Return of the First Salmon Ceremony

Yesterday was the "Return of the First Salmon" ceremony. A great many people— lots of them youth— made their way to the end of Lower Elwha Road, happily picking blackberries along the way. There was sunshine, there was blue sky, there was chanting, there were blessings. There was weaving a raft of cedar boughs, placing salmon on it, and setting it afloat towards the river mouth. There were three eagles hanging around towards the river mouth in case the singing people wanted to release another delicious floating cedar platform of food. (Sorry, eagles, wait until next year.)

Meanwhile, Down By the Strait

The nearshore areas along the Strait and being remade as silt, sand and gravel move downstream from the former lakebeds once locked up behind the dams. Tom Roorda has given us permission to share this photo he took from the air on January 16th. A story in the Peninsula Daily News explains what we see.

Every Computer Occupied

On a day to day basis, what the community is interested in is the computers—right now every machine is occupied—, the DVDs, and the newspapers. We have a lot of new DVDs on their way into the collection. Once they are processed, we will have more than 700 DVDs altogether. We'll let you know when the new ones are in the catalog and ready to go.

The Peninsula Daily News gets a lot of action, and some of the papers and newsletters from other tribes.

But we also try to keep up with the books we should have on native history and Klallam cultural topics, and are absolutely thrilled to let you know that Dr. Montler's Klallam Dictionary has been published. It's beautiful, it's huge (987 pages), and it embodies decades of careful work with our elders. The book hasn't been processed for the library yet, but you are welcome to stop by any time to take a look at it.

Meanwhile, winter has come. The gulls on the roof of the tribal center don't seem very excited about it.

P.S. Louise Erdrich, Ojibwe author, has won the National Book Award for her novel, The Round House. We are working on getting a copy. Meanwhile we have a good many of her other books.

Watch the Dam Come Down FAST

The Glines Canyon Dam progress since September 5th in 90 seconds. This very cool time lapse is built from the Dam Webcam archive. Whee.

The Strong People

Here is a trailer for a video project, The Strong People: The Return of a River, The Rebirth of a People, by Matt Lowe and Heather Hoglund. They are raising money for the film through Kickstarter. Hope they are successful: it looks like it is going to be good. :-)

Wow-Beautiful New Library at Jamestown

New Library in the Oldest Community Building on the Tribal Campus

Admiring the New Space, and the Beautiful New Cabinets

New Librarian

Their hours are Monday to Friday 9AM to 5PM, and Saturdays 10-3. Their catalog is online, and their webpage serves as the gateway to their digital tribal museum project, House of Seven Generations.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

Film-maker John Gussman has posted another video clip, this one about the now-nearly-empty Lake Aldwell behind Elwha Dam; and sent a link to some photos of the Lake Mills delta behind Glines Canyon Dam.

Barnard Construction continues to lower the dam at Glines Canyon, and draw down the lake. For ongoing entertainment, keep your eye on the Dam Cams.

Elwha Science Education

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

The New Kids' Books Are Here

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. :-)

A Canoe Story

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.

Summer Food Program

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

Wave

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

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:

Still Have Books to Give Away...

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:

Hoh Land Transfer

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

Visitors From Afar

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.)

Welcome Pole at Peninsula College

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

Such a Day

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.)

Language Grant News

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

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...