energy use. those stories an more. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. these are the top stories. 34 nuclear officers suspended for their alleged cheating on proficiency test. 34 others have been implicated in an illegal drug ring. president obama was talking about job creation during a trip onorth carolina, he was there to announce anew manufacturing program that was meant to boost the state's economy. blamed for a toxic spill in west virginia, freedom industries was cited at another facility. thousands of gallons of

chemicals leaked into the elk river, leaving thousands of people without water. sex abuse by the catholic church, a committee set up by the pope will meet with the united nations tomorrow. headlines, i'm john siegenthaler, i'll see you back here 11:00 eastern, 8:00 pacific time, "america tonight" with joie chen is next, you can always get the latest on aljazeera.com. >> on "america tonight": losing ground. more of louisiana's bayou community swallowed whole. why the hole is from another crisis hundreds of miles away.

>> not a lot of us left here now. >> also, still troubled waters, the taps are on but there are new signs of danger. should more folks downstream be worried about west virginia's toxic wash? >> the industry is not regulated and it happened because these were old holding tanks which were not properly maintained. >> and faith in flux. the catholic church faces new reports, what a change in leadership may bring. >> good evening i'm joie chen. thanks for being with us. getting there but it's not over yet. that's what authorities in west virginia are telling hundreds of thousands of residents who have now had to endure a full week

without run being water. an environmental crisis has been unfolding in the state capitol city charleston after toxic chemicals leaked and contaminated the area's water supply. now it's safe to use the water but then it could be a few more days. before a water ban is fully lifted for the nine counties that are affected. "america tonight"'s correspondent christophe putzel has been in the valley reporting on the environmental accident and he joins us with an update. >> for more than 50,000 residents a sight for sore eyes, finally clean water running from their taps. but for most of the nine counties affected, the long wait continues. signs of the coal processing chemical that brought the state capitol to a standstill. no end of headaches too for freedom industries the company on the river bank responsible

for the leak of the compound known as mchm. the inspectors found at the new site that a wall meant to stop chemicals from leaking had holes in it. this offers little comfort to affected west virginians, already distrustful that some of the water is safe. others downstream on the ohio river are not taking any chances. >> we are going to shut down the valves for more than double that time so it's out of our hair before we put the intake valves in. >> even when the ban is completely lifted, questions about why this happened and what it means for residents will remain. activists point a finger at poor regulation. >> so this happened because the west virginia chemical industry is not regulated here in west

virginia. it happened because these are old holding tanks that were not proper reply maintained by freedom industries and no inspection at this site aat any point. >> there are also questions about safety standards. the centers disease control, when the spill was first noticed last wednesday, residents reported a foul black licorice smell in the air. the leak happened just a mile upriver from a west virginia american water company plant an intake area that supplies the water to nine different counties. the chemical tanks line the local rivers. when something does go wrong the authorities usually have established procedures. but this time little was known about the leaking chemical mchm

used to clean coal before it goes to market. now freedom industries remains shut down by the authorities, barred for any further while a federal investigation gathers steam. >> "america tonight"'s christophe putzel. you have talked to so many people. do you have a sense that people trust what they hear from officials, they can use the water and feel comfortable and safe? >> there is somewhat tolerance. it is known as chemical valley. but this is different. this is the first time they have been told they can't drink the water and that really scared a lot of people and there's just not a lot known about mchm. so not everyone is trusting what people are saying. this is a chemical that has a certain odor of licorice and that's why it was detected.

they are wondering are there other chemicals in the water that we don't know about? a lot of chemicals are odorless and tasteless. they feel this is the first time they are hearing about something that could have been around for a while so there is concern. >> is there a clear understanding how this got into the water in the first place? >> yes, basically there was a leak and because this is a chemical that isn't in designed to be in contact with humans there was no real concern about monitoring a backup plan if it got into -- if it got into the water supply. usually with chemicals like this or any other chemicals there is a backup plan that has to be in place and it's closely monitored. this wasn't monitored because frankly no one was concerned because not a whole lot was known about being in contact with humans. the scary part for a lot of people is this could have been a lot worse. >> and we are still watching everything unfold. christophe putzel, thank you so

much. the distress that christophe has described is medical concerns. one west virginia doctor says she is treating symptoms that may be related to the effects of the contaminated water after the water ban was lifted in their particular areas. joining us is dr. elizabeth brown an internal medicine specialist. appreciate you being with us doctor. can you explain to us on the first days thursday, friday did you see patients come in and can you describe what they were experiencing? >> honestly, thursday and friday, i think people were so panicked about getting water, and what they were going to do, that i didn't ski a ton of people come in on those days. now starting yesterday which was monday after people had had time to organize themselves and the flushing process began people started to try to use the water again. so i started seeing people in the afternoon who came in with

skin rashes after trying to wash their hands, rashes all over their body after showering, irritated eyes, some nausea and fatigue. and that just is the tip of the ice burg. iceberg. we are seeing more systemic issues also. >> we are seeing pictures of the rashes so forth, they appear to be rashes at least. to a layman you have give medication people have gone home they have started to get better. what happens now? >> right. i have actually started some of my patients on some steroid ointment for the rashes and from what they're reporting to me they have improved. they are also no longer coming in contact with their tap water so i think avoidance is also happening. i am also seeing some new patients that have tried to take showers and they are inhaling some of the steam from the shower and they are experiencing

some of the respiratory symptoms that go along with this as well as some nose bleed and some gastrointestinal problems, maybe because they are starting to drink the water that is deemed safe. >> you are a resident of this community yourself and you follow the instructions, you flush out, any time you lose your water you flush out your sinks your faucets everywhere, right? has this made a difference? >> that's correct. i think it's made a huge different but i'm not convinced that the flushing process that we've been told to do is adequate. i think it's helped but i don't know that it's quite enough. i know at the hospital i work at we turned our sinks on for 15 minutes, turned our faucets on and then were instruct to turn them off and that was to be an adequate flush. but i can tell you that the water in my office is still very cloudy and has a very foamy

appearance to it and we had some brown sediment come out of it. so i'm not convinced that the flushing that has been done is enough to ensure that the water is safe to school or to bathe in. >> and we know that you're continuing to monitor those patients and be concerned about them as well as others in your community. we appreciate your taking the time to talk with us, dr. elizabeth brown thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and another disaster, this one in louisiana, an entire town is threatened by a giant sinkhole. michael oku visited bayou corn. this sinkhole the size of 20 football fields and it is growing, devouring the land in the bayou corn area.

toxic liquids have been seeping from sinkholes into the surrounding communities, almost 300 people have been forced from their homes and then there are the earthquakes. regional tremors, causing from the hole. get this off of puerto rico's northern coast, the seismic activity in assumption parish, raising concern from officials and residents. robert ray is following the story from bayou corn. >> this is bayou corn, many canals, moving through cajin country. there is a problem, a giant sinkhole, 26 acres and growing. underneath the earth, 43 million gallons of natural gas, methane, highly imussible. it has the ability to explode. residents extremely concerned.

you and your wife discovered bubbles coming up from underneath the water of the bayou. explain that. >> may 20th, 2012, my wife and i went for a leisurely drive by bayou corn. i noticed some unusual bubbling. at first i passed it up, i said something wrong so i website back and took a look. i looked at the bubbles noticed it was pretty strong pretty steady and i had never seen bubbling like that before. >> were you aware that there were trees being sucked down? >> when i first saw the bubbling nobody knew where the bubbling was coming from. >> now today, year and a half plus later your town has evacuated, you have decided to stay, why? >> i've decided to stay because i just feel that i'm not in -- i'm not in imminent danger. you know there are warning

systems settle up all around the sinkhole. we have monitors in our homes for the gas. if we feel the sinkhole would start growing we would have plenty of notice. >> the company texas brine which is the largest salt excavating company in the united states, they are to blame according to the state of louisiana. the mining they have done in the past 25 years has caused there collapse of a salt dome which is 7,000 feet beneath the earthette. in 2009 they stopped excavating here. what has it done for the people here? >> one requirement in their permit which was permitted back in 1982 was that they were to offer homeowner assistance in an event a sinkhole or something like that would happen and cause the people to leave their home or stay. they are paying everybody a stipend of $875 per week to each

homeowner, whether they are staying in the home or they've evacuated. >> now some of the people they've bought their homes. >> right. >> about half your population has taken the buyout because they feel this is too much of a risk? >> that's correct. to my knowledge i think at this point i think 58 homeowners or camp owners have taken a buyout, they have sold their property to texas brine and they are gone. there are not a whole lot of us left, i'd say about 25 families, it's kind of hard to say but it is what i think there is. >> in the past few weeks, there have been new tremors, seismic waves in this part of the country which have caused some of the berms or levees fracture. the company texas brine has said it would fix that, they have gone through that. the south side of this giant sinkhole is what keeps growing, we have seen cypress trees

fallen into the depths of the earth but emergency officials you can see this is a makeshift camp a mobile command center that they have set up here. let me walk you over here, this is assumption parish in bayou corn. they have been there for a year and a half since the discovery of the sinkhole. in one of these trailers they are monitoring every single house in bayou corn for methane. they have set up remote control devices inside houses that monitor any sort of methane or natural gas in the air. they have set up piping systems to siphon out the methane so they can release all the stuff here. behind me in the trailer is texas brine. we tried to talk to them earlier today, they said they were not available, too busy to speak to us. we were very professional about

it, we pressed on, we asked what about some of the new seismic activity that has occurred, the quake off puerto rico just the past weekend can that was felt, some of the tremors that occurred over the past few weeks, they said they were very small and not a big deal. i would assume that many of the residents would not agree with that statement as they have had to reroute their lives and are trying to figure out exactly how to move forward. now texas brine the insurance company they are involved with are in a lawsuit, the insurance company claiming texas brine knew more than what they did, they should hav have notified se situation would not come to where it is. >> wilma subra joins us tonight. wilma you know on our program we have been paying i have close attention to the situation at

bybayou corn. we were surprised to hear that an earthquake as far away as puerto rico could affect you. >> we've had earthquakes in alaska that when they occurred people who had ponds and swimming pools noticed the water swirk back and forth here in louisiana when the earthquake occurred in alaska. that's not unusual. i.t. caused the water at bayou corn to swish back and forth. >> we know the berm tried to hold things back there. that has not worked at all? >> yes, the berms are actually surrounding a sinkhole but they are in an area that is continuing to sink. the berms are degrading and are being overtopped. the fear is that the saltwater

and the crude oil in the sinkhole will migrate into the fresh water marsh around the sinkhole. >> creating a second disaster there. our initial thinking is about the people who live in the area losing their homes and where we see those trees disappearing into this sinkhole, it is incredible but people in that area run the risk of losing their homes and also the threat to the air and the water. >> that's right. and the emissions from the sinkhole particularly the crude oil, have been released into the air and cause a lot of health impacts to those who continue to plif here, even though there's a mandatory evacuation but also to the community as they come back to tend to their homes and their pets. they are being threatened and impacted as far as their health is concerned. >> we are hearing from some of those folks trying to make the decision about moving away from their homes or staying put and

hoping for the best there. what advice are you are giving, is your organization making any recommendation to folks, based on how close they are to the sing hole or what they are seeing happen to them? >> well, we are providing the information about what are the threats, what are the exposure and then lef letting individuals make their own decisions. a number of the people have chosen to stay. they feel if they move out of the home the home will be vandalized and they won't have anything left. other people think that there's no other place in the world that is as unique as bayou corn. they don't want to leave, they want the situation to be sofd so they can continue to live here. >> you don't want this place to be a full sacrifice zone, a place that is given up on. you will continue to watch as we will. thank you very much, wilma

subra, louisiana environmental actsdz. looking ahead on "america tonight", another fears faceoff between the energy and the environment and an "america tonight" special investigation, fallout from fukushima. our look at the japanese nuclear plant three years later. that's on the program tonight. and ahead, the catholic church ahead a bruising showdown, the can the new leader observe a new way forward -- offer a new way forward? ft forward

>> for all the positive press pope francis has been getting, an old problem for the church is once been putting pressure on it and testing the pontiff in other ways. likely to be a tough showdown, the u.n. committee forced the old body to force the sexual allegations of the priests and what the church did to respond to it.

gathered reports from the united states ireland, philippines some of the countries where abuse of children by clergy last been documented. u.n.'s convention on the right of the child in geneva. joining us michael de antonio, his latest book, mortal since, chronicles the church's sexual scandal. there last been an awful lot of change around pope francis and the changes he is bringing to the church. do you on what you have seen and reported on have a sense of how much the pope will change the transparency about these cases? >> well, inone really can say right now. he hasn't taken any definitive action in his nearly full year as pope. but i think that around the world, there is a bit more hope

than there ever has been. this scandal's gone on for at least 30 years. and shocking as that can seem, every corner of the globe has been affected. there has been very little transparency, very little accountability. i think there's a sense or at least a hope that this more humble more open hearted, open faced man, you know, this is a pope who greets the world with a smile. i think there's some hope that he might get it in a way that previous pontiffs haven't gotten it. >> let's talk about the specific events that are occurring this week, this u.n. committee looking at this. this has to do with the vatican signing on to the rights to the child, the u.n. charter on that. in a sense is there

responsibility to respond to these allegations? it could be quite tough. >> it is tough. the catholic church is a unique institution in all the world. it is boat a religion and a nation-state. the holy see has diplomatic relationships with many countries. by doing this they have bound themselves to uphold the standards of the convention which puts child safety very much at the top of the agenda. so now, as part of the committee's routine, they're reviewing their compliance and there have always, already, been some difficult questions asked and not very many good answer he forthcoming. >> we should note that this agreement occurred before pope francis came into the papacy,

right? >> yes it goes back to -- >> he inherited this. >> goes back to 1989. what's fachting about this is -- fascinating about this is catholic impism, you can't claim sovereign immunity to escape responsibility and then somehow evade it when as a sovereign you've signed this international agreement. i think there's some pressure on them. >> i just want to know the situation in chicago as well based on the litigation out of the cases in chicago there's been a lot of attention there and a report there detailing quite a few of the cases that have come through the chicago die esees. >> and sadly this is more of the same. there are 6,000 pages of documents being released today. the church has warned that it's going to be pretty horrific

reading and it's more evidence of a culture of see erase that i think -- secrecy that i think led to the abuse in the first place. and modern people and people in the democracies need the kind of shelter the church provides in getting past this crisis. >> michael thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> after the break, a simple figure and a solemn memory. why this california statute is reopening old war wounds. from half a world away.

>> now a snapshot of stories making headlines on america tonight. black friday blues come back to haunt walmart. accused of illegal threatening and firing workers taking part

in pooh national fair wage walkout. a massachusetts law that keeps antiabortion protestors 35 feet from clients. ruling is expected this summer. was it preventible, a scathing report on an attack on benghazi libya, was it preventible, state department says it was. u.s. forces were unprepared to deal with it. today marks an important milestone for egypt. after two day vote it looks like the country could be moving in the right direction with a few noteworthy inclination in the proposed constitution. president will serve up to two, four year terms and can be impeached. freedom of belief is absolute with islam though as the state religion and the straight guarantees equality between men and women. well, some aspects of the new

constitution seem progressive, the vote was marred with violence and controversial. at least 11 people were killed in protests on tuesday. the violence let up but hundreds of pro-morsi protestors were arrested. joe store is deputy director for middle east and north africa at human rights watch he joins us here. have joe, we have been talking about this, the notion that the constitution has some very progressive elements to i it. >> it does have progressive elements to it. keep in mind this is the third time in three years that the egyptians have gone to the polls for a new constitution. the one that is not progressive is it enshrines protection for the military. we're not talking about any kind of civilian oversight here.

we're talking about the military and the security services running their own show and that's definitely very bad. >> it's almost the devil in the details right? you can have a great document, you can have great ideologic positions, we are seeing more conflict taking place now. >> the 1971 constitution that matt underwoomubarakgoverned une policies of the security services, policies of arbitrary arrest and torture and so forth. >> on that point, right now on the ground in egypt we are seeing that pressure on journalists as well as the citizens in the street. >> just today an ap cam are man photographer was arrested, because something he took appeared on al jazeera of all places and the security said he

works for jazeera. as you know better than i four of your colleagues are in prison, what, some three weeks after they were arrested, again simply because they are working for al jazeera. other outlets other media outless havoutlets have been sh. you can't look at just today and what happened, but what preceded it. there was no way to campaign for a boycott, it was yes yes yes yes yes yes, the message of the media which was operating entirely under the guidance of the government became of. >> i want to move past, you have interests in other places, we want to talk about syria where half the population is in great need of humanitarian aid. the united nations has raised

$2.5 billion but even if it reaches its goal, 6.5 billion, there are challenges. to get the money to the people who need it. >> there's been money issues, the appeals have been underfunded by and large but the fact is the main problem has been no accessing to get the aid to the people who need it. people know pretty well about the 2 million plus refugees. but there have been 6 million people who have been displaced internally and not have been someplaced but in areas of siege in some cases up to a year where government forces have prevented food, access to health care and so forth for upwards of a year. the government of syria is the chief problem here, not the only one but the chief problem. and you know raisings the money, raising the funds another couple of million dollars here and there, unless there can be some

solution, internationally, unless the russians can take away their kind of invisible shield protecting bashar al-assad, so that the security council can mandate that aid can get across the borders, that the authorities have to allow the humanitarian aid to the people who want it, you can raise whatever pieshes you want. >> thank you very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> a statute in a public park in southern california is stirring up controversy there. that statute honest the number of comfort women, organized rape and abuse by japanese soldiers during the second world war. japanese officials and politicians say it dishonors their country not to be removed. rob reynolds has the story. >> a poignant memorial to the victims of an unspeakable crime. the comfort women memorial

depicts a young girl in traditional korean dress. her expression is distant. her fists are clenched. the bronze statute was installed last july at the request of the korean forum of southern california. phyllis worked on the project. >> so many girls were taken away to be used in slavery on the japanese army. we have installed a monument to remember their pain and suffering. >> as imperial japanese forces ram paged across issue yair in the 1930s and 40s, the government organized a series of brothels, girls mostly from north korea were used as sex slaves. >> they were as young as 12 years old. they had to serve soldiers more than 10 times a day, on weekends

40, 50 times a day. they were tortured, beaten, their bodies were mute latelied, they were -- mutilated. they were killed. >> a reminder and a warning against future atrocities. >> but there are those in japan who would prefer not to be reminded of the past. recently a group of japanese legislators troostle traveled te demanding that the statute be removed. >> we are not happy about the installation of the monument. in that stance i said we are very sorry for the installation of the statute. >> over several decades, various japanese officials have issued limited apologies for the country's deeds.

but shinjjo abe has talked about revising the policies of his predecessors. in december abe visited the shrine of convicted criminals, that angered neighbors. >> the japanese still don't understand that it is a political necessity to resolve these issues with their victims. while the germans have come upon that realization have embedded it in their education and their society. the japanese have not come to that realization yet and that is very dangerous. >> the comfort women who did not survive. how did the survivors cope with the trauma and the shame of their experience? >> another love them hid it from

their family out of shame. and if the family found out about it, they were shunned. >> almost every day visitors come here to contemplate the past. com bin sahn was born during the war, his mother told him how she hid in the forests to escape the soldiers as they rounded up teenage girls. >> it makes me sad, i feel like i was looking at my mom when she was that aiming. >> old wounds that have not heeled. rob reynolds, glendale, california. >> coming up next, a letter from the birmingham jail on what would have been dr. king' birlt day. we reflect on -- birthday. we reflect on the beginning of a

movement.

>> dr. martin luther king, jr. is forever remembered for hi "i have a dream" speech. but it's something he wrote months earlier, from a jail cell in birmingham, alabama. that helped put the march into motion. tonight what would have been his 85th birthday, we have a story about how that came to be. from who of his associates who helped made that happen. >> when you were coming to birmingham, you were coming to ku klux klan territory. birmingham had more unsolved

burns than anywhere else in society. segregationists were not about to let some negro preacher from atlanta or some group of demonstrators, either in birmingham or outside the state to come and change their way of life. >> this is our place our power how dare you want to come in and share our power with us. >> it was some very dark days in birmingham, alabama. >> i was scared to death. in birmingham then, the police was the black person's biggest fear. >> you couldn't eat where you wanted to eat. you couldn't go where you wanted to go. they had intimidated the working black people and dr. king knew that. the movement was stagnated. it was dead. >> but i'm going to say to you wait a minute, birmingham. somebody's got to have some sense in birmingham. >> dr. martin luther king was invited to come to birmingham to help with this situation.

>> as difficult as it is, we must meet hate with love. >> we would always meet at 16th street baptist church. that was the meeting place for dr. king. ♪ >> it was always fiery meetings, with a lot of good singing. a lot of good praying. ♪ i'm on my way ♪ to freedom land >> dr. king was arrested on good friday, april 12th, 1963. he was jailed for parading without a permit. so dr. king's in jail. and i don't know how many, but a substantial number of people. young people particularly in jail. when i say young people, i'm talking about kids 14 to 18. there may have been some younger but 14 to 18. and being in jail overnight is

one thing but being in jail more than one or two nights became a major issue. i think the first time i visited him, may have been that saturday. as i approached the jail, i had the burdensome moniker of being identified as, quote, dr. king's new york lawyer. so the parents, as i went in to see dr. king, they were shouting at me, attorney jones, get our kids out of jail. if you are visiting dr. king tell him we got to get our kids out of jail. and the reason they were upset, we didn't have enough money to bail at that time. at the end of the day, they would say dr. king you led this demonstration, got these kids in jail and then his organization didn't even have the resources to bail them out. i went in to tell dr. king we have a major issue on our hand

martin, doctor, i said, much to my surprise he virtually dismissme. he said have you seen this? i said what is this? and he holds up a newspaper and in that newspaper, there's a full-page ad signed by eight prominent white clergymen from birmingham. he was angry. he was hurt. but he whereas motivated, like -- but he was motivatelike i'd never seen him motivated. he had an old newspaper and all the blank spaces where there's not text or ads he's written. and he's so frenetic about it that he's actually written on paper towels and toilet paper. he says, take these out and get these teep typed. -- typed. give it to wyatt, wyatt g. walker. let me say parenthetically,

wyatt walker must have been 30 at the time. very charismatic. >> i am wyatt t. walker, former chief of staff to martin luther king, author and cultural his torn. he said if we can break birmingham we can break the south and that's what happened. >> so martin gives me these scraps of paper, i put them under my surety like here, put the scraps of paper. so i took the scraps of paper out to wyatt walker. >> we were in a room in the gaston motel. they brought these pieces of paper to me. i was the only one in birmingham who could read dr. king's chicken scratch writing as we describe it. and so it was my task to translate it. and my personal secretary, wil

willie pearl, had responsibility of typing it as i translated. >> she said he may be a great speaker but he can't write, because his handwriting was very difficult. >> we were late into the night and early morning, and she was exhausted and i remember, picking her up, moving her to a chair, and then i continued typing the last part of it. it took the better part of two evenings, and the lawyers came by the model and i gave them what we had done. >> didn't pay attention to the letter, didn't think about it, it wasn't in my mind until i suddenly learn that i think quakers were going to publish the letter in one of their newsletters. and that the letter using today's terminology, the letter went viral.

>> i think it's the most important document of the 20th century. very much like the gettysburg address and it became the raison detre of the movement. >> while confined in the birmingham city jail, i came upon your activities calling unwise and untimely. >> your statements i am sorry to say failed to express a similar concern about the conditions that brought about demonstrations. >> it is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in birmingham. but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the negro community with no alternative.

>> when you suddenly find your tongue twistand your speech stammering, as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has been just advertised on television and you see tears well up into her little eyes when she's told that fun town is closed to colored people. >> when you take a cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your awnl because no motel will accept you when you are humiliated night after night by agonizing signs that read, white and colored, when your middle name is nigger, and your first name is john, when you are fighting the sense of

nothingness, you will understand why it is difficult to wait. >> all of that came from his heart. he wanted white america to see what they were doing. he wanted white america to see how hurtful it was. >> the letter was a national call to the conscience of america, using the real-life, realtime reality of birmingham as its template. birmingham then became the spark that ignited the prairie fire of negro resistance which was transformed into negro revolution. >> delivering on words of the promise of dr. king. still to come here tonight: a native american fisherman who

is after a lot more than just fish. a story from the american treasure series, next.

judge. >> and finally from us this evening, a new chapter in our american treasure series. a native american who has turned to a new pursuit in his retirement. preserving his heritage and passing it on to his generation. meet martin, of sequim, washington. >> this country is rich, put a richness in this area that i don't believe any other culture has. that's pretty amazing when you think about it. it always makes me feel good to go out there and to fish in the same waters that my ancestors did. and it's a right that i have and i enjoy that right. and it's reliving what my

ancestors did. it's not work to me. it's fun. and i get good exercise out of it as well, you know. my name is marlin holden, i'm native american and i'm a tribal citizen of the james town squalam tribe which is located in sequim, washington. i'm retired, i guess you could say. i'm putting more effort into fishing and clamming and crabbing in those natural resources. fishing is a very difficult area to make money and to feed a family. so most of our young people can't do that so they're either working or finding work, they're going to school or whatever it takes to get a career. and so i -- we have to make a point of being out there. you know to keep these things going, to keep our heritage going in the fisheries.

so i feel really, really good when i'm out there. you just go into a mode of relaxation and thinking about a lot of tircht things. i mean my -- different things. my mind runs through a lot of different things. it's enjoyable and it's relaxing to me. i was crabbing off the old village, nice warm you summer day. when we are picking our traps to get the traps out, these two sea gulls were grabbing, wouldn't let them go. their wings were flapping. i got an answer to this problem. i reached in and got a peets of bait and i threw it at them. they saw it but never let go of the raggedy piece of bait.

i looked at them and said, you know, we humans are like that. we want to win no matter what. sometimes the answer is right there but we're nose to nose and we're not going to back off. we could both lose. those two sea gulls did, one could have a nice piece of bait but you learn from nature like that. it's not only important that i connect with my ancestry, and with the tribe as it is now, but it's also verve important that i'm responsible in my generation for the next seven generations. so we have a big responsibility passing what our knowledge is of our history of our ancestry of our rights to the next generations to carry on. you know, we need good examples to look at so i'm hoping that i'm a good example for those kids to look at. to know that jeez, that old guy

is still out there digging clams, it's not a bad deal, i could be doing that. it's huge. the responsibility. but it's one that i enjoy taking on. because it is -- it is the future. >> and that's why he truly is an american treasure. that's it for us here on "america tonight". please remember if you would like to comment on any of our stories, log on to our website, aljazeera.com/americatonight. or join us on twitter or facebook. join us tomorrow where we'll have more of maintain.

welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler and here are tonight's top stories. the house of representatives passed a $1.1 trillion budget today, the bill goes to the senate and the vote is expected by the end of the week, the bill covers airports to other costs. the remaining 34 allegedly involved in cheating on monthly proficiency test. the 12-year-old suspect of the new mexico shootings,la