Dear campus community,

Today we commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and we honor the histories and cultures of Indigenous Peoples in the United States. We acknowledge and celebrate the contributions and resilience of Native Americans who created and continue to develop diverse cultures rich in knowledge, traditions, and languages that have survived a long history of horrific oppression.

Today we recognize that, as president Biden reminds us on A Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2021, “our country was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people” and that we have not lived up to that promise. For many years Native Americans (and others) have protested the honoring of explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus, who enabled their colonization. Historically, our country has systematically sought to colonize, oppress and even eradicate Indigenous People and their cultures.

I encourage each of us to reflect today on our complicity in that violent history, including Washington State’s, and Tacoma’s and our institution’s complicity in this local history. I also encourage each of us to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ resiliency and strength, and the immeasurable impact of Indigenous Peoples’ contributions to American society and to the world. An example of this recognition is the replacement of Oregon trail pioneer Markus Whitman’s statue in the U.S .capitol with a statue of tribal treaty rights activist Billy Frank Jr.

In this spirit of recognition and reflection I invite the campus community to utilize the resources below to enrich our understanding of this painful and troubled history, and to engage in learning opportunities to build a strong and equitable relationship with Indigenous People in the Tacoma area. The City of Tacoma began officially recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2018.

I also would like to alert everyone to two events planned for November to further our understanding and education of this hurtful history and to help us learn more about Indigenous Peoples’ cultures, values, languages and traditions.

EVENTS

Nov. 17, Noon–1:15 p.m.
"A Conversation on Queer Indigenous Writers, Artists, and Activists"
Virtual talk; for link, please contact vpdiversity@pugetsound.edu
Dr. Lisa Tatonetti, scholar and professor of English at Kansas State University, will talk about Two-Spirit and Queer Indigenous literature and activism. She will highlight the importance of early writers as well as the ways in which the field is currently on fire through the writing, film, and art of young Indigenous intellectuals. 

Nov. 18, 6–8 p.m.
Honor Thy Mother, a screening and panel conversation with filmmaker Lucy Ostrander and several Indipino individuals featured in the documentary
Rausch Auditorium
The film depicts the story of Indigenous women from Canada and Tribes in Washington who migrated to Bainbridge Island to pick berries for Japanese American farmers. Many had just been released from Indian Residential Schools, married Filipino immigrants and settled in the island to raise their mixed heritage (Indipino) children.

RESOURCES
(Note: I acknowledge and appreciate the help provided by Collins Memorial Library Associate Director Peggy Burge and Professor Douglas Sackman in the compilation of the resources listed below.)

Recommended books
About/from this region:

  • Framing Chief Leschi by Lisa Blee
  • Indians in the Making by Alexandra Harmon
  • Reclaiming the Reservation by Alexandra Harmon
  • Histories of Indian Sovereignty Suppressed and Renewed by Joshua Reid
  • The Sea is My Country by Joshua Reid
  • Native Seattle by Coll Thrush
  • Messages from Frank’s Landing by Charles Wilkinson and Billy Frank
  • Wiyaxayxt / Wiyaakaaawn / As Days Go By: Our History, Our Land, Our People --The Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla by Jennifer Carson (ed).

From outside the Pacific Northwest:

  • An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxane Dubar-Ortiz
  • Surviving Genocide by Jeffrey Ostler
  • The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer
  • Our History is the Future by Nick Eses
  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Documentaries and films

Other resources

 

Lorna Hernandez Jarvis, Ph.D. (She, Her, Hers)
Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity