FAST FEET Track athletes take top honors at State. Page 14
NEWS | New shop will open in Burton. [5] COMMENTARY | Remembering a father. [6] ARTS | Learn about wolves at [11] VAA science talk.
END OF AN ERA Longtime preschool closes its doors. Page 4
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014
Vol. 59, No. 23
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Pool to open next week Revealing history New exhibit delves into with temporary fix By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
The Vashon Pool will open for the season next week as part of a shortterm plan the park district approved last week. After a lengthy discussion at the Vashon Park District’s public meeting on Tuesday, May 27, the park board voted to address the pool’s drainage needs this summer by transporting waste water off the island at a projected cost of $7,500. Commissioners also decided to
postpone a decision about a longterm drainage plan, including a financial agreement with the school district, until later this year. The decision to proceed with a temporary solution, delaying a permanent fix to the problem, was met with mixed reactions by the heads of the park district and Vashon School District, which have disagreed over who is financially responsible for a drainage solution at the pool. Park District Executive Director SEE POOL, 19
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Eric Frith in his west side studio, where he is currently editing the film “The Breach.”
Islander is in demand on the Seattle film scene Recent film will play for First Friday By ELIZABETH SHEPHERD For The Beachcomber
In the past couple of years, Eric Frith’s work as a film editor has taken him to the tropical highlands of Rwanda, the snowy peaks of the Himalayas and the salmon-studded waters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. But he’s been to all these places, and more, without leaving the cozy
confines of a small studio in the backyard of his home on the island’s west side. Instead, film directors and others in the industry have frequently journeyed to Vashon to spend time with Frith in the studio, sitting by his side as he works his special magic to help them tell their stories of far-flung places. Frith, a tall, goateed 46-year-old man with sharp blue eyes that peer out behind stylishly sensible glasses, has become one of the most SEE FILM, 17
Vashon’s Native American past By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
When volunteers with Vashon’s historical museum set out to create a new exhibit on Vashon’s Native American history, they quickly realized they had a challenge ahead of them. While much is known about the Native Americans of the Puget Sound region, much is also unknown, as thousands of Native people were killed and countless artifacts destroyed in the years following Europeans’ arrival in the area. “Their culture was destroyed so rapidly, within 20 years or so of the first major contact in the Vashon area” said Rayna Holtz, a curator of the new exhibit, referring to the disease, war and internment which wiped out a majority of the region’s Native population. “The epidemics not only killed people, but so much collective memory of history and ways of life,” added Laurie Tucker, a board member of the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association who is curating the exhibit with Holtz. One late Vashon Native, however, has provided a peek into Native life, both good and bad, on the island. Lucy Gerand, a Puyallup woman who was born on Quartermaster Harbor in the early 1800s, gave one of the only public accounts of Native life on Vashon before white settlement. Many of her stories and the information she passed on are now the basis for The Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum’s new exhibit, “Vashon Island’s Native People: Navigating the Seas of Change.” In the extensive exhibit, which opens Friday and will run for nine months, Holtz, Tucker and other museum volunteers have laid out the Native American story on Vashon, from before European settlement through modern times.
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Laurie Tucker, a curator of the new exhibit on Vashon’s Native heritage, takes out a 150-year-old cooking basket on loan from the Burke Museum. The basket will be one of a slate of Puyallup tribe artifacts on display at the exhibit, which begins this weekend. “We wanted to highlight what life was like before white people came, what life was like when (Native people) were struggling to survive and what life is like now,” Holtz said. Holtz, who retired from a long career at the Vashon Library a few years ago, and Tucker, who
still works there, both say they have been surprised by how little some library patrons know about the area’s Native past. “The average person on Vashon doesn’t realize there were Native people here,” Holtz said. SEE EXHIBIT, 20