Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Library

Elwha Science Education

2012-01-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

There's a really nice article about how the dam removals have inspired the Geoscience Education Program at Elwha.

Traditional Foods and Other Topics

2011-10-31T10:37:00.001-07:00

We have received a number of cookbooks using traditional foods from different parts of Indian Country.

There are also a number of interesting new culture books.

You can make the catalog show you all our traditional foods books by searching the catalog for them specifically. Or take a look at all the adult culture books. Try these special searches:
traditional foods
adult culture books

Some examples of the new ones (click for larger image):

Land of Painted Caves

2011-10-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

When we put in our book orders, we ordered the things people had asked us for, everything we mention along the way as going "on the wish list". The new Jean Auel book, the new Brad Meltzer. Nine titles in that fantasy series about warrior cats in the forest. Cookbooks, a whole lot of delicious cookbooks, including Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

We're now pretty well settled into the new shelves. A lot of the books moved around. Won't have new signs and new labels yet, but we can help you find things. Please come and borrow some of these new titles!!!

P.S., the new DVDs are coming ever closer, but mostly not here yet. Maybe this week, maybe.

Still Braggin' On the New Books

2011-09-14T13:53:00.001-07:00

Here are the covers of the new kids' books. There are so many of them we had to capture the display in three pieces. Click for larger images.

Come and Play

2011-09-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

The new kids' books are ready to be checked out. Thanks to all the community members who contributed to the matching funds for this grant.

The New Kids' Books Are Here

2011-08-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

The books from the Libri Foundation grant, supported in part by your matching donations, have arrived. What could be better than 87 new children's books??

Jim is working on processing them. We'll let you know when they're ready to be handled, admired, and checked out. Maybe we should have an ice-cream social for them.

We also have some new (used) shelving on its way. And four of the six new computers are already installed. The keyboards work and everything. :-)

Peninsula Daily News

2011-08-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

WooHoo!! We have subscribed to the Peninsula Daily News. It will be available on our newspaper shelves.

Salmon Links

2011-08-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Billy Frank's new editoral, Northwest salmon, tribal cultures and treaty rights at risk from disappearing habitat
Opinion piece in Crosscut by Will Atlas et al., about hatchery fish in the Elwha
Story from the Seattle PI about Judge James Redden's rejection of the government's salmon recovery plan for the Columbia River. "Redden added that he doesn't think the government can meet the standards of the Endangered Species Act by habitat improvements alone, and it is time to consider new options, including removing some of the dams." Wow. (Another story about the decision.
Editorial from Tom Bancroft of People for Puget Sound about the Redden decision.
New York Times story about restoration on the Nisqually River.

John Gussman's Farewell Lake Mills photographs.

Sherman Alexie News

2011-07-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Richland (WA) School Board has un-banned Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This is really pretty funny: at the time they had voted to ban the book, no one on the School Board had read it, and only one person on the advisory committee who recommended against the book had read it.

This bit of news came to us via Alexie's twitter account, which in turn points to his blog. The blog is very lively, including information about his schedule, discussion of developments in publishing and the media market (ebooks; the demise of Borders; the changes in Netflix; etc.).

New Books on Native Topics

2011-07-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

In an article in Indian Country Today, Native author and legal scholar Marc Trahant recommended three books for "summer reading":

In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided by Walter Echo-Hawk;
Roberta Ulrich’s American Indian Nations from Termination to Restoration, 1953-2006;
and Alison Owings’ Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans.

The Echo-Hawk title was already on our shopping list. We've added the other two.

Canoe Journey Articles and Photos

2011-07-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

It's awfully quiet around here. It's not true that 'everybody' on their way to Swinomish, but it sure feels like it...

NWIFC's photos of the canoe journey landing at Port Gamble
Article from Indian Country Today on the Paddle to Swinomish
Article from the Kitsap Sun.
Undated photo taken at La Conner, we think it's 2010, fascinating close-up viewing technology.
A blog posting about the landing at Port Townsend
There's a lot of really cool photographs on Facebook, but we can't get to them from here...

Tlingit Canoe Landing at Hollywood Beach, Port Angeles, July 17, 2011 (click for larger image>

Alaska Language Map

2011-07-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

There is an updated map of Alaska Native Languages. News story and link to the website with map, information about each culture, illustrations, etc. It's cool.

Native Daughters

2011-07-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

Interesting website, a student project from the University of North Dakota: Past Present Future: Native Daughters, "stories, profiles and multimedia projects about a diverse group of Native American women."

Thank you to the mailinglist of the American Indian Library Association, and to the Santa Ysabel Virtual Tribal Library for pointing out this beautifully-made website.

A Canoe Story

2011-07-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

A 500-year old canoe has been found on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. Think about that while we wait for the 2011 Canoe Journey to arrive. Landing will be around 1 PM on Sunday, down at Hollywood Beach.

The Missing Shortcut

2011-07-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Every weekday the summer food program serves lunches in the Education Building at 11AM, and at the Upper at 12 noon. It really seems that there should be a tram, or a little bridge, or something, to get straight from A to B, and then back again. Or maybe we should be birds, carrying those lunch bags in our talons, straight across the river valley...

Driving Route from the Tribal Center to the Gathering Place (click for larger image)

Lists, We Love Lists

2011-07-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

There's a really interesting post on the PaperTigers blog about children's books written by or about contemporary Native Americans. The author, Nancy Bo Flood, teaches at Diné Navajo College in Tuba City, Arizona, and she has wonderful lists of titles she recommends.

We already have a lot of these books, and will put the rest on our ever-growing, never-executed shopping list.

Summer Food Program

2011-07-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

Lunches for kids available in the Education Department from 11AM to 11:30 AM, and at the Gathering Place at the Upper Housing Area from 12noon to 12:30.

Parking Lot for Today's Lunch

Absolutely True Diary...

2011-07-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

The Literacy Council has given us a whole bunch of copies of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and we are giving them away to middle-school, high-school and adult students. Come by the library and ask for one if you don't already have it.

... :-)

Canoe Route Map and Landing Schedule

2011-07-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

The landing schedule map for the Paddle to Swinomish has been posted. It's really complicated this year.

(Click for larger image...)

Doing Research : Databases and Information Sources : Free ;-)

2011-07-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Doing research at home or in the computer lab is easy as 1-2-3:

1. The Washington State Library has paid for access to magazine and newspaper databases, which you can use either in the computer lab or on your home computer, logging in with Elwha's own login.

ProQuest includes full text of national and northwest newpaper articles; general magazines; business news, Ethnic NewsWatch, and many other resources. To access Proquest go to http://proquest.umi.com/login Call the library for the login and password 452-8471x122, or stop by and pick up a handout. (We aren't supposed to just publish it on the web, so can't show it here.)
Culturegrams gives information about 200 countries, the 50 states, and Canada’s provinces. To access Culturegrams go to http://online.culturegrams.com/ Call the library for the login and password, or stop by to pick up a handout.

2.The public library in town has an amazing array of databases: magazines and newspapers, auto and small engine repair, genealogy, business info, homework help, and more. Their Articles and Databases page gets you started. You will need a library card to access them at home (but it's easy to get one), or can get them at the library in town.

3. Peninsula College gives you access to an even vaster array of resources, including programs for learning languages, historical documents, electronic books, academic periodicals, etc etc. You can see the full list, but will then need a student ID to log in from home. They are available for free use to all community members from computers inside the Peninsula College Library; so if you find a resource on the list that you need, you can use it without being a student; just head for the college library.

If You Have a VCR...

2011-06-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

We have mounds of recently donated VHS tapes. Not necessarily very good ones, you know, but they are available for checkout. Here are a few of the covers:

Come by and take a look at the DVD and VHS shelves...

News Notes from the Web

2011-06-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Elwha fish hatchery in the news.

New Squamish dictionary in the news.

Senate committee hearing about repatriation of remains.

Indian Country Today has an enticing story about the Quileute Tribe's Perfect Pacific Coastline, and a story about a Native American Youth Language Fair.

The National Museum of the American Indian has a blog.

The Yakama Indian Nation has asked that non-treaty fishing on the Columbia River be limited to downstream of I-205 due to low salmon numbers in the river.

Indian Country in the News

2011-06-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

...by which we don't mean the re-formatted news source Indian Country Today (now much less useful both in print and online), but just, what's going on out there.

The latest step in the run-up to dam removal: Peninsula Daily News reports Lake Aldwell behind Elwha Dam begins its descent
The Southern Ute Tribe (CO) has opened a new Museum and Cultural Center. Story on NPR.
Nice story at rural newsmagazine, The Daily Yonder, about a growing trend for non-Indians choosing tribal colleges. The story doesn't cite any actual data.
A program in Oklahoma designed to give participants the tools they need to help revitalize American Indian languages that are endangered has received a major grant. This is particularly interesting in that the program is based at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and the funding came from the National Science Foundation. Huh?
Nice picture story in the Vancouver Observer of a memorial powwow at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Center.
American Indian Report has a story about repatriation of Native American remains. The story is based on a report from the Government Accountability Office entitled Smithsonian Institution: Much Work Still Needed to Identify and Repatriate Indian Human Remains and Objects. (Don't use the link in the story to get to the report, it's broken. Use link in previous sentence.)

The network is running so slow I'm going to stop here. Maybe more later. :-{

Dams and Maps

2011-05-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Everything is on track for a September 17th start for the actual removal of the Elwha dams. It's in the news almost daily. May 19th's story in the Peninsula Daily News was about the possibility that President Obama will come for the event. The rest of this post is about maps (except to mention that we have copies of the Smithsonian volume available in the library...)

This is a map from Handbook of North American Indians: Volume 7—Northwest Coast, published by Smithsonian Institution Press, reproduced here with permission.

"Fig. 1. Territories and principal villages of the Central Coast Salish in the early 19th century" from page 454 (Click for larger image.)

Closeup View of Klallam Territory from map above (Click for larger image.)

This map comes from the United States Geological Survey's Elwha River Sediment Monitoring page, showing the Elwha River watershed and the Elwha coastal drift cell.

NorthWest S'Klallam Villages. Map prepared by Randall E. McCoy, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe

This is a map of the Elwha River Watershed, showing the location of the dams and of the present day Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation (the small gray patch at the top of the map). It comes from ElwhaBiodiversity.org at the University of Washington.

Have a Movie Night

2011-04-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

There are a bunch of new-to-us DVDs. Maybe you've been waiting to see one of these:

News Notes from the Web

2011-04-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Here are some stories at interest:

The Yurok Tribe doubles its land base with purchase of a community forest reserve
King5-V has a story about Nisqually's river delta restoration project
There's a lot of interesting material on Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert's blog, Beyond the Mesas, including a 1982 video about Tewa-Hopi artist Dan Namingha, Seeking Center in Two Worlds
Peninsula Daily News had a updated story about the Quileute's land trade to move tribal buildings out of the tsunami zone
Indian Country Today has a story about new legislation worked on by the state and the Makah Tribe requiring oil spill contingency planning from tanker companies entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Thanks, Kids

2011-03-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

During the 2011 School District Potlatch, the kids attending the event gave the library around a hundred books. We have finished processing them, and here is a list of all the titles. Below is an image of about half the covers (click to see them a little larger). Good looking bunch of books, no? Thank you very much, kids.

Beautiful Photos

2011-03-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

The View from Indian Country project has added some new material. The photos from Quinault are especially wonderful, especially the canoe heading out... The ones from Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation are also terrific. In fact, nearly all of them are.

News Off the Web

2011-03-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting links:

Indian Country Today has an article about a project to combine scientific knowledge and Inuit cultural knowledge in mapping the sea ice off Baffin Island. The project, Inuit siku (sea ice) Atlas, is complicated and beautiful.
A bill has been introduced in the House by Representative Norm Dicks and in the Senate by Senator Maria Cantell, regarding land transfers from Olympic National Park to enable the Quileute to move the school and senior center and certain other buidings up out of the tsunami zone. This is a process which began long before the recent tsunami, and events have made its importance clear. There are news stories (1) (2)(3) (4) (map), and the text of the bill is online. (Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and search for bill# HR 1162.) The tribe has posted a video Quileute Tribe Tsunami Informational Video 2011 about their location and the dangers of a substantial tsunami.
The new Education Director of the Crow Tribe is making language revitalization her priority, beginning with their day care and Headstart classes.
TheNative Appropriations blog has an interesting entry about Edward Curtis's photographs.
The Swinomish tribe has posted a video about their Nearshore Beach Survey work.
The New York Times has published a prominent review of Richard Kluger's book about Chief Leschi and the Nisqually, The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek: A Tragic Clash Between White and Native America. It's already on our shopping list.

Making a Wish List

2011-03-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

We hope to be able to order some materials for the library soon. There will be new DVDs, some cookbooks, some general good reading (Brad Melzer's new title, the "Girl Who" books, Jean Auel's new title:

some new Native related titles (and some others we missed long the way)

books for little kids and for high school age

AND whatever you might suggest.

Ple-e-e-ase let us know what else should go on the wish list.

Plateau Peoples' Web Portal

2011-03-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

Five of Washington's tribes are working together with Washington State University to make digitized cultural materials available in the Plateau People's Web Portal. The Coeur d'Alene, Colville, Spokane, Umatilla, and Yakama are each in charge of what materials are available to public access, and what materials remain private to the tribe. As the website says, "The materials in the portal have been chosen and curated by the tribes. Tribal administrators, working with their tribal governments, have provided information and their own additional materials to the portal as a means of expanding and extending the archival record."

There's a detailed conference presentation, Digital Repatriation, Reciprocal Curation and the Ethics of Circulating Native Knowledge in the Plateau Region, about how this project deals with issues of access to and control of Cultural Knowledge.

House of Seven Generations

2011-03-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

Our cousins down the shore, the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, have unveiled the digitization project they have been working on. Their House of Seven Generations online museum, built with the help an Institute of Museum and Library Services Native American Enhancement Grant, has documents, photographs, and pictures of artifacts.The display of peoples' family photographs is particularly wonderful.

Wave

2011-03-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Lower Elwha is right down here by the Strait. The tsunami warning siren is on poles behind the shop, right in the central area, and is tested at noon on the first Monday of every month.

According to the Peninsula Daily News, the tsunami triggered by the 03/11 earthquake in Japan brought a 1.6 foot surge to La Push, and half a foot to Port Angeles harbor. The tribe has received an all-clear, and the Emergency Operations Center has shut down. Coast-wide we are still under a National Weather Service tsunami advisory, and according to the advisory the surge in the Port Angeles harbor was 1.3 feet. In this case I'd tend to believe the local paper.

Remarkable visualization of wave height, from NOAA.

Working on a Grant Request

2011-03-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

We are applying to the Libri Foundation, a nationwide non-profit organization which donates new, quality, hardcover children's books to small, rural public libraries in the United States through its BOOKS FOR CHILDREN program.

The Foundation wants us to work with our own community because they believe in community involvement and want to encourage and reward local support of libraries. The community can contribute from $50 to $350 which the Foundation matches on a 2-to-1 ratio. Thus, a library can receive up to $1,050 worth of new, quality, hardcover children's books through the Foundation's BOOKS FOR CHILDREN program for a match of only $350.

Three years ago we received this grant with a match from the Paul J. Allen Foundation. This year we are asking that Staff and Community members consider donating as little as $1 towards our goal of $350. It will truly be a project with Community Involvement! We sent out an all-staff email this morning and have already received $150.00!! Wow. Only $200 to go.

Here are some of the books we received from Libri three years ago. It's sure worth doing again:

Recently Added

2011-03-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

A number of culture-related titles have recently been added. They came from the personal collection of a librarian at Sacramento City College, who offered a large number of books to tribal libraries. They're not newly published, but they are new to us...

There is also a constant stream of book and DVD donations coming in from the community, and we thank you very much.

Early News About Canoe Journey, 2011

2011-02-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

Swinomish is hosting the 2011 Canoe Journey. En route landing sites and dates so far include Suquamish, July 21-22; Tulalip, July 23; Coupeville, July 24. We will post more dates as they are known. Ceremonial in Swinomish is scheduled for July 25-July 31. (1)(2)(3). The landing site will be in Swadaps Park on Swinomish Channel.

This is going to be a bit further to go for our pullers than it was in 2010 (Makah) and 2009 (Suquamish).

Canoe Journey 2009, landing in Pillar Point (photo by Carol Reiss, USGS)

Some historical canoe images:

Come to the library for books and DVDs about canoes, and about past canoe journeys.

"Before the dams, this was a place of plenty"

2011-02-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

There will be a program on February 14 about the Elwha Near-Shore and how resources were used before the dams were built. There's an article about it in the Peninsula Daily News. Jamie Valadez, teacher of Lower Elwha Klallam culture, is quoted.
We have a fair lot of books in the library about traditional foods, including Jamie's Klallam Fishing and Hunting : When the tide is out The table is set.

Meanwhile, Somewhere Else:

2011-02-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

Trailer for a documentary film about Laguna Pueblo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgwJyfMmSjU

Profile of the Pojoaque Pueblo Public Library here: http://www.imls.gov/profiles/Jan11.shtm

This series looks wonderful, but we sure don't have $900 for ithttp://www.mushkeg.ca/projects.html#FOT3

Still Have Books to Give Away...

2011-01-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

It's freezy and snowflakey out. A good day to round up something to read... We still have some of those donated fiction books looking for homes. Why not drop by and pick out a few. Examples:

News Notes from the Web

2011-01-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

How on earth did we stay current before we had the web??

You've probably already seen this nice article about Jamie Valadez's work teaching about Klallam culture at Port Angeles High.
American Indian News Service, from the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, looks like a resource to pay attention to. Currently on top is an article about the Infinity of Nations exhibit at the Heye Center in New York City.
The Seattle Times had an article about the transfer of Park land to the Quileutes, which will enable them to move up out of the tsunami zone.
KUOW radio program, Re-Engineering Nature, about the Elwha Dam removal.
Nolo Press, the publisher of legal books, has made a number of their titles available for free online.
Here is a more direct link to John Gussman's video of the Stage 3 flood alert on the Elwha in December.
Cherokee for the iPhone, from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Books for Writing Students

2010-12-16T11:06:00.000-08:00

Several new writing guides came to us, by way of Peninsula College. They will be very handy both for the college students and for the GED students preparing for their writing test. We've added them to the collection, and actually have a good many books on this subject.

Hoh Land Transfer

2010-12-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

Congress passed the Hoh land transfer bill on Tuesday. News stories: (1)(2)

Some Links to Interesting Stories

2010-12-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, U. of Cambridge Web Site Aids Study of Endangered Languages
Artifact stolen from Wisconsin Historical Society is recovered. Story from Wisconsin State Journal. A lot of questions from a Native point of view are not addressed in this article...
TheCherokee Nation is developing a Virtual Library of Cherokee Knowledge. Story from Indian Country Today.
Another blog added to our blogroll in the right sidebar: Simon Moya-Smith's I Am Not a Mascot.

The River Hopped Up

2010-12-14T09:56:00.001-08:00

It rained a lot on Sunday. The river hopped up. John Gussman went out and took pictures, thank you Pacific NW Environmental Video Channel.

USGS 12045500 ELWHA RIVER AT MCDONALD BR NEAR PORT ANGELES, WA (Click for larger image.)

PS By Craig Childs' taxonomy of floods in The Secret Knowledge of Water— 'ornamental', 'powerful', 'Fear of God' — this one probably should be classed as 'ornamental'. Cliff Mass has videos of the Stillaguamish, and of Snoqualmie Falls. Those probably went to 'powerful'. :-)

Another Useful Blog

2010-12-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum Libraries and Archives Blog has posted a list of Christmas-themed books set among Native peoples. We have only two of these books, Thomas King's A Coyote Solstice Tale and M. Scott Momaday's Circle of Wonder: a Native American Christmas Story. We'll put the others on our wish list.

Their blog is not updated very often, but what is there is very useful. We are putting several others of the titles they mention on the wish list, and have added Mashantucket Pequot Museum to the list of "Blogs of Interest" in the sidebar to the right.

PS. Please be sure to let us know if there are titles you want us to add to the great wishlist in the sky. :-)

Interesting Links

2010-12-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

Language
      National Congress of American Indians resolution declares: "among 139 remaining Native languages, all are endangered, with 70 on the verge of extinction within the next 5 years". Story at culturalsurvival.org.
      How to Prevent Language Extinction, an article detailing research, from Technology Review.
      Way cool. PhD student defends thesis in First Nation Mi’gmaw language. Story from The Buffalo Post.
      Tim Montler's Klallam Word of the day today is "nəxʷq̕íyt 'Port Gamble, Little Boston'. The 'location' prefix + root /q̕íyt/ 'noon' make it 'land of the noon-day sun'." Follow him on Twitter for a daily dose of Klallam language.
Resources
      Elwha Dam Removal
      Glines Canyon Dam Removal
      The Elwha River Weir, at The Fish Files
      BC Natives Protest Enbridge Pipeline ; First Nations Declare Opposition
Other stories
      Story in Indian Country Today about the display on Quileute culture at the Seattle Art Museum, Quileute separate fact from fiction for ‘Twilight’ fans
      One interesting topic after another in Kim Tallbear's blog, Indigeneity & Technoscience. We'll add it to the list of blogs in the sidebar...
      Beautiful photo of a canoe setting forth from the Quinault Reservation, from the "View from Indian Country" website.

Visitors From Afar

2010-12-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

Slowly the traffic to this web page increases. There are some problems with this map but it gives the general idea. Hello, India.

(Click for larger image.)

5400 Items and Growing

2010-12-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

You can use our online catalog at LibraryThing to separate out what you may be looking for. When you go to the catalog at LibraryThing, if you pull down the list at the far left under 'Your Library' or 'All Collections', you will be able to choose to see just the subsets you are interested in;
for example,
   all children's books
   adult culture titles
   children's culture books
or,
   what titles are in the new Research Room at the Heritage Center.

Or just give us a call to ask whether we have what you are looking for. It we don't, we can try to figure out how to find it for you.

Good Reading

2010-11-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

A friend from Neah Bay brought us several boxes of books which had belonged to her neighbor's mother. Entertaining reading, mostly for adults but also some for kids. We added a number of them to the collection...

...and some time soon will have a giveaway for the rest. Meanwhile, if you are stuck for something to read, come by the library and rummage through the boxes. The perfect book might be there...

In Other News...

2010-11-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

Some other news from around the web:

Ojibwa author Drew Hayden Taylor's comic novel Motorcycles and Sweetgrass has been nominated for the Canada Council for the Arts' Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. We have one of his books in our collection, The Night Wanderer, and will put the new one on our wishlist.
Nerds rejoice. The entire archive of Popular Science is available free on the web at Google books. Oh it's glorious.
Kayaker Rob Casey maintains a blog called The Elwha Project. River photographs, dam removal news, and an entertaining and even beautiful series of photographs of debris found on beaches along the Strait. See for example his September 16 post, Garbage Collected on the Elwha River Mouth.
You can watch a 54 minute film, Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change on the IsumaTV website. Beautiful footage and the voices of elders (and scary first-hand testimony of climate change).
ReadingRockets, a website for working with young readers, has a reading list of Native American Books. We have all but one of these books. Check the catalog for the ones you are interested in.

Fishy Stuff from Around the Web

2010-11-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

Interesting stories lately...

WDFW's blog has a story about the Elwha Weir.
Seattle Times article about the Elwha Fish Hatchery
KOMO story about high school class studying Lake Mills (via Olympic Peninsula Environmental News)
The Olympian story about the coho run at Nisqually (via the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission)
Editorial from Billy Frank, Jr. about fisheries restoration. "The only way we’re going to turn the corner and really restore salmon is to put the same focus on habitat protection and restoration that has been placed on harvest management."

Tribes and Parks

2010-11-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

There have been a couple of news items recently about the relationships of other tribes with their neighboring parks:
The Hopi Tribe is working with the State of Arizona to reopen Homolovi Ruins State Park, which had been closed for budget reasons.
The Oglalla Sioux Tribe will be taking over the management of part of Badlands National Park, making it the first Tribal National Park.

We have a couple of books on this topic,

and of course much of the material about the ongoing removal of the dams on the Elwha River directly and indirectly addresses the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's relations with Olympic National Park...

News Article Full of Dam Removal Information

2010-10-29T11:16:00.001-07:00

This article is not new (September 4 Kitsap Sun), and neither is the information; but it is especially informative.

Welcome Pole at Peninsula College

2010-10-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

Peninsula Daily News has a nice little video of the pole-raising ceremony on October 26.

Around the Web

2010-10-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Dams
       American Rivers has a (not very up-to-date) map of dam removal projects. The Elwha project is on the page, but not on the map.
       In Maryland, dam removal and restoration on the Patapsco River.
       News story about the benefits of dam removal on the Klamath River
Salmon
       Story from Sammamish Review about coho salmon returns
       Salmon runs on the Kitsap peninsula, story from the Kitsap Sun
       Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission's flickr photostream
Video
   Film of Pomo (N. California) holy woman Essie Parrish performing a healing. Thanks to Santa Ysabel Virtual Tribal Library for pointing out this link.
Language
       The Rosetta Stone language teaching software company is working with native groups who want to customize the program to help protect and preserve their languages.

Total Items At The Moment, 5483

2010-10-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

We've received some really good donations lately. A group of interesting culture books,

the new book by geologist Rob Young, the principal investigator for the NSF (National Science Foundation) Grant funding the Elwha Science Project at Olympic Park Institute,

and some plain old good reading.

Two of the new culture titles are about Wounded Knee, one for middle school kids and one for adults. We have in fact quite a few titles about Wounded Knee.

And, for that matter, LOTS of good reading (fiction for adults).

Visit the catalog often. We keep growing.

Stories Around the Web

2010-10-18T09:52:00.001-07:00

Stories around the web:

River restoration at Nisqually, from The Olympian.
A new PBS program, Reel Injun ("an entertaining trip through the evolution of North American Native people ("The Indians") as portrayed in famous Hollywood movies", will premiere on November 2.
Indian Country Today reports on our language grant from ANA
A New England filmmaker has documented the Passamaquoddy Tribe's effort to save their language (audio story from Maine Public Radio)
Do you know about the Intertribal Bison Cooperative? It presently has "a membership of 57 tribes with a collective herd of over 15,000 bison." Wow.
There's a new state park near LaConner, Kiket Island. It will be co-owned and co-managed by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the State of Washington. Interesting and complicated arrangement.
Tim Montler's Klallam Word of the Day on Twitter is "kʷənúcəŋ 'sing power song, meditate'. Elders would sit by the river to sing their spirit song and meditate." Go to his website to hear it spoken.

Such a Day

2010-10-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

It's an astonishingly beautiful sunny morning.

We have three GED students inside the library.

Homework Club Corner (Click for larger image.)Stacks, computers, lovely new endcaps (Click for larger image.)Little kids' books (Click for larger image.)

Outside, beautiful weather and lots of truck traffic, as the hatchery construction and dike work continue. Those dams are coming down soon, you know.

Corner on the Rez (Click for larger image.)Fields at sea level. Note the Strait of Juan de Fuca... (Click for larger image.)Tribal Center (Click for larger image.)

Button Blanket

2010-10-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

There's a very nice short film on the National Film Board of Canada website, Vistas: Button Blanket, by Zoe Hopkins. (Also pretty interesting that it has been viewed 831 times already.)

Language Grant News

2010-10-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Wonderful news! The Klallam Language Program has received a 3-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans. "The goal of this grant will be to strengthen and broaden our community of Klallam Language speakers by transcribing recorded stories; developing lessons from these stories, and training a middle school Klallam Language teacher," says the Language Program director, Jamie Valadez. "This grant will also create job opportunities for Tribal artists, as the stories will be illustrated and published." The full press release about the grant is on the Elwha Facebook page. our other Washington tribes received Language Preservation and Maintenance Grants from ANA: Samish, Squaxin Island, Makah and Kalispel.

Recently other tribal language programs around the country have also been in the news.
      In Michigan a new law allows schools to hire tribal elders as language teachers to help in language preservation.
      In Massachusetts, Jessie Little Doe Baird has received a prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellowship for her work in creating the Wôpanâak (Wampanoag) Language Reclamation Project.
      In California, a student from Haskell Indian Nations University has created an audio program for teaching Koyoongkawi, the Mechoopda Maidu dialect. The tribe hopes to load the audio on iPods for distribution to members to want to learn the language.
      In Alaska, the Native Village of Afognak has been working on a five-year Alutiiq language revitalization project and have created an iPhone, iPad and Blackberry application of audio & videoflash cards toteach the language.

Gorgeous Aerial Photos

2010-10-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

On September 30 the weather was beautiful, perfect for getting a group of aerial photos showing the new channel work at the back of Lake Mills, the lakes, the dams, the new fish hatchery, the fish weir, and the mouth of the river... They are copyrighted, be sure to check with John Gussman if you want to use them...

New DVDs for Kids

2010-09-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

We spent some of our last IMLS basic grant money on new DVDs for kids. Come and get 'em.

Powerdale Dam

2010-09-21T15:36:00.001-07:00

There's an interesting sequence of photos of the removal of the Powerdale Dam on the Hood River.

There Are a Few Crumbs of Money Left

2010-09-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ask for what you want the library to have. We will try to get it.

...And Some New Culture Titles

2010-09-14T12:44:00.001-07:00

New to us, anyway:

...And New Books for the Middle Schoolers

2010-09-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Some of our middle-school readers were not shy about asking for what they wanted. And we got it for them:

New DVDs

2010-09-14T11:37:00.001-07:00

No foolin': some of them are actually new this year! Use this link to see all our DVDs listed. (Click for a larger image).

As always, please consider giving the library the DVDs you have at home which you are not planning to watch again...

Interesting Blogs

2010-09-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

We've added a couple of interesting blogs to the list over to the right in the sidebar                   -------------->>
   Matt Sakiestewa’s Beyond the Mesas , and
   Adrienne K.'s Native Appropriations

Wandering the Web, Reading Native News

2010-09-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some links to interesting stories. (Most of these came to us via Twitter...)

A story on NPR: Four Days, Nights: A Girls' Coming-Of-Age Ceremony on the Yankton Sioux/Ihanktonwan Oyate Reservation in South Dakota
Seattle Times has a nice editorial about the Elwha River restoration
Rosetta Stone, the language-teaching software manufacturer, has issued a version in Navajo. Story from Farmington Daily Times, Navajo language software hits the market.
Tim Montler continues faithfully posting a Klallam Word of the Day to Twitter and to Facebook every day.
Fascinating story about the Cayugas buying land and building houses in their original territory in Seneca Falls, New York. "It’s the first time a Cayuga Indian has lived on the nation’s aboriginal territory since the tribe fled from the area more than 200 years ago, said Clint Halftown, the nation’s federally recognized representative."
Story from the Tahlequah Daily Press about technological access to the Cherokee language, Cherokees keep up with technology.
There is always an array of Northwest stories on the Indian Country Today website...

Technology Toys

2010-09-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

Debbie Reese posted a little video on her blog, Selecting Books for Children and Young Adults. We are happy that the four titles she is featuring are in our library...

...but more than that we really really want to invent a reason to use the Google SearchStory tool to make one of our own!

Catching Up

2010-08-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Library was quiet this summer, people working on GED, job searches, checking out books, all the normal activities. With school started again the GED hours will be from 9A.M.-2:30P.M. Between 2:30 and 4:30 the Library will be full of kids as the After School Program will be going on. GED students and Adults can use the computers between these hours but it is not a quiet place.

We have ordered new books in the past 2 weeks and will be making at least one more order. If anyone has any suggestions of books or DVDs they would like us to have please call or come in and let us know so we can add it to our order. We have made one order to replace books that have been checked out and were never returned over the past two years. We are also going to make a DVD order so we will have some new DVDs soon.

We did an inventory of our DVDs and we still have 18 DVDs missing. These are ones that weren’t checked out but are gone. We would like to get these movies back so if you happen to have any movies from the Library laying around please return them to the Library or you could take them to the Office at the Tribal Center and they will get to us.

Thank you to those who have donated items to the Library, we appreciate your donations. We do accept any donations so if you have books or DVD’S or VHS Movies you no longer use think about donating them to the Library where they can be used by everyone.

Library/Computer Lab hours are Monday thru Friday from 9A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Stop by and check out some books or DVDs, or use our computers, work on your GED. We look forward to seeing you and helping with anything you may need.

Salmon Jumping

2010-07-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

This is happening on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, in Idaho. Hoping time will bring scenes like this back to the Elwha...

Thanks to Olympic Peninsula Environmental News forhaving found this wonderful clip.

Books for Children

2010-07-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

The American Indians in Children's Literature website has been redesigned. Right now the posts on top are her lists of recommended titles for various age groups. But it looks like she means to leave the links permanently on top in the righthand sidebar. She has also pulled into the sidebar links to a number of full-text extended articles on the subject. The changes have made the website really useful for thinking about our collection, and about children's books in general.

Happily, we already have 28 of the 30 titles on her three lists. The two we are missing go on the shopping list.

High school age recommended titles:

Recommended titles for elementary school age:

Finding Out What We Have

2010-07-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

for example,
   all children's books
   adult culture titles
or,
   what titles are in the new Research Collection at the Heritage Center.

Yes, there will be a room at the Heritage Center with a small selection of books, focussed on Lower Elwha and on other tribes in this part of Washington. It will be for reference only, not able to leave the Heritage Center. We look forward to helping tribal members, community members, and visitors work with these materials.

Party Party, Ice Cream Social in the Library

2010-06-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

We planned this social to celebrate our 5001st item in the collection. And already we are up to 5083.

Please come visit the library at/after lunchtime on Tuesday, June 29th. We'll be having one of our famous ice-cream socials. Ice cream, toppings, good books to admire. Come any time between 11:30AM and 3 PM.

The Stuff Inside Books

2010-06-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Education Director/Librarian from Hoh was visiting our library. We asked him what print materials about Hoh he knew of, as we could only think of the chapter in Jacilee Wray's Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are, and Chelsie Papiez' masters thesis for Evergreen College, Climate Change Implications for the Quileute and Hoh Tribes of Washington: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Assessing Climatic Disruptions to Coastal Indigenous Communities.

He told us there were also chapters about Hoh elders in Wisdom's Daughters: Conversations With Women Elders of Native America by Steve Wall, and Wisdomkeepers : meetings with Native American spiritual elders by Harvey Arden.

To get the most out of the materials we have, it appears, we need to know what's inside every item. Which to a surprising extent one or another of us does, but suppose the person who knows isn't around? We can put subject headings on the records to point to the material of local interest. But this might give a seriously false impression: no, Wisdomkeepers is not only or even mostly about the Hoh, there are also chapters about elders from 15 other tribes around the country. Each of the Peninsula tribes has a chapter in Wray's book. We could start rummaging and adding scads of subject headings: Charles Wilkinson's Blood Struggle : The rise of modern Indians has a heap of material about the Quinault. Alvin Ziontz's memoir has a lot of material about the Makah. Shall we (inconsistently) add headings, making the collection (inconsistently) more useful? Do you see? It's like heading down a rabbit hole.

Interesting Reading

2010-06-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

Crosscut has an article discussing dam removal on the Snake River.
The Olympic Peninsula Environmental News blog is always worth a look. Today they are passing along a story from the Seattle Times about new discoveries in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
Peninsula Daily News has an article about the decision-making time crunch facing Harbor-Works and the Rayonier site.

Canoe Journey Soon

2010-06-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

The route map for the Paddle to Makah has been posted on their website. Go directly to the site for an enormous PDF version of the map. Here is a small image:

There are going to be a LOT of canoes here on July 16th and 17th...

River in the News

2010-06-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

Indian Country Today has an article about the Elwha dam removal.

Billy Frank, Jr., in the News

2010-06-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

An important editorial by Billy Frank, Jr., from the Bellingham Herald: Port Susan cleanup a victory for treaty rights.

Ice Cream Social/OpenHouse/5000 Books

2010-06-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Party, party, party to celebrate of 5001st item in the collection. Please come visit the library at/after lunchtime on Tuesday, June 29th. We'll be having one of our famous ice-cream socials. Ice cream, toppings, good books to admire. Come any time between 11:30AM and 3 PM.

Four More Items and We Reach 5000!!

2010-05-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Donations continue to wander in the door, thank you all very much. We have some recently added culture books,
some DVDs

and some kids' books. We'll just show you one of those, one of the funniest books ever:

Keep those donations coming. It's almost time for our 5000 Party. And drop by to meet the wombat.

Need Prizes for Kids

2010-05-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

We have between 20 and 30 kids ages 5-12 who attend after school program 4 afternoons each week. They attend Language Class with Wendy, have rec time in the gym and get homework help. During homework time the kids are supposed to read for 15 minutes. We are in dire need of prizes for reading. We are thinking about a variety of cool stuff that you may have laying around the house…. Scarves, knick knacks, posters, little gifts you have received and didn’t know what to do with… etc. This is your chance to "recycle". We asked a few years ago and received wonderful prizes the kids really appreciated.

If you have anything you think the kids would like, please leave them in Tracey's mailbox in the Tribal Center or email Tracey and she would be happy to pick them up (if you're nearby; some of you blog visitors are far far away!).

Thank you from the kids!!!!

Downloadable Audio Books

2010-04-30T11:07:00.001-07:00

We have made some progress: Jim has succeeded in downloading several books to his iPod from Netlibrary, and is working on an instruction sheet. Soon we'll be able tell you exactly what you have to do. Remember, the first step is signing up from inside the library, after that you'll be able to get them from home. There are also some directions available from the State Library's audio portal.

Coast Salish Climate Change Summit

2010-04-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

The Coast Salish Climate Change Summit is happening April 26 & 27. The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission is posting updates live on their blog.

ThisClose to 5000 Items in the Library

2010-04-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

We have recently received quite a flow of donated items for the library, lately mostly children's titles. Jim almost always has a couple of books to process, or couple of DVDs. We are up to 4958 items. Pretty soon we'll hit 5000. Shall we have a party when we get there??

We are always happy to receive donations. Do you have books or movies you aren't using anymore?

Here is a selection of the newest additions to our kids' books:

Hoh News Story ; Muckleshoot Library story ; Havasupai DNA story

2010-04-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Native news stories which have caught our eye this week:

Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of Its DNA — Havasupai win a seven year case against genetic researchers at Arizona State University
The Muckleshoot Tribal School received donations of books for teen readers through Operation Teen Bookdrop.
CNN had a story this week about the Hoh Tribe's efforts to move out of the flood plain of the Hoh River: Constant flooding forces out Pacific Northwest tribe

Running

2010-04-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

There's a beautiful collection of photographs of the Oraivi Footrace on the Hopi Reservation. Take a look at Behind the camera at the Oraivi Footrace.

P.S. Boy is it ever not like the northwest there. :-)

"Details Matter—Especially if it’s my culture"

2010-04-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature blog has an interesting short piece pointing to essays by other people coming from the point of view of other cultures, but with the same concerns she has about cultural accuracy in books written for children—Fairy Tales: Zero Tolerance; and Details Matter—Especially if it’s my culture!.

Navajo man earns title 'Librarian of the Year'

2010-04-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

News story about the Navajo Nation's library program supervisor.

Audio Books

2010-04-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

We need someone with an interest in downloading audio books to listen to on their iPod, to test out the new access. From inside the library we can see that the database lets you in if you log in from one of the machines here. We can set up an account for ourselves from here, but are unable to download the actual books from here. If you have an interest, please come into the library, set up an account, and then go home and try to load a book, THEN come back and tell us how it went. We're all in suspense here.

Native News Roundup

2010-04-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

Wandering around the web, finding stories:

Yakamas say development is damaging sacred cultural sites (Yakima Herald)
The dam removal project in the Klamath Basin is in a public-comment period. Removal would not begin until 2020, and would be even larger than the Elwha removal project.
Part of the health care reform package was a provision making the Indian Health Care Improvement Act permanent
Dedication of the two water treatment plants, one for Port Angeles and one here at Elwha, which are prerequisite for the Elwha River restoration project will happen on April 2.
The fuss over tuition support for out-of-state native students at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, had another chapter this week (additional story). Truth: I can't quite figure out how things were left.
University of Michigan is preparing to return a collection of 1300 culturally unidentifiable human remains. This is pursuant to a March 15 ruling from the Department of the Interior that "transfer of culturally unidentifiable remains is to be made to a tribe from whose tribal or aboriginal lands the remains were excavated or removed."

This is not news, per se, but very interesting. Chelsie Papiez of Evergreen College has posted her masters thesis on the web. It's about climate change effects and tribes' traditional ecological knowledge. Climate Change Implications for the Quileute and Hoh Tribes of Washington: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Assessing Climatic Disruptions to Coastal Indigenous Communities is a 128 page PDF file. She has also posted a 20-page version, Climate Change Implications for the Quileute and Hoh Tribes. Either one is interesting reading, and pertinent to Elwha's similar position as a coastal tribe.

FREE BOOKS right now FREE BOOKS

2010-03-19T09:49:00.001-07:00

It's Friday, March 19, and we are giving away the books donated by Page Turners bookstore. We have big bags for you to carry them away in. Plus there's muffins.

ƛ̕aʔƛ̕ápt Butterfly

2010-03-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

Mr. Montler continues to post a Klallam Word-of-the-Day every day on Twitter. Today's word is especially nice.

Go to his web page to listen to it.

Lots and Lots and Lots

2010-03-15T08:58:00.001-07:00

The used bookstore on C Street is closing, and on Friday afternoon the proprietor gave us 15 boxes of paperback books.

They are mostly not in good enough shape for adding to the library collection, but perfectly excellent for reading. We are figuring out how to organize a GIANT BOOK GIVEAWAY. Stay tuned.

From the News (Poking Around Online)

2010-03-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

Annual School District Potlatch

2010-03-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

Save the date: Thursday, March 11, 4 PM.
   4:00 Open House
   4:30 Dinner Prayer
   5:00 Dinner Served
   5:30 Program
   8:00 End

"Open House in the dining hall; Displays/Booths explaining tribal programs will be set up.

"In the Gym we will open with a prayer, then serve dinner. Elders will be served by youth, then tables will be called to serve themselves.

"Singing and Dancing, speeches and the Keynote Speaker will be during dinner.
Sponsored by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Port Angeles School District."

Good News

2010-02-26T11:23:00.000-08:00

We have good news about our budget, and have officially extended our hours a little bit. We will be open 9AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday.

There will also be some money available for buying materials! We are renewing our subscriptions to Native Peoples and Indian Country Today, and we are studying our wishlists. Please let us know what DVDs and books you would like to see added to the collection. We can do it!!

You may remember we are waiting for the downloadable audiobooks that the State Library is organizing. It's coming together more slowly than expected. Maybe by mid-March.

Lots of Materials

2010-02-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

We're up to 4748 items under this roof, but there is still lots of room on the new shelving. It's kind of industrial looking, not too pretty, but having plenty of space helps clarify what we have, and makes it easy to keep in order...

Come by and see us. Check out some movies or some books!

We're Lucky As To Our Weather

2010-01-29T11:59:00.000-08:00

The heavy winter on the Plains and in the Southwest is taking its toll on tribal communities.

Story on Buffalo Post about the Cheyenne River Reservation.
and an earlier story about Pine Ridge, where conditions are still bad.
...and in Navajo country,
and Hopi villages cut off.