Suquamish News
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A monthly publication of the Suquamish Tribe
Volume 14
Suquamish 1st Track Meet
June 2014
N o. 6
Annual Renewal Pow Wow Weekend Sets New Attendance High Organizers expect the three-day event to be even bigger next year by Craig Miller
This year renewal pow wow was held on April 25-27, at the House of Awakened Culture. The event was changed from the two-day program used last year, to the three-day format used previously. More than 175 people attended the opening Friday Coastal Jam. On Saturday, the host drum Black Lodge opened up the dance competion grand entries at 1p.m. and 7 p.m., with finals held on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. This year there were more than 115 dancers and 14 traveling drum groups from throughout the United States and Canada, making this years annual pow wow the biggest one yet. We also expect Renewal Pow Wow to keep growing in upcoming years. Organizers would like to thank all who came out and supported the dancers, saw and heard some beautiful dances and listened to the songs. Our culture is truly beautiful and amazing. Also, thank you to the Suquamish Sports and Recreation staff, and the Renewal committee for putting in all the time and effort on making this annual pow wow a success.
Renewal Pow Wow was held the last weekend of April in the House of Awakened Culture on the Suquamish Waterfront.
Prevention: Keeping Kids In School
Chief Kitsap Academy’s Counselor is working with staff to re-enroll students who have dropped out of school by Shawn Adams, MA LMHC
In February of 2014 The Suquamish Tribal Council made a commitment to protect the health, welfare and safety of the community by taking a stand against the sale and use of hard drugs on the Port Madison Indian reservation. I was invited to participate in the Call To Action Committee. I volunteered to chair the sub-committee on prevention. It had been 7 or 8 years since I had taken an addiction class and most of what I learned was how to categorize and treat addiction not how to prevent drug abuse. I knew that education played a large role in prevention. To that end the
correctly: high-school dropouts are 30 percent more likely to abuse drugs than the general population. This fit neatly
“Healing of the Canoe: Holding Up Our Youth” Curriculum that was developed to promote a sense of cultural belonging and prevent substance abuse among tribal youth and provided an excellent opportunity for school-aged youth. I did a little research on the National Institutes on Drug Addiction (NIDA) web site.
“High school drop outs are 30 percent more likely to abuse drugs than the general population.”
I inquired the reasons that people use drugs and what sorts of things are linked to drug abuse. Those things that put a person in the category of more-likelyto-abuse drugs are called risk factors. I assumed that dropping out of high school would be a risk factor. I assumed
- Shawn Adams into my role as school counselor. Next, I needed to find out who had dropped out and get them enrolled in some kind of school.
Suquamish Open 104th Annual Event For Historic Organization Song and Dance group provides welcoming for the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting and Museum Expo, held in Seattle this year
With help from my co-workers, I came up with a list of 22 students that had dropped out of high school in the community. I made a list and started calling and emailing people. As of today, we have 8 of those students that were previously not enrolled in any school that are now enrolled in some kind of education. That’s a 32 percent improvement. Some of these students are taking GED classes, some are taking Adult Diploma classes at Olympic College, some are taking online school courses and others are doing traditional school programs. Our education department has its role in helping the prevention effort. If enrolling students that have dropped out of school can help prevent drug use in the community, then we are going to do our part to make this a healthy community. When summer quarter rolls around we hope to have close to 50 percent of known dropouts in the community enrolled in school.
In This Issue News ................... 1 Community Calendar
................... 2
Tribal Journeys
................... 3
Education
................... 4
Museum ................... 5 Sports & Recreation
................... 8
Elders ................. 10 Health & Wellness
..................11
Business ..................12
Front row, from left: Kate Ahvakana, Amie Adams, DeSean Santos, Kippie Joe, Tina Jackson and Peg Deam. Back row, from left: Calina Lawrence, Vincent Chargualaf, Lu-uk McCloud, Joey Holmes, Bennie Armstrong, Leonard Forsman, Magdalena Turrieta and Craig Miller. Suquamish News
1
Community & Notices
................. 14
Birthdays ..................15 Vol. 14, No. 6