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The Tulalip Tribes held their Annual General Council and Board of Directors Election, Saturday, March 16. The following two candidates received the highest number votes and will be serving on the Board:
Marie Zackuse, 329 votes
Theresa Sheldon, 274 votes
Source: The Herald
Luck o’ the Irish: Get in the mood for St. Patrick’s Day with this roundup of events coming up this weekend. There’s food, drink, music, dance and a lot more.
Plant sale: Get ready for spring gardening with Seattle Tilth’s edible plant sale. The free sale is Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Seattle. Seattle Tilth is well-known as an authority on gardening. You’ll find plenty of plants, selected to grow well in our area. There will also be classes to help you learn more about growing food. Click here for all the details, including a list of plants that will be available for sale.
Quilt show: The Quilters Anonymous Quilt Guild annual show is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds. The theme is “Out of this World.” More than 500 quilts, ranging from traditional to innovative, will be on display. There will also be demonstrations about quilting techniques. Admission is $7 and includes entry for all three days. For information, click here.
Taste wine: Chateau Ste. Michelle is offering a rare barrel tasting event from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The winery only offers the barrel tastings once a year. You can taste several wines that are still barrel-aging and speak with the winemakers. The event is $20 and includes tastings and a glass of a finished wine. Buy tickets the day of the event at the wine shop. Click here for more information.
Outdoors: Cabela’s is getting ready for spring with Spring Great Outdoor Days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Attendees can participate in lots of free activities such as youth and adult turkey call contests. Other events include a laser shoot, wooden bow-making, and duck decoy carving and painting. There will also be a spring fashion show and a variety of free seminars and workshops with topics that include the basics of reloading, bear-proofing your campsite and preparing Dutch oven meals. Read more in our story here.
Visit Wonderland: The students from the Farraige Mhor Academy of Irish Dance journey down a rabbit hole to follow Alice on her whimsical trip. The musical show is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Tim Noah Thumbnail Theatre, 1211 Fourth St., Snohomish. Tickets are $15 general, $10 for students and seniors, free for children younger than 5. Go to www.brownpapertickets.com or buy at the door if available.
What is that thing? Got a strange artifact? Bring it here. The Monroe Historical Society invites the community to its annual membership meeting and program, 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Monroe Library, 1070 Village Way. Laura Phillips, archaeology collections manager at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, will speak about local archaeology followed by an artifact identification session. Residents are encouraged to bring up to two items for identification, including American Indian artifacts from the Pacific Northwest made from bones, antlers, rocks and shells. No appraisals will be given. The experts do not authenticate items for sale.
Fill out your bracket: The NCAA men’s basketball pairings will be announced at 3 p.m. Sunday. If you’re not busy celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, you can spend the afternoon filling out your bracket.
Ballet for kids: Pacific Northwest Ballet is presenting a family-friendly version of “Hansel & Gretel” to help introduce children to ballet. The ballet is performed as an hourlong matinee and is narrated. The ballet shows twice Sunday. Click here for the details.
Music for all: The Hometown Hootenanny presents its “Family Ties” concert on Saturday in Everett. The performance plays on the theme that families that play together, stay together, and the songs celebrate the strength of families, whether it’s good or bad or special moments in family life. Read more in our story here.
Art walk: Wander through Everett, from one art studio to the next, on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. Galleries and studios will be open and snacks and drinks will be available. Local restaurants will also be displaying art. Click here for more details, including a map of participating locations.
Opinion, By Dr. Cheryl Crazy Bull, Indian Country Today Media Network
Like many Natives and our allies across our Grandmother Earth, Unci Maka, I have joined the Idle No More movement, attending round dance gatherings, praying for Chief Theresa Spence and her supporters, sharing the stories I hear and read and perusing news and opinion pieces. Like many indigenous people, I am acutely aware that our voices in the mainstream of American, Canadian and Central and South American societies are often unheard, and that we appear silent when in fact our voices are singing out with stories of our lives. Defining this movement is our responsibility. Each of us should learn about this movement and find our own place in it. We can add our voices to songs of our relatives and allies across the earth.
The new calendar year can be a time of renewal and recommitment for many – but for most Native people, our annual calendar is seasonal or ceremonial, related to the changes of our Grandmother Earth or the rituals of our people. For me the year goes from summer to summer, from the time of sun dances to the next sun dances. Measuring time in this manner comes from my identity. We may adopt the calendar year and New Year celebrations, but we find our renewal as tribal people in the seasons and rituals of our people.
As the Idle No More movement has gained strength, like many, I have pondered its meaning. For me, it is our voices, singing out from the place inside of us where our identities as “the people” live, it is the rhythm of our shared heartbeat and the movements of our bodies as we dance a shared dance – a social dance of hope and friendship and affirmation, in a circle, around the drums and the voices that are singing out who we are.
Each tribal people have a unique identity given us by our Creator and our understanding of Creation. Our identity emerges out of our knowledge of how we came to be as a people. Our oral knowledge is intact and the stories of our creation remain essentially untainted by western influences. Often we are viewed by mainstream America in the context of what educators call the three F’s – food, fun, and fashion. We are the celebration of Thanksgiving, the Indians in popular movies, feathered headdresses, geometric designed pottery, and lilting flute music. A deeper understanding of who we are, philosophically, spiritually, and socially is elusive to most of mainstream America. I often think this elusiveness is exacerbated by the fact that it would require a painful acknowledgement that we, as the First Peoples of this hemisphere, are really human beings subjected to devastating military and political policies of the very governments that still lead our countries.
Tribal people have their own teachings about their Creation, their family relationships, and how they came to be on this earth. Native people have teachings about plants and animals, about gathering in celebration, and about the meaning of each item of decoration or clothing that they wear at their ceremonies.
Our stories reflect the richness of our heritages which are such an important part of today’s democracy. Although the experiences of Native people with the arrival of Europeans on our shores are filled with tragedy, we have not lost our identity or cultural ways. Idle No More is the story of our shared identity. Like all social movements, it has roots in history and connections with the social actions of other movements, including the Occupy movement and environmental actions.
Tribally controlled education is a vital part of the foundation of tribal knowledge that underpins the Idle No More movement. In today’s society the education of our people is essential to our prosperity, our identity, and our activism. The tribally controlled education movement emerged during the last modern great wave of social activism among our people–the American Indian Movement that began in the late 1960s. In the last 45 years, tribal educators and our schools and colleges have been at the forefront of the restoration and preservation of our identities. Our work ensures that our ancestors and descendants will recognize us.
Now is the time to affirm that we are entitled to an education that honors our identity, our knowledge of Creation, and our relationships. We are entitled to the best of public education – a tribally controlled education – that culls content from our knowledge with teaching methodologies and assessment that uphold our ways of learning.
As our social activism grows, look to our Native educators and encourage them to bring Idle No More into their classrooms. It is a modern-day teachable moment in the context of our cultural ways and the histories of our people. It is a moment that can last a lifetime. It is the work of a lifetime that will be felt for seven generations.
Dr. Cheryl Crazy Bull is President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/opinion/idle-no-more-brings-native-voices-tribal-education-forefront-148209
By Eisa Ulen Richardson, Indian Country Today Media Network
Too often, movies about brown people devolve very quickly into movies about a single white person surrounded by brown people. It’s not just that a white person is in the film – it’s that a white person becomes the film. The white, usually male, lead overwhelms the narrative, privileging the privileged, and disappointing those of us who paid the price of a ticket and a bucket of popcorn to see ourselves onscreen.
Finally, an unexpectedly delightful story featuring indigenous people has been produced for the big screen. Like magic, this movie does not show us the story through the lens of the white male lead, and so does not distort the image of the four beautiful brown women to whom the story belongs. It does not cater to the fantasy of white people dancing with wolves. Instead, this heartwarming, wonderful, joyous Australian film tells the story of four Aboriginal women from the point-of-view of the women themselves.
The Sapphires is a triumph.
It is also true. In the 1960s, a real-life quartet of sisters and cousins, one of whom had been ripped away from her family as one of the 100,000 Aboriginal children that formed Australia’s “Stolen Generation,” reunited and formed a soul-singing girl group. Styled and billed like The Supremes or The Shirelles of the same era, these women traveled to Vietnam to perform for American troops stationed there during the war.
Based on a hugely successful 2004 stage play of the same name, The Sapphires was written by Tony Briggs, whose mother was the youngest member of the group. The director, Wayne Blair, is also Aboriginal. Chris O’Dowd, who held his own as the good cop that almost got away in the estrogen-packed 2011 hit Bridesmaids, is just as charmingly flawed in The Sapphires. A reluctant manager with a drinking problem and a string of personal and professional misses haunting his heart of gold, O’Dowd’s character transforms into an unlikely hero. He plays the frog that needs a perfectly placed kiss to transform into a scruffy prince.
But the movie, of course, is not about him.
The four women who sing and dance their way through this film also transform. From country western singers who “love Charley Pride” to soul-singing divas who dominate the stage for increasingly larger audiences throughout Vietnam, the women experience a kind of coming-of-age as witnesses to the horrors of war and participants in their own liberation from the racism of mid-20th century Australian society.
Styled in sequins, go-go boots, and miniskirts, these women shine. Their wardrobe expresses their characters’ growing sense of empowerment without positioning them as hyper-sexualized “exotic others.” Though thrilling, their performances do not titillate or play to stereotypes about brown girls and white male access to their bodies. Indeed, their sexuality is expressed in relationships — affirming, sensual relationships, with black men whose romantic gestures are sure to make hearts swoon.
Intimacy grows between O’Dowd’s character and one of the four Sapphires, Gail, the “Mamma Bear” played by Deborah Mailman, who leads the group with loving command that remains unflinching even as the other three women find their own paths to personal power. The friendship and mutual respect expressed by these two characters offers a compelling counter-narrative to the myth of blond, blue-eyed desirability. Rather than detract from the women as the central focus of the film, this relationship only reinforces that focus.
Jessica Mauboy plays Julie, who fights hardest for the chance at something greater than her everyday life. Shari Sebbens plays Kay, the whitest looking of the girls, the one who was stolen, and the one who has the longest journey to make to get back home, and Miranda Tapsell is Cynthia.
Tapsell, whose great grandmother was taken from her family as one of the Stolen Generation, says the authenticity of the film is matched only by the enthusiastic response of the Aboriginal community. The experience of indigenous audiences is unsurprising. From the opening sequence, where four young girls sing in the Aboriginal language of their ancestors to an audience of family and friends, to the final scene, The Sapphires is a film that honors the original people of Australia and life in the missions where they are forced to live.
The Sapphires manages to examine the dispossession of Aboriginal people, the fragmentation of family, cultural dislocation, poverty, the particular plight of women who are also mothers, and the horrors of the Vietnam War — all without losing its upbeat tone, its rhythmic joy, its hopeful expression of uplift. Perhaps because the filmmaker, writer, and four lead actresses are Aboriginal, The Sapphires celebrates the beautiful, flawed, imperfect, glorious humanity of the indigenous people this film showcases.
Aboriginal people, an entire diverse community of the original people of Australia, are on the stage with The Sapphires each and every time they perform, and every round of applause, every cheer, every whistle and shimmy and shake, is for them — for the great-grandmothers who were stolen, and their descendants, the children who grow up to write the stories of their people’s ultimate triumph.
Home, Aboriginal home, though situated on the margins of Australian society, occupies center stage in this glorious film. Grab a batch of tissues, clutch hands with the one you love, and run. Go see it. Go and see yourself.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/15/sapphires-tells-story-aboriginal-supremes-148213
Another catch-and-eat fishery goes by the board with the announcement that the state Fish and Wildlife Commission made big changes in sturgeon rules at a March 1 meeting in Moses Lake.
Starting May 1, recreational fishermen will be limited to one white sturgeon per year, statewide. Then, beginning Jan. 1, 2014, the new regulation requires the release of all white sturgeon in Puget Sound, its tributaries, the Washington coast and the lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam.
Catch-and-release fishing for the species will be allowed in all those areas.
The change is designed to address ongoing concerns about declines in the lower Columbia white sturgeon population, but why the other closures?
The state says white sturgeon drift up and down the coast, in and out of bays and tributaries, and that those harvested, say, in Port Susan, almost certainly include Columbia fish. Some observers say there is not enough scientific evidence to support that contention, or at least to the degree of drift, but the commission acted anyway.
Another rule change approved by the nine-member citizen panel appointed by the governor increases the daily walleye limit from eight to 16 fish in Lake Roosevelt. The change addresses an overpopulation of walleye in the big Columbia River impoundment, and particularly a lack of larger fish.
Closer to home, one of the nearly 70 sportfishing rule changes adopted by the commission reduces the daily catch limit of cabezon to one fish in Marine Areas 4-11 and 13, and sets the minimum length at 18 inches. Also, the cabezon season was reduced to May 1 through June 15.
Hot item
With an overdue state permit finally in hand, Mark Spada said the Snohomish Sportsmen’s Club will make its first plant this year of big triploid rainbow trout — in Blackman’s Lake — by the end of this week. The plant likely will consist of about 200 fish, running between 11/2 and 6 pounds, club spokesman Spada said.
The lake lies on the north edge of Snohomish, with pier fishing and boat access.
Everett derby
The seventh annual Everett Blackmouth Derby runs Saturday. Sponsored by the Everett Steelhead and Salmon Club, the event features a first-place prize of $3,000. Second is worth $1,500 and third $500 in this team event; up to four anglers per boat at a cost of $100 per boat. Tickets are available at John’s Sporting Goods, Everett; Greg’s Custom Rods, Lake Stevens; Ted’s Sport Center, Lynnwood; Harbor Marine, Everett; Three Rivers Marine, Woodinville; Bayside Marine, Everett; Ed’s Surplus, Lynnwood; and Performance Marine, Everett.
For more information visit www.everettblackmouthderby.com.
Salmon forecasts mostly positive
With the possible exception of Baker Lake sockeye, summer salmon opportunities look positive, according to Tom Nelson, host of “The Outdoor Line” on ESPN Radio 710. And even the Baker run, although expected to be down to 20,000 fish this year compared to 35,000 in 2012, should be enough to ensure a good season on the lake but perhaps not in the river.
Speaking of north Sound chinook and coho forecasts, Nelson said, “there are no bad predictions. We haven’t seen numbers like this since 2001.”
Nelson was particularly enthusiastic about the Marine Area 9 selective chinook fishery, saying that not only will there be more kings coming through, but more crossing Possession Bar. That should make it unnecessary to run west to Port Townsend for your clipped-fin kings, he said.
Tulalip Bay, he said, is expecting 10,000 chinook back, twice last year’s 5,000 fish. The Snohomish River hatchery run is predicted by biologists to be 6,800 fish this year, compared to 3,900 last year, and 3,600 wild stock chinook (must be released) compared to 2,800 in 2012.
“Altogether, that’s another 10,000 chinook over the bar and around the corner for us this summer,” Nelson said. “The only caveat is that some of those fish won’t be available if the selective chinook fishery is opened late. Our North of Falcon negotiators have to try to get it open by July 1.”
And, Nelson said, you’d best get your chinook fishing in by mid-August. After that, a big run of pinks will be vacuuming up every bait and lure dropped overboard.
Puget Sound coho are expected to present another major opportunity.
“Are you kidding me?”, Nelson said. “Almost 900,000 coho due back to Puget Sound? That’s a 10- to 15-percent increase over last year, and 2012 was flat out the best coho fishing I’ve ever seen in the Sound. It was like going to the fish market, day after day.”
River fishing is also looking good, Nelson said, with a solid snowpack in the Cascades to provide summer water.
Elsewhere, the big news is on the Columbia River. Salmon managers expect a big jump in fall chinook this summer, to 677,900 fish — substantially above the 10-year average and possibly the best fall king run since 2004. Of that number, the “upriver brights” that make up the Hanford Reach sport fishery are expeced to reach 432,500 fish. If they do, that would be a record for the run, according to state biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver. It would eclipse the old mark of 420,700 set in 1987.
North sound seminar
Master Marine in Mount Vernon presents a repeat of its popular spring salmon seminar March 16, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., free and open to all interested anglers. Speakers will cover marine electronics (John Keizer of Salt Patrol), secrets of San Juan Island salmon fishing (John Martinis), and dirty downrigger tricks (TJ Nelson). There will also be speakers on cutting herring and shrimping, among other subjects. Chili dogs for lunch, too.
Master Marine is immediately adjacent to the west side of I-5 in south Mount Vernon; go to the web site or call 360-336-2176.
Springers
The lower Columbia spring chinook fishery continues to build, but slowly. State checks for the week of March 4-10 sampled 422 boats and 1,113 fishermen with 38 chinook and 5 steelhead.
Local blackmouth
The San Juans are still the place to be for winter blackmouth fishermen, according to state creel checks. At the Washington Park ramp in Anacortes on Saturday, 41 anglers in 22 boats had 11 chinook. At the Cornet Bay ramp, access point for many fishermen to some of the banks on the east end of the Strait, 40 anglers in 19 boats had 30 fish. Areas 8-1 and 8-2 were slow.
April 4th and 5th, Swinomish Lodge, Anacortes, WA
Native Action Network is pleased to host our 9th Annual Native Women’s Leadership Forum & Enduring Spirit Honoring Luncheon. This year’s theme is “The Power of Indigenous Women – Reaching Hands Across Borders” to honor and recognize the importance of our sisterhood both here in the US and across borders with our sisters in Canada and beyond.
We’ll kick off our Forum with a Welcome Reception on April 4th at 6:00 p.m. for an evening of networking, relaxation and an introduction of our 2013 Young Women’s Leadership Academy.
On April 5th we will begin bright and early at 7:30 a.m. with our Youth Breakfast and open up the Leadership Forum at 8:30 a.m. with an opening prayer and welcome.
The Forum will begin with an Indigenous Women’s Call to Action as our panelists discuss current political, social, and justice issues being addressed by women’s leadership.
Next, participants will have the option to attend workshops intended to take our call to action to a level where our voices have greater impact through social media, elections, and public relation campaigns.
In keeping with past sessions, we will honor 4 Native women for their lifetime contributions of building strong, healthy communities during our Enduring Spirit Honoring Luncheon.
And, finally, we will close out the day with a panel of national and international leaders sharing ideas on how we can create a unified, powerful voice through partnerships and networks designed to increase media attention on our issues.
We’re excited to bring together a dynamic agenda filled with powerful women leaders intended to strengthen our sisterhood across borders!
Wanda Sykes! Saturday, May 24-25, 2013
Orca Ballroom
Doors open at 7:00 PM – Show starts at 8:30 PM
Tickets start at $50
All attendees of show must be 21+
Tickets available on March 15!
Comedy show packages start at $329* and include:
Call 866.716.7162 to book your package on March 15!
Source: Indian Country Today Media Network
In its final plenary vote, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) formalized the protection of hundreds of species, including manta rays and five species of shark, at its closing session in Bangkok on March 14.
It brings to eight the number of shark species that fall under CITES protection, The New York Times reported. Trade in two species of manta ray is also protected.
“This is a major win for some of the world’s most threatened shark species, with action now required to control the international trade in their fins,” said Susan Lieberman, director of international environment policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts in a statement. “This victory indicates that the global community will collaborate to address the plight of some of the most highly vulnerable sharks and manta ray species. Today was the most significant day for the ocean in the 40-year history of CITES.”
The Pew Charitable Trusts has dubbed 2013 the Year of the Shark to bring attention to the danger that these marine animals are in worldwide. Shark fins, meat, gill plates and aquarium animals are in high demand, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which has 143 shark species on its endangered list.
“The rising demand for shark fins, shark meat, gill plates, and aquarium animals is seriously threatening the survival of these species,” the IUCN said in a statement after the vote. “Up to 1.2 million oceanic whitetip sharks, which are fished for their large and distinctive fins, pass through the markets of Southeast Asia every year, and over 4,000 manta rays are harpooned for their gills.”
The manta rays are harvested for their gill rakers, which filter their food from the water and are used in an Asian health tonic, Pew said.
In all, hundreds of species were awarded protection, CITES said in a statement, among them rhinos and elephants, which have been hunted nearly to extinction by poachers. A U.S.–sponsored ban on trading polar bear parts was defeated, in a move that was lauded by Inuit peoples.
Two thirds of CITES’ 177 member governments and organizations voted in favor of the shark and ray protections. The international body meets every three years to discuss the preservation of 35,000 species, its delegates representing 178 governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations and indigenous groups, according to the Associated Press.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/14/international-wildlife-trade-group-votes-protect-hundreds-species-148190
The 12th Annual Tribal Event Celebration is for Tulalip Tribal members only, Tulalip Tribal ID required.
Tulalip Bingo
11am Session: Doors open 8-9am for Elders/Seniors; 9am for General Membership
6pm session: Doors open 3-4pm for Elders/Seniors; 4pm for General Membership
Source: SEIU Healthcare
CoverMe Rally sends message to Olympia to fund Medicaid expansion covering more than 250,000 people, saving the state $225 million and adding 10,000 jobs
SEATTLE – More than tourists flocked to Pike Place Market Thursday. Dozens of everyday Washingtonians rallied outside the Pike Market Medical Clinic calling for full implementation of Medicaid expansion. “Cover Me,” they chanted, as nearly 100 umbrellas printed with “Cover Me” opened in unison creating a display that rivaled the floral bouquets in the Public Market.
“Just because I work in the service industry doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have health insurance,” said Cassie Cotham, 27, of Seattle, a volunteer with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. She delayed seeking medical care because she was uninsured, but two years ago she became so ill she could no longer work. Cotham was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “Medicaid expansion would allow people like me to seek necessary medical care and not worry about balancing bills with going to the doctor.”
Cotham isn’t alone. More than 261,000 low-income Washington residents would be covered under Medicaid expansion, if the Legislature acts this session. The expansion would use Federal dollars to expand coverage to thousands of people, would save $225 million dollars and add 10,000 jobs statewide.
“Too often we see people desperately ill in the emergency rooms of our hospitals because they’ve postponed seeking treatment due to a lack of insurance coverage,” said Susan Tekola, a nurse with SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. “We support Medicaid expansion because it makes sense to provide quality coverage for all Washington residents allowing them to enjoy more healthy, productive lives.”
People at the rally wrote messages on two umbrellas which will be delivered to Washington House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom urging the Legislature to act swiftly.
“We hope our political leaders hear the message that Washington’s bounty should include not just salmon, great coffee and wonderful produce,” said Lynne Treat, of Chehalis. She’s a volunteer with AARP of Washington. She spoke Thursday about the need for people between ages 50 to 64 to have coverage. “All Washingtonians deserve quality health care.”
A recent Elway poll found that two-thirds of state residents support Medicaid expansion. Studies show that people without health insurance have a greater risk of prolonged illnesses, disability and death.
The rally was organized by the Healthy Washington Coalition, which represents a broad range of more than 70 organizations across the state.
