As Spokane and Colville tribal members paddled from Fort Spokane to Kettle Falls, they said, “It’s time to bring them back,” referring to the salmon of the Upper Columbia river and the Indian children buried at former residential schools.
Spirit Valley
As Seattle City Light seeks to relicense its three hydro dams on the Skagit River–Gorge, Diablo and Ross–the Upper Skagit Tribe is calling for removal of the Gorge Dam to restore miles of salmon and steelhead spawning habitat in what the tribe calls Spirit Valley. Diablo and Ross dams can continue to supply Seattle with electricity, while Gorge–like the Elwha River dams–is removed.
Bitter Fruit
After its 30-year failure to destroy unions, Washington state’s Freedom Foundation has spent the last year undermining public confidence in COVID health measures established by the Institutes for Health and Centers for Disease Control. The Idaho Senate president, a Republican, calls it one of the biggest threats to democracy in their state. An Oregon state representative, a senior fellow of Freedom Foundation, has been criminally charged for opening the capitol doors to protesters last December to attack police as prelude to Trump’s failed insurrection in Washington, D.C.
Photo Essay
Red Road journey kicks off in the San Juan Islands–traditional territory of Lummi Nation.
The Red Road
A reef-net totem and salmon storyboards from House of Tears carvers will be gifted to the Biden administration at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. The totem journey begins at Mitchell Bay Lhaq’temish Village (San Juan Island National Historical Park) where the totem was dedicated by Lummi and Saanich first nations.
School Outbreak
40 Friday Harbor students have been quarantined in the San Juan Island School District due to a COVID outbreak. Friday Harbor middle and high school students return to teleschooling until May 3.
Medical experts say public health reform is needed on a global scale*. Some say COVID variants and high transmission rates make it likely to get worse again.
*For more information, see Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, 2001.
Poet Laureate
Rena Priest of Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation has been appointed Washington State Poet Laureate by Governor Jay Inslee. Priest’s literary debut, Patriarchy Blues, was honored with the 2018 American Book Award.
Consequences of Theft
The 2009-2010 bank bailouts provided venture capital for investment banks to speculate in real estate, causing rents to skyrocket, and generating widespread homelessness nationwide. 40 years of privatization–beginning with the Reagan Administration–has left public housing and public health in tatters, and accelerated the globalization of poverty. This institutional cruelty received bipartisan support.
Community Art
The 15-foot salmon–composed of 240 individual glazed tiles–is a community art project on San Juan Island. Community art has a 10,000-year tradition on the shores of the Salish Sea, and organized projects that enable widespread participation create much needed social cohesion and cooperation.
Overcoming Bigotry
Debra Lekanoff–the only Native American lawmaker in the Washington State Legislature–says some of the racism she experienced as a candidate is due to the fact many don’t understand the dual citizenship of American Indians. As the basis of bigotry, this ignorance, she says, can be overcome through education, familiarity and trust.