The Potlatch Fund recognized Suquamish Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman at its annual gala with the Fran James Cultural Preservation Award. The award recognizes individuals who provide leadership in cultural preservation to revive and continue our traditional ways. Leonard has been active in the formation of the Suquamish Museum, in conducting archaeological and historic research in Puget Sound, and supporting and planning cultural events, especially Tribal Canoe Journeys. “Receiving this award is a great honor, especially because of the award’s namesake Fran James of Lummi, she has been a great inspiration to me. I would also like to thank the Suquamish people for supporting me for so long” said Chairman Forsman. Previous award winners include Jewell James, Janeen Comenote, Charlene Krise, Cheryle Kennedy, and Delbert Miller.

Submitted by Nigel Lawrence and Dennis Donovan

The Healing of the Canoe plans to implement Holding Up Our Youth in a workshop format with approximately 8 high school youth at a time. There will be a 3 day workshop once a month in January, February and March of 2012, for a total of 9 days of workshops followed by an honoring ceremony. We will start a new series of workshops with another group of students for the months of April, May and June, followed by another honoring ceremony. The workshops will be held in Port Townsend and will begin after school on a Wednesday and continue through Thursday and Friday.

We will need parent permission for your child to miss these school days. We have a letter of support from the school recognizing the workshops as school related so the days missed will not count as absences. The students will be able to apply some of the work they do during the Healing of the Canoe workshop toward their volunteer hours required to graduate.

The Healing of the Canoe project would like to gather data about what the youth have learned from the program, and how it impacts their lives. We are inviting youth to help by completing three 45 minute questionnaires. The first questionnaire will be completed before the program starts, the second at the end of the program, and the last one four months after the program is over. Youth will receive a $25 gift card for each completed questionnaire. As always, youth can participate in the workshops and choose not to take the surveys.

The Holding up our Youth Curriculum relies heavily on mentors and guest speakers from the community. If you are interesting in being a guest speaker at our workshops, please give us a call at (360) 394-8572.

HOC Recognized Nationally!

The Healing of the Canoe project is listed as one of 12 successful examples of community engagement in the second edition of the book, "Principles of Community Engagement." An introductory overview of the process says: "The authors asked representatives from federal health agencies to recommend case examples of the effective use of community engagement that were published in peer-reviewed journals from 1997 to the present. Of the examples submitted, 12 are presented here."