, specifically states in Article #8:

Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.
States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:
- Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
- Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
- Any form of forced population transfer which has the aim or effect of violation or undermining any of tier rights;
- Any form of forced assimilation or integration;
- Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them.

Some Disturbing Facts About Baby Veronica’s Birth Mother

Suzette Brewer, ICTMN

It was the end of a long, bizarre week in which the ongoing battle between Dusten Brown and Matt and Melanie Capobianco became even more contentious with accusations of bad faith, court orders and competing media interviews, capped off by the dramatic issuance of a felony arrest warrant. Late Friday night, as word of the warrant began gaining traction, Lori Alvino McGill, attorney for Veronica’s birth mother, went on the Facebook page Standing Our Ground for Veronica Brown to argue with supporters for the Brown family.

In heated exchanges laced with name-calling and bad spelling, Ms. McGill again publicly excoriated Dusten Brown and vociferously defended her client’s actions in turning her infant daughter over to Matt and Melanie Capobianco in September 2009.

“…Y’all should ask Dusten aka Dustin why his name is spelled ‘Dustin Dale Brown’ on a public court order requiring him to pay delinquent child support to yet another woman, for yet another illegimate [sic] child that he spawned,” she wrote. “The fact is that every court to have looked at this case has rejected the idea that Dusten was trying to do the right thing but was misled by his pregnant girlfriend….”

“And, FYI, absentee impregnanters [sic] are not entitled,” she later posted, “to information about the childcare plans made by the women whom they have knocked up. This has been the law for decades.”

A return to the facts. The only two children Dusten Brown has, according to his ex-wife, Rachel Reichert, is Kelsey Brown, who was born two years after they were married in 2001, and Veronica, whose biological mother was Brown’s ex-fiance. And it is a matter of court record that, in spite of the recent rulings against Dusten Brown, her client, Christy Maldonado, was never found to be credible in any of the court proceedings in South Carolina.

“It is rather unseemly for an officer of the court to be on Facebook at that hour—or any hour—arguing the facts on behalf of her ‘client’ who is not a party in this case,” observed a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who works on Capitol Hill. “The serious practicing attorneys I know would never bother with that kind of thing. It’s just not appropriate. But it is pure comic gold. You can’t make this stuff up.”

Humor aside, the recent emergence of McGill as “a voice” for Veronica’s birth mother, who has never spoken publicly save for a heavily-edited opinion piece for the Washington Post in June to advocate for the Capobiancos, has begun to raise questions about Maldonado herself. Over the years, Brown has never gone on the record about his ex-fiance and has never publicly spoken ill of his daughter’s biological mother.

But a review of court documents in Oklahoma and in interviews with those who knew Maldonado prior to and during her engagement and pregnancy with Dusten Brown, reveal a portrait of a woman with a history of turmoil in her relationships, featuring restraining orders, lawsuits, Court Appointed Special Advocates and ongoing custody and child support disputes with her two older childrens’ father.

“All along, she has been painted by the adoption team as this saintly, Thomas Kinkade-hued single mother who was raising two kids and selflessly gave her child to an infertile couple,” says a former friend. “That’s been the narrative. But the reality is that it’s common knowledge in Bartlesville that Christy Maldonado does not have custody of her two other kids. They are living with their paternal grandmother in Oklahoma. She’s actually the one who pays child support and has visitation.”

Additionally, Indian Country Today Media Network has learned that Maldonado did not, in fact, receive any compensation for birth expenses from the Capobiancos. The birth of Veronica came at the expense of the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma via the state’s Medicaid program, SoonerCare.

In 2008, the year that she became pregnant with Veronica, Maldonado claimed copy,800 a month in income on a child support worksheet and had been working as a cashier at one of the Osage Nation casinos at the time of her pregnancy. As a full-time employee, she would have had access to health insurance through the tribe; or, alternatively, because Dusten Brown is a tribal member, she could also have received maternal health care at one of Oklahoma’s tribal Indian Health Service facilities. Brown even encouraged her to have their baby at a military health facility.

Adoption attorneys also point out that many health plans provide for adoptive couples in covering the medical expenses for the birth mother and child, so the Capobiancos could have also used their own health insurance to help pay some of the costs for prenatal care, labor and delivery.

But, shortly after she became pregnant, Maldonado disappeared and declined any contact with Brown or his parents, all of whom testified in court that they had tried numerous times to reach out to help her, despite her claims to the contrary.

Maldonado had battled her ex-common law husband, Joshua Thompson, in court since their divorce in 2006, which was filed by Thompson as the petitioner. Since that time, the two have fought over custody and child support too many times to count.

In 2008, she reconnected with Dusten Brown though she had stayed with him off and on since her separation from Thompson, according to former friends. Although she was working, Maldonado was behind on her mortgage and other bills; she had been through yet another expensive, bruising legal battle with her ex, and she had been ordered to pay him $252 a month in child support and 63 percent of their children’s medical expenses.

Brown, who had known Maldonado since they were both in high school, offered to help her get out of debt. In an interview last March, Brown told Indian Country Today Media Network that he knew she was stressed about money and said that he had saved about $7,500 and had offered to give all of it to her to pull out of her financial downward spiral. But she refused.

“She told me she ‘had a plan,’” he said at the time. “But I didn’t know that the plan was to put Veronica up for adoption. I offered to give her everything I had, but she didn’t want it.”

Later, in 2009, friends noticed that the old Honda Civic that Maldonado had been driving courtesy of a family member who was making her car payments for her, was suddenly traded in for a large SUV that she began driving around Bartlesville. Additionally, she had mysteriously regained her financial equilibrium and was able to get caught up on her mortgage.

“Christy Maldonado is a piece of work,” said one insider. “Dusten’s life in the military requires a lot of responsibility and time away from families and it comes with a lot of strings. She couldn’t handle that and took it personally, like he was blowing her off. But he was working and she didn’t like the demands of his job. So when she got pregnant, she had no intention of keeping the baby because the reality is that she didn’t want to pay more child support and fight over another kid. And he blindly believed that she would never do something like this. But the irony is that here she is fighting over another kid and would rather seem him go to jail than have custody of Veronica.”

In court testimony, Matt Capobianco admitted on the stand in South Carolina that he and his wife had given Maldonado money, which accounts for the record time in which Maldonado pulled out of her financial chaos. Under Oklahoma law, however, there is a copy,000 limit to what birth mothers can be paid. Any more than that requires court approval, according to an Oklahoma adoption attorney. Those in the adoption industry say the state limit is often ignored when a desperate couple is seeking the assistance and cooperation of a birth mother who may be in financial straights.

The Capobiancos also testified that they paid for Maldonado’s attorney fees and bought Christmas gifts for her and her two other children in 2009, as well as covering her airfare and expenses to travel to and from court hearings in South Carolina for trial. On the stand, Melanie Capobianco said that she and her husband had spent between “$30,000 to $40,000” for Veronica’s adoption. But those expenses are now two years out of date, though no formal audit has ever taken place regarding the expenditures and receivables on either side. It is widely acknowledged, however, that the appellate and Supreme Court practitioners and their staffs worked pro bono for both parties in Adoptive Couple.

Additionally, it is unclear whether Maldonado claimed any of the funds or gifts she received from the Capobiancos or any of their supporters in the last four years as income, which may be taxable under IRS laws.

Last month, Maldonado, with a group of nine other women, filed a federal lawsuit in South Carolina seeking to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act because of its “race-based” placement preferences. The litigation could have profound negative outcomes for Indian tribes across the country, including the Osage, from whom Maldonado has also benefited as an employee.

Officials for the Osage Nation of Oklahoma could not be reached for comment regarding Ms. Maldonado’s extracurricular activities in filing anti-Indian litigation with far-reaching consequences.

For Maldonado, however, there is one bright spot.

McGill, in her midnight chat with Brown’s supporters on Facebook, helpfully pointed out the she is working pro bono on Maldonado’s behalf.

Old lumber store gives arts group a home in Marysville

Arts organization now has long-sought-after Marysville center

Sean Ryan / The HeraldScott Randall, a board member for the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts says a former lumber store has the space the foundation needs for its programs in Marysville. — Sean Ryan / The Herald
Scott Randall, a board member for the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts says a former lumber store has the space the foundation needs for its programs in Marysville.

By Gale Fiege, The Herald

MARYSVILLE — Where lumber once was stacked, the Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts hopes someday to store its theater sets.

The nonprofit foundation has a lease-purchase agreement with the owners of Dunn Lumber Co. for the company’s 10,000-square-foot commercial building at 1410 Grove St.

The Marysville-based arts education organization plans to transform the $1 million space into a hub for the performing arts, as well as provide room for fine art shows, classrooms, meetings and community gatherings.

Red Curtain, founded in 2009, hasn’t had a place to run its programs in Marysville. For example, most if its plays and the Hometown Hootenanny music series have been staged at the Historic Everett Theatre in downtown Everett.

“It’s always been our goal to serve the greater Marysville community and north Snohomish County,” said Scott Randall, a Red Curtain board member. “This is a project we will do in phases as we raise the money, but we already plan to present a Christmas play in the new space in December.”

The old lumber sales building has a lot going for it, Randall said. It has plenty of room for a box office, a lobby, a script lending library, a stage that can be re-configured within the space and a large backstage “green room.” The former loading dock could be transformed into a covered deck for outdoor concerts, and outdoor theater is possible in back of the building, Randall said.

Marysville is coming into its own with a cultural shift that includes on emphasis on the arts, he said.

“We’re not just about the Strawberry Festival anymore,” Randall said. “The Marysville Arts Coalition, the school district, the YMCA, the library and the Tulalip Tribes have made big strides.”

Jodi Hiatt, vice president of the Arts Coalition agrees.

“We are hearing a great response to the plans that Red Curtain has for the Dunn Lumber building,” she said. “People who appreciate the arts have always been here, but there haven’t always been many opportunities. The Arts Coalition looks forward to teaming up with Red Curtain, beginning with our November art show. Red Curtain will close the show with a free stage play.”

Next up for the Red Curtain board is the start of a fundraising and promotional campaign, Randall said.

“There is much work to be done and community support will be vital in this undertaking,” he said. “The best way to get something done is to just do it.”

Volunteers sought

For more information and to volunteer to help, go to www.redcurtainfoundation.org or contact Randall at randallrcf@gmail.com or 425-501-7604.

Undercover agents infiltrated tar sands resistance camp to break up planned protest

According to documents obtained by Earth Island Journal, investigators from the Bryan CountySherriff’s Department had been spying on a Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance training campthat took place from March 18 to March 22 and which brought together local landowners,Indigenous communities, and environmental groups opposed to the pipeline. Photo: Photos by Laura Borealis/Tar Sand Blockade — According to documents obtained by Earth Island Journal, investigators from the Bryan County
Sherriff’s Department had been spying on a Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance training camp
that took place from March 18 to March 22 and which brought together local landowners,
Indigenous communities, and environmental groups opposed to the pipeline. Photo: Photos by Laura Borealis/Tar Sand Blockade

By Adan Federman, Earth Island Journal

After a week of careful planning, environmentalists attending a tar sands resistance action camp in Oklahoma thought they had the element of surprise — but they would soon learn that their moves were being closely watched by law enforcement officials and TransCanada, the very company they were targeting.

On the morning of March 22 activists had planned to block the gates at the company’s strategic oil reserves in Cushing, Oklahoma as part of the larger protest movement against TransCanada’s tar sands pipeline. But when they showed up in the early morning hours and began unloading equipment from their vehicles they were confronted by police officers. Stefan Warner, an organizer with Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, says some of the vehicles en route to the protest site were pulled over even before they had reached Cushing. He estimates that roughly 50 people would have participated— either risking arrest or providing support. The act of nonviolent civil disobedience, weeks in the planning, was called off.

“For a small sleepy Oklahoma town to be saturated with police officers on a pre-dawn weekday leaves only one reasonable conclusion,” says Ron Seifert, an organizer with an affiliated group called Tar Sands Blockade. “They were there on purpose, expecting something to happen.”

Seifert is exactly right. According to documents obtained by Earth Island Journal, investigators from the Bryan County Sherriff’s Department had been spying on a Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance training camp that took place from March 18 to March 22 and which brought together local landowners, Indigenous communities, and environmental groups opposed to the pipeline.

An excerpt from an official report on the “Undercover Investigation into the GPTSR Training Camp” indicates that at least two law
enforcement officers from the Bryan County Sherriff’s Department infiltrated the training camp and drafted a detailed report about
the upcoming protest, internal strategy, and the character of the protesters themselves.

At least two law enforcement officers infiltrated the training camp and drafted a detailed report about the upcoming protest, internal strategy, and the character of the protesters themselves. The undercover investigator who wrote the report put the tar sands opponents into five different groups: eco-activists (who “truly wanted to live off the grid”); Occupy members; Native American activists (“who blamed all forms of government for the poor state of being that most American Indians are living in”); Anarchists (“many wore upside down American flags”); and locals from Oklahoma (who “had concerns about the pipeline harming the community”).

The undercover agent’s report was obtained by Douglas Parr, an Oklahoma attorney who represented three activists (all lifelong Oklahomans) who were arrested in mid April for blockading a tar sands pipeline construction site. “During the discovery in the Bryan county cases we received material indicating that there had been infiltration of the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance camp by police agents,” Parr says. At least one of the undercover investigators attended an “action planning” meeting during which everyone was asked to put their cell phones or other electronic devices into a green bucket for security reasons. The investigator goes on to explain that he was able to obtain sensitive information regarding the location of the upcoming Cushing protest, which would mark the culmination of the week of training. “This investigator was able to obtain an approximate location based off a question that he asked to the person in charge of media,” he wrote. He then wryly notes that, “It did not appear…that our phones had been tampered with.”

(The memo also states that organizers at the meeting went to great lengths not to give police any cause to disrupt the gathering. The investigator writes: “We were repeatedly told this was a substance free camp. No drug or alcohol use would be permitted on the premises and always ask permission before touching anyone. Investigators were told that we did not need to give the police any reason to enter the camp.” They were also given a pamphlet that instructed any agent of TransCanada, the FBI, or other law enforcement agency to immediately notify the event organizers.)

The infiltration of the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance action camp and pre-emption of the Cushing protest is part of a larger pattern of government surveillance of tar sands protesters. According to other documents obtained by Earth Island Journal under an Open Records Act request, Department of Homeland Security staff has been keeping close tabs on pipeline opponents — and routinely sharing that information with TransCanada, and vice versa.

In March TransCanada gave a briefing on corporate security to a Criminal Intelligence Analyst with the Oklahoma Information Fusion Center, the state level branch of Homeland Security. The conversation took place just as the action camp was getting underway. The following day, Diane Hogue, the Center’s Intelligence Analyst, asked TransCanada to review and comment on the agency’s classified situational awareness bulletin. Michael Nagina, Corporate Security Advisor for TransCanada, made two small suggestions and wrote, “With the above changes I am comfortable with the content.”

Then, in an email to TransCanada on March 19 (the second day of the action camp) Hogue seems to refer to the undercover investigation taking place. “Our folks in the area say there are between 120-150 participants,” Hogue wrote in an email to Nagina. (The Oklahoma Information Fusion Center declined to comment for this story.)

It is unclear if the information gathered at the training camp was shared directly with TransCanada. However, the company was given access to the Fusion Center’s situational awareness bulletin just a few days before the Cushing action was scheduled to take place.

In an emailed statement, TransCanada spokesperson Shawn Howard did not directly address the Tar Sands Resistance training camp. Howard described law enforcement as being interested in what the company has done to prepare for activities designed to “slow approval or construction” of the pipeline project. “When we are asked to share what we have learned or are prepared for, we are there to share our experience – not direct law enforcement,” he wrote.

The evidence of heightened cooperation between TransCanada and law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma and Texas comes just over a month after it was revealed that the company had given a PowerPoint presentation on corporate security to the FBI and law enforcement officials in Nebraska. TransCanada also held an “interactive session” with law enforcement in Oklahoma City about the company’s security strategy in early 2012. In their PowerPoint presentation, TransCanada employees suggested that district attorneys should explore “state or federal anti-terrorism laws” in prosecuting activists. They also included profiles of key organizers and a list of activists previously arrested for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience in Texas and Oklahoma. In addition to TransCanada’s presentation, a representative of Nebraska’s Homeland Security Fusion Center briefed attendees on an “intelligence sharing role/plan relevant to the pipeline project.” This is likely related to the Homeland Security Information Sharing Network, which provides public and private sector partners as well as law enforcement access to sensitive information.

The earlier cache of documents, first released to the press by Bold Nebraska, an environmental organization opposed to the pipeline, shows that TransCanada has established close ties with state and federal law enforcement agencies along the proposed pipeline route. For example, in an exchange with FBI agents in South Dakota, TransCanada’s Corporate Security Advisor, Michael Nagina, jokes that, “I can be the cure for insomnia so sure hope you can still attend!” Although they were unable to make the Nebraska meeting, one of the agents responded, “Assuming approval of the pipeline, we would like to get together to discuss a timeline for installation through our territory.”

The new documents also provide an interesting glimpse into the revolving door between state law enforcement agencies and the private sector, especially in areas where fracking and pipeline construction have become big business. One of the individuals providing information to the Texas Department of Homeland Security’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division is currently the Security Manager at Anadarko Petroleum, one of the world’s largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. In 2011, at a natural gas industry stakeholder relations conference, a spokesperson for Anadarko compared the anti-drilling movement to an “insurgency” and suggested that attendees download the US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual.

LC Wilson, the Anadarko Security Manager shown by the documents to be providing information to the Texas Fusion Center, is more than just a friend of law enforcement. From 2009 to 2011 he served as Regional Commander of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees law enforcement statewide. Wilson began his career with the Department of Public Safety in 1979 and was named a Texas Ranger — an elite law enforcement unit — in 1988, eventually working his way up to Assistant Chief. Such connections would be of great value to a corporation like Anadarko, which has invested heavily in security operations.

In an email to Litto Paul Bacas, a Critical Infrastructure Planner (and former intelligence analyst) with Texas Homeland Security, Wilson, using his Anadarko address, writes, “we find no intel specific for Texas. There is active recruitment for directed action to take place in Oklahoma as per article. I will forward any intel we come across on our end, especially if it concerns Texas.” The article he was referring to was written by a member of Occupy Denver calling on all “occupiers and occupy networks” to attend the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance training camp.

Wilson is not the only former law enforcement official on Anadarko’s security team; Jeffrey Sweetin, the company’s Regional Security Manager, was a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration for more than 20 years heading up its Rocky Mountain division. At Anadarko, according to Sweetin’s profile on Linkedin, his responsibilities include “security program development” and “law enforcement liaison.”

Other large oil and gas companies have recruited local law enforcement to fill high-level security positions. In 2010, long-time Bradford County Sheriff Steve Evans resigned to take a position as senior security officer for Chesapeake Energy in Pennsylvania. Evans was one of a handful of gas industry security directors to receive intelligence bulletins compiled by a private security firm and distributed by the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security. Bradford County happens to be ground zero for natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, with more active wells than any other county in the state. In addition to Evans, several deputies of the Bradford County Sheriff’s office have worked for Chesapeake — through a private contractor, TriCorps Security — as “off-duty” security personnel. TransCanada has also come to rely on off duty police officers to patrol construction sites and protest camps, raising questions about whose interests the sworn officers are serving.

Of course for corporations like TransCanada and Anadarko having law enforcement on their side (or in their pocket) is more than just a good business move. It gives them access to classified information and valuable intelligence — essential weapons in any counterinsurgency campaign.