Thank you! Thank you!

Congrats!

The Chinook are calling on U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, and U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and U.S. Reps. Marie Glusenkamp-Perez of Washington and Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon step up and support federal recognition that honors their sovereignty .

Read the full story for a fuller picture. I spoke with a few of the surrounding Native nations that support Chinook federal recognition that detail their shared histories and support.

“What I would say to any legislative delegation is, ‘Since when will you not introduce a bill because somebody’s opposed to it?” Chinook chairman Johnson said. “Somebody’s opposed to every piece of legislation that is passed in Congress, right?”

But Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez decided that wasn’t enough to push the legislation forward and “expressed the necessity of repairing and upholding multinational relations with others in Indian Country in order to proceed with the bill.”

The Chinook Indian Nation Restoration Act was supported by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

“We’ve never left this place,” Johnson told Underscore + ICT. “This is where our sovereignty springs from. We literally use the words in our trading negotiations, ‘staying with the bones of our ancestors.’ We don’t use the word time immemorial because there is not a time we don’t remember.“

Recognition would also ensure that Chinookan children be kept with their people through the protections of the Indian Child Welfare Act and their ancestors’ dignified rest on their homelands through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

W/out federal recognition the Chinook can’t access federal services available through the BIA including health care, education, housing, economic development, & social services critical to healing from generational trauma caused by the American government and to surviving modern disasters.

Thank you for sharing!

Thanks Ryan! It’s been a long time coming. 😄

Aw, thanks so much Holly! 💛

Thanks for reading it! 🙌🏽

These are all stories from 2024. More to come from myself and colleagues this year. Miigwech for reading if you’ve made it this far! 😄🙌🏽

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