Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 13, 2007 14:20:58 GMT -5
Tribes' side of the story
By JANE GARGAS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/288269640126402
<http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/288269640126402>
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic
Carol Craig, public information officer for the Yakama Nation Fish and
Wildlife Resource Management Program, stands in front a mural at the
Yakama Nation Cultural Center Museum. She gives voice to her people --
written and oral.
She champions the return of salmon, the sanctity of wildlife and the
sovereignty of tribes.
A journalist, photographer, social scientist, wildlife management
spokesperson and environmentalist, Carol Craig tells the story of what's
sacred to the Yakamas.
For the past 11 years, she's served as public information manager for
the Yakama Nation Fish and Wildlife Resource Management Program in
Topboy thingyh.
Craig, who is 59, travels throughout the Pacific Northwest visiting
government agencies and schools -- kindergarten through college --
explaining tribal beliefs, traditions and culture.
"To find a person who can weave the past, present and future together,
that's a gem. And Carol has done all that," notes Ron Washines, managing
editor of the Yakama Nation Review.
"She fully comprehends the importance of our history and how it's
presented," Washines adds.
Much of Craig's focus is on describing treaty rights. She takes pride in
making the ancient words, from 1855, come alive.
"Someone came up to me once and said, 'Everyone talks about the treaty,
but you're the one who really makes sense of it'," Craig recalls.
Although she studied journalism in college, her passion for writing goes
back to a leather ball.
As a junior in high school in the mid-1960s, playing for the Topboy thingyh
Topcats, the Yakama girls basketball team, she decided to write an
article commemorating the team's undefeated season. The Topboy thingyh Review
printed it, and a career was launched.
Her first journalism job came in the early 1970s as a reporter and
photographer for the Yakama Nation Review, the bimonthly newspaper
published by the tribe. At the time a young, single mother, she says she
started from scratch, knowing very little about putting out a newspaper.
But Craig quickly took to writing, photographing, editing, doing layout
and pasting up the paper.
And even though she thrived on the work for eight years, she came to the
conclusion that she wanted further challenges.
"I really enjoyed what I was doing, but I wanted to better myself," she
explains.
There was also the impetus of a dream: One night she had vivid visions
of trying in vain to open a locked padlock. Her interpretation was that
she needed more education to unlock the potential in her life. (Other
graphic dreams, such as being able to breathe underwater, similar to a
fish, have occurred at various times in Craig's life; all have had
significant meaning to her future actions.)
So Craig left the reservation with her two children and enrolled at
Portland State University, where she took courses in journalism and
earned a degree in social science.
She stayed in Portland for 17 years, ultimately taking a job at the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, honing her interest in
salmon restoration.
But the Yakama reservation called to her, and her people wanted her
back. One fisheries manager urged her to return, arguing that her tribe
needed her.
Author Mary Schlick of Mount Hood, Ore., who has written
extensively on the Yakamas, explains one reason why Craig is so valued:
"As a tribal member and journalist who understands the place of fish in
the history, traditions and deep consciousness of the Columbia River
people, Carol is a treasure, I think," said Schlick.
So Craig came home, settling in Zillah, and took on the job of media
spokesperson for the tribe's fish and wildlife department.
One early project was helping create Sin-Wit-Ki (All life on Earth), the
tribe's full-color magazine published three times a year. Topics range
from root digging to the release of bighorn sheep on the reservation and
new acquisitions in the Yakama Nation Museum. Craig does the writing,
photography and editing.
She also served as script consultant for a 2003 documentary called
"Sacred Salmon: A Gift to Sustain Life," which became a finalist at the
Native American Film Festival in San Francisco.
Craig's print journalism efforts have garnered numerous awards as well.
Sin-Wit-Ki won the Communicator of Excellence Award last year from the
Washington Press Association, and other articles have earned firsts from
the National Federation of Press Women.
She also serves as a liaison with other tribes, which has presented at
least one daunting challenge. That occurred when she was summoned to
Neah Bay, Wash., in 1999, to help the Makahs prepare for a gray whale
hunt, their first in 70 years.
News of the hunt turned into a full-fledged media crush, recalls Craig.
"I ran back and forth coordinating interviews with national newspapers,
radio and television, explaining the Makah's treaty rights to hunt
whales."
She wasn't dealing just with news organizations, she became the public
face to surges of protesters, who expressed strong antipathy toward the
hunt. Craig even fielded death threats.
Even though she's widely described as unflappable and low-key, she
sometimes had trouble curbing her emotions during the chaotic two weeks
she stayed at the site.
But she stayed calm. "I never did lose my temper," she recalls.
When bystanders criticized the Makahs, "I would tell them that I was
sorry they felt the way they did," she says. "But I was thinking
something else in my head," she chuckles.
At the height of the controversy, Craig realized, "I was a part of
history."
As well as part of the thrill. When the fishermen landed their whale,
she was standing on shore watching. Overcome with the emotion of the
experience, she felt a mixture of happiness and relief. "I was glad it
was raining because I was crying."
Much of Craig's focus this winter has been on the upcoming commemoration
of the 50th anniversary of the inundation of Celilo Falls; the ancient
fishing location was buried when The Dalles Dam was erected on the
Columbia River in 1957.
Helping plan the celebration on March 10 at Celilo Village in Oregon,
she's also giving a presentation at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center
in The Dalles, Ore., a week later on how important the Celilo site was
to the Yakama and other Plateau tribes.
She'll speak from experience: as a child, she visited her grandfather,
Charles Hoptowit, at his Celilo fishing platform during summers. She
remembers riding in a tugboat across the Columbia, before there was a
bridge at The Dalles, and how her father brought home a 100-pound fish
one year from the site.
Craig's mother taught her how to clean the catch as well as to prize the
salmon eggs.
"Eggs are like gold. When we made them into egg salmon soup, my mother
would say, 'This is our medicine. This keeps us well.'"
Those early beginnings have had a profound effect on how she sees her
role in the fisheries department.
When Craig gives presentations on treaty rights and fishing, she
carefully explains the 1974 Boldt decision, the landmark federal ruling
that assured treaty tribes 50 percent of the annual fish catch.
She's extremely proud of the work the tribe has effected in restoring
salmon runs on area rivers. Salmon disappeared from the Yakima River 30
years ago, before the tribe began protecting fish, she points out.
Part of her outreach involves setting up information booths at state
fairs and sportsmen shows to demonstrate the Yakamas' salmon
preservation endeavors.
Early on, she admits, she sometimes faced a rather frosty reception from
non-tribal fishermen.
Through the years, however, she's witnessed a notable thaw in any
antipathy.
In fact, she points with pride to a comment from a visitor to her booth
at the Central Washington Sportsmen Show.
"He said, 'Tell the Yakama Nation if it wasn't for them, there'd be no
salmon in the river.'"
She smiles broadly in approval.
By JANE GARGAS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/288269640126402
<http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/288269640126402>
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic
Carol Craig, public information officer for the Yakama Nation Fish and
Wildlife Resource Management Program, stands in front a mural at the
Yakama Nation Cultural Center Museum. She gives voice to her people --
written and oral.
She champions the return of salmon, the sanctity of wildlife and the
sovereignty of tribes.
A journalist, photographer, social scientist, wildlife management
spokesperson and environmentalist, Carol Craig tells the story of what's
sacred to the Yakamas.
For the past 11 years, she's served as public information manager for
the Yakama Nation Fish and Wildlife Resource Management Program in
Topboy thingyh.
Craig, who is 59, travels throughout the Pacific Northwest visiting
government agencies and schools -- kindergarten through college --
explaining tribal beliefs, traditions and culture.
"To find a person who can weave the past, present and future together,
that's a gem. And Carol has done all that," notes Ron Washines, managing
editor of the Yakama Nation Review.
"She fully comprehends the importance of our history and how it's
presented," Washines adds.
Much of Craig's focus is on describing treaty rights. She takes pride in
making the ancient words, from 1855, come alive.
"Someone came up to me once and said, 'Everyone talks about the treaty,
but you're the one who really makes sense of it'," Craig recalls.
Although she studied journalism in college, her passion for writing goes
back to a leather ball.
As a junior in high school in the mid-1960s, playing for the Topboy thingyh
Topcats, the Yakama girls basketball team, she decided to write an
article commemorating the team's undefeated season. The Topboy thingyh Review
printed it, and a career was launched.
Her first journalism job came in the early 1970s as a reporter and
photographer for the Yakama Nation Review, the bimonthly newspaper
published by the tribe. At the time a young, single mother, she says she
started from scratch, knowing very little about putting out a newspaper.
But Craig quickly took to writing, photographing, editing, doing layout
and pasting up the paper.
And even though she thrived on the work for eight years, she came to the
conclusion that she wanted further challenges.
"I really enjoyed what I was doing, but I wanted to better myself," she
explains.
There was also the impetus of a dream: One night she had vivid visions
of trying in vain to open a locked padlock. Her interpretation was that
she needed more education to unlock the potential in her life. (Other
graphic dreams, such as being able to breathe underwater, similar to a
fish, have occurred at various times in Craig's life; all have had
significant meaning to her future actions.)
So Craig left the reservation with her two children and enrolled at
Portland State University, where she took courses in journalism and
earned a degree in social science.
She stayed in Portland for 17 years, ultimately taking a job at the
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, honing her interest in
salmon restoration.
But the Yakama reservation called to her, and her people wanted her
back. One fisheries manager urged her to return, arguing that her tribe
needed her.
Author Mary Schlick of Mount Hood, Ore., who has written
extensively on the Yakamas, explains one reason why Craig is so valued:
"As a tribal member and journalist who understands the place of fish in
the history, traditions and deep consciousness of the Columbia River
people, Carol is a treasure, I think," said Schlick.
So Craig came home, settling in Zillah, and took on the job of media
spokesperson for the tribe's fish and wildlife department.
One early project was helping create Sin-Wit-Ki (All life on Earth), the
tribe's full-color magazine published three times a year. Topics range
from root digging to the release of bighorn sheep on the reservation and
new acquisitions in the Yakama Nation Museum. Craig does the writing,
photography and editing.
She also served as script consultant for a 2003 documentary called
"Sacred Salmon: A Gift to Sustain Life," which became a finalist at the
Native American Film Festival in San Francisco.
Craig's print journalism efforts have garnered numerous awards as well.
Sin-Wit-Ki won the Communicator of Excellence Award last year from the
Washington Press Association, and other articles have earned firsts from
the National Federation of Press Women.
She also serves as a liaison with other tribes, which has presented at
least one daunting challenge. That occurred when she was summoned to
Neah Bay, Wash., in 1999, to help the Makahs prepare for a gray whale
hunt, their first in 70 years.
News of the hunt turned into a full-fledged media crush, recalls Craig.
"I ran back and forth coordinating interviews with national newspapers,
radio and television, explaining the Makah's treaty rights to hunt
whales."
She wasn't dealing just with news organizations, she became the public
face to surges of protesters, who expressed strong antipathy toward the
hunt. Craig even fielded death threats.
Even though she's widely described as unflappable and low-key, she
sometimes had trouble curbing her emotions during the chaotic two weeks
she stayed at the site.
But she stayed calm. "I never did lose my temper," she recalls.
When bystanders criticized the Makahs, "I would tell them that I was
sorry they felt the way they did," she says. "But I was thinking
something else in my head," she chuckles.
At the height of the controversy, Craig realized, "I was a part of
history."
As well as part of the thrill. When the fishermen landed their whale,
she was standing on shore watching. Overcome with the emotion of the
experience, she felt a mixture of happiness and relief. "I was glad it
was raining because I was crying."
Much of Craig's focus this winter has been on the upcoming commemoration
of the 50th anniversary of the inundation of Celilo Falls; the ancient
fishing location was buried when The Dalles Dam was erected on the
Columbia River in 1957.
Helping plan the celebration on March 10 at Celilo Village in Oregon,
she's also giving a presentation at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center
in The Dalles, Ore., a week later on how important the Celilo site was
to the Yakama and other Plateau tribes.
She'll speak from experience: as a child, she visited her grandfather,
Charles Hoptowit, at his Celilo fishing platform during summers. She
remembers riding in a tugboat across the Columbia, before there was a
bridge at The Dalles, and how her father brought home a 100-pound fish
one year from the site.
Craig's mother taught her how to clean the catch as well as to prize the
salmon eggs.
"Eggs are like gold. When we made them into egg salmon soup, my mother
would say, 'This is our medicine. This keeps us well.'"
Those early beginnings have had a profound effect on how she sees her
role in the fisheries department.
When Craig gives presentations on treaty rights and fishing, she
carefully explains the 1974 Boldt decision, the landmark federal ruling
that assured treaty tribes 50 percent of the annual fish catch.
She's extremely proud of the work the tribe has effected in restoring
salmon runs on area rivers. Salmon disappeared from the Yakima River 30
years ago, before the tribe began protecting fish, she points out.
Part of her outreach involves setting up information booths at state
fairs and sportsmen shows to demonstrate the Yakamas' salmon
preservation endeavors.
Early on, she admits, she sometimes faced a rather frosty reception from
non-tribal fishermen.
Through the years, however, she's witnessed a notable thaw in any
antipathy.
In fact, she points with pride to a comment from a visitor to her booth
at the Central Washington Sportsmen Show.
"He said, 'Tell the Yakama Nation if it wasn't for them, there'd be no
salmon in the river.'"
She smiles broadly in approval.