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Terrence Lee “Makah” Bobb passed away March 28, 2020 at Providence Regional Medical Center. Terry was born on September 1, 1948 in Mt. Vernon, WA, to Leonard and Rachel Bobb. Terry was raised on the Swinomish Reservation, attended the La Conner Schools and graduated Class of 1967. After high school Terry moved to Tacoma, WA to attend vocational welding school along with other Swinomish young men. His first employer was Pacific Car and Foundry in Tacoma, WA. He also worked for Skagit County Department of Transportation-Road Construction Div... Full story
It took a historic pandemic to cut short a La Conner High alum’s in-depth study of history in India. Ryan Booth, now a doctoral student at Washington State University, saw his assignment as a Fulbright Scholar on the subcontinent cut short due to the COVID-19 crisis. Fortunately, Booth had worked at a frenetic pace while researching comparisons and contrasts between the British Empire’s use of native Indians in its military and the U.S. Army’s enlistment of Native American scouts on the weste...
Marlys Baker had quickly found a home on the La Conner School Board after having unseated longtime incumbent Janie Beasley in their race for the Swinomish director district seat last November. In just four months Baker had earned high praise from La Conner Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Meissner and board colleagues for her immediate impact. But when she and her family moved to Mount Vernon this month, taking residence in their new home forced Baker to turn out the lights on what was a promising start serving on the local school panel. Her...
After a crossroads election that marked the end of an era, the Swinomish Tribal Senate on Monday selected a tested leader to guide the 11-member panel on the path ahead. Steve “Rudy” Edwards, who has served as Tribal recreation director among other key roles, was the Senate’s choice to succeed Brian Cladoosby as its chairman. Cladoosby, who had chaired the Swinomish Senate for more than two decades and was widely recognized as a prominent national voice in the Native American community, was d...
The impact of a landslide election victory has had the effect of an earthquake on Swinomish Reservation, the aftershocks from which are likely to be felt for quite some time. First-time candidate Alana Quintasket, 27, defeated incumbent Tribal Senate Chairman Brian Cladoosby 220-103 during balloting held in conjunction with the annual Swinomish General Council session on Sunday. Cladoosby, the longest serving Senate Chairman in Swinomish history and recognized as a key regional and national...
Brian Cladoosby is a recognized leader both here and in the other Washington. The longtime Swinomish Tribal Community Senate chairman, under whose tenure the local reservation has realized unparalleled economic growth along with major advances in social services and health care facilities, has during that time often shared a speaking dais with governors, state and federal lawmakers, cabinet officers, and even a U.S. President. Yet more remains on his to-do list, he told the Weekly News last...
It’s often said that youth will be served. But Alana Quintasket, just 27, wants to turn that notion around. Rather than be served, she wants to be among those who are of service. As in public service. Quintasket is seeking election to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Senate seat held by longtime Chair Brian Cladoosby. He was first elected in 1985 and has been chair for the past 23 years, a time frame that has seen him assume several state and national Native American leadership roles. Durin...
Patricia McEniry Love of La Conner, age 94, died at her home on November 26, 2019. She is survived by daughters: Robin (Richard Tanner) and Sheila Connolly, 9 grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren. No one will ever forget their “GG.” She was preceded in death by Henry Love, her husband of 60 years, daughter Ann Love Glick, and brother Michael McEniry. She was born Patricia Adele McEniry to James & Betty (Braga) McEniry on October 30, 1925 in Pasadena, California. The family moved to Seattle w... Full story
Just 23, Doug Gunter was by all accounts someone who had life figured out. If only the man suspected of shooting and killing him in Burlington last Friday had lived by Gunter’s example. It was compassion and empathy, according to those who knew him best, that were the main currencies in which Gunter took stock, leaving those with whom he crossed paths all the richer for the experience. In a life ended much too soon, they say Gunter was especially kind to and respectful of those elders he encountered each day on Swinomish Reservation. Having alr...
Story courtesy of the Northwest News Network. First published Dec 4, 2019 In a barrier-breaking appointment, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has selected a Whatcom County judge to serve as the first known Native American justice on the state Supreme Court since its founding in 1889. Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis, 51, who is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta tribe of New Mexico, will replace Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst when she retires in January. Fairhurst, who is battling colon cancer for the third time,...
Patricia McEniry Love, 94, of La Conner died at her home on November 26, 2019. She is survived by daughters: Robin (Richard Tanner) and Sheila Connolly; nine grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren. No one will ever forget their “GG”. She was preceded in death by Henry Love, her husband of 60 years, daughter Ann Love Glick, and brother Michael McEniry. She was born Patricia Adele McEniry to James & Betty (Braga) McEniry on October 30, 1925 in Pasadena, California. The family moved to Seattle where Patsy attended Lowell School, and was a pr... Full story
Now is the time to cast your ballot. Help get all ballots counted quickly: • Vote and return your ballot now • Sign your ballot envelope • Mail your ballot by Nov. 2 Get voting information and register to vote at VoteWa.gov or contact Skagit County Elections: 360-416-1702, [email protected] Election drop boxes nearby: La Conner Regional Library, 614 E. Morris Street. Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Social Services Building, 17337 Reservation Road. Ballots must be in drop boxes by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 You can...
The La Conner Weekly News recently profiled the two candidates competing for the La Conner School District’s Director District 2 position on the Nov. 5 election ballot. Marlys Baker and Janine Beasley are both members of the Swinomish Tribe and presumably reside on reservation trust land that by law is exempt from property taxes. Among the many responsibilities of a school board member is establishing and approving special levy taxes voted on by school district residents and paid by district property owners. Regardless of which candidate is ele...
Sea level rise and storm surge caused by the changing climate disrupts salmon and shellfish harvesting that indigenous people have depended on from time immemorial. The impacts on the culture are physical to the environment, physiological to the individual and psychological to individuals and community alike. A $360,000 two year grant to the Health Department of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will advance work the tribe has done and support the creation of tools that other indigenous communities...
Elaborate costumes will conceal the identities of those celebrating Halloween here next Thursday. But there’s no hiding the fact there will be plenty of fun for those partaking of the local holiday festivities. Oct. 31 looks to be a boo-tiful time for kids and adults alike, both in La Conner and on Swinomish Reservation. Festivities kick off at 3:15 p.m. with the parade and always popular downtown trick-or-treating. First Street transforms from a tourist mecca into a gateway for Halloween e...
Get your unneeded medications out of your house Oct. 26. Take them to the Swinomish Tribal Police Department, 17353 Reservation Road from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Swinomish Tribe is hosting this prescription drug take back day for both prescription and over-the-counter medications. Medications can stay in their original containers and labels do not need to be removed. Medications not in their original containers will be accepted too. United General District 304 is a partner in preventing opioid misuse in community. Erynn Sendrick, program...
This sleepy, off year election has two important contested local races and 24 total items needing your attention and decisions. Incumbent La Conner School District directors are challenged in district 1, where John Agen runs against five year veteran Kate Szurek, and district 2, which has Marlys Baker facing Board Chair Janie Beasley. Incumbent Lynette Cram in district 4 is unopposed as is appointed director Susan Deyo in district 5. Voters will decide on three changes to state law: Referendum Measure 88, which the legislature placed on the...
When Janie Beasley speaks, whether in English or Lushootseed, people listen. In fact, her ability to speak – and listen – to a broad base of La Conner area constituents has long been a trademark of the incumbent La Conner School District Board Director, who currently chairs the five-member panel. Beasley, a La Conner High alum, is often called upon to deliver bi-lingual messages during local special events, both at school and off-campus. Thus, she knows well the importance of...
An attentive crowd of 80 people heard candidates for La Conner School Board District Directors 1 and 2 at a forum co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Skagit County and the La Conner Weekly News last Wednesday on the Swinomish reservation. Incumbents Kate Szurek, District 1 Director, and Janie Beasley, District 2 Director, are challenged by John Agen and Marlys Baker, respectively. The large turnout indicated the interest in the tension between the administration and the two school unions. Also, the District 2 position is a contest...
This corrects and updates the Sept. 25 editorial: “School board candidates.” All people living in the La Conner school district are invited to attend tonight’s candidates forum featuring District 1 candidates John Agen and Kate Szurek and District 2 candidates Marlys Baker and Janie Beasley. All school district residents will be voting for the four director positions on the ballot. District 4 Director Lynette Cram and District 5 Director Susan Deyo are unopposed. The Sept. 25 Weekly News editorial stating that tonight’s forum was for residen...
She’s soft-spoken by nature, but Kate Szurek has long been a strong voice for public education, having served on three school boards in Washington locales. The local attorney has relished being a member of the La Conner School Board since her appointment in 2014 to succeed Gretchen McCauley on the district panel. “I jumped in with both feet,” she recalls. There was no hesitation, Szurek told the Weekly News, because of her faith in La Conner Schools, where she now has three grandchildren enrol...
Today’s front page headline urging ALL La Conner School District residents to attend tonight’s District 1 and 2 director candidates forum uses all caps to get your attention. That is a poor fix for the error made here last week, when the editorial wrongly focused on urging Fidalgo Island voters in Districts 1 and 2 to attend the forum. Wrong: In Washington all voters in a school district vote for all directors. That is an at large voting system placed on top of geographical representation by distributing directors throughout the district. I m...
Dear Mr. Dave Thomas, Skagit County Assessor: As a resident of La Conner (Eagles Nest) with property interests in Shelter Bay, I am personally affected – as are all of us in Skagit County, actually – by the adverse effects of property taxation imposed on us by the Swinomish Tribe following the Great Wolf Lodge decision by the 9th Circuit. We are taxed without representation as guaranteed by our Constitution, and the tribe fails repeatedly to pass through tax monies it collects to local taxing districts causing a tax shift that...
John Agen, Kate Szurek, Marlys Baker, Janie Beasley. Astute readers will recognize them as the candidates in the contested races for the La Conner School District directors positions for districts 1 and 2, on south and west Fidalgo Island outside of Shelter Bay, generally. The four are taking their races seriously, campaigning to represent their respective Fidalgo Island constituents at a time of great turmoil in the school district. Szurek and Beasley are incumbents. Beasley is this year’s board president. Szurek was president in 2018. Both h...
At her job, Marlys Baker is a healer. She hopes to do the same as an elected official. “I want to be a unifying force rather than a dividing one,” says Baker, the first of four La Conner School Board candidates to respond to questions posed by the Weekly News. “I believe we can work together for positive change.” Baker, a registered nurse who serves as community health representative at the Swinomish Medical Clinic, is vying for the Board seat held by Janie Edwards Beasley, who chairs the fiv...
