Tulalip News

Camano family’s gift preserves land in natural state

Dan Bates / The HeraldHolton family member Randy Reeves shows Elizabeth Guss of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust around a lovely wooded area on the Holton Conservation Easement, which the family placed in the trust. The property, more than 30 acres adjacent to Cama Beach State Park, will now remain wild. — Holton family member Randy Reeves shows Elizabeth Guss of the Whidbey Camano Land Trust around a lovely wooded area on the Holton Conservation Easement, which the family placed in the trust. The property, more than 30 acres adjacent to Cama Beach State Park, will now remain wild. Photo: Dan Bates/The Herald

Family donates conservation easement

By Gale Fiege, HeraldNet.com

CAMANO ISLAND — More than 30 acres of forest and wetlands located adjacent to Cama Beach State Park will be preserved forever thanks to a gift from a Camano Island couple.

Joe and Cathy Holton, along with their four sons and seven grandchildren, donated a conservation easement on their property to Whidbey Camano Land Trust, which now ensures that the land remains perpetually protected and free from development.

The Holtons could have made a lot of money selling the property, where theoretically a developer could have built up to 30 houses. At the very least, the family might have sold it for a half-million dollars, said Cathy Holton’s son Randy Reeves, a real estate broker.

“It’s not all altruistic, however,” Reeves said. “My folks have a connection to the land and they happen to have the economic means to preserve it. We have seen our share of misguided, unsustainable development. We believe this is the highest and best use of the property.”

In August 2011, the Holtons attended a community meeting called by the land trust, which was seeking to find potential conservation easements among property owners living near the state parks on Camano.

The Holtons stepped right up, said Elizabeth Guss, development director with the Whidbey Camano Land Trust.

“Their contribution is a beautiful illustration of a family thinking ahead into the future and seeing the big picture,” Guss said. “It’s a way to marry private property rights with the common good.”

Joe and Cathy Holton are known on the island for their generosity and their volunteer work with the Friends of Camano Island Parks. Conservation of some of their property was something they had been considering since they bought it in the 1990s. The Holtons also own a house near the beach as well as a pasture adjacent to the preserved land.

Together, the three generations of the family compared the development opportunities to the conservation values and decided to donate the conservation easement, said Joe Holton, 83.

“The decision was unanimous,” Holton said. “We didn’t want to see a high-density residential development there. We wanted to leave a legacy into the future, for our family and for the community.”

Jeff Wheeler, manager of the Cama Beach State Park said he is pleased with the donation and the buffer it provides for the park.

“I’ve known Joe and Cathy for years and have found them to be wonderful people and great volunteers. With the thoughtful actions of people like Cathy and Joe, this island is a great place for people and the environment to co-exist,” Wheeler said. “(The Holton property) preserves an animal corridor between the two state parks.”

With the donation of the conservation easement, the Holton’s property doesn’t become a public park. It remains in private hands. However, the benefits to the community are numerous, Guss said.

“It’s a significant gift to the larger good, in terms of water sources, wildlife and clean air,” she said.

A public trail that connects Cama Beach and Camano Island Island State Park runs along the east side of the Holton property. On the other side, the property has views of Saratoga Passage.

The 30 acres includes a peat bog, a 10-acre wetland, an upland mature forest that is home to trees estimated to be more than 250 years old.

“My parents didn’t want to see any wildlife move away from here,” Reeves said on Monday as he walked through the property on a deer trail.

The trees on the property include big-leaf maple, vine maple, Western red cedar, Douglas fir, hemlock, madrona and grand fir. The land is covered with sword fern, native nettle, salmonberries and elderberry.

Along with deer, the land is home to other animals and many species of birds.

“We have even seen red-legged frogs, which are not common here, so that’s a good sign that the forest is healthy,” Reeves said. “We have few invasive species here.”

Reeves said trees on the Holton property tell a story.

One can see evidence of a fire that raged across the island in the 1920s along with stumps that are reminders of the logging that took place there in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

“It’s a great example of the regeneration of a forest,” he said.

In his job, Reeves, 52, said he often has real estate clients who aim to pave paradise.

“We want to inspire others to make gifts of conservation easements, which can sometimes mean tax advantages for people,” he said. “Land is a precious resource. It’s about preserving it for future generations.

“I want my son’s son to come here.”

Local authors explore imaginary world in new children’s book

Source: Tate Publishing

LAKE FOREST PARK, Wash. — Authors Charity Parenzini and Nelson Gassman announce the release of their new children’s book “The Day The Sock Circus Came to Town.”

Somewhere between the hamper and the dryer, socks disappear without a trace. But, where do they go? Join Micah as he discovers the little-known world of socks, their creativity, and the adventures they have when they go missing in “The Day the Sock Circus Came to Town.”

Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is available through bookstores nationwide, from the publisher at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore, or by visiting barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.

Gassman has always liked hearing and telling stories, a talent he learned from his mother. However, dyslexia hindered him from thinking he would write books of any kind. With the help and encouragement of his wife, De, and his daughter, Charity, his dream has come true! Gassman now hopes to create more stories for children in future. Parenzini is an award-winning video producer, writer, and professional actor and the daughter of Gassman. Currently, she has a fitness blog for mothers and is a teacher to women and budding artists. She loves inspiring people to strive for their dreams while balancing and being present in their everyday lives.

Five Easy Steps to a Low Maintenance Eco-friendly Landscape

Gardening expert Melinda Myers provides a plan to transform your landscape

Be Waterwise
Save money on the water bill, time spent watering and this precious resource, water. Start by growing drought tolerant plants suited to your growing environment. Once established they will only need watering during extended dry spells. Mulch with shredded leaves, evergreen needles, woodchips, or other organic matter to conserve moisture, reduce weeds, and improve the soil as they decompose.

Fertilize with a low nitrogen fertilizer, like Milorganite, that promotes slow steady growth instead of excessive greenery that requires more water. Plus, it won’t burn even during drought.
Put rainwater to work all season long by using rain barrels to capture rainwater off your roof or directly from the sky.

Recycle Yard Waste in the Landscape
Minimize the amount of yard waste produced, reuse what can be in other areas of the landscape and recycle the rest as compost. These are just a few strategies that will save time bagging, hauling, and disposing of yard debris. And better yet, implementing this strategy will save money and time spent buying and transporting soil amendments, since it will be created right in the backyard.

Start by leaving grass clippings on the lawn. The short clippings break down quickly, adding organic matter, nutrients and moisture to the soil. Grow trees suited to the growing conditions and available space. That means less pruning and fewer trimmings that will need to be managed.

Make Compost at Home
Recycle yard waste into compost. Put plant waste into a heap and let it rot. Yes, it really is that simple. The more effort put into the process, the quicker the results.

Do not add insect-infested or diseased plant material or perennial weeds like quack grass, annual weeds gone to seed, or invasive plants. Most compost piles are not hot enough to kill these pests. And do not add meat, dairy, or bones that can attract rodents.

Manage Pests in Harmony with Nature
A healthy plant is the best defense against insects and disease. Select the most pest-resistant plants suited to the growing conditions and provide proper care.

Check plants regularly throughout the growing season. It is easier to control a few insects than the hundreds that can develop in a week or two. And when problems arise, look for the most eco-friendly control. Start by removing small infestations by hand. Consider traps, barriers, and natural products if further control is needed. And as always be sure to read and follow label directions carefully.

Energy Wise Landscape Design
Use landscape plantings to keep homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Homes will have a more comfortable temperature throughout the seasons and energy costs will be reduced.

Plant trees on the east and west side of a house to shade windows in the summer and let the sun shine in and warm it up through the south-facing windows in winter.

Shade air conditioners, so they run more efficiently and be sure to collect and use any water they produce for container gardens.

Incorporate these changes into gardening routines and habits over time. Soon these and many more strategies that help save time and money while being kind to the environment will seem to occur automatically.
Nationally known gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has more than 30 years of horticulture experience and has written over 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening. She hosts the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment segments which air on over 115 TV and radio stations throughout the U.S. She is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and writes the twice monthly “Gardeners’ Questions” newspaper column. Melinda also has a column in Gardening How-to magazine. Melinda hosted “The Plant Doctor” radio program for over 20 years as well as seven seasons of Great Lakes Gardener on PBS. She has written articles for Better Homes and Gardens and Fine Gardening and was a columnist and contributing editor for Backyard Living magazine. Melinda has a master’s degree in horticulture, is a certified arborist and was a horticulture instructor with tenure. Her web site is www.melindamyers.com

Calling all filmakers to the 1st Annual Hibulb Center Film Festival

Calling all filmakers to the 1st Annual Hibulb Center Film Festival

Event Location: Hibulb Cultural Center

The 1st Hibulb Cultural Center Film Festival will be held April 12, 13, and 14, 2013, at the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip, Washington. This year’s theme is ‘Our Land, Our Relations’. The Hibulb Cultural Center is seeking features, documentaries, short films, and animation. Films with strong voices of old cultures and connections to land and families are particularly welcome in anticipation of Earth Day.

All entries due and postmarked by March 15, 2013. Films selected for the 1st HCC Film Festival will be announced no later than Friday, March 29, 2013. (Click on “learn more” for complete instructions and entry form).

Suspect in couple’s slayings ‘extreme danger’ to public

A man wanted in connection with the slaying of his grandparents is an “extreme danger” to police and the public, King County sheriff’s detectives say.

By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times

A man wanted in connection with the slaying of his elderly grandparents may be seeking to buy firearms, and represents an “extreme danger” to the public and police, the King County Sheriff’s Office said late Sunday.

Less than two days after Michael Chad L. Boysen completed a nine-month prison sentence at Monroe Correctional Complex, his grandparents were found dead in their Renton-area home. A warrant has been issued for his arrest in connection with the killings.

Detectives also said Boysen was conducting online searches of gun shows across the Pacific Northwest and Nevada just before or after his grandparents were slain.

A judge issued the warrant for the 26-year-old Sunday after investigators with the Sheriff’s Office said he was wanted for questioning in connection with the slayings of his 82-year-old grandfather and 80-year-old grandmother.

The couple were slain on Friday night or Saturday morning, detectives said.

A statewide alert for the couple’s missing car, a red 2001 Chrysler 300 with license plate 046-XXU, also has been issued, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Detectives urged anyone who spots the vehicle, or Boysen, to call 911 immediately. He is white, 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, and has hazel eyes.

Boysen served time for a 2012 conviction for attempted residential burglary, according to the state Department of Corrections (DOC). He was released Friday, said DOC spokesman Chad Lewis, who noted Boysen had reported to his community corrections officer in Kent later that same day.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Cindi West said the victims’ bodies were discovered Saturday.

The couple had not been heard from since Friday, and a concerned relative went to their home in the 16200 block of 145th Avenue Southeast and knocked repeatedly on the door but received no answer, West said.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has not released the victims’ names, and investigators have not said how or when the couple were killed, other than to say the deaths were being investigated as homicides.

West declined to divulge the contents of the warrant against Boysen.

According to documents filed in King County Superior Court, Boysen has a criminal history that spans a half-decade and includes convictions for first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery and trafficking in stolen property.

His 2012 conviction stemmed from an incident in which he tried to break into an occupied home in Kent, according to court documents.

He also pleaded guilty to a series of robberies in 2006 after his mother called police to report she had found empty prescription bottles and a demand note.

According to court documents, he and a friend ultimately admitted to robbing several pharmacies and a grocery store in Kent to feed their addictions to the narcotic OxyContin.

In 2006, a prosecutor asked that his bail be raised from $5,000 to $50,000, saying Boysen posed a danger to the community and “the danger he presents is escalating,” charging documents show.

Lewis said Boysen had been labeled a high risk to reoffend.

Debris on NW beaches eerie reminder of tsunami’s power

Photo by ERIKA SCHULTZ / The Seattle TimesThe tsunami flotsam is part of a broader array of marine debris, such as crab floats and plastics that ends up the Northwest coast. John Anderson, who lives near Forks, retrieves a plastic jug that has a label with Chinese writing. — Photo by ERIKA SCHULTZ / The Seattle Times
The tsunami flotsam is part of a broader array of marine debris, such as crab floats and plastics that ends up the Northwest coast. John Anderson, who lives near Forks, retrieves a plastic jug that has a label with Chinese writing.

As Japan notes the second anniversary of a powerful earthquake, flotsam that has made a trans-Pacific journey continues to wash up on U.S. and Canadian coasts, and federal officials predict this debris will continue to sporadically pulse on to beaches for years to come.

By Hal Bernton, Seattle Times

FORKS —From a distance, John Anderson thought he had spotted another plastic float, like the hundreds he has gathered since debris from the Japanese tsunami began washing ashore along the Northwest coast.

He got closer, reaching behind a log last spring to discover one of the most memorable finds in three decades of beachcombing: a volleyball covered with inked Japanese inscriptions. Some of the writing, faded by the sun, was illegible. Other characters, once Anderson scraped away barnacles, were surprisingly clear.

“This was a shocker,” said Anderson. “I wondered whose ball it was, and whether they were still alive.”

Two years ago — on March 11, 2011 — a 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a powerful tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 people as it transformed large swaths of coastal communities into giant debris fields.

Survivors’ cellphone videos captured the terrifying movements of the ocean as dark raging waters — filled with boats, houses and cars — pushed onshore. Here in the Pacific Northwest, those images also were powerful reminders of the tsunamis that have struck our coasts in centuries past and are predicted to hit again.

As the second anniversary of the quake arrives, large areas of shoreline in Japan have been largely cleared of rubble, yet flotsam that has made a trans-Pacific journey continues to wash up on U.S. and Canadian coasts, and federal officials predict this debris will continue to sporadically pulse on to beaches for years to come.

So far, only 21 items have been definitively declared tsunami debris by U.S. and Canadian officials who — with the help of the Japanese consulates — have been able to identify owners.

They include a motorcycle, a plastic tote and a 65-foot-long stretch of dock from the city of Misawa that lodged along a remote stretch of Olympic Peninsula shoreline in December. In the coming weeks, that dock will be cut up and hauled away by helicopter in a $628,000 salvage effort largely financed by the Japanese government.

“We don’t like to leave a mess,” said Tomoko Dodo, acting consulate general in Seattle for Japan, which has donated $5 million to debris cleanup in the United States and another $1 million in Canada. “(U.S. officials) say it is not our fault, and we agree with them … I think that it is a goodwill gesture. We want to show the United States our gratitude for the support we received from your country during the tsunami.”

Remnants returned

A handful of items have been returned to Japan in the past year for longshot reunions with owners. A yellow buoy retrieved in Alaska was emblazoned with a large Japanese character, Kei, and traced to Sakiki Miura, a widow who had used the float as part of a sign for a restaurant destroyed in the tsunami.

Last June, Miura was overjoyed to regain the buoy, and decided to reopen the restaurant.

“Kei-Chan has returned,” she tearfully declared, according to a report published in The Asahi Shimbun.

Anderson, of the Forks area, is planning to return to Japan this summer with filmmakers producing a tsunami documentary entitled “Lost & Found,” and hopes to reunite the volleyball with its owner.

So far, a translator’s review of the inscriptions found a few partial names, and well-wishes that make it appear the volleyball was a farewell gift, possibly to a graduating student, from other team members.

“I’m sure you will have a great life,” said one inscription.

“I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor,” said another.

But so far, no owner has been identified.

“There have got to be other teams that they played that would recognize those names from somewhere that didn’t get wiped out — you would think so,” Anderson said.

Two Washington kayakers who surveyed the coast last summer found a soccer ball with an inscription that was traced to a team in a town on the northeast coast.

During one of their survey trips, they also came upon an eerie scene: a pile of house timbers that contained a child’s potty, a bottle of cough syrup, a laundry hamper and a piece of a washing machine.

“It was one of those slowly developing things. We realized, we were in someone’s bathroom … in someone else’s house, “ recalls Ken Campbell, a kayaker who has produced a documentary about the their surveys, which is called The Roadless Coast.

Federal and state officials caution that it is difficult — and often impossible — to figure out just what debris came from the tsunami, and what is part of the broader stew of plastics and other items carried by Pacific currents toward the Northwest coast, where some blows ashore and the rest head in gyres that loop south along the West Coast and north up to Alaska.

Impressive display

For Anderson, through decades of beachcombing, the ocean’s marine debris has yielded plenty of treasures, which have been put on impressive display at his homestead just outside Forks.

In his front yard, a towering beachcomber’s monument made up of thousands of floats rises like some kind of maritime totem pole. In an upstairs loft, his museum includes Saki bottles thrown out of ships, Nike shoes and thousands of other items.

All this on the beach has given Anderson a keen sense of the yearly ebbs and flows of marine debris. Within the past 18 months, the pace of his beachcombing finds has picked up dramatically, with many items that appear likely to have come from Japan.

Last week on stroll along Second Beach near La Push, Clallam County, Anderson’s found a chunk of what once appeared to be a dock, house beams with the notches typical of Japanese construction, a black float of the type used by Japanese oyster farms and bottles bearing Japanese markings.

Trapped within the driftwood, Anderson found hunks, pellets and slivers of blue, yellow and white foam insulation, which were among the first objects to arrive more than a year ago and continue to show up on the beaches.

“I’ve seen pockets of Styrofoam packed 2 feet deep,” Anderson said. “Before the tsunami, I never saw anything like that”

“Certainly, the change in foam has been notable in many areas,” said Peter Murphy, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official who is helping monitor marine debris. “And it does pose a cleanup challenge.”

The insulated foam, as it breaks up into small beads, can be ingested by birds and other creatures. Concerns about foam pollution have prompted National Park and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary officials to opt for the salvage of the Misawa dock that came ashore in December. Buffeted by rocks and surf, it is no longer seaworthy so it can’t be towed off the beach, and that prompted the decision to launch the helicopter airlift.

“Most of the mass is foam, enough to fill about 20 large dump trucks, and it is a significant risk to the intertidal area,” said Rainey McKenna, a spokeswoman for the Olympic National Park.

This Olympic Peninsula dock is one of four identical pieces that the tsunami tore away from Misawa. One went inland, while a second has been seen off Hawaii. A third piece washed ashore in Oregon, where a chunk has been preserved in an interpretive exhibit that will help educate people about what happened in Japan, and what could happen here.

In Washington state, kayaker Campbell and his survey colleague Steve Weileman also are trying to spread the world about the tsunami and other marine debris. They formed an organization called The Ikkatsu Project, which they hope can help fund future survey expeditions.

“Ikkatsu is a Japanese word that means ‘all together as one,’ ” Weileman said. “What happens on that side of the Pacific will one day happen on this side.”

Sioux tribes form new coalition

Bryan Brewer, Oglala Sioux Tribe President-Elect Photo: Benjamin Brayfield, Rapid City Journal

Jennifer Naylor Gesick, Journal staff

March 11, 2013

Council representatives from four Sioux tribes met this weekend in Rapid City where they laid the groundwork to work as one nation to address issues important to their communities, Oglala Sioux president Bryan Brewer said Sunday.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe hosted representatives of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe at the Holiday Inn in Rapid City for three days of meetings. The tribes have not come together in such a way for over 100 years, according to Brewer.

“This has been something the tribes have talked about for years,” he said. “It has always been a dream of our tribes, but it actually happened now. This is a historic event for us all to pull together again.”

Brewer said close to 60 tribal representatives attended the convention that began Thursday and ended Saturday when they signed a proclamation declaring their intent to work together as the Oceti Sakowin, or the seven council fires of the great Lakota/Dakota/Nakota people.

The conference also produced a set of bylaws, a mission statement and the preliminary planning of commissions to address the most pressing issues for the communities.

“We identified some areas that have the most need, including our land issues, environmental issues like with the oil pipelines, economic, education and child welfare,” Brewer said.

He said the coalition will release position papers soon, and the group hopes that together their actions will have a bigger impact.

“We have been divided for quite a while so we got together to try to be one voice,” Brewer said. “The government has singled us out so we are going to speak to the government with one voice and we think that may help our tribes. Individually we are not very strong, but together we are hoping to be a pretty strong organization.”

There are 22 Sioux tribes eligible to join the organization, according to Brewer.

The next meeting will be hosted by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and is scheduled for April 4-6.

Contact Jennifer Naylor Gesick at 394-8415 or jennifer.naylorgesick@rapidcityjournal.com.

Navy plane from NAS Whidbey crashes; crew of 3 dead

A U.S. Navy Prowler warplane on a training mission crashed near Harrington, Wash., about 9 a.m. today. The plane crashed just off Coffee Pot Road about 10 miles outside of Harrington, said Scott McGowan, fire chief for Lincoln County Fire District No. 6. Stan Dammel, manager of the Odessa Municipal Airport, flew over the crash site and took this photo.

By Greg Rasa, Seattle Times

All three crew members on a Navy jet based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island were killed this morning when their aircraft crashed in Eastern Washington’s Lincoln County, Navy officials have confirmed.

The crew’s names will not be released until 24 hours after their families have been informed, said Lt. Aaron Kakiel in San Diego.

The crew was flying an EA-6B Prowler jet assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ-129. It crashed about 9 a.m. into a field in an unpopulated area near the town of Harrington, about 50 miles west of Spokane.

A spokesman for the Whidbey base confirmed that the crashed jet was based there. Whidbey is home to EA-6B Prowler and EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft. P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and EP-3E Aries reconnaissance aircraft are also based there.

The Spokane Spokesman-Review reported that a pair of Navy jets were operating in the area, according to Magers. The other plane reported the crash and then returned to base because it was low on fuel, he said.

The Grumman EA-6B Prowler. (Naval Air Systems Command photo)

Stan Dammel, manager of the Odessa Municipal Airport, told the Spokane paper he flew over the crash site and photographed it.

“It looked like an ink spot down there,” Dammel said

The type of electronic-warfare plane that crashed today had been involved in crashes in the past. Among them:

In 2006, after an EA-6B Prowler from the Whidbey Island base crashed near Pendleton, Oregon, the Navy ordered a half-day grounding for all its aircraft for an internal safety review, according to The Associated Press. In 1992 and again in 2001, crews parachuted to safety when their Prowlers crashed on the Olympic Peninsula. In 1998, three crewmen were lost overboard when a Prowler crashed into another jet on the deck of the USS Enterprise. Four died in a 1996 crash near Yuma, Ariz., and three died in 1992 near El Centro, Calif.

In 1993, an A-6E Intruder, the plane the EA-6B is based on, collided with a crop duster over the Palouse near Diamond, Whitman County. The pilot of the crop duster was critically injured, and the Navy crew parachuted to safety.

And in 1998, the Marine pilot of a EA-6B Prowler severed a ski-gondola cable near Cavalese, Italy, sending the 20 people aboard the gondola on 350-foot plunge to their deaths.

The EA-6B Prowler was first stationed at Whidbey Island in 1971 and deployed to Vietnam in 1972.

Native Leader, Veteran and Pow Wow Head Man Dancer Charlie Harjo Walks On

Indian Country Today Media Network

Charles Anthony “Charlie” Harjo, Choctaw/Creek, has walked on. For more than two decades, Harjo, who served two tours with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam, served as a spokesman for the Native American community in Wichita, Kansas, and was often the chairman of the Wichita Intertribal Warrior Society.

Harjo walked on Saturday, March 9, at the VA Medical Center in Wichita from cancer linked to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant widely used in Vietnam during the war, reports Kansas.com. He was 64.

Often serving as head man dancer, Harjo was active in pow wows. Pow wows, he told a Wichita Reporter in 1994, were meant for all veterans and not just Native Americans. He was instrumental in creating and producing an annual veterans pow wow hosted by the warrior society. He encouraged all veterans – male and female – to attend pow wows.

The Native American community has suffered a blow with Mr. Harjo’s death, Lynn Byrd Stumbling Bear, board member of the Mid-America All Indian Center, told Kansas.com.

“Charlie was a great part of the warrior’s society. That was his niche. But Charlie was also involved in the Indian Alcohol Treatment and part of the sweat lodge,” she said. “He did the most beautiful woodwork, making cedar boxes. Even in the times he was sick, even in those bad times, he never said a bad word about anybody. He just kept going”

Mr. Harjo is survived by his companion, Valerie Schneider, Hutchinson; daughter, Adrienne Nester, Coppell, Texas; sons, Charles Jarrod Harjo and Robert Harjo, both of Wichita; four grandchildren; and brothers, Henry Harjo, Edmond, Oklahoma, and Sean Phinney, Wichita.

Visitation will be from 1 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Culbertson-Smith Mortuary, 115 S. Seneca. Funeral service is at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.

A memorial has been created in Mr. Harjo’s name with the Wichita Intertribal Warrior Society, 850 North Wood, Wichita, Kansas 67212.

President Barack Obama’s VAWA Law Signing Spotlights Native Women Warriors

Diane Millich (Southern Ute Indian Tribe) (second to left) and Deborah Parker (Tulalip Tribe) (third to left) joined President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, members of the administration and Congress, women's rights advocates, and domestic abuse survivors for the signing of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization on March 7. Courtesy National Congress of American Indians — Diane Millich (Southern Ute Indian Tribe) (second to left) and Deborah Parker (Tulalip Tribe) (third to left) joined President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, members of the administration and Congress, women’s rights advocates, and domestic abuse survivors for the signing of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization on March 7. Courtesy National Congress of American Indians

By Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network

During the March 7 signing ceremony in the offices of the United States Department of the Interior of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Vice President Joe Biden had a difficult time remembering all of the many advocates and legislators he wanted to highlight and thank for their hard work on making the enhanced law a reality.

Similarly, it is difficult to single out all of the Native American women warriors who worked overtime to make the tribal provisions of the new law come to life.

There were tribal leaders like Terri Henry, Deborah Parker, and Fawn Sharp. There were lobbyists like Holly Cook Macarro, Kim Teehee, and Aurene Martin. National Indian organization leaders like Jackie Johnson Pata, Juana Majel Dixon, and the crew at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) led conference calls, action alerts, and legislative visits. There were advocates on the ground including Pamela Dalton Stearns, Theresa Sheldon, Jax Agtuca, and countless other Indian grassroots activists. And there were the male crusaders, too, like Wilson Pipestem, David Bean, Ernie Stevens, and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.).

“I felt elated,” said Henry, a tribal council member with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, in summing up the day. “I’m incredibly happy and proud of our team of strong hearts—Native women and Native nations. I am humbled and honored that our collective effort to obtain this slice of justice was supported in so many ways by Native people across America.”

“It’s a miracle of such strength,” Dixon, secretary of NCAI and a Pauma tribal citizen, reflected in a YouTube video posted on the day of the signing by the U.S. Department of the Interior. “When we see the first case go through with the protections in order and our Native women protected … that’s going to be a breath of freedom, a breath of certainty that we can protect our people.”

All of them worked together for years for the greater good of Indian country as a whole—trying desperately not to allow tribal divisions on other issues get in the way (although Alaska Native women and families did lose out in the end due to a compromise pushed by their state’s legislators who fear expanding tribal jurisdiction in the “last frontier” state—a front that tribal women, including Johnson Pata, have said they plan to take on in the coming weeks).

Cole and his colleague, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), were told many times throughout the ups and downs of the legislative process in the House that Indian country would not compromise on the inherent tribal court jurisdiction provision, first offered in the Senate version of the bill; nor did tribal leaders want the removal process to federal courts to be overly simple, as that outcome would have treated tribal courts as lesser judicial bodies. In the end, the House on February 28 passed the Senate’s version of the bill that tribal advocates had been pushing all along—inherent tribal authority and a strict removal process intact.

The strong voices of female tribal advocates played a major role in the process, with some of them, like Parker, going so far as to share their own personal tales of familial abuse to help sway legislators’ minds. They were stories that drew national media attention, and they led at least one congressman, Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), to change his mind to end up supporting the tribal VAWA.

Indian women also got the attention of the White House early on, and they secured the Obama administration’s unwavering support, with the Justice Department directly rebutting Republican legislators who argued that the tribal provisions were unconstitutional.

At the president’s signing ceremony, Diane Millich, a citizen of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, was invited to introduce Biden, and to share her personal story of marrying a non-Indian man when she was 26 who ended up assaulting her soon after he moved in with her on her reservation.

“After a year of abuse and more than 100 incidents of being slapped, kicked, punched, and living in horrific terror, I left for good,” Millich told the audience. When she asked the tribal police for help, they could do nothing due to legal restrictions that said the tribe could not prosecute her husband because he was non-Indian. “If the bill being signed today were law when I was married, it would have allowed my tribe to arrest and prosecute my abuser,” she said to applause.

Many of the non-Indian advocates who gathered at the Department of the Interior headquarters to witness President Barack Obama sign into law the VAWA probably didn’t really understand how much the law alters the playing field for tribes by recognizing their “inherent” sovereign power to have jurisdiction over their lands—still, they cheered loudly all the same, largely because they got what they wanted in VAWA, and because the overall basic message was simple: All women and families, regardless of skin color, should be able to live without the fear of domestic violence and abuse. If increased tribal court authority over non-Indians could make that happen for Native women, the non-Indian advocates were on board.

Obama seemed to understand, singling out the Native provisions and the people who supported them: “Tribal governments have an inherent right to protect their people, and all women deserve the right to live free from fear,” he said. “And that is what today is all about.”

The president also noted that Indian country has some of the highest rates of domestic abuse in the country. “And one of the reasons is that when Native American women are abused on tribal lands by an attacker who is not Native American, the attacker is immune from prosecution by tribal courts. Well, as soon as I sign this bill that ends,” he said to major applause.

The president’s speech was televised, and if one looked closely, Indian women were well represented in the audience of his speech, and some like Parker and Millich made it onto the stage to shake his hand and to show their pride as he signed the bill into law.

Although the overall signing event was a celebration, it was also difficult because the tribal legislation of the hour wouldn’t be needed if Indian women weren’t getting abused at such alarmingly high rates. Aurene Martin, a citizen of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and founder of Spirit Rock Consulting, touched on that point, saying it was a “bittersweet” victory. “I was sad, because of all the women who had to suffer to make the amendments to VAWA necessary,” Martin said. “I cried during Diane Millich’s speech because of how terrified she must have been in her own home and on her own reservation, among her own people.”

At the same time, Martin was “proud and elated because of the awesome, unified effort made by all of Indian country to support the changes to VAWA.”

Many of these women warriors are now being honored in their communities, as well as via phone calls and social network messages. During the VAWA signing week, some of them were honored at the National Indian Women Honoring Luncheon, organized by Washington, D.C. tribal advocates who wanted to support them and to encourage their future successes.

Cook Macarro, a Red Lake Ojibwe citizen and lobbyist with Ietan Consulting, was one of those honored. In all, the VAWA experience was overwhelming for her—and she’s no novice, having been through her share of legislative battles. “To stand with so many Native women warriors and watch President Obama sign the VAWA into law was one of the proudest moments of my career,” she shared. “As my tears flowed, I thought of the women back home in Red Lake, working and staying at Equay Wiigamig (Women’s Shelter), and of the many other Native women who will now be protected and have access to resources because of this effort. For so many reasons, this was the sweetest of victories.”

Cook Macarro also shared a message for the abusers who made this law necessary: “To every non-Indian perpetrator of domestic violence or sexual assault on an Indian woman on Indian lands who went unprosecuted—take that!” she exclaimed. “You provided us with the story and legislative opportunity to touch the minds and hearts of Democrats and Republicans alike on the Hill and restore partial criminal jurisdiction to tribes for the first time since 1978.”