Finance, Native Comm. & Tribal Govts. Mtg. 03/06/24

Good morning and welcome.

The March 6th, 2024 Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee will come to order.

It is 9.30 a.m.

I'm Dan Strauss, Chair of the Committee.

Clerk, will you call the roll, please?

Council Member Caddo?

Here.

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member, Council President Nelson?

Vice Chair Rivera.

Present.

Chair Strauss.

Present.

Ford.

Present.

Thank you.

And I know we'll be joined by Council President in just a moment.

I first want to thank Naomi Lewis, my land use committee clerk, for stepping in, pinch hitting at the last minute as we had an absence in our office this morning and everything is great.

But thank you, Naomi, for jumping right on in.

We have one briefing on the agenda today.

It's really two different items because we have our Office of Intergovernmental Relations work and our Department of Neighborhoods work, both regarding our tribal governments and native communities work, the portfolio within our city.

So before we begin, if there's no objection, the only item on today's calendar is Informational Item 2417. If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

We'll now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate to the items on today's agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up today?

Two in-person and no remote speakers.

Thank you.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

We'll start with in-person speakers first.

Clerk, I will read the instructions.

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Public comment period is for up to 20 minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

We've also been joined by Council President to allow the record to reflect.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their allotted time.

Speakers' microphones will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call the next speaker.

In general, please be nice.

And cultural item within this committee, we don't clap.

We raise our hands and wave if we are in agreement.

And so I'm going to call on the first two speakers.

Ken, I have you signed up twice.

So we'll call you once.

Welcome to it.

Please, welcome, good morning.

Thank you for that point.

I was wondering about that myself.

I am workman of the Duwamish tribe, council member of that same tribe, president of our nonprofit arm, Duwamish Tribal Services.

And I'm here to talk to you today about the Inclusivity Guide, the Indigenous Inclusivity Guide, and the Duwamish people, and that the Inclusivity Guide describes the Duwamish people as a descriptor, that the people of this area, the people of Hachu, Hachuwabs, the Lake people, Hitaxtoloqobs, the Renton people, Black River people, and the Duwabs are all described as a descriptor.

And so I would object to that term.

And so bring that to your attention that we would like to review this document for the inclusion of a people, the first people of this city called the Duwamish.

And if I may, I would like to also talk about a second point.

Please, you have a minute.

I see I have a minute.

And that would be the Indigenous Advisory Council.

The Duwamish are not included in the Indigenous Advisory Council, and so we're not able to have our voice heard in some of these governmental affairs.

We appreciate the city for all they do to help us in our struggles for recognition, in that we are citizens of the city of Seattle, and we submit for grants and services, just as any other citizen of Seattle.

But because we're not a federally recognized tribe, we also don't have these intergovernmental agreements that other federally recognized tribes do.

And so I would ask that the Duwamish be also represented on the Indigenous Advisory Council in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ken.

Always a pleasure to see you, especially at 9.30 in the morning.

seeing as we have no additional speakers present or remotely present we will move on to the next agenda item thank you all for joining the committee table at the start of the the meeting it makes everything a little bit easier the first item on the agenda is a briefing and discussion on our 2020 for work or it's actually a review of last year's work and understanding how this body of work has come to be and especially colleagues.

This work didn't exist four years ago.

And so I know we've got two new council members on this committee.

This is not something to be taken for granted.

This is something that we must continue the legacy of Council President Deborah Juarez.

So clerk, if you would please read the short title into the record.

Informational item 2417, a briefing and discussion on the tribal governments and native communities overview.

Thank you.

We're joined today by Tribal Relations Director Tim Raynon from Office of Intergovernmental Relations, Indigenous Advisory Council Liaison of Department of Neighborhoods Francesca Murnon, and two members of our Indigenous Advisory Council, Councilmember Suzanne Salto of the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe and Chief Seattle Club's Executive Director, Derek Belgrade.

Deep gratitude for your presence here today.

Thank you for letting us be your guest in this house.

I will ask my fellow city council members, as we're moving through, feel free to ask questions as we're moving through.

I don't foresee us having another two-hour meeting like we did last time, but if for some reason we're running long, I'll ask to hold questions at the end.

And so I'm going to turn it over to you, Tim, to walk us through the presentation, and I'll We'll just kind of have a conversation.

I know it feels a little bit awkward since we're sitting up here on the dais and you're at the committee table, but this is intended to be a conversation to really look at the work that you've been able to accomplish in your short, short time here.

Colleagues, Tim is the first director of tribal relations in the city of Seattle.

Not quite.

Correct me.

I'll pass it over to you to correct me where I'm wrong.

Right.

Well, Thank you, Chair Strauss and members of the committee.

Good day to you, honorable, noble people, my dear people.

My name is Tim Raynon, and I'm a member of the Puyallup tribe.

And as Chair Strauss said, I'm the tribal relations director for the city of Seattle.

And I was hired two years ago with the position being vacant for several years prior to that, there were other tribal relations directors before me.

It was vacant for a few years prior to my hire.

So with us today, as you mentioned, we've got members of the IAC.

Have them introduce themselves.

Councilmember, could you, and you almost have to eat the microphone, and if the green dot's not lit, it's not on.

Hathdatatu.

Oh.

The little button up there.

Fantastic.

Hathdatatu.

Suzanne Salto Sista to all Cheds to Qualview.

Hello.

Good morning.

My name is Suzanne Salto, and I am from the Suquamish people.

Thank you.

Bonjour, everybody.

Derek Bellegarde.

I'm an enrolled member of Confederated Tribes of Selects Indians of Oregon.

I'm also part Chippewa Cree from Rocky Boy, Montana.

I'm currently the executive director of the Chief Seattle Club.

Glad to be here.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Francesca Murnan.

I am Shawnee and Cherokee, a citizen of the Shawnee Tribe and the Cherokee Nation.

And I serve in our Department of Neighborhoods as the staff support to the city's Indigenous Advisory Council.

Thank you.

So again, thank you for the opportunity to share some of the work that we've been doing over the last couple of years to share with you the city's approach to tribal and urban native engagement through our tribal relations and Indigenous Advisory Council programs.

Today, we'll share some contextual information to help shed light on the landscape of tribal governments and native communities in our area.

We will provide an overview of the tribal relations work at OIR and the IAC work at the Department of Neighborhoods.

As you know, the city of Seattle is situated in a region with several federally recognized tribes and is home to a diverse and thriving community of American Indian, Native American, and Native Hawaiian people from hundreds of distinct cultural communities and affiliations from Native communities nationwide.

Tribal and urban native communities have interest in local policy, and these interests can extend well beyond the geographical boundaries of local jurisdictions.

City policy, services, and utility infrastructure have far-reaching impacts for tribal nations, urban native communities and organizations, and native people who live, work, play, and exercise treaty rights here within the city and in and around the city and our region.

American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people make up about 2% of the general population, and that's true both in the city of Seattle and in King County.

So that's nearly 17,000 Native people in Seattle and about 52,000 Native people in the county.

As you can see in this map, this is just the American Indian, Alaska Native population distribution within the city with the city council districts shown.

So Native people are in all city council districts with some concentrations in Northgate, Licton Springs, Beacon Hill, South Park, Delridge, High Point, Highland Park, and White Center.

This next slide shows that there are 29 federally recognized tribes in the state of Washington.

And the map highlights the eight treaties and federal actions that created current tribal lands.

The treaties established are promised reservations for exclusive use of tribal nations.

In addition, tribal nations reserve rights to continue traditional activities on lands beyond the reserved areas.

Local treaties contain similar language, reserving the right to hunt, fish, and conduct other traditional activities on lands outside of the reservations.

Some tribes also reserve and exercise treaty rights in and around the city of Seattle and lands where the city maintains assets.

Treaties are the supreme law of the land and have the effect of federal law, the force of federal law.

It's important to note that the reservations created by treaties were later systemically reduced through federal policy.

For example, there are several federal policies that attempted to assimilate native people to become farmers by allotting individual tribal members, small plots of tribal lands As ownership of these lands were sold or stolen, tribal reservations' lands diminished.

Over the course of generations, these policies directly resulted in the significant loss of tribal lands nationwide and contribute to a phenomenon known as checkerboarding that resulted in fractioned land ownership in and around the reservation.

Checkerboarding is an example of institutional racism and attempts to eradicate trust and treaty obligations and complicates the tribal nation's ability to exercise tribal jurisdiction among many other governance challenges that can intersect with our work as a local jurisdiction.

And so as you look at this map and you see a reservation, think of it looking like a checkerboard.

Literally meaning there's plots of land that are tribal, there are plots of land that are private or government-owned.

And instead of it all being tribal land, it is now checkerboarded.

And so that really complicates jurisdictional matters on reservations.

And Tim, I didn't ask you this question when we met before.

I'm just noticing it now.

So if you need to get back to me with the answer, that's totally fine.

I'm noticing that the entire set of the San Juan Islands are within what looks to be a reservation that we know it today to not be.

Is that...

Can you say that again?

Sorry.

Yeah, the San Juan Islands and it's currently listed as Samish.

But I don't know the San Juan Islands today to be a reservation.

Is that an example of checkerboarding, or did something else happen?

Also, if you need to get back to me, it's totally okay.

Yeah, we'll have to look into that.

Yeah, that's a good question.

And, you know, we had talked about my experience when I lived in Montana, right near the Kalispell Reservation.

It was hard when I was in AmeriCorps doing fire prevention work in the forests.

It's interesting that I don't know if we were living on the reservation or not, because I think we were, but because there had been a policy after the reservations had been established stating that within a certain period of years, if someone came and built a fence with a four-walled cabin and a wood stove, that they would then own that land or could buy it.

from my understanding, that is not how the indigenous populations lived together, and that that was a foreign way of every family living by themself, which is what resulted in the checkerboarding, at least in your big arm.

Is that consistent with what you know, or could you elaborate on that?

Yeah, I mean, the checkerboarding, you know, resulted from policies like that that basically allowed settlers to come in and take land.

And at the same time, lands were sold for pennies on the dollar, their worth.

Or we've even heard of stories where they were stolen.

Some of our elders talk about lands being taken when the tribal owner was taken out to the railroad tracks and left on the railroad tracks to be killed.

So those are the types of things that happened to our people during that era of allotment termination.

And so those are the types of things that we are still working to overcome even today.

Thank you.

And when we're talking about treaties and government to government consultation, the treaties, the tribes listed here, that was with the federal United States government, is that correct?

Yes.

And which is different than the states, definitely different than the city.

And so the relationship between each of these listed tribes and the federal government as a direct relationship.

Can you elaborate on that at all?

Right.

Again, it's the result of treaties and executive orders, federal legislation that establishes the trust responsibility that the federal government has with tribes.

And as treaties are the supreme law of the land, all other jurisdictions need to comply with those treaties.

And so that's why we say, you know, we have an obligation to honor those treaties and honor the government-to-government relationship that we have with the federally recognized tribes.

Thank you.

And just to kind of elaborate on this a little bit more, there can be memorandums of understanding between the federal government and tribes through the BI, Bureau of Indian Affairs, such as others, but Council Member Salto, I recall our conversation with Council President Juarez at the end of last year about Medicaid, where there are still like the formal functions between the two governments where, you know, data is required, but, and there's that direct relationship, but it's through the, it's not that they're completely separate governments, but that there is a relationship that is intertwined with that direct government-to-government consultation.

Would you like to elaborate on that?

I know I didn't tell you I was going to ask you that question, but...

Yes.

We do have memorandum of understandings with other agencies and governments.

They are...

When we do one, we...

do one under good faith that we're going to adhere to what's written.

And we especially like to have the other parties uphold what is written as well.

And we like to make sure that we keep each other accountable when we do these memorandum of understanding.

Thank you.

I kind of read between the lines there.

Both parties need to keep up their end of the bargain.

Correct.

Yeah.

Now that I've distracted us from your PowerPoint, would you...

Well, let me just add one other thing.

Here in the state of Washington, we have the Centennial Accord and millennial agreement that we comply with, which again, you know, requires consultation with tribes and to ensure that they're at the table and having their voices heard as policies are developed.

And so we're going to talk a little bit more about that here in a minute, but I just wanted to bring that up as part of the response to your question.

Fantastic.

Just to provide the opportunity, Francesca or Derek, anything you'd like to add on this slide?

I mean, just that I believe Washington State is the only state in the country that recognizes that government-to-government relationship with the 29 federally recognized tribes in this state.

So we are in a unique model as a local jurisdiction within the state of Washington to have that clearly defined at a state level.

Sounds good.

Back to you, Director Reynon.

Actually, I think Francesca.

You can move over to me.

Thank you.

So many folks are aware that Native people often experience disparities in health, housing, education, and economic outcomes, among others.

This is a direct result of the chronic underfunding of trust and treaty obligations, institutional racism, and the inequitable practices of government.

In King County, nearly one in six Native families live in poverty, that's 16%, which is 4.8 times the proportion of non-Hispanic white families living in poverty at just 3%.

And Native households are 2.6 times more likely to live below 200% of the federal poverty level than their non-Hispanic white counterparts.

We also know that Native communities hold the solutions to address these disparities through culturally attuned and community-defined approaches.

In recent decades, we have seen a shift in public policy from the federal and state level that has fostered greater self-determination and support for tribal sovereignty.

As a result, we are clearly seeing that tribal nations and native communities are able to serve their communities in the ways that they know are best.

As a city, we are also using these culturally defined and community approaches in our approach to working with tribal governments and native communities.

Whenever possible, we work to ensure that the city's efforts, such as policies, grants, and programs, are advancing sovereignty and self-determination, that they are promoting community and place-based connections, and that We are revitalizing language and cultural practices because we know that these are the strategies to create the resilient communities needed to address those disparate outcomes.

Thanks.

And I'd like to tease this out a little bit more.

Derek, I'm going to ask you about the cafe down at All House in just a second.

Francesca, when we were speaking earlier, It dawned on me, what you just described has only been in place for about 50 years.

So, and colleagues, self-determination without termination just meaning that previous to the 1970s, tribes, if they wanted to request, utilize federal dollars, they had to do so as the BIA ascribed it.

since the passage of self-determination without termination, tribes are now able to accept the funds with still, Council Member Salto really reminded me that they're still tracking, there's still metrics, but that the BIA is not determining how those funds are used.

And just what I've, growing up here in the Northwest, anytime that I'm on a reservation, I recognize that there's early learning, there's healthcare centers, there's usually transportation and Head Start.

But before self-determination without termination, if a tribe wanted to fund those things, their treaty would be terminated or their certificate.

Maybe help me understand what was changed then and how that's impacting culture today.

Yeah, so when we look at federal public policy, federal Indian law, there has been periods of policy that vary across time.

So in the 200 plus year history of the US government, there have been periods of treaty making, which established many of these trusts and treaty obligations.

And there were long periods like allotment that were encouraging assimilation of native people.

And that's also an era where we saw urban relocation.

I'll let Derek speak to this more, but it was a federal policy.

Seattle was a relocation city where folks were incentivized to come to the urban environment and lost connections and relationships in their home communities and access to resources in their home communities.

So as urban native people, That's one of the kind of leading policy factors.

But then in the 70s and late 60s, we started to see a shift in public policy for greater self-determination, autonomy, and respecting tribal sovereignty.

And we also saw folks, you know, urban Indian organizations in some regards being benefits of that policy too.

For example, in the healthcare system, there's a greater understanding that native people tribal citizens, tribal beneficiaries, we do live in urban areas as a result of that federal policy urban relocation.

So that's why we have organizations like the Seattle Indian Health Board here in Seattle, because the Indian Health Service recognizes that we as tribal people may be living in the urban area, but still have a federal obligation and trust responsibility for healthcare services.

And they do serve all native people and they're actually a federally qualified health center and are open to all people.

all folks in this region.

So they're able to use this new era of self-determination and autonomy to both honor that political relationship and status, but advance racial equity as well.

I'll see if Derek has anything to add.

Yeah, so at the Chief Seattle Club, we serve a lot of Native Americans.

One thing to keep in mind is The 29 tribes here in Washington State, we serve very few of the Washingtonian tribes.

Our number one demographic we serve at the Chief Seattle Club is southeast Alaskan region, the Tlingit, Haida, Shimshin, and after that is Blackfeet.

I often say there's only two Washington tribes that make our top ten.

And Yakima is the significant one.

I think Lummi closes out our top 10. But our membership base comes throughout the country, and it is from bad American policy that has created the situation, from termination act of the 50s, the relocation act that enticed natives to leave the reservations.

Roughly 80% of Native Americans live in urban cities off reservation lands.

And they're away from resources and away from their communities, tribal communities, especially if they're out of state.

So, you know, that's one thing I was just going to add.

A little bit of what Francesca was talking about that I'd love for you to elaborate some more on, Derek, is using traditional methods of healing and culturally appropriate ways of living life.

And how does that...

occur at Chief Seattle Club.

And I'll tease onto there.

Can you also share with us, you know, Native American population that is homeless as compared to the overall homelessness?

Yeah.

So first I'll touch that.

As Francesca said, we're just like roughly 2% of the general population.

We make up 15% of overall homelessness, which includes couch surfing and all those kinds of forms of homelessness.

We make up 30% of chronic homelessness, which is basically the last several years being the majority of the time homeless.

I've met multiple spells of homelessness.

Yeah, the disparity is great and horrible.

So what we need to do, and what our data also shows is that Native Americans are least likely to receive help from non-native organizations, non-native systems, non-tribal organizations.

It comes from the 500 years of oppression, genocide, bad American policy, the forced assimilation programs, the stealing of our children in boarding schools.

the sterilization of our women through the 70s, a lot of stuff has left us in a very heightened level of PTSD and a mistrust of government policies, mistrust of people who say they're going to help our communities with a hand that have only pushed us further into the margins.

So it takes a very culturally appropriate program and outreach to actually connect to our community.

Before we opened our first shelter, Native homelessness has always been a crisis and a state of emergency.

I know the city declared it like in 90s, I don't know, 2000s-ish.

I don't know, maybe 10. I don't know when it was.

But in our community, it was always there.

And...

And we weren't getting served.

We could have filled any shelter in the system, but we weren't coming because there was not cultural appropriate services.

There wasn't native people that they could trust because they said every time they went to go someplace, we've always went someplace to actually said they were going to help us.

We've only got harmed more.

It's left disenfranchised grief, they call it, where you can't get over one atrocity before another atrocity and another foot.

gets put on your throat.

So it's left us in this really state that we really need culturally appropriate services.

We need people who experience it, people who know that.

So when you come to the Chief Seattle Club as a native person, you know that there's native staff there that actually treat you like family and relatives, that understand that trauma, understand what it's like to live in an urban city, being 2% of the general population and having no place to actually honor and recognize and support your heritage, your culture.

So you get that at Chief Seattle Club, you get that at Seattle Indian Health Board, you get that at all the tribal services.

And if we're ever gonna truly get rid of that disparity, we're gonna need more support to be able to do that, yeah.

Wonderful.

I might come back to you to ask you more about the cafe and how you welcome people into all house and your other services.

But just to keep us moving a little bit.

Please.

Yeah.

Vice Chair Rivera.

And before we move on to the next slide, I'll come back to that.

Just a point of clarification.

I want to make sure I heard you right, Derek.

You said 15% of overall homelessness and 30% of chronic.

Of the chronic, yeah.

And that was the last good data that we support.

It went down at the last year's, the RHA's one-night count, but we...

The number dipped because of the way they tracked the data, which is also a form of erasure for Native Americans when they do data collection, when you click mixed race and any kind, you get taken out of there.

So we complained to them and they looked into it and they found that missing, last year they said like 12% or 11% of the overall population.

We went down.

Anyways, we found the missing pieces in that mixed data after they pulled it apart.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just to put a finer point on it, what I really appreciate about this conversation is it really mimics the circle graphic on the PowerPoint right now.

We've been talking about self-determination with preschools, healthcare, education that led to the fact that so many people were able to come into this house today and speak with the traditional language, I don't know that that would have happened 50, 60 years ago.

And then that creates the community connections that you're talking about, Derek, here in our community with Indian Health Board and others, which creates that connection to place like all house.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's really wonderful, but there's a lot of ways you could do it.

Primarily is actually be a native Wren.

That's the key piece to make it culturally appropriate, to actually be in the forefront of leading the change.

You do it through architecture, like in our spaces.

You know, you look into the south-facing facade of our first building, there's a 40-foot matriarch embedded in there of a Coast Salish woman raising her hands, right?

The artwork, we hang in the building.

of the choice of programming we do.

What we're trying to do, we focus on traditional mental health and in a traditional cultural way.

We bought a property where we're going to actually use a ceremonial land to actually take people to both go do sweat lodge, learning lodge.

quite a big chunk of land where we're going to have a healing garden where we're going to do medicines and other vegetables and whatnot we're going to be taking all of our residents and all of our different buildings to for field trips and things like that to get them connected back to earth in a cultural way appropriate way we uh do talking circles you know um we do a lot of things we the food we buy the food we try to make obviously an emergency meal program where we're We can't make all meals traditional because it's expensive, but we try to provide as much traditional foods as we can.

In our cafe that we opened up in the bottom floor of the Hall building, it's traditional.

You know, everything we do, it's traditional focused.

It's cultural.

You go in there, the ambiance, right?

The artwork, again, on the walls.

painted by Roger Fernandez.

We have a co-op art wall, too, with different Native artists that put up art for sale.

The food we sell, the buffalo tacos, right?

All the supplies we get are from Native vendors and Native companies throughout the country.

We get our buffalo from Standing Rock.

We get our, I think we get our salmon spread from Quileute, if I might be mistaken on that.

But it's somewhere here in Washington we get the salmon from.

We get blue corn from New Mexico from a Diné tribe.

So we try to support that.

What we want to do, what we'd hope to do is get more workforce back in downtown because I think that's why we're not thriving as strong as we should.

I think I'm on the DSA board.

I think I've heard there that we're only like 50% back if any of our businesses are gonna thrive and bring back the vitality downtown, we gotta bring the workforce back.

But that was a different plug.

Amen.

I'll take the moment to also plug the cafe.

Colleagues, it's only three blocks away.

And I have to say, every time I've been in for any of the food, I've always walked out so much more refreshed than anywhere else.

Colleagues or anyone on the committee table, anything else?

Or I'll turn it back over to Tim and Francesca.

Thank you for the questions.

This graphic just gives you a little bit of a summary of how the city is approaching our work with tribal and urban native engagement.

In the past two years, the city has been in the process of reestablishing and building this approach.

For several years, a designated tribal relations role was vacant, as Tim mentioned, and prior to the formation of the Indigenous Advisory Council, there were very limited channels for tribal and urban native partners to engage in the public policy process.

There have been periods in our city's history where tribal nations were not provided the opportunity to be at the table for critical decisions that impact our region, nor are they appropriately consulted on issues impacting tribal interests, including their trust and treaty rights.

In recent years, we are seeing positive shifts in engagement of tribal governments and native communities.

Our current approach includes a tribal relations division housed in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations that is strengthening that city-tribal relationship.

by better engaging tribal nations as sovereign governments and as regional partners.

The Indigenous Advisory Council fulfills a longstanding gap in our ability to engage with a diverse range of indigenous people in local government.

We serve as a supplementary avenue for our tribal partners, and we work to fulfill the legal, political, and racial equity obligations for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people that live, work, and play in Seattle.

We do feel that it's critical that these two avenues exist because sometimes our work is separate in recognition of that government to government relationship.

And sometimes we're able to be more collaborative in supporting tribal and urban native communities more broadly.

So now we want to talk a little bit more about the tribal relations work that...

Tim, could we get...

Actually, since we're going to...

I realize, could we go back to the slide describing the two?

So these are the two Department of Neighborhoods versus Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

And for the next section, we'll dive into Tim's work in tribal relations, and then we'll transfer into the Indigenous Advisory Council.

That's why I said at the start, it's kind of two presentations, but it's better to have everyone at the same table.

Take it away.

Okay.

All right, and to follow up on that, we have over the last two years, we've evolved the way in which we've worked together as well.

We've really recognized the importance of working together with tribes, working together with urban native communities and organizations.

And so the work is evolving as we continue to learn from one another, work with one another, And I'm really happy with the direction that we're going and looking forward to where we continue to go in the years to come.

But as far as tribal relations go, under the leadership of former Council President Deborah Juarez and Mayor Harrell, the city has really made a concerted effort to build, repair, and strengthen relationships with our region's federally recognized tribes.

As we've talked about, in 2021, the city council created the Indigenous Advisory Council.

In 22, the city council and mayor appointed the first members of the IAC in February 22. My position was filled after several years of being vacant.

And then...

And during that same period of time, the mayor and city council members, as you can see from these pictures on the slide, have gone and visited with various tribes throughout the region, meeting with their tribal leadership on their homelands to build and strengthen those relationships.

And we look forward to having more of those experiences as as this new city council gets to know and learn about our tribal partners.

I've had the honor and the privilege of going and visiting many of the reservations and meeting with their tribal councils and learning and hearing directly from them what their expectations are of us as a city, city leadership, city staff, and identifying some of our common interests that we could all work together on.

We convened the first ever City of Seattle Tribal Nations Summit in May of last year.

And just this last January, we convened Seattle Parks and Recreation Tribal Nations Gathering.

And so we'll talk a little bit more about those in a minute, but I just wanted to highlight some of these, the photos here.

showing the good work that the city leadership has done over the past couple years to build and strengthen the relationships.

So when we...

Before we move on, I just wanted to highlight, I've always said that Councilmember Jeremy Takala of Yakima has the most radiant smile in the world.

It's the center top picture on the far left, and I'm sure the audience can even see his smile from there.

Yes.

We'll be sure to tell him.

All right, so tribal relationship, tribal relations is shaped by the political and legal relationship of federally recognized tribes in the federal government, like what we talked about earlier.

But Indian law is not race-based policy.

It's rooted in the political relationships of sovereign nations, nation to nation.

In addition, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people are often categorized as a race from a colonial perspective, yet as members of sovereign nations, many native people also carry a political status and inherent rights to fulfillment of the federal trust responsibility.

The treaty signed by the tribes in the United States requires the federal government to protect tribal and individual lands, assets, resources, and other reserve rights.

The federal trust responsibility spans issues of housing, health, nutrition, economic development, and education.

We talked about the policy era of self-determination a little bit, but during that time, tribal nations and many urban native organizations play a key role in fulfilling some areas of the federal trust responsibilities, as we talked about earlier.

through the provision of services, like the Indian Health Service, who provides health service to natives in and around the area.

And they do that not only through IHS clinics, but through tribal clinics and urban native health programs like Seattle Indian Health Board.

And as we mentioned, there's numerous federal and state laws and executive orders that require this this early and often consultation is regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration.

That's from the Executive Order 13175 from November of 2000, November 6th of 2000, called Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments.

That's a presidential executive order.

that requires that regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration.

And I've heard it described that if consultation isn't early, it's not meaningful.

And so you will often hear me say to city leaders, to department leaders and staff, you need to engage with the tribes early and often.

And so as you're going about developing policies or actions, I WOULD STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU FOLKS TO ALSO CONSULT WITH AND ENGAGE WITH OUR TRIBES AND NATIVE COMMUNITIES EARLY AND OFTEN IN THAT PROCESS.

THANK YOU.

I'VE BEEN KIND OF CAUGHT, AND COUNCILMAN RICELTO GAVE ME A GRACE LAST YEAR WHEN I BROUGHT AN IDEA SO EARLY ON THAT IT WAS TOO EARLY, BUT I THINK THAT THAT WAS PROBABLY BETTER than coming later and asking for forgiveness, you know, because that allowed me to say, okay, let me go develop my idea more and come back.

Yeah.

One of the things, as a former elected tribal leader for my tribe, one of the things that I'd seen and which would...

What caused me a lot of frustration is when a jurisdiction would come to us asking for our approval or review of something that was already baked, something that was already done, and they were just looking to us for a signature so that they could check the box.

That is way too late.

And alternatively, I've also seen where when they have come to us early in the process, we've been able to identify issues that they may not have seen that actually avoided a long-term conflict down the road.

And so we are always encouraging city staff, city leaders, to consult with our tribes and our native communities early and often in their processes.

Anything you'd like to add, Councilmember?

You don't have to, I just want to make sure you have that opportunity if you'd like to.

Yes, I think when we spoke before, it was just making sure that when going to plan something, that make sure that we have everybody in the room, make sure everybody's invited in the room that needs to be involved is the better route to go other than like Tim mentioned, not just checking the box and notifying tribes.

So yeah, just making sure we're all in the room beforehand.

One way this really served me last year, going back to downtown activation, I passed a bill last year that changed the SEPA thresholds for downtown, just by way of a little bit of background.

The comprehensive plan that's before us sets the growth targets for different parts of our city.

Once we hit those growth targets, you then have to revert into SEPA.

so that you're SEPA exempt until the growth target, and then you're rolled back into lots and lots and lots and lots of paperwork.

So I did eventually pass a bill last year that raised our SEPA threshold back to as if we hadn't met our growth target because our last comprehensive plan underestimated downtown residential so much so that we hit that target years ago.

And so that's why we were having trouble with, building conversion or 51%...

I'm not going to go into it.

Just to say, one of the steps I had to take was making a request to the state that we're moving forward with this bill.

It was notification to the state, WSDOT and a couple other agencies.

Before I did that, I reached out to the federally recognized tribes in our area because they're part of this.

I said, rather than telling, I asked.

And what I found was that SIPA is a really important moment for the government to government consultation, because tribal governments have archaeological maps within their own domain that are not appropriate to share.

Some are held within the Department of Historical and Archaeological Preservation of the state, but some are not.

And so when tribal leaders are able to see and review that plan, they can say, well, I might not build there.

Or when you're building there, you may want to be aware of And that was something that I didn't know.

And if I hadn't asked the question, I still wouldn't know.

And that's still something that we have to change because I do believe that tribes need to have a separate process so that projects here in downtown aren't being held up by SEPA.

And at the same time, our government to government relationship is intact with the right notification at the right time.

Thanks for letting me stand on my soapbox for a minute.

I'll pass it back to you.

One thing I just wanted to follow up with what Councilmember Saleto mentioned is we got to remember that tribes are not a monolith.

Tribes are distinct sovereign nations in and of themselves.

So as we are engaging with tribes, we need to engage with each of them on an individual basis.

you know, how they want to engage.

So just wanted to put that out there as well.

I'll riff off of that just a little bit.

It is because I was also receiving different feedback from different tribes at that time.

And what stuck out to me in that moment is that tensions between tribes are millennia old.

while the political differences between political parties in the United States are at most 200 years old, 250 years old.

And just that recognition of there's a deeper relationship than the rest of our society here.

Yeah.

So with this next slide, I just wanted to highlight a couple of the really positive tribal engagements that we've seen over the last couple of years.

The photo on the right is Seattle Public Utility working with the Muckleshoot tribe.

In the photo there, you'll see some circular tanks that the tribe and WDFW and the city worked closely together to to help protect and preserve the sockeye salmon run on the Cedar River.

And that was something that came together very quickly.

There was an urgent situation, and they came together and were able to make that happen.

And those...

I'm not a biologist, so if I get this wrong, I apologize.

but the mortality rate for the salmon that are reared there is something like 2%.

It's really low and it's being very, very effective.

And then the picture on the right or on the left, yeah, on the right is of Seattle City Light and city leaders, including Council President Nelson Chair Strauss meeting with the Swinomish Indian tribal community up north as part of the Skagit-Ferk relicensing and visiting some of their homelands and some of the work that they're doing on their homelands.

And then this next one is a reference to the tribal nation summit that I mentioned earlier.

This was a historic event.

Like I said, this was the first time that tribal nations came together with city leadership in the city of Seattle on a government-to-government meeting of this sort.

We had...

We had 11 tribal nations represented, their elected leaders, along with 16 city departments, city council, mayor's office, deputy mayors.

And it was a really great opportunity to have conversations, to have city leadership and staff hear directly from tribal leaders on what their priorities were and what was important to them.

During the summit, elected tribal leaders were able to share with city leadership how we could work together more effectively as governments, as regional partners.

And there was some, we're able to engage in some real direct and candid conversations about three of the highest priorities for our tribes, which was housing and homelessness, natural and cultural resources, and public safety.

And again, one of the things that former Council President Juarez said at the conclusion of that summit, which really hit home for me was it was the first time that she had ever seen a native-led city meeting with tribal leaders.

The people that organized it were native.

The people who facilitated it were native.

And that was a big deal in our city's history.

And so it was such an honor to be a part of that.

Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Good morning everyone.

Thank you for being here and for sharing this with us.

Can you talk, I was not at that summit.

I'm wondering if it sounds like you've identified three priorities.

Can you talk a little bit about whether and what the city committed to in supporting these priorities for you.

I should have brought the report.

The report that we produced after that is available on our OIR website, the tribal relations page.

but generally the the city committed to continuing to have a conversation to explore ways to address these issues with the tribes and having the tribes be at the table as as that previous slide uh depicted you know tribes and native communities have the answers to their the issues that they're experiencing.

And so, having them at the table, having them be part of the conversation on how to address these issues was one of the main commitments that came out of the summit.

And Council Member Morales, I've also asked him to come to our next committee, hopefully we're able to make it happen, to present more deeply about the Tribal Nations Summit as well as Francesca on the strategic plan for the IAC because I think both of, we sat a lot on that chart with the circles and there was a lot of discussion, we probably could have sat there all day, as well as the Tribal Nations Summit, so much happened in one day that it's actually almost inappropriate to do it again this year because there's so much follow-up work that needs to be done

Well, that's a good segue.

Fair enough.

Oh, before we move on, though, I got to say, on that one, that's Council President Juarez's nice face, just for the record.

That's right.

So you're absolutely right.

There needed to be more conversation about some of these issues because we, at the summit, it was a very high level discussion.

leadership to leadership type of discussion.

And one of the main feedbacks we heard was there needs to be a deeper dive into um, the issues that we, we started to discuss.

We didn't have enough time in that one day summit to really, uh, dig deep into those, you know, those very important issues.

And so one of the first departments to, to approach me after the summit of wanting to continue to do that was parks and rec.

And so we convened, uh, in January this year, the tribal nations gathering.

where we brought together the local tribes primarily to meet with leadership and staff of the parks department.

And it was an opportunity for the staff level folks at both the city and the tribes to connect and get to know one another.

It gave an opportunity for the parks leadership to share with tribal leaders and staff about parks processes, city processes, because that was one of the things that came out of the summit as well, was tribal leaders wanted to learn more about how the city actually worked and how our processes worked.

And so we had an opportunity for the parks to share that with tribal leaders.

And we were able to have on day two, it was a one and a half day, two day gathering.

On the second day, we were able to break out into small groups and discuss areas of cultural resources, habitat protection and management, programming, and park development.

And really start to dig a little bit deeper and explore next steps and action items and what we can do together to address these issues.

And that's one of the themes from both the summit and the gathering and what we've heard from tribal leaders as we've gone around and visiting the tribes is tribal leaders don't want to just sit around the table and talk.

They want to see action.

And so we're working on...

putting together a report from the gathering, which will contain, you know, the discussions that happened there, the action items that we discussed.

And so that will hopefully be coming out in the next short couple months.

That's great.

And I'll notice, I'll just mention this photo is taken at Daybreak Star Center, which is in District 6. That's right.

Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to get Magnolia.

I was really ticked off to have Crown Hill taken out of the district.

And one thing that really stuck out to me in that transfer of my district's boundaries was I lost Labatea House from United Indians of All Tribes, and I gained Daybreak Star.

And so I do see we have a member of the public here.

I can recognize United Indians of All Tribes logo from all the way up here on the dais.

Just wanted to call that out.

They were a great host and we're real appreciative of them hosting us for that.

It was great.

And I'll be using this committee as well to hold accountability on our city side so that as Council Member Salto brought up, you know, memorandums of understanding are only good enough if both parties hold up their end.

And it's a bit of the same where I'd like to use this committee as a way to ensure that the city is following through on the action items because I have you here sitting around the table talking so much.

That sounds great.

Finally, for my portion of this presentation, just wanted to touch base a little bit on our strategic plan for 2024. This year, we really want to focus on education and building staff capacity.

to engage with tribes, building more effective and efficient working relationships between tribes and the city, and exploring ways to codify and systematize the city's tribal consultation and engagement process.

That's one of the things we heard loud and clear at the gathering is the need to systematize the city's approach to engaging with tribes.

get similar requests for consultation from multiple jurisdictions, private parties, and so they're inundated with these requests for consultation and engagement, and their staffing is sometimes challenged to respond to all of these requests.

And so if there's a way for us to streamline that process, they want us to explore that.

And so one of our goals this year is to convene a tribal city work group to explore what that looks like and how that could look going forward.

Um, we are also, uh, working to lay the foundation for the next tribal nation summit, which, uh, we intend to hold next year, 2025. The idea being is that every other year we will do a summit and in the interim years we will have departmental gatherings.

to discuss specific topics and do the deeper dive like we did with parks.

And then we also want to update the municipal code to add tribal relations as an identified portfolio in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Right now, currently, tribal relations isn't an identified portfolio, and so we want to make sure that that gets included and codified.

And we want to start to explore and build momentum to see what a codification of this tribal engagement system looks like for future consideration.

in the future.

And we're working with the city's HR department to put together a training, a tribal nations training program that will be embedded in HR, that will be able to be shared through to all staff.

city leadership, again, to help build capacity and confidence in city staff, city leadership to engage with our tribes and our urban native communities.

So we hope to get that launched this year as well.

And we've started to develop a tracking tool that departments can use to communicate with one another what projects they're working on with which tribes.

That's one of the things we heard from city department leaderships is needing to have a better understanding of what departments are working with which tribes.

And so we've developed a tracking tool that we will be launching here soon, and then convening an interdepartmental team to review and update and make sure that we're getting everybody on the same page.

So again, in an attempt to try and streamline the work that the city is doing with our tribes and our native communities.

So ultimately the goal, for the tribal relations program is to, again, build that capacity, build that confidence.

I've often described it as work myself out of a job.

If I do my job correctly, city staff, city leadership will be confident and capable of engaging with tribes that you won't need a tribal relations director.

It'll be done perfectly all the time.

I realize that's not reality, but it's a goal to strive for.

So that's my presentation.

And so I'll turn the time over to Council Member Salto to talk a little bit more about the IAC.

It's a goal I support because we'll always need you.

Okay.

The Indigenous Advisory Council is approaching our second year as a city commission and appreciate this opportunity to share more about the history approach and current work.

We look forward to continuing to provide culturally grounded advisory support to city partners in the legislative and administrative branches.

In 2021, the Indigenous Advisory Council was formed to create a sustainable pathway for indigenous representation and indigenous knowledge in local public policy processes.

We are the only city board or commission comprised entirely of native people, representing a diverse range of perspectives and experiences from indigenous communities.

As a culturally grounded advisory body, we act as a trusted advocate, advisor, and connector among city partners.

Today, we will share more about our indigenous approach to policy, and system changes that will hope will move government and community partners towards transformational relationships rooted in reciprocity, repair, shared power, and indigenous communities.

This logo that you see was designed by Andrea Wilbur Sigo, Squaxin Island, and Skokomish.

Andrea has reviewed the IEC shared values and strategic plan to develop this logo.

The uplifted hands and clam baskets were selected to symbolize our role as native people to thank each other, protect each other, and respect each other.

We are nine members representing a diverse range of tribal and urban native communities.

Our membership includes positions for youth and elders, as well as representatives nominated by tribes and urban Indian organizations.

The structure creates a unique space for indigenous leaders from many sectors and backgrounds to share teachings and align on big opportunities impacting Indian country, both nationally and close to home.

As a council of tribal and urban native leaders, we understand the need for collaborative partnerships and inter-tribal organizing to ensure the health and wellbeing of our indigenous communities.

Our members come to this work with diverse range of policy expertise, including health, housing, homelessness, arts and culture, youth development, cultural and natural resource management, economic development, and more.

We currently have four elected tribal leaders recommended by their respective tribal councils and five urban native leaders serving on the IEC.

We must also note that the Indigenous Advisory Council is never meant to fully represent all indigenous communities because we are only nine representatives.

Yet we are all well positioned to guide and shape city decisions as we leverage our network policy expertise and indigenous values on diverse ranges of issues impacting native communities.

Thank you, Councilmember.

I think something that you said should be elevated just a little bit, which is that the IAC is not intended to replace or be representative of government to government consultation.

It is another opportunity, another avenue for us to have a conversation.

As I brought policy proposals forward, bringing them to the IAC is one of the steps.

It is not a fulfilled step.

And I know even with Snoqualmie, I came and spoke at IAC to receive feedback.

And then I also had direct government to government consultation with the Snoqualmie Indian tribe.

I just wanted to elevate that because while there are elected leaders on the IAC, it is not a substitution for that government to government consultation.

Correct.

In January 2023, we underwent a strategic planning process where we developed our approach to policy and systems change work.

Our approach honors the legal, political, and racial equity obligations to Native Americans.

Many Native American communities are beneficiaries of a unique trust relationship that is designed to provide for the health and well-being of the communities that seeded hundreds of millions of acres of land and resources that create and sustain the U.S. government.

This trust responsibility is created through treaties, laws, court rulings, regulations, and executive orders, and spans issues of housing, health, nutrition, economic development, and education.

The historic formation of the IAC strives to honor the political status of these community members and works to fulfill the city's commitment to advancing racial equity for all Native people.

The IAC works to undo institutional and systemic racism that have resulted in generational and ongoing impacts to Native communities.

We look at issues through a strengths-based equity approach that centers culturally responsive and community-defined solutions and investments.

Through our strategic planning process, we identified three shared goals and the corresponding priority activities that will guide the work.

The first goal encompasses much of the work we've done up to date.

This includes developing a shared understanding and foundation for a sustainable and productive group of culturally grounded advisors that act as connectors on issues that impact our native communities.

The second goal includes goal setting, priorities, and action steps that can be evaluated that will drive our work forward.

And finally, the third goal focused on setting collective policy priorities that fulfill trust, treaty, and racial equity obligations to our native communities.

We recently created our policy priorities for 2024. In the coming month or so, we'll be sharing them individually with each of the city council members.

I believe we're gonna meet with, Council Member Kettle here in a couple of days.

And, Derek, what I appreciated about the priorities that were shared with me is that it's very focused and specific.

There's not a lot of room for interpretation.

And it really helps us understand what we need to do to help you be successful.

And I just really appreciate that specificity.

Yeah, yeah.

We spent a lot of time talking, and really I nailed it down.

And I appreciate what we were talking about, Council Member Salto, a minute ago about that.

This IEC is, like, being a Native American that's not even from Washington, I really support and believe in the importance of tribal sovereignty.

It's what's going to protect us as Native peoples, and we have to really honor and protect that, and I just appreciate that, so...

The IAC has identified three broad focus areas that will lead our work, which are systems transformations, thriving indigenous communities, and creating an indigenous city.

We seek to guide systems transformations that adequately resource and better engage native communities.

This would encompass co-creating systems transformations that drive adequate resourcing, better coordination, and respectful and appropriate engagement with tribal nations.

the urban Indian organizations, and the native communities.

To build thriving indigenous communities, we look for opportunities that advance strategies that build generational and community wealth.

The topics range from housing, homelessness, health, youth, and gender-based violence, including MMIP, which is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples, with the goal to support native people to lead healthy and prosperous lives grounded in cultural and community connection.

And to create an indigenous city, we look to advance strategies that create thriving ecological and cultural ecosystems that are stewarded and informed by native communities.

This would encompass issues of art and culture, placemaking, economic opportunity, and environmental justice and food sovereignty.

To ensure that native people feel a sense of belonging and connection, and have access to thriving community spaces that embody our values, cultures, histories, and languages into the built environment and the natural spaces of the city.

In 2023, the IAC hosted a public civic dialogue to learn and vision how native cultures and values can inform public transit planning through building design, ecological restoration, and cultural placemaking.

We had more than 50 planners, engineers, architects, artists, and community representatives participate.

Following this civic conversation, the IAC advised the city's planning and community development department on integration of native priorities into the public transit design guidelines for the upcoming expansion of the 13 new light rail stations coming to the Seattle area.

One example that came from this conversation was a recommendation to work with tribes and native communities to conduct cultural landscape analyses that can determine desired approaches that integrate our native cultures and languages into the design and programming of these stations.

So that is our presentation.

We thank you for the opportunity share this information and are open to taking any questions that you might have.

I know I've been hogging the mic with my questions and statements this whole meeting, but colleagues, just to review the Tribal Nations Summit and then that last slide about policy priorities and strategic planning will likely be our next meeting to dive a bit deeper because I noticed we sat on those two topics pretty deeply.

Questions, comments, thoughts?

Ah, yes, I can use the internet as well.

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

And I just want to say, I did not ask any questions.

As you know, I'm not shy of asking questions.

But today I felt, well, A, I could sense you were guiding us through this briefing as well, informing us of different things from the council side.

So I've decided to wait to the end.

And one reason why I wanted to do that is, Well, first, welcome everyone to the council.

And given the fact that all of our, you know, the public speaking here at the table in the audience are representing the communities, you know, I feel like I should almost be introducing myself.

We didn't have a chance to introduce each other.

And I just, because of the topic, because it's coming from you as a people, I just feel like we should do that kind of introduction.

And so from my perspective, My point of view, I just want to introduce myself.

I'm Bob Kettle.

I represent District 7 of the City Council.

And I'm a first-generation American.

My dad came to America on October 4th, 1964. My mom came three months later on a fiancé visa.

They were married a month later, and then I'm the firstborn.

And British, I came from England.

British and Irish descent, that is my background.

And I was raised on the East Coast.

My uncle was stationed in England, and he married my...

Dad's eldest sister, and so that's why I'm from Western New York.

So I grew up on the East Coast, which, for the topic here, is very different from the West Coast, and you should know that about me, that I grew up in a very, A, the British-Irish, you know, the immigrant perspective, but also the East Coast perspective, which on this topic is very different from the West Coast.

for a lot of different reasons, and I think that's important to state.

And before coming to Seattle, after getting married and retiring from the Navy, I was stationed here twice, first in Whidbey in the early 90s, and then in Kitsap in the late noughts, if you will.

So that's kind of an introduction, and so I just want to say thank you, because this is a learning experience from across this entire grouping.

And I should also, at this point, pay respect to former Council President Deborah Juarez.

She is an informal mentor.

She doesn't know it, necessarily, but an informal mentor, and she gives me such great insight into this topic and this world and this community.

As you all probably know very culturally, but yes.

And as I sit here, I think the first thing is for me as a person and for me as a council member is to be mindful and understand.

And this really goes to history.

You know, we have to have a 360 understanding of history as it relates to you know, the tribal and native communities and our history as a nation overall.

And sadly, too often across the country, there's only one angle of history that's approved or that's allowed, and that is very troublesome if you look to other parts of the country, and we can't allow that to happen here.

And this is an example where we have to embrace the 360 of history And that embracement goes to all the different things that you were talking about, those areas of interest, but particularly arts, culture, and language.

As an adult, I've studied French, German, and Russian, and I love that piece.

So I love the fact, like when you spoke in your language, and I would...

I would add you should speak more in your language.

You don't necessarily want to translate for yourself the whole way through, but not just the introduction, but add some more.

Because it's a beautiful language, and my ear is looking for patterns.

And I really appreciate you speaking in your own language to the level that you can and to the amount that you can.

Obviously, we need the English piece, too.

But unless you speak some French, German, or Russian.

But otherwise, yes, we need the English piece.

And so...

I wanted just to highlight how that is important to me, and I really appreciate that aspect, particularly the language piece.

And I also, being a history guy, I also think we should be marking and celebrating our links to our past And that's what I like regarding what's going on with pieces of the waterfront.

Maybe not to the level that you maybe have asked for, but just to highlight those pieces is very important.

And also to the sea.

As a retired naval officer, I know that that is a major aspect to the Native and Tribal community is the sea.

And embracing that, I think, is very important.

And I would love to be part of that dialogue given my history and that.

And also linking to the past is Seattle proper.

You don't know this, but I'm advocating to create a brand new park in Belltown.

Belltown does not have a single park.

And so I've already told SDOT, Director Spatz, I've told Director Diaz from Parks, hey, we need a park.

And we've been calling it Portal Park.

This is from the old Battery Street Tunnel and the Viaduct.

But we have an opportunity to start from the beginning.

And so I've had conversations.

But as I'm learning from today, it's like, I would like to bring you into that conversation and bring that into this discussion in terms of how can we mark that pass and bring elements of that into what I'm calling Portal Park, but you know what, there might be a better name for that.

And oh, by the way, on this point, I love evergreen.

So evergreen trees, it puts me in my happy place.

So that's another piece of this cultural and historical land.

So bringing that into it as well.

So I would like to invite you into what I'm calling portal park efforts and your support of the broader community for that.

I'm also open to learn more, so I look forward to having visits to the various locations.

I'll go with Chair Strauss.

In fact, after this meeting, I'd be happy to walk with him down to the cafe and get something and then come back if your schedule allows or anybody else's schedule allows.

And along that front, too, is I would like to invite, particularly Tim and Francesca, at least at the start, we're creating our new District 7 Neighborhood Council, where we're bringing in the community councils from District 7, plus other organizations, including the Community Involvement Commission.

But I think it would be great to have you two, I'm not sure who else, but at least at the start, to represent that piece.

And so I'd like to offer that invitation.

And by the way, I do look forward to Friday morning's meeting.

So that was kind of like a long statement, but I just think it, I just sensed the need to do that.

And I think it's important as we start this relationship across the board.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

And what I appreciate about Council Member Kettle, he's not from upstate New York, he's from Western New York.

That's true.

Anyone want to share?

I mean, this is meant to be a conversation, so.

Well, I just want to raise my hands to you for that, for your statement and express appreciation for the invitations.

We will gladly take you up on those.

I also would encourage and remind everyone that I don't speak for the tribes either.

I serve the city, but I do not represent the tribe.

So I don't substitute for tribal consultation either.

But we will definitely accept the invitation to meet with you and attend your community council.

Thank you so much.

Put a little finer point on it.

You are a city employee representing the city of Seattle.

Yeah.

Right, which is very different.

I'D LIKE TO THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER KETTLE, FOR PARTICIPATING WITH ACTION, BECAUSE TRIBAL GOVERNMENT-TO-GOVERNMENT CONSULTATION REALLY HASN'T BEEN A PRACTICE UNTIL MAYBE A YEAR OR SO AGO.

AND TO START THAT PROCESS WITH THE PARK AT THE FORMAL PORTAL IS A REALLY GREAT WAY TO DO THAT.

VICE CHAIR RIVERA.

Chair, thank you.

I just want to thank you all for being here today.

I know that I've had the pleasure of meeting with Francesca, Tim, you and I are going to meet, and Derek, you and I are going to meet, and I feel really honored to have had a tour of Chief Seattle Club.

If you haven't, I would highly encourage it.

It's just a beautiful space and a very healing space.

And thank you council member for being here.

I too wanna recognize former council member, Deborah Juarez for her leadership and including voices from tribal and native communities in the city hall conversation.

It's been missing to the level that she's brought to the table.

And I really appreciate what you have said about them not being a monolith coming from the Latino community.

We are not a monolith, but we are often talked about as one.

And so I really appreciate that and know that I understand that as well as the importance of inclusion at the table.

because I too have seen over the years my own community excluded and I know what that means.

So please know that I take that to heart and that is really important to me.

So thank you for coming today.

I look forward to next council meeting where we get to learn more.

Thank you very much.

Wonderful.

Council President, anything you want to share?

I talked a lot in my one-on-one meeting with the council member here and also Jackie.

She was part of my meeting, so I'm not going to say much.

I would just like to know more.

What should the city do differently on the fentanyl crisis when you talk about culturally responsive and appropriate services?

There's a lot that we need to do.

We need to keep figuring it out.

Yesterday I was in a meeting with the deputy mayors and some other housing providers that are struggling right now with some fentanyl issues.

We've had tragedies in our buildings, right?

This fentanyl is something like we've never seen before.

We thought meth was bad.

We thought heroin was bad.

This thing is just a nasty beast that we have to figure out the solutions for.

I know what we do need.

We need more quicker access to treatment.

The window of opportunity for people who especially who are chronically homeless is very, very brief and small to actually when somebody says they're ready to, you know, then being tempted again to not being having a bed ready, not having a detox bed ready.

And there's a lot of talk about just detox.

We need more detox centers.

That is true, but they're not gonna help much if they get put back out, people get put back out on the streets and get back right into the same problem of Third Avenue, right?

And then Pioneer Square, where there's a kind of a drug haven, underground drug market there, right?

And so we need shelter beds.

not shelter beds but um treatment beds detox places for them to go when they get out we also need um stabilization um housing for people to come out where they don't go straight back into their psh units like we've had we've only been housing providers since february of 22 so just barely two years we've had tenants already that been in out of treatment three times successfully Right?

But they come back to the same place that, you know, 30 days isn't, it's not a treatment program to, you know, that's something else we're going to have to figure out too.

When I sobered up, I had to do seven months in a treatment center.

And if I would have only done 30 days, I probably wouldn't be here today talking to you all.

So we need we need those things that we need stabilization.

So when they do get out, they can grow some some sober legs, if you will, so they can actually so it can take and they can start building a future before they get forced to go back into a community or to an area that's already kind of we still haven't cleaned up from.

you know, of crime and everything else, like in the Pioneer Square area, right?

We have to, there's a lot of work we got to do.

But that's what, definitely treatment beds, detox, and stabilization housing.

There's some other wording that they call that form of housing, but that's what I'm talking about, yeah.

Yeah, and it's shameful.

That's a strong word, but that there is no dedicated funding in the housing levy for sober housing.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a model that's just now...

We have shelters.

We have two shelters, right?

51 shelter beds between two sites, so they're smaller tiny house village models.

We want some...

We need some in our portfolio that is sober only.

There's a misconception that people think that when people are homeless, they're all, you know, currently active in usage and stuff.

But there's a lot of people trying.

And some people are refusing to even come into the tiny house system and even PSH system because they don't want to be around other people who are actively using.

So we do need this whole talk of everything's got to be harm reduction's lowest barrier.

We do need other models.

I would still say the majority of our focus does need to be kind of low barrier harm reduction, but we do need carve-outs for sober only.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much.

We'll talk later about that.

Looking forward to it.

And thanks to Director Ranon, myself and I know Councilmember Moore have worked with Councilmember Nick Lewis from Lummi, and it may be appropriate to bring that conversation to this committee.

And it goes back to something that Francesca said earlier in this committee meeting is that tribal Native communities know how to solve the issues.

I mean, we saw with Macaw how they responded to the COVID pandemic better than pretty much everyone else in our state.

I mean, I know that there were others.

That was the one that came to mind.

And the same is true with Lummi and Fentanyl.

And Council President, I'd also like to highlight, when you were first elected and chairing City Light Committee, you and the mayor, and you allowed me to join.

Thank you for letting me come with you.

up to meet with the Swinomish and Upper Skagit Indian tribes regarding the FERC relicensing of the Upper Skagit hydro facilities.

And similar to how Councilmember Kettle is saying, I'd like to do consultation today, that was a first in many ways.

I mean, or at least a first in a very long time.

And it was how you showed up and how you started your job.

Just saying thanks.

I've been, thank you for recognizing that.

Mostly what I'm focused on right now is making sure that we do have on-demand treatment.

That is, I tried that last year and we've got a little bit of money for some on-demand treatment but I'm looking at exploring other models.

Just holding a little bit of space to see if anyone's called to speak.

That's all.

Tim.

Well, I just want to, again, thank you for your interest in learning more about tribal relations, IAC, learning more about the work that we've been able to do over the past couple of years.

I hope you see the direction that we're going as a good direction.

And we look forward to continuing to work with all of you to engage with our tribes, with our native communities, to help address some of these topics that we've talked about.

And I just wanted to raise my hands to you.

I raise my hands to all of you honorable, noble people.

We are finished.

Thank you.

And this will conclude our March 6th, 2024 Finance Native Communities and Tribal Governments Committee.

And Council Member Kettle, I've got 29 minutes to run down to all house for a cup of coffee.

We'll walk by those cannonballs that need to be taken out of the park.

With that, we are concluded.

Thank you.

That was a wonderful conversation.

Thank you.