May 13, 2010
Coming together: 2010 Tribal Leadership Summit on May 14
For the fourth time in as many years, representatives of area Native American tribes will gather at the UW to discuss issues important to the indigenous community. The 2010 Tribal Leadership Summit will be a half-day event Friday, May 14, in the Don James Center of Husky Stadium.
The annual Tribal Leadership Summit got its start in 2007, suggested by the 1989 Washington State Centennial Accord, which recognized tribal sovereignty and called for “government-to-government conversation” on issues affecting tribal communities.
But the spirit of the summit — as well as a planned longhouse to be built on campus —also owes much to UW President Mark Emmert, who worked on the Wind River Native American Reservation and grew up near the Puyallup Reservation.
David Iyall, assistant vice president for advancement in the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity and one of the gathering’s organizers, wrote in an e-mail that though previous UW presidents met occasionally with area tribes, it was under Emmert’s leadership that the Tribal Leadership Summits have emerged as a major annual event.
“The UW’s relationship with the tribes has received significant attention during his time, and during Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange’s time as vice president and vice provost of the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity — as have projects that matter to the tribes, such as the effort to build the House of Knowledge longhouse,” a long-planned space on campus for Native American students and others.
This year, leaders of between 15 and 20 tribes are expected to attend from the Washington region, Iyall said. These will include the Chehalis, Chinook, Coeur d’Alene, Cowlitz, Grand Ronde, Jamestown S’Klallam, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Puyallup, Quinault, Shoalwater Bay, Skokomish, Steilacoom, Suquamish, Tulalip, and perhaps five other tribes, including some from neighboring states.
Each summit works toward a goal, and this year’s event will focus on forging more partnerships between the UW and area tribes. This will include a review of efforts toward collaboration with other tribes to advance study and application of renewable energy. A three-day workshop May 11-13 at the HUB, held in conjunction with the summit, will address these issues. “Tribes are in a unique position to holistically integrate economic, ecologic, and societal objectives tied to the development of renewable energy,” advance notes for the Tribal Renewable Energy Workshop state.
The 2008 summit focused on the UW’s recruitment and retention of Native American faculty, staff and students. In the 2009 summit, participants discussed widening research collaboration between the UW and area tribes.
The 2010 summit will begin with an invocation by Patsy Whitefoot, president of the National Indian Education Association, followed by a welcome from Leonard Forsman, chair of the Suquamish Tribe. Paulette Jordan, tribal council for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, will give opening remarks. Brittany Barrett, vice president of the First Nations student group will speak, followed by Joe Dupris, director of the UW American Indian Student Commission, and Miranda Belarde-Lewis of Native American Students in Advanced Academia.
State Rep. John McCoy will introduce a discussion of the tribal partnership on renewable energy. That report will be presented jointly by Daniel Schwartz, chair of chemical engineering; Laurel James, Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) fellow in the School of Forest Resources and representatives of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes.
A discussion titled Tribal Chair Perspectives on Partnerships and Priorities for 2010-2011 will involve all tribal chairs and delegates. Daniel J. Evans, chairman of the UW Foundation and former Washington governor and senator, will give summary comments, and closing remarks will be given by President Emmert.
Iyall wrote that the annual summits “have helped us demonstrate the UW’s understanding and appreciation of the tribes in the Washington region, and in particular, acknowledge their unique sovereign status guaranteed treaties and federal laws that predate the formation of the United States and the state of Washington.”
Each of the summits, he wrote, has “acknowledged and encouraged … the many existing partnerships between UW faculty and programs and the tribes.” He added that the most recent Tribal Resource Directory lists more than 100 pages of UW-tribal partnerships and programs serving tribes.
“My goal has always been to open the doors of the UW very wide, and to help bring the UW out to the reservations to ensure that our services and programs are made available to tribal communities,” Iyall wrote. “This also helps the UW better understand the strengths that the tribes can bring to UW education, research and service programs.”
Asked about the future of the summits, Iyall wrote that the UW community needs to “hold ourselves accountable to follow through on the requests and commitments that are made each year at the summit, in order to show the tribes that we value their words, and their advice.” By doing that, he said, “we will continue to see the number of partnerships increase, along with the substance and depth of those partnerships, and we will also see the relationships grow so that the tribes become a more integral part of the UW community.”
Along with these, he said, “will come increases in our Native American student numbers, improvements in student success, and broader enhancements at the UW that will make this a more culturally rich place for everyone.
“There are no shortcuts to any of this. It will take the continued commitment of our faculty, staff and administration, as well as the continued interest of the tribes.”
