City of Seattle Tribal Nations Summit

Good day to you, honourable and noble people, my dear people.

I am very grateful.

I am joyful to see all of you here today.

My name is Tim Raynon.

I'm a member of the Puyallup Tribe and I'm the Tribal Relations Director for the City of Seattle's Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

I want to welcome each and every one of you to the inaugural City of Seattle Tribal Nations Summit.

We will begin today with a song by Autumn McGee from the Muckleshoot Tribe, followed by our opening blessing by Chairman Leonard Forsman from the Suquamish Tribe.

Autumn.

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, you don't get to sit down yet.

I'm Leonard Forsman, Chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, and also President of Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest Indians.

It's great to see everybody here today, a lot of friends and colleagues I haven't seen in a while, and it's good to be here in the city of Seattle.

Opened us up in a good way.

My ancestor name's Gowee, which means raven.

I was gifted to me by the Heiltsuk Nation in the 2009 canoe journey.

And I'd just like to thank everybody for being here today.

So as we say, pray in your own tradition.

a great spirit.

We'd just like to thank you for this earth and these waters of our ancestral lands and just welcome all the people that have come together, whether they're leading their tribes or leading other communities and working for the same traditions and values that we all value which is taking care of our elders and our youth and protecting the earth and thinking seven generations ahead and seven generations behind.

So it's like to bless everybody here and their families who support them and also like a blessing on our veterans and our nurses and our law enforcement and all those people that try to keep us safe and healthy.

And also a blessing to all the people that are supporting this event through the preserving of the food and making sure that the lights stay on.

So I'd just like to thank them for that and just and with a blessing on our way of life and that we continue to have that opportunity to preserve that way of life and educate others about it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Autumn.

Thank you, Chairman Forsman, for getting us started in a good way.

This is how we start all of our gatherings.

It centers us.

It grounds us.

It unites us.

So thank you.

We really appreciate you doing that for us.

I want to start by thanking all of the leaders here today that took time out of their schedules to join us for this historic gathering.

I know how busy each of you are and it really means a lot to us for you being here and taking the time out of your schedule.

I would like to recognize the distinguished guests that we have with us today.

Unfortunately, we don't have enough time to go around and introduce everybody by name.

But as I call out the group that you're a part of, please raise your hand so we can get to see your faces and hopefully throughout the day, get a chance to introduce ourselves and begin building relationships with one another.

So we have with us the city's Indigenous Advisory Committee members.

So raise your hands.

Great.

Without their leadership, we wouldn't be here today.

So thank you for being here.

Our elected tribal leaders and staff, please raise your hands so that we know.

I know we got staff out there in the audience too, so please raise your hands.

Thank you.

The leadership of 15 city departments, city council, and the mayor's office.

Raise your hands.

Thank you, thank you.

Our non-governmental organization leadership.

I know we have some of them here too.

Yes, there we go.

Thank you.

And staff from the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

My colleagues that I get the honor of working with every day.

Thank you for your help.

I also want to recognize the folks that worked so hard to bring this summit together.

First, I want to recognize Francesca Murnan from the Department of Neighborhoods.

Pyramid Communications, John Hoyt, Tamara Slane, Izzy Zucker, and Courtney Gooby.

And of course, I've got to thank my supervisors, OIR Director Gail Tarleton and Deputy Director Sierra Howlett-Brown for really helping us create the vision for this summit.

So without this amazing team, We wouldn't be here today, and we wouldn't be having this historic gathering.

So, I raise my hands in gratitude and respect to each and every one of you.

I want to emphasize the importance of today's gathering.

This is the first government-to-government gathering between federally recognized tribes and the City of Seattle.

It wasn't all that long ago that our people were banned from even coming into the city by city ordinance.

Today, nearly 46,000 Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Alaska Natives live here in Seattle.

Traditional Lushootseed language and place names are beginning to be recognized and incorporated throughout the city, in our streets and on our parks.

artwork from our local tribal artists are being installed throughout the city.

Today we are making history by gathering here with elected leaders and staff from 11 of our region's federally recognized tribes, with members of the indigenous advisory council, the city leadership and staff from the mayor's office, city council and 15 city departments.

to find ways to strengthen relationships and build an understanding that allows us to work together more effectively going forward.

The city leaders who you will see here today are here to listen and to learn from you, our tribal leaders.

As a former Puyallup Tribal Council member, tribal attorney, and now working here for the City of Seattle, I have a unique opportunity to do this important work.

I have sat at the council tables that you folks sit at today.

I have seen both the positive and the not-so-positive ways that local governments have interacted and engaged with our tribes.

And I have seen the amazing things that can be accomplished when tribes and our federal, state, and local governments work together, come together to do many positive things for our communities.

This is the reason we are here today, to listen and learn from one another, to strengthen our relationships and discuss ways we can work together more effectively, more collaboratively, to strengthen our communities and do many positive things together.

You will hear us say two things today.

We don't have nearly enough time to discuss all of the issues we would like to, and this is just the beginning.

We want to continue these discussions going forward, and we want to see real actions, real accomplishments result from today's conversations.

As I went around visiting many of your reservations over the past year, I asked for your input on whether we should do something like this.

And you were all generally positive and supportive.

But you made it very clear that you didn't want to have just another meeting for us to sit around the table and talk.

You wanted to see action.

And so today our goal is to leave here with some concrete action items and commitments that we will work on over the next several months convening additional gatherings like this is necessary to ensure that issues we identify and discuss today will be addressed by working together in the coming months and years.

The agendas you have in front of you there explain what we will cover today.

While we don't have enough time to cover all, in depth of all of the issues we would like to, we will leave here with some concrete action items going forward.

And to help us get there, Temaris Lane, who leads the Indian country practice at Pyramid Communications, will help guide our discussions and help us move through our agenda today.

So thank you, Temaris, for helping us with that.

Lastly, we have a photographer and videographer in the room to capture this event for historical and archival purposes.

If there are any portions of today's event that you would prefer not to have recorded, please let us know.

We will respect that.

Otherwise, we will record today's historic event with the intent of sharing portions of today's summit with the public, as well as using snippets from our sessions to help educate and train those of our city staff and leadership that aren't able to be here with us today.

So we want to make sure that those folks have the same opportunity to hear your thoughts, hear your words, and hear directly from you.

So thank you all again for being here at this historic gathering.

Hey Shabbat Yisquot Siyah.

Thank you so much.

Next, I would like to turn it over to a couple of our Indigenous Advisory Caucus members, Vice Chair Donny Stevenson from the Muckleshoot Tribe, and Jackie McCormick, a Nez Perce tribal member and founder of Rise Above.

Weots.

Weots.

Weots.

How did I do?

Donnie Stevenson teach the buckle shoot option.

Technology.

Welcome.

Good morning.

My name is Donnie Stevenson, and I am Muckleshoot.

I'm a member of the Muckleshoot Tribal Council and a vice chairman of the Muckleshoot Tribe.

I'm also honored to be a member of the inaugural Indigenous Advisory Council for the City of Seattle.

And on behalf of that council, I welcome you to the inaugural City of Seattle Tribal Nations Summit.

The Indigenous Advisory Council is a culturally grounded advisory group.

Our nine members bring expertise in advancing indigenous knowledge, values, priorities, through public policy.

As tribal and urban Native leaders, we come to our work in the spirit of collaboration and act as a trusted advocate, advisor, and connector amongst city partners on issues impacting Native communities.

Our council was formed in 2021 through many years of advocacy from city, tribal, and urban Native leadership.

For the first time in Seattle's history, we're charting a sustainable pathway for tribal and urban native engagement in public policy.

We must reiterate that the IAC is not a replacement for the city's government-to-government relationships.

We offer a supplemental avenue to engage tribal partners in a wide range of city work.

As we gather today, I'm reminded that 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 we appropriately consulted on issues impacting tribal trust and treaty rights.

That's why events like today, the summit, are an important step in fostering a more robust, more authentic government-to-government relationship that engages tribal nations as sovereign governments and as regional partners, as the first peoples of this land.

I'd like to take the opportunity to raise my hands to all in the room today.

This is an important day, and that's important to acknowledge.

Hoyt, lobster boot.

Farewell, take care of yourselves and each other.

I thank you for the opportunity to share these words, and I look forward to the work today, the good work.

Good work today.

Yeah, and go Kraken.

Thank you.

Totsmewi, inimwas, matsayopakhet.

Good morning, my name is Jackie McCormick.

I'm a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and CEO and co-founder of Rise Above.

My role in the IAC is keeping youth a priority and focusing on prevention and early intervention.

As a council, we thank the Office of Intergovernmental Relations for coordinating this historical moment in the city's approach to government engagement.

This is the beginning of many opportunities we'll have to listen, learn, and encourage dialogue between partners that honors and respects our various roles and responsibility in serving our people.

The IAC and this event highlight that our region is home to diverse and thriving tribal and urban native communities that carry a legacy of collective organizing to advance the health and well-being of our people.

We are blessed to see so many tribal leaders in the room and look forward to prioritizing your voices.

Today we will begin to address a number of critical issues impacting our communities.

As Native people, we have long understood that our work is intersectional, a theme you will see in today's conversations.

You will hear from many tribal and urban Native leaders on how we can uplift and center indigenous ways of knowing to restore health and well-being to our communities.

And like Mayor Harrell has said before, sustainable change is incremental.

We look forward to the work ahead and extend our gratitude to each of you for being with us today.

I would like to take this time to personally thank one of my heroes, Council President Juarez.

Without her vision, the indigenous footprint in Seattle would be vastly different.

She leads with patience and humility, fighting for change, but always keeping it real.

She's fearless and selfless, so thank you for all you do for this city.

Thank you, Jackie, Vice Chair Stevenson, really appreciate it.

Next, we're going to turn it over to City Council President Deborah Juarez, a member of the Blackfeet Nation and a good friend who grew up on the homelands of Mice Boyala Pups people.

Sorry about that.

As Jackie said, we wouldn't be here without her, so thank you.

Well, I have some written words, but before I begin, I want to start with, of course, the welcome.

Never have seen this many brothers and sisters and relatives here.

Tribal leadership.

Tim Rennan, of course, when we raise our hands, that's what we mean.

Thank you.

I want to also say that and talk about who I am, besides this crazy job.

Blackfeet means Holy Mountain Woman.

And I've shared before, I got my adult Indian name the traditional way, not on the internet, not in a rally, not in a protest, the real way, the right way.

I have a little list of thank yous I want to get out of the way, and then I'm going to get right to it very quickly.

Big thank you to Tim Raynon and what he's done here today.

Amazing.

Inaugural.

Thank you, Tim.

And if you can hold your applause for just a minute, because there's some other folks that have made it happen, have been here.

Sierra Howlett, where are you?

There she is, Sierra Howlett Brown, who's with OIG.

Also, Sierra, I forgot your tribal affiliation.

Salish Kootenai, yes.

Great enemies of the Blackfeet, but we'll talk about that later.

We have Gail Tarlington, Director Tarlington, I don't know if you're here.

Gail, there you are, former state representative.

our Director of Office of Intergovernmental Relations, and these are the people that lobby for us in Washington, D.C.

and in Olympia.

And I also want to thank that, and thank you so much for not doing the land acknowledgement thing.

Thank you, Lord.

Unless you're going to give it back, I don't really see a reason for that, but I'm going to let that go.

Autumn, again, thank you for your, where is Autumn?

Autumn, Autumn, Autumn, oh she's out there.

Autumn who sang the song, you guys don't know this but history making, that's an honor to have somebody like Autumn come in and sing her song that she has now shared with you that we will pass and hopefully when you hear it again you will know what it means.

That's what our songs mean, that's what our drum means.

Huge thank you to my friend and buddy, I was going to make a joke but now he's going to get mad at me, is Chairman Forsman, Leonard, who's a dear friend of mine and has been at the forefront of tribal leadership for about two or three decades.

He's much older than me, so longer than me.

But he's been around.

Huge thank you to, of course, my brother, Donnie, from Muckleshoot, who has been with us and has also served with me on Sound Transit.

His voice being there.

And of course, my sister, Jackie, from Rise Above, working with Native American children, interrupting the cycle of abuse and trauma and addiction.

That's where the real work happens for our people.

And I just have to do a quick little shout out.

I'm not trying to suck up to the Yakamas, but I'm really glad the Yakamas are here.

They're from the other side of the mountain.

And we have an actual, have an elected leader from the Yakama tribal nation that comes over here to be part of our indigenous advisory group, Jeremy.

Jeremy, can you just raise your hand really quickly?

This never happened before.

I think what you just saw, and I'm just going to say their names just without doing the whole Anglo title thing, I think what you saw with Donnie and Leonard and Jackie and some of my brothers and sisters out there is how we speak to each other, that this should be a safe place, that this is the people's house.

You don't need to, as Tim was saying, we start in a good way.

We don't start out calling people names.

We don't start out threatening people.

We don't start out demanding that we want it now, because the world just doesn't work like that.

It doesn't.

And we know that as Native Americans, as civil rights people who have been there and may change.

So with that, and I know I wasn't supposed to drop an F bomb, and I did.

I'm sorry, Brindell.

Besides thanking, including the four area tribes that are here right now, Suquamish, Mulcashoots, Naquami, and Yakima, we have our indigenous-led urban Indian organizations.

I get it wrong.

You know who I'm talking about.

We got our friends from United Indians, Michael Tooley, There you are, Mike.

Mother Nation.

Do we have our folks from Chief Seattle?

Derek, where are you at?

There's Derek.

Do we have, who else am I missing besides Rise Above?

And these are just a few.

And these are the groups that work with the city of Seattle to provide housing and other services, not only for our people, for non-Indians as well.

Do we have anyone from Seattle Indian Health Board?

Oh, there you are.

How could I forget the Echo Hawks?

The Echo Hawks, the Kardashians of the Northwest.

I am so sorry, Abigail.

I did not see you, but I see the earrings.

So I'll have those before the end of the day.

And I want to do a quick little shout out, too, which is important.

We have some Seattle City Council members here.

Council Member Strauss, I saw you.

There's Dan Strauss, head of the land use.

So make sure you tag him, guys.

Go after him.

Council Member Dan Strauss.

We have Council Member Sarah Nelson.

Sarah Nelson, you want to raise your hand?

Where are you?

There's Sarah Nelson, our friend, too.

Do we have any other council members so I don't forget anybody?

Okay.

And there's a rule, we can't have all the councilmembers in the room at the same time, white person rule, because they think we're going to do something nefarious if we all talk to each other.

So we can't do that.

There's the OPMA, I don't know what it's called.

That's a thing here.

So I want to thank our CLC councilmembers for showing up.

And then I want to end on a few notes.

So what Tim is talking about, what all of tribal leadership, well, we've always known, and we didn't need Clinton to say this in the 90s about government to government, sovereignty, consultation, what that means.

It doesn't mean just Indigenous Peoples Day.

It's beyond a land acknowledgment.

It's more about listen to us, consult with us, and insert our way of thinking, our ways of knowing into laws that affect us, our people, and where we live.

And for the indigenous people that live here, This city should reflect them.

Now, we talk about what are those policies incorporating, leading by example, implementing tribal policies.

Number one is land back.

If you have property, if the city has property or the county, the tribe should be contacted first if there's property about a first or right refusal.

It's about repatriation.

It's about returning land.

It's about getting the tribes involved in the environmental decisions that affect not only the city and the county, but the tribes who have treaty rights that supersede and are the law of the land over state law.

And we have won those cases a million times in court, and we will continue to fight for that.

Also the naming of places.

I know it's become fashionable now to do Leschute.

That's not my language, but I got you Leschute speakers here.

I'm trying to say things right.

But having those real places have their real names.

I know who President Andrew Jackson was.

It's offensive that there's a golf course for Andrew Jackson, because what we knew, he was the first Indian killer.

We know he's on our $20 bill.

I don't think white people get that.

That offends us.

That was a policy to kill us, and we're still here.

We're about resiliency and love, and moving forward, always in the right direction of the most positive light.

I'm a little nervous because I got my sister here, right here, Susana staring at me, who I've learned a lot of leadership from.

She's a member of the Tribal Council of Snoqualmie, but also a dear sister and friend who's given me a lot of strength through the years.

Before I go on and just wrap things up real quickly, we were at Tulalip, hosted by the Tulalip tribe, and worked with, and Tim Rainey and of course all of us did, work with our first ever Native American Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who's also a dear friend of ours.

And of course, Brian Newland, who's a friend of ours, on the road to healing and what boarding schools have done to our people and how it goes on and to continue in the trauma.

And I don't want to go on and on about that, because the other side of that coin is resilience.

We're still freaking here and we're not going anywhere.

So hearing the elders talk, having Terry Gobin, the chair of the Tulalip Nation, step up, do the invite, do the song.

It just reminded me how much I miss being home in Indian country.

I'm not being called names, I'm not being threatened, no one's gonna come to my house and kill me, just doing my job.

And I miss that, and I miss you.

So, and I'm gonna think, where's Sarah Mays?

Sarah, now my Chief of Staff slash Indian Policy Advisor slash snarky spice, love her.

Her and I had this long talk and I said, you know, just put some of this in my notes, but let's just not go too deep into it, but it's a big deal.

With the doctrine of discovery now denounced by the church, Sarah wrote this last sentence, this whole sentence, manifest destiny looks long past its expiration date.

Thank you, Sarah.

Now you might not know what that means to our people, but I'll tell you what it means.

It meant genocide.

It meant Europeans came here with the idea that the doctrine of discovery that nobody was here and they could own this land and bring everything they brought with it.

And Manifest Destiny was the principle that it was their Manifest Destiny to come steal our land, kill our people, and take everything.

Now, I'm not here to talk about being a victim, because we're not.

We're still here.

And we've got some kick-ass casinos and hotels to show it.

And we're not stopping there.

So I could go on and on, but I'm not going to.

Well, I kind of want to, but I know I'm not supposed to.

Again, today's summit is an unprecedented opportunity.

for our mayor and city leaders and tribal leaders and other executives to work with federally recognized and tribes in leadership.

To recognize that we live and work on land that was stewarded by tribal nations and this was beaten into my head by Uncle Billy Frank since time immemorial.

Until control of this land was seized by the government such as ours.

Today we approach this summit with humility, and a heartfelt desire to listen to tribes, learn from tribes, and grow with tribes.

And for me, for the non-Indian world to see how our people demonstrate leadership, and courage, and bravery, not cowardice.

We don't cover our faces.

We don't come to your house at night.

We tell you how we feel.

In our culture, looking someone in the eye and being direct and honest is a sign of utmost respect, because you need to hear the truth, because from truth comes healing, and from healing you move forward.

So with that, and I am getting, trying to, oh, there, okay, good, ooh, perfect timing.

I was just getting ready.

I was going to say, I was gonna try to throw in a few more jokes, but my job is to introduce my friend, my brother, Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Come on up here.

Hold on, hold on, sit.

And before I sit down, I want to thank Deputy Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor, Monisha Harrell, my friend.

I'm not sure how we're doing this.

Am I doing this wrong?

Did I get it wrong?

Greg Wong, Department of Neighborhoods, did I get it wrong?

I did it wrong.

And Tiffany Washington.

Where's Tiffany?

Do not see her.

Do I have the wrong agenda here?

Oh, I do.

Okay, well, I'm gonna blame it on Jackie.

I'm gonna blame it on Jackie and Susana.

It says here, introduce you, so.

I'm ready.

Okay, all right.

Thank you, Council President.

Man, what a good-looking crowd here.

I'm pretty excited here.

This is the part where some of the people that work around me cringe because I'm supposed to stay on script, but when I get this excited about the possibilities we have in this room, I have a tendency to riff, which in my profession gets you in big trouble.

So let me again thank Council President Juarez, affectionately known as Deborah, to almost everyone in this room for, quite frankly, just for everything.

For your commitment, for your heart, your children and grandchildren, for the space you're taking up on Earth because you are making it a beautiful experience for all of us, thank you.

I'm honored to be part of this historic government-to-government gathering.

And I don't say that in a token way.

Then in these short minutes that I'll share with you, I'm going to try to give you some substance points on what I hope our administration will commit to you.

And some level of a demonstration of what we've done and what we continue to do.

I'd like to again acknowledge the leadership of Council President Juarez quite honestly for her vision and you all as community and tribal leaders for even being willing to have this conversation and to build upon the great work and commitment that many of you have literally spent a lifetime on trying to establish.

Let me just do real talk, as my three kids like to say.

Dad, just speak real talk.

Our administration recognizes the obligation to uphold treaty law.

Treaty law, that is first and foremost, and respect the sovereignty of the region's federally recognized tribes.

Now, other mayors might have said that, but I hope we demonstrate those words into specific action.

And so, let me talk about sort of the commitments that our administration believes should be made and should be kept.

We acknowledge the City of Seattle's role in the lasting legacy of forced removal, erasure, environmental harm placed on the original indigenous peoples of this land, and the ongoing marginalization of Native peoples in our city and beyond.

And when I say marginalization, I always say, and many of you know my background, I don't believe we're ever marginalized or underrepresented.

I just believe that that's Verbiage that we could say to describe sort of what we've all been through as a community, I believe in empowerment.

I always tell people, give me 15, 20 warriors and I can move mountains.

That's what my faith tells me.

And so when I say marginalized, sometimes that concedes power that I don't like to concede.

But I'm going to use these words because they were in my speech.

Fun fact, when I was running for office, many of you know there were 15 people running, and there was one forum where it was dedicated to Native American indigenous people's issues, and I was like eighth or ninth to speak on the subject.

The first person, I think his name is Donovan Rivers, is out of respect.

I could be wrong.

So Donovan, I grew up with him, so I apologize.

But he went on to talk very liberally about him being Native American.

I never knew that about him, by the way.

And then another person spoke about him being Native American.

And I didn't know that about that person, who I've known for 30 years as well.

Now, I remind you.

that the third person was about to do this and Casey Sixkiller and Colleen Echohawk hadn't even spoken yet.

And when I said, and many of you know I have Choctaw in my blood through my great-grandparents, and I said, and they were saying, don't say it, don't do it.

And I didn't say anything for the simple reason that I thought that it was sort of cheapen the message that when people look at me, they don't see Native American.

They see a biracial person of Japanese-American and African-American descent.

In fact, they very few see the African-American part because I don't look visibly African-American.

So I didn't go there.

And what I tried to say in my words is what I'm trying to say now is that if mayor, as I said then, I want to demonstrate, unlike any other mayors, a commitment to real policy, real investment, or changing the discussion in this country.

And I just returned from a trip from Denver, where I met with the Secretary of State and Ukraine mayors and other mayors throughout the city, and I talk about the Native American experience here in Seattle that I think this could be sort of the bedrock, if you will, the foundation by which we could build all of the race and social justice work, the work in education, work in homelessness, work in housing, the story of working together with our tribes.

Now I'm going to go back to my speech.

I only have two more minutes.

I'm going to zip through them.

We are intentional about developing government to government relationships.

It's just gonna be based on meaningful and consistent engagement, constructive dialogue, centered on the priorities that you were telling us need to be made.

We wanna provide opportunities for our city officials, our staff, our residents to learn from the native people of this land.

We want to learn.

We wanna amplify the voices, experience, priorities, and histories of the indigenous peoples of this land.

Elevate, amplify.

We want to identify and preserve, interpreting any hunter-fisher gathering and any historic Indian archaeological and traditional cultural resources with the city.

You recently read about the work that the EPA have announced when we talk about the Duwamish and talk about decades and decades of pollution, who it affects, how it affects communities.

We are in on resolving that issue, and I want to be the administration that moves the needle there.

Tim, many of you know Tim Raynon, who's our director in OIR.

I rely on Tim.

Tim, you tell me the answers, you tell us, and I hope that he's been a good public servant and a good representative in his leadership.

I personally think he's been awesome, beyond awesome.

Under Council President Suarez's leadership, the Indigenous Advisory Council, we want to give that real teeth, real impact.

We want to create opportunities to interact and get to know tribal leaders through visits.

You know, I went to see the Suquamish Tribe and the Sonomish Indian Tribal Community and Upper Skagit Indian Tribe.

You are here today.

We want, many of you know I visited the Landsberg Fish Hatchery with the Muckshoot Indian Tribe.

We want this to be consistent, such that we develop the relationships.

We want to, again, partner with the Chief Seattle Club to develop what we're doing now, which is our first and only Native-led housing developments, we think this kind of investment is critical to have your community live in Seattle.

Yes, a wealthy, gentrified city that, well, I should say fights the issues of gentrification, pushing people out.

We want to be very intentional in our housing strategies.

And just a couple more bullet points, and I'll relinquish the microphone.

We want to, as we continue the redevelopment of our waterfront, we did a ceremonial naming the other day, but we wanna sort of double down in our efforts to show the world what we can do when we truly partner with our tribal leaders and communities through artwork, through culture, through capital investments, making sure that our local tribes are provided space for the development of interpretive centers, excuse me, interpretive centers and other types of capital investments that work.

And again, we want to support the Department of Interior's Road to Healing Tour that many of you are familiar with.

This is going to give us opportunities to participate in ongoing Native American boarding school investigations.

And last, And certainly not least is many of you have heard about the work I'm trying to do with our Red Barn Ranch.

This is a facility that the company's owned for decades and decades.

It's out near the Muckleshoot area.

And I will tell you that we went out there, we didn't have enough money to do much.

It's beautiful acreage and there's been several mayors talking about what should we do.

What I decided on behalf of our administration is We want to share this land with you to tell the story.

I want to bring in kids from Seattle Public Schools to learn the story of the indigenous peoples.

And I think this is a unifying element as we continue to struggle with race.

And I'm always looking for opportunities to unify areas of discussion, commonality.

When I talk about celebrating adversity, it must lead to a path of commonality.

So if we take this Red Barn Ranch, and we take you, and you're telling the stories to not only your children, but the children that are perhaps struggling with isolationism, self-purpose.

That's the opportunity I think I've been afforded as being your mayor.

So I'm very excited about during this term to be able to amplify your stories through our Red Barn Ranch approach.

Okay, so I'm going to listen now.

You know I can't talk, so I'm going to listen now.

And again, you've honored me being here.

I look forward to a fruitful day.

Thank you very, very much.