How we advocate:
For thousands of years, the Coast Salish lived sustainably in villages throughout the Salish Sea. However, as colonial law set in, the Strait Salish were nearly erased from their ancestral territory and abundant way of life. Today, our mission is mending that damage. Our cross-boundary educational and environmental stewardship efforts are empowering the presence, practice, and voice of aboriginal people who are using the enigma of their US Treaty Rights, Canadian Aboriginal Title, and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect environmental degradation for all.
To further protect original inhabitants from the perpetual trauma that caused such sociopolitical, cultural, economic and environmental poverty, WE continue to work with stakeholders that have a federal and provincial trust responsibility to safeguard tribal treaty rights, historic structures, and cultural landscapes. Our short-term work initiated a historical cultural conservation easement and a historical watershed moment, as our Coast Salish Nations gifted three storyboards to the National Historical Parks on their 100th Anniversary. Currently, these monuments educate over 300,000 annual visitors on our transboundary origin story and nationhood to the San Juan Islands.
~As respected elders have stated, “The Creator gave us the sacred responsibility to the land, water, salmon, reef-net and language that belongs to it, and if it is not supported it is cultural spiritual genocide.” In only 160 years, each one of those aspects is vulnerable. Example, today our brother and sister salmon and our salmon people’s language are equally near extinction. WE overcome these barriers and inequity by honoring our sacred gifts and responsibilities.~
WE empower communities and advocate by:
For thousands of years, the Coast Salish lived sustainably in villages throughout the Salish Sea. However, as colonial law set in, the Strait Salish were nearly erased from their ancestral territory and abundant way of life. Today, our mission is mending that damage. Our cross-boundary educational and environmental stewardship efforts are empowering the presence, practice, and voice of aboriginal people who are using the enigma of their US Treaty Rights, Canadian Aboriginal Title, and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect environmental degradation for all.
To further protect original inhabitants from the perpetual trauma that caused such sociopolitical, cultural, economic and environmental poverty, WE continue to work with stakeholders that have a federal and provincial trust responsibility to safeguard tribal treaty rights, historic structures, and cultural landscapes. Our short-term work initiated a historical cultural conservation easement and a historical watershed moment, as our Coast Salish Nations gifted three storyboards to the National Historical Parks on their 100th Anniversary. Currently, these monuments educate over 300,000 annual visitors on our transboundary origin story and nationhood to the San Juan Islands.
~As respected elders have stated, “The Creator gave us the sacred responsibility to the land, water, salmon, reef-net and language that belongs to it, and if it is not supported it is cultural spiritual genocide.” In only 160 years, each one of those aspects is vulnerable. Example, today our brother and sister salmon and our salmon people’s language are equally near extinction. WE overcome these barriers and inequity by honoring our sacred gifts and responsibilities.~
WE empower communities and advocate by:
- Working between native and non-native communities to address historical trauma, fear of exploitation, cultural appropriation, and mistrust.
- Establishing fair Cooperating Agreements and Memorandums of Understanding between parties to ensure equitable treatment and protection of intellectual properties and knowledge.
- Engaging with federal land managers to ensure trust responsibilities to American Indians.
- Working with the National Monument as Tribal Interest Representatives to ensure the Coast Salish voice is heard and recorded in the Federal Register 15-20-year Resource Management Plan.
- Leading the Equity, Diversity and Honoring Cultures Committee for the Opportunity Council and Whatcom County Health Department Generations Forward Initiative: Envisioning a Future Where All Whatcom County Children Thrive.
- Leading cross-sector collaboration for presentations and panel discussions on “What would Truth and Reconciliation Mean for Washington State?”
- Leading Indigenous Truth Washington to support education and legislative initiatives for reconcili-action.
- Founding our infrastructure goals on Indigenous Rights ~ United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, UN Laws of the Sea and Rights of Nature.
