Thank you to Seattle Parks for raising the issue of "institutional racism" and for thinking about racial and cultural equity. Thanks to the Special Project Manager for being "inclusive and creative" and to the 19-member "change team" for developing a policy of "fairness."
If anyone is interested in promoting cultural equity, I've got another project for the change team: Address institutional racism experienced by the Duwamish tribe.
The Duwamish tribe is not extinct, but could be described as culturally endangered, after settlers burned Native villages and chased inhabitants out of town. Settlers torched the last longhouse 117 years ago. In 2009, the tribe celebrated the opening of the new Duwamish Longhouse in West Seattle, now open to the public.
Today, 600 tribal members remain, diluted and scattered, with many members choosing to affiliate with recognized tribes that provide healthcare and other helpful services.
Chief Si'ahl, the Duwamish tribe Head of State, was the first signatory of the Point Elliott Treaty, which guaranteed the tribe members' education, housing and hunting and fishing rights in exchange for 54,000 acres comprising most of what is now King County. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in 1859, but the rights were violated and relations quickly erupted into "The Indian Wars."
It was Chief Si'ahl who helped protect the European Americans from the rebellions. For this, and for helping the early settlers survive, our founders named our city after the generous chief: Seattle.
After a century of broken promises, the United States government finally acknowledged the debt and settled for the market value of the land -- in 1855 dollars. Each member received $64. That's $64 for Seattle, Mercer Island, Renton, Bellevue and Tukwila. Usually when land is taken under eminent domain, property owners, mostly white, are "made whole" and receive "fair market value."
Is it institutionally racist -- or classist -- when the state sets a less-than-market price because it doesn't think the owners deserve real market value?
People of prior times coined the term "Indian-giver." After a century of heartbreak, the term now has a different, deeper meaning.
Today the federal government doesn't even recognize that the Duwamish tribe exists. It did for 48 hours, at the end of the Clinton administration, until the George W. Bush administration promptly took the recognition back in yet another case of "Indian-giving."
So the Duwamish languish without fishing rights, much less the habitat necessary to sustain any fish. The Duwamish River delta was paved long ago, ruining 97 percent of the salmon-rearing estuary. The City of Seattle permitted cement kiln dust, the toxic by-product of paving, to be dumped in the adjacent forest. Due to invasive ivy and blackberry bushes, it is projected that the forest will lose 70 percent of its tree canopy in 20 years.
It's a cop-out to say responsibility for this case of institutional racism, or institutional neglect, belongs solely to the federal government. The City of Seattle, the Port of Seattle, King County and all who prosper on this land have failed to address their debt to the Duwamish.
In spite of this, the Duwamish people remain generous and welcoming, assuming that their federal status will eventually be restored.
"We are a tribe," says Duwamish Chair Cecile Hansen, simply and emphatically. They hope to restore Puget Creek, currently running in a pipe under the Longhouse, and revitalize the habitat to fulfill livelihood rights.
All of us would benefit from this goal. A restored forest could bolster tourism, and if we pooled our efforts to establish a salmon run for the tribe, an ecosystem would be revived.
Seattle, we can do better. The Port of Seattle has expressed a vision to become the nation's cleanest, greenest port and usher in a new era of social responsibility.
Acknowledging sincere goodwill, I respectfully request Port CEO Tay Yoshitani, Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine to provide a written answer to this question: How can we repair our relationship with the Duwamish, for its members, for future citizens and for our collective quality of life?
By STEVEN RICHMOND Puget Creek Watershed Alliance