The following is an update of Safe Kids activities in Snohomish County.
What’s New?
New Look! Safe Kids Worldwide has a new look. In the next couple of weeks you will see our logo and branding colors change.
New Safe Kids Washington Director! Welcome Julie Alonso, Child Injury Prevention Specialist with the Department of Health. We look forward to seeing all the great things she has planned for our state.
New Role! Kristen Thorstenson is now the new Safe Kids Coordinator for Evergreen Healthcare. Kristen will be stepping down as VP of Media but continuing as our Child Passenger Safety Chair. Thank you Kristen for all your work in Snohomish County and best of luck in your new role!
Meeting Dates & Educational Presentation:
*We meet quarterly to discuss new programs, grant opportunities, budget and funding, membership, media/outreach and more. Following our meeting we will host an educational presentation & lunch—both are FREE to Safe Kids members and as well as the community. Reminders are sent out two weeks prior to the scheduled date.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
9-9:45 am — Safe Kids Meeting @ Providence Pavilion, Third Floor Conference Room
10-12:00 pm — “Sports Safety & Concussion Prevention” presented by Kelly Allen, RN, Trauma Coordinator, PRMCE
Thursday, June 20, 2013
9-9:45 am — Safe Kids Meeting @ Providence Pavilion, Third Floor Conference Room
10-12:00 pm – “Drowning Prevention & Boating Safety” presented by Rodney Rochon, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Kim Schroeder, Fire District One
Thursday, September 26, 2013
9-9:45 am — Safe Kids Meeting @ Providence Pavilion, Third Floor Conference Room
10-12:00 pm – “Child Passenger Safety for the Provider” presented by Kristen Thorstenson, SafeKeepers, llc
Child Passenger Safety Events
May 16 @ Navy NEX, Smokey Point
July 18 @ Molina Healthcare, Everett Mall Way
September 20 @ Babies R Us, Lynnwood.
Bike/Pedestrian
National Bike to School Day Event, May 8 @ Cedar Valley Community School, Lynnwood
Drowning Prevention
Life jacket loaner cabinets are scheduled to open on Memorial Day, May 27, 2013
Sports Safety & Concussion Prevention
Join us April 18, 2013 for an in depth look at concussions, second impact syndrome and prevention. Learn how to host a concussion clinic and more.
Home Safety
Includes falls, fire/burns, poisoning, drowning and more. Last year we saw a 29% increase in window falls! Children also suffer burns that include campfire, BBQ’s and fireworks. We received an Medication Safety Grant from Safe Kids Worldwide and will be rolling out a campaign to reduce accidental poisonings. Every year, more than 67,000 children are treated in emergency departments. That’s one child every 8 minutes.
Please Join us in Protecting Tulalip Children from Child Sexual Abuse
The Legacy of Healing Child Advocacy Center is Hosting 3 Lunchtime Events at the Tulalip Tribes Administration Building:
Wednesday April 10th 12-1 Room 162
Question & Answer format: Ask your Questions about Preventing & Healing from Child Abuse.
No need to sign up-Pizza provided Room 162
Wednesday April 17th 12-2 Room 162
Stewards of Children-Free abuse prevention training. Designed for adults to learn how to prevent, recognize and react to child sexual abuse. One hour of education leave in addition to your lunch break (with supervisor approval).
Stewards of Children-Free abuse prevention training. Designed for adults to learn how to prevent, recognize and react to child sexual abuse. One hour of education leave in addition to your lunch break (with supervisor approval).
Photo courtesy of Rep. John McCoy Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, during his Air Force duty in the 1960s. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, McCoy was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, a major supply base for U.S. forces in the Vietnam War.
There was no heroes’ welcome. When Tim McDonald and other Americans returned from their Vietnam War duty, they were ignored or worse.
“Many Vietnam veterans, myself included, we didn’t feel the support of the nation at all,” he said Thursday.
McDonald, 65, was in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. He was in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971.
It was 40 years ago today — March 29, 1973 — that the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam, officially ending direct American military involvement in the Vietnam War. Two years later, in 1975, the Saigon government fell.
McDonald lives on Whidbey Island. He is retiring today from his job as director of the Snohomish Health District’s communicable disease control division. Not only does the Vietnam War seem like ages ago, he said, “it seems like an entire separate universe.”
One major difference between then and now is the honor accorded servicemen and women returning from war. Today, Americans are united in our gratitude for veterans’ military service.
During the Vietnam War era, that wasn’t so. Troops came home to anti-war demonstrations, and were ignored or insulted.
Today, our state takes a step toward righting a wrong. At 9:15 a.m., Gov. Jay Inslee plans to sign House Bill 1319, an act declaring that March 30 be recognized each year as Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day in Washington state.
Not a legal holiday, it’s a day of remembrance on which public places will display the POW-MIA flag along with the American flag. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima, and a number of co-sponsors, including Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip.
The proposal was brought to Johnson by a member of the Yakama Warriors Association, an American Indian veterans group in Eastern Washington.
An Air Force veteran, McCoy was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in 1968. That was the year of the Tet Offensive, heavy attacks by North Vietnamese forces. Clark Air Base was the major supply base for U.S. forces in Vietnam.
McCoy didn’t serve in Vietnam, but his memories of seeing what happened there are vivid.
“My place of work was across the street from the base morgue. I did see coffins stacked up,” McCoy said Wednesday.
He said his wife Jeannie had the harder time. A civilian worker in the base hospital’s records section, “she had to take records all over the facility,” McCoy said. “Hallways, waiting rooms, everywhere was clogged with the wounded, still in battle uniforms. It took her a long time to get over that.”
It is decades late, but McCoy hopes the day to welcome Vietnam veterans home will make a meaningful statement.
“My hope is that it brings closure for the troops, that their service is acknowledged and that it was not in vain,” McCoy said. “We still have veterans — that war will never leave them. They still struggle with it,” he said.
After Inslee signs the bill, the state House and Senate will honor Vietnam veterans. There will also be a short ceremony today at the Washington State Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Capitol campus.
“Too often our Vietnam veterans returned home to a less than grateful nation, so it is fitting that we embrace these heroes today,” Alfie Alvarado, director of the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs, said in a statement Thursday. She said Washington is home to more than 200,000 Vietnam veterans.
Heidi Audette, a spokeswoman for the state’s veterans department, said Vietnam veterans are encouraged to seek the benefits they earned. “There are specific problems tied to exposure to Agent Orange. It’s not too late to go back to the VA, for either health care services or disability compensation,” she said.
Tim Davis is the manager and head clinician at the Everett Vet Center, a facility of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The treatment Vietnam vets got after they got back home from Vietnam was almost criminal. They felt the rejection by the general population,” Davis said.
He believes that even if Vietnam veterans say the welcome-home day is coming way too late, the state’s action will touch them. “What they will say is, ‘It’s too late.’ The reality will be something different,” Davis said.
In recent years, veterans have told Davis that strangers have come up to thank them after seeing a baseball cap or other indication that they served in Vietnam. “They tell me this in tears,” he said.
Davis served in the Army from 1969 until 1991. During the Vietnam War, he worked in amputee services at Valley Forge Army General Hospital in Pennsylvania.
Today, he helps veterans of all ages who suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
“It doesn’t matter if it was Somalia or Vietnam or Iraq, it’s all the same. But these young kids coming back have some appreciation from the country,” Davis said. “It’s different from Vietnam. They don’t understand what it feels like to be rejected by your country.”
McDonald, the Vietnam veteran from Whidbey, appreciates the welcome.
“The legislators who wrote this law did it to try to balance what happened in the past,” McDonald said. “They were doing something good. They really had their hearts in the right place.”
Herald writer Jerry Cornfield contributed to this story.
Brayan joined a gang when he was in middle school. But now the high-school senior is graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average, speaking out about his past and looking at a future that includes community college and a career.
By Sarah Freishtat, The Seattle Times
The first time Brayan ever held a gun, he pointed it at a woman stepping out of a gray Lexus in Everett and stole her purse — his initiation into an older cousin’s gang.
He was 12 years old at the time.
“I was losing control of my life,” said Brayan, now 17 and a 4.0 student at Scriber Lake High School in Edmonds.
As part of his senior project, Brayan recently screened for other students a documentary titled “Minor Differences,” which tracks the lives of five former juvenile inmates over 18 years, and organized discussions with two of the men afterward.
Brayan stood in front of the students and faculty and staff members — almost 200 were present — and laughed nervously at first. Then his voice deepened, and he launched into his cautionary tale, explaining why his classmates should carefully consider the choices they make.
They listened intently. Afterward they broke into small groups and spoke candidly among themselves about their own mistakes and their hopes for better futures.
“He has a real sense of what he wants,” Scriber Lake teacher Marjie Bowker said. “I think that he gets frustrated when he sees other students that are making dumb decisions, because to him, he’s already gone through that.”
Brayan is part of Bowker’s writing program, in which he and other students worked with Seattle author Ingrid Ricks to write personal essays, which they published in a book titled “We Are Absolutely Not Okay.”
Brayan wrote his story under a pen name because, like many former gang members, he doesn’t want his past to be held against him. It’s for that reason that he also asked to be identified only by his first name in this story.
Brayan plans to attend Edmonds Community College in the fall and hopes to work with prisoners one day.
Brayan said that when he arrived in this area from Mexico City, he was 10 and knew only his parents and an older cousin. His cousin had joined a gang, and Brayan wanted to follow in his footsteps.
He ran away from home when he was 12 and joined one of the gangs that was active at the time in Snohomish County.
For three years, he said, he spent his days staking out turf with his gang in a haze of pot and beer.
He lived with “sort of a feeling of desperation,” he said, a dread “that I’m going to get locked up, or someone is going to come and shoot me.”
Then the gang tried to pin a murder on his cousin, he said. Betrayed by their group, Brayan, then 15, and his cousin wanted out. He said his cousin cooperated with police on the case, and the gang dissolved.
Even so, he said, he couldn’t shake the gang mentality. He moved back home but said he was expelled from school for selling and using drugs.
He applied to Scriber Lake, a small public school students can choose to attend if they want a fresh start. He showed up to his first day of school ready to prove how tough he was to other gang members, but didn’t find any. Instead he met Bowker, he said, and straightened out his ways.
He knows he could have gone the way of one of the former gangbangers featured in “Minor Differences” who spoke to Brayan’s classmates as part of Brayan’s senior project.
Now 35, the former gang member said after the screening that he began running with a South Seattle gang when he was 13, went to prison for robbery at 16 and, after his release, returned to robbery and sold drugs, only to land back in prison
“You try to do other things as far as get a job, you try to be straight and narrow,” he said. “And when that doesn’t work … you go back to selling drugs.”
A federal judge has ordered culvert repairs to ensure tribes have fish to catch, as guaranteed by their treaty rights. The ruling could have broader impact on other types of development.
By Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times
A long-awaited tribal fishing-rights decision by a federal judge Friday means the state must immediately accelerate more than $1 billion in repairs to culverts that run beneath state roads and block access to some 1,000 miles of salmon habitat.
The ruling comes out of the landmark 1974 Boldt decision, which upheld the rights of tribes to fish. The ruling Friday by U.S.District Judge Ricardo Martinez in Seattle is aimed at ensuring the tribes have fish to catch.
The ruling could eventually result in other court-ordered restoration work, according to tribal leaders and policy experts.
“This culvert case is a ringing of the bell, OK you got to wake up,” said Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. “We have to protect and restore the environment while we continue to look creatively for ways to develop new job and industry opportunities.”
Martinez ordered the state departments of fish and wildlife, parks, transportation, and natural resources to accelerate work to remove, replace and repair about 1,000 culverts to help restore salmon runs within 17 years.
The state Attorney General’s Office had not decided as of Friday whether to appeal the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Martinez ruled in 2007 that Washington was violating tribal treaty rights by failing to protect salmon runs. He ordered the state and tribes to negotiate a schedule for fixing the culverts that block salmon passage to their habitat, but the parties were unable to reach agreement.
Friday’s order set standards and a deadline for the repairs.
While 17 years sounds like a long time, it’s been a dozen years since the tribes in 2001 asked Martinez to find that the state has a treaty-based right to preserve salmon runs and compel it to repair or replace culverts that impede them.
Many of the agencies have a backlog of plugged or failing culverts, the pipes that carry water beneath the state’s roadways.
The state has performed some $55 million in repairs to culverts since 2001, according to the Attorney General’s Office. However, the judge noted in his order that “despite past state action, a great many barrier culverts still exist, large stretches of potential salmon habitat remain empty of fish, and harvests are still diminished.”
Allowing salmon runs to decline further is a fundamental violation of promises made in the treaties of 1854 and 1855, Martinez wrote, under which tribes ceded most of what is present-day Western Washington.
“Governor Stevens assured the Tribes that even after they ceded huge quantities of land, they would still be able to feed themselves and their families forever,” Martinez wrote, referring to Isaac Stevens, Washington’s first territorial governor. “The promise made to the Tribes that the Stevens treaties would protect their source of food and commerce was crucial in obtaining that assent to the Treaties provision.”
While the order signed Friday focused on culverts, it may potentially have broader application to other habitat insults that harm salmon.
“Everyone knows there is a number of issues out there with regard to forestry, farming, development and standards that go along with all those different industries,” Allen said. “This case helps raise those issues on the radar.”
But the tribes’ main objective isn’t for the ruling to threaten the ability to create jobs, build homes and prosper, Allen said.
“It is a balance, so what do we do? It definitely lends itself as a steppingstone to the other issues, saying these are the other problems, and what are we going to do about them. It has to be part of the cost of doing business.”
In the short term, Brian Cladoosby, chairman of the Swinomish Tribe and Association of Washington Tribes, said tribes want to sit down with the state to figure out a schedule and budget to implement the order.
“The tribes have always been, I feel, like in a war, and this is just one of those battles,” he said. “We have to be humble in victory and now hopefully go forward working on a plan with the state to tackle this.”
He called the order a victory not only for tribes, but all of the state’s citizens. “The Creator blessed us with one of the greatest natural resources, and it is enjoyed by people of all colors, not just tribes.”
Robert Anderson, director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law, said it is yet to be seen how far the implications of the order reach into other types of development and habitat protection and repair.
“But this is a legal shot across the bow,” Anderson said, “indicating that more needs to be done to repair habitat and stop further damage.”
Will Stelle, Northwest regional director for the National Marine Fisheries Service, called the order “sobering and significant” because it cements the fact that treaty rights are not only a federal obligation.
Ultimately, the case is about more than culverts, or fish, said Fawn Sharp, president of the Quinault Indian Nation. The tribes want to protect not just a crucial food source, but a way of life, for Indians and non-Indians alike, she said.
“People will look back at this point in history, and I am confident that when the tribes stepped up to do this, they took a critical role in protecting Washington as we know it and the way we live here,” Sharp said.
“That is true for generations to come, and non-Indians will appreciate it, too. There is a common denominator with other residents that share these values.”
Source: Kelsie Dry, Co-Founder/Co-Chair, Tulalip Great Strides, Keldan2006@comcast.net
Team Keldan 2011
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s “Tulalip Great Strides 2013” planning is underway for the July 13, 2013 walk. Kelsie Dry, Brandy Krug and Megan Talbot announced today that they already have 8 walking Teams signed up for the event and all are busy recruiting pledges and additional teams.
As it gets closer to the walk more teams are expected to sign up at www.cff.org/great_strides, three of the original teams that signed up were the first to resign, Keldan’s Team, Brenna’s Butterflies, and Tulalip Lions Club Team, a new team this year that is already signed up is the Marysville Wrestling Team.
As you may not be aware this is the only event for Snohomish County, and it is an easy walk, only 3 miles and it is not uphill both ways. The course is flat, from the Tulalip Amphitheatre past the Seattle Outlet Mall around the back of the Tulalip Casino down towards Wal-Mart them back to the Amphitheatre for lunch and entertainment.
The Tulalip Great Strides was started by Kelsie Dry and Brandy Krug, both parents of children who are afflicted with Cystic Fibrosis and felt the need to do something to make life easier for those suffering with CF.
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation designates 90% of the monies collected to go to research for the cure for Cystic Fibrosis. In order to keep costs down the committee has invited local business to make an in kind donation of services and or items for the live raffle to be held at the time of the event following the light lunch.
Why We Stride
In 2012, nearly $40 million was raised to help support life-saving research, quality care, and education programs. Real progress toward a cure has been made, but the lives of young people with CF are still cut far too short. We urgently need the public’s continued support to fulfill our mission and help extend the lives of those with the disease
Thank you team captains for getting signed up and working on fund raising. Please keep up the good work.
New children’s book shows readers the power of perseverance
DAMASCUS, Md. – Author Azi Sabi Kaider’s new children’s book, “Angela’s Sunflower” (published by AuthorHouse), helps young readers see that they can overcome anything if they have confidence in themselves.
“‘Angela’s Sunflower’ is a success story about a true event in the life of a young girl who cultivated an amazing sunflower from an otherwise ill-destined seed,” explains Kaider. Her message is simple: have confidence to press forward in the presence of doubt.
An excerpt from the book:
‘“Oh, Angela!” winced her mother. “I’m not sure this seed will grow now, sweetheart.” She didn’t want her daughter to be disappointed, but Angela’s mother tried to explain that the saliva from her mouth might prevent the seed from growing.
Angela was not concerned, not even a little bit. She was convinced that her tiny seed would grow into a spectacular flower.
…And water she did. She watered and she watered. Every day, Angela kept her promise.’
“In today’s society, we hear increasingly tragic events and their impact on young children,” says the author. “Stories like ‘Angela’s Sunflower’ provide a positive message to inspire and provide encouragement to children.”
“Angela’s Sunflower”
By Azi Sabi Kaider
Softcover | 8.5 x 11in | 24 pages | ISBN 9781477297032
E-Book | 24 pages | ISBN 9781481710701
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Azi Sabi Kaider lives in Damascus, Md. When not playing the role of Supermom, chauffeur or helping people find their dream home as a licensed realtor, Kaider spends her time kickboxing, reading, gardening and playing Angry Birds.
AuthorHouse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is a leading provider of book publishing, marketing, and bookselling services for authors around the globe and offers the industry’s only suite of Hollywood book-to-film services. Committed to providing the highest level of customer service, AuthorHouse assigns each author personal publishing and marketing consultants who provide guidance throughout the process. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse celebrated 15 years of service to authors in Sept. 2011.For more information or to publish a book visit authorhouse.com or call 1-888-519-5121. For the latest, follow @authorhouse on Twitter.
Courtesy photo. Dr. Becky Berg officially starts as the new superintendent of the Marysville School District on July 1.
MARYSVILLE — Dr. Becky Berg is still mapping out her transition between the Deer Park School District, where she currently serves as superintendent, and the Marysville School District, for which she was selected as the new superintendent on March 28, but between now and when she officially starts her new job on July 1, Berg aims to get up to speed in short order.
“I intend to hit the ground running, listening and learning,” said Berg, whose career in education opened with stints as a classroom teacher in the Renton and Enumclaw school districts from 1986-91, after earning her B.A. in education from Eastern Washington University in 1984. “I’m open to meeting with as many constituents and community groups as possible, so that I can learn as much as possible during those golden hours when I’m still new to the school district. I have no agenda other than continuing the great work that’s already been done in the district, and understanding its future needs.”
Indeed, Berg cited what she deemed the healthy relationships between district leaders, staff members, students, families and surrounding community members as one of the traits that drew her to the Marysville School District in the first place.
“I was impressed,” said Berg, whose stints as acting, associate, assistant and full principals in the Bainbridge Island and Mead school districts, the latter in Spokane, ran from 1991 through 2010, when she began her current job as superintendent of the Deer Park School District. “Innovations such as the Small Learning Communities are the kinds of bold measures that it will take to keep up with the needs of the 21st century. This district’s diversity was also a huge draw for me, since I’m looking forward to working with the Tulalip Tribes, the growing Hispanic community and other partners.”
Berg eagerly anticipates familiarizing herself with Marysville as a resident, a process that she referred to as “knitting in” rather than “fitting in.”
“This really isn’t about me, though,” Berg said. “It’s about the Marysville community and its students. This district demonstrates that dynamic, effective education is possible, and I’m incredibly excited to be part of it.”
The “fast diet” involves eating regularly five days per week and fasting the remaining two. Adherents are supposed to consume only a quarter of their typical caloric intake, about 500 calories, for two consecutive days.
While this diet fad it taking England by storm, the concept of intermittent fasting is not new. Dr. Michael Mosley, the UK-based doctor responsible for popularizing the weight loss regimen and author of “The Fast Diet,” spent months researching findings on the practice after he was diagnosed as pre-diabetic, reported the Huffington Post. Mosley opted not to take medication to manage his cholesterol and instead to make a drastic lifestyle change.
Mosley tested the diet on himself, closely monitoring his progress, and saw quick improvements. His cholesterol and insulin resistance lowered and he shed 19 pounds of fat.
“I went into it quite skeptical because I’ve looked at diets over the years and I’ve always assumed they’re rubbish. Really seriously rubbish,” Mosley told the Huffington Post. “But the people who study in this area are really top scientists—world-class scientists who are hugely reputable in their areas. And they were all coming at it from their areas of expertise: cancer, dementia, diabetes—they were approaching it from different angles, but coming to the same conclusion. I found that very convincing.”
All fasting is not the same, Mosley clarifies, firmly debunking the theory that juice cleansing—a recent diet rage—is beneficial.
“I think juicing is a terrible idea,” he told the Huffington Post. “The biggest problem is that it removes the fiber. And the really good thing that’s in fruits and vegetables is the fiber. Fiber reduces your risk of bowel cancers — all sorts of cancers — and it also keeps you satiated and it also stabilizes your glucose levels.
If you take an apple and you eat it, you get loads of fiber in it, it fills you up. Studies show that having an apple before your meal means you’ll probably eat fewer calories in that meal. If you drink apple juice, basically, almost all the skin has been removed and all the vitamins are in the skin. A glass of juice is really just a sugar hit. And that is going to make you feel hungry, it’s going to make your insulin levels go up. It’s going to be empty calories.”
What’s fresh, fragrant and tastes like springtime itself? Zegweskimen (Abenaki for raspberries).
They peak from May to September in most places yet are available year round. This flavorful berry grows both wild and cultured in temperate climates worldwide. Botanists cannot decide on their origin, although Eastern Asia has two hundred known species; North America has three important species and a few minor ones as well. They are a genus of the rose family mostly in the subgenus (Idaeobatus) category, meaning perennial with woody stems and a biennial growth habit.
These juicy buds are easy to grow because all they need is water, sun and well-drained soil, plus a little mulch to keep them moist. Ninety percent of this very important commercial fruit crop in the U.S. comes from Oregon, Washington and California.
The main varieties in North America are red, black and gold. There are also purple raspberries, a hybrid blend of red and black, which are not often produced commercially. Some do grow wild in Vermont and other places where both red and black varieties grow wild. I am fairly certain those are the ones we found in profusion on this property years ago—so many that they had to be picked every couple of days for about a month.
When picking them, they should slip right off a little hollow core easily. If not, it isn’t ready; leave it on the bush to ripen further. They do have nasty stickers on the stalk, and once my mother fell backwards while picking. We were pulling those pesky, mini balls of spikes out of her back for a week.
When berry picking, not too many made it into the house to be used for freezing or cooking; picking encouraged tasting immediately for maximum flavor. It was hard not to pop every other one into your mouth. Raspberries are a great favorite of those on a low-glycemic diet, or any diet for weight loss, because they have no sodium or cholesterol. Nutrition buffs will appreciate they are high in fiber, vitamins A and C, iron and potassium.
Raspberries are highly perishable so should be used within three days of purchase. Buying loosely packed berries is best.
Raspberries play well with balsamic vinegar as evidenced by today’s popular raspberry-flavored vinaigrettes. But a simple of drizzle of balsamic across raspberries is a very unique and delicious pairing. Raspberries also make a wonderful combo with chocolate in baked items, as well as a topping for cheesecake or other desserts. A lot of people make them into sauces, jams or jelly. Native American use was not limited to pressing them into cakes as is done with chokecherries. Our ancestors (and Natives still today) also dried them for future use, boiled them with meat, or made the berries into a refreshing drink. Native use of the raspberry leaves as tea was medicinal—especially for soothing urinary tract issues, labor pains and menstrual cramps, or to prevent miscarriage in some cases.
There is a myth whose origin I cannot find, but it tells of a fox who didn’t like to eat meat. He loved raspberries and ate his fill every time he came upon them. The more he ate, the redder his fur became. This story is of the first fox, I imagine.
Elegant Raspberry-Rhubarb Dessert
For a base to this lovely offering, try a slice of pound cake, a little sponge cake, or even a homemade biscuit.
1 cup raspberries
1 cup rhubarb, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
½ cup sugar or substitute
4 tablespoons water
1 egg
1 tablespoon corn starch
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter
¼ cup sliced almonds
Put the raspberries and rhubarb in a large bowl and gently toss with the egg, cornstarch and sugar. Add the cinnamon and melted butter. Put water in a medium saucepan and bring nearly to a boil and add fruit mixture, reduce heat and stir gently until it thickens and then turn off heat. Let cool; spoon warm fruit over cake or biscuit and top with whipped cream.
Dale Carson, Abenaki, is the author of three books: New Native American Cooking, Native New England Cooking and A Dreamcatcher Book. She has written about and demonstrated Native cooking techniques for more than 30 years. Dale has four grown children and lives with her husband in Madison, Connecticut.
