To ‘Honor The Shoulders We Stand On:’ Big Band Premieres With Nod To History Of Native Jazz Musicians

By Tom Banse
The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band posed for a commemorative photo after their premiere in Olympia on May 19, 2022.
A scheme to entertain a 4-year-old youngster in Spokane by playing a jazz album nearly three decades ago produced a cascade of aftereffects that culminated on stage in Olympia, Washington, this month with crescendos of horns and multiple standing ovations. During the debut of a 16-piece, all-Indigenous big band, the performers on stage hearkened even further back in Read More

Washington Supreme Court Reverses Itself In Century-Old Case, Affirms Yakama Nation Treaty Rights

By Enrique Pérez de la Rosa
File photo. The reservation of the Yakama Nation in south-central Washington covers over 2,000 square miles, with areas patrolled by tribal, city and county law enforcement.
The Washington State Supreme Court reversed a century-old ruling Friday against a Yakama Nation tribal member for fishing outside the reservation. The 1916 ruling mandated criminal charges against Alec Towessnute for fishing outside the Yakama reservation on traditional fishing grounds – a right assured by the Yakama’s Treaty of 1855 with the federal government. Read More

Louis Mann: A Yakama Nation Interpreter, Educator, Advocate Is Heard Again After 100 Years

By Enrique Pérez de la Rosa
Louis Mann, photographed by Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, was an interpreter for the Yakama Nation in the early 1900s who also defended water and fishing rights of other tribal members through correspondence to U.S. government officials.
The Treaty of 1855 created the Yakama Nation reservation as we know it today. In the decades after, the Yakama, Washington state, and the United States were trying to figure out their new relationship. At the turn of the century, Louis Mann was in the middle of it all, working as an interpreter for the tribe. Now, audio recordings of Mann’s strong voice have resurfaced. Read More
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