Beyond Land Acknowledgement: Indigenous Advisory Council Hopes to Create Tangible Change in Seattle

by Luna Reyna

Seattle's Indigenous Advisory Council presented its first strategic plan in the City Council's Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee in July. The Indigenous Advisory Council was created by an ordinance sponsored by Council President Debora Juarez in 2021. Juarez commented that other than the liaison in the mayor's office on the executive side, there were limited channels for Indigenous engagement on the legislative side.

"I merely wanted to create the body on the legislative side so my colleagues have a place to go from an Indigenous group that understands Indian country, and understands the political relationship between tribes and governments, the government-to-government (relationship), " Juarez said at the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee meeting. "It is not racial. It is political because we have treaties and a land base."

In 2022, the first nine members of the council were confirmed. The council consists of two members of an Indigenous Nation located in Washington State who were nominated by their tribal council as their official delegate, a member of an Indigenous Nation outside of Washington and nominated by their tribal council as their official delegate, an Indigenous youth, an Indigenous elder, and four representatives from urban Indian organizations who were nominated by the board of directors of those organizations.

Indigenous Perspective

The wide range of perspectives and experience of those on the council was intentional. "Problem-solving from an Indigenous perspective is really consensus-based," said Donny Stevenson, Muckleshoot Tribal Councilmember and vice-chairman of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. "First and foremost, everyone has a voice and everyone from a village has an important role to play. From the youngest to the oldest, each of those perspectives is valuable."

Stevenson added that things happen in the time that they're supposed to, and that sometimes taking a step back from an issue and taking a little longer to allow all of the picture to come into focus in comparison to the urgency of Western timelines and deadlines, is a fundamentally different way of looking at the world that the council brings to local government.

Once the council positions were filled, the council launched a culturally grounded strategic planning process with Eddie Sherman from Against the Current Consulting, a Native company that helped the council facilitate their first strategic plan.

Foundation Building

This is the first time in the history of the City of Seattle that something like the IAC has been created, so since the formation of the nine-member council, they have been focused on building a solid foundation through the creation of sustainable bylaws that they hope will outlast not only their time on the council but also the revolving door of members of Seattle city government as well. Stevenson says the Indigenous perspective of looking to and considering Indigenous elders and ancestors who came before and laid the groundwork, as well as the next seven generations, has guided the strategic planning.

During the Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee meeting in July, Jeremy Takala, tribal councilman for Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and IAC councilmember said that the council sees their work falling into two main categories: relationship-building and advisor support. Through relationship-building, the council met with many City and community partners to explore new opportunities for collaboration in the past year. These partners include the Generational Wealth Initiative, the Rising Tides Indigenous Planning Group, the Green New Deal oversight board, and other groups that are currently planning to work with Native communities.

Stevenson says that he has been pleasantly surprised by the engagement and eagerness to collaborate with the newly formed IAC. "It's very clear that there's a willingness and that there's a legitimate desire for the Indigenous voice to actually have a real and tangible function within the divisions of the department and the leadership with whom we've already spoken, and that's been refreshing," Stevenson said.

The council also intends to continue their collaborative relationship with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations (OIR) to ensure that the City is making progress in honoring trust and treaty obligations to Native communities.

A Historic Summit

The inaugural City of Seattle Tribal Nations Summit that occurred in May is a direct result of OIR and IAC collaboration. This summit was the first time in Seattle's 154-year history that an official government-to-government meeting of Seattle's elected leaders and leaders from multiple federally recognized Native nations in the state occurred with the goal of regional collaboration.

Tribal leaders from 11 federally recognized Tribal Nations and six urban Indian organizations shared their top priorities with Mayor Bruce Harrell and deputy mayors through a listening session. The summit focused on housing, homelessness, natural and cultural resources, and public safety.

The IAC supported the development of the summit and attended as public commissioners and tribal and urban Native advocates. Post-summit, the City of Seattle and the OIR have released a summary report of the Tribal Nations Summit detailing the City's commitments to Native nations and the City's urban Indian organizations moving forward.

"That's a major step and accomplishment," Stevenson said. "The perspective of the IAC is that it's very difficult to shape things like public policy related to Indigenous people if you haven't engaged with the Indigenous people that the policy is being drafted to impact."

Stevenson said he was proud that because of the diverse nature of the backgrounds of the IAC members, many of the elements of the Indigenous population within the region were represented in what he called a historic summit.

Public Policy

The summit and the work that the IAC plans for specific policy are perfect examples of moving beyond the land acknowledgement, according to Stevenson. "I'm all for acknowledging where we are, but what comes next, right?" Stevenson said. "Beyond acknowledging what we're all aware of, what do you do about it?"

Takala stressed the importance of Indigenous engagement and inclusion in public policy processes in July's Council's Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee meeting. "There have been periods in the city's history where tribal nations were not provided the opportunity to be at the table for critical decisions impacting our region, nor were properly consulted on issues impacting trust and treaty rights," Takala said.

He also reiterated the importance of filling a longstanding gap in order to "strengthen the City's ongoing relationship with tribal nations and their work to fulfill legal political and racial equity obligations to American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian people that live, work, and play in Seattle." The IAC hopes to transform government and community partnerships for a future rooted in policy, repair, and shared power with Indigenous communities.

The council sees their advisory role as assisting in tangible change in power and transfer of resources back to Native people through recommendations to the Seattle City Council, mayor, and city departments on issues directly affecting American Indian, Alaskan native, and Native Hawaiian people. Some examples include advising on the city's land disposition and policies to enhance tribal and urban Native access to land under the direction of the Seattle City Council, developing shared directives to the Office of Sustainability and Environment and recent investments in Indigenous-led sustainability projects and offer feedback and recommendations to address common Indigenous priorities on several city plans such as the Parks and Open Space Plan and Comprehensive Plan.

"The reality is that we've lived in balance with the local ecosystem and environment for literally hundreds of generations and we did so by not considering this environment and ecosystem to serve us or for our benefit, but by recognizing that we're a larger piece of the greater environment, and as such, we treat all things as our relation," Stevenson said. "It's nice to see that the rest of the world is sort of catching up in terms of having an understanding of that, but things like public policy are very slow and rigid to change, especially when you're facing the sort of catastrophe that we are when it comes to our environment so, to be able to bring that perspective to the table and to be able to collaborate and act as a voice that helps to shape public policy and the treatment of lands and open spaces, it has the ability to be a real game changer."

The IAC strategic plan also prioritizes repatriation of cultural items from local public institutions. Including repatriation into a formalized City document was a major accomplishment and fundamentally important to the IAC, according to Stevenson. As a Muckleshoot Tribal Councilmember and vice-chairman of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, he acts as a strong advocate for cultural repatriation, so having the stated goal of ensuring that sacred tribal items work their way back to the rightful peoples to whom they belong in a systematic way is significant. "It's fundamentally the right thing to do, and to be able to be a driving force behind that and to help facilitate that is something that I know our elders and our ancestors will smile at and that means everything," Stevenson said.

The Value of Humor

The IAC's uniquely Indigenous perspective on public policy is rooted in the council's values: center indigeneity, honor collective responsibility, build collective power, and embrace humor. All of these values were reflected in the July meeting but embracing humor shone the brightest. Addressing the impact of settler colonization and systemic oppression in a colonial governmental framework isn't a simple task but Stevenson says humor is healing and how Indigenous people have coped with a constantly changing world.

"Think of everything that we have been through over the last 600 years," Stevenson said. "We really are a people who live in a post-apocalyptic world, in terms of our cultural station. For hundreds of generations, for thousands of years, we existed in a way, and within a single generation colonial parties arrived at our home and everything changed. … Well, if you don't have a sense of humor, and an ability to laugh at the more ridiculous elements of what you're going through, you're never going to survive."

And as Stevenson pointed out, anyone who's ever spent any time among Indigenous people knows what an amazing sense of humor they have. One of the things that he loves about his people is that no matter how difficult things get, an auntie, uncle, or one of his many cousins puts life in perspective and makes him smile. "That's such a huge part of our culture that shapes the way that we function in this world, that it has to work its way into our values," Stevenson said. "It has to be a reflection of how we do things, because fundamentally, it's who we are."

Hope for the Future

Integrating Indigenous values into city government meetings has the potential to make dynamic change. During the July Governance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments Committee meeting, Councilmember Dan Strauss shared that watching government-to-government relations occur between tribal governments demonstrated the idea of collaboration rather than competition. "For me, understanding that not everyone always gets along, even between government-to-government relationships and those disagreements or agreements, are millennia old as compared to the disagreements that we might have here at City Council, which might be a decade or a century old at most," Strauss said. "It was really important for me to see this type of interaction occurring because I think it sets the example."

As Strauss observed, true formal and sustainable Indigenous engagement in city government can reshape the way the city functions and what it looks like in the future. "There's reason to be very hopeful when it comes to the work that we're doing, and I think that the City of Seattle's leadership should receive some credit for that," Stevenson said. "I've been a tribal leader for a number of years and there's been a lot of talk, and a lot of pictures taken, and a lot of handshaking, smiling for cameras. This is tangible."

📸 Featured Image: North Tide Yaakw Ḵwan, Jibba Dugout, from Alaska waits for permission to come ashore during Paddle to Muckleshoot on Alki Beach on July 30, 2023. Seattle's Indigenous Advisory Council sees their advisory role as assisting in tangible change in power and transfer of resources back to Native people through recommendations to the Seattle City Council, mayor, and city departments on issues directly affecting American Indian, Alaskan native, and Native Hawaiian people. (Photo: Alex Garland)