Book Review - Te Ata: Chickasaw Storyteller, American Treasure

It is hard to describe how much I loved this book. I must admit, it was Te Ata's image on the front cover that originally caught my eye in a used book store. But once I started the book, every time I sat down to read it I felt like I was listening to one of my Grandma Rosie's stories about 'the old days'. Te Ata's elegance, grace, talent, and perseverance are truly inspiring and Richard Green's book captures it all very well.

Pink paddlers on Tribal Journey

I recently took part in the 2008 Paddle to Cowichan, BC, the destination for this year's Tribal Journeys event that takes place each summer in which Tribes from around the Puget Sound and Canada paddle traditional canoes to a host tribe. I was invited by Dannny Marshall, Tribal Leader of the Steilacoom Tribe to be part of their canoe family along with the Carver Camp Canoe Family headed by Phil Red Eagle. The group had just finished carving a hunting canoe called "Flicker" and were getting ready to take her on her first voyage. I've been volunteering with the Steilacoom Tribe for a couple years now, helping with the website and a ethnobotanical garden. Having grown up in Steilacoom, WA it's been great fun and very rewarding to help out since the Steilacoom are not a recognized tribe so have no state or federal funding sources. So it was a big surprise and great honor to be asked to help paddle. I met many wonderful people along the journey, took many pictures, and have many wonderful memories. One of groups that impressed me greatly was the Pink Paddle Canoe Family. They not only paddled many miles with the other 100 or so canoes on the journey, they did it to raise awareness for breast cancer and to honor the many people who have survived or have been lost to cancer of any type.

One of the first statements in our SSF vision is "seven generations" which honors the wisdom of native peoples to act today in ways that respect and benefit those who come seven generations after us. So the opportunity to participate in the 2008 Tribal Journey was very meaningful for me personally and for SSF. I am very humbled to have been part of the journey, to paddle alongside the Pink Paddlers, as well as the many other Tribes that took part in this year's journey.


Image above: me helping carve "Flicker"


Images above: Canoe bows



Image above: Carver Camp and Steilacoom Family Canoe, "Flicker". Bow to stern - Danny (Steilacoom Tribal Leader), Lacey, Enrique, Bill, Merrie


Image above: Canoe family in regalia


Image above: Danny, Lacey, and I (and my truck) taking "Flicker" back home

Haunani-Kay Trask takes US to task

I had the great pleasure of hearing Native Hawaiian educator and activist Haunani-Kay Trask speak not once, but twice this week. She is an outspoken activist on topics such as Hawaiian Nationalism, imperialism, tourism, labor, and indigenous rights and strongly opposes Hawaii's dependence on tourism, as well as the US military presence in Hawaii. Trask's clearest message at the lectures I attended at South Seattle Community College and Cascadia College, was that students in particular are well positioned to create change in their universities, communities, etc. She spoke often of the ease and importance of groups organizing around issues and I must say, with her passion and persistence, she surely inspired many youth to do just that. I know she inspired me. At times during her lecture, I felt like I was face to face with the passionate and sometimes volatile Hawaiian Goddess, Pele herself.



As an annual visitor to Maui myself, I understand that I'm part of both the tourist and the US imperialism problem. But I can say that I'm now a firm advocate that Native Hawaiians should be given federal recognition similar to other Native American Indian Tribes and will do my part to support this effort. I'll also continue to do my best to be, as Haunani-Kay put it, a 'good haole' on and off the islands. In my past two visits to Maui and Molokai I've been able to meet, work, and learn from Native Hawaiians in several capacities. I've learned a lot about Hawaiian culture, particularly about early practices and current sustainability efforts. Next I plan on learning more Hawaiian language and working on a taro farm during my upcoming trip in August. I've also been trying to learn Lushootseed, the Native language here in the Seattle/Puget Sound area, and I have to say its incredibly rewarding to learn the true 'local' language as it fully captures the beauty and essence of a region since it developed in connection to that region. Since I speak other foreign languages (Russian, Spanish, French, German, and a little Italian and Chinese), I figured it was time to focus on the local language. So I can't wait to start experiencing Hawaii IN Hawaiian!

Maholo Haunani-Kay for all you do, may you continue to inspire new activists in your cause, as well as people working on so many other deserving causes around the world.

Earth Day Everyone!

My big Earth Day project this year was hooking up with the UW Restoration Ecology crowd to do a restoration project on Snoqualmie Indian Tribe land near Snoqualmie. It was just a small corner of their property that had been logged long ago, but it was covered with blackberry bush. The group had previously cleared one of the hillsides so today's group just had one hillside to go. My job was to pitchfork the piles of stems and roots up to the top of the hill. As you can see from the picture, we did quite a number on the hill. The crew will follow up later this week and plant the 2nd hillside with seedlings. It will be fun to check back in now and then to see how it looks.

Closets, Culture, and Cuisine

Another full day of sustainability. I started off by paying a visit to the California Closets showroom in Bellevue since we're still trying to find a good closet system for our remodel. I was somewhat dreading it because I figured we'd never find an affordable option for closets. Sure, you can get a cabinetmaker to do an amazing closet in sustainable wood but it would cost a fortune. Given the salience of the price topic during my KUOW Weekday discussion on Thursday, I figured I had to make a valiant effort on this one. To my pleasant surprise, California Closets now has a green option!!! How awesome is that. Well, at least a greenER option. They've partnered with Roseburg Particle Board to use Skyblend. Skyblend is made from 100% pre-consumer recycled material and doesn't contain urea formaldehyde which, as y ou might guess, is nasty stuff. Pretty darn cool actually.

I then spent most of the day at the 36th annual First Nations Powwow at UW. A lot more food for the soul. The drummers and dancers were amazing and the crafts set up around the pavilion were equally as impressive. I've gone to this powwow since I attended UW in the 90s and will continue going forward. Black Lodge singers, who I had just seen/heard on Wednesday drummed here as well...with their full family of 12 in the house, it was even MORE incredible than Wednesday's performance.

I ended the night by having dinner with Paul and good friend Kristen at Rovers, a very high-end French restaurant that specializes in sustainable, local, and seasonal food. Um...WOW! Absolutely amazing food, incredible service, and the fact that it was sustainable...priceless :-) which is good as the meal was on the expensive side, but very much worth every penny.

From NPR to Native Research Celebration

Wow, I had a busy day today...but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I started out by sitting down with KUOW's Weekday host, Steve Scher, to discuss sustainable style...can you be stylish and sustainable at the same time. It was my first time on radio so I was pretty nervous leading up to the show. Once I was in the booth though, it went great. I've been a fan of Weekday and Steve Scher for a long time so was pretty familiar with the format, a quick back and forth with Steve and then listener questions. Steve was right on it as far a touch questions. And the listeners were right on as well with great examples or suggestions themselves. Afterward, I got lots of text messages, emails, and voicemails from all sorts of folks, friends, family, and I guess I'd have to say brand new friends. In the end, I just hope I did well by SSFand everyone out there trying to live a bit more on the sustainable side.


So that was the start of my day. The end of my day was spent at the launch of a new institute at UW called the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI). It is an incredible new effort that will do incredible things and produce incredible results. But speaking of incredible. The evening blew me away. The ceremonies and lectures were inspiring and the performances were out of this world. Two performers in particular really left me breathless. Pura Fe completely amazed me. This woman should have shelves full of Grammies. Not that you can really describe her voice or style, but if you crossed Janice Joplin, Aretha Franklin, and Bonnie Raitt...you'd be close. The other great surprise was Kinnie Star, a young female performing artist from Vancouver. She started with some awesome poetry, did a couple more Top 40 type songs, and then ended with some Rap/Hip Hop that ROCKED!!! Now Don't get me wrong, the Black Lodge Singers and Keith Knight (a six string guitar player) were outstanding too, but the women really stole the show I must say. One of the final acts was Ulali, a trio of Native women (including Pura Fe) that I think could have easily, literally set the house on fire. They combine some traditional native sounds with etherial melodies that were food for the soul. Wow, what an amazing day!

It's a green GreenWorld

I'm fresh back from the local IIDA Chapter's GreenWorld event. A lot of local interior designers getting the latest info on sustainable products and services to take back to their clients. Ray Anderson of Interface and InterfaceFlor fame was the keynote. Gobs of people, great food, and good work all around.



In other news...I've decided it's time to take up another language. I've always tried to learn a bit of the local language when I travel - and have gone pretty far with Russian, Spanish, German, and French - so I figured it's time to learn a local language here in Seattle, one that goes way back...Lushootseed, the language of the Duwamish Tribe whose land Seattle was founded on, as well as other Puget Sound tribes. I've purchased several books, a dictionary, and have found several great online resources so here goes. The alphabet and grammar are quite different so I have a lot of work ahead. I've started with ten phrases, "hello, how are you" and such so I'm looking forward to slowly growing my vocabulary.

NASAA Native Scholars

I attended the 2nd day of the annual Native American Students in Advanced Academia (NASAA) Symposium today. The audience was educated, informed, and inspired throughout and it made me decide I wanted to quit working and just attend conferences for the rest of my life. I wish! The students that presented were doing incredible work and the keynote speakers, Dr. Robert Warrior and Dr. Taiaiake Alfred were amazing as well. Best of all, I got to hear my friend Deborah Guerrero sing one of the opening blessings.

My new offset addiction

I just received my certificate from Native Energy for offsetting my carbon emissions from my Toronto trip. I know it's a little crazy getting all excited about receiving it but yes, was quite happy to find the pdf in my inbox this morning. I've done carbon offsets before but all you get is a receipt so this fancy certificate is quite nice. I'm addicted. Now I want to offset EVERYTHING, maybe even double offset by buying tree-plantings too. More offsets, give me MORE OFFSETS!

Native riders take to the slopes

I was completely blown away and inspired by this latest find in the sports world. Founded in 1996 by Olympic Downhiller and World Freestyle Champion Suzy Chaffee and Colorado Ute Unity Leader, Alden Naranjo, the Native Voices Foundation is a unique partnership between First Nation tribes, ski resorts, and sports legends to both honor and heal the past, as well as provide hope for the future. NVF was established to provide an opportunity for First Nations youth in Canada and the United States to learn and excel in alpine sports. Their latest project, Snow Riders, is doing just that and even includes a Winter Olympics bid. Sustainable wisdom is a big part of NVF's programs as well.