Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper
Sorted by date Results 251 - 275 of 385
Fire District 13 commissioners approved an agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for $250,000 for the district’s 2018 operating budget at their April 26 meeting. The Tribe had approved the request in November. The funds, from the Swinomish Trust Improvement Use and Occupancy Taxes, are collected from rents on reservation land “pursuant to assessments in 2018 of taxes owing under the Trust Improvement Tax,” the agreement states. The amount is double the 2017 agreement. Fire District 13 has been unable to assess property tax on re...
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community staff were at the U.S. Supreme Court April 18 to hear oral arguments that will decide whether the state of Washington’s treaty obligations require removing state-owned barrier culverts to preserve fish runs and habitats. Swinomish joined with 20 other Washington tribes and the United States against the state of Washington in litigation that started in 2001. The Court will decide if a district court injunction ordering the state to remove and replace 2,030 state-owned barrier culverts must be followed. S...
Greg Robinson, a former director of the Museum of Northwest Art, offered a different kind of homecoming last Saturday: He opened MoNA’s “Robert McCauley: American Fiction” with a 45-minute slide lecture to an appreciative audience of about 50 people, most of them getting a different view of MoNA: they had just attended the annual membership meeting. McCauley, the son of generations of Mount Vernon loggers, accompanied his dad into the woods. Born in 1946, he “grew up watching forests fall. T...
Close to 100 people from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community gathered with handmade signs at the SITC’s gym March 27. Holle Edwards, march coordinator said, “this is the fourth (annual) March (on Drugs) …. it was really empowering … the youth center made signs with the kids the day before the March that said things like ‘Say No to Drugs’ and ‘Do Drugs and Your Brain Turns into Slugs.’” The tragic loss of family members and friends due to opioid deaths has reached frightening a...
On an unusually sunny Saturday March 10 at the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Swinomish Police Department’s Community Service Officer Brian Geer was spreading some sunshine of his own. Officer Geer stationed himself and waited alongside a locking strong box, at the SITC’s outdoor basketball court on the corner of First Street and Snee Oosh Road. He was there to kick off a new SPD “Prescription Drug Take Back Program” designed to collect and store unwanted or expired prescription medicat...
Patricia Paul was appointed to the Grand Ronde Court of Appeals by the Tribal Council of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Oregon in January. Paul, a La Conner lawyer and member of the Inupiaq Tribe, was reappointed to the three-member panel along with Robert Miller. Patricia Davis Gibson, the third judge, is a new appointee. Their two-year term started February. 1. Paul is a business and estate-planning lawyer specializing in land use law and federal Indian law. She lives on the Swinomish...
Folks from all walks of life taking the walk of their lives had a chance to put their feet up awhile on Swinomish Reservation last week. About 20 people walking across America to call attention to the ravages of substance abuse and domestic violence made Swinomish an early stop on their nearly 3,000-mile, five-month trek between Lummi and Washington, D.C. The group was greeted Tuesday night by Swinomish Tribal Senate chair Brian Cladoosby, Tribal Senator Barb James, and members of the Swinomish...
Homeowners in La Conner School District could be in for sticker shock when property tax bills come in the mail this month. Increased state school tax coupled with a local tax disparity created by unelected state bureaucrats and tribal lawyers four years ago will hit some people hard again. The school district, which includes the Swinomish Reservation, draws about two thirds of its students from tribal land that the district and state do not tax. The majority of registered voters in the district pay no school tax, but last February they helped...
World War II veteran John K. Bob was honored by his Swinomish tribe with a retirement ceremony for a special American flag and his war medals at a dedication at the Swinomish Social services building Dec. 7. Veterans from all over the region were asked to participate at the request of John K. Bob’s family. This ceremony marked the seventieth anniversary of Bob’s return home and paid tribute of this fallen WWII war hero and was attended by over 200 people. Bob enlisted in 1942 while still a sen...
Good to know. It was outlined last week by Superintendent of La Conner schools. The Swinomish contribute significantly. However, there is a caveat. In collecting what was formerly tax revenues used by Skagit County (and other entities) and allocating those funds to satisfy the Tribal agenda, there remains an inequality of taxation. Tax rates are still artificially distorted. Non-tribal persons are paying for the Tribal agenda. That is not a fair use of funds formerly designated for the needs of all the citizens of Skagit County. Please end the...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community invited the general public to the grand opening ceremony for its didgwálič Wellness Center in Anacortes Nov. 15. Welcoming the larger community in was much more than symbolic: the didgwálič center’s treatment program is open to all. Well over half the clients will be non-tribal members. John Stephens, the center’s chief executive officer emphasized that point: “The Tribe is committed to the betterment of the broader community and this is a huge investment to make sure this happens....
If only the candidates vote in this year’s town council election, they will win. Running unopposed are incumbents John Leaver, Council Position 2, Bill Stokes, Council Position 3 and Mary Lee Chamberlain, Council Position 4. Once the La Conner School District directors vote, they, too, win. Running without opposition are Brad Smith, Director District 3, Lynette Cram, Director District 4 and John Thulen, Director District 5. The same is true for Fire District 12 and 13 commissioner positions. Doug Peterson is running unopposed for C...
Hunger often goes unnoticed. Some ration their food to make it last. For others, it could just be another day without eating. People in this predicament benefit from donated groceries and other household items. Brenda Williams is a Swinomish tribal member who knows that more food will benefit her community. She has developed a long-term project that will help provide a solution to hunger on her Reservation. Following in her mother’s, and community leader, Susan Wilbur’s footsteps, Williams organ...
As the seasons change, many are already thinking of winter. Recall the bitter cold last winter. Being prepared for the wet and cold is critical, even though it’s hard to shift gears with all the beautiful sunshine that we have had this summer. Regardless, as seasons change, some are unable to provide enough warm clothing or even find shelter from the cold for themselves or their families. However, one local family is not only getting themselves ready, but they want to help others who are less fo...
Swinomish Tribal Member, Cassandra Gonzales made sure her eight-year-old daughter Aaliyah Gonzales had the proper ISO approved glasses to watch the historic Solar Eclipse. Aaliyah was the very first participant to show up at the John K. Bob baseball field at 7:30 a.m. on the Swinomish Reservation. Swinomish Elder Ray Mitchell and his wife Jennie, along with nearly 60 other people, mostly Tribal employees, their families and various community members joined Aaliyah throughout the morning....
Wow! What great coverage of the Swinomish Pow Wow last week. Nearly the entire front page. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t have had just a fraction of that coverage pre-event the week before. Perhaps a public invitation from the Tribe describing the event could have been made. More of us might have attended had we known what was going on. It’s particularly unfortunate that the Tribe did not extend a personal invitation to the Shelter Bay Community (Maybe via the monthly newsletter?). We are, after all, their reservation neighbors and Lea...
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (SITC) invited Native American and First Nation people, their family, friends, and those wanting to learn more about Indigenous culture to their Reservation for the 4th Annual Swinomish Days, August 11-13. Indigenous people have traveled and gathered together during different seasons to socialize and compete for decades. This is a chance to see family and friends, especially if absences were long. The summer season gives many a chance to be outdoors where...
The road to the NBA for Derek Willis included a side trip to La Conner this week. The 6’-9” University of Kentucky product held a two-day camp August 7 and 8 for local youth at Landy James Gym, showcasing the skillset that endeared him to legendary Wildcats coach John Calipari the past four years. Willis, who recently inked a deal with the Detroit Pistons, served as headliner for an event coordinated by La Conner High alum Greg Edwards of the Swinomish Youth Center. Boys and girls from kin...
Special to La Conner Weekly News The United States Department of the Interior on Friday approved the constitutional amendments voted on and passed in May by members of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. While the changes in the tribe’s constitution are mostly aimed to reduce the paternalistic federal oversight of the tribe’s day-to-day operations, the wording in one of the amendments – dealing with territory and jurisdiction – sparked an outcry from landowners and farmers as well as Anacortes and Skagit County government officia...
A federal judge has ruled that it is legal for public agencies to collect taxes from non-Indians who lease tribal land. For three years, this newspaper has been following a lawsuit in the U.S. Central District Court of California brought by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians against Riverside County. That case closed last week when U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee ruled in favor of the county and a local water agency that joined the suit as a defendant. “The county is pleased that the court carefully balanced the issues and determined t...
Records now open for public viewing on the U.S. Department of Interior’s website show that the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community obtained 243 acres of land that was allotted to individual tribal members generations ago. Under the Land Buy Back Program for Tribal Nations, the federal government paid nearly $3.2 million for the land, which had 171 individual owners. The land now goes back into federal trust for the benefit of the entire tribe. The Buy-Back Program allocated $1.9 billion in federal funding for tribes to consolidate land within r...
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community members approved the 29 proposed amendments to the tribal constitution, last week. While tribal elections are private and generally do not stir controversy outside the reservation community, provisions pertaining to territory and jurisdiction in the amended constitution have inspired a flood of letters to the U.S. Department of Interior, which has until July to approve the document. County officials, landowners, the agricultural community and taxpayers worried about what appears to be a move to extend the...
Controversial author and orator Elaine Willman held a workshop at Tequila Azteca Restaurant in Sedro-Woolley on Saturday, drawing about 80 people, mostly senior citizens, and a throng of protesters Willman, whose mother was an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, led a four-hour discussion on how she feels the political power and wealth of Native American tribes has grown to a point that is infringing on the rights of non-tribal members. The workshop was sponsored by the Skagit County...
The Swinomish Tribe’s fishing fleet is clearly in no shortage of blessings, well-wishes and community respect, as displayed in the tribe’s traditional annual “blessing of the fleet ceremony” on Thursday. The event kicked off with a luncheon in the jam-packed Swinomish Youth and Community Center, where guests feasted on watermelon, salmon and fresh, locally-caught seafood. There were about 550 people who were seated for lunch, Laura Dunn, from the Swinomish Fisheries Department estimat...
Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland has expressed its concerns regarding wording in Swinomish Tribe’s proposed Constitution. Members of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community are scheduled to vote on the tribe’s new governing document next week. Interest in tribal elections doesn’t usually extend beyond reservation boundaries, but this one has residents, land owners, county officials and now a farm group worried that the impacts could extend well beyond land held in trust for the tribe by the federal government. A May 11 letter to the feder...
