At Lummi Nation, healing comes from within

Thousands of years ago, my Lummi ancestors protected our children from the rushing waters of the Great Flood. They put them in canoes and gave them all they would need to survive and carry on our way of life. I’m here today because they cared enough to protect the most important thing to our people, our future.

Today, we try our best to continue the work of our ancestors to create a healthy life for all our people. Like many places in America, the fentanyl crisis has hit our community hard. In 2023 so far, we’re seeing fentanyl use in 80% of substance-use-related emergency visits at Lummi Nation. This trend tracks with statewide statistics that show an increase of fentanyl use in drug-related deaths and overdoses. The widespread use of fentanyl is a challenge we must face head-on if we want to protect our Lummi people for generations to come.

Thankfully, we already have the tools within our culture and within our families to meet this challenge and break the cycles of addiction, abuse and trauma. It starts with the holistic approach to health that has always worked for our people. It is about our physical health, our mental and spiritual well-being, and access to not only our basic needs, but our cultural ways. We know how to take care of ourselves.

The history of federal policies designed to take our lands, destroy our culture and assimilate our children, brought traumas that remain today. But our resilience, handed down from our ancestors and our elders, also remains. The strength of our boarding school survivors who endured unimaginable abuse, the endurance of our mothers who kept food on the table in the hardest of economic times, and the battles our past leaders fought to protect our sovereignty and treaty rights, all create a resiliency that lives within us.

We can overcome today’s challenges, but to stop the spread of fentanyl and heal our communities, we need the partnership and support of federal, state and local governments. Last week’s fentanyl summit is just the beginning of an important conversation in Indian Country about the solutions and partnerships we need for a healthier future.

For example, we know that health care for Native peoples is vastly underfunded, despite the fact that the federal government has a trust responsibility to fund tribal health care. It’s a treaty promise that continues to be broken. Unwilling to wait for the federal government to uphold its responsibility, Lummi Nation funded construction of a culturally responsive clinic to provide traditional medicine and state-of-the-art care. We hope to open our new clinic this summer or fall; a 50,000-square-foot facility dedicated to the health and wellness of our Lummi members. Last month, we began offering 24/7 services at the New Life Center for medically assisted treatment, cultural-based counseling and traditional medicine.

While our new clinic and treatment services signal progress in meeting health care needs, we can’t lose sight of the many ways in which we create lasting health for our people. To be truly healthy, we must be able to honor our Schelangen, our way of life and practice our culture. Our vision is that one day we will heal as a people.

Connection to our culture, especially fishing, is how we keep our spirits healthy. There are constant attacks on our rights to fish and harvest the salmon that sustains us. The health of the salmon equates to the health of our people. Just last week, even as we celebrated the eight-year anniversary of the protection of Xwe’chi’eXen, Cherry Point, from the development of a coal terminal, we are facing another battle to stop a new Port of Vancouver terminal at the mouth of the Fraser River. This development would harm our ability to revitalize our fisheries, especially as the climate crisis creates a dire situation of warming waters and fish extinction.

We are salmon people, interconnected with the fish of the Salish Sea. We must revitalize our fisheries because salmon extinction is not an option if we are to survive. Who are we without salmon?

To protect our rights to fish, we must also care for our waters and ensure our treaty rights are upheld. For years now, we have been seeking a water rights agreement with governments and stakeholders to resolve decades-long questions about water rights in our community. Access to clean and healthy water for our salmon and shellfish is essential to our well-being.

A healthy community for our Lummi people is all of these things. Our future depends on us tapping into the power of our traditional ways, and providing the health care and support systems that all people need. Our ancestors’ dream was not only to survive the hardships, but to come out even stronger and to never forget who we are and where we come from.

Tony Hillaire is chairman of Lummi Nation.