Like many organizations, Solid Ground regularly acknowledges our continued occupation of land lived on and stewarded by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial.
When our Board of Directors formally adopted our Land Acknowledgement, we also pledged to put the words into action by building “deeper relationships with the Duwamish, Coast Salish, and other Indigenous stewards of this land, and to work to repair colonial impacts.”
As a modern nonprofit, we’re part of a colonialist system that stole land from Indigenous peoples and stole labor from many communities to create and grow our nation. As a progressive organization that believes in undoing institutional and systemic racism and other oppressions, we’re committed to taking action to understand and address our organizational privilege. Below are some of Solid Ground’s commitments to exploited Indigenous communities – and what we’re doing to live up to our pledges.
Progress toward our Land Acknowledgement commitments
Solid Ground’s efforts to live into our Land Acknowledgement focus on four areas:
Real Rent
For the past several years, Solid Ground has contributed to Real Rent Duwamish, a grassroots effort that “calls on people who live and work in Seattle to make rent payments to the Duwamish Tribe” to compensate them for their land and resources. As Tribal Chairwoman Cecile Hansen states on the Real Rent website: “We sacrificed our land to make the City of Seattle a beautiful reality. We are still waiting for our justice.”
Solid Ground provides $540 a month to Real Rent, a symbolically significant sum of $.01 for each of the 54,000 acres taken from the Duwamish in the Point Elliott Treaty. According to the Real Rent website, the money funds Duwamish Tribal Services “to support the revival of Duwamish culture and the vitality of the Duwamish Tribe.”
Educating our community
Solid Ground is working to better understand our role as a nonprofit in colonialist systems that continue to oppress Indigenous peoples today. Here are some ways we’ve worked to increase our understanding:
- Solid Ground’s Community Accountability Council recommended that we amplify Indigenous histories of the lands we occupy as an organization, from our Giving Garden at Marra Farm and Solid Ground Transportation offices in South Park, to our Wallingford offices, to our housing facilities in Magnuson Park at Sand Point. Here are the stories:
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- Líq’tәd (Licton) Springs: A sacred spring and the ever-flowing resilience of Indigenous peoples
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- Sqʷsəb (Sand Point): Sqʷsəb and the people of the big lake
- South Park: Seattle’s first people and the river that shares their name
- We’ve compiled Resources for Deeper Learning on our website.
- Solid Ground invited Ken Workman (Duwamish elder and 5th great grandson of Chief Seattle) to speak at the national Community Action Conference, providing the Duwamish Tribe an opportunity to talk about their fight for recognition to a national gathering of agencies and activists.
The original meandering course of the Duwamish River compared with the straightened channels of the modern-day waterway. (Map by R. Foisy, Duwamish Diary)
Educating our staff
Under the leadership of our Anti-Racism Initiative Steering Committee, Solid Ground has created a number of opportunities for staff to learn about Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
- Screened the award-winning Promised Land for staff, a documentary about the efforts of the Chinook and Duwamish tribes to regain federal recognition. We followed the screening with a panel conversation featuring filmmaker Sarah Salcedo and Duwamish elder Ken Workman.
- Presented “Roots of Contemporary Native Poverty and Homelessness” – featuring James Lovell, Chief Community Development Officer at the Chief Seattle Club, and SeaTac City Councilmember – as a Lunch and Learn program for staff.
- Solid Ground leadership team members present Land (and Labor) Acknowledgements at cross-agency meetings, usually focusing on their own personal research and connections to Native lands, cultures, and issues impacting Indigenous communities, including the Native histories of their hometowns.
- Each November we celebrate Indigenous Heritage Month, sharing educational articles and programs.
The Duwamish Tribal Council
Federal recognition for the Duwamish Tribe
In April 2022, Solid Ground’s Board resolved to “endorse, advocate for, and support the Duwamish Tribe’s fight for federal recognition.”
Today, the U.S. government claims the Duwamish Tribe ceased to exist many years ago. But the truth is that the Duwamish are still here – in this city that bears the name of their late chief – despite every attempt to eradicate their people and erase their culture over the last 17 decades. And they demand to be recognized.
Solid Ground has signed a petition to the federal government in support of recognition. We’ve lobbied Seattle City Councilmembers and King County Councilmembers to support the petition and rallied support among our broad-based constituency as well. And in a three-part blog post series, we’ve written extensively about the Tribe’s efforts to gain recognition – and what we’re doing to support them.
TAKE ACTION: You can stand with the Duwamish by joining their petition for federal recognition. Just complete their endorsement form.
Deepening our commitment to Indigenous communities
At this time, Solid Ground is considering what else the agency can do to nurture more authentic relationships with our Native neighbors.
The ideas we’re looking into include providing direct services, investing in tribal businesses for meeting space and catering, etc., and expanding our connections to additional tribes. Two Solid Ground programs have been working to funnel resources directly to tribes: Homelessness Prevention for rental assistance, and Benefits Legal Assistance for consultation on tribal access to TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) benefits. More on these projects to come in 2025!
TAKE ACTION: How can Solid Ground better live into the commitments of our Land Acknowledgment? Send us your ideas at communications@solid-ground.org. We’ll work to implement those that we can.
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