Tribal Land Acknowledgement Our Vision is every South Whidbey School District student is a lifelong learner who is multi-culturally engaged, literate, and an active community member able to meet the challenges of our global society. Our Mission is in collaboration with our community, every student will be supported to be a resilient, innovative, compassionate, and productive graduate prepared for a diverse and dynamic world. ● Offer recognition and respect. ● Counter the “doctrine of discovery” with the true story of the people who were already here. ● Create a broader public awareness of the history that has led to this moment. ● Begin to repair relationships with WHY INTRODUCE THE Native communities and with the PRACTICE OF LAND land. ACKNOWLEDGMENT? https://usdac.us/nativeland ● Support larger truth-telling and reconciliation efforts. ● Remind people that colonization is an ongoing process, with Native lands still occupied due to deceptive and broken treaties. ● Take a cue from Indigenous protocol, opening up space with WHY INTRODUCE THE reverence and respect. PRACTICE OF LAND ● Inspire ongoing action and ACKNOWLEDGMENT? relationships. https://usdac.us/nativeland Alone, acknowledgment is a small gesture. It becomes meaningful when coupled with authentic relationships and informed action. But this can be an opening to greater public consciousness of WHY INTRODUCE THE Native sovereignty and cultural PRACTICE OF LAND rights, a step toward equitable ACKNOWLEDGMENT? relationship and reconciliation. https://usdac.us/nativeland 574 Federal Tribes. Hundreds More. 29 Federally Recognized Tribes in Washington State. Most have territories that extend beyond state borders. Interactive Native Lands Map https://native-land.ca/ RESPECT Dxʷlilap - Tulalip Swədəbš - Swinomish We acknowledge the original inhabitants of this We honor our ancestors representing the four place, the Ssduhubr (sdo-ho-bsh) people and aboriginal bands, Swinomish, Samish, Lower their successors the Tulalip Tribes, who since Skagit, and Kikiallus, who joined together to time immemorial have hunted, fished, form the present day Swinomish Indian Tribal gathered, and taken care of these lands. We Community. In 1855, Swinomish and 81 other respect their sovereignty, their right to tribes gathered at Múckl-te-óh (Mukilteo, self-determination, and we honor their sacred Washington) to sign the Treaty of Point Elliott. spiritual connection with the land and water. RESPECT Suquamish Stillaguamish “Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, In 1855, the population resided on the main branch of has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days the river, as well as the north and south forks. The long vanished.” name Stillaguamish, under various spellings, has been used since 1850 to refer to people who lived along the - Chief Seattle 1854 Stillaguamish River and camped along its tributaries. We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is within the aboriginal territory of the They were a party to the treaty of Point Elliott of suq̀ʷabš “People of Clear Salt Water” (Suquamish People). January 22, 1855, under the spelling Stoluck-wa-mish. Expert fisherman, canoe builders and basket weavers, the No separate reservation was established for the suq̀ʷabš live in harmony with the lands and waterways Stoluck-wa-mish Indians. Some moved to the Tulalip along Washington’s Central Salish Sea as they have for Reservation, but the majority remained in the thousands of years. Here, the suq̀ʷabš live and protect the aboriginal area along the Stillaguamish River. land and waters of their ancestors for future generations as promised by the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855. South Whidbey School District would like to begin by acknowledging that we gather on the ancestral homelands, originally known as Tscha-kole-chy in Lushootseed, of the Coastal Salish Peoples, on the lands of the lower sqaǰətabš (Skagit), dxʷlilap (Tulalip), swədəbš (Swinomish), sduhubš (Snohomish), stuləkʷabš (Stillaguamish), and suq̓ʷabš (Suquamish), who have lived in the Salish Sea basin since time immemorial and have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water. Please join me in expressing our deepest respect and gratitude to the indigenous people of this territory and for their enduring care and protection of the land in which we currently occupy and share through the Treaty of Point Elliott signed by 82 tribes in Múckl-te-óh (Mukilteo) on January 22, 1855. November is Native American Heritage Month and November 27, 2020 is Native American Heritage Day “ʔəshəliʔ ti txʷəlšucid”, “Lushootseed Is Alive” by Calina Lawrence of the Suquamish Nation.