Top 5 Cities With The Most Native Americans

Sara Schwartzkopf, Indian Country Today Media Network

From coast to coast, one can find Native Americans and Alaska Natives from every nation scattered across the country. With 78 percent of Natives living off the reservation, you might wonder which cities have the greatest number of Natives living in them.

Utilizing data from the 2010 census, here are the five cities with the greatest number of indigenous people:

Number 5: Anchorage, Alaska

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.

Also the city with the greatest proportion of Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, Anchorage is home to 36,062 indigenous people. The Smithsonian Institute houses their Arctic Studies Center out of the Anchorage Museum, researching and educating on northern indigenous peoples. In addition, Anchorage is home to the Alaska Native Heritage Center, which educates visitors on Alaskan Native culture, but also offers programs for Native youth, classes in art, creative writing, cultural awareness and soon indigenous languages.

Number 4: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.

With 39 federally recognized tribes and the second greatest percentage of Native Americans in the country, it’s unsurprising that a city from Oklahoma made the list. The city’s 36,572 indigenous residents make their presence known every June with the three day Red Earth Festival, showcasing dancing, singing, storytelling, poetry, music and art. The city will also eventually be home to the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum – a copy10 million project designed to educate the masses on Oklahoma’s unique Native history.

Number 3: Phoenix, Arizona

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.

Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, and Phoenix itself is home to 43,724 indigenous people. The Phoenix Indian Center is the oldest and first Native American non-profit in the entire country and, since 1947, has offered services to help the community in employment, education, Navajo language-learning and culturally-based health programs. Each March, the Heard Museum also offers the state’s largest Indian Fair and Market, featuring more than 700 Native artists.

Number 2: Los Angeles, California

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.

California is the state with the largest percentage of Native Americans and 54,236 of those people live in Los Angeles. The United American Indian Involvement provides services for mental and physical health, as well as youth education for urban Natives. The Southern California Indian Center organizes the area’s largest pow wow every November in addition to running programs to aid families around L.A. They also run InterTribal Entertainment, which provides training for Native Americans looking to get into the entertainment industry, and works to develop, produce and market Native-focused film and television projects.

Number 1: New York, New York

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock.com.

The largest city in the country also has the largest indigenous population with 111,749 people. Each year, the Thunderbird American Indian Mid-Summer Pow Wow – the largest and oldest in the city – is held at the end of July at the Queens County Farm Museum. The city is also home to the American Indian Community House which offers health services, counseling, job training and placement, as well as a performing arts program.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/07/29/top-five-cities-most-native-americans-150634

QIN: Advising the new White House Council on Native American Affairs

Source: KBKW.com

Washington, D.C. – The Quinault government issued a white paper to the recently formed White House Council on Native American Affairs during its inaugural session in Washington, D.C. Tuesday. The Quinault paper, issued by Quinault President Fawn Sharp, responds to President Barack Obama’s directives to the new Council that it must work to facilitate “efficient delivery of government services” to Indian communities, and engage Indian and Native Alaskan governments for a “true and lasting government-to-government relationship.”

The document stated that the Quinault government “welcomes this opportunity to offer concrete comments and recommendations … that will strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship” and offered seven specific suggestions for success. It referred to the economic disaster of the last five and-a-half years that has undermined many tribal businesses across the country, and the sequestration of federal funding resulting in an “economic disaster among many tribes creating a profound sense of desperation in Indian Country.”

Commenting on the “chronic underfunding of Indian Country from federal agencies” starting with the Ronald Reagan Administration the Quinault government urged the new White House Council to send representatives to each tribe and Rancheria in the country to “engage in intergovernmental meetings.

According to President Sharp, the economic disaster of the last five and-a-half years has profoundly undermined many tribal businesses across the country, and the sequestration of federal funding resulting from the federal Budget Control Act will result in an economic disaster among many tribes, creating profound desperation in Indian Country in 2014 and 2015.

The White House Council should meet with each tribal government in the country. The purpose of these meetings would be to establish a dialogue with each tribal government to resolve the “disconnect and disparity between federal efforts to meet the needs of Indian Country and the actual on-the-ground needs.”

The Quinault government further urged formulation of federal agency policies based on “understanding current population characteristics, population growth data and the tribal economic environment.” President Sharp specifically urged the White House Council to share census and economic findings with each tribal government to ensure that tribal officials receive information to ensure their “free, prior and informed consent” to decisions that are made.

President Sharp specifically urged establishing funding levels on the basis of “qualified and quantified actual need” through a process of interagency cooperation, intergovernmental cooperation between tribal, state and federal governments, incentives to encourage public-private partnerships and expansion of tribal self-determination. The White House Council should document and assess “tribal government and community needs in terms of types of community needs quantified in terms of financial requirements for the next year and for the next three years,” said Sharp.

To strengthen the government-to-government relationship the Quinault statement to the White House Council called for the designation of representatives from the Department of State, Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce joined by President Obama’s Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs and Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs to enter into a dialogue with a Tribal Government Contact Group to discuss and negotiate a “framework for intergovernmental relations between tribal and federal governments.” The White House Council was also urged to recommend to President Obama the designation of a Special Counsel with the “authority of the President” to negotiate settlement of intergovernmental disputes between Indian nations and the United States government.

Clearly, my government welcomes the opportunity to offer concrete comments and recommendations to the White House Council on Native American Affairs as we enter another milestone in President Barack Obama’s commitment to strengthen the government-to-government relationship with Tribal Nations, said Sharp.

The new White House Council was established in a June 26, 2013 executive order by President Obama to improve coordination of federal programs and the use of resources available to tribal communities. It is chaired by the Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, and is comprised of the heads of numerous federal executive departments and agencies. The council conducted a nationwide conference call Tuesday to help determine its mission and future activities, intended to strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship and facilitate the efficient delivery of government services.

If this new White House Council follows the right path, gets out of Washington D.C., works with the tribal nations on a true government-to-government basis and follows through on the need to work with us to find true solutions to our economic crises, we can and will make progress toward a better tomorrow,” said Sharp.

Native American Skills: Making Rope Out of Agave or Yucca

Yucca-for-rope-JillRSource: obrag.org

Remember in the old days before rope was made out of plastic? Back then (and sometimes even now), it was made from sisal. Sisal, Agave sisalana, is a type of agave. I saw it growing in Kenya during my visit. It’s still used there to make rope.

Here in San Diego, we don’t have sisal – but we do have plenty of agave. We’ve also got a few species of yucca, which are also in the Agave family (Agavaceae). So it’s no surprise that the Native Americans here use both yucca and agave to make their cordage.

They also use a plant called Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum a.k.a. Indian hemp), which is related to Milkweed, and I prefer dogbane to agave or yucca. But dogbane is toxic to livestock, so once the Europeans arrived they did what they could to eliminate it. Today, you don’t see too much dogbane around.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve learned to make cordage from agave. Once the cordage is made, Native Americans used it to make everything from nets and fishing poles to bags and shoes. Join me below to see how it’s done.

Yuccas and agaves are in the Agave family, as I noted earlier, but they used to be classified in the Lily family. Like lilies, they are monocots. (Monocots are flowering plants that have one cotyledon, no taproot, flowers with petals typically in multiples of threes, and parallel leaf veins. Grasses, palms, lilies, and irises are also monocots.)

I’m more familiar with our local yucca species than I am with the local agave. We’ve got Hesperoyucca whipplei, a.k.a. Our Lord’s Candle or Chaparral Yucca, and we’ve got Mojave yucca. Both produce edible stalks and flowers, and the roots of the Mojave yucca can be used for soap. And, of course, both can be used for fiber.

It is hard to tell the difference between H. whipplei and Mojave yucca. When they are flowering, it’s easy to tell what’s what, because H. whipplei has a tall stalk with flowers on top, and Mojave yucca flowers are on such a short stalk that they appear adjacent to the leaves. But the leaves are actually quite different. H. whipplei leaves are very thin, and it’s easy to expose the fibers within them using a blunt tool like a rock. Mojave yucca leaves are thick and fleshy, with a thick skin and lots of flesh inside. You can scrape them with a rock all day and it won’t do a thing to them.

One of my Native American instructors told me that H. whipplei fibers are easier to obtain, but Mojave yucca fibers are better. I’d heard that one way to obtain the fibers from these plants was via soaking, so I soaked a Mojave yucca leaf for weeks and weeks. It worked, once the outer parts of the leaf rotted away, but it smelled so bad that I’d never want to use that fiber for anything other than compost. I’d never bothered with agave before because I heard that it can irritate your skin (and it can).

In my tool-making class, I was eager to find out how we would go about obtaining fiber for cordage. The class would be using agave, not yucca. And to get the fiber from the leaves, we would burn them.

One common agave is the Century Plant (Agave americana) but it’s non-native. There’s a native coastal agave that’s somewhat rare. For abundant, native agave, you need to head east into the desert. The instructor for my class, a Kumeyaay Indian, took a few students on a field trip out to the desert – nearly to the city of Borrego Springs, which is smack in the middle of Anza Borrego Desert State Park. There, they found Desert Agave (Agave deserti) and they brought a bunch of it back.

I was not present the day they burned the leaves, so I tried to ask a lot of questions to find out how they did it. The answer was simple: they tossed the leaves in the fire. Completely into the fire. And they let them burn. Not 100%, of course. But they were pretty charred up and burnt by the time they came out of the fire. Then they put them in a bucket of water to keep them moist until we would work with them.

I don’t know if burning the agave solved the problem of skin irritation, but I never had any skin problems with using the agave aside from when I accidentally touched it to a scab on my skin. That didn’t feel very good, but the irritation was pretty minor.

Yucca rope JR 02

 

There are other methods besides burning one can use. I’ve heard boiling the leaves for hours can also work well. For the H. whipplei leaves, I’ve simply scraped them with a rock and that worked fine for me. I think the more elaborate processes are required for the fleshier species of yucca and agave.

Once that’s done, you remove everything but the fibers from the leaves. To start, you need a burnt agave leaf and a blunt knife, rock, or seashell.

You need to scrape the leaf with the shell to remove everything except for the fibers. The inside has a consistency almost like aloe, and the outside is a skin that can almost peel off. Scrape the skin and the gel and try not to break the fibers as you go. After I’ve got most of it done with the shell, I find it’s easiest to start pulling out small bundles of fibers and getting the goo off by hand.

Ultimately, you’ll end up with a big, bunch of fibers that can become your cordage:

Yucca rope JR 03

 

Now you’re ready to actually make your cordage. Here’s a ball of cordage I made from 5 agave leaves. It took me a week, working a little each day:

So how do you do that? There are many other details that I can share, but the main thing is this: You are individually twisting two groups of fibers in one direction, then you twist them together in the opposite direction.

I am left handed, so I hold the two small bundles of fibers – maybe 5-10 fibers per bundle? – in my right hand between my thumb and my fingers. I have one group (let’s call it A) on the top and one group (B) on the bottom. With my left hand, I twist the top group (A) of fibers away from me. Then I twist both groups toward me a half twist. Now the B group is on top. I twist the B group away from me, and I twist both groups together toward me. Just keep repeating that.

Yucca rope JR 04

 

This way, each bundle of fibers will be twisted in one direction (away from you) individually, and in the opposite direction (toward you) together. I hold them together with my right hand to prevent them from untwisting, but you’ll find that when you’ve done a little bit of this and you let go, it barely unravels.

The first problem you’ll encounter is when you do a bit of twisting and you’ve got an inch or two of cordage – but the agave or yucca fibers you’re working with are short and you’ve come to the end of them. How do you make a longer piece of cordage?

When you’re a few inches from the end of the fibers you’re working with, you add more and just twist them right in. Believe it or not, the cordage is so strong with all of your twisting, that the new fibers you’ve twisted in will stay put.

As noted above, the small ball made from five agave leaves took me a week. I didn’t work on it full-time of course, just a little every day. If you do more than that, you’ll chafe the skin on your fingers.

I am sorry that I don’t have better photos or a better description of how to do this. I’ve found instructions on the internet here and I think it confused me more than it helped me. But they’ve got good diagrams so you might like to take a look at it. There are more details I can provide but I’m afraid that without decent pictures to go along with them, more details would just serve to make readers more confused. So instead,

 

Indian voting centers not approved by state elections board

Jul. 31, 2013

Jonathan Ellis Argus Leader.com

The South Dakota Board of Elections on Wednesday declined to endorse a proposal from an advocacy group that called for using federal funds to establish satellite voting centers in three predominantly Native American towns.

Four Directions Inc. of Mission requested that the board endorse its plan to use money from the Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed after the contentious 2000 presidential election to modernize voting procedures and administration. The state has about $9 million remaining in HAVA funds, and for less than $50,000 an election, HAVA funds could be used to establish satellite voting centers in Wanblee, Eagle Butte and Fort Thompson.

All three towns have larger populations than their respective county seats. Fort Thompson, for example, has a population of 1,375 people, while the county seat of Buffalo County, Gann Valley, has a population of 14. County seats, however, are the only places where people can cast in-person absentee ballots.

The group’s proposal called for setting up the satellite stations in the three towns 46 days before primary and general elections so that their operations would mirror election activities in the county seats. The towns are heavily Native American, with populations ranging from 89 percent to 97 percent.

The proposal also had the backing of the county governments as well as three tribes, the Cheyenne River, Crow Creek and Oglala Sioux tribes. OJ Semans, the executive director of Four Directions, and spokesman Bret Healy told the board that they think Secretary of State Jason Gant has the authority to use HAVA funds for the satellite offices.

“This is a very, very simple deal. You can either say yes, or either say no,” Semans told the seven-member board, which includes Gant.

Gant, however, insisted that before he could authorize HAVA funds for the satellite offices, he wanted approval from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which administers the HAVA process.

Wednesday’s meeting, which took place over a teleconference, was cut short when an automated operator announced the teleconference was coming to an end. Board member Linda Lea Viken insisted that the meeting continue.

Read more here.

Using the right word — genocide — to describe Canada’s treatment of Aboriginal peoples

1372084280_1ROCHELLE JOHNSTON

JULY 31, 2013 rabble.ca

While riding the elevator together, our Canada Post mail carrier peered over my shoulder at the front page of my newspaper. Pointing to the article on Aboriginal children being starved in government research experiments, in a strong Eastern European accent he exclaimed, “Shameful! Just like what the Nazis and then the Soviets did to us. And here in Canada we let them get away with it?”

According to Raphael Lemkin, the inventor of the term genocide and the reason we now consider it a crime, genocide is a coordinated plan aimed at destroying a group. Despite popular misconceptions, it doesn’t require killing all, or even some of the members of the group.

While there may not have been a master plan to execute every Aboriginal person in Canada, throughout much of our history there has been a deeply and widely held belief that First Nations, Metis and Inuit, as groups, should cease to exist. Reducing the number of Aboriginal people and eliminating those who weren’t willing to assimilate into Euro-Canadian society was helpful to this cause. Evidence of genocidal desires can be found in any number of government documents and public statements, and when the conditions were right, Canadians, whether bureaucrats, researchers, doctors, missionaries, social workers or entrepreneurs, felt justified in carrying out a range of genocidal acts.

The time has come for non-Aboriginal Canadians to wake up and stop hiding behind words like cultural genocide and convoluted legal defenses. Forcibly transferring children from one group of people to another, like in the Indian Residential School System and the “Sixties Scoop” which adopted out Aboriginal children to white families, is explicitly forbidden in article 2e of the UN Genocide Convention. Deliberately starving children is too according to articles 2b and 2c.

If it wasn’t for Canada, and a contingent of colonizing nations who in 1948 gutted a whole section of the UN Genocide Convention, the other “kinder” and “gentler” techniques of genocide we were and are still using against Aboriginal peoples would also be crimes. As historical research like Dr. Ian Mosby’s is beginning to show us non-Aboriginal Canadians — it’s not news to our Aboriginal neighbours — we used biological and physical techniques of genocide when we could get away with it.

If we really want to move ahead as a nation, reconcile with Aboriginal peoples, and ensure “Never again!” then an apology for their inhumane treatment in state sanctioned research experiments is not enough. Our government needs to put the pieces together and acknowledge that we did try to eliminate First Nations, Metis and Inuit as groups. Thank the Creator that we mostly failed.

Rochelle Johnston is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Toronto on bystanding behavior in the context of colonial genocides. She has also worked for over a decade in various capacities as an advocate for the rights of young people in Canada and Sudan.

Lummi Nation’s stance could stop proposed coal terminal

August 1, 2013

By JOHN STARK — THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

Lummi Nation Natural Resources Director Merle Jefferson says the tribe is ready to send an official letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announcing its opposition to the Gateway Pacific Terminal project at Cherry Point – a move that could stop the federal permit process for the coal terminal dead in its tracks.

The Army Corps has the authority to grant some key permits that SSA Marine of Seattle will need in order to construct its three-vessel pier at Cherry Point. On other projects, the federal agency has refused to process permit applications if Indian tribes contend that those projects would violate their treaty rights as defined by numerous federal court rulings.

During a Wednesday, July 31, press conference, an Army Corps official stopped short of saying that Lummi Nation has the power to block Gateway Pacific. But she indicated that her agency might decide to stop processing its permits if the Lummis raise formal objections.

Muffy Walker, Army Corps of Engineers regulatory branch chief in Seattle, said her agency was aware that Lummi leaders had spoken out against Gateway Pacific, but the federal agency had not received a “formal response” from the tribe saying they see no chance of reaching an agreement with SSA Marine to compensate for the project’s impacts.

“If the Lummis come to that position, it will make us reassess the direction we are going,” Walker said. “We have denied permits in the past, based on tribal concerns.”

Jefferson said tribal officials had assumed that their position was clear in the 34 pages of objections they had offered the Corps and other regulatory agencies as part of the environmental study scope process. Among other things, tribal officials say the project will interfere with tribal fishing and disrupt an important cultural site.

Once Lummi officials learned that the Corps wanted a formal letter notifying them of the tribe’s position, the tribal council quickly agreed to draft that letter. Jefferson said that letter should be on its way to the Corps by Friday, Aug. 2.

Jefferson also stopped short of saying that the tribe has the power to block the project. He did say that the tribe has a strong legal position based on treaty rights.

Lummi officials took a non-committal stance on Gateway Pacific when it was first announced, saying the tribe would take no position until its impacts got thorough study. The tribal newspaper published a series of reports outlining benefits as well as drawbacks from the project, and reported that SSA Marine had provided the tribe with $400,000 to help the tribe pay for its own study of the project.

But by September 2012, after an upwelling of opposition from tribal members, tribal council representatives met on the beach at Cherry Point to announce firm opposition to the project. Later in the fall, tribal officials were outspoken in their opposition when county, state and federal officials convened meetings to gather public comments.

SSA Marine Vice President Bob Watters said his company wants to continue to work with Lummi Nation to resolve the tribe’s concerns on both fishing rights and possible disruption of ancient tribal burials believed to exist at the site.

“We are committed to addressing Lummi concerns in detail,” Watters said in an email. “Our approach will be first to avoid impacts, then to minimize unavoidable impacts, and finally, to mitigate and positively address what remaining impacts there may be in a mutually satisfactory way.”

Watters added that his company is now conducting a study on the impacts of vessel traffic to the terminal site, with input from Lummi officials.

Reach John Stark at 360-715-2274 or john.stark@bellinghamherald.com. Read his Politics blog atblogs.bellinghamherald.com/politics or follow him on Twitter at @bhamheraldpolitics.

An Indigenous Way of Life Threatened by Oil Sands in Canada

Ian Willms has photographed the effects of oil extraction on First Nations land in Fort McKay and Fort Chipewyan, in northern Alberta, Canada. Mr. Willms, 28, based in Toronto, is a founding member of the Boreal Collectiveand spent several months over the last three years photographing his project “As Long as the Sun Shines.” His interview with James Estrin has been edited and condensed.

 

By JAMES ESTRIN July 30, 2013

The New York Times

Q.

How did this project start?

A.

When I graduated from school in 2008 I was hearing a lot about the oil sands in Canada. So I started doing research, and the more I learned, the more horrified I became.

I read a CBC article about cancer rates in indigenous communities that immediately surrounded the oil sands, and I knew right then that was exactly what I had to do. I searched pretty thoroughly for anybody who had done a proper photo story on the community, and I couldn’t find anything that was particularly in-depth.

Q.

What did you find when you got there?

A.

I found a community that was far more developed economically than I had expected. There was a lot of infrastructure, and the homes were more modern than most First Nations communities. That has a lot to do with the proximity to the oil sands and the economic benefit that comes with that.

But the community is still struggling. First Nation reserves are still very dark and damaged places in many ways, and in other ways, they’re incredibly vibrant. So it was not as bleak as I expected it to be. If you didn’t already know that their water was basically coming off of a storm pipe of one of the largest polluting industrial projects in the world, you wouldn’t.

Q.

A lot of photographers who photograph native peoples in North America just hit and run. How did you go about capturing a fuller view?

A.

Well, the most important thing is time. And it’s always going to be more time than anyone’s going to be willing to pay you for.

Beyond that, I think it’s a matter of becoming invested in people’s lives, because if you don’t care, they won’t. And if you fake it, people know. People aren’t stupid. If you treat them like they’re stupid, they’re never going to trust you. And so I spent a lot of time there, I made a lot of friends.

There are a lot if white journalists that go into indigenous communities in North America with a preconceived notion of what these people are like and what they need. But in truth this attitude is just a continuation of the abuse of those people.

What the first nations really need is the respect and the confidence of the rest of Canada, to tell their own stories and to manage their own communities. They need to be empowered but they don’t need others to tell them what to do.

I continually show my subjects the work that I do in these communities and ask if I am getting this right.

Q.

Tell me more about the oil sands.

A.

There’s an oil reserve that’s located beneath Canada’s boreal forest that’s roughly the size of the state of Florida. It’s rich with oil, but the process of extracting it is incredibly energy intensive, difficult and expensive.

The process involved first clear-cutting the forest and then creating a strip mine. They dig the sandy oil out. It’s like hot asphalt. On a hot day, it’s very gooey and very much like tar.

The environmental toll is dramatic. There was a study by an NGO in Toronto, Environmental Defense, that in 2008 found that about 11 million liters of toxins were leaking into the Athabasca River every single day from several toxic-base water lakes in the oil sands region.

Q.

What’s the effect on the people?

A.

It has brought more money into the communities than there was before. With that said, it’s really a small fraction of what they’re actually entitled to. These First Nations get really bad deals from the oil companies in order to leave their lands for oil.

A career in the oil sands may sound good to some people, but really it is the death of their culture because it’s taking the new generation to work toward a completely different way of life. And it’s a way of life that embraces the destruction of their land.

The Canadian Indian Residential School System was a cultural assimilation program that saw aboriginal children taken from their parents and forced to live in these boarding schools. Generations of children were physically and sexually abused in residential schools across Canada. The last federally operated residential school closed in 1996.

There’s a lot of grief, especially among the elders in the community, over the younger generation not taking an interest in hunting and fishing and trapping. And there’s a lot of conflict among the generation in between the youth and the elders — the generation that are in their late 20s to their 50s; the people who work in the oil sands but grew up hunting, fishing and trapping.

They are very conflicted, because they know what they’re doing. They know that they’re taking away their own land. But they do it because there’s no other option for them to make money. There’s no other way for them to feed their families. These communities are no longer able to be self sufficient off the land like they had been for thousands of years.

 

Read the full article and view photo slideshow here. View Ian Willms work here.

Fishing For Compliments: Chief Joseph Hatchery Opens 70 Years Late

Jack McNeelMore than 100 sockeye salmon were smoked to serve at the official opening of the Chief Joseph Hatchery of the Colville Confederated Tribes, on June 20, 2013. Chinook is what the hatchery will breed.
Jack McNeel
More than 100 sockeye salmon were smoked to serve at the official opening of the Chief Joseph Hatchery of the Colville Confederated Tribes, on June 20, 2013. Chinook is what the hatchery will breed.

Jack McNeel

ICTMN.COM July 22, 2013

The salmon once swam freely throughout the upper Columbia River, and plucking them from the waters represented an opportunity to benefit all the Colville Tribes by sharing the bounty.

“What a beautiful experience it was,” said Mel Taulou, an elder of the Colville Confederated Tribes, at a recent ceremony celebrating the first fish to be taken from the Chief Joseph Hatchery. He and others spoke of the sharing associated with fishing, of the exchange of fishing gear if someone was lacking something, and of sharing their catch with elders, friends and family.

“You gave freely. Everybody did. That’s the way it was,” said tribal member and longtime fisherman Lionel Orr, who sang in honor of the first fish as it was lifted from the river in the First Salmon ceremony. “That’s the way I was taught by the older fishermen.”

The salmon was then filleted, smoked, and later everyone present at the pre-opening ceremony was offered a taste of the first salmon.

About 800 people gathered near Chief Joseph Dam for the grand opening of the brand new Chief Joseph Hatchery on a rainy, overcast June 20. The water did not dampen their enthusiasm. Rather, since rain fills the rivers for salmon and is the lifeblood of the region, it was welcomed on this day in particular.

Although the day included a ribbon cutting and other opening celebrations, it was also an opportunity to honor the fishermen and their contributions to keeping this part of tribal custom alive and in passing their knowledge on to younger tribal members. The crowd gathered around tables under a huge tent to listen as representatives from tribal, state and federal agencies spoke about the history leading to this moment and what the hatchery would mean for the future.

The celebration concluded with tours of the hatchery, a full lunch featuring salmon, and the traditional ribbon cutting signifying the opening of the hatchery and completion of a promise made seven decades earlier.

The salmon’s freedom was first cut off by a series of dams that impeded their return to the spawning grounds. In the 1930s a number of dams throughout the Columbia basin were being planned, and tribes in the region were bracing themselves for the disastrous effect these constructs would have on fish runs and thus on tribal members’ lives. Four hatcheries were promised to help mitigate those effects on the Entiat, Wenatchee, Methow and Okanogan watersheds.

“Three of the four hatcheries were constructed between 1939 and 1942,” said Jim Brown, with the Washington Department of Fisheries and Game. Then came World War II. The hatchery plans were put on hold. Chief Joseph Hatchery, the fourth, had to wait. The wait is now over.

“Today’s event gives us the chance to celebrate the fulfillment of the 70-year old commitment,” Brown said at the opening. “Chief Joseph Hatchery is a tremendous accomplishment.”

The hatchery sits on 15 acres of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property within the Colville Indian Reservation. It will be managed by the Colville Tribes under guidelines recommended by scientists as requested by Congress. It includes 40 raceways, each measuring 10 feet by 40 feet, plus three rearing ponds and three acclimation ponds, some onsite and some offsite.

“This is a modern hatchery built to the highest modern standards of science,” said Lorri Bodi of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). “It represents 30 years or more of progress in trying to meet the commitments by the federal government to tribes and the region. It represents a major step in our efforts to get fish back into the rivers of the Northwest.”

It was a collaborative effort involving the Colville Tribe, BPA, US Army Corps of Engineers, several Public Utility Districts and the NW Power & ‘Conservation Council. Funding came from the BPA and area public utility districts, Bodi said.

Colville Tribal Chairman John Sirois, center, cuts the ribbon for the long-awaited Chief Joseph Hatchery on the Colville Reservation, June 20, 2013. He is flanked by representatives of partner groups from the federal and tribal governments. (Photo: Jack McNeel)
Colville Tribal Chairman John Sirois, center, cuts the ribbon for the long-awaited Chief Joseph Hatchery on the Colville Reservation, June 20, 2013. He is flanked by representatives of partner groups from the federal and tribal governments. (Photo: Jack McNeel)

The $50 million hatchery will annually release up to 2.9 million chinook salmon.

“We’re going to see natural spawning of fall and summer chinook in the Okanogan River and we’re going to see spring chinook in the Okanogan basin for the first time in many, many years,” said Tom Karier from the Northwest Power & Conservation Council.

“It’s been a historic day,” said Tribal Chairman John Sirois, who was the day’s emcee. “It really touched my heart hearing stories from our elders about our history. We are salmon people. The salmon sacrifice for us in a sacred way. We also make that sacred commitment to them, to provide their water. I am so grateful, thankful and humbled by all the work that went into making this hatchery possible.”

Scrub-A-Mutt returns for sixth year Aug. 17

Source: Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — Scrub-A-Mutt is returning for its sixth annual fundraising dog wash on Saturday, Aug. 17, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. As always, the dog wash will take place at the Strawberry Fields Athletic Park, located at 6100 152nd St. NE in Marysville.

Suggested donations for dog washes are $5 for small dogs and $10 for large dogs. Groomers and vet techs will be doing nail trims for suggested donations of $5 per dog. The first 250 dogs washed will receive stylish bandanas and “doggie goodie bags,” with treats and gifts for their dogs.

In addition to the dog washing, the site will host vendor booths for dog-themed businesses, like Furizzy and City Bones Barkery, as well as a wide array of dog rescue groups, including Bulldog Haven, Seattle Pug Rescue, the NOAH Center and more. Human visitors can enjoy snacks from Surf Shake Espresso, Sturgis Kettle Korn and the Hillside Church.

There will be three police K9 demonstrations this year; the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department at 11:30 a.m., the Everett Police Department at 1 p.m. and the Marysville Police Department at 2:30 p.m. The Sun Dogs Agility Group will be on hand all day, with demonstrations and a training course for newcomers to the sport of agility.

“It seems like each year, our event gets more exciting,” said Elizabeth Woche, co-director of Scrub-A-Mutt. “Between the three police K9 demos, the all-day dog agility and our fun new vendor booths, even I can’t wait for the event day.”

The raffle tent is a familiar favorite at Scrub-A-Mutt, offering rows upon rows of gift baskets with the purchase of $1 tickets. Most of the baskets are dog-themed, with treats for both dogs and their owners.

Scrub-A-Mutt primarily raises money for three local dog rescue organizations; Old Dog Haven, NOAH and the Everett Animal Shelter. Additional rescue groups do receive donations based on the amount of money raised at the event. All of the event day proceeds are donated to rescue efforts.

Old ­Dog Haven is a nonprofit dog rescue group in Arlington that aims to provide loving and safe homes for abandoned senior dogs. Their website and outreach program finds “forever homes” for dogs 7 years or older.

NOAH is the Animal Adoption Center located in Stanwood that works toward stopping the euthanasia of healthy, adoptable dogs and cats, and has a strong spay and neuter program. They partner with local shelters, providing pets a second chance for a home.

The Everett Animal Shelter and ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation) care for lost or unwanted pets from most of Snohomish County. The staff and volunteers prepare unwanted animals for adoption. ARF’s mission is to improve the quality of life for companion animals and their caretakers in Snohomish County, through increased community involvement and fundraising with and for the Everett Animal Shelter.

Scrub-A-Mutt would like to remind dog owners to keep their pets on leashes at all times, and to remember that a well-socialized, well-behaved dog is a pleasure to wash. Visit their website at www.scrub-a-mutt.org for a map to the event and a complete guide of the day’s activities. Find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ScrubAMutt for updates.

For more information, call Jennifer Ward at 360-659-9626.