TRIBES SHARE $26.7 MILLION FOR SALMON

SEATTLE – Before he left office earlier this month, Gov. Gary Locke
announced $26.7 million in grants to protect and restore salmon habitat in
Washington state.

American Indian communities in Washington state will participate in some of
the 188 projects proposed to restore habitat. Work includes planting trees
along streams to cool the water for salmon, replacing crushed culverts that
prevent salmon from migrating, and changing stream channels to create
better places for salmon to spawn and grow.

Salmon, an icon of the Northwest, were put on the federal list of
endangered species in 1991. By then, the number of salmon had fallen to 40
percent of historic levels in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Grants range from $26,000 to more than $1 million, and will be were given
to organizations in 27 counties. Grant applicants developed strategic plans
for salmon recovery in their watersheds, and to make sure the projects they
submitted for funding addressed those strategies.

“Local communities have demonstrated steady progress in the quality of the
projects they submit for funding,” William Ruckelshaus said in a press
release. He is chairman of the Salmon Recovery Funding Board and former
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency director.

“We asked them to go a step further this year and develop strategic plans
that will be a road map for them and for us. That way we know the projects
are the most effective and we are addressing the highest priority needs for
their areas.”

FIVE TRIBES RECEIVE FUNDS FOR CANCER SCREENINGS

SEATTLE – The South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency received $39,762 for
its Native Women’s Wellness Program on Jan. 19.

The money was provided as a grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Puget
Sound affiliate. All told, the foundation awarded more than $1.1 million in
grants to 19 Western Washington non-profits, and educational and government
agencies.

The Native Women’s Wellness Program provides no-cost breast and cervical
cancer screening and education for low-income women of Chehalis, Nisqually,
Shoalwater Bay, Skokomish and Squaxin Island tribes.

Reva Wittenberg, coordinator of the Native Women’s Wellness Program,
outlined the benefits of the program and grant. “Many factors such as fear,
cost, cultural traditions and lack of cultural sensitivity within the
off-reservation health care system are barriers to Native women receiving
lifesaving breast cancer screening.

“There is a tremendous need to reach Native American women with information
and resources.”

WIFE OF MAKAH MAN RAISING RELIEF FUNDS

SEATTLE – A Seattle woman with ties to the Makah Indian community is
raising money to help tsunami victims in her native Sri Lanka.

Vishaka Smith is a transportation planning specialist with Washington State
Ferries; her husband, Jeff Smith, Makah, is Northwest Indian program
director for the American Friends Service Committee.

On Dec. 30, she sent $1,000 of her own money and $1,170 she raised during
lunchtime at work to a social service fund in Sri Lanka. “I talked to a
staff person of the organization last night and found out that they are
spending 100 percent of the fund to help provide food, clothing, medicine
and in the future education and housing,” Smith said. The Web site is
www.rupavahini.lk.

Keith Hunter, Makah, executive director of Wildcat Community Development in
Neah Bay, will forward donations to the relief effort. Send donations to
him at Wildcat Community Development, P.O. Box 482, Neah Bay, WA 98357,
phone (360) 645-3161; www.wildcatcdc.org/donations/; e-mail
khunter@wildcatcdc.org or vishakaws@hotmail.com

“This is a disaster of a huge magnitude that requires a huge magnitude of
support to alleviate the suffering,” Smith said. “I feel we can do
something to reduce the death toll from rising.”

CHILD WELFARE PLAN FOCUSES ON FAMILIES

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The state Department of Social and Health Services’ Kids
Come First program has been accepted by the federal government as the
state’s child welfare improvement plan.

Kids Come First includes recommendations from stakeholders, community
partners, American Indian communities and the DSHS Children’s
Administration quality assurance program. It is a response to a review by
the U.S. Department of Social and Health Services, which found Washington
state failed to meet all standards for meeting the needs of children in its
care.

Kids Come First proposes to make the state’s child welfare services more
effective, reunite children with their families, and help adolescents in
state care get the educational and emotional support they need to
transition into adulthood.

“The second phase of Kids Come First will focus on partnerships by
developing stronger and more positive relationships among biological
families, foster families, kinship caregivers and family members as
appropriate,” said Uma Ahluwalia, assistant secretary of state DSHS.

Among the recommendations: Require early identification and involvement of
fathers, relatives and tribes; increase culturally appropriate services for
children, families and kinship providers; increase early and ongoing
involvement of children, parents, caregivers and tribes in assessing and
developing case plans and making major decisions.

– Richard Walker is a correspondent reporting from San Juan Island, Wash.
Contact him at irishmex2000@yahoo.com.