Jr. Archives - Tulalip News

Tulalip Basketball Camp, more than just hoops

by Micheal Rios, Tulalip News

During the week of July 27-31, the sports-centric youth of Tulalip took part in a week long basketball camp to learn, practice, and perfect their basketball skills at the Don Hatch Youth Center. With the on-court assistance of Deyamonta Diaz and Shawn Sanchey, who are both Youth Services Activity Specialists, basketball camp participants were split into two groups; one earlier session for elementary and middle school aged boys and one later session for high school aged boys.

Fred Brown, Jr. who played college basketball at the University of Iowa and presently works for Seattle Basketball Services, Washington State’s premier NCAA compliant scouting service led the early session of youngsters. According to his work profile, Brown specializes in events coordinating, recruiting, scouting, tutoring and player development work for youth, high school, college and professional athletes. He is dedicated to helping student athletes learn the importance of having an exceptional work ethic, good grades and a positive attitude to be successful in today’s society.

Brown believes, “Opportunities do not go away, they go to someone else.” Following with this mantra, Brown emphasized hard work and the highest quality of competition during each day of camp. Tulalip youth responded in kind by giving their fullest effort during each and every basketball drill. The few instances when the kids would not respect the rules of his sessions, Brown was sure to get their attention by blowing his whistle and having them run lines. This means of discipline not only got the kids attention, but also helped to condition them and build up their stamina.

The later session, made up of high school participants, was led by Sanjey Noriega and Tisen Fryberg. Noriega was a college basketball player at University of Alaska-Fairbanks and went on to play professional basketball in Europe and Latin America. Fryberg, a Tulalip tribal member, currently plays college basketball.

During both sessions, the young ballers with hoop dreams were able to win prizes, such as shooting sleeves or Strideline basketball socks, in various skill building drills. There was a fair share of solo drills, but for the most part the sessions were composed of team exercises that showcased the fact that basketball is indeed a team sport.

Everyone who participated in the basketball camp came away a better basketball player and a better teammate to their brothers of the hardwood. They grew and learned about more than just basketball, as each session instructor would share their personal stories overcoming obstacles to make it to the next level. While they practiced ball handling, dribbling, and shooting, they also learned about self-esteem, teamwork, and the value of hard work.

Contact Micheal Rios: mrios@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov

Being Frank: Put People Before Profits

By Billy Frank, Jr., Chairman, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

OLYMPIA – When it comes to your chances of getting cancer from the foods you eat, what odds would you like: one in a million, or one in 100,000?

Of course all of us would prefer the least amount of risk. That’s why it’s hard to believe that Gov. Jay Inslee is even considering changing water quality rules that would increase that risk. The justification? Businesses such as Boeing say that protecting your health increases their cost of doing business.

There are two important numbers that go into determining how much pollution the state allows to be put in our waters. The numbers are 10^-6and 6.5.

The first number is your cancer risk rate from eating fish and shellfish containing toxics from pollution in our waters. Right now that rate of 10^-6provides you a one in a million chance of getting cancer. But Gov. Inslee is considering changing the risk rate to 10^-5_, increasing your exposure to known carcinogens to one in 100,000. That’s a tenfold decrease in protection, and that’s not right.

The second number is the amount of seafood that the state of Washington says you eat every day. The lower the number, the less protective water quality standards need to be to protect us from poisons in our water.

The problem is that the state’s current rate of 6.5 grams per day (equal to about one 8-ounce portion per month) is one of the lowest fish consumption rates in the nation. It’s lower even than states like Iowa, despite the fact that Washington has abundant seafood and one of the largest populations of fish and shellfish consumers in the United States.

The state admits that the current fish consumption rate doesn’t protect most of its citizens, yet has used that very same rate to set water quality standards for more than two decades. After years of prodding by the tribes, environmental groups and others, the state has finally agreed to develop a more realistic rate and is considering a range from 125 to 225 grams per day.

While that’s encouraging, if the state adjusts the companion number, the cancer risk rate, any increase in the fish consumption rate would be made almost meaningless in terms of improved water quality standards.

The treaty tribes have been clear from the start about what we would like to see. We think the cancer risk rate should stay right where it is, and the fish consumption rate should be at least 175 grams per day. That’s the same rate that Oregon uses. We think everyone deserves at least that much protection. That’s especially true for tribes, sport fishermen and anyone else who eats a lot of fish and shellfish.

We should know Gov. Inslee’s decision on the fish consumption and cancer risk rates in a few weeks. We hope he will decide in favor of protecting our health and water quality. The choice really boils down to whether we want a pollution-based economy or one that puts people and their health ahead of profits.

Being Frank: Good Relationships Don’t Just Happen

By Billy Frank, Jr, Chairman, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

OLYMPIA – Good relationships don’t just happen. We have to work together to build and maintain a strong foundation of trust and commitment to keep a relationship healthy and strong.

As we mark the 40^th anniversary of the Boldt decision this year, the tribal and state natural resources co-managers met recently to re-dedicate ourselves to the principles of co-management.

At the core of co-management is a pledge to seek cooperation first and avoid litigation. The approach is based on a government-to-government relationship that respects the decision-making authority of both the tribes and state. Its success depends on jointly planning and developing clear objectives with agreed-upon data to support consistent, coordinated natural resources management programs.

Trust and cooperation go hand in hand. In the first decade following the 1974 Boldt decision, the tribes and state did not trust each other as co-managers. We spent hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours arguing before a federal court about whose data was more accurate and whether this fishery or that fishery should be allowed at this place or time.

All that time and money spent in court was wasted. It could have been better spent protecting and rebuilding the resource.

After a difficult first decade, we found a way to work together built on mutual respect and consideration for each other’s needs. Co-management took giant steps forward.

In 1984 the tribes and state started the annual joint season-setting process called North of Falcon. In 1985 the tribes and state worked together to develop the Pacific Salmon Treaty that governs shared U.S. and Canadian salmon fisheries. In 1986 came the Timber/Fish/Wildlife Agreement that provided protection for fish and wildlife on private timberlands while also ensuring a healthy timber industry. Next came the 1989 Centennial Accord that further cemented the government-to-government relationship between the tribes and state.

All of these accomplishments clearly show the great things that can be done when we choose to work together. We can’t afford to lose that.

That doesn’t mean we agree on everything. We don’t. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we can’t come to an agreement. The case of fish-blocking culverts is a good example.

After many months of negotiations failed, the tribes were forced as a last resort in 2001 to file a lawsuit against the state to fix fish-blocking culverts under state roads that closed access to hundreds of miles of good salmon habitat. The federal court agreed that culverts blocking fish passage violate tribal treaty fishing rights and gave the state 17 years to fix the problem.

While we are disappointed that the state has appealed the ruling, we will continue to work together for the health of the salmon and all of our natural resources. That’s because we know cooperation is the way forward. It always has been and always will be.

Being Frank: Boeing, Let’s Talk

By Billy Frank, Jr., Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

OLYMPIA – It was the mid-1980s, and Roy dairy farmer Jim Wilcox was worried.

As an owner of Wilcox Family Farms, one of the largest dairy producers in western Washington at the time, he was concerned how his business would be affected by the activities of a new group called the Nisqually River Task Force. I was part of that task force of tribal, state, federal and local governments, businesses and others charged with developing a management plan for the Nisqually River watershed. The aim of the plan was balanced stewardship of the watershed’s economic, natural and cultural resources.

Fearing that possible environmental regulations in such a plan could put his family farm on the Nisqually River out of business, Wilcox quickly joined the task force to protect his interests. But before that, he teamed up with other large landowners in the watershed – including Weyerhaeuser – to try and shoot down any plan that might be developed.

But those fears melted one day when the task force was touring the watershed and our bus broke down. Waiting for help, Jim and I started talking. I told him that we wanted him to stay in business, but that we needed to protect salmon as well, and that if we worked together, we could come up with a solution.

He agreed to try. Today, Wilcox Family Farms is still in business and the Nisqually River watershed is one of the healthiest in the state. It’s a model of how a watershed can be managed for the benefit of everyone.

About that same time, a war was raging in the woods of Washington. Timber companies, environmental groups, tribes, state and federal agencies, and others were battling each other in court over the effects of timber harvests on fish and wildlife. I asked Stu Bledsoe, executive director of the Washington Forest Protection Association, a forest products industry trade group, to see if his members would be willing to join a cooperative effort to develop a solution for everyone involved.

He agreed to try. After many months of negotiations by all of the parties involved, the result was the Timber/Fish/Wildlife Agreement – now called the Forests and Fish Law – which put an end to the war in the woods with a cooperative science-based management approach that ensures a healthy timber industry while also protecting fish and wildlife.

We find ourselves in a similar situation today with the state’s extremely low fish consumption rate that is used to regulate pollution in our waters. The lower the rate, the higher the level of pollutants allowed.

Washington has one of the highest populations of seafood consumers, but uses one of the lowest fish consumption rates in the country to control water pollution. State government is quick to admit that the current rate of 6.5 grams of seafood per day – about one 8-ounce serving a month – does not protect most Washington citizens from toxins in our waters that can cause illness or death.

That fact is especially true for Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, as well as recreational fishermen and others who eat more seafood than most. For us tribes, fish and shellfish have always been basis of our cultures. Our treaty-reserved harvest rights depend on those resources being safe to eat.

Oregon recently increased its fish consumption rate to 175 grams per day, the most protective rate in the U.S. We think everyone in Washington deserves at least that level of protection.

Sadly, the effort to adopt a more accurate fish consumption rate has become one of the biggest public policy battles in the country, pitting human health against the economy. Some industry leaders such as Boeing are digging in their heels to delay or kill rule-making on a more accurate rate because they say it will increase their cost of doing business.

To find a solution, Gov. Jay Inslee has put together an informal advisory group of tribes, local governments, businesses, environmental organizations and others to help resolve the issue. That group met for the first time recently, and although Boeing was invited, the company chose not to participate.

That’s too bad, because I would have told them that we don’t want Boeing to leave the state or go out of business. We want them to keep making planes here in western Washington, but at the same time we have to protect the health of everyone who lives here by adopting a more realistic fish consumption rate. I also would have told them about Jim Wilcox and Stu Bledsoe and the many great things that can be accomplished when we sit down together to solve a shared problem.

Let Freedom Ring – American Indian Drums Asked to Sound Wednesday at 3pm edt

American Indian drum groups are being encouraged to participate in "Let Freedom Ring" — American Indian drum groups are being encouraged to participate in “Let Freedom Ring”

Source: Native News Network

ATLANTA – Fifty years after to the date and time of day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, people across America are asked to ring bells and American Indian drums are asked to sound on to “let freedom ring.’

Church bells will sound across America. Hand held bells will be rung.

“I think it would be nice to have American Indian drum groups to participate to show support,”

commented Melissa Claramunt, American Indian specialist and Civil Rights specialist at Michigan Department of Civil Rights.

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights encourages you to take part in (or organize!) Let Freedom Ring! celebrations all across the state (and country) on that day – in schools, churches, mosques, universities, anywhere there’s a bell or carillon – or drum.

This is a unique opportunity to be part of history. Ring a bell on August 28 and honor Dr. King and his enduring message of freedom, justice, and equality. To learn more, visit facebook.com/midcr and www.mlkdream50.com.

(l to r) Elana Jimenez, Robert Sky-Eagle, Terra Branson, Emily White Hat, & Derrick Beetso. (not pictured: Chia Beetso, Gerald Kaquatosh, & Sandy Brewster-walker, Hugo & Nancy Trotman. Legend Trotman, Aanaya Trotman, Trinity Trotman, Kimimila Beetso, Tashina Beetso.

Yesterday, thousands were in the nation’s capital to honor the memory of Dr. King and the historic March on Washington in the “Realize the Dream” March and Rally.

Part of the thousands was a group representing the National Congress of American Indians.

“We marched on behalf of the National Congress of American Indians and along with the Leadership Conference. We marched for voting rights and to support better adoption practices for our Native kids,”

commented Derrick Beetso, a staff attorney with the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the country.