Tag: Tulalip
ASIST: Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, April 21-22
Celebrating our youngest learners
Photo/Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
Article/photos by Micheal Rios
During the week of April 11-15, the Betty J. Taylor Early Learning Academy (TELA) celebrated the Week of the Young Child. The week was devoted to shining a light on the importance of early childhood development.
“All young children need and deserve high-quality early learning experiences that will prepare them for life, and Tulalip has a great opportunity to do our part to help young children,” stated Melinda Contraro, Professional Development Manager at TELA. “Week of the Young Child is a time for Tulalip to recognize that early years are learning years for all young children.”
Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Intended to celebrate early learning, young children, their teachers and families, the weeklong event is the perfect opportunity for early childhood programs to hold activities that bring awareness to the needs of young children.
Young children and their families depend on high-quality education and care, which help children get a great start and bring lasting benefits to Tulalip. Week of the Young Child is a time to recognize the importance of early learning and early literacy, and to celebrate the teachers and policies that bring early childhood education to young children.
“We will share some activities with our families and provide take home ideas for them to do with their children,” continued Melinda. “TELA has nearly 100 early childhood professionals working together to improve professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education, and to build public support for high-quality early childhood education programs.”
The week of fun and family friendly activities kicked off on Monday, April 11, with Music Monday. The reception area was transformed into a musical platform for Alley-Oop and his sunshine band of toddlers.
Music Monday: sing, dance, celebrate and learn. Through music, children develop math, language, and literacy skills all while having fun and being active.
Taco Tuesday: healthy eating and fitness at school. This fun, food-themed day is about more than just cheese and salsa. Cooking together connects math with literacy skills, science, and more. With the rise of childhood obesity, you can encourage healthy nutrition and fitness habits in the classroom by creating your own healthy tacos.
Work Together Wednesday: work together, build together, and learn together. When children build together they explore math and science concepts and develop their social and early literacy skills. Children can use any building material – from a fort of branches on the playground to a block city in the classroom.
Artsy Thursday: think, problem solve, create. Children develop creativity, social skills and fine motor skills with open-ended art projects where they can make choices, use their imaginations, and create with their hands. On Artsy Thursday celebrate the joy and learning children experience when engaged in creative art making.
Family Friday: sharing family stories. Engaging and celebrating families is at the heart of supporting our youngest learners. We applaud family members’ role as young children’s first and most important teachers.
Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
Amongst Native peoples, few things in life are as scary as diabetes. And then, after being clinically diagnosed with diabetes, a person must take many steps to resume a normal life, and in most cases, a more healthy lifestyle. What can be just as surprising as the diabetes itself are the unexpected, nonphysical effects, which are equally threatening to one’s quality of life. Although these effects might make the road to diabetes management somewhat bumpy, experts from the Healthy Hearts team from the University of Washington’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute are demonstrating that life with diabetes not only goes on, but can get better.
The Healthy Hearts team has been working to understand and address cardiovascular disease in the Tulalip community since 2008. The first study, Healthy Hearts Across Generations, collected surveys from 284 randomly selected participants from the Tulalip tribal membership to examine cardiovascular disease risks and look at what coping strategies were most productive. From 2010 to 2012, Healthy Hearts Across Generations also provided 135 community parents and guardians with culturally influenced classes to promote health in their families.
In 2012, planning began for the second Healthy Hearts study called Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds. This was launched in 2013 for Natives in the Tulalip area whose diabetes/prediabetes put them at greater risk for heart disease. Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds provided those who were eligible and wanted to participate with one-on-one wellness counseling to take control of their diabetes self-care. This study came to a close in late February.
Local community resources and input from tribal members were used to develop study materials and programs, which were culturally-adapted and designed to promote sticking with positive, healthy behaviors even when it can be tough in the face of busy schedules and other challenges.
Just as exercise strengthens the mind as well as the body, awareness and education play an important role in nonphysical healing. Optimal diabetes management is more likely when people understand the nature and persistence of diabetes, and the fact that it is treatable. It’s more than just sharing facts; people also must be taught how to return to healthier lifestyles and avoid the habits that likely contributed to their health issues in the first place. This is yet another way in which wellness counselors are beneficial, providing an evidence-based intervention strategy to help participants succeed with diabetes management.
“Our focus was the wellness mental state. With diabetes, one of the challenges is that you are asked to do so many things to take care of it yourself. You have to change how you eat, you have to exercise, and check your blood sugar, you have to take your medicine, and don’t forget about getting your eyes and feet checked. It becomes very overwhelming for people,” says Rachelle McCarty, Project Manager of Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds. “If you are really stressed out, then it’s hard to take care of yourself. That’s where our program aimed to help out. We provided participants with one-on-one coaching and very useful tools and information, so they could minimize their stress level to better manage their diabetes.”
Participants were asked to meet with a wellness coach for 10 sessions over a three-month period. Throughout the sessions, participants worked with their wellness coach to identify individual goals they wished to focus on regarding their pre-diabetes or diabetes and stress. They also worked with their coach to complete the Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds curriculums, which covered a range of topics and skills like problem-solving, adherence, motivation and relaxation training.
Wellness coach Michelle Tiedeman, who has been with Healthy Hearts since 2009, says “What I enjoyed the most was working one-on-one with individuals and seeing them make one small, positive change at a time that added up to better overall wellness. It has been an honor to work with the Tulalip community the past several years. I have had the pleasure to work with some amazing individuals and see them accomplish great things.”
Healthy Hearts sponsored an informational lunch to share results from Healthy Hearts Across Generations in August 2014, and hosted a community celebration on February 2, 2016 to honor Tulalip’s commitment to health and share results from Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds. You may have also seen them giving out results flyers and booklets at public events, health fairs, and the semi-annual General Council meeting last year.
Here is a sample of some of the findings:
- 42% of tribal members who responded to the health survey said they do participate in traditional activities like culture night, canoe journey, salmon ceremony, talking circles, and others.
- 40% of tribal members who responded to the health survey reported that they had high blood pressure, 50% of the men and 32% of the women.
- 27% of parents reported that they often use their own behavior as an example to encourage their child(ren) to be physically active.
- 77% shared that they have one or more blood (biological) relatives with diabetes.
- Those who enrolled in Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds significantly lowered their depressive symptoms.
- Healthy Heart, Healthy Minds participants rated themselves significantly better at sticking with their goals at the end of the program compared to the beginning.
- 70% agreed with the statement, “I have a responsibility to walk in a good way for future generations.”
For help with your diabetes, contact the Diabetes Care and Preventions Program at 360-716-5642. For more information on the projects or results available to date, email the Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds study at iwri@uw.edu. The projects were funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Contact Micheal Rios, mrios@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
Next Generation Biddy Ball
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
Tulalip hosted its quarterly biddy ball tournament on Sunday, March 20 at the Greg Williams court located within the Don Hatch Youth Center. The event was open to all kids ages 3-5 and 6-7 years old.
The Tulalip biddy ball program caters to the youngest generation of aspiring hoopers. It features lower nets, a shortened court, and is for young children who are just learning to play the game of basketball.
“It’s a popular sport in our community,” Deyamonta Diaz, Youth Activity Specialist, said following the day’s event. “We’re getting more and more people bringing their children out to learn and play biddy ball. There’s no previous experience necessary. We give them a fundamental style 5-on-5 game so they can learn how to play on a team .”
Biddy ball is really an instructional program setup for children of all level of experience to enjoy. There’s a lot of running around, basic skill sets, and learning the fundamentals of dribbling and shooting a set shot. During one session, the kids practiced drippling back and forth with then their dominant hand, then switched to dribbling with their other hand. While during another session they worked almost entirely on footwork.
The program at one point drew an estimated 50-60 kids. All the kids received a free t-shirt with ‘Next Generation Biddy Ball’ written across it.
Josh Fryberg, Youth Services Activities Coordinator, concluded the basketball-filled event by commenting, “Tulalip biddy basketball turned out great. Thank you everyone that showed up, especially the kids. All of us at Youth Services would like to continue to bring our community together in a good way. Because our biddy ball participation continues to grow we will expand our program so we are having biddy basketball once a month, the 3rd Sunday of each month from 12:00-3:00 p.m.”
Be on the lookout for more information on Tulalip’s biddy ball program in future issues of the syəcəb newspaper and on our Tulalip News Facebook page. If you have any questions or concerns call Tulalip Youth Services at (360) 716-4909.
Tulalip students are in need of Natural Leaders
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
“When the schools and families have a mutual respect for one another and depend on one another as partners in education, the result is increased achievement.” That is a key line from Dr. Steve Constantino’s 101 Ways to Create Real Family Engagement. For Tulalip, getting parents and families engaged in their students’ academic well-being remains a lofty goal. Local schools and many tribal service departments have proclaimed their strategies for family engagement and getting families vested in our students’ academic success, but most fall short of their proclamations.
In order to change this, we must help to build a new cultural foundation and create relationships that motivate family involvement and ultimately create family engagement. Research has constantly shown students’ success to be highly correlated with the level of their parent engagement. When parents are involved, students achieve more, regardless of socio-economic status, ethnic/racial background, or the parents’ education level.
Hoping to spark the must needed change for the sake of our students, Tulalip tribal member Eliza Davis, who works as a Native Liaison for the Marysville School District, is creating a parent engagement project that piggybacks off the Natural Leaders initiative. It is Eliza’s mission to help all our children succeed in school by providing skill building opportunities and in-class volunteer hours for parents to help their kids succeed.
“It is my dream that we will see a group of families and community members emerge and begin taking on leadership roles within the school. We want to help build the families capacity to be partners in their student’s education. That is the piece we are missing here at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary, the family and community representation in our work,” explains Eliza. “We are striving to integrate families in all levels of the work we are doing through the Natural Leaders initiative. We need to get input on our school improvement plan. We want to get parent involvement in building our leadership team. Really, we are just seeking parents to be in the building as volunteers, to help us bring more community events throughout the year, and eventually to bring some fundraising to events for our school.”
The Tulalip Natural Leader project challenges parents to take on a leadership role. They will build relationships with families in the community, identify what helps these families be successful with education and then implement these ideas. A driving focus is collaborative community organizing where parents are equal partners sharing a common goal of children achieving success in education.
“We are starting this work at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary, but really I am thinking how we could be building this type of work up with our families in all our schools; the Betty J. Taylor Early Learning Academy, Totem Middle School, and the three high schools our kids are attending (Heritage, Marysville Pilchuck and Marysville Getchell),” continues Eliza. “We believe that family and community engagement work will bring great success for our Tulalip students. The research proves that these strategies are effective in bridging the opportunity gap in schools. We hope to be working side by side with more families and community members through this initiative very soon.”
According to the Washington Alliance for Better Schools, Natural Leaders are warm, caring social persons who serve as multicultural bridges between students, teachers, communities and schools. In our community we hear so much about education, the need for a cultural presence in our school, and advocating for our youth, especially around General Council season. Here is the perfect opportunity to show your support for our youth, our educators and our community by becoming a part of the Natural Leaders initiative.
Lack of parental supervision or a plain absence of parental engagement in their children’s day to day life is the most harmful demographic trend of this Native generation. It is the leading cause of declining child well-being in our society. It is also the engine driving our most urgent social problems, from crime to adolescent pregnancy to substance abuse to perpetuating the impoverish mindset that clutches so many like a mental vice grip.
It is very powerful when adults engage in education themselves because actions speak louder than words. Children view adults as role models and aspire to be like them. Parents and Tulalip community members who answer the call to become Natural Leaders will experience personal growth that comes with giving of oneself for the better of our younger generation. Personal growth and transformation is an important outcome that leads to stronger communities and academic success for children.
“Parent and community engagement is an integral part of a successful school. In order to achieve academic success, parents and staff members need a strong partnership,” states Cory Taylor, Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary Principal. “Thankfully the Natural Leaders program is designed to accomplish this objective. One particular way the Natural Leaders program has benefited our school is through the volunteer program. Parents have assisted in the following areas: after school events, classroom projects, perfect attendance awards, maintaining the school calendar, and individual academic student support.
“We are looking forward to building on the Natural Leaders program in the upcoming months and years. As we strengthen staff and parent relationships through this program we will be creating a brighter future for our students and children.”
Whether you are a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, or concerned community member, please consider becoming a part of Tulalip’s Natural Leader initiative. The next Natural Leaders group meeting will be Wednesday, March 23, at noon in room 162 of the Tulalip Administration building.
Share what the mission of the Natural Leaders group is and help our community to recruit able and willing employees, community members, parents and guardians. Become a part of the movement, be the ripple effect and support our youth.
Memorable season comes to an end for Lady Hawks
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
On Friday, March 4, the Tulalip Heritage Lady Hawks (23-2) played a loser-out game in the State tournament held at Spokane Arena. Their opponent was the Warriors from Almira-Coulee-Hartline.
In the 1st quarter, Adiya Jones came out very aggressive and scored on three of her first four shots. Tied at 6-6, the Warriors started double teaming Adiya as much as possible, which put the clamps on the Lady Hawks offense. The Warriors finished the quarter on a 12-2 run to take an 18-8 lead over Tulalip.
In the 2nd quarter, the Lady Hawks went on a 10-4 run sparked by Aliya Jones connecting on a 3-pointer and a long two, then Adiya added a couple free-throws and a 3-pointer of her own. Trailing by only 4 points, 18-22, the Lady Hawks put enough pressure on the Warriors that they called a timeout. Following the timeout, the Warriors again adjusted their defense to pick up Aliya at half-court and pressured her to give up the ball. The Warriors adjustment worked as the Lady Hawks were unable to get their offense going to close the half and were trailing 22-30 at the intermission.
The Warriors ability to disrupt the Lady Hawks offense by forcing turnovers, corralling seemingly every rebound, and using their own size and athleticism to score on the Tulalip defense proved to be too much to overcome. The Lady Hawks lost the game 43-64, ending their season.
Adiya finished her last high school game again filling the box score with 27 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 6 blocks. Even more impressive, Adiya scored or assisted on 37 of the teams 43 points. Aliya added 9 points, Keryn 5 points, and Desirae 2 points.
This season was a tremendous success for the Lady Hawks. After a season to forget last year, in which the team went 2-18, the program added the talents of Aliya, Keryn and all-state selection Adiya. With a renewed vigor the Lady Hawks power housed through their regular season schedule going undefeated and winning by a whopping 30 points per game. They won their league, finished 2nd at Tri-Districts, and were one of only eight teams to play for the State title.
Senior players Adiya Jones, Michelle Iukes, Desirae Williams, Kaenishia Herrera, and Geri Iukes will be graduating this spring.
Shown below, Adiya Jones and Keryn Parks were recipients of the Hardwood Classic sportsmanship award for their play at State.
Contact Michael Rios, mrios@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov
Adiya leads Lady Hawks past Seattle Lutheran, 48-37
By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
The Tulalip Heritage Lady Hawks (21-0) went undefeated during their regular season, won out to claim the District 1-1B title, and were looking to keep their dominant run in tact as they played the Seattle Lutheran Saints (13-7) in the Tri-District Tournament semi-finals. The game was played on Tuesday, February 16 at Mount Vernon Christian High School.
It was obvious from the early going that the Saints had no answer for senior standout Adiya Jones, as she routinely got to her spots, hit shot after shot, all the while collecting rebounds. Adiya started the game red hot; connecting on 7 of 8 shot attempts and chipped in three free-throws. At halftime she had 18 points and more importantly the Lady Hawks held a 9 point lead, 28-19.
In the 2nd half, Adiya picked up a technical for commenting on a sketchy foul call. The resulting technical meant she would have to sit a stretch. With Adiya on the bench, the Lady Hawks did their best to score buckets and grab rebounds. Keryn Parks and Cyena Fryberg were rewarded with their hustle play, as both finished the game with 9 rebounds apiece.
The Saints managed to carve away at the Lady Hawks lead and towards the end of the 3rd quarter they only led by 5 points, 33-28. Enter Adiya back in the ball game. From that point on the Lady Hawks finished the game strong by holding the Saints to only 9 points the remainder of the way. In the end, the Lady Hawks won by 11 points, 48-37. Adiya led all scorers and had a very impressive stat line: 32 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 6 steals and 4 blocks.
Up next for the Lady Hawks is the Tri-District championship game where they will face off against the Mount Vernon Christian Hurricanes. The Hurricanes almost handed the Lady Hawks their first defeat the last time they played back in the District playoffs. In that game the Lady Hawks managed to escape with a 39-38 victory thanks to a last minute bucket by Aliya Jones.
Look for all the details of the Tri-District championship game and Regional coverage in the next issue of the syəcəb.
Lopsided 2nd quarter dooms the Hawks in 48-68 loss
by Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
On Saturday, February 13, the Tulalip Heritage Hawks (14-9) traveled to Seattle Lutheran High School to play their opening game of the Tri-District Tournament. Their opponent was the Shorewood Christian Lions (16-3). It would be a matchup of #2s, as the Hawks finished #2 in the Northwest 1B league and the Lions finished #2 in the SeaTac 1B league.
The Hawks were hoping to build off their play-in victory over the Muckleshoot Kings just days before.
In the 1st quarter, the two teams traded baskets repeatedly with Robert Miles doing his best to match the scoring output of the Lions’ best player, Jovi Fevaleaki. At the end of the quarter the Hawks were very much in it, trailing by only 1 point 14-15.
However, things turned drastically for the Hawks in the 2nd quarter. The offense completely disappeared for the Hawks. They repeatedly settled for long-range, contested jumpers and were unable to attack the rim. Add in their turnovers and it’s no wonder that the Lions opened the quarter with a 15-0 run. The Hawks didn’t score until late in the quarter when Willy Enick connected on a 3-pointer. Willy added in another basket to give his team their only 5 points of the 2nd quarter. At halftime the Hawks trailed 19-36.
Following the halftime intermission things didn’t get any better for the Hawks. The offense continued to struggle with the size and athleticism of the Lions, while defensively they were unable to contain Jovi Fevaleaki who finished with a game high 27 points.
The Hawks lost the game 48-68, and would be put in a loser-out game vs. their league rivals the Orcas Christian Saints.
Hawks defense steps up big time in 43-37 win
Following the loss to Shorewood Christian, the Tulalip Heritage Hawks (14-10) found out their post-season hinged on a loser-out game vs. in league rivals, the Orcas Christian Saints (15-2). It wasn’t a matchup that appeared to be in the Hawks favor, as they had lost all three regular season matchups with the Saints. In fact, the Saints had won those three games by an average margin of 18 points per game. But in the playoffs anything can happen.
After the 1st quarter the Hawks found themselves trailing 7-11 and struggling to find their offense. On the positive side, the Hawks were liking their defensive intensity, especially on Saints point guard Michael Harris. Harris, who had given the Hawks defensive fits all season long, was constantly hounded by Nashone Whitebear.
Things continued in the 2nd quarter with the Hawks not converting their shots, but continuing to play strong defense and not letting Harris beat them. At halftime the Hawks trailed by only 4 points, 15-19. It was by far the lowest scoring 1st half the Hawks had been a part of all season.
During the intermission, the Hawks realized the ball was sticking too much on offense and wanted to move the ball more in the 2nd half; more passing to open up quality looks for their shooters. On defense, they just wanted to keep up the tempo and to continue making everything difficult for Harris while continuing to crash the boards.
In the 3rd quarter, the Hawks finally got their offense going. They scored 15 points in the 3rd, as much as they scored in both the 1st and 2nd quarters combined. The solid defense was still in effect and to this point they had held the Saints best player to only 3 points. Going into the final quarter the Hawks had taken a 30-29 lead.
The ball continued to move well for the Hawks and they found open looks for Josh Iukes who came up huge for his team in the clutch. Josh and Robert Miles both scored a game-high 15 points and it would be good enough in the low scoring game to take the victory. After losing their first three matchups with the Saints, they made the necessary adjustments and found the will to win in a 43-37 thriller for the Hawks. With the victory the Hawks season remained alive and they were guaranteed two more Tri-District games.
Tulalip Hawks get pummeled by Neah Bay, 45-106
Just when things were looking up for the Heritage Hawks (15-10), after a hard fought victory over the best team in our league, things came to a crashing halt at the hands of the Neah Bay Red Devils (16-3). The two teams played on Wednesday, February 17, at Evergreen Lutheran High School in a 3rd round matchup of the Tri-District tournament.
The game started out as a competitive one, with the Hawks and Red Devils both executing their offense. Just under four minutes into the 1st quarter the game was tied at 11-11. Then it all went south for the Hawks. The Red Devils finished the quarter on a 20-2 run to take a commanding 31-13 lead.
The Hawks did what they could offensively, scoring 17 points in the 2nd quarter, but they just had no answer defensively for the Red Devils who were shooting lights out. At halftime the Hawks trailed 30-55.
Things only got worse in the 2nd half for the Hawks, as Neah Bay continued to pile on the points with little fight from Tulalip. Getting outscored 6-27 in the 3rd quarter and 9-24 in the 4th quarter added up to a 45-106 loss for the Hawks. This game goes down as easily the worse loss for the Heritage Hawks basketball program in years.
Luckily, the Hawks get a shot at redemption with a huge upcoming game against Lummi Nation. With a win, the Hawks will play on at Regionals, but if they lose their season will be over.
Healthy food and healthy community are key to diabetes prevention
By Niki Cleary, Tulalip News
Exercise, laughter and hugs, fresh air and a sense of accomplishment were some of the gifts about 50 community members gave themselves on Saturday, February 20. The Healthy Gardening Gathering, hosted by the Karen I. Fryberg Health Clinic’s Diabetes Care and Prevention Program, was much bigger than a seminar on gardening and preparing healthy meals; it was a reminder that peer pressure can be a good thing. The effort, which involved preparing new garden beds for the Clinic gardens, more importantly provided a place to build fellowship and support for wholesome living.
Members of the WSU Master Gardeners program were onsite to offer their knowledge and enthusiasm about gardening. Many of the volunteers who joined in have worked with each other before, some have helped out at the Hibulb gardens, some are part of the Diabetes Prevention Program, others participate in the Wisdom Warriors program. Their common ground (pun intended) is a desire to live well and enjoy life.
Toddlers, elders and all ages in between joined the fun. If you are interested in learning to garden, if you want to eat healthier and exercise more, or if you’re just looking for some fun people to hang out with email Veronica Leahy for more information vleahy@tulaliptribes-nsn.gov.
Coming up, the Diabetes Program has two field trips, one for a Padilla Bay nature walk on March 11, and one for a Heronswood nature walk and plant sale, April 2. Upcoming classes and education include Diabetes Day March 3, a set of Diabetes comprehensive classes March 9, 16, 23 and 30. Additional gardening opportunities will be available at the Clinic gardens April 16 and June 11, and at the Hibulb Gardens March 5 and 12.
