TULALIP — The Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce will roll out this year’s televised candidates’ forum series starting on Friday, Aug. 23, with an in-depth look at the race for Snohomish County Council District 1.
“Our goal is to present the candidates and the issues in a fair and impartial format that will aid citizens in their decision-making process when casting their ballots,” Chamber President and CEO Caldie Rogers said.
With Snohomish County expected to continue to grow, the Chamber will give the County Council candidates an opportunity to address questions such as where the county will fit housing for 200,000 to 300,000 incoming residents, what kind of roads county residents will be commuting on, how the county will balance expansion needs with environmental needs, and whether the county can build fiscal sustainability in the face of the many functions and services that it provides.
Sponsored by Walmart, the forum will feature Al Aldrich of Strategies 360 as the moderator, guiding the Council candidates through a series of eight questions. The program will include candidate rebuttals, and conclude with each candidate posing their own question to their opponent.
The forum is slated for Aug. 23 in the Tulalip Resort’s Canoes Cabaret Nightclub, located at 10200 Quil Ceda Blvd. Doors open at 7 a.m. for the program starting at 7:30 a.m. and ending at 9 a.m.
Please RSVP with the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce, by phone at 360-659-7700 or via e-mail to admin@MarysvilleTulalipChamber.com. Admission is $23 for pre-registered guests and $28 at the door.
Swedish retailer H&M has become the latest victim of its own fashion.
The clothing store has pulled an item that had been dubbed the “hipster headdress” off of Canadian shelves after Kim Wheeler, Ojibwe-Mohawk, called out the company in an e-mail after seeing the feathered hair bands in a Vancouver store, CTV News reported on Friday August 9.
“They are a sign of honor and respect and leadership, they’re not a cute accessory to be worn in a nightclub while people are dancing to music,” Wheeler told CTV News, noting that headdresses are sacred items worn by chiefs and that donning them as trifles is anything but a sign of respect. “I appreciate where people are coming from and that they want to say ‘we’re respecting you,’ but it really isn’t. There are other ways that we can respect our culture instead of wearing colorful faux headdresses.”
A spokesperson for H&M in Canada told the Canadian Press that the headbands, which sport bright pink and purple flowers, formed part of the “summer music festival collection” titled “H&M Loves Music,” along with flower-powered ‘Sixties-style wreaths and other items.
“Of course we never want to offend anybody or come off as insensitive,” said the spokeswoman, Emily Scarlett. “We’re always about being there for our customers.”
H&M’s 62 Canada stores had been told to remove the headbands, Scarlett told the Canadian Press. H&M has now joined Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret and a host of other retailers in being educated about the significance of headdresses and other ceremonial garb.
“My first instinct was to buy all of them and throw them in the garbage. It’s not honoring us. It’s not flattering us. It’s making a mockery of our culture. We just don’t think it’s cool,” said the 44-year-old Wheeler, who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “People in my community have kind of been fighting that whole ‘hipster headdressing’ for awhile now.”
A medicine man once told Mark Sorensen that true education can heal.
That counsel rang true for Sorensen, principal and co-founder of STAR Charter School, a small school near Flagstaff, Arizona, that serves a 98-percent Navajo student population. Sorensen has spent 37 years working in Indian education, and the medicine man’s advice echoed Sorensen’s philosophies in and out of the classroom.
“I’d like to see our education system heal rather than punish,” he said. “When we listen to wise people and make education better, that’s what really matters.”
Sorensen likes curriculum that integrates academic standards, real-world skills and community service. Students at STAR, which stands for Service To All Relations, are challenged to participate in projects that teach math and English basics while moving them out of the classroom and into the community.
The 130 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade engage in projects like farming, recycling and producing videos that document Native traditions or current events.
At STAR, the first solar-powered charter school in the U.S., teachers no longer focus on scores and punishments. Instead, they concentrate on what Sorensen calls “authentic assessment.”
“Our thinking is that if we can introduce projects that have to do with food or energy or recycling, that’s an indication of a deeper philosophy and students are empowered to do service,” he said. “It helps the community, families and the school. We’re trying to teach them that it’s a privilege to be able to respond to community needs.”
Students at STAR Charter School near Flagstaff, Arizona, work together on a puzzle. (STAR Charter School)
That’s why Sorensen is embracing the Common Core State Standards, curricula that focus on skills that are relevant in the real world while preparing students for college and careers. Forty-five states have adopted Common Core State Standards, including all three of the states that contain parts of the Navajo Nation—Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. The standards, unveiled in 2010, were designed to allow schools to develop more in-depth and specific curricula.
From a Native perspective, these standards can help level the playing field, said RiShawn Biddle, communications director for the National Indian Education Association.
“We have far too many of our students who are not graduating,” he said. “They don’t complete high school and don’t go to college. Knowledge is power and an education is key to being successful in the knowledge-based economy of today.”
According to the NIEA, 69 percent of Native freshmen will graduate from high school within four years. Nationally, the rate is 78 percent and 83 percent for Anglo students. While other minority groups are closing the achievement gaps, it stays constant for Natives, the NIEA reports.
All 34 tribally controlled schools on the Navajo Nation are adopting Common Core State Standards, said Kalvin White, program manager for the Office of Diné Science, Math and Technology.
For areas like the sprawling, 27,000-square-mile Navajo reservation, the new standards mean consistency for students, White said.
“This will benefit the Navajo Nation because we are in three states, and all three states will be aligned to the same content,” he said. “We will no longer be dealing with three different standards in three different states.”
Common Core State Standards can also boost the presence of traditional values and languages in classrooms—and in Native communities, Biddle said. Teachers can incorporate Native knowledge through nonfiction reading or projects like those at STAR, meeting students’ academic and cultural needs.
“In addition to having academic knowledge, they need to understand their culture,” Biddle said. “When our students are highly educated, they can be future leaders and defenders of culture that our tribes need.”
In 2012, only 33 percent of STAR students passed the Arizona standardized test in math and 44 percent passed in reading. Statewide, the average was 65 percent in math and 79 percent in reading.
The nine teachers in this school that prides itself on small class sizes and an emphasis on Native tradition are hoping the switch to Common Core State Standards helps improve performance.
“What I’d love to see here is more authentic testing of Native students,” Sorensen said. “I would like to see them demonstrate what they know while they’re doing something for their communities.”
It’s Friday, a day also known in Twitterland as FollowFriday, when many faithful Tweeters take a moment to give a shoutout to the accounts they think others should follow. We hang out on Twitter quite a bit as @indiancountry (and there’s @ICTMN_Arts as well, kind of a kid-brother feed) and we could go on and on about all the great people Tweeting news, views, humor and miscellanea relevant to Native readers. But on this occasion we’ll keep it to 15 — here are our must-reads and must-follows:
Indian country’s master Tweeter, Sherman Alexie has a ratio of original tweets to retweets-of-others that is off the charts — this is some real talk from a guy who has something to say every day and it’s often provocative. The fact that he’s a phenomenal, award-winning author helps. You know — the words thing.
RECENT TWEET: “Santa Fe leads the world in White People Trying to Look a Little Bit Indian.”
Lawyer, author, filmmaker, father, and the mad genius behind ICTMN’s Thing About Skins — Gyasi tweets a mixture of Native calls to action, political insight, banter with his influential friends in Indian country, and fond memories of growing up rez.
RECENT TWEET: “Our communities used to raise kids and shame parents that didn’t contribute to that uprbinging. Now we pretend we don’t see it.”
Toronto-based Lisa Charleyboy is the jet-setting maven of Native style, cool and entertainment. If it’s hip, hot, and Canadian-indigenous, she’s on it, and she never stops working. She’s the Native… Oprah-Gwyneth Paltrow-Martha Stewart? Something like that. Arch-enemy: Gluten.
RECENT TWEET: “So all you need to be a successful fashion blogger is to look like a model, have $ like a billionaire, and have a photog boyfriend? Easy.”
Corntassel, a college professor, follows the news and sends out important links with thoughtful commentary. A walking and talking — and tweeting — cheat sheet.
RECENT TWEET: “Decolonization starts w realization: your vision for the future is radically different from those encroaching on your homelands”
She calls herself “a casting director for film, television, dance + print w/focus on American Indian talent only,” — her tweets keep you posted on current events in the entertainment industry, and much more. You get a little bit of everything with Michelle — which is the whole point of Twitter.
RECENT TWEET: “Seriously? The news is reporting on the outrage over Suri Cruise wearing heeled shoes. Why is this news?”
Idle No More… you have heard of this, right? Tweets are a mixture of news links and networking — if you’re doing something Idle-No-More-ish in your community, the women behind this feed want to know about it and help spread the word.
RECENT TWEET: “If there are ACTIONS or events in your area related to: Indigenous issues, Environmental protection, Nation2Nation (treaty) etc. let us know”
Abiyomi Kofi tweets a smorgasbord of news and views on racism, colonialism, and injustice from his Afro-Indigenous perspective. These tweets serve as a reminder that the cause of indigenous rights and racial equality is a global effort.
RECENT TWEET: (sparring with another Tweeter) “Again, you assume that ‘truth’ is of European origin. That is cultural arrogance in spades. Europe is not the world.”
The Native Appropriations blogger is always on the lookout for cultural wrongdoing in the public square. High-minded criticism you don’t need a Ph.D. to understand.
RECENT TWEET: “I’m trying to write a post that combines 200 million things I’ve been thinking about lately and it’s already not working. Trimming back.”
Douglas Miles is a gifted artist, and you’ll get a lot of that from his Tweets (which link to his Instagram and Tumblr blog) — but you’ll also get plenty of tough talk on issues of art, culture, and society. Everyone is fair game — if you’re Native and you’re doing it wrong, he’ll let you know.
RECENT TWEET: “Since when did Natives resort to using ‘authentic’ as some stamp of approval, are we sides of beef?”
The voice of Turtle Island’s EDM heroes A Tribe Called Red doesn’t suffer fools — bring your half-baked ideas about race and culture onto his timeline and he will nail you for it. Repeatedly. You can practically hear him giggling as he demolishes ingrained bigotry and false equivalencies.
RECENT TWEET: “You’re right. Having to argue what’s important to your culture from someone NOT of the culture is a DUMB battle.”
Tirelessly fighting against the Washington NFL team’s racist name — an operation that may have begun as an effort to sell a few parody t-shirts is now the Twitter standard-bearer of a grassroots movement that is a topic of national debate.
RECENT TWEET: “can’t wait to see who’s the next high-profile personality to speak up against the Redskins racist name, quite an impressive list so far”
Actually, since Ryan dove head-first into Idle No More, he’s not only about the funny-haha. But there’s still plenty of funny-haha. Plus he used his feed to publish “Pow Wow Shades of Gray,” a novella, delivered in installments, about people fooling around at pow wows. Delivered in tiny, tiny installments.
RECENT TWEET: “I smell like camp fire, hot dog water & bug spray. And, no, Cree women, that’s not a pickup line. I just got home from camp.”
Part indigenous woman, part robot, part golden Barbie doll — we are not quite sure we understand what Robohontas is or wants to be, but she tweets good links and daily wise quotes from her blog. And we hope there is a Robohontas movie someday, with lots of action and ass-kicking. And we hope it is not produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
RECENT TWEET: “Robohontas’ Facebook Page – Can she get to 200 page “likes” by the end of the week? Currently at 192…”
Possession for medicinal use led to expulsion from reservation
Dan Bates / The Herald Dennis Boon says he feels connected to his tribe through Quilceda Creek, which flows through where he is staying in north Marysville, on its way to Tulalip reservation. Boon accepted a deal banning him from the reservation after the tribes found him guilty of marijuana possession. Boon says he uses marijuana medicinally, which is illegal on the reservation.
By Bill Sheets, The Herald
TULALIP — Dennis Boon was a healthy child, he says, until he was hit in the head with a 7-iron.
He was 14 years old when he and some other boys were hitting Wiffle golf balls in eighth-grade PE class. Boon’s ball rolled away, in front of another boy.
Boon saw the boy talking to someone else, so he thought it was safe to reach down and get his ball.
The boy turned around without looking and swung to hit his own ball, striking Boon in the head.
“It put a hole in my skull,” he said.
Soon afterward, Boon started having small epileptic seizures; years later, he began to have larger, violent ones. The episodes took over his life for the next decade, said Boon, now 47.
Conventional treatments didn’t help. He turned to marijuana as a remedy.
“The results were immediate,” Boon said.
A Tulalip tribal member, Boon cannot lawfully use his preferred medication on his home reservation.
While marijuana has been legalized both for medicinal users and others in Washington state, it’s still illegal under federal law. That’s the law to which most Indian tribes, including the Tulalips, subscribe.
Last month, Boon was banned from the Tulalip reservation for possession of 240 grams of cannabis — about 8 ½ ounces.
He’s currently staying with friends in Marysville. In a year, Boon can petition to return, but he’ll have to agree to give up using marijuana, a tribal spokeswoman said.
As a semi-sovereign nation under federal law, the tribes do not have to recognize state laws that conflict with those of the U.S. government, according to Robert Anderson, a law professor and director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington.
Marijuana is illegal on the Tulalip reservation without exception, said Niki Cleary, communications director for the tribes.
“We’re bound by tribal law and federal law; we’re not bound by state law,” she said. “Remember that our people have existed as a sovereign since long before the United States government existed, and our treaty with the U.S. government predates the creation of Washington as a state.
Tribes basically can choose their own course in the matter, Anderson said.
“They make their own laws just like any state or county government does on criminal matters or civil matters,” he said.
At least one tribe, the Puyallup Tribe in Pierce County, has chosen to follow state law regarding marijuana rather than the federal rules, according to a web page listing tribal laws. This includes recognition of medicinal pot.
At Tulalip and other reservations where federal law is followed, the only criminal jurisdiction the state has over tribal members is on land that’s been deeded to a non-Indian property owner and for traffic incidents on public roads, Anderson said.
The Tulalip Tribes oppose legalization of marijuana, Cleary said, “because we, the community as a whole as well as our governing leadership, do not see the drug as beneficial, but rather view it as a harmful substance.”
The tribes found Boon guilty of possession with intent to sell. This, Cleary said, “is the only time generally that somebody is excluded from the reservation. We understand that addiction is a disease and takes some choice away from people.”
Boon said he had no intention of selling the marijuana. Police found the cannabis at his home in January. He was stocking up after receiving his tribal dividend check over the holidays, he said.
State law allows medicinal marijuana patients to possess up to 24 ounces, or 15 plants — nearly three times the amount for which Boon was charged.
Boon’s home was searched after a police officer visited him investigating a report of stolen property. Boon was not charged in that case.
While talking to Boon in front of his home, the officer detected “the odor of burnt marijuana,” according to the charging papers. The officer did not search the home at the time.
Boon disputes that the smell would have been detectable outside his home.
Knowing he had someone coming over to install a carbon-monoxide detector, he took care to air out his place so as not to flaunt the marijuana or raise questions, he said
“My girlfriend was baking cinnamon rolls,” he said.
A few days later, armed with a search warrant, police came back and found the cannabis.
“The warrant was issued on state of Washington paperwork,” Boon noted.
He said he had the marijuana properly stored according to state guidelines, with his doctor’s recommendation prominently posted.
The crime, per tribal law, is a high-end misdemeanor. Boon faced a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. He was offered a deal: a $100 fine and expulsion from the reservation. He accepted, he said, feeling he had little choice.
Boon had been living in tribal housing for people with disability status, for which the tribes receive federal funding — all the more reason that federal law be followed, according to the charging documents.
Boon points to an arrangement in which Tulalip police officers are cross-deputized in state law, which he says should require enforcement of those laws on the reservation.
“There’s an oath of office in place that specifically states that ‘I will follow all the laws of the state of Washington and protect the citizens within,’ ” he said.
Cleary said tribal officers are cross-deputized only so they can arrest non-tribal members if necessary.
“If there’s a beating happening or someone gets shot, the police officer needs to be able to respond,” she said.
Also, “it’s to assure non-tribal members that our officers are trained to the same level as any other peace officer in Washington state, that if an officer signals you to pull over, you need to pull over.”
The state law that authorizes the cross-deputization arrangement says the law does not supercede tribal sovereignty.
Boon’s disability is primarily from old injuries he suffered during his seizures, he said. Boon said he operated a commercial smokehouse business for a grocery store chain in the Midwest for a couple of years and had other supervisory restaurant jobs, but recently it’s been difficult.
“I’ve broken numerous bones, I’ve hyper-extended most of my appendages,” he said. “It’s hard for me to stand on my feet.”
Boon said he had been a precocious child and a good student until the 7-iron accident. He was living with his father in Minnesota at the time.
He had reconstructive surgery on his face, and to this day his left eye socket is made of Teflon, he said.
Later, while attending high school in Alaska, his teachers began to notice that he would seem to fade out for no reason.
They told his father that Boon “just stops in the middle of conversation and just stares,'” he recalled.
Tests determined that these episodes were petit mal seizures, and he was diagnosed with epilepsy, he said.
When he was 18, he was in a car wreck and hit his head again. Soon, he was having grand mal seizures with blackouts and convulsions, as many as seven per week.
“It’s like someone over your shoulder ready to hit you with a baseball bat,” he said. “You can’t see him, you can’t hear him, you never really know it’s coming. That constant anxiety takes a toll on your health.”
A neurologist referred him, on the sly, to a man who had controlled his own seizures by using marijuana.
When the man told Boon his story, he didn’t believe it.
He remembers his response.
” ‘I smoke pot and I still have seizures. That’s a load of crap,’ ” he said.
The man told Boon he had to treat it like medicine and regularly use small amounts to keep it in his system. He asked Boon if he could remember having any seizures while high.
Later, he and some family members pondered the question.
“We couldn’t really think of a single time, not a one,” he said. “From that point on, I started a different approach with the way I handled marijuana in my life.”
He had only a few seizures in the years afterward, he said, and those were mild in comparison to those he had before. Now, he says, he hasn’t had a full-blown seizure since early 2003.
“I couldn’t imagine years ago that I could go 10 days (without one),” Boon said.
Prior to using marijuana to treat his condition, Boon’s medical bills averaged $122,000 per year, according to his attorney, Jay Carey of Arlington. Since 1996, those annual costs have been about $6,000, Carey said.
Boon moved back to Tulalip permanently in 2004, partly because of the state’s medical marijuana law, he said.
Then, three years ago, he heard tribal officials making anti-drug statements at the fall tribal council meeting, a semi-annual gathering at which tribal members meet to discuss issues and elect officers.
Boon said he felt at that point that the tribal administration wouldn’t permit medicinal marijuana without pressure from tribal members at large.
“I knew that I was probably going to have to do something that I really didn’t want to do,” he said. “I was going to have to go in front of all of my people and say ‘I’m a medicinal marijuana patient’ and the reasons why, and I was going to have to put it to a vote. I was basically going to go out and put a target on my back.”
At the spring 2011 tribal council meeting, Boon made a motion to legalize medicinal marijuana on the reservation.
He said many others spoke in favor.
Some of the comments, according to Boon, were along the lines of, ” ‘You can’t go five gravestones (in the tribal cemetery) without passing somebody who died directly from alcohol, and we’re selling booze up here seven days a week like there’s no tomorrow. I haven’t heard of a single person ever, ever dying from marijuana, but we’ve got a graveyard full of people who died from booze,’ ” Boon recounted.
He felt the motion would pass, but it wasn’t voted upon.
“After some discussion, another member asked to have the motion tabled,” according to Cleary. “The motion to table carried.”
Alcohol, Cleary acknowledged, “is a dichotomy that our membership and leadership have wrestled with for years.” Other tribal members have brought up motions to have it banned and have been unsuccessful, she said.
Boon said he personally knows more than 40 other tribal members who use marijuana medicinally, but that most are afraid to make themselves known.
Boon believes police targeted him after he criticized tribal government at a council meeting two years ago.
“I firmly believe this has nothing to do with medical marijuana,” he said.
Cleary said the fact remains that Boon broke the law. “To the best of my knowledge, our laws are enforced equally across the board,” she said.
Boon’s ban from the reservation became effective in mid-July. It’ll be difficult, he said. For instance, he had been accompanying his mother as she sang at funerals.
On the property where Boon is staying with other tribal members, there is a sweat lodge. Made of willows tied together, it’s covered with blankets or other material, and fire-heated stones are brought in. Water is poured over them, creating a sweat-inducing steam that helps purify the body and spirit, according to many American Indian traditions.
“I consider myself an extremely spiritual person,” Boon said.
Cleary said Boon also can petition ahead of time to return to the reservation for cultural events and to fish or use other natural resources.
“I really do appreciate that Dennis has a dilemma,” she said. Cleary said she knows of least one other tribal medicinal marijuana patient who decided to live off the reservation.
“None of this would have been an issue if he had chosen to live in Marysville,” she said. “If you don’t want to abide by the laws of a municipality, then don’t live here.”
According to the coin collecting news site CoinUpdate.com, the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) has reviewed seven proposed designs for the 2014 Native American one dollar coin and made its recommendation to the Secretary of the Treasury. The Native American one dollar coin has a portrait of Sacagawea on its obverse (heads) side, and features a different themed design each year on its reverse (tails). The 2013 Native American one dollar coin commemorates the Delaware Treaty of 1778.
The theme for the 2014 coin is the cooperation among Natives and the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06. Of the seven designs below, the CFA chose the sixth, a depiction of Chief Cameahwait recommending the alternate route to Captain Lewis. Which is your favorite?
The Secretary of the Treasury will consider the CFA’s recommendation, as well as that of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, the Congressional Native American Caucus, the National Congress of American Indians, and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, before making a final selection. For more details, see the original story at CoinUpdate.com.
WASHINGTON – National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis today announced more than $645,000 in historic preservation grants to 17 American Indian tribes, Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiian organizations.
“These grants will be used to help preserve the rich heritage of human experience from architectural and intellectual achievements to cultural identities,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “Whether used to create oral history programs, operate museums and cultural centers, or develop training and education programs, the grants will help all Americans can gain a greater appreciation of our nation’s rich traditions and cultures.”
The competitive grants can be used to fund projects such as nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, preservation education, architectural planning, historic structure reports, community preservation plans, and bricks-and-mortar repair to buildings.
Congress provides these grant appropriations each year with revenue from Federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf. The National Park Service administers the grants through the Historic Preservation Fund. This year’s appropriation was decreased by about five percent as a result of sequestration.
Melissa Cody’s star has been on the rise for a few years now. Of all art techniques and mediums, one would think that something as traditional as weaving, specifically Navajo weaving, would be among the last places to hear things like innovation, avant-garde, rock & roll, hip-hop. She has also expanded her medium from weaver to textile artist. Melissa’s from a family of traditional Navajo weavers, mother Lola Cody also shows with daughter at shows. Her mom taught her the Germantown style at age 5. In 2011, she won a SWAIA DISCOVERY FELLOWSHIP AWARD for emerging artists and many other awards are on the horizon. Before Melissa could take off into the sky as a Firework on the modern art scene, she had to learn the traditional techniques to ground her, to base her in fundamentals, as an homage to family but also to connect generations and have her new works accepted by those who came before her. The materials may be strange but the elders see the tricks, the twists and turns, the stories.
It’s said that Navajo holy person Spider Woman taught Navajo women the art of weaving. Cody has of late embraced the concept—encouraged, perhaps, by her collaborator/boyfriend Dust La Rock—creating a Spider Woman Greets the Dawn textile and posting a Spider Woman comic book to her Instagram feed.
It’s probably important to the art form that young artists like Melissa are into skateboarding, graffiti and street art, and listen to modern music. A piece in progress on Cody’s loom looks like a multicolored electronic component exploding with neon-hued wires—the music coming out would probably be hip hop. Cody loves going to concerts and clubs, she’s tattooed and hangs with a cadre of young artists all over the Southwest. Her resume of shows has gotten hot the last few years, Heard Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, Legends Santa Fe, Indian Market, San Francisco, Los Angeles…
You’ve been in Los Angeles and California recently, and now you’ve relocated, can you tell us what is up with you and your work there?
As of late, I’ve been creating new work for a two-man show that opens October 5th at the Scion AV Gallery on Melrose, in Los Angeles. I’ll be exhibiting along side Dust La Rock, also known as Joshua Prince, who is a co-founder of Fool’s Gold Records out of Brooklyn, New York and is most recognized as the label’s Creative Director. Dust is a phenomenal print artist, graphic designer, and overall artist, so I’m excited to be creating alongside him. For the exhibit, which is titled “Coyote & Spider”, we’ll be working on individual projects, as well as collaborating on a variety of pieces from printed t-shirts, hand-run linoleum block prints, to custom wall tapestries that I will be weaving.
Another undertaking is of course, preparing an inventory for SWAIA Indian Market in August. It’ll be my 22nd year participating in the Market and I can be found at my usual booth space No. 733 LIN-W on Lincoln Street. I’ll predominantly be showing textiles with the “Whirling Log” symbol. My recent work has focused on the “re-introduction” and use of the Navajo Whirling Log symbol, often mistaken for the Nazi “Swastika.” I feel that it’s important to reclaim our traditional tribal imagery and not sway from instilling it into our everyday viewing.
I take it all the Southwest is your artistic territory now?
Well I like to think that my work can stand on its feet anywhere! I was recently Artist in Residence at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, so that naturally sparked my interest to come back to California. I currently live in Long Beach with my significant other, Joshua Prince, and it’s been a great environment to venture out into new art circles. Every region within the southwest has its own artistic personality, so I feel very fortunate that I’m able to travel as much as I do, and have my weaving be my sole means of income. My home will always be Arizona, but I also grew up as far west as Southern California, and to the east, Austin, Texas. As mentioned before I’ve been traveling to New Mexico for SWAIA Indian Market every year since I was in grade school, so I’ve always considered it my second home. I eventually lived in Santa Fe long enough to complete my undergrad in Museum Studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts, now called the College of Contemporary Native Arts, and have a brief stint as a Recruiter for the College’s Admissions Dept.
I don’t mean to embarrass you or jinx you, but you must feel the attention, the publicity, the awards, the expectations, how do you deal with it all or where do you put it all, as a young artist?
I think my artwork and medium keeps me in check. Each time I sit down at my loom I commit myself to a piece that I’ll no doubt spend hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months, creating. My weavings take a tremendous amount of patience and attention that it makes it difficult to dwell on the last accomplishment. Each new project is an opportunity to top the last or to venture into unseen territories. I have long term plans for where I want to be in the future as an artist, so each new day is a chance to secure that future. I’m grateful for all the accolades and honors that I’ve achieved up until now, but I don’t want to put boundaries on the reaches of my textile work. As an artist I’m fortunate to be recognized as a “Native artist” working in a traditional realm, but also as a “contemporary” artist who is excelling in my field. It affords me the flexibility to push boundaries within both realms and have a voice that is heard by a wider audience.
Can you name your family influences and any weavers or textile/fabric artisans that may have influenced you?
Family influences begin with my mother, Lola S. Cody. She gave me technical instruction, but also instilled in me a sense of respect for the work that would come off of my loom, the materials and tools I would use to create, and the weavers who came before me. I learned at a very young age that being a weaver was a great responsibility because it meant that I would be part of a group who held sacred knowledge from my ancestors that had been passed down from generation to generation. I’m 30 now, and it’s great to look back and reflect on how my work has changed and evolved from the restrictions of “traditional” regional and trading-post styles. It’s also wonderful to see how my mother’s tapestries have not stayed stagnant either and are continuing to push the limits of what is the new direction of Navajo textiles.
Doris Cody, my paternal grandmother; Martha Gorman Schultz, my maternal grandmother; and Mary Clay, my great-grandmother, have tremendous influence on my weaving as I’m constantly referencing their tapestry work to validate my own. My Grandmother Martha is now in her 80s and still works at her loom on a daily basis. I hope that one day I’ll be able to mirror her strength and vitality to create. I began weaving at the age of 5 so I’m happy that my grandmother has been able to guide my path to the present. She frequently inquires about what projects I’m working on and playfully teases me when my eccentric patterns look a little crazy to her.
Your recent trip to New Orleans for a music festival, have you always sought out the beats, the scene, and the fun, or is it more recent because you can now go where you want? Anything cool you’ve run into by chance or choice?
I was actually invited out by the coordinators of the festival to be a demonstrating vendor at the event, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Music is a constant in every part of my creative process, So to be invited out was a pretty great honor. Especially since I had never been to NOLA or had the opportunity to exhibit my work in the region. As for traveling, I’ve always been on the road. After high school I distinctly remember my dad telling me to travel as much as I could, because he never got to see as much as he had wanted to when he was young growing up in the boarding school system. I think that constant movement is what fuels my work. Up until now, I’ve been fortunate enough that my work continues to be fresh and appealing to an evolving art scene. I’ve been blessed with opportunities to intern with large institutions like the Smithsonian Museums in DC, exhibit at DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, have work in the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and teach weaving techniques in Southern Africa.
You were involved in a video project with Lynette Haozous and Douglas Miles, are you a working member of any collectives, have you done collaborative projects, and how did this come about?
My upcoming exhibit, “Coyote & Spider,” at the Scion AV Gallery will be my first collaborative exhibition. Up to this point I’ve done small collaborative linoleum print projects, but nothing I would consider a major undertaking. I’m excited to see how the collaborative work will be received by Native and non-native audiences. Currently, my work has the majority of following with in the Native American art community, so showing in a Gallery that doesn’t fall under that umbrella is a new experience I’m looking forward to.
The video project that Lynnette and I were featured in was the Apache Chronicle, produced by Douglas Miles of Apache Skateboards, and Swedish Filmmaker Nanna Dalunde. I was happy to be in the film as it shed light on the body of work that I was creating. At the time I had left Santa Fe, where I had lived for the previous 9 years, and transitioned back to the Navajo Reservation to be with my family after learning my father had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. These events lead me to weave a body of work inspired by his condition, the symptomatic characteristics of the disease, and also my personal testament of coping with this life-changing experience. Up to this point my textile work was predominantly based in exploring aesthetic values as they pertained to geometric composition & color theory, striving to create textiles that were technically pristine, studying lines of symmetry and 3-dimensional planes. This turning point in my life took me in a direction where weaving was my outlet to create work which was a direct reflection of my personal experience, rather than my stance within the textile medium.
Do you keep track of the work of other contemporary weavers, for instance Ramona Sakiestewa and Gail Tremblay? Or are there other innovative artists, in any mediums, who interest or intrigue you? In the ’70s and ’80s, I worked in parachute netting and construction fence, vinyl and burlap, mesh and wire, also the police tape and biohazard bags like yourself. What drives you or allows you to use different or non-traditional materials?
Oddly enough, I don’t really follow the work of other tapestry artists outside of what my family and relatives are weaving. I think that comes from surrounding myself with friends and family who are painters, sculptors, photographers, tattoo artists, muralists, mixed media artists, and jewelers. I like to look at their work and think of how I can incorporate or translate their style of work or three-dimensional forms into tapestry format. Navajo weaving is a very structured art so I like the challenge of mapping out designs so they come across as fresh and innovative, but also characteristically recognizable as “Navajo.” Social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook have made it a lot easier to connect with creative minds and outlets, so my main artistic influences these days has come from the tattoo artist community.
Alex Jacobs, Mohawk, is a visual artist and poet living in Santa Fe
JULIE JACOBSON/AP File Photo The Reid-Gardner coal-fired power plant, just outside Las Vegas, will be closed down by 2017 but there is no cleanup plan in place, a new lawsuit by the Moapa Paiute and the Sierra Club alleges.
The Moapa Band of Paiutes and the Sierra Club have filed suit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas to ensure that when the Reid Gardner Generating Station closes down, the area around it will be cleaned up.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday August 8 claims that the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Water Act have both been violated over the years by dumping that has compromised the health of nearby residents and threatens the drinking water of millions.
Governor Brian Sandoval in June signed legislation to close the coal-fired power plant, which sits next to the Moapa River Reservation. Nevada Senate Bill 123 provides for closure by 2017 but does not address cleanup, the Sierra Club said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, which seeks a court ruling to ensure that plant owner NV Energy Inc. cleans up as it pulls out. The company was bought in May by investor Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings.
“We are all looking forward to the retirement of the Reid Gardner coal-fired plant that has for decades polluted our Reservation,” said Vickie Simmons, a leader of the Moapa Band of Paiutes’ committees for health and the environmental, in the Sierra Club statement. “And for the sake of our families’ health, we must ensure that the toxic waste from the power plant is fully cleaned up. The safety of our community and the future of our children depend on it.”
The plaintiffs allege that for years the power plant has illegally dumped contaminants into the Muddy River, which feeds the Lake Mead reservoir in back of the Hoover Dam. That reservoir provides drinking water to more than two million people, the Associated Press noted.
The Moapa Paiute have been protesting the coal plant and its adverse health effects for years, and has made inroads into solar power that paved the way for this closure.
“Now, we have to find out what kind of remediation they’re going to do — a complete restoration, a conversion to gas or some other type of project,” Tribal President William Anderson told the Associated Press. “To us, the ultimate goal would be to remove everything and put the land back the way it was. We’ll be able to come to come closure after almost 50 years.”
This Date in Native History: On August 9, 1877 the Nez Perce fought in the third battle of what’s been called the Nez Perce War. The Battle of Big Hole did not leave the small band of Nez Perce defeated, but they lost about 90 warriors, women and children in the battle.
Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were the tribe’s first contact with Europeans and their dealings with white people had been mostly friendly. Even when settlers were coming into their territory en masse, many of the Nez Perce moved to the reservation, but about a quarter refused. Increased government pressure to force them onto the reservation is what led to the Nez Perce War of 1877.
Even General William Tecumsah Sherman, who was anything but sympathetic to Indians, was impressed with the Nez Perce, saying: “the Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise… [they] fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications.”
The band of about 700, of which less than 200 were warriors, fought more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers in four major battles—Big Hole was the third—and a number of smaller skirmishes.
The Nez Perce were determined to get to safety for their families in Canada, some 1,400 miles away; they would have to travel through what would become Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. And they nearly made it.
Chief Joseph was not seen as a war chief but he was a strong leader throughout this campaign. He felt betrayed by the government when it took back almost six million acres of his people’s land after a gold rush in 1863. He finally surrendered on October 5, 1877 after the Battle of Bear Paw. They were just 40 miles south of Canada.
A 136th commemoration of the Big Hole Battle will be held on Saturday, August 10. Nez Perce elders and veterans will honor those who fought and died, and pay tribute to those who survived. All are welcome. Events will be held at the Big Hole National Battlefield, 10 miles west of Wisdom, Montana on State Highway 43.
