PORT TOWNSEND — Chris Gregoire is governor.
The Legislature in Olympia is not the only governing body in Washington state.
And not everyone who came west to Washington territory was a Scandinavian logger.
The diversity of the Evergreen State is one of the intrinsic lessons in the new state history text for seventh-grade students at Blue Heron Middle School.
Purchased by a grant from the state and local unit of the League of Women Voters, the text provides up-to-date information on Washington state history, which this year was switched from being taught in high school to middle school in the Port Townsend School District.
Weak on tribal government
“The textbook they used in ninth grade was really weak in tribal government,” said Kate Garfield, Blue Heron teacher.
“This textbook lays out the civics requirements in a way that kids really understand. It’s hard to simplify and be thorough, and this new book manages that.
‘The State We’re In’
Garfield said she was looking on online for texts to use when she found the League of Women Voters’ book, The State We’re In: Washington/Your Guide to State, Tribal and Local Government.
It includes chapters on the first people and a section on immigration that includes people from Asia, Africa, Southern Europe and Mexico as well as Scandinavia.
Brief biographies with photos include George Washington Bush, who settled near the present city of Olympia; former governor and now U.S. secretary of commerce Gary Locke; Takuji Yamashita, who was posthumously inducted into the bar, and state Supreme Court Justice Charles Z. Smith.
Mary Vernor, who was elected mayor of Spokane, and Barbara Larsen, mayor of Castle Rock, are also profiled.
The chapter on tribal government highlights Billy Frank, who led efforts to acknowledge native fishing rights; Hazel Pete, who helped preserve and teach Chehalis heritage, and Virginia Beaver, a Yakima tribal leader who helped preserve native language and culture.
Allen mentioned
Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe in Blyn, is mentioned in the section on the Centennial Accord.
The text is illustrated with photographs of women and men at work and in political office including former Gov. Dixy Lee Ray and Gregoire.
Garfield said her students will start using the text in two weeks, after they finish a unit on world religions and Gandhi that leads into the observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The study will continue until the end of the year, she said, and will dovetail with the grade’s maritime unit, a Northwest Maritime Center program that integrates regional history, music, art and applied mathematics with on-the-water boating experience.
Outreach grant
The League of Women Voters of Jefferson County applied for a $750 extraordinary outreach project grant from the state organization and donated $350 of its own funds to purchase texts for all 60 seventh-graders.
The League of Women Voters of Jefferson County, which is also open to men, sponsors candidate forums before primary and general elections, holds forums on public issues, holds voter registration, participates in election monitoring and studies and takes stands on issues such as immigration and Border Patrol policy.
The organization’s Washington Education Fund operates separately from the League’s board and is dedicated to strengthening knowledge of government through nonpartisan educational projects, like publication of the Washington state textbook, which was developed for grades seventh through 12th.
The next meeting of the Jefferson County league is Thursday at 7 p.m. in the basement meeting room of the Bishop Hotel, 714 Washington St., Port Townsend.
For more information, contact Jackie Aase, 360-385-6027 or aase@waypt.com.
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
